What's a Biological Dentist? | S3E6 (E026)
Oral health is typically the last stop on people’s list when trying to correct their health. Really it should be at the beginning, and today we learn why from Dr. Kelly Blodgett DDS. Listen in on all the wonderful topics regarding oral care, past oral care that might have failed, and preventative care from one of the world’s leading experts on holistic and biological dentistry.
In This Episode
Biological or holistic dentistry defined (01:47)
Oral school vs medical school (04:59)
Hidden infections (05:59)
25 million root canals per year (06:35)
How root canals fail biologically (09:07)
Energy testing methods (11:23)
Neural therapy as a diagnostic tool (12:45)
Symptoms tied to poor oral health (13:10)
Until the mouth is considered, most people are going to struggle (17:24)
Disadvantages to keeping dead teeth (20:23)
Lack of informed consent in dental industry (21:18)
The Dental Diet book (24:24)
The food we eat and oral health (26:15)
Is mouthwash, good for you (28:05)
Oil pulling, yay or nay? (28:29)
Does being outside benefit your oral health (30:15)
Red light therapy in a dental office (31:33)
Resources Mentioned
Transcript
Toréa Rodriguez 0:08
Welcome to the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. I am your host, Toréa Rodriguez. And I’m joined by the lovely co host, Evie Takacs. Both of us are Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioners and we love working with women from all over the world, through our virtual programs, helping women not only feel better, but actually achieve that vibrant, no holds barred version of themselves, they’ve been missing for a long time, and how we actually get there. Well, that is what this show is all about. Now, please keep in mind that this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. And if you like what you hear today, we would love for you to hit that follow button, leave a review in Apple podcast, share with your friends, and keep coming back for more. Let’s start today’s adventure shall we?
Toréa Rodriguez 1:08
Alright, well welcome back, everybody and today. Evie & I have a very special guest, Dr. Kelly Blodgett, who is a dentist extraordinaire, but I'm sure you have a better title for that, right. Dr. Blodgett?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 1:20
I pretty much go by dentist extraordinaire.
Toréa Rodriguez 1:23
Fantastic, fantastic. I really wanted to have you on the show to talk about dentistry, how it is related to overall wellness. But what are those things that we are missing in traditional dentistry, so we can kind of jam about that for a little while. Biological dentistry? Is that still a term in the industry?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 1:42
Yeah.
Toréa Rodriguez 1:44
Does it mean anything?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 1:47
Well, and what words do mean anything, I guess we could go down that path. It's really interesting. Actually, I was just on last Friday, I was talking with my marketing team and you know, I don't spend time analyzing Google Analytics and, you know, saying, who's searching for what term or whatever. And it's very interesting, I thought, apparently, people are searching for the term of holistic.
Toréa Rodriguez 2:13
Yes.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 2:14
About four times more frequently than they are the term biological.
Toréa Rodriguez 2:19
Great.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 2:20
And, of course, you know, there are international academies that teach or are focused on biological dental principles.
Evie Takacs 2:29
Yeah.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 2:30
Which I think my encouragement to people is like, just think about biology being something that respects the vitality of life and is in coherence with life, and wellness, and you're probably going to land well within the biological realm. So for instance, throwing mercury in your mouth, probably not, you know, tremendously biologically supportive. Ceramics, maybe much more so. How about the idea of actually just keeping your teeth and gums and oral tissues healthy and maintaining them, so you never even have fillings. Like that would be the optimum biological experience of course.
Toréa Rodriguez 3:08
Of course.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 3:09
It's a term that's used, but I don't know that it's one that's tremendously broadcast across holistic realms or
Toréa Rodriguez 3:18
Exactly.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 3:19
Things like that, so.
Toréa Rodriguez 3:20
And so, for those people that are just getting into the foray of like a biological dentist or a holistic dentist. Why does it matter to find somebody who does have that perspective, if you will, with their dental practice versus any DDS(Doctor of Dental Surgery) that I can find at a Yelp, for example?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 3:39
Yeah. Well, I think this particularly pertains to those who have had the experience of having dental fall apart, right? Like, whether it's decay, or gum disease, or whatever. It turns out, it really does matter. How you approach oral health issues, right? If the idea is like, yeah, it's a hole in the tooth, we'll drill it and fill it and you don't even think about what you're fulfilling it and to the point of mercury, right? Like, let's just put mercury in your mouth, and you'll inhale it and swallow it. For some people, they're going to have significant side effects. Some immediately, but most over long periods of time, and who wants to put something in their mouth that's going to degrade their health, if they have an option to something that would not do that, right?
Toréa Rodriguez 4:31
Right.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 4:32
And arguably, there are certainly some dentists out there who don't consider themselves necessarily biological in air quotes, but who do understand or appreciate that everything in the body is connected. Now, that's not how we're taught in school, as you might imagine, it's like the teeth are, I mean, literally, think about it. We have in a separate school for oral health that's completely divorced from everything else in medicine.
Toréa Rodriguez 4:58
Yep.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 4:59
It's a weird concept if you think about it, but I can certainly appreciate why when we have separate schools, separate insurance plans, it leads people to think that their mouth has nothing to do with the rest of their health.
Toréa Rodriguez 5:11
Right. And it absolutely has a lot to do with their health and I think part of what Evie and I see. So we both practice functional medicine, and we see people who deal with chronic illness and sometimes, we have to go even deeper to start looking for hidden infections in ways that we wouldn't normally see it. So something that wouldn't show up on a gut tests, for example, that we would have run, or somebody not being sick with the cold or flu, there are places where there can be hidden infections and one of those areas where I make a lot of references to your office specifically is for hidden infections in the mouth. And in fact, that's how you and I connected as we were looking at an old root canal of mine. Yeah. Do you want to talk a little bit about the hidden infection and the downstream effects? And why is that so important? Why do we need to look under that rock?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 6:02
Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. Well, I like to propose the idea that let's say, you know, God forbid, your your hand, had a massive infection in it. You know, and it's the size of a silver dollar. You know, and you go into your physician, and they're like, whoa, you know, like, cellulitis, pus draining out of the thing. Like, we've got to deal with this right now that, you know. The root canal procedure is being done at a rate of about 20 to 25 million root canals per year in the United States alone. That's an that's an
Toréa Rodriguez 6:38
Can you say that again, I'm sorry. Can you say that? Again? That just kind of blew my mind.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 6:43
Yeah. And anybody can search that. I mean, that's just statistics collected from insurance companies for those procedures that are being billed under the D whatever it is, three something something I don't know, I haven't done a root canal a long time. But yeah, 20 to 25 million root canals. So I mean, that's what almost one per person on average? I mean, obviously, there are some people who have a dozen, and there are some people who have none. But point being, it's a lot. Not only that, but then you've got the people who they have a root canal performed, let's say, because the tooth hurt. And they go back for a couple of years. And the dentist says, well, now we I think we better retreat it right. Like, somehow you're going to revive the corpse, you know? And it's like, no, it's I mean, it's dead, it's already teeming with microbes, and people just keep it with the best of intentions, of course. Trying to always save the tooth. It's as though we don't think about, well, what's the cost of human health, in so doing, and again, there are certainly some people who can have root canals performed, it may have little to no impact on the vitality of their health in their lifetime. The certainly that's the case for some people, I am seeing the people who have been struggling, usually since day one, they've been having to learn to become advocates for their own health and their own health story. And unfortunately, you know, because of how we're trained in school, it's like, well, I mean, root canals are totally fine. So if we perform that in your mouth, and you still have symptoms, clearly, it can't be the root canal, it's something else. Or it must be in your head, metaphorically speaking, not literally, because it is literally in their head. But it's, it's an, it's a really interesting process, because I was trained to do root canals, you know, and that was the days before all the fancy technologies we have today. It's like, we were literally taking files and just reaming out the tubes and teeth and, you know, doing lateral fills with Gutta-Percha, it was not, I mean, people would sleep through it, you can make it very comfortable. But the point being that what you left them with in their mouth was absolutely going to fail biologically, you know, the entire dentin of the tooth is porous, like a sponge. Once you remove the body's immune systems connection to it, it will fill with microbes, it will have an impact on the body's energetic experience, and or immunological experience due to all those microbes being in the bone. So it's crazy stuff. I stopped doing root canals a number of years ago when I started seeing the light on this. And frankly, it was after I'd taken out the I mean, I don't know what thousandth tooth extracting and looking at it and thinking like, wait a minute, you know, why are every one of these things black inside, it wasn't black when I when I did the root canal, like where's this stuff coming from? And that's when they started sending them to DNA lab for getting analyses. So I've got I've probably done over six to 700 DNA analyses on roots now, every single one comes back loaded with microbes.
Toréa Rodriguez 10:08
Yeah. Yeah, it's quite amazing. And I mean, what you were talking about that infection in the hand, that's the size of a, what did you say, a quarter or half dollar or something?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 10:17
Yeah yeah yeah, yup.
Toréa Rodriguez 10:18
That's what you're seeing now, in the imagery that you have the ability to take when you are doing these cone beam scan X rays, right, you're getting that good imagery on the job, you can actually see those infections, literally in somebody's head, like what you were talking about.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 10:34
Yeah, it's it well, it's interesting to think about too, like, those are the obvious things that because we see something on a cone beam scan, let's say like, oh, well, now it's okay to act, right? Well, what about the person who's had that dead tooth in their jaw for 15 years, the bone has made no changes yet, you know, the roots, if we go with, with what I'm saying that the roots are in fact, loaded with microbes, it would be an indication that the person's lymphatic drainage is effected, it's shutting off whatever is in there, which comes at a cost to your lymphatics, your cardiovascular system, you know, so forth. So it's, if we do have a 3D scan, we see a root canal, and there's no changes, you know, that's not necessarily a healthy sign.
Toréa Rodriguez 11:23
True.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 11:23
So that's where I think certain, and this just comes from my experience with it, a lot of energy testing methods, and I'm not an expert in any of these I refer out for it. But people who do either muscle testing, or I don't know, EAV testing, you know, I've worked with some people who do pendulum work, or what, it's all the quantum energy stuff, it's like, great, I'm all for it. Because if you're comfortable, and using that you have good skill, let's add that to the mix. Because all this energy stuff is real.
Toréa Rodriguez 11:55
And so what you're saying is that you will work with these other practitioners who know those methodologies, better than you do,
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 12:03
Yup.
Toréa Rodriguez 12:03
To get an indication as to whether or not the treatment for a or maybe not even the treatment, but whether or not a root canal is damaging to somebody or it is depleting their immune system or their energy or something like that. That's another way of looking at it, instead of just relying 100% on Cone Beam. Is that what you're saying?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 12:03
Right. Absolutely, yeah. And another one of the steps that we use in our practice a lot would be neural therapy. So we'll do a combination injection of you know, procaine and ozone adjacent to that tooth. And it's unbelievable, the symptoms that we will see go away for somebody for maybe two to three days, and then usually it returns.
Toréa Rodriguez 12:45
Right.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 12:45
We found that to be a wonderfully diagnostic tool, where I mean, of course, when the patient experiences like their dermatitis goes away completely for two to three days, and then it returns, it's like, okay, something's connected there. And you if they're not already motivated, to take action, whatever that might mean, typically seeing those changes in their body's wellness is a strong motivator.
Evie Takacs 13:10
Yeah. I'm actually very curious if you could share, what are some of the common symptoms or illnesses that you do see in people you've mentioned, the dermatitis, which I would have never made that connection, but I'm thinking like somebody who's listening, it may be a suspecting that something is going on, and it could be related to their teeth, or their oral microbiome, like, what are some other illnesses or symptoms that could be tied to having poor oral health?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 13:37
Sure. That's a great question. What I have observed probably over the last eight years that I've had my blinders off I feel like. Pretty much any health condition a person could experience whether it's chronic hypertension, whether it's thyroid issues, whether it's dermatological issues, whether it's just chronic fatigue, like someone who I was actually pinging with a patient over the weekend, where we had taken out three teeth for her last week, actually, you'll see her her case tomorrow on Toxic Tuesday when I post that.
Toréa Rodriguez 14:14
Oh, fantastic. So Dr. Blodgett has a wonderful Instagram account, and he does these Toxic Tuesday series. And so if you're really wanting to dig into some of this stuff, go check out the Instagram account. We'll have it linked in the show notes. Anyway, go ahead.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 14:27
Thank you, Toréa I appreciate it. Yeah. So and I'm trying to do more video stuff because I get that people dig that. But so we had taken out her very front tooth, her upper right central incisor and replaced it with a ceramic implant on a single visit with what is a permanent crown that we then bond her adjacent teeth. It took about two and a half hours to do that and took out two of her lower molars that were treated with root canals. But thankfully, she's one of those people who became aware of all health connections, worked on nutrition, gut health, energy work, releasing trauma, all this stuff, right? So, she's done a ton of work already. But as she puts it, in many of our patients do, this is kind of the last frontier that she had dealt with. So the way she described it, because I'm like, well, how are you feeling? And she said, well, I'm having no pain, which is awesome. But generally, like, my whole body feels lighter.
Toréa Rodriguez 15:26
Wow.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 15:26
And, and I hear that, I don't know how to describe that, I think any person who's in a chronic state of health degradation, or energy challenge, once you allow energy to flow again, which is what we're doing when we're cleaning up Jawbone Infection, or removing dead teeth, where think about I mean, a dead tooth is it's like a resistor in an energetic circuit. You know, it's, it's preventing flow. So, when you allow the body to start moving its energy appropriately again, it makes sense that when people get out of the chair, they're like, whoa, like, what? What's going on? You okay? Yeah, like, I feel lighter on my own feet. This is so weird. And it's like, I've heard it enough times that I absolutely believe people. But we've seen so many health issues, either improve or completely go away. Oh, the other thing, Evie that I wanted to share is G.I.health, gastrointestinal health, oh, my goodness I did a post.
Toréa Rodriguez 16:24
Oh my gosh I bet it's like night and day.
Evie Takacs 16:26
That's why I asked because I, I've spoken to quite a few people, friends and clients that they have dead teeth, and they've had stomach issues for the last 15 years, or, you know, they have overcrowding in their teeth and they get headaches or they can't breathe properly, or their mouth breathers. And so as you're talking, I'm just like, this is making sense now, because they're putting those pieces together. And then to hear from you. It was really interesting.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 16:50
Yeah, it's my encouragement for any person who is struggling with regaining health optimization, or, or just feeling like, I want to go out and be an active human being. To find, well, heck, come see me. Let's be honest, right? Come see my team and me, well, we will help you. There are definitely a handful of other dentists that if you're in, you know, London, for instance, I mean, there's a great practice I've become familiar with there, I could refer you to, but until the mouth is considered, most people are going to struggle. Because whether they know it or not, interesting story today, we had a patient and she's been a patient for a long time, she was a patient, before I had my aha moment about just how everything was connected. The poor woman has easily 24 teeth in her mouth that have metal base crowns. And probably half of those have root canals. And, you know, she's like, I just had a heart attack last year, my diabetes is marginally controlled, and, of course, she's a retired nurse and, you know, doesn't think that the mouth has anything to do with the rest of the body. And it's like, wow, you know, this, it's sad to watch somebody who's suffering like that with fear. I mean, literally life threatening health conditions, where I see that, or I should say, I suspect. My suspicion is, that the conditions within her mouth are playing into her systemic health issues significantly. But you know, if you don't, if you can't see it, you can't see it, you know, you have to become aware or open to the notion that it's possible that it's connected. I mean, literally there, of course, your teeth are connected to your body. But, in terms of them playing a role, in overall health, it's just the weirdest thing to me ever, that if you look at like the American Dental Association's approach to gum disease, all of what you have, it's the worst thing on the planet, right? If you've got pink in the sink, every time you floss, you know, you could die. It's horrible, but the same microbial infection going through your tooth and into your jawbone directly through a root canal. Nope, that's fine. You know, it's, it makes no sense at all. But that's the state of the profession. I mean, just how we're trained.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:15
And I think, partly the state of just the culture that we've been brought up and you know, in terms of teeth, like you were talking earlier about, you know, let's do everything to save the tooth. Which is, I've heard that a lot from a lot of dentists that I've seen over time, and even I've been really uncomfortable about letting a tooth be pulled or something like that. And because of that, we have allowed these different kinds of procedures to start being used, yet they're not necessarily the best thing for overall health for somebody, because now we've got these issues with dead teeth and, you know, cracks in the roots and all sorts of stuff that you've seen over the years.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 19:55
Well, and I will share I mean, I think that one thing my practice stands for more than anything. One is autonomy of the patient. You know, we believe strongly in giving all the options, all of our patients, if they have a tooth that's dying, or dead, or whatever I mean, we'll share with them, you know, a root canal is an option there are, you know, hundreds of dentists and ended on us, and we'd be happy to do a root canal. And this would be the advantage. I mean, there's an advantage to keeping teeth for sure.
Toréa Rodriguez 20:23
Absolutely.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 20:23
There are also disadvantages to keeping dead teeth. So based on the overall helpfulness of that person, and their budget, and their timeline, and their age, and all these things, like, I'm not the one to say what's right and what's wrong for anybody. I want for them to be able to decide on their own based on all the information. Not the dogmatic response that you hear from most practitioners, which is oh, your tooth hurts? You need a root canal. And that's what people are being told, they're not being given any more information than that, which is a real shame.
Toréa Rodriguez 20:54
Yeah.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 20:55
I mean, I talked to a lot of other dental professionals, and they're like, matter of fact, I was interviewing a young lady for a position with us just this last Friday, as a dental assistant. And she was saying, you know, I hear it all the time at my practice, like you need a root canal, you need a root canal. And she's thinking to herself, like, well, okay, that's one option. But we're not offering the other options here and that doesn't seem like informed consent. I mean, how can you consent to something when you don't have all the information?
Toréa Rodriguez 21:22
1000% Thank you so much for saying that. Because.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 21:25
Yeah.
Toréa Rodriguez 21:25
I mean, my experience with my root canal, I'm pretty convinced that my root canal was a cause it was caused by the dentist work that was done before. So for example, they were drilling, got it too hot, killed the root off or the nerve off, right? And then abscessed after that, and then I was given the "Oh, hey, root canal". That's your only option from this point forward. And, of course, I didn't know that this is what would lead towards nerve death or anything else. So at the time, I didn't think anything of it. But just, you know, the things that I've learned from yourself and being in your office and seeing firsthand the effects of, you know, actually doing the work at removing a tooth you had worked on my husband, and his health has completely changed. Since we did that work. And his I mean, you could see it on his Cone Beam Scan. So, you know, and seeing the the wonderful stories that you have, that you share on social media, like thank you so much for sharing them, because a lot of times these stories end at the dentist office, and they don't actually get out there. That's part of the reason why we wanted to have you here. Have this conversation.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 21:47
Oh thank you! Yeah, it's a, it turns out, I think I have about three full time jobs, is it worth, you know, putting all that stuff together, but it's absolutely worth it. I mean, the people I get to meet just like you. It's like, it's such a rich life, when you can positively impact people's awareness and their health. As I know you to both know. It's a gift that keeps on giving.
Toréa Rodriguez 22:59
Yeah.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 23:00
And I love thinking of those stories, because like, How can I? The trick is how do I best say it in a succinct fashion that connects with other humans? Seems to be working, but.
Toréa Rodriguez 23:10
It is it's working.
Evie Takacs 23:11
I'm looking forward to checking it out and.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 23:13
Oh, thank you.
Evie Takacs 23:14
I'm curious if I don't know if Toréa you wanted to ask this. But I'm thinking of like someone who again, is new to this, what are some questions they might have. And I'm just getting into this myself and I'm really connecting of like, just like overall microbiome health and like the way that we breathe and within our teeth and the way that our tongue sits and how it should sit throughout the day. and I'm curious, just from a preventative standpoint, what is your perspective on, You know, is it similar to what we've been told our whole lives of brushing every you know, in the morning and night and flossing after you eat, a like, I know, I mean, mouthwash. I'm sure you'll go into that. But what is the, what are some things that we can do that are preventative that we can try to just increase our, our overall microbiome without getting into the nitty gritty stuff? Like maybe someone is like, what are the basic things I can do? Like, oh, I've heard of oil pulling. What's the validity behind that? So those are things that I think that are popping up for general population that I think are still kind of being challenged and questioned?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 24:12
Sure. Well, what I would suggest is that people get the book called The Dental diet by Dr. Steven Lin. I just had the opportunity to FaceTime with him last week. He's a wonderful, wonderful dentist in Australia. He reviews the work of Dr. Weston Price and looks at how jaws form based on like when we're born are we you know, bottle fed or breastfed? When we're learning to chew food, are we eating basically pre-digested food or things that actually exercise our jaws so that our bones can you know what I mean? So he does a wonderful job of taking that thousand pages that Dr. Price put together and puts it in pardon the pun a more digestible package. Yeah, there you go, wait, wait for it. Thank you. Thank you, I'll be playing all weekend.
Toréa Rodriguez 25:09
I'll make my editor put the sound effects for you.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 25:10
Oh Lord. And then the last third of his book is actually a lot of recipes, you know. So, it really starts with the gut and in the gut, because the mouth is the opening part of the gut. And, you know, we could spend days on and talking about, you know, the importance of optimal nutrition, and optimal absorption, you know, like your guts ability to absorb. And, you know, there are other people who are far better at explaining all that stuff than me. What I see is that people who grew up eating whole foods, exercising their jaws had the benefit of, you know, being breastfed children and spending time within a family unit. Like, they don't oftentimes end up with, you know, oral symptoms, go figure. And, you know, I'll meet them and they're 65 years old, they've never had a filling in their mouth. And they're, they might have had just a slight amount of bone loss and gum recession because of aging. But I mean, they're just healthy as a horse. And it's like, that's the ideal scenario, right, is that although certain parts of our bodies will age, it's part of life, that your teeth were, in fact, built to last a lifetime. Unfortunately, in our modern life experience, there are so many things that get in the way of that, when I look at like, I mean, next time, when you're driving home today, if you're not already home, count the number of convenience stores and or grocery stores that you go past where 80% or more of what's inside of them, is pre-digested food, processed, carbonated or not carbonated, acidic, highly sugared beverage, you know what I'm saying? Like, yes, I was just talking with a patient today about this today. Like, when I was a kid, if you wanted a can of Coke, which wasn't the worst thing in the world, of course, you'd crack open a can and you'd have to drink it quickly. Because it would go flat, you know, and it's an a can. Whereas now, it's like, I'll just put the top back on, I'll take another sip of it and a half an hour. and, you know, people are washing their mouths with acidity, whether it's, and I don't mean to pick on coke. It could be a Kombucha. Right? I mean, I've seen people who are in chronic states of oral decline, because they're sipping on acidic sweet kombucha.
Toréa Rodriguez 27:33
All day, all day long, yup.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 27:34
Yeah. And it's like, that's okay. You know, it's not again, I'm not pooh poohing, kombucha shoot, I love kombucha, but, you know, it's not something that's meant to be sipped on all day long, which we can we can certainly have a little talk here if you want about homecare stuff and my pitch on. Like, like, it's, it's interesting. My my most popular blog piece I ever wrote, and this still baffles me was on, you know, is mouthwash, good for you? I haven't looked at that thing in years. But my marketing team tells me like it's still every month. It's the number one thing that people click on.
Toréa Rodriguez 28:10
Because people want to know, like, Okay, I got the brushing down. I've got the flossing after meals down. Is there anything else I want to do? They want to go straight to the next thing, which is mouthwash, oil pulling like all those things. Yeah. It's a valid or not like, what's the two second response on that one?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 28:27
Yes. And no, it depends on what you're using.
Toréa Rodriguez 28:29
Okay.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 28:29
Yeah. I think like, how are you going to develop problems with swishing coconut oil? Probably not. Right. Like, I think that's a safe practice. And I see a lot of patients who enjoy doing it. I look in their mouth and like, wow, whatever you're doing, keep doing right. It looks great. Lavoris, Scope, Listerine, probably not so much. Why do you need to swish with alcohol and, you know, blue dyed number 40. And, you know, like, nobody needs that stuff.
Toréa Rodriguez 28:29
No, not at all.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 28:57
No. I generally advise patients to download the Healthy Living app by the Environmental Working Group and just scan products.
Toréa Rodriguez 29:06
Awesome, we just talk about that a lot.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 29:08
Yeah, I love that.
Evie Takacs 29:10
Also, this is another maybe two second answer. What's your take on tongue scraping?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 29:14
Sure. Like if it works for you. I mean, if it worked, I just I have no dogma, right? I'm not like this is good that's bad. Yes. No. It's like some people are swearing by a tongue scraper. Like my wife loves her tongue scraper. Yeah. Awesome. You know what, that's great. If it works for you, the proofs gonna be in the pudding. Right? When we're seeing people every three months, six months, 12 months, whatever it is, when their mouth looks healthy, I don't care what they're doing. Keep doing that. I love it. And you might have your own mix of things you like to do? Awesome. I don't think there is like, this is good or that's bad. What I do think is important is like find something that works. Don't let your mouth go to pot that you know the cost of that. Both metaphor'ically and literally is it's horrible. So you know, stay healthy.
Toréa Rodriguez 30:05
Yes. stay healthy. So curious, is there any interrelation between the outdoors or being in a natural element that helps with dental health?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 30:15
Yes, I will give you a straight straight up yes on that. So from from the perspective of and Toréa, you've seen this, like you've been to the office and you see we have a NovoTHOR full body red light infrared light bed. It's like, why, why on earth would a dental practice, have something available that helps your body get into a parasympathetic state? Well, for the same reasons that going for a walk in the forest, you know, like, you're exposed to sunlight, to fresh air, to grounding, all these, these practices that bring your body into a parasympathetic state, so that the fluid flow that goes throughout the entire body, which includes the teeth, and helps cleanse them from the inside out, can do what it's designed to do naturally. I mean, we were not biologically designed to sit in cubicles and fluorescent light all day, you know, and not move. So from both a direct and indirect standpoint, I think that it's massively helpful not to mention, like, just let's pick on you know, vitamin D, like how helpful it is, is it for your bone to get outside and move to be exposed to sunlight, you know, to flush your lymphatics, like it's benefits you left, right and center? It's yeah, absolutely. I love getting outdoors. Oh, my gosh,
Toréa Rodriguez 31:33
so good. Thank you so much. I mean, you just basically nailed a whole bunch of topics that Evie and I always talk about parasympathetic nervous system, vitamin D, getting proper light exposure, like we're constantly talking about it, all of it. Because it's so important for the entire body. And it's so great to hear from you that it's also extremely important for oral health, you know, the teeth and keeping them strong all of the things that we're talking about. I love that NovoTHOR bed when I get to come to visit, like one of the best things, I get to go to the dentist and I get to hang out in the NovoTHOR bed for a while, which is super fun.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 32:09
Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, people come out of that. And I remember my first experience, like it was yesterday and that thing, and I was like, Whoa, where did I just go? I mean, that was like a, like I was transported somewhere else on a Star Trek show. Yeah, just that being an environment of the infrared and the red exclusively. It's kind of a magical experience.
Toréa Rodriguez 32:30
Yeah. Evie is a red light fan. She's got a bunch of red light at home that she uses every single day.
Evie Takacs 32:36
Yeah, but being cocooned in one sounds really nice too.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 32:39
Yeah, it took me four years to save for it, but it was worth it. It's It's amazing. It's amazing. If you're up here Evie you come and see us.
Evie Takacs 32:47
I know. I'm now I'm like, well Toréa, maybe we make a little stop there.
Toréa Rodriguez 32:52
We might have to go to Portland. Yes, absolutely.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 32:56
There's a lot to do.
Evie Takacs 32:57
Yeah,
Toréa Rodriguez 32:57
Dr. Blodgett, what is your favorite thing that you'd like to do outdoors? We'd like to ask our guests you know, what it is that they like to do outdoors? That just helps them feel the best version of themselves?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 33:11
Oh, man. I Oh, man. I just like being outdoors, but definitely I'm a road cyclist. I love cycling on my road bike. It just I feel like a kid. I love downhill skiing and snowshoeing and hiking. Which as a Portlander. You know, I've grown up here my entire life. It takes two seconds to get into the forest here. It takes an hour to get onto the slopes. I find those are such a my happy places.
Evie Takacs 33:39
Yeah,
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 33:40
Mountain biking. Oh my gosh, mountain biking. Great.
Toréa Rodriguez 33:42
All of the above.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 33:45
I love it.
Toréa Rodriguez 33:47
Very good. Is there anything else that you would like to share? Like, where can people find you? All of those things that we can include in the show notes? What's the best way for people to get in touch with you and or follow you to understand more about this topic?
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 34:00
Sure. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to share this. I appreciate it. Sure. Instagram has become the place that I connect with people most in terms of them consuming what I'm sharing. In my website is the number one place through which people are communicating with us. I will say like, one of the unique aspects of our practice is we've developed what's called dental tourism. We help people with their, you know, hotels, they're how they're going to get here, the restaurants to go to. I mean, one thing you probably know about Portland is the dining scene is awesome. It's Unbelievable. Our foods our food scenes amazing. And you know, we're right on the Willamette River. It's just a great place to be, and we want to help make that easy for folks. So, if they have questions about coming out, and they want to share their X-rays and stuff, like we do all this stuff ahead of time, so that when you come out for your new patient's experience, which I have to share is one of the other unique things about my practice, I don't know of another dental practice, that sets aside one entire day per week, where the only thing they're doing is meeting new people, and connecting with them about how we can help them with their oral health. It's a magical day, it's pretty much every Monday, it's so fun. But so yeah, Instagram, our website. And the one thing I would ask if I may be so bold of the listeners is, please, if you have people in this world that you love, care about, please share what I'm sharing share our handle with, with those people you love. Because you don't know whose life you literally can save, by helping them come to understand how their mouth is connected to the rest of their body, and the health issues that they might be experiencing. So my goal is to like, have millions of people following our channel or whatever you are feed. I'm so old.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 35:56
Whatever the kids call it these days.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 35:57
They keep, I know, they keep coming up, right I don't know, but it's like, that's how when we get millions of people becoming aware of this, then human beings are going to start to expect better from their practitioners. And that is when the professional will change on a big scale. Until we get there. It's like, I'm just this lone wolf guy in Portland that, you know, he's kind of a wacky guy, you know, when in fact, this is real health. So we, I would love it if you would share our handle with every single person, you know.
Toréa Rodriguez 36:30
Everybody. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on. And we're definitely doing our part to spread the word because, man, those stories you share on that Instagram channel are nothing short of amazing to be quite honest, what people are walking away with, and their lives being transformed, because they're finally making these connecting these dots and finally making these decisions to go for it and whether you're the last person at the end of the chain of all the things that they've tried or not, it really doesn't matter. Like, we don't have to save dentistry towards the very, very end of that healing journey. So you know, if anybody suspects that a dental issue, whether it's an old cavity and old root canal, whatever might be contributing, then I say go check it out and go check out Blodgett's practice up in Portland. It's amazing.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 36:32
Thank you.
Toréa Rodriguez 36:54
Yeah, thank you.
Dr. Kelly Blodgett 37:12
Much appreciated.
Evie Takacs 37:21
Thank you.
Toréa Rodriguez 37:28
Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. If you’re ready to dig deeper into your health, stop playing the Whack-a-Symptom game, start testing to get better guidance, you can find more about Toréa at torearodriguez.com and you can find Evie at holisticallyrestored.com. Want a peek into what it’s like to work with us? Come join us at our Optimized Wellness Community. You can find the invitation link in the show notes below. And if you have a question for the show, you can submit your question under the podcast section of torearodriguez.com. Finally, if you found something helpful in this episode, don’t forget to leave a review, hit that follow button or share it with a friend. They’re gonna love that you thought of them. Until next time, see you outside!
