The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Dr. Gerry Curatola - The Dark Sides Of Dentistry, Proper Tooth Care, Root Canals & Breast Cancer, Fluoride, & Teeth Whitening

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

#758: Join us as we sit down with Dr. Gerry Curatola, an internationally recognized biologic restorative Dentist with more than 40 years of clinical practice experience. As the Nation’s leading Biologic Dentist & Wellness Pioneers, Dr. Curatola gives us an in-depth analysis of the crucial connections between oral health, root canals, & your mouth’s microbiome. In this episode, we reveal the surprising links between oral health & systemic disease, share essential tips for overlooked oral care, & discuss why your flouride toothpaste is doing more harm than good. Tune in to discover how your dental habits & practices can directly impact your overall well-being! To connect with Dr. Gerry Curatola click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE To Watch the Show click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn’s favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes. To learn more about Revitin visit revitin.com and use code SKINNY15 for 15% off Oral Therapy and Prebiotic Toothpaste.  This episode is sponsored by Caraway Visit Carawayhome.com/himandher to see all of our favorite products and the cookware we use to make cooking easy for even the most amateur home chefs. Plus, take an additional 10% off your next purchase with code himandher at checkout.  This episode is sponsored by Evolution Fresh Visit sodajustgotreal.com to learn more about Evolution Fresh Real Fruit Soda and find a store near you. This episode is sponsored by Purely Elizabeth Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 20% off sitewide.  This episode is sponsored by The Farmer’s Dog Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at TheFarmersDog.com/SKINNY. Plus, you get FREE shipping! This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp Visit BetterHelp.com/SKINNY today to get 10% off your first month. This episode is sponsored by Taylor Farms Taylor Farms Chopped Salad Kits are available at all major grocery stores. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Aha! The number one sweetener that's being used in natural oral care products is something called xylitol. And there were studies, xylitol is in organic chemistry textbooks, it's called a high-value chemical. And in the mouth, it disturbs the microbiome and it kills a bacteria that caused tooth decay called strep mutans bacteria. But that research was very misleading. Dr. Jerry Curatola is on the show today. This episode is going to rock your world. My jaw was on the floor half the episode. We talk about the link between root canals and breast cancer, the dangers of fluoride, the toxic impact of silver fillings, and why toothpaste can be dangerous and what you need to know. So this episode is not to scare anyone. It's not to make you feel fearful. It's to just give you the knowledge. And my thing is like, take what makes sense out of this episode and apply it to your own life

and leave what you don't. In this episode, I personally switched my toothpaste, which we'll get into. I switched my kid's toothpaste and I booked an appointment with Dr. Jerry. And I can confidently say I will never get a root canal after this episode or a silver filling. We'll get into it. He's going to break it down. He really talks about the crucial connection between oral health and your microbiome. Really interesting episode. Dr. Daryl Joffrey actually said, Lauren, you have to have Dr. Jerry on the podcast. And he did not disappoint. He hits all the spots for me. He has range like no other. On that note, Dr. Jerry, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. If someone has a root canal in their mouth right now in this moment, and they haven't done anything yet, what are you telling them?

The first thing they need to do is get a 3D cone beam. What that is is like a 3D x-ray of the mouth. It's a new technology. It's digital, and it shows us everything. Now, what are you looking for with a root canal? You're looking for dark space around it that is the sign of a cavitation, which is well, for lack of better words, a zombie tooth. And that zombie can stay quiet for a while, but anything dead in the human body decomposes, including teeth. And when that happens, there's lots of inflammation that's caused by that that can dysregulate your immune system.

I know Lauren's going to want to dive super into this, but for the long answer, right? No, no, no. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to for sure cover and go, we're going to go into the weeds here for those that are unfamiliar with your work and I've never come across you. Do you give a brief introduction, who you are, what you do, and how you got into this line of work? Sure. I'm, I'm, I'm a biologic restorative and cosmetic dentist. I began taking this approach because biologic medicine, which biologic dentistry is a subset of, is really a philosophy of practice, looking at root causes and understanding the sources of toxicity and inflammation in the mouth. And I started that practice in the mid-80s, and that's why they've called me the father of modern biologic dentistry. I also invented Revitin, and I wrote this book, The Mouth-Body Connection.

I don't think people realize, because I didn't realize, how connected root canals are to other diseases in the body. Can you walk us through what you've seen because you've seen it all from a behind the scenes perspective? Yeah. You know, 41 years I'm doing this. So like I was like Doogie Howser came out when I was 12. Everybody's like, you don't look like you're 66. No, you do look good. You do look good. So I like to say that, you know, root canals are probably the most notorious procedure in dentistry. It's under a lot of fire right now.

And you know what? When I came out of dental school, I thought root canal was a great thing. You know, we're saving a tooth. Like dentists are in the business of saving teeth. So to tell someone you have an option to a root canal like a ceramic implant, which is not inflamed. By the way, metal implants, titanium implants, a lot of research that's emerged showing that metal dental implants are inflammatory to the body as well. But root canals, root canals are notorious because we used to think, oh, yeah, you know, we embalm the tooth. Actually, when I came out of dental school, they were still, it was just banned, but they were actually using a formaldehyde material. It was called Sargenti paste to fill

root canals, like literally embalming a tooth. And people were getting sick from that. And now it's changed and there's gutta percha and different cements and all that. And there are people that do like try to clean the tooth out really good, you know, using a laser and bleach and all this stuff to disinfect the tooth. Bottom line is, and what I've come to learn over 41 years, is that it's a flawed procedure because it's impossible to sterilize a tooth. So you're really keeping something in the mouth that eventually will decompose and will, I mean, it turns black and then they want to put another crown on it. And the worst thing is if any dentist says he wants to retreat a root canal, say, hold on, buddy, I have, or ma'am, but I have another alternative. And that is to remove the dead tooth and to put in a ceramic implant.

Now, the future of root canal is getting exciting, right? We're doing stem cells. We're regenerating pulps. We're actually growing teeth with stem cells. That's like on the horizon. And so that's the better future rather than to be, you know, and I have a lot of good friends who are endodontists. They're wonderful guys.

And they help take people out of pain. Like for example, if either of you broke a tooth and the nerve was exposed, you would need a root canal emergency to take you out of pain until you decide to take that tooth out and put a ceramic implant in or some other longer lasting, more predictable treatment. So people now, instead of doing your course of action, if you could consult them, if someone came to you, we would say, okay, if you had to absolutely do that, don't go the metal implant route, go the ceramic implant route. Yes. If you had to get an implant. Yes. So this is a strange question. How over, I don't want to say over prescribed, but

how often are they prescribing unnecessary root canals? I'm so glad you asked that question, Michael, because that's really the 800-pound gorilla in the room. There are 42 million root canals done every year. Wow. There's over 25 million root canals in the United States alone done every year. Many of those are a knee-jerk response to a patient being in pain, right?

Patient has pain in the tooth. Well, you take the guts out of the tooth, you don't feel anything anymore, but you're condemning that tooth to necrosis. And that necrosis will happen over time. And that's what we're saying. And necrosis is the inevitable decay and death of that tooth. Literally, the tooth decomposes in the mouth. I mean, when many times old root canals, when they're extracted, they crumble into a million pieces while the surgeon is trying to remove the tooth out of the mouth. And so when you think about that and what's going on, there are better approaches we have. And I do think, you know, and in defense of all my comrades who are endodontists out there and made their living just doing this all day long. And some of them have done, you know, really, it's kind of an art in itself, how to fill the roots of the teeth and everything else.

I have to say that there's better and more better approaches, better treatments and better materials that are coming ahead. And it's all in the world of regenerative medicine. Dentistry needs to move into the world of regenerative medicine. So you're telling me that this is like a billion dollar business where- No, no, no. Trillions. Okay. Trillion dollar business. It's about $3,000 for two to 3,000 for one root canal. Now multiply that by 25 million. I even have trouble with the zeros. So why would they want this to go away if it's a trillion dollar business? It sounds like there's

a lot of things going on that we're not seeing. Yes. And, and, and to your, and to your point, there is a lot of pushback of dentists who say, oh, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. No, they've done studies. There's PubMed studies. You can go online. 100% of endodontically treated teeth, root canal teeth, produce endotoxins, which are bacteria and bacterial byproducts that are inflammatory to the body. And two big things, inflammation, which my book is all about, how to reduce inflammation in the mouth. Because inflammation in the mouth is connected to everything from Alzheimer's disease to premature low-weight babies to preeclampsia in women to impotence in men. I mean, gum disease is the body's number one source of chronic inflammation, but there's a lot of other stuff that we do in general dentistry that can cause inflammation and toxicity. It sounds like they would rather make the money than care about the inflammation in your mouth, which is linked to multiple diseases. Well, that's the story of life is that there are people that make decisions based on economic gain instead of what's in the best public good. And so fluoride is another example of that. Go off on fluoride.

I'm so confused of fluoride. Go off on it. I heard fluoride leads to lower IQ in children. Is that true? There's over 60 studies, 60 studies from around the world that drinking fluoridated water lowers IQ in children. And these are scientific studies. And what's interesting is that conventional dentistry, especially here in the United States,

there are groups that, you know, fluoride, in my opinion, is a 75-year-old public health experiment that's an abject failure. There are non-fluoridated communities, non-water fluoridated communities with lower rates of decay than fluoridated. And fluoride, you know, studies about fluoride came out like in the 1950s, late 40s, 50s. And some of them were at the U.S. Army research facilities in Grand Rapids. And there was all of this research about fluorine. By the way, fluoride's a made up word. People don't know that, but fluorine is the element on the periodic table. It's the most highly reactive, non-radioactive element on the periodic table. It's the most highly reactive, non-radioactive element on the periodic table. So it means it's very charged. So when you drink something that has an element of fluorine, you will immediately, what it does, because it's so negatively charged,

your teeth and bones are made of hydroxyapatite. You probably heard that word. They're trying to shove it in toothpaste now and all this stuff. But hydroxyapatite is your natural teeth and bones are made of hydroxyapatite. You probably heard that word. They're trying to shove it in toothpaste now and all this stuff. But hydroxyapatite is your natural teeth and bones, and it has a certain amount of flexibility. When you introduce fluorine or a fluoride component, it knocks out the hydroxy and you develop what's called fluorapatite. So we thought, wow, it stimulates remineralization. But the mineral that occurs is a mineral that is more brittle it has about a third less strength than your natural teeth and bones so in the 1980s after you know 25 years or so of fluoridation my mother fell on the front steps of our home

and they were carpeted you know going up to bedrooms. And instead of having a bruised hip, she had a broken hip. So in the 1980s, they did a lot of studies with the orthopedic surgeons looking at hip fracture rates from the time of fluoridation. Because if fluoride makes your teeth stronger, hey, yay, it's going to make your bones stronger. And what they found was the exact inverse. There was an exponential increase in hip fracture rates from the time of fluoridation. There's over 20 studies linking fluoride to osteoporosis, cancer, and a host of other stuff. It's time that we get real and look at the current science that's out there and stop this unnecessary poisoning, in my opinion, of systemic water my opinion of systemic water supplies beautiful systemic water supplies but also poisoning on a daily basis through toothpaste it's like if you wanted

to poison people slowly and you wanted to do a drop of poison every day what's a better fucking way than toothpaste can i it's genius to your and another And another little tidbit of information is that we now have overexposure to fluoride, right? Because like you said, fluoride toothpaste, fluoride mouthwash, fluoride in the water. And you go to a restaurant, they're cooking with fluoride in the water and all this stuff. So the amount, we now have something called fluorosis, which is a modeling of the teeth. And by the way, the bones as well. You just can't see the bones. You just see the teeth.

It's this modeling and hypocalcification making those teeth even more prone to decay. The very thing they were given, what is listed in chemistry textbooks as a toxic halide chemical. So now toothpaste that has fluoride has to have a poison warning on it since 1998. Lauren and I sometimes will get flack for bringing on people that talk about these subjects and they say, why don't you bring on a dentist? Why don't you bring us some credentials? Can you brag about your credentials for a second here for the people? I know you're a humble guy, but can you list some of these? Guys, this is the best for the people. I'm a... I know you're a humble guy, but can you list some of the... Guys, this is the best of the best.

Because I want people to understand, I hear that feedback. These topics, I think, are very relevant to your point. More and more people are discussing this openly. And this is, you know, I was telling you outside

before we started, I see these topics starting to pop up on more shows. God forbid I question something that's in my mouth every day. I want you to do a humble brag for a second for people who are like, who's this guy?

Well, you know, I've been in academia from when I came out of school. I've been a researcher and author and, you know, I built clinics and I built really some amazing centers for promoting this biologic dentistry approach. But I'm a clinical associate professor at NYU. I'm not a kook and a crazy. I've been very committed. I actually made a gift to name a clinical research wing at NYU

for my commitment to translational research in the oral microbiome. And I've lectured internationally. I'm a fellow of the International College of Dentists. I'm a fellow of the International Academy of Dental Facial Aesthetics. I mean, I've been very committed. I've loved dentistry from when I was a little boy. You're not some guy that fell off a melon truck and started talking about- Who has better teeth, me or Michael? Of course, I'm going to go in your favor, Lauren. You definitely win.

There's only one right answer there. Although Michael's pretty good, too. If you want to continue the show, there was only one right answer there. Right, there's only one right answer. For both of us, yeah. So I have heard behind the scenes from multiple people, not just you, from multiple dentists, doctors, experts, that there is a huge link between root canals and breast cancer. Yes. Yes, that is true.

And I'll tell you how and why that's true. People don't realize that we, in bio, let me just tell you a little bit about biologic medicine, which biologic dentistry is from. And for me, when I came out of dental school in 1983, I didn't want to be a mechanic of teeth. And I felt like, and I was really good. I had good hands. I was an art minor when I was a neuroscience major, an art minor in college.

And I go to dental school and I love the creative part of dentistry, but I also love the medicine. And I felt like dentists were cut off from the mainstream of medicine. And it's really unusual in this country that they do that. They go, oh, you want to study this two by two cube, you know, you go to dental school. And so it, it tends to be more focused on clinical competence in the mechanic of teeth stuff than on the medicine part. So for me, I came out of school and I wanted to be exposed to different types of medicine, right? Homeopathic medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, naturopathic medicine, all of these different things. And there was a program

that was starting by a Dr. Alan Pressman on holistic health in 19, it was a master's program. It was the first certified master's program in the United States on holistic health, which was the origin of functional medicine and integrative medicine. Actually, I then went, I did Harvard Medical School, had a program with a Dr. David Eisenberg, where I studied and learned more about alternative complementary and alternative medicine, which is what it was called in the mid nineties, late nineties. And from there, um, there was a nurse that worked for me and she became a holistic nutritionist and her name was Barbara. And, and then she came to me one day and said, Jerry, there's a change in my medical history. I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. And my first response was, oh my God, Barbara, you're going to Sloan Kettering? It's like everybody thinks cancer, Sloan Kettering. And the reality is she came back to me and said, that's a meat grinder. I'm not going there. I'm going to the Paracelsus

Clinic in Switzerland with Dr. Thomas Rao. And he was the guy, the medical doctor who changed my life as a dentist. And I got a chance to honor him when I spoke at a world Congress in integrative medicine in Portugal a few years ago. But Thomas Rau, the first thing he would do if you had breast cancer is he would say, open your mouth. And he'd be looking for root causes of inflammation and toxicity. Whether you have heavy metals in your teeth with amalgam fillings, whether you have infected root canals, whether you had your wisdom teeth extracted and now you have these residual necrotic areas of bone, what we call jaw cavitations in the wisdom tooth area, whether you had BPA composite, which a lot of tooth colored fillings are BPA composite, whether you had uncontrolled gum disease. Do you have gum disease that's untreated? That's

the body's number one source of chronic low-grade inflammation. Or do you have an airway problem that's restricting your breathing? So this man totally was the aha moment for me to feel connected to medicine and overall body wellness. Yeah. I always say dentistry is the 800 pound biologic dentistry is the 800 pound gorilla. Oral health is the 800 pound gorilla in the wellness room. So you have all these functional medicine doctors, many of whom, you know, I know you have podcasts with and everything, who are wonderful guys, but they will be the first to tell you they can't fix your gut, they can't fix your brain, they can't fix your body if you don't fix your mouth. When I moved to Austin, we started switching over everything in our house to non-toxic supplies. So one of the things that we switched first was our kitchenware, our pots, our pans, our spatulas, even our Tupperware. And the brand that I chose, you know it, I love it, is Caraway. Caraway is

absolutely amazing because all their products are made without any toxic materials. So there's no PFAS or PTFE or PFAO or any of those other hard to pronounce chemicals. Everything is made with intention. It's very easy to cook too. So like when I make eggs in the morning for my kids, it has like a ceramic naturally sleek surface. And so you don't need a lot of butter or oil. The eggs like slide right off the pan, which is actually like such a time saver. I have the beige collection. It's kind of like an off-white, maybe like a cream. And I have all my pots and pans in it. I have their wooden spatulas, which I love. And then I have the Tupperware, like I said, which I store

my bowl of meat in every day. You've maybe seen it on Instagram stories. I am such a fan of this brand and it's no surprise because 65,000 people have rated Caraway five-star. Visit carawayhome.com slash him and her to see all your favorite products and the cookware we use to make cooking easy for even the most amateur home chefs. Plus take an additional 10% off your next purchase. This deal is exclusive for our listeners. So visit carawayhome.com slash him and her or use code him and her at checkout. Caraway, non-toxic cookware made modern. If there's anything Lauren and I have learned doing this show over the years is that it's actually very easy to make changes to simplify

or better your life. Many people struggle to make these changes because they go and they try to make a drastic change all at once and typically end up failing because it's so hard to create a new habit that way. Lauren and I are huge fans of swapping out things that are not serving us for things that do, which is why I love talking about better alternatives like Evolution Fresh. If you're somebody that loves soda but is looking to make a swap for something that you feel better about without sacrificing taste, Evolution Fresh Real Fruit Soda is a new, better-for-you soda that is delicious, refreshing, and bursting with benefits in every bubbly sip.

Real Fruit Soda is organic, made with real squeezed fruit, never from concentrate, and has no added sugar. Evolution Fresh contains pre pre and probiotics to support digestive and immune health and is only 45 calories or less. We love it. It comes in five delicious flavors, tropical mango, strawberry vanilla, orange squeezed, lemon lime, and berry burst. I love the tropical mango personally, and it can be found chilling in the refrigerator near the product section at many national retailers, including Kroger's, Ralph's, Albertson's, Safeway, Pavilions, Publix, all over the place. This is a great alternative and swap, like I said earlier,

that you can make immediately to still get that bubbly taste, but with a much better alternatives and much cleaner ingredients. Change is actually very simple, but it's all about making swaps that are easy to implement into your life so that new habits stick. So give them a try. You can't go wrong with any of the five flavors, but like I said, I love the tropical mango. Visit www.sodajustgotreal.com to learn more about Evolution Fresh Real Fruit Soda and find a store near you. Again, that's sodajustgotreal.com. I am a fan of tricking my kids.

I trick them all the time. I try to trick them when it comes to what they're eating. I try to make it seem like it's some sugary sweet treat when it's not. And one of the things that I use, one of the things in my magic trick bag is purely Elizabeth. There is this one that they are obsessed with. So am I. It's the oatmeal raisin cookie granola. Elizabeth, who owns the company, actually gave it to me and she's like, Lauren, you have to try this. You have to give this to your kids. So I brought it home and you guys, they are so into it. They think it's like a total treat. But when you turn over the package

and look at the ingredients, it's truly amazing what's in it. So I went on the website and I got the full ingredient list. Gluten-free oats, coconut sugar, coconut oil, gluten-free oat flour, raisins, maple syrup, almond butter. It even has chia seeds, cinnamon, vanilla extract, sea salt. It is truly the best treat. How I like to enjoy this is I do a bowl of it. So I'll put it in the bowl and then I'll do raw milk on top. So good. They also have chocolate chip cookie granola too. So you'll put it in the bowl and then I'll do raw milk on top. So good. They also have chocolate chip cookie granola too. So you got to try that. Don't sleep on purely Elizabeth's granola. She really knows what she's doing when she's making these concoctions. Another fun thing to do is the original ancient grain granola. You can do this over Greek yogurt with wild blueberries, a little

raw honey. You are good to go. I am a huge fan of this brand. Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use code skinny at checkout for 20% off sitewide. That's P-U-R-E-L-Y elizabeth.com and use code skinny. You get 20% off. Purely Elizabeth, savor the start. So are you saying that a lot of these diseases are all starting from the mouth? Well, it makes sense if you think about it. It's one of the main entry points to the rest of the body. Yeah. Well, it is. It's the front line, you know, of what goes in.

You know, it's really interesting. At least I hope it's one of the main entry points. Right, exactly. I don't want to put that joke in there. Yeah, it is. And, you know, the most dentists used to say is like, brush and floss into your dentist twice a year. It's like, which way do we go, George? This is like nonsense. It's like we've just been brainwashed. and they really have their head up their ass in terms of understanding the oral microbiome, understanding toxicity and inflammation in the mouth, understanding the thousands and thousands

of studies that have shown that what's going on in your mouth has profound effects on your whole body. So let's get to your root canal breast cancer question, because I didn't really address that. We believe in biologic medicine that each one of us here sitting here right now, we have a divine life force and in Ayurveda, they call it prana and Chinese medicine, they call it chi. And you know, in the Western world, it's called your spirit body, right? When mind, body, spirit, it's not just a cliche, but in biologic medicine, they call it the the field and this field gives us a divine capacity to self-regulate and heal but we self-regulate and heal on five different levels microbial level

is that you know you want to say the lowest level is microbial level we know about that we can talk about the oral microbiome and how the balance of that in the mouth is essential for the body's ability to regulate and heal, then you have biochemical pathways. And you see all of this disruption of these biochemical pathways, dysregulation, right? How many women have hypothyroidism? How many have Hashimoto's? How many are on thyroid meds? Because their thyroid is totally taxed, which is very sensitive to heavy metals in teeth, by the way. Mercury and aluminum and all these different metals really are destructive to the thyroid. So we have microbial, biochemical. The third one, which is fascinating, is energetic.

And in Chinese medicine, they knew this all along, like these meridians, right? And we're energy beings. And that energy flows in the fascia right below the surface of your skin. That's why acupuncture point, acupuncture needles are, you know, they go very shallow because it goes right under the skin to the fascia. So if you have a cut in your arm and you have a scar, that is blocking meridian flow because it's blocking the fascia. Fascia has been severed. Well, your teeth, and this is the interesting part, your teeth are like the energetic circuit breakers for your energetic immune system, for your body's ability to regulate. So if you have a root canal in a tooth, every tooth in your mouth, and you could look this up online, but there's a tooth organ relationship chart. It's blocking your chi.

Yeah. So what happens is you block and you flip the breaker off, right? And I always tell people, it's like the movie Star Trek, you know, like you have the Enterprise going around, flying around, flying around, then the Klingons come to fire a missile. And if the shields are not up, right? Scotty, put up the shields. I know exactly what you're saying. Lauren is completely lost at this point. I'm in Star Trek. You have to think of your energetic immune system like the shields on the spaceship Enterprise. When your shields are up, you can fight. You're fighting cancer every day.

I tell people this all the time. So how do we get our shields up? You have to eliminate toxicity and inflammation in your mouth. So let's talk about that. What are the main culprits that bring toxicity and inflammation into your mouth? And heavy metals. Outside of the main culprits, sugar and bad foods and not flossing and all. What are the main culprits? Dentistry has been notorious for, for stuff that is toxic and inflammatory. So whether root canals or mercury fillings, which I was in dental school and we were playing with this stuff,

amalgam without a mask or anything, we're playing with this stuff. And now, and I'm like, wait a minute, this is 52% mercury mercury and when a dentist takes a drill to drill out an old silver colored filling it makes an invisible cloud of mercury vapor you can measure it with a miner's lamp there's a there's a video online called uh it's been around for like 20 years or more uh called the smoking tooth and holding up an amalgam with a miner's lamp and you can see the mercury vapor on it. So now let's talk about that. Our bodies have an ability to chelate heavy. Most of us have the ability to chelate heavy metals, meaning get this mercury out, but there's a tipping point there, right? And then there are, I think it's 14% of the population. I don't have that statistic

exactly, but it's a very small percentage of 14 or 16% that have a genetic variation of the APOE4 gene and they can't chelate. So these are people, you put mercury in their head, they can't get it out. And these are the people where you see MS, where you see Parkinsonism, where you see all these degenerative diseases, neurological diseases. So we really have to be conscious of toxicity and inflammation. So what if someone's listening and they have three silver cavities in their mouth? What would you tell them to do? Go take them out? Well, no, that's an excellent point because I was on the Dr. Oz show in 2011,

and Oz did this big piece called Toxic Fillings. And you can still see it online. 2011 and Oz did this big piece called toxic fillings. And, um, and you can still see it online, but one of the most important things is the safe removal of dental amalgam from the human body. So there's a specific way to remove it. And so there was an organization, the IO,

AMT, I A O M T. And they came up with one of the, one of the members, um, great guy came up with this protocol. He said, well, we got to start to standardize stuff, which I believe is really important right now because it's biologic dentistry is like the wild west. There's a lot of biologic dentists

who are not good, many. And then there are many good dentists who are not biologic. So what I've been trying to do is mentor and train good young dentists to be biologic. And you know, the most open, uh, dentists that I work with are young female dentists. I have two amazing rock stars. I'm going to give them a shout out, Dr. Jeannie Greco and Dr. Tiffany Elmalem. And they are in my New York center. There's a wonderful biologic dentist in Los Angeles, Dr. Carla Solis. And they have this amazing goddess energy to be open and to want to help nurture and help cure and help their patients on their path to regulation and healing. This may be something that some people in the dentistry community may not like me to say, but it sounds like one of the biggest disservices to what modern dentistry is,

is there's this disconnect from the rest of the medical institutions, right? It's like you go to dentistry school and you get cut off from the other stuff. But it sounds like the most important thing with disease and everything comes from our mouth, which is wild. It doesn't make any sense. Is that a fair assessment? Yes. You're spot on, Michael. And then the reality is, is that it's time now. It's time for dentistry to merge back. You know, when you go to, when you want to be a dentist in say Switzerland or even I think Germany, you go to medical school and then you make a decision to subspecialize in cardiology gynecology gastroenterology dentistry you know psychiatry i mean i mean these are subdivisions of this global

medical so you get a base understanding of the overall health and body system before and then you get aside your specialty where here it sounds like you get segregated and you go off to just dentistry school like for example Like for example, at New York University, we actually, the first two years of dental school are almost the same as medical school. We take a lot of the same basic sciences and all these other things. And I always laugh because they had like faculty in both schools teaching the same thing to medical students versus dental students, but dental students were separated from medical students. Some schools have brought that together, but again,

we need to have an understanding, a more holistic understanding of the mouth as, and that's why I wrote this book, by the way, because I wanted the lay person to understand that the mouth is a mirror for disease in the body. It's also a very, very big gateway for disease in the body. It's also a very, very big gateway for disease in the body. But if someone has a filling and they're listening right now, and you say there's like this protocol,

are you saying that they really shouldn't get it removed unless they go to this special dentist? If you have a silver-colored filling, I would definitely stop and say, because the greatest amount of mercury exposure is when they're first put in and when they're failing and they need to come out. Right. And so, and by the way, amalgam fillings are notorious for breaking teeth. You know, when they get decay on them, they bite on something hard. Now that metal filling

is like a wedge splitting a log and they break their tooth. And so now that they go to the dentist and the dentist just picks up a drill and starts drilling it out. And that is terrible on a biologic level because they're exposing that patient to way too much. And organizations like the IAOMT and the IABDM, they were really, their biggest premise was to stop the use of mercury. And I mean, I think it was like 1998 or something, the greatest amount of mercury pollution came from dental offices. So then they made dentists put these special traps in their offices

to capture waste mercury from taking out amalgam fillings. They should just stop doing it. So if someone's confused on what to do, what should they do? They should find a dentist that does safe removal of dental. A lot of dentists are now waking up and they're doing safe removal of dental amalgam. And what does that look like? So it involves giving the patient, you know, we use supplements, for example, we use activated charcoal, we use selenium and then we give them an alternative air air supply so they're breathing through that we're protected we wear

special masks we have like almost our own protective gear in the room they're gonna have to breathe it too right because we're we're exposed you know that's the thing that dentists dentists dentists many dentists are not healthy and they've been exposed to stuff for a long period of time that are, that is very bad for them. You know, mercury is, is very bad for you. Um, radiation is very bad for you and, uh, and all this stuff. So a lot of dentists are, you know, they're creatures of habit too, and they work alone, right? You know, they're not in a hospital, they're working in a private office and, you know, there's more dental groups and dentists have become entrepreneurial. And the big thing, look, I love cosmetic dentistry.

I love doing veneers. I love giving somebody a nice smile. I've been doing it a very long time. It's a very creative gift. And it is also such an amazing transformational experience for the patient to smile with confidence and have their self-image and their self-esteem restored. But there is BPA composite being used to put the veneers on with. Some of it is aluminum disilicate. And so there's an aluminum disilicate material. We don't use any of that. So there's aluminum. There's BPA.

And then there is, oh, yeah, I forgot. There are some labs that actually have used lead in the porcelain to make it sparkle more. So you have like this craziness. And so we have what we call, you know, I have something called rejuveneers and rejuveneers are a very natural biologic approach to giving you beautiful cosmetic dentistry, but just being conscious of the materials that we're using in that process. So what if someone has veneers and they feel like, oh my God, I have all this BPA in my mouth? Well, I think, you know, there's a way to test. One of the things that I really, I do a lot of this, by the way, I have everyone send me a cone beam taken at their

local dentist, a cone beam and some intraoral photographs. And I can do a virtual consult and tell them what's in their mouth, what they should be concerned about. Do they have cavitations? Are there any infections around their dental work? Are there, you know, what is the bone level? You know, everything from the bone levels. Is the cone beam radiation though? Cone beam is very low exposure. Okay.

It's almost less than a full series of dental x-rays because it's 3D, but it's digital, right? So it's CBCT. Is that the thing they put in your mouth and they scan around with now? No, actually you just stand and this thing goes around your head in like 30 seconds and we have a scan. Do people need to worry if they have the white cavity?

If they're older than, let's say five to seven years, they should be looked at very carefully. If they are worn it means they're wearing this bpa composite the material that was the uh kind of the workhorse of restorative dentistry for for tooth colored restorative dentistry was something called bis gma resin bisphenol a bpa glycidal methacrylate. It was a chemical, a plastic chemical that we used and you cure it with the light and it auto-catalyzes and things like that, or it self-catalyzes.

And so what we want to see now, what I look for is, are the fillings worn? And do you have a grinding problem? Because you're going to grind this stuff off and just keep swallowing it. And I've had patients who've had tons of composite fillings. They had breast cancer. And you see this, it's basically chemotoxicity with this BPA composite stuff that was very commonly used. Okay. Well, i'll pick on myself for a second i have a i think i have a couple fillings that are um white but i've been recently putting in like a night guard to wear so i because i grind my teeth sometimes the mouth tape helps so much with grinding i love your mouth tape thank you i'm so i love the mouth tape i love

the shape of it i'm a very big proponent of mouth tape because I think that, you know, there's a billion people on the planet who are suffocating in their sleep. And everyone should have it. I would say there's three things that everyone should have. And the first thing is a cone beam. And the second thing is a home sleep study. And the third thing they should have is an analysis of their microbiome. And just to see where they're at. I want to try the microbiome analysis. So you like mouth tape though? You're a mouth tape fan?

Love mouth tape. I can put it on right now. Guys, you heard it here. I'll put it on right now. I'll be your director. But no, this is like my wife's going to love this. Wait, I have to ask a question. So I wear my

night guard at night. Okay. And I'm not grinding as much because my mouth is closed shut with the mouth tape. However, sometimes maybe like once a month I forget the mouth tape and I grind. And sometimes I sleep without the retainer. Here's my thought process. The retainer is plastic. The plastic is sitting in my mouth all night. That can't be good. And we can go off on that. The second one is if I don't wear

the plastic, you're telling me I'm going to grind my filling and it could lead to disease. So what the fuck do I do here? I feel very between a rock and a hard place. I know. Because there's something to me that's unsettling about wearing a retainer all night with plastic seeping into my bloodstream. But quickly, before you go through that, because I understand what you're saying, is it fair to say that if people tackle

the majority of the inflammation that's occurring in their body, they would have enough defense to defend against a plastic mouth guard? Right. And to be honest with you, there's different types of plastic. It's a good point, Lauren. But yeah, and you're in the right church, but you're wrong, Pew.

I mean, because a lot of these night guard sticks, you're in the right church, you're right, Pew. A lot of these materials that we use, some of them are nylon, some of them, but you want to make sure they're BPA free. I mean, plastics. I mean, we live in a world you know i was cracking up there was a video online about about somebody who was like getting up in congress like and all the use of plastic in the world and it's like you know and she had a plastic bag and all this stuff

and and uh so i don't even realize what how much plastics in all the yeah no it's it's everywhere i mean i think we are entering a a place, you know, my favorite expression right now is like staying healthy is like walking through a minefield. That's why, you know, these types of podcasts with this kind of information is empowering to people. And it really, really does help. There are so many people that come to me that say, oh, I heard you on this podcast. I heard you on that podcast. Wow. You know, I wish I could have heard more about this. And, and it's so this information can be very helpful because it's

really, you got to sort the wheat from the chafe out there. There's a lot of BS. And then there's a lot of, like the biggest bullshit in out there right now is the number one sweetener the number one um sweetener that's being used in natural oral care products is something called xylitol and there were studies xylitol is is in organic chemistry textbooks it's called a high value chemical okay It is a chemical and it is made by an, now there's an organic material that you use, xylan. So xylan, you know, is in cranberries and it could be in a bunch of stuff. It's also in the corn cob, GMO corn cobs. So people don't realize a lot of the xylitol development took place by a subsidiary of DuPont called Daniska. And they, it was in Europe and they took GMO corn cobs, which was a bio waste. They were going to throw

it away, right? They got the GMO corn, now they got the GMO corn cobs piled up that they were going to throw away. And they were able to develop this chemical that is not as sweet you know it's it's sweet but it has like 20 or something the calories of sugar um it originally it's not really absorbed very poorly absorbed by the body and not recognized at all so it's not metabolized by the body at all which is why xylitol they were trying to use it in food products to lower the caloric uh intake And it was giving people diarrhea and gas because it just nukes the microbiome. And in the mouth, it disturbs the microbiome and it kills a bacteria that caused tooth decay called strep mutans bacteria. But that research was very misleading because even though you're killing strep, you're killing strep mutans bacteria, you're disturbing the balance of those bacteria in the mouth. Strep mutans,

which have been associated with tooth decay, live in your mouth and they are very peaceful and benevolent when you're in a state of balance. And the amazing thing that I learned in my microbiome research was that there's something called the dental sialo microbial complex, teeth, saliva, and microbes. When you're this microbial flora, your mouth is actually an intelligent semi-permeable membrane that transports minerals from your saliva to remineralize your teeth for your teeth to heal themselves, in a sense. I mean, when it gets to the dentin layer or past what we call the dental enamel junction, difficult to do that. But incipient cavities do remineralize from saliva, microbes taking ionic minerals from saliva, including calcium and phosphorus,

to the surfaces of your teeth to heal. It takes molecular oxygen to your gums for your gums to be healthy. So your microbiome is literally creating this healthy metabolism when it's in balance. What are other things in people's toothpaste that they should watch out for? And I will just tell you this. I talked about this on the podcast. I had my blood taken and I was so high in triclosan. And I know triclosan isn't in a bunch of toothpaste and baby wipes. You guys got to be, there's a huge brand of baby wipes that it's in. Triclosan was, I was, I mean, from when Colgate introduced their product total in 1998, they were actually going to launch it. They were going to call it the first antibiotic toothpaste. And then there was this whole public antibiotic toothpaste. And then they changed

right away and they said, oh, it's the plaque killing toothpaste. And everything in oral care has been about kill, kill, kill, baby, burn, burn, burn. And it's like kill plaque, kill germs, you know, like you got to sterilize your mouth. And it was, um, one of my, um, professors, he, he was, um, he was actually retired. He was the head of the pediatric dentistry department, wrote the textbook on pediatric dentistry. He was involved in every international dental organization and the dental representatives to the United Nations, all this stuff. This guy, Dr. Stephen Moss, taught me the oral microbiome. And he had actually distributed money on behalf of major corporations

to do science on different stuff. One of them was triclosan to kind of, it's kind of like the tailwags, the dog to do the science. So when the product launches, they could say, science has shown that Colgate total kills plaque 24 hours a day. And he came to me and I had originally developed Revitin as a nutritional product. So I saw a study from the 1970s from Japan that showed that disease gums were deficient in two key nutrients, vitamin C. If I had to get rid of every vitamin in my medicine cabinet except one, I would keep vitamin C. Vitamin C is still amazing. I was reading a book all about scurvy and I was telling Lauren about it and people just didn't realize. It was vitamin C deficiency.

Yeah. And then the other one is coenzyme Q10, which people didn't really know about when I was doing my early research on this. But I got my first patent on vitamin C and CoQ10 in oral care formulas in 1999. Wow. Got the second one in 2001, third one 2003, and now we have another because a lot of them expired. Now we have all because a lot of them expired. Now we have all new ones.

Why are people so deficient in vitamin C and CoQ10? Because the higher the metabolic need, the greater the need for those two key nutrients, antioxidants. So CoQ10 actually helps in the manufacture of ATP in the Krebs. So it's like the way you make gasoline in, you know, it's the gasoline in the tank is, you know, you got to manufacture ATP. So, and where does it happen in mitochondria? What's under attack these days the most? Your mitochondria. Mitochondrial repair is essential. And so- So that's the first line of defense that gets taken out,

your CoQ10 levels and your- So what are- CoQ10, yeah. What are these things we should look for in our toothpaste the ingredients okay so let's talk about what's bad okay and and i know i gave you a long answer to that but i i um you know there are things we've used in toothpaste a long time which just are not sodium lauryl sulfate it's what makes toothpaste foam up um it actually is an irritant. They use sodium lauryl sulfate to irritate your skin and test dermatological products. I don't

mean to brag, but when Michael first started dating me, he was using Crest and I was like no way. By the way, we started dating when I was 20 years old. So we're talking like two decades. You used it for a long time. You guys have married 20 years? No, we've been together for almost 20 years. Not with that Crest we don't. No, no, no. Good for you. You guys have married 20 years? No, but we've been together for almost 20 years. Not with that crest, we don't.

No, no, no. Good for you. Good, okay. You were using the irritants and you're like, wait, I need to go back to the ingredients to not look for it.

Go ahead. Yes, yes. So what's bad in toothpaste? What's bad in toothpaste is sodium lauryl sulfate. What's bad in toothpaste, of course, is fluoride. It is,

so Procter & Gamble, I think, launched a product called Crest Sparkle. um it is um so the procter and gamble i think launched a product called um crest sparkle it was fluorescent blue bubble gum flavored i remember that and it had sparkles in it it is like any kid who was like five or under was like it was like candy i for sure had that and fluoride fatalities in children went up something like 280%. Was it blue? It was fluorescent blue.

Yep, I remember. And that fluorescent blue, by the way, it used to be coal tar made toothpaste that color. Now it's just petroleum and it is a carcinogen. But it had like glitter in it, right? It had like glitter. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I remember that. It had like glitter in it.

And so like literally- And they put like a superhero on the- Kids were eating it and there's enough fluoride in a full-size tube of toothpaste, commercial tube of toothpaste to be fatal to two children under five. Wow. So you don't have to even eat a lot. So it went through and then took the FDA, typically, 10 years, and they came out with a poison, the FDA poison warning on toothpaste with fluoride.

It says if more than a pea-sized amount, keep out of reach of children. I love that one. Let your kids brush with it, but keep out of reach of children. If more than a pea-sized amount is swallowed, call poison control right away. So kids were ingesting this toothpaste if they got their hands on it. Yeah. And it still is a problem, kids eating toothpaste, you know, and, and, you know, so I wanted it, the first thing I wanted to do, and it was around the time that I participated in those symposiums in complementary and alternative medicine, I remember saying, I've got to do two things before I leave the planet. The one thing I got to do is change what people brush their teeth with. And so that's what was behind the development of Revitin.

It's like you can literally take a pea-sized amount, and my grandson's been eating this from six years old, and it actually improves your gut microbiome too. Something that the moment you buy it, you're going to be a better person, and that is the farmer's dog. The farmer's dog makes real fresh dog food and delivers it right to your door. Recipes are developed by vet nutritionists made from real meat and veggies in portion just for your dog, making it easy to say goodbye to burnt brown balls and feed your dog real food with real benefits. We spend way too much time thinking about how we take care of ourselves and not nearly enough time thinking about how we take care of our pets, our dogs, the creatures that love us the most unconditionally. This is why Lauren and I have been longtime partners with the farmer's dog. It's smart, healthy pet food. You

can feel good about feeding your pup. It's the best option for dogs of all life stages because it's not kibble. It's not canned goo. It's real healthy food. Listen, traditional dry and wet dog food options are highly processed, can use much lower quality ingredients than they claim to, and are extremely difficult to portion accurately. The farmer's dog isn't just fresh, high quality food. They also send the food pre-portioned specifically for your dog based on their unique needs. This makes it easy to help your dog maintain their ideal weight, which is one of the biggest predictors of a full, healthy life. Dogs at a healthy weight can live up to two and a half years longer than overweight dogs. Who does not want their dog to live longer with such a simple change? It doesn't matter if your dog is young or old, it's always the right time

to begin investing in their health. That means more happy, healthy, and full years together. Of course, we have an incredible offer for our listeners and viewers. Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at thefarmersdog.com slash skinny. Plus you get free shipping. Just go to the farmersdog.com slash skinny to get 50% off. That's thefarmersdog.com slash skinny. The Skinny Confidential is sponsored by BetterHelp. Halloween is upon us and Halloween lets us have fun with what scares us. But what about those fears that don't involve zombies and ghosts? Therapy is a great tool for facing your fears and finding ways to overcome them because sometimes the scariest thing is not facing our fears in the first place and holding ourselves back. One thing that Lauren and I have learned doing this podcast for close to a decade now is some of the highest performers use therapy as one of the tools in their arsenal to

live a better, healthier, happier life. Lauren and I personally benefit all the time from being able to share our ideas, our thoughts, and get things out of our heads and off our chests. What we love about BetterHelp, and they've been a longtime partner, is that BetterHelp makes therapy accessible to anyone from the comfort of their own home, anytime, get paired with licensed therapists, and change anytime for no reason. If you've been struggling, having anxiety, stress, and you just feel like you need that extra push to get over the hump, therapy could be an amazing solution for you.

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betterhelp.com slash skinny. I like to eat clean and I like efficiency and mix it together. And what do you got? Taylor Farms. Taylor Farms chopped salad kits deliver the freshest, best tasting salad to eat at home or on the go. So essentially Taylor Farms is a family owned company on a mission to create healthy lives through fresh, delicious food. And they have these kits. Okay. So they wanted to make salad kits, not boring. A lot of them are boring. Theirs have over 30 flavors and even mini salads. And each base is a unique blend of fresh greens. They have veggies. And everything is designed to give you the best taste.

And it's also efficient. They have dressings and toppings. And they're packed independently to make it really easy for you. So you can tailor to your taste. You can use as much or as little as you'd like. Everything is convenience meets freshness. So the salads are pre-washed, they're pre-cut, they're ready to enjoy. So if you're a busy professional or you're a working mom or a college student, or you've just had a long day and you don't want to think about dinner,

Taylor Farm Salads makes healthy eating easy and delicious. My favorite salad kit is the sweet kale. And what I do is I make my bowl of meat and then I just use it to put it on top. And then sometimes I'll add the dressing. Sometimes I'll add some raw cheese. Sometimes I'll add some raw honey, but it's a really great way to add umph to my meat bowl. Sometimes I mix these salads into a little bit of white rice for my kids and I'll add soy sauce on top. You could have fun with it. You could add protein, fruits, veggies, whatever you want. Taylor Farms chopped salad kits are available at all major grocery stores. It's funny because this toothpaste was recommended to me about five years ago by Dr. Daryl and I actually have my kids brushing with

this toothpaste and I didn't put two and two together that you're the actual inventor of it. Yes. It's an incredible toothpaste. I mean, just on the back here, it says fluoride free, gluten free, dye free, GMO free, sugar and xylitol free, peanut free. So you really thought of everything. Gluten free too. Yeah too yeah i'm gonna send you a video of michael brushing his teeth with his toothpaste because i know him so well he's angling how to steal it this is so empowering because women when they're pregnant get something called pregnancy gingivitis they can actually brush with this and use it on their gums rub it on their gums at night and leave it on like a gum mask and go to sleep with it. And it reduces inflammation by 86% in two

weeks. We've done double blind clinical studies. We've done genomic studies. We just did a double blind, randomized double blind clinical study, a genomic study showing how we make the microbiome, which when it's unhealthy is a thick, sticky film like you have on your teeth in the morning. That's why when you brush with this for a few days, you wake up in the morning, your teeth feel clean. Like you feel like you don't have to brush. And I see here you have also vitamin C, D3, E, K2, all the things. And prebiotics.

And made in the USA. Are you into tongue scraping? Do you like tongue scraping? Well, you know, that's another interesting thing. Like tongue scraping, oil pulling, all these things that are out there. There's this crazy product on Instagram. Like it's olive oil ozone product, ozone pulling product. And it went viral.

And they're putting huge amounts of money in it. And I'm like, no! Ozone is a wonderful, wonderful compound. I use it in dentistry all the time to make teeth less sensitive, to disinfect. But if you use ozone on your microbiome, you want nuking it. So ozone converts to peroxide in the mouth. And if you use it every day, you're nuking everything. So you're killing the good bacteria.

It's like an antibiotic. You are killing all the bacteria. So bacteria, you know, and that's another real big misnomer is like, first we had all bacteria, bad, the germ theory, right? All bacteria, bad, kill them, raid, kill everything. Then we had the good guy, bad, bad guy theory, what I call the probiotic theory. And thanks to the yogurt companies like Dan and, and all those, they did all the probiotics are good for you. So probiotics are bacteria that are happy. Bacteria are like people, by the way. When you treat them well, they behave well. When you treat them bad, they become bad. And we call those pathogens.

So the same bacteria that have been benign and beneficial can flip a switch and become badass in your mouth. So you do like tongue scraping or you don't? Tongue scraping is necessary if your microbiome is way out of balance. If you use Revitin, you will not have to tongue scrape. Okay, this is just for the layman out there. What would a tongue look like that needs a good tongue scraping versus one that does not?

Cauliflower. Everybody should look at their tongue, by the way. The Chinese do it in Chinese medicine. You should look at their tongue, by the way. The Chinese will do it. In Chinese medicine, they're going to... You guys look good. Clean. Good. Now, what I want you to do,

because I suspect something, open your mouth as big as you can. Without closing, take the tip of your tongue, touch the middle of your palate. You have a little tongue tie. I told you this.

What about me? Open as big as you can. I told... He is too. I told you this. He is too. So what are we supposed to do? You both need a tongue tie release. That's it. What is that going to do for us? Or you need myofunctional therapy where we train your tongue. So that ligament under your tongue, and everyone can do this at home. They can go in front of a mirror, open as wide as they can,

and without closing, take the tip of your your tongue touch the middle of your palate. If you can't you have to close halfway that means that ligament the lingual frenulum which is that string under your tongue is holding it down too much.

Wait, the middle or the front? Sometimes it's the side sometimes it's the middle and the front. What does a tongue tie do over time if you don't release it? It's kind of like

unnaturally holding your tongue down and back because really the posture of your tongue should be in rest position. Your tongue should be resting behind your front teeth, your central incisors, your upper central incisors. Like you should be relaxing there.

If you're not and your tongue is tied down, that tongue is like a rubber stopper in the neck of a wine bottle. That's why you can have a breathing problem. How did you know I had your tongue is tied down, that tongue is like a rubber stopper in the neck of a wine bottle. That's why you can have a breathing problem. How did you know I had a tongue tie? What about me looks like I have a tongue tie? The fact that you were grinding. So you think if you release my tongue tie and it stops, I stop grinding?

If you cure sleep apnea, most people will stop grinding. Can you do a tongue? Most people will stop having TMJ. Can you do a tongue tie release as an adult? Yes. No, you can do it. Wait, can you release it? We do it with a laser. Can you do a tongue tie release as an adult? Yes. No, you can do it. Wait, can you release it? We do it with a laser.

Can you do it for me? Anytime. Is it hurt? I don't have to reach? No, it doesn't hurt at all. So how long is it? We numb it a little bit, but we use a laser, which is fantastic to do. Do you think I'll notice a difference?

I think you need tongue tie release and myofascial therapy. It's kind of like speech therapy for your tongue. Those are two important things to deal with. And then we got to look at, have you ever had a home sleep study? No. Ah, I got to send you guys both one. Okay. I'm going to send you both a home sleep. It's the greatest device because it gives us like seven pages of information. everything from what your blood oxygen levels throughout the night are to what side you're sleeping on, how many times a minute you have an apneic episode, right? So everybody thinks, oh, sleep apnea, snoring. Snoring is a sign of sleep apnea, but a lot of women have sleep apnea and don't snore at all. They purr a little bit. She used to snore like a, I couldn't believe the snores.

Well, I had double jaw surgery and that really helped. Oh, okay. That's interesting. You had orthognathic surgery. I had my whole face broken. Fucking nightmare. Yeah, it is. But I'm so glad I did it now.

But during, it's like hell. Totally. But that's interesting that no one told me I have a tongue tie during all that. Yeah. I mean, my whole- These are the things I'm training dentists to look for. These are the things we in our office in Manhattan, we have an office in Manhattan, an office in the Hamptons, and we're common LA. So that's on the drawing board because we really do need to shift and change the way dentistry is practiced.

Well, it's so interesting having all of these conversations on the show. I would argue that if you look at the early versions of this show compared to now, like we've slowly, Lauren and I, progressed to become healthier human beings.

I'm not just saying the way we look at all that, but there's just so many things we've learned talking to people like yourself. One of the reasons we love doing the show is because we learn like the stuff you're telling us right now, we are learning maybe a little earlier than the audience. Cause we do the interview first. Now, what I love, what I love that you do is you also support a lot of the people like my friend, Will Cole and everybody else in doing their, their, in doing podcasts that are empowering people to live long and healthy. And you know what?

There's been nobody in oral, there's been nobody over here in this two inch by two inch cube that basically runs your whole body. Okay. Because the oral microbiome actually is an integral part of the regulation of your immune system. So another thing we didn't bring up, and I'm going to throw it up right now, is mouthwash. Right? Throw it away.

Most mouthwash is crap. And it interferes and disturbs and destroys the oral microbiome. Everyone who likes mouthwash has an addiction to the old nostalgic feeling of your dad breathing the brown Listerine on you. We have to move on. My mother loved it. My mother was like, burn the hell out of your mouth. We have to move on.

If it burns, it means it's good for you. And I'm like, no, it's killing me. I have this weird theory that maybe you will relate to. We were talking about it. I haven't worn deodorant in like 20 years. I'm just not a deodorant guy. And what I was saying is, you know, we've gotten good as a people of masking sense that our body is trying to signal to us to say there's something wrong. And one of the things I said is that you shouldn't have all this crazy BO if you're, if you are

managing your health properly and also saying like, if you're taking care of your mouth. And you know what? I don't even, I don't even use a deodorant. I mean, like I'm really rarely, only if I know, like, I'm going to be in a, in a setting where, you know, I'm like sweating like crazy or something like that, but I really, I don't even like it. But you know, the two things in dentistry is my point though, is that with deodorant, with perfume, with cologne, with mouthwash, we're trying to mask a scent that shouldn't be there in the first place. You are spot on. You are a hundred percent right. Because what are the two biggest things in dentistry? The two biggest consumer concerns, white teeth and fresh breath. That's it. White

teeth and fresh breath. You could tell them about the mouth as a, you know, when I wrote this book, you know, the mouth has a mirror and a body and a, a mirror and a gateway to the body. Um, everybody was like, Oh, Oh, okay. But white teeth and fresh breath. What have we done? Teeth whitening products. And a lot of people don't know this, but there was a study back at Georgetown University Medical Center on women who were, they called them bleachorexics, you know, like bleachaholics. You know, they whitened every day, every day. They thought teeth whitening is something they do every day. And there were like four or five of these women developed squamous cell carcinomas under their tongue, their cheek, and all this because teeth whitening is an oxidative process. It uses a form of peroxide, carbamide peroxide,

hydrogen peroxide, and that can denature your cells. It could denature soft tissue, that oxidative process, destroying the antioxidant protection in the mouth. That's why in our offices, when we do teeth whitening, we'd give them an antioxidant gum mask with Revitin. We do this five-minute gum mask to replenish the antioxidants that are destroyed in the whitening process. So these women got cancer, and it was like, hushy, hushy, all covered up. No, we need to do more research because it's a multi, multi-billion dollar industry, teeth whitening products. You go on QVC, you go online, you go on anywhere and, you know, podcasts, infomercials and everything. What is it? Teeth whitening. Guess what? Revitan whitens teeth by restoring balance to the oral microbiome.

So you get rid of that stain attracting unhealthy plaque. And instead you restore that plaque to a healthy microbiome, a healthy oral microbiome. So when your microbiome is healthy, it's a thin, clear odorless film. When it's unhealthy, you have, you know, this thick, sticky, smelly film on the teeth. You don't even want to kiss your wife in the morning because you, you know, you got this gunga, you got to brush your teeth first. So an indication of a bad micro, unhealthy microbiome was that it's a thick film that starts developing your teeth. Like that shouldn't happen. That's unhealthy. And that's when you got to tongue scrape. That's when you got to do oil pulling, like oil pulling. It's great.

It's a detergent. Everybody thinks it's like this magical thing. No, it's a lipophilic detergent process. And by the way, the Ayurvedic, the ancient Ayurvedic, it was like you had to do it for 20 minutes with an oil, right? I think it was a sesame oil back then. And I know people are using olive oil or coconut oil. Coconut oil is wonderful. I love coconut oil. But I mean, the idea of having to use it for 20 minutes in the morning, I can't get people to brush

their teeth for two minutes. Wait, I have a question about the airway. If there is a kid or a teenager that doesn't get their airway fixed, what is going to happen? Are you a believer in palate expansion? Absolutely. I mean, here's the thing. There's a lot better. Here's the most important thing. By the way, we're doing tongue tie release on children when they're born in the hospital. We're looking for it in the hospital. You know how many kids suffer from obstructive sleep apnea? You know what it's connected to? Bedwetting. Bedwetting in children is a sign of possible obstructive sleep apnea. Hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. Airway health.

Airway health. So airway health is essential from birth. And we do that. Now, there are appliances. And the big thing, you know, a friend of mine wrote a book. He's a biologic dentist. And he wrote a book called Six Foot Tiger, Three Foot Cage. And he's Chinese American and they love Crouching Tiger, Six Foot Tiger. And this was like Six Foot Tiger, Three Foot Cage. Six Foot Tiger is your tongue. The Three Foot Cage is your mouth in someone with

obstructive sleep apnea. There's not enough room for your tongue. So now you're choking, literally you're choking on your tongue. Now, how do you get a six foot tiger in a three foot cage? Some people genetically are born with a narrower face like mine and a high vaulted palate like you and you, by the way, all of us here. And so, or we may have not been breastfed we're bottle fed and so we don't get proper palatal development this spreading and flattening of the palate and so these people end up or now they have crowded mouths they have an overbite and now they're pulling teeth the orthodontist is pulling teeth quote-unquote making room for your smile so now they have a pretty smile with a three foot cage instead of a six foot cage. So extraction therapy and orthodontics, big no, no. And we, they did it in the past because it was like a real easy way to give them a nice smile. Oh, Susie has a crowded

mouth. No wisdom teeth pulling. Um, too many, in my opinion, uh, a lot of removal of third molar wisdom teeth are done unnecessarily. A lot of root canals are done unnecessarily. So you like palate expansion? I love using things like myobrace in children. That helps with the orthopedic development of that. Palatal expansion is a little, you know, there's, you really need to guide the development of the jaw, not just, you know, kind of move the teeth around. That's why people, you know, they're removable alignotherapy, like Invisalign, Candid, and these types of systems. They have a place, but it's not a one size fits all type of solution.

If you have a young kid, what would you do? I'd evaluate them, you know, and the earlier, and I want to encourage everyone listening, the earlier you bring your child for development, it's really about helping guide the development of the upper jaw, the maxilla and the lower jaw, the mandible, so that the teeth have room to come in. The airway has plenty,way has plenty of room for your

tongue. You can really make a big difference in that child's entire lifespan by focusing on the airway at an early age, like seven years old and on. There are different appliances that that child can wear that helps guide the eruption of the teeth and guide the development of the upper and lower jaw. We just did an entire episode, which is why I have my phone out because normally I would never have my phone out on the show, called How to Grow a Beautiful Face, Jawline, and Sustain Your Health with a woman named Katrina Fahey. And she talks, she wrote a book all about this and a palate expansion. We talked all about this particular subject. That's fantastic. Before we go, I know that there was a documentary on Netflix. I think it was called The Root Cause.

Yes. And it exposed a lot of things that you're talking about and it educated the population on a lot of things that you're talking about. And then it mysteriously disappeared. It's gone. It was a class action lawsuit by the American association of endodontists. Because they don't want it out there. And they said it was scaring the public or something ridiculous. You mean scaring the public into not doing it. So it ruins their money. Yeah. Well, yes, I mean, I, they do, you know, they're protecting the interests of their members and their members, you know, they make their living doing this stuff, you know, being undertakers of teeth, you know, and, uh, and, and they, you know, I hate to say that because getting someone out of pain is can be life, life, you know, give somebody their, their life.

I mean, toothache is one of the greatest pains in the, in the, you know, one of the top three, you know, in a year to think. I forget what the other one is. I think gallbladder or something. Aren't there things that you can do for a root canal naturally? Like Dr. Darrell and I have talked about like taking black seed oil. He has a black seed oil I take every day. Yes. And homeopathics.

By the way, in a tooth with deep decay, there are way, way, way too many dentists that are in this mechanical removal of decay, seeing like they got to scrub every pick of the end and then they expose the nerve and then they go, Oh, you know, Lauren, we got to do a root canal. Now the nerve is exposed. The decay was so deep. First thing I do in deep decay and our offices is we use ozone. Ozone disinfects that deep decay and the decay kind of sloughs off and off the tooth. And you get down to the healthy tooth. And then sometimes I'll do what's called a laser pulp cap. I'll use a little laser light to protect the nerve. And then we build that tooth back up and we keep that tooth vital. There's way too many root canals that are done like a knee-jerk response.

And as I said, when we watch the progression of what happens to that tooth with root canal over time, we see this necrosis, we see these infections, we see cavitations, and they are a source of dysregulation. You were asking about upper molars. The upper molars are grand central station on a meridian for regulating the immune, you know, the field around every organ system in your body. So the upper molars are notoriously right and left or for the right and left breast for your thyroid. They regulate your thyroid.

So just think about this. A big infected root canal in an upper molar will dysregulate your breast on that side, your thyroid, your stomach. And on the upper right, it's the pancreas. And on the upper left, it's the spleen. That's how many meridians are just from those molars on the upper. Your front teeth, by the way, upper front and lower front. And a lot of people, especially when you're young and a lot of

guys, you know, they get, they took a baseball to the mouth and they got two root canals on their two front teeth. And the next thing you know, they have an inflamed prostate and this and that, because the whole genitourinary system is on meridians from your front teeth to that area. I knocked my two front teeth, not out completely, but when I was a kid, it was a sports injury. I wish it was a cooler story. I dropped in off a big ramp on rollerblades. I really wish it was like I got in some kind of street fight or

something. You never want to be a man saying you got a rollerblading accident. Do you like gargling with silver? No. Okay, why? The thing is, gargling with silver is great if you have anything. Or when I'm traveling, let me put it this way.

I'm a big fan of a silver hydrosol called Argentin 23. I give it to patients. They use it under their tongue. They use it if I've done a surgical procedure. I give it to them. I use as many naturopathic remedies as possible. We use it when we fly. Yeah, I use it when I fly. I give it to them. I use as many naturopathic remedies as possible. We use it when we fly. Yeah. I use it when I fly. I have it with me. I have the aerosol one. I squared it in my nose. I squared a little in my mouth, my ears. I even do my ears with it.

And it is really, so that's great. Doing it every day as a daily practice is not great because it is antimicrobial. Remember, I have a mantra for the oral microbiome, and that is make peace with your microbes. They keep you alive. You know, we're made of microbes. Our human cells may have been microbial in origin. The mitochondria of our cells are the exact same size as a bacterium. I have a big announcement. I have a very big announcement to you. Do your announcement. Tell us where we can get your toothpaste.

Everyone's going to want this toothpaste. I'm like, I'm definitely taking these home with me. Your book is called The Mouse Body Connection. You guys go check it out on Amazon. I am a huge fan of you personally. Like I attacked you to come on the podcast. Give your announcement. Tell us where to buy the toothpaste and give us the code.

All right. So it's Skinny 15. But I have a really big announcement. There are many, many, many devoted, loyal aficionados of Revitin, which is essentially it's it's there is a launch coming, but we are coming out with a mint flavor this fall. Finally, because mint can be very antimicrobic, like peppermint. launch coming, but we are coming out with a mint flavor this fall, finally. Amazing. Because mint can be very antimicrobic, like peppermint, which a lot of oral care products have and everybody's condition, like he's talking about mouthwash.

You know, you use mouthwash that's antimicrobial like Listerine. It inhibits your body's ability to make nitric oxide because your oral microbiome makes nitric oxide for your cardiovascular health, your immune system health. So you're launching mint. So we're launching a gentle mint, which is delicious. I really like the citrus clean though. I will tell you guys, this toothpaste is absolutely amazing. And which website do they go to to use the code? They go to revitin.com and they put in skinny 15 and everyone gets revitin on sale. And where can everyone find you on Instagram if they have questions?

I'm at Dr. Jerry Curatola. I never spelled Jerry with it. Your father and I have the same name. And it's Jerry with a G. So it's D-R-G-E-R-Y-C-U-R-A-T-O-L-A. And you can go to Rejuvenation Health. One word, Rejuvenation Health. One word, Rejuvenation Health.

We'll link everything in the show notes too. So for people that are looking at it. And you guys, if you want to go see him, you're in New York City, right? Yep. Okay. Right on Fifth Avenue. You're the best. Come back anytime. Thank you, Dr. Cherry.

I love you. Go see a biological dentist, everybody. You can go to R-E-V-I-T-I-N.com and use code SKINNY15 for 15% off oral therapy and the prebiotic toothpaste. I bought six of them. I got three for my kids, one for Michael and two for me. Go to R-E-V-I-T-I-N.com and use code SKINNY15 for 15% off. Thank you.