Physician, heal thyself

Healing one tooth at a time

Health, healing, being a healer. What does that mean? Sometimes when people hear that someone is a “healer” in these modern ages, they often think spiritual, metaphysical. In the past a healer was anyone who improved health. Physicians, doctors, anyone who practiced the art of medicine. Medicine - from the aspect of the total body, including energetic and spiritual - is a science and an art. The science is the facts, results of experiments, research, study, and exploration of those who came before us and continue to work towards greater knowledge. The art is how we practice it, how we apply the knowledge. Learning and understanding from the patients and clients what their actual needs are. Listening beyond what they are saying to hear the “root” of the issue.

As a dental hygienist and professed healer, I spend much time discussing with other providers around me how we need to be skilled in motivational interviewing. Sometimes what someone is complaining about is not the root of the issue, only a symptom. That pain they are experiencing may be rooted in not ideal lifestyle or nutritional choices. Often, they aren’t informed about what’s actually going on in their body, or how things are so connected in the body. Our bodies are a feat of wonderful engineering - so complex, each system connected to the other. It often makes me chuckle that specialists stay in their small specialist box and don’t think beyond their system - this is part of the reason why the American system of medicine is now sick-care instead of healthcare. You don’t think those other systems are affecting the one that is symptomatic? If you don’t explore these other areas, or at least even consider them, then you are not looking at the whole picture.

Health has become a privilege in the modern American society - this is a sad state. Nutrition and what we put into our bodies is at the very root of how our bodies are composed. We have a microbiome of bacteria in our gut, mouth, and skin to name a few. These microbiomes work with us to protect us against virulent microbes. They also work to produce much needed chemicals and components that our bodies need to survive and thrive. Did you know that 80% of our serotonin is synthesized in our gut? If you’re dealing with any sort of mental health stress and strain, the first place you should look is to what you are putting in your mouth. If the bacteria in our gut are not functioning properly, then we will not get the necessary neurotransmitters we need to truly thrive. Many Americans suffer in, around, and below the poverty line. Many Americans live in food deserts where they don’t even see a fruit or a vegetable. The only thing they have access to is prepackaged and processed foods. The preservatives, easily fermentable carbohydrates, lack of whole food nutrition causes the microbiome to suffer and from that the whole person suffers. Gastrointestinal issues, mental health issues, chronic pain, gum disease, heart disease, stroke, diabetes. All of these are influenced from the microbiome.

As a dental hygienist, I have seen time and time again that a healthy mouth leads to a healthy body. The bacteria in the mouth do not stay there, they pervade into the tissues and cause issues in other parts of the body leading to heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, certain cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowl syndrome. This is no joke. For example: Porphomonas gingivalis is a red complex periodontal pathogen (the severity of pathogenicity goes from green->orange->red->purple) commonly associated with bad breath and gum disease. Typically, the way that our cells are aligned they have very tight junctions between them, not allowing anything to move through them. P. gingivalis releases toxins as it multiplies causing our tissues to weaken and those cells to spread apart. When this happens it creates an opening into the blood stream for not only P. gingivalis to move into your blood, but also other bacteria in the mouth. P. gingivalis is not alone in it’s cellular breakdown abilities.

I’m coming into my 15th year of practice this year and I can say that I’m glad that Spirit guided me here. I firmly believe that the dental field will be the leader in moving us away from sick-care to actual healthcare. Prevention is always easier than treatment, and much less painful, costly, and time consuming. There are 8 aspects of wellbeing and your physical health - and in particular dental health - affects quite a few.

If you have ever had an infected tooth or dental pain in general. Which of these areas would you say is impacted? If you asked me I would say: financial, emotional, physical, occupational, social. 5 out of 8 aspects of wellness are impacted by dental health (at a minimum!). It costs money to have the area treated, which can have a dual-edge effect on occupational - taking off time to have the work done, the money lost from that time lost, plus the money outgoing for the work. How this is affecting you physically and emotionally - the mouth is an incredibly emotional space - ask anyone who has had any dental phobia. Social - who wants to talk or smile or sometimes even eat when they are having dental pain? The aspect about eating is where things can really go downhill. When people develop chronic dental issues, they change their diet. Maybe they can’t eat crunchy raw vegetables anymore. Chewing certain things becomes difficult. So they opt for something easier - more processed, less healthy - when then causes their overall health to go down more. The cycle continues. This is a self-perpetuating cycle caused by a lack of education and understanding. This is not to say that these people are unintelligent or not educated. Just not educated in the areas that they need to be. This is where the dental profession can really make a change. However, in the current American climate the trend in medicine + dentistry is going corporate. Less time with patients, only doing procedures that make “money” (aka what the insurance will pay for, not what the patient needs), get them in, get them out.

Have you ever had a dental hygienist ask you about what you are eating? Are you well rested? Are you getting exercise? Or do they just tell you you need to brush and floss more while your mouth is bleeding profusely. I’ve been in the position where a patient has “blamed me” for the bleeding in their mouth. “It’s what you did to me!” This is NOT the case. Healthy tissues don’t bleed. Period, done, end of story. It’s likely homecare, diet, how often they are coming into the office and if they’re engaged in their health. I get one hour with each of my patients, I always have, and I feel blessed for it. There are some practices where someone only gets to spend 30 minutes with a hygienist. So of course all they can do is the basic scaling (that’s the term we use for removing the plaque and bacteria from around your teeth/gums). Even then, patients are being chronically undertreated. What patients often want is a D1110 - a dental prophylaxis - this is described as cleaning above the gumline (not below the gum!!! which everyone needs, in my opinion) in the presence of HEALTHY tissue. Bleeding, oozing, red, irritated tissue is not HEALTHY! This is where we recommend periodontal therapies - however most “dental insurances” (I put this in quotes because it’s not designed to get you any sort of care, and barely covers what you actually need) will only cover preventative (note prevention means to stop the disease before it happens) services at 100% and periodontal services usually at a rate of 80% (some are 50%). This means, that the patient needs to pay more for their care to get the treatments and services they actually need. However, in areas where there are socioeconomic struggles because of the failed systemic issues we have in America, the people who need those services the most… generally those who are at, around, or struggling with the poverty line… do not get those services because they can’t “afford” it. So their health continues to suffer, and they go on to develop more systemic issues - high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, IBS, etc. - than those who have access to quality dental care where the providers take the time with them. This is not to say other demographics don’t have their issues. I have seen first hand how those in affluence think that disease can’t touch them.

At the end of the day, we all still need to brush our teeth effectively, clean in-between our teeth effectively, and take care of our bodies. Money and affluence doesn’t make your body function better. Humanity and our bodies are the great leveler of status. We all have a body and we all have to respect it. No matter how much “control” and “power” we have - we are at the mercy of our bodies. We need to work with them instead of against them. This means understanding our microbiome, respecting it, and treating it well.

Making change is hard but I’m sure we can do it, one step at a time. Remember. Heal thyself. And don’t skip your dental hygiene visits! They will protect you more than you know. Often people will have a lapse or lack of insurance and opt to not even get their dental hygiene services done. DON’T DO THIS IF YOU CAN! I always tell people, please find a dental hygiene school and get it done for much less if nothing else. This is one thing that you can do to protect your overall health. IT’S NOT JUST A CLEANING! I promise you.