Ep.91 Holistic Dental Innovations for a Brighter Smile, Healthier You

Unlock the secrets of a radiant smile and robust health with Dr. Sanda Moldovan, our guest who's pioneering the field of oral health, nutrition, and anti-aging. Discover how the state of your mouth is a window to your overall well-being, especially for midlife women navigating the ebbs and flows of hormonal changes. From the tips of your teeth to the depths of your gut, we're connecting the dots on how oral care, nutrition, and lifestyle choices contribute to ailments like chronic fatigue and brain fog, while also highlighting the importance of saliva pH and how to maintain an alkaline environment to fend off tooth decay and sensitivity.

Ever wondered about the link between your favorite mouthwash and blood pressure? Or how to keep your breath fresh without resorting to harsh chemicals? Look no further as we debate the effects of common dental products on our oral microbiome and discuss natural alternatives like calcium hydroxyapatite for strengthening enamel. Bad breath is no match for our conversation on chewable probiotics, and we'll even tackle the internal causes that could be lurking in your gut. Plus, I'll share why ditching soda isn't just good for your waistline – it's essential for preserving your pearly whites and bone health.

As we wrap up, Dr. Sanda Moldovan gives us an exclusive tour into the world of holistic dentistry. Learn about the crucial role of the oral microbiome, and how probiotics are revolutionizing dental health. With Dr. Sanda's insights and a special offer on natural oral health products, you're equipped to take charge of your oral ecosystem.

Do you have receding gums and your dentist is suggesting skin grafting? New technology using platelet-rich fibrin, instead of painful gum grafting, may be an alternative for you. If snoring is an issue, there is an effective, painless laser treatment that does not include a clunky CPAP.

Remember to keep the conversation going by connecting with us on social media, leaving your thoughts in a review, and sharing this episode with friends who value their health from tooth to toe.

Here is the link to Orasana to check out their amazing products. Use code WELCOME at checkout for $5.00 off your first order.

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Transcript

Michele Folan: 0:08

Health, wellness, fitness relationships and everything in between. We're removing the taboo from what really matters in midlife. I'm your host, michelle Fohlen, and this is Asking for a Friend. Our mouth matters and is the true gateway to superior whole body health. So you floss, you try to be a gentle brush and get to the dentist twice a year. Well, most of the time right. But what else can we do to ensure that seemingly minor oral problems don't point to a bigger health concern? Dr Sanda Moldovan is recognized internationally for her expertise in oral health, nutrition and anti-aging. With two board certifications in periodontics and nutrition, she brings an uncommon level of well-rounded knowledge to biological dentistry with a holistic approach. She is also the author of the book Heal Up. She's the founder of the company Ourasana and a podcaster, and the name of her podcast is the Holistic Dentistry Show. Welcome to Asking for a Friend, dr Sanda Moldovan.

Sanda Moldovan: 1:25

Thank you very much, Michelle. It's a pleasure to be here.

Michele Folan: 1:28

I'm so glad I did not botch your last name and I'm so glad we can just call you Dr Sanda, so welcome to the show.

Sanda Moldovan: 1:34

Thank you, thank you.

Michele Folan: 1:36

I would love for you to just kind of kick things off with kind of filling in some of the holes around where you went to school, where you're from, family details if you'd like to share, and then a little bit more about your practice.

Sanda Moldovan: 1:50

Yes, I finished my periodontal residency in 2004 at UCLA and what really started me on this path of natural health is just my curiosity in the fact that I was doing the same surgery on two different people, but one would heal great and one would heal horrible. So I'm like what is it? You know in school we're really taught about our skills. We're really not taught about nutrition and healing, and what can we do to optimize that? So I started researching and going to the Institute of Functional Medicine and really looking into nutrition and the science of nutrition.

Sanda Moldovan: 2:28

Gabriel Cousins was my first book that I picked up. It's called Conscious Eating, which I absolutely loved in the science of enzymes and probiotics. He's an MD and I really respect research because, being a researcher myself, I really want to know that, hey, is there evidence-based science that I could bring to my patients and help them heal better? So that's how I started back in 2006. I ended up getting a certification in nutrition through the Board of Nutrition Specialists and I started incorporating a lot of the personalized nutrition and supplementation and in people that I did surgery before I had to do a second surgery for another side, they all reported oh my God, this side was so much easier. I healed so much faster. So I'm like, wow, there's something to this, and I really dove a lot into researching.

Sanda Moldovan: 3:21

I put a lot of my findings in my book Heal Up that was published in 2018 about healing from oral surgery, because a lot of people ask me is there a magic pill that I can take to heal better? Well, unfortunately there isn't. We have to have the right hydration, nutrition, supplementation, rest, mindset, sleep. This is all important part of healing. So here I am today with literally. We have a unique approach in my practice of Beverly Hills dental health and wellness. We have three locations in Southern California and our mission is just to help detoxify the mouth for a healthier body.

Michele Folan: 4:05

Well, and I love your approach because a lot of what you're doing to help people heal more quickly are some of the baseline good habits that we should try to have anyway. It's funny like your mouth is part of your whole body by them right, and the one thing, too, is that it just is just more of a comment. When people have mouth pain or dental pain it can stop them in their tracks, and I can only imagine some of the procedures that you've done on people have been life changing for them.

Sanda Moldovan: 4:45

Absolutely, michelle. A lot of my patients who come in have chronic fatigue. They don't feel well, they have brain fog and now I'm trying to find out how can we address the mouth, take out all the inflammation. So this is my realize that I have never hit my head in my days. I want to help them heal better.

Michele Folan: 5:06

Then I think you're kind of defining for me the difference between holistic dentistry and general dentistry is where you're really looking at the whole patient rather than just their mouth.

Sanda Moldovan: 5:18

That's right. I like to say we treat the whole body, not the whole in your mouth, Got it? A lot of dentists, traditional dentists, really look at, okay, teeth and it's separated from the rest of the body, but there's such an interconnection between, as you mentioned, the microbiome of the mouth. That's just the opening of the GI tract. Of course, anything we put in our mouth will affect the gut. It will absorb, it will affect the way we feel. We look at how our teeth let's say root canal treat the teeth, affecting the whole, generalized inflammation or the microbiome which is inflammatory, affecting the gut. This is the things that we do.

Michele Folan: 6:01

What are some of the biggest challenges that you see for midlife women in regard to oral health?

Sanda Moldovan: 6:09

The majority of our patients are actually midlife women. Interesting Because we take care, I feel like and I'm in that category. I feel we take care of ourselves and we take care of our families and kind of encourage everybody around us to stay healthy. The biggest problems that we see in the midlife, as our hormones change, is drier mouth, for example, drier eyes. With that dryness of the mouth, we actually see a change in the microbiome that can actually curate more bad breath and more gingival or gum inflammation. The second thing that I see is a brittleness of the teeth. That is also in a way, due to the fact that the mouth is drier. The teeth are not mineralizing as well. Now we're experiencing more sensitivity. I'm even seeing in myself that my two front teeth right at the edge they're starting to slowly chip and become more translucent. That's basically why is that happening. Teeth are actually bone. As our bones get more brittle as we age, so do teeth. The mouth is really a reflection of what's going on in the body.

Michele Folan: 7:26

Here's the other thing too we may have sleep issues. If you are a mouth breather, you have some apnea that can also add to the dry mouth.

Sanda Moldovan: 7:38

Yes, absolutely. Sleep apnea is a big problem. Almost 30% of the population has some kind of sleep apnea problem. Sleep apnea is basically when we go to sleep we're not able to get enough oxygen because the tongue falls in the back of the throat and now we're not getting enough oxygen to the brain. The brain perceives that as stress Huge problem. It has a 47% risk of dying in our sleep, which is huge and I highly encourage. It's a problem for men and women alike. Especially in our midlife. Everything gets more laxed, especially the back of the throat, the tongue. There's more laxity there. Now, maybe we weren't snoring 10 years ago. Now, all of a sudden we're seeing oh my God, my partner is complaining that I'm snoring, luckily. There's a waste for us as dentists to treat that.

Michele Folan: 8:33

That was going to be one of my questions. If you do have sleep apnea and you're not quite ready to do a CPAP machine, are there things that you can do for a patient to help alleviate some of that sleep apnea?

Sanda Moldovan: 8:48

I'm glad you're asking this question because we have new technology today that a lot of people don't know about. A lot of my patients they're like I hate wearing an appliance. I just don't want to wear it. Cpaps are very difficult to wear. The other treatment that we have upcoming today is a laser treatment with a laser called Photona, and it's called a night lace procedure. What's amazing about this procedure is that it doesn't have any downtime. We actually use a laser to shrink the collagen in the back of the throat to open up the airway. It's about a 30 to 40 minute procedure and we don't even need to numb. People just feel a warmth in the back of the throat and it's about 89 to 90% successful from the first to just one treatment to actually stop snoring and completely eradicate sleep apnea.

Michele Folan: 9:45

Are you kidding me? Okay, this is. I've not heard of this. This is really fascinating. I mean, remember, back in it must have been the 80s they were talking about louse Laser, assisted uvula, palatoplasty, or when they're right and so many people are very painful and it doesn't work really for most people.

Sanda Moldovan: 10:08

Yeah, and actually what used to happen. One of the complications from that is people would eat food and it would actually come out in their nose because it would revert. It just wasn't a stop there. So, yeah, this is a total game changer. The night lace procedure compared to the uvulopalatoplasty.

Michele Folan: 10:24

Okay, All right, this is really cool stuff, see. That's why I have you on the show. All right, so with midlife women, we may have bone health issues. Right, we've got us to your process. Is there a tie in between our overall bone health and the health of our teeth?

Sanda Moldovan: 10:42

Definitely. As I mentioned earlier, teeth are bone. Right, yeah, teeth are bone and if you look at the structure of the teeth, it's the same mineral complex and structure as our bone. And we know that over 50, especially, there is an over 50% risk of having osteopenia, osteoporosis. So we see a porosity developing in the teeth. Luckily, addressing the teeth porosity is a lot easier than addressing the bone porosity.

Sanda Moldovan: 11:14

One of the important things I think in the midlife is to check the pH of the saliva we have to look at. Okay, why are teeth getting brittle? If we have an acidic pH in our saliva, then what happens is the minerals will dissolve. So we want to keep an alkaline saliva above 7.0. So how do we test this? Very easy. First thing you wake up in the morning, use a litmus paper like a strip. I recommend the one that has the two color swatches on it. It's more accurate and just basically just pull a little bit of saliva on the tip of the tongue and swipe this litmus paper on it and it'll give you an accurate reading of where you're at. If you're acidic, there's ways to alkalinize that, based on diet and based on hydration, and that'll basically stop the teeth from being sensitive. Another way to basically stop the progression of the tooth porosity or tooth loss, tooth structure loss, is to stop any kind of mouthwashers that are acidic, such as Listerine. Listerine has a pH as wine, so why would anybody switch for two minutes with wine?

Michele Folan: 12:27

Well, and so here's the other question, because I did have a guest on the show. She's a nutritionist, and she really cautioned against using any kind of mouthwash that would disrupt bacteria only because it's the gateway to our microbiome, right? And so you have some alternatives then that you recommend? Yes.

Sanda Moldovan: 12:53

I agree with that 100%. No mouthwash is necessary Actually can be detrimental to our microbiome, and not only to our microbiome but our ability to make nitric oxide, which is so important for blood pressure. There was actually a study done that people who use mouthwash have a significantly increase in blood pressure than people who don't. But the one way to mineralize teeth because as we live longer we want to have our teeth around is to use a calcium hydroxyapatite toothpaste or tooth powder. Studies have shown that nano calcium hydroxyapatite, which is basically the same structure that the tooth is made out of, can penetrate into the pores of the teeth and actually strengthen the enamel. You will see typically not only a decrease in sensitivity but less tooth wear over time.

Michele Folan: 13:47

I'll put all this in the show notes. So if you have any links or anything, we'll put those in the show notes, because this is really good information, and if people are driving they're not going to be able to write this down All right Back to the Matherin's question. A listener asked the question. If I have serious halitosis, though, what are my options to help improve my breath?

Sanda Moldovan: 14:13

Great question. Halitosis is something that comes with the dryness of the mouth as well. One of the things I recommend first is to look at your mouth, do a little self-exam, stick your tongue out and look to see. Do you have a coating on your tongue the halitosis? First, we need to address the oral hygiene. A lot of people don't brush their tongue and 60% of the bacteria in fungus lies on the surface of the tongue. So if the tongue is white, start scraping it. The best thing is to use a tongue scraper to remove the dead cells and the bacteria that's stuck there. That will itself improve breath. The second thing that I recommend is using a chewable probiotic. I personally work on a formulation part of the Orasana line because I'm very fascinated by the way friendly bacteria helps us with our longevity and well-being, especially when it comes to the mouth, and certain strains of bacteria actually will help populate and decrease the biofilm of the mouth in order to provide a fresher breath.

Michele Folan: 15:22

Okay, that's a great answer because I know people are trying not to use as many mouth rinses because of the microbiome issue. But could you have halitosis because of something internally that is undiscovered?

Sanda Moldovan: 15:40

Definitely so. Because the mouth is the opening of the GI tract. Halitosis can come from the stomach, could be SIBO related, intestinal overgrowth of bacteria, basically. Also, we find that people who are constipated have bad breath. We really need to have the GI moving, expelling toxins on a regular basis, so we really need to correct the entire GI tract in order to have good breath. One of the things we're noticing with the chubal probiotic some of it is trickling down into the stomach and ours are filled with xylitol, and xylitol is known for decreasing the population of pathogenic bacteria, not just in the mouth, but also in the airways as well as the throat. And, by the way, halitosis can come from the throat, especially if people have tonsils that have crips full with bacteria, that we can also get halitosis from there. So yeah, it's really.

Michele Folan: 16:41

I'm just sitting here going. There's just so many places the bacteria can hide. It's like oh my God.

Sanda Moldovan: 16:49

Yeah, so we have to learn to nurture good bacteria. And using mouthwash, a lot of people do it because they want to kill bacteria on their mouth. It's not the right approach. Let's nourish the good bacteria and the good biofilm instead of focusing on killing the bad one, and we get better results.

Michele Folan: 17:06

I have this one question for you. I know what your answer is going to be, but I have to ask it because I know some people have a daily habit of drinking soda, even diet. And what are the long-term issues with drinking these beverages?

Sanda Moldovan: 17:24

Yes, and it is an addiction and that's a difficult thing for people to beat. The problem with soda is so acidic that it weakens our bones and our teeth alike, because there's a strong correlation between the two. So we definitely see a decrease in pH in the body for people who drink soda and therefore that decrease in pH and of course in the mouth as well will create a loss of mineral in both the teeth and the bone. The only way to really stop that is to stop drinking soda the sugar content that's in the soda. We see such severe tooth wear in people who drink soda and then grind at night Because what they're doing now the teeth are already so brittle and you're grinding.

Sanda Moldovan: 18:14

We have this one particular patient. She came to us in her 40s and her teeth were worn to half the size that they should be and she started being in so much pain she couldn't even eat normal foods anymore because the damage to the teeth was so close to the nerve she had a hard time eating anything. So very, very important to stop the tooth loss in time so we can preserve things as we get older.

Michele Folan: 18:43

This is a side note, but I have to tell you this story. So my daughter, when she was in grade school, did a science fair project and we took tarnished pennies and put them in soda. Oh yeah, what happened to them? They got clean, the tarnish came off, but the diet soda was some of the worst in terms of the anti-tarnishing capabilities. So great for your silver, I guess, but not so great for your teeth, anyway.

Sanda Moldovan: 19:17

What do I recommend from a nutrition perspective, michelle, if somebody wants to beat soda, they say well, do you have a healthier alternative? I would say to start with mineral water, but true mineral water. Like you know, let's see, gerohlsteiner is one of the most more alkaline mineralized waters. Pellegrino, things like that. Just start putting maybe a little bit of orange flavor in it, squeeze a fresh orange in it to give you some flavor, with less sugar and less trauma on the teeth. All right, great advice.

Michele Folan: 19:47

Eating gums can be a huge issue for adults. How can we minimize more recession? And this was another question from a listener Her doctor is threatening her with having surgery. I would like to know what that entails, the surgery. And then, is there anything that we can do to help minimize any of that additional recession, to stave off the inevitable?

Sanda Moldovan: 20:16

Great question. As a periodontist, my specialty is gums. I always like to look at exactly what you mentioned prevention. One of the biggest things that's a problem with recession is, as we age, the collagen fibers shrink and we see it in our face, we see it in our gums alike. Unfortunately, collagen supplementation, especially in the form of peptides, has been shown to replenish the connective tissue collagen. First, the study is actually started in the beauty industry. Why? Because we all care about our face. I myself actually take collagen peptides daily and it not only helps me with my skin, it helps me with the gums, but it also helps with joints. It helps to decrease joint pain. So anybody looking for prevention of gum recession I highly recommend starting to take collagen supplementation in the form of peptides. Why peptides? Because it's easier on the absorption. Some of the larger collagen, whole collagen strings, just don't get absorbed so well, so collagen peptides are important.

Michele Folan: 21:26

Is there a brand that you recommend?

Sanda Moldovan: 21:30

We have the Orasana brand because I really research, also for my own health. We have the collagen peptides. We actually source them from Germany because they have the best studies on the actual collagen peptide. So there's different length of collagen, good for skin, joints and bone, because bone is not just mineral, it's also collagen. So we combine the three different kinds of peptides in our product. It has no additives, no sugar, nothing artificial. I actually mix mine with coffee in the morning. I take a scoop, mix it in my coffee. It's completely tasteless. One of the biggest things that I hear from patients is like collagen tastes horrible. I tried it and it's true, some of the ones that you find at the store. It really has a bad smell or flavor. So I really work very hard to bring something that's completely tasteless and actually scientific evidence that it helps with all three things and you can really mix it in anything.

Michele Folan: 22:26

Okay, this is good stuff, all right. Electric versus manual toothbrush.

Sanda Moldovan: 22:33

I'm glad you brought this up because this contributes to recession actually. So the rotational type toothbrushes if you already have recessions, stop using them. They're too abrasive so as they rotate they actually scrub too hard. Ultrasonic brushes are okay and especially can be recommended for people that have poor dexterity. You know, if it's hard for you to hold a brush, it's great to use because it actually creates a disruption in the biofilm past. The bristles. Manual brushes work great as well as well, as long as you're using a soft brush. You know, small circles with the bristles actually into the gum because you do want to clean Gums can recede from two reasons, michelle. One is brushing too hard and the second is not brushing enough. Sadly, if you're not brushing enough now, we have gum inflammation and that gum inflammation will cause the gums to recede After brushing. I do have to mention the water flosser. I love the water flosser because it cleans great, but the second function that it has is that the water pulsation actually stimulates the collagen to tighten in a gentle way. Highly recommended for people.

Michele Folan: 23:53

Well, you know, we have one of those and we're going to have to get that thing out again. Thank you for the reminder. I think it's sitting under the bathroom sink in the cabinet somewhere, so I'm digging it out after we get off this call. Excellent.

Sanda Moldovan: 24:08

You did it. Just about treatment. Oh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. So I do want to touch on that because we have some great advances when it comes to repairing the gum recession and I know people that have had gum grafting know that it can be very painful. The good news is in the last few years we have advances in platelet-rich fibrin therapy. Platelet-rich fibrin actually comes from patients' own blood, so we draw blood, we spin it down in a centrifuge and we collect the growth factors in the fibrin and we make tissue like squares which we actually just tuck under the gum to help to correct the gum recession and also thicken the gum. We don't get as much thickening as we do from a gum graft. However, if we treat the recession early enough, before it gets to more than three millimeters, this is a great treatment to do because it's less painful and we're not taking gum tissue from somewhere else in the body or the mouth and we get really good results.

Michele Folan: 25:16

Wow, this is such great news. I did not know this was a thing. You're just really opening my eyes today to all kinds of things. This is great, and I'm sure the person that asked that question is going to be very happy to hear this. So they do use its platelet-rich plasma from the actual patient. They're not using actual stem cell type of technology with that yet.

Sanda Moldovan: 25:43

Not yet. I love stem cells and I do use them occasionally, especially in people that don't heal well. However, for tissue thickening, I don't see yet a recommendation for stem cells. It's great for bone healing and healing, let's say, necrosis of the jaw and other kind of conditions. But PRF, or platelet-rich fibrin, which is actually a little bit different than PRP, has more growth factors and just more indicated for oral procedures. It's been really good for patients with recession in our practice.

Michele Folan: 26:20

Oh, you know. I just thought of one other kind of fun question for you. How often should we throw out a toothbrush?

Sanda Moldovan: 26:28

Great question. Well, number one, we have to have a toothbrush that's working. So if you see the bristles starting to sprain out, which can happen for some people in a month, then you've got to throw it out because it's not working anymore. You're working with bristles that are not even pointing into your gum, they're pointing outside of the gum. So make sure your bristle anatomy is still straight, starting to sprain. Just throw it out and get a new one. And, from a perspective of bacteria, about every three to four months we recommend changing it.

Michele Folan: 27:00

But if your bristles are, as you say, spaying out after a month, then you're probably brushing too hard.

Sanda Moldovan: 27:08

That's exactly right. You're brushing too hard. So in order to correct that some people just can't, especially you know, you get a really strong man with a strong hand. They just can't my recommendation is just go to an ultrasonic brush, so that way it kind of prevents you from scrubbing and you just mostly hold it there and it does the work for you. Okay.

Michele Folan: 27:28

Dr Sanda, we all want a bright white smile. Where do you stand on at-home whitening?

Sanda Moldovan: 27:37

Great question you know, like everybody else, I want a nice, bright smile, and one of the things that I do every day is the calcium hydroxyapatite powder that I mentioned earlier. The studies show that actually using that and that helps with strengthening the enamel actually helps to whiten teeth as well. So now you're getting two for one benefits. So start with that twice a day, every day, and in the Orasana line we have the tooth powder that you can actually sprinkle on top of your toothpaste that you already like, or you can use it separately on its own. It cleans the biofilm, it strengthens teeth and it whitens teeth, which is great. I'm buying some.

Sanda Moldovan: 28:26

Hydrogen peroxide is typically used also to whiten teeth and baking soda. Those are the two things that we can do at home. Baking soda is easy. You can take some, sprinkle it on your toothpaste and use it that way. Don't use it all the time. It can be a little bit too abrasive, so it's okay to use it, maybe once or twice a week. Hydrogen peroxide can come in the forms of strips. A lot of people ask me you know the strips that you put on the teeth. Can those help to whiten meas? You can actually get good results with that, and the nice thing is that the hydrogen peroxide is a little lower in concentration, is around 3%. So those are okay to use but again, I wouldn't use it like every day. You know so once a week and then depending on how you see the results. But I really don't recommend, you know, very strong products on the teeth because even like, let's say, a toothpaste that's very abrasive can cause loss of enamel. It's microns every day but it still will cause loss of enamel. Okay.

Michele Folan: 29:28

And I appreciate you being transparent about that, because I actually was using a toothpaste that is, you know, extra whitening and I was starting to get little sores inside my mouth from it and so.

Michele Folan: 29:42

I stopped that right away, but anyway, well, your teeth look beautiful. Thanks, it could be the color lipstick, because I was just. I was looking at them this morning. I'm like they're looking a little dingy right now. All right, I would be remiss if I did not bring up the did not bring up the topic of fillings, because there are those of us, myself included, that have fillings in our mouth from the 70s, fillings that I got when maybe I was 10 years old. If they are perfectly intact, is there any issue with them? I don't even know what they're made of. Honestly, yes.

Sanda Moldovan: 30:22

And sometimes it's hard to tell. One of the things like you know, when you do a self exam you can look to see are they silver fillings or are they white fillings? Silver fillings are usually mercury based. Especially in the 70s, there was a lot of mercury being used. I myself had 16 large murky fillings in my mouth that actually made me toxic. I started having symptoms like headaches. I wasn't feeling well and, sadly for me, I didn't have them removed safely because I didn't know much about it. I was in dental school and we're like they don't look good. I was smiling, I had a mouth full of metal. So I'm like. One of my friends removed them and I started getting worse headaches. A couple years after that I actually went to an astropath. She tested my mercury levels and they were through the roof. Oh, you're kidding Through the roof.

Sanda Moldovan: 31:15

And the problem with mercury fillings is that every time we drink something hot, we brush our teeth. The teeth grind together. There's microns of mercury coming off. Some of us are great detoxifiers and we throw that mercury right out, but 70% of us are not great detoxifiers and we retain that mercury in our fatty tissues and our brain. Studies on sheep, for example, have shown that within a month of placing mercury fillings in their teeth, the mercury was everywhere In the brain, in the liver, in the lungs. It just attaches to the tissues and it stays there.

Sanda Moldovan: 31:56

Our body doesn't like to have it in our blood, so it just compartmentalizes it to our organs and mercury toxicity is linked to a lot of neurological symptoms, but also, lately, actually heart issues and especially, it seems to go hand in hand with people suffering from candida overgrowth.

Sanda Moldovan: 32:14

So mercury fillings, I recommend a number one toxicity testing because it does affect the body. Even if they're intact they still can cause a problem, maybe not for the teeth but for the rest of the organs. And secondly, make sure you have them removed safely by a biological dentist so you don't have, like me, a toxicity, because as we cut into the mercury filling, the vapors of mercury get released and if they're not captured safely during this process, we end up inhaling it and we actually get worse in terms of toxicity. So my association, iaomt and, by the way, on IAOMTorg you can find a biological dentist in your area that can do this safe mercury removal. They have a special technique and they certified dentists to make sure that when we remove the mercury we don't get intoxicated, and not just the patients, but the assistant and the doctor.

Michele Folan: 33:14

Yeah, I was going to ask if you're inhaling it. They would too Well. They're usually pretty well protected, but I guess that doesn't matter if it's that toxic.

Sanda Moldovan: 33:25

It does, yeah, it does matter. We actually have gas masks that we wear during the whole process to prevent us from inhaling the mercury vapor, and it does work. It's a technique that's proven to keep us safe from mercury toxicity.

Michele Folan: 33:40

Okay, I'm doing the math. I've had these fillings for 50 years.

Sanda Moldovan: 33:44

It'll be interesting. I think what I would start for you is to test your body of mercury. Maybe you are one of those great detoxifiers that mercury comes off and then is not in your body, which is great, okay, but we don't know until we test.

Michele Folan: 34:00

It's always a learning. With this show, I'm telling you this is so great.

Sanda Moldovan: 34:05

Now you were asking me about white fillings.

Michele Folan: 34:08

Yeah, the difference, because I know my kids. I think their fillings are more of a white or a plastic or something.

Sanda Moldovan: 34:15

Yeah, and plastic is correct, because a lot of the white fillings out there are made out of plastic and the initial white fillings were plastic. The latest generation fillings are filled with ceramic particles and they're BPA free. So what's the problem with plastic fillings? They're filled with BPA, okay, and your dentist will not tell you. And you know to tell you the truth, I, like I talked to some dentists and they have no idea if they have plastic. You know, like, if it is BPA filling or not. And we all know BPA, this phenyl.

Sanda Moldovan: 34:45

It's a carcinogen, that's the problem with it, and it's being taken out of a lot of plastic bottles and being replaced because of the issues with it. It's an endocrine disruptor. So unfortunately, bpa is present in a lot of dental material, including people that have dentures, people maybe that have partial dentures. It can be in night guards, for example. So at night we end up actually swallowing BPA. So it's very, very important to you know, get yourself educated and ask the dentist is this BPA free? Because there are products out there that are BPA free today. Oh my gosh. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell. You won't be able to look at a white filling and say is this with BPA or not. Plastic fillings will break down more than ceramic fillings, and the ceramic fillings a lot of the great products also come from Germany. So just like the collagen and you know there, because it's 70% filled with ceramic they withstand a lot longer and they don't shrink. You know, when we drink hot fluids or cold, like the plastic.

Michele Folan: 35:52

Germany seems to have a lot of great purity laws, and I think that's reflected in their technology, just the way they develop products now.

Sanda Moldovan: 36:02

Definitely, I agree with you. I do go to European conferences to find out. You know what they have over there because and we do have distributors here in the United States that bring products from over there. Especially when we talk about biocompatible products, this is hugely important. You know, if you're planning and having a filling in your mouth and especially have different allergies to different things, actually oral dental work can cause you to feel worse. So for our patients, we do a biocompatibility test so we can personalize the dentistry, you know, to you as an individual.

Michele Folan: 36:36

What are some of the other technologies out there that you're using to help diagnose possible issues, because I know you speak a lot about cavitations in the jaw and the mouth. What's on the horizon?

Sanda Moldovan: 36:51

What gets you excited? What gets me excited is being able to see inside the jawbone and really fully diagnosing, and for me to be able to see that comb beam CT scans have been a huge technological advancement to help me as a doctor to properly diagnose patients that are not feeling well. When we look at two dimensional x-rays, which more than 80% of dentists are using today, comb beam 3D technology is still not the norm, but it will be one day. 2d x-rays really only diagnose about 50 to 55% of problems, according to studies. Comb beam CT scan we diagnose 100% of the problems. It's a huge difference.

Sanda Moldovan: 37:40

So if you don't feel well, you have some pain and your dentist tells you I don't see anything, I recommend finding a biological dentist who can take a comb beam CT scan to really diagnose the full jaw, the sinuses, teeth, especially areas where teeth have been extracted or removed that's the cavitations you were talking about. Those are silent, chronic infections that can live in your jawbone. That can cause neurological symptoms, it can cause a tightening of the throat, it can cause phantom pain, increased inflammation. Some patients actually come in and say you know what my physician says, I have a low-grade bacterial infection, but they can't figure out where it is. Oftentimes it's in the jaw, wow.

Michele Folan: 38:27

Yeah, do you have a patient success story that you want to share?

Sanda Moldovan: 38:32

Definitely, and on our website at Beverly Hills dental health calm. You know, we have a few patients that so graciously have Done video testimonials for us, and one that comes to mind is the story of Angela. She's a reiki practitioner and she was really sick. She kept getting Attacks, where she would end up in the emergency room. They didn't know what was wrong with her. She started losing a lot of weight. The only foods she could eat is meat. That's the only thing her body could tolerate is actually meat.

Sanda Moldovan: 39:05

And when I saw her I did a combi MCT scan. She had some cavitations in her jawbone and she actually had a root canal treated tooth that when I took out, when the crown came off, it was full of mold underneath. Oh wow. And she did have a high mold level.

Sanda Moldovan: 39:23

And a lot of people don't realize that if you're gonna, I'll treat a teeth can actually be a big source of bacteria and mold. You know, in their body and some people are more sensitive than others. We see patients with root canal teeth, no problems, and some they have one root canal tooth and they feel really sick. So we ended up removing that tooth, we removed the cavitations and today you know she's feeling much better. Of course, you know she got the help of her integrative Physician to detoxify the rest of the body after the source of the Bacteria was gone and the mold. And you know she's back to her normal life and this is what she talks about in her testimonial. How you know, she's just grateful to be able to do everyday Chores yeah, cleaning her house and cooking her own food, which she wasn't even able to do Prior to us treating her.

Michele Folan: 40:09

It's it's changed her life. I mean and I said that at the outset is when your mouth is hurting. It's like having chronic pain really anywhere. But it affects so much. I mean it affects your smile, affects how you eat, I mean can affect your sleep, it's it's just amazing, and really that's what we stand for.

Sanda Moldovan: 40:30

You know, as biological dentists, we look to see what in the mouth is causing you not to feel well. We stand for, you know, optimum health and making choices that are, you know, really conducive to optimum health and longevity well speaking of Optimum health and longevity.

Michele Folan: 40:48

What is one of your own personal pillars of self-care?

Sanda Moldovan: 40:52

That's a great question because you know I get I Multitask, you know, like a lot of women out there.

Sanda Moldovan: 41:00

It's so easy to give so much of me, you know, all the time, and not to take the time to do self-care. That's one of my biggest things, challenges that I'm working on to really give myself more self-care, to recharge my batteries so that I can give as much as I can to help patients heal. You can't pour from an empty cup. Meditation is a big thing for me, and Taking the time, even though through a busy day, to even find five minutes, well, I can close my eyes recenter, you know, connect to my heart and and ground myself and really come from, you know, a place of love with an open heart to deal with problems and not, you know, be reactive, you know, and in stressful situations, I love that.

Michele Folan: 41:54

I think that's that's yeah, that's great. One very last question I would love for you to tell our listeners where they can find you and also, or asana, your company.

Sanda Moldovan: 42:05

So you can find us on. You know my podcast, the holistic dentistry show, if you like to find out more about a holistic dentistry, and also at Orasanacom, and if you're interested in the microbiome of the mouth, finding out how probiotics really help our health, I have a great resource page there in which I spoke. I post recent articles and what's new in the probiotic world, because we have new research coming up every day and how these little bacteria really help our life and our oral health, and we're offering a special discount for your listeners as a thank you for listening in oral health natural oral health, probiotics, calcium hydroxy appetite products that can really help keep your mouth Healthy and strong for years to come wonderful and again, I'll put all that in the show notes so people have it.

Michele Folan: 43:02

Dr Sanda, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you being a guest today. Thank you, michelle, it's been a pleasure. Follow asking for a friend on social media outlets and provide a review and share this show wherever you get your podcasts. Reviews and sharing help us grow.