No matter how you cut it, teeth are expensive.
And there’s truth to that phrase: “million-dollar smile.” Healthy, beautiful teeth truly do enable you to earn more money.
But when it comes to our teeth, most of us are misinformed. Like conventional doctors, most dentists today are working under outdated scientific principles, practices, and philosophies. Which means that most of what we’ve been told and believe to be true is false.
I sat down with brilliant biological dentist Dr. Lane Freeman to learn the truth about modern dentistry.
Here are my Top 3 Facts that most dentists will never tell you.
Click here to listen to my full podcast interview with Dr. Lane Freeman…
1. The health of your mouth impacts the health of your entire body
We have this tendency to look at each part of the body as its own entity. If our skin hurts, we go to a dermatologist. If our leg hurts, we seek out ways to treat the symptoms in that leg. In particular, our mouth is a perfect example of a part of the body that we divide into its own category.
We even separate our dental insurance from the health insurance covering the rest of our body!
In truth, there are so many interactions between the mouth and other areas of the body. For example, take gum disease. Unhealthy gums are becoming one of the most common diagnoses these days. The scary part is that it’s a relatively “silent” killer. It doesn’t necessarily hurt, but it stems from dangerous bacteria getting under your teeth. If you don’t control it, it will negatively impact other bones all over your body.
That’s just one example. But it’s important to know that bacteria trapped in your mouth can seriously mess with your immune system, throw off the balance of your white blood cell count, and hinder so many other processes that work to keep your body free of disease.
Have a real conversation with your dentist about what kinds of bacteria are really in your mouth. If you don’t, you’ll never know how your mouth might be affecting the rest of your body.
2. Cavities can be caused by a lack of nutrients
We know that nutrition plays a major role in our bodily health, our muscles, our gut biome, our energy, so on and so forth. But just like every other part of our body, our mouth is a living organism.
There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding about how we get cavities. People simply understand that if you don’t brush your teeth and floss frequently, you get one. But that only reinforces the idea that your mouth is its own separate entity. This thinking assumes that cavities are only caused by the substances physically in our mouths. In reality, there’s something much deeper at play.
In order to maintain healthy teeth, you need the right building blocks. And just like the rest of your body, it all comes down to micronutrients. According to Dr. Freeman, we know now that a lack of the right minerals is the true cause of cavities. Conversely, sugars and other carbohydrates only feed the bacteria in your mouth.
In short, brushing isn’t enough! Replace those carbs with nutrient-rich foods that are high in vitamins and minerals. If so, you’ll significantly reduce the amount of bacteria in your body and drastically lower your chances at disease.
3. Root canals are not always the best option
Root canals are extremely common. And many people are aware of the fact that are a couple of main canals in each tooth (1 to 3) that cause the issue in the first place. But what most people don’t know are that there are actually thousands of much smaller canals that shoot to so many other areas of the body. This is where nerve endings live.
Here’s where that fact becomes critically important… When you do a root canal, you can clean out those main canals fairly well, but it’s nearly impossible to clean out the thousands of tiny canals that shoot to other areas of the body. This leads to dead tissue. And what does bacteria love more than anything? Yup – dead tissue!
Bacteria tends to thrive within this dead tissue, and a root canal has the potential to literally trap the bacteria in there to release toxins to the rest of your body. There is no other procedure in modern medicine that willingly leaves dead tissue in the body. No procedure other than root canals.
In many cases, it might be a better idea to just replace the whole tooth.
Knowing these truths about oral health can save you thousands of dollars over the course of your life. And in the process, you’ll gain that “million-dollar smile” that everybody is after.
