A Father’s Inspiration
In light of Father’s Day today, I wanted to share with you all more about what has so profoundly inspired me to finally seek a more comprehensive approach to oral health and oral systemic healthcare.
I’ve always instinctively known that our health and various body systems are connected – how can they be separate? Our bodies are one big sack of skin, including all the bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc that make up our microflora. I wrote my dental school application essay about my interest in how oral health has so much influence on our whole body health, and the cyclical nature of oral systemic health. This is not a new concept; even ancient wellness practices and health remedies are also based on the fact that our bodily systems are intimately connected to one another.
Dental school prepares its students for the world of restorative dentistry – root canals, crowns (caps), fillings, removing teeth, polishing and scraping teeth…most of which is all very REACTIVE. It is my understanding that most dental schools teach their DMDs more about preventive nutrition than most medical schools teach their MDs, although I truly hope this is changing. The bottom line is that continuing education is absolutely paramount to a doctor’s career; medical or dental school itself is simply not enough to address the complicated chronic health conditions that our society faces.
The more continuing education I took, the more I re-discovered what I was actually interested in all along – PREVENTION: being proactive with health, wellness, health care, lifestyle…all of it. The drilling and filling of traditional dentistry is very reactive; in other words, the vast majority of mainstream dental treatment is a result of something bad happening that we need to fix. As I found myself in classes about inflammation, diet, lifestyle, breathing, jaw development in kids…it all started to come together for me. These were the reasons I was interested in dentistry in the first place, the things that connect the mouth to the rest of the body and influence our entire state of health.
It was time to start changing how I do dentistry, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to change this long-standing stereotypical tradition of the classic scenario. You know the “drill:” portrayals like what’s in The Little Shop of Horrors, and The Dentist skit from The Carol Burnett Show (which is actually quite hilarious). That’s not dentistry, and it’s certainly not the rapport I have with my own patients. I was at a loss as to how to incorporate my health philosophy and my understanding of oral systemic health into a traditional dental practice. Things needed to change.
A few years ago, my dad starting having some pretty serious health problems. Gall stones, pancreatic polyps and pancreatitis, bowel obstruction, myriad systemic issues. I had known since I was old enough to understand that he had a history of dental problems as well, including periodontal disease. He also smoked for over 40 years.
After a really big scare, he started taking control of his health: eating better, walking several times a week, gardening, and finally quit smoking. His doctor had wanted to put him on statin medication for high cholesterol, but he read about the various drug options and their side effects, and chose to make some great lifestyle modifications so that he could avoid taking the statins. His periodontal disease persisted.
Then last year, he had a heart attack. His cardiologist brought in the entire cardiac residency program to look at his blood work and see what an anomaly it was that he had a heart attack. Some very important things they failed to connect: his smoking history and his periodontal disease status. There is NO mystery behind the cause of my dad’s heart attack, and the fact that his cardiologist was so surprised by the heart attack made me absolutely livid.
Don’t even get me started on the “heart patient menu” at the hospital. Light ranch dressing (with no less than 47 ingredients, the vast majority of which I can barely pronounce much less recognize as any semblance of real food) with iceberg lettuce as their “salad” and a whole selection of fat free sugar laden desserts. I was scared that my dad had a heart attack, and I was even more scared for how long he would have to be in the hospital eating actual garbage from their kitchen.
I couldn’t wait to get him back home, back to his normal nutrition habits (normal for the last ten years anyway), walking every day or every other day, and get him a periodontal pathogen rinse test to assess the oral bacteria load and on some oral probiotics to change the composition of bad bacteria in his mouth.
You guys, if there is anything to light a fire under your seat (about something you’re already passionate about), it’s a serious health problem faced by yourself or a loved one. Bonus if that health problem is entirely preventable.
The financial, emotional, and quality-of-life burden due to chronic, preventable disease is absolutely astounding. Let me say that again: these are chronic and preventable conditions that I am talking about.
I love my dad. And I am passionate about health and wellness. I am changing the way I work with my patients so that we can address a problem that in large part is preventable. This is oral systemic health.
This is why I want to work with you – this is personal. This is health care, not sick care. This is prevention and wellness. Click here to work with me now.
