Best Dental Practices. How to Visit Your Dentist Less!

Meet Dr. Griffin Cole, DDS, NMD, a master of biologic dentistry!

Explore the best practices to help you visit your dentist less and put you in the driver's seat for your oral and overall health.

Dr. Cole has been featured on numerous radio and television programs, including World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer. He's also been published in numerous peer-reviewed national publications for his restorative and cosmetic dentistry. And in 2013, became the first dentist to be published in a peer review journal for his case study on the treatment of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw, utilizing ozone therapy for successful treatment of this disease.

In this episode, Dr. Griffin Cole will share how in over thirty years of dentistry, he was able to help his patients achieve optimal dental health and improve physical well-being. 

Tune in today for a special treat as Dr. Carver and Dr. Cole show you how to achieve optimal oral health with simple, actionable techniques you can start using today! 

Episode sneak peek...

4:30 Biologic vs Wholistic Dentistry

5:48 The Root of The Matter

7:38 Fluoride: Good or Bad?

11:52 The Benefits of Ozone!

18:15 How to Visit Your Dentist Less

20:48 Root Canals. Are they needed?

30:39 Dentists & Disease Prevention

32:56 Dental Hygiene Best Practices

Dr. Cole now teaches other dentists holistic techniques at:

https://www.caddozone.com/ 


To learn more about holistic dentistry and find a biologic dentist located near you, check out Dr. Carver's patient education page:

http://carverfamilydentistry.com/patient-education-library/

To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com. 

Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office? Call her practice: Tel (413) 663-7372

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Rachaele: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Root of the Matter With me as your host, Dr. Rachel Carver. I'm very excited today to have Dr. Griffin Cole with us. Dr. Cole received his Doctor of dental surgery degree from University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio in 1993, and he practiced biologic dentistry for 28 years

[00:00:21] Rachaele: in Austin, Texas. He became Ozone certified in 2006 and received both his board certification in naturopathic medicine and his degree in integrative biologic dental medicine in 2010 from the School of Integrative Biologic Dental Medicine. Dr. Cole received his mastership in the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology in 2013 and drafted the academy's fluoridation brochure, which we're gonna talk a little bit about today.

[00:00:47] Rachaele: The official scientific review on ozone used in root canal therapies. We definitely wanna have a little more information about that. He is past president of the IAOMT (International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology) and serves on the board of directors, [00:01:00] the mentor committee, the fluoride committee. He is chairman of the conference committee and is the fundamentals course director.

[00:01:07] Rachaele: He's been featured on numerous radio and television programs, including World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer. He's also been published in numerous peer reviewed national publications for his restorative and cosmetic dentistry. And in 2013, became the first dentist to be published in a peer review journal for his case study the treatment of bisphosphonate related osteonecrosis of the jaw, utilizing ozone therapy for successful treatment of this disease.

[00:01:33] Rachaele: We'll talk a little bit more about what that is specifically too. Good to know. He also lectures to health professionals on practice management and biologic dentistry, and is co-founder and president, the Center for Advanced Dental Disciplines. So Dr. Cole is no slacker in the world of dentistry. He really prides himself on education and is really at the forefront of helping us as dentists learn these other great techniques which [00:02:00] really improve our overall health, not just the way that our teeth look.

[00:02:03] Rachaele: So thank you Dr. Cole for taking your time out on your Friday to talk with us today.

[00:02:08] Rachaele: Why don't you tell us a little bit to your background, like, how did you get started and this, this is not something even a lot of dentists are even aware of. This is not a separate specialty, right. Like a, a periodontist or an orthodontist.

[00:02:20] Rachaele: So maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background and explain what, what is biologic dentistry?

[00:02:25] Griffin: Thank you Rachel. Honestly, it was mostly luck. I, I as you mentioned, I went to San Antonio and my last year of dental school, I sent out letters to some cities that I knew I wanted to practice in Austin, Texas, being number one choice. And, I got back a, a few letters from people.

[00:02:41] Griffin: Most of 'em were like denture shops or, big clinics. But one guy wrote me back and said, I really like how you wrote your letter. like to meet with you. And I thought, okay. So I drove to Austin and met with them and at the time, Rachel, in 93, they didn't use the term that much. They never used biologic, some kinds, [00:03:00] but mostly it was mercury free or Mercury safe. And so as I met with him, he said, look, I've got just one requirement. You cannot place some amalgam fillings. And I remember thinking, okay. I don't really care one way or the other, but I go, can I ask you why? And he goes you'll learn, but I'm just, if you come and join me, which I want, you cannot do that.

[00:03:23] Griffin: And so I was like, all right, I'm on, I'm on board. Well, once I got in there, I realized what he was talking about. You learn everything. And once you get on that rabbit hole as you're down there's no stopping. And so, so I would say mostly luck. I will say that I had a, a hint of it dental school in 1990, as you probably know, CBS 60 Minutes did a story on Amalgam fillings, and it was really pretty damning to mainstream dentistry.

[00:03:48] Griffin: And I remember our school had this emergency meeting the next Monday with all the school, all. All four classes in one small auditorium. And they basically told us, Hey there was a very [00:04:00] biased story last night. It was not true. You'll get a lot of questions from patients. Just tell 'em their fillings are perfectly safe. And I remember raising an eyebrow that time going, why would we have this meeting if this, if they're safe, why are we even talking about this? 

[00:04:13] Rachaele: I was 10 years later, they'd already swept that under the rug. And nobody talked about that.

[00:04:18] Griffin: So, so once I joined my mentor at the time, as I said, once you get into that world, , there's no coming out of it. And I was so, so grateful and still am to this day because my entire career was biologic dentistry.

[00:04:31] Rachaele: How do you define somebody, as biologic or holistic? There's all these terms thrown out there, but to me it's a philosophy, right? It's not a specialty doesn't necessarily mean you're a better technician, it's a philosophy.

[00:04:43] Griffin: Yeah. And, and I like to differentiate between that and holistic dentistry, which honestly, we're talking about wholistic with the w. the way it was originally. Then they were one and the same, but unfortunately they dropped that w which truly meant whole body, and holistic just became, oh, [00:05:00] I don't use the same materials.

[00:05:02] Griffin: I don't place amalgam fillings, I don't like fluoride, whatever. But biologic industry to me is so much more in that, as we look at everything. So for instance, a perfect little juxtaposition. A patient goes to, a mainstream dentist has a toothache. They look at it, they take an x-ray, they say, oh, you got a cavity.

[00:05:19] Griffin: And what do they do? They drill it out. They fill it. They took care of the symptom. You're out the door and you may feel better. They may have done a wonderful service, but you and I would say, okay, let's fix it. But now you know what's going on in your life? Tell me about your past experience. I mean, we would go through everything right in great detail cuz we wanna find out the root cause. Why are they forming cavities? So it's a, besides using better materials, much more whole body treatment. It's functional medicine.

[00:05:48] Rachaele: Exactly. And hence the name of my podcast, the Root of the Matter. Because as we know, the Surgeon General back in 2000 wrote a whole statement about how the, the mouth is connected [00:06:00] to the rest of the body. We need to really be looking at this, and we're 23 years later and we're no closer to making that connection there.

[00:06:07] Rachaele: But we really need to, and part of the reason again, why I wanna do this podcast is to create this awareness for people that you know, and as dentists and physicians, we are trained in our specific specialty to spot treat things. But exactly what you said. Why are you developing that cavity? Why is your tooth breaking?

[00:06:26] Rachaele: It just doesn't Oh, oh shoot. It just, it just, And as you said, it's great and dentists do a wonderful service fixing our teeth, maintaining, but if we really wanna be healthy and if we really wanna prevent right, the gum disease of the cavities and stuff like that, and unfortunately in our modern, very toxic world.

[00:06:44] Rachaele: It's becoming more of a problem versus less. I've found this great, graphic that showed the incidence of caries was on a huge decline through the seventies, and then in the early nineties started to get a huge uptick, which is very [00:07:00] similar to diabetes and Alzheimer's, every chronic disease.

[00:07:03] Rachaele: And in my opinion, it comes down to nutrition. Back in the seventies, right? We had the terrible recommendation that eat carbs, fat is bad, and, it took, took about a generation to really see the effects of that. And we're where our world is becoming more and more toxic. And therefore, I mean, we're seeing all these kids.

[00:07:20] Rachaele: I, I did a call this morning with a mom who said, so what's the deal? Should we just, should we expect to have cavities? Should we not have any cavities at all? And I said, we shouldn't have any cavities at all. Right. It's incredibly common, but that doesn't make it normal. . Right? So let's let's talk a little bit about fluoride, cuz that's a big thing that comes up.

[00:07:41] Rachaele: And this, this mother, she went to these dentists and they were all, you gotta get the fluoride. Gotta get the fluoride. Another woman came to me the other day and the pediatrician was pushing the fluoride. Fluoride pushing the fluoride. 

[00:07:52] Griffin: I talk about Florida all the time and I, and I like to fancy myself somewhat of an expert, but anybody can go to a [00:08:00] PubMed search and look up fluoride and you will find thousands of articles on the dangers of it. It is, it is unnecessary for healthy teeth. I know that any dentist listening would argue, but I'm telling you right now, you do not. have healthy teeth. That is not an essential nutrient. Your body doesn't need it for any rhyme or reason. it is unnecessary. Now that being said, a person wants to put fluoride on their teeth topically. That's fine. That's their choice. I don't recommend it. It's unnecessary, as I mentioned, but I could see how somebody would wanna argue, hey, there is a topical effect because there is, we won't get into the fact that if weakens the enamel makes it more brittle, we'll just say that

[00:08:39] Griffin: it definitely has an anti cariogenic antibacterial effect, you can get that with warm salt water, rinsing with warm salt water. You can get that with baking soda. I mean, you can get that with, as you mentioned, diet first and foremost, alkaline diet. I, I just never ever promoted it in my practice except for maybe year one when I was first out and hadn't learned enough.[00:09:00] 

[00:09:00] Griffin: But after that, I never even had it as toothpaste in my office. And my patients were cool with that. They understood why I didn't, and if they, again, if they wanted to use topically, I was okay. But fluoridation systemically, I am so adamantly opposed to that. I'm hoping that with this current lawsuit that's going on against the EPA, we're gonna see an end to it eventually here.

[00:09:19] Rachaele: Tell our audience how did it get placed into all these dental toothpaste in the first place? I know it's a long history, but you know, kind of briefly, why did it get touted in the, in the first place? 

[00:09:29] Griffin: So I do believe that it started off with, like an altruistic manner in that there was a dentist in Colorado Springs. I live in Colorado, not, not that town, but there was a dentist here.

[00:09:40] Griffin: And he had noticed that all of the people in his town, Had these brown spots on their teeth, yellow, brown spots, but yet they weren't getting cavities. So he was curious what, what's happening in my town that maybe isn't happening in others? And he, he originated from the east coast, so this guy spent no joke, like 30 plus years [00:10:00] investigating what was happening.

[00:10:01] Griffin: Well, go to the other side of the country. There was a big manufacturing company called Alcoa that makes steel, as we all know, and one of their, their massive byproducts was fluoride and it was very toxic. And they were struggling with how to get rid of it because even at that time it was not allowed to be placed in the landfills or, or, put anywhere on this earth. And so they had to figure out a way to get rid of it. And so they had got word of what was going on in Colorado Springs and thought, huh, and so they kind of jammed the science together and made it form what they wanted to prove and said, look, fluoride in natural forms, calcium fluoride, sodium fluoride. Causes this anti cariogenic effect, therefore all forms of fluoride must do it. Let's put it in the water. And that's, that's a very watered down, quick condensation of the history, but that's essentially what happened. You had some experts like Harold Hodge. And people like that who came out and said, it's good for you. You need [00:11:00] this at one part per million. They came up with this random number and and that was it. The bandwagon got rolling at 1945 and just never stopped since then.

[00:11:15] Rachaele: And so, and that's an important thing to say, like the sodium fluoride that might be natural occurring is different than this industrial byproduct. And so we, it competes with iodine. What do we need? Iodine for thyroid, right? And, and our thyroid.

[00:11:29] Rachaele: How many of us have hypothyroid symptoms? So, and then bromide, right? And all of our grain products, a lot of the flour is brominated. So these, these all really compete for the nutrients that our, that our body really needs. Not to mention overall our food supply is so lacking in nutrients.

[00:11:46] Rachaele: We don't wanna add more things that are toxic, that prevent the, the natural nutrients getting in there. Right. So, tell us a little bit more about the,

[00:11:56] Rachaele: the article you wrote about the ozone and, and what was, what is Osteo [00:12:00] Radionecrosis.

[00:12:00] Griffin: People that are on bisphosphonates and mostly cancer patients on that by their oncologist Bisphosphonate is things like Fosamax or Actonel. These are medicines that will cause you to form more bone because you are typically weak and losing bone during a cancer situation, they're not wrong.

[00:12:19] Griffin: It does do that. The problem is, is that our jaw bone, our alveolar bone, is already turning and making new bone way quicker than the other bones in our body. if you give the body a medicine that wants to make bone, it freaks out the jaw bone and you start to slough, you start to actually lose bone in the jar. And any kind of trauma, a cleaning, just a basic cleaning from, from a hygienist can cause this to, to expedite and you start to get exposed bone in the mouth. So a lot of people who are listening probably have had this or know someone who did. And so BRONJ is bisphosphonate related osteonecrosis to the jaw. O N J is what it really is, and it [00:13:00] can be caused by a lot of things. But bisphosphonate related is the one I was looking at, and I noticed I had more than a few patients who had this. the treatment is nothing. You can try antibiotics, you can try palliative care, just keep them out of pain.

[00:13:13] Griffin: But that was really the only treatment. I thought, well, I love ozone so much. I've been doing it for almost 18 years. I thought, well, why not try ozone? I mean ozone besides being oxygen, right? And this super oxygen and, and really creates this beautiful environment where the body wants to heal.

[00:13:28] Griffin: It's also an oxidant, and we'll take care of any kind of microbes that might be interfering in this process. I noticed that when I went to look in the literature that people have talked about ozone, but they never did it alone. It was always other conjunction with antibiotics or with other kind of palliative care. So I thought I would do one case and see what happened, and I did. And it was ozone treatment only ozone injections, nasal insufflation and the patient would drink ozonated water for the next couple days after she them. And what happened was we actually got not only [00:14:00] the bone to slough off completely, which we wanted cause it was neurotic, but healing to start to occur.

[00:14:05] Griffin: And I was able to prove this with cone beam scans, C B C T scans before, during, and then at the end she could see the healing happening. And of course we had all these beautiful intraoral photos of her gum completely closed up. No bone, no pain. Now I, full disclosure, I did this on about 20 patients and I never had the same result as I did on her. that's why it, it was good that I called it a case report cuz it was not proof that that's the only treatment. And it works every time. But it's definitely, you're not gonna hurt somebody by trying it.

[00:14:38] Rachaele: So tell me a little bit more about ozone and what is the mechanism of action that makes it so, helpful without having any major side affects..

[00:14:50] griffin_cole_dds_nmd: Yeah, so as I mentioned its 03 so whenever oxygen comes in contact with any kind of electric, current lightning in the sky, a machine that creates it, whatever is. [00:15:00] oxygen will then break up of those oxygens will stay as a singlet but the other one will join up with another o oxygen molecule and you'll have oh three. what makes ozone so great again, besides being super oxygen, is it's an oxidant, dant. what that means is it is literally a micro killer. So when you get ozone in your body, it immediately dissociates into a singlet oxygen. And that singlet oxygen molecule is what permeates the cell membranes of all microbes, bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, you name it.

[00:15:34] griffin_cole_dds_nmd: And yet won't harm our natural mammalian cells cuz we have an antioxidant protective layer. Microbes do not. So the single oxygen bust through the layer and then once inside you form these peroxides and these lipid oxidation products, which then clean up everything So it's an amazing safely administered Medication, if you will, that that can take [00:16:00] care of so, so many things.

[00:16:02] griffin_cole_dds_nmd: I mean, I, I honestly, I don't call it the panacea, but it's the closest thing that we have to one in medicine, and by the way, it's been used in medicine for over a hundred years. It's still to this day, used in just about every country on earth. this one on a regular basis, and I think it's just because, it's not, it's not fun for big pharma. It's an inexpensive treatment. There's no pills involved. It's medical grade oxygen, again, going through a electronic discharge machine, and now you've got this wonderful medication that's safe and easy to use and just heals like you wouldn't believe.

[00:16:37] Rachaele: I do. I find it incredible also. And now what about, I've had people ask me, yeah, but this is an oxidant, so isn't that bad? So, but what we know as well, You, we need oxidant. It's all about balance in the body, right? That's health. And unfortunately in medicine and dentistry, we're always thinking about kill, kill, kill, kill.

[00:16:55] Rachaele: When we should be thinking about balance, balance, balance, balance. We all have bad [00:17:00] things in our body. It's when they be get out of balance that we have disease, right? And so we need oxidation. Some of us, our immune systems are so suppressed. That, that's why we can't fight these much. So we need that oxygenation therapy in order to kill these things.

[00:17:17] Rachaele: Cuz it also does activate antioxidants, right? So it's, and what I think is amazing about ozone is we do make this in our own body, right? And that's why, another reason why it's very safe. We are not, this is not something where we're trying to stop a certain reaction or we're adding some synthetic molecule.

[00:17:35] Rachaele: We are stimulating the body to heal itself and this is what I think one of the tenets of biologic dentistry is, right? We are trying to support the body's natural systems so that we heal ourselves. The body is this amazing thing. It knows how to heal, but we just gotta remove those toxins, remove those infections, right?

[00:17:56] Rachaele: And, and support the, the natural processes. [00:18:00] Revise, right? The cavemen, they never had cavities. They didn't have to have. They lived a health full, full diet. They didn't need to brush their teeth, right? They didn't need a fluoride. And that's what we try to wanna kind of get back to is how do we get back to our, the, the natural ecology that our, our body needs, right?

[00:18:16] Rachaele: So, 

[00:18:17] Griffin: Yeah, I remember that my colleagues in Austin used to alway make fun of me because my goal was always for

[00:18:22] Griffin: get to a place in my practice where they needed us to clean their teeth once every couple of years, once every two years. Minimally. I've, had a few that needed us once every three to four years, and 

[00:18:35] Rachaele: Yeah. 

[00:18:35] Griffin: say, what 

[00:18:36] Griffin: are you an idiot And I'm like maybe I am. 

[00:18:39] Griffin: I'm putting myself outta business

[00:18:40] Griffin: but the whole point is that I want them to, to become armed with the tools to where they don't need us.

[00:18:44] Rachaele: That's right. We wanna, as biologicals, we want to, This awareness. We want to provide the education so that you can be your own dentist, you can be your own doctor. You, you are the only one who knows your body as uniquely as you do. And we are here for support and to help. And when the tooth [00:19:00] breaks, we are here, to help fix it.

[00:19:01] Rachaele: But, but ideally, it is a, as biologic dentist, we're trying to educate you about the processes of why these things happen. So therefore we can reverse and, and prevent.

[00:19:12] Griffin: And also what other healthcare practitioner does anybody out there know where you could sit down for 30 minutes, an hour maybe, and just talk and share 

[00:19:24] Rachaele: Yes. 

[00:19:24] Griffin:  I don't know any other doctor that does that, except for biologic dentists And it and, what's so amazing about that is it's not only about rapport now, right? It's now about a relationship, right? We're working 

[00:19:35] Rachaele: Yeah. 

[00:19:35] Griffin: symbiotically to try to get you to where you have control of your health and you understand it, right? And, and I had so many intelligent patients, as I'm sure you do, that come in sometimes they would teach me things. That things  you know what I mean. And it's like that's ok. We don't know everything. We're not god you know. And in fact that white coat. I hate that white jacket that doctors wear because I [00:20:00] didn't like the way it made people feel. And so that's the beautiful thing about what we do more than anything is that you can actually sit there and talk and we'll listen.

[00:20:10] Rachaele: Hey, one of the, the first article I ever wrote was How dentists can affect the chronic Disease Epidemic. And that was one of my major points is that we have a captive audience, 30, 40 minutes. To be able to show that you're not getting that in the doctor's office these days, it's, it's unfortunate, but we're, healthcare has moved so much into a business.

[00:20:28] Rachaele: That we've lost that relationship. Whereas as dentists, we still can, can maintain. I mean, it's getting harder and harder with all these DSOs coming in and we're, dentistry is kind of going that same way. So, again, the more we can do to educate, the population, we can, , have them be their, their own advocate. 

[00:20:48] Rachaele: tell me a little bit we talked about root canals a little bit and some biologic dentists say, oh, absolutely every root canal is terrible. I know I don't necessarily feel that way. I think you don't [00:21:00] necessarily feel that way. So, there's a lot of confusion.

[00:21:01] Rachaele: What is your opinion on root canals? Are they good? Are they bad? Should we take 'em out? Should we not.

[00:21:10] Griffin: It's a great question and I want to give it an answer and I know you and I are on the same page on this I'm not one of those dentists who say that all root canals will kill you and you should get 'em all out. But I do qualify that with this, if you're getting a root canal done with all the traditional methods where they might use files, x-rays along the way.

[00:21:28] Griffin: They use the sodium hypochlorite. I can tell you this, I can guarantee this. You're only cleaning about 70% of that tooth down, so they're leaving about a third of microbes. and all kinds of nonsense usually at the tips of the roots but somewhere within that tooth And you probably shared this with, with your patients in the past, a, a single human tooth has about three miles of dentin tubules. So no matter what they do, I don't care if they say, oh, I've got this special rotary system and I, it doesn't matter. You're not gonna get more than 70% of the tooth removed. Now that being said, I did [00:22:00] this in my practice. I'm sure you do. Everybody is individuals, right And and we treat 'em all differently So if I have a patient come in and they're super healthy there's no autoimmune issues going on and they have a great diet and all these great things, and we do a scan, a CBCT scan, and we're looking at, let's say a root canal that they already. And it looks solid. I mean, the to create on a ligament, solid bone, I'm hard pressed to tell them that that's causing them problems. Go pull that tooth. I mean, I just, how do you prove that? So, but on the other hand, if somebody is immune compromised or has cancer or whatever, they may be a really good candidate to, to not do root canals or get the existing ones out.

[00:22:38] Griffin: I don't for them to decide I'll never support them either way I will say this there is an endodontist in California Val Cantor you probably know her She is really probably the most cutting edge endodontist that I know of in the country. And she's working with UCLA and she's working with other great practitioners. And she has come up with a method that gets 99% of the tooth clean. [00:23:00] It's probably closer to a hundred, but she's being fair. 99% been tested. They look at these tooth after they pull 'em out, everything. And what's neat? if you're gonna get a root canal done, and I hate to say this because it's gonna limit your options. You have to get it done only one way. And that is they have to use the light walker laser or the Gentle Wave, which is an ultrasonic system. They have to use ozone period, and they have to do the system in a certain way, which Val Cancer teaches and I actually have access to her. How she does it. And I teach that in my ozone courses, by the way. if you can find an endodontist or even maybe even a general dentist who's extremely skilled, who utilizes both ozone and either the light walker laser or the general wave, you've got a really good shot of getting a truly clean teeth, I mean, a biologic result. So to say that, they'll always say, well, it's dead.

[00:23:50] Griffin: Who cares, Griffin, it's still dead. You could say your nails are dead too. You could say there's lots of things I would argue and say that's not true because the, [00:24:00] the actual supporting tissues are still feeding that area. There's still a blood supply around the tooth. Maybe not to the tooth itself, there's still tissue and live vital things around that too So I don't like the argument that it's dead. it's non-vital for sure, but I don't like the argument that it's dead. And again, everybody's different. that I don't like when you know I I teach this I exact course at our fundamentals at the IAOM and I always say keep your confirmation bias to yourself Okay Just be there for them. Educate them, tell them everything, but keep your bias to yourself and let them make the choice.

[00:24:37] Rachaele: Yeah, which is, which is really important. Again, you know your body better than anyone else, and, and what Griffin's saying is, very, very important. Every person is an individual. We all have different immune status, and just like you said, I will take C B C T all the time and you see previous root canals and they look healthy on an x-ray, they have zero health issues.

[00:24:59] Rachaele: I use [00:25:00] the tooth meridian chart, which I really love. Every tooth is connected to other parts of the body via these energy pathways. . And that's another way can look. For instance, I had one patient who I saw a root canal in the X-ray and it looked a little funky. And I asked him, do you have any aches and pains anywhere?

[00:25:16] Rachaele: And he said, my left shoulder, I just, I cannot. And he was a young, healthy, athletic guy. He said, I just, it just can't get better. I don't know what the problem is. And I said, well, on that same me, That tooth was on the same meridian that looked, in fact it was an obvious infection. Took the tooth out within two weeks, the shoulder healed.

[00:25:35] Rachaele: So again, is that a free, but I, I mean, I've got lots of stories like that. So, but again, if he was perfectly, perfectly healthy, you still saw an infection, so he still probably wanna take that tooth out. But other people, but like you said, if you have an autoimmune condition, I had one man come in, he had eight root canal teeth.

[00:25:55] Rachaele: He had been having so many chronic health issues that he changed his diet. He moved to [00:26:00] a farm. He was doing everything right. But again, what happens when we have these, these dead teeth, right? Is they, because it is non-vital, as you said, there's no blood supply anymore. That's a place where bacteria, viruses, parasites, they can hang out in those areas because the immune system can't get to them.

[00:26:20] Rachaele: but their byproducts are leaching into our lymph and then affecting our immune system that way. So somebody who has chronic immune, they've cleaned up their diet, they've, they've moved the house, they're not in mold anymore, and they're still having issues. That's the person you might and, and I think something really valued.

[00:26:37] Rachaele: But C B C T is great, right? But even then another step further, you could do thermography , right? Dental thermography is another tool that you could use cuz sometimes if you see, I, what I question sometimes is I'll have a a do a CBC T look at this root canal and, oh, is there maybe a little shadow? They're not having any health problems.

[00:26:56] Rachaele: So is that shadow active? Is it not? [00:27:00] And again, this is where you have to educate the patient and you let them, make that that decision. Because it is very individualized. And so I, I think some people who are so rigid in their thinking, it's, it's this way or the highway is not biologic because every human being has a different terrain.

[00:27:19] Rachaele: Right? So we really have to have to consider that. Tell me what else, what else do you think is important for the, the public to understand.

[00:27:28] Griffin: My duty now you mentioned mold and um you know, we have a daughter that got took us three years to figure it out And I have to say to your audience That whoever's 25% of you have some kind of mold illness and you don't even know it And that's the truth. And, and it can cause all kinds of things. It can mask things, it can make Lyme all of a sudden appear when maybe all of us have Lyme disease. But it doesn't even rear tug ugly head until mold takes over. And so, This is something that's tough for me [00:28:00] because, I mean, I have such experience with it now for my daughter.

[00:28:02] Griffin: That, and, and I moved, I mean, listen, I was in Austin, Texas for 28 years as you mentioned, and sold my practice for that reason alone was I wanted to get to a different and we moved to Colorado and I had all intentions of reopening a practice here But decided not to do that for a while. But my point is, is that, as a biologic dentist and a really gifted one, hopefully he, or. this up in some form or fashion. I mean, there are tests like the oat, the organic acid test. There's other tests that you can take from Great Plains and other great laboratories to see if you have mold and, and at what levels it's at. It's just all part of the picture, Rachel, and as you said, I mean a really good dentist or doctor. We'll look at all these things cuz it can all contribute and it all combines and creates a mess sometimes.

[00:28:49] Rachaele: What I've come to in the last few years.

[00:28:51] Rachaele: Is every disease, I don't care what you label it, it comes down to these toxins and infections. 

[00:28:56] Rachaele: May, that sounds very simple but it's, and traditional blood [00:29:00] test is not gonna find that. So you're looking at a biologic dentist or a functional medicine person could, that's what we need to look at.

[00:29:06] Rachaele: The under, if you don't feel well, but your blood test is normal and people aren't accepting that anymore, right? So people, what I find people are coming to me and asking, I'm also a health coach, and so they're, they. They know that I have these answers or somebody else has told them, oh, she gave me some information on this, but we need to look things like parasites.

[00:29:25] Rachaele: All of us have parasites. I had this conversation with a patient yesterday and he was like, well, I haven't been to a third world country. Well, where does most of our produce come from? Think about just Covid. How fast did Covid move globally? Okay. It's stuff is everywhere. It's everywhere. And if you have pets, this guy grew up on a farm.

[00:29:44] Rachaele: And he had long covid, which to me long covid is autoimmunity. That covid was the final virus that tipped the bucket and now you can't get well. So you've got to underline, and like you said, Lyme, I totally agree. I think all of us probably have those bacteria, but it [00:30:00] takes something else to tip that bucket.

[00:30:02] Rachaele: And so that underlying, and this is where the mouth plays such a huge role because there's lots of microbes and there are a lot of infections in our, we could have an abscess tooth and not. We don't feel it. Right. And that's why the value of the 3D x-ray, because at 2D a lot of times you don't see that.

[00:30:18] Rachaele: And that's a major contributor to immune. I've seen in my own practice alone, 10 cases of an abscess upper molar and a patient with breast cancer. And I'm not saying that it's causing the breast cancer, but that infection is on that same meridian and there's, causing that immune dysfunction.

[00:30:36] Rachaele: So, so it's really important. 

[00:30:39] Griffin: We are the one practitioner, and I'm talking for all Dentists now. I'm going to make the assumption that even mainstream dentists can be extremely thorough. We're, we're the one practitioner that patients see more often than others most of the time, except for maybe a chiropractor, we have access to, so th this is the first place where you see a person's skeleton, [00:31:00] right?

[00:31:00] Griffin: You can see inside their skeleton. And we can everything. I mean, from Mumps to HIV to diabetes, to, you name it, Parkinson's, Addison's, I mean, we see everything. so I think it's so critical that if don't have a dentist like that find because it may save your life just a real quick story My last year of practice a patient that I've been seeing for almost my whole career, probably 25 years. noticed when I went in to see her for a hygiene exam, her sclera the whites of her eyes looked a bit yellow And so I asked her I said Hey how you feeling lately? And she's like, not good.

[00:31:35] Griffin: I've been really, really sluggish and I just can't figure out why I'm so tired. And I. Have you done a blood test later? Have you seen a No, no. I said, well, I'm gonna recommend one. And I was able to write, go get this done. And I especially wanna look at liver enzymes. I was suspicious. I thought it might be, maybe a little mild liver stuff going on.

[00:31:53] Griffin: Maybe cirrhosis at the worst. No, it came back. She was in stage four liver cancer. Didn't even know. Now she's [00:32:00] alive right now. It mistakes three, excuse me. She's alive right now. I don't know how well she's done. I haven't talked to her in about a year. you don't think that that played a huge role that somebody who took the time to look at somebody's eyes and said, I think going on And that's what we do and that's what every dentist should do But so I just think that what we do is so valuable and I'm so honored that I lucked into this amazing career.

[00:32:23] Rachaele: Absolutely. Going on that same vein, looking at the tongue, right? An old, Chinese medicine, auric medicine. tongue diagnosis. Sometimes if you go to acupuncture, your acupuncturist may say, stick out your tongue. That may be the first thing they say, because you can appreciate a lot about what's going on in, in the person's mouth.

[00:32:40] Rachaele: So, again, why I wrote that article, how we can really affect this chronic disease epidemic, just making people aware. And we wanna catch these things before you get sick. Right? It's a lot easier to prevent disease than it is to, to try to treat it. Speaking about that, what, are there certain, maybe supplements or vitamins or things that you think are [00:33:00] really important for overall oral health?

[00:33:03] Griffin: I mean again I think I treat everyone on an individual basis but just in general, you have to have good vitamin 

[00:33:10] Rachaele: Yeah. 

[00:33:10] Griffin: B complex levels and vitamin D I think those two, 

[00:33:13] Griffin: in fact if you read any article on cancer, almost always those people are, are deficient in those two B complex D used to get B complex shots in my office come on But that's so simple 

[00:33:25] Rachaele: Yeah. 

[00:33:25] Griffin: After a certain age, 

[00:33:26] Griffin: we don't make coq 10 anymore so I think that's a good supplement. Speaking of dental care, building collagen things like that I like coq 10 There's a lot. Zinc's even a good one. I mean, I mean, I, I would look at a person, I'm, I was never a dentist that wanted for people on a bunch of supplements.

[00:33:42] Griffin: It was more diet, 

[00:33:44] Rachaele: right? 

[00:33:45] Griffin: very, 

[00:33:45] Griffin: very necessary So I'm glad you brought that 

[00:33:47] Griffin: up So thank you. 

[00:33:49] Rachaele: Mm-hmm. . What about, also, do you have any recommendations on, on hygiene? Should we use mouthwash? Should we do tongue scraping? What, what do you think is good for, the best way to [00:34:00] care for it

[00:34:01] Rachaele: other than diet? Right? Obviously that's number one.

[00:34:03] Griffin: Diets number one for

[00:34:07] Rachaele: sure. 

[00:34:08] Griffin: But if your diet is good and and even if it is you still need to do some rudimentary cleaning I love the tongue cleaning. I tongue scraping at least taking your brush and back to where you gag I you gotta clean the tongue daily brushing I don't care what you use, plain baking soda fantastic with water It's very very mild and it's not abrasive once you add water So I don't care what paste you use. Just one that has no fluoride and no sls. That's the sodium lauryl sulfate, the bubbling agent that can cause mouth ulcers and all kinds of nonsense So no sls no flouride I don't like the ones that put too many antibacterials you know 

[00:34:45] Griffin: The ones that say, oh, we've got charcoal and we've got teacher oil and we've got this. Too much is too much. Like you said, we're, it's not about killing, it's about making things commensal happy together. So I'm not a big fan of the ones that put too many killing agents in them, if you will, stripping [00:35:00] agents. flossing. I don't care what articles say out there that, you know 

[00:35:04] Griffin: I absolutely love flossing I think it's absolutely necessary and 

[00:35:08] Griffin: I would never ever give up 

[00:35:09] Griffin: on that And I don't think the water flossers are are an option As far as it, it, it won't negate the use of floss. You can use it as well, but you still need that piece of string to wipe between those contacts. So for me it's brushing well thoroughly. It's not 17 seconds is the average amount of time people spend brushing. It's a couple minutes and it's not hard. It's soft bristles and not hard pressure just thorough spend the time and flossing and as you mentioned tongue clean I think those three things I don't like mouth rinses. mean, if you wanna use a natural one, that's fine. They're unnecessary. A lot of 'em have bits of alcohol and some other things in them. Don't ever use Listerine. It's got 29% alcohol. 

[00:35:50] Griffin: Most of the mainstream things avoid because if they say they're doing something special, it's because they're adding a lot of abrasives and harmful things 

[00:35:59] Rachaele: So [00:36:00] save that extra 10 bucks and buy some organic food instead. Right?

[00:36:03] Rachaele: That's, that's gonna get you the much bigger bang for your buck than, 

[00:36:06] Rachaele: I hate all those mouth washers that are blue. That's just not natural. We don't, we don't want, we don't need blue things in our mouth. And as you said, when you have a really healthy diet, you don't need a fancy

[00:36:15] Rachaele: $25 toothpaste. I, I like a lot of the just powder ones too, and it's different. You gotta get used to it. They don't sudz, they might not have the nice minty fresh, but, if your gut is healthy, your diet is good, you're not gonna have bad breath. And a lot of times bad breath, comes from the gut, right?

[00:36:31] Rachaele: You got something going on in the gut. Something is, is out of balance. So instead of just trying to palliate it right with mouth rinse, go to go find your functional medicine doctor or biological dentist who can, help you test and see what, what might be going on in the gut and to, to rebalance everything, right?

[00:36:49] Griffin: I never agreed that, you and I had talked, probably 20 years ago now that 95% of the odors come from the mouth, and I disagree with that. I'm 

[00:36:59] Rachaele: Mm-hmm. [00:37:00] 

[00:37:00] Griffin: I can smell 

[00:37:01] Griffin: gut I mean I can 

[00:37:02] Griffin: smell you you and I know what periodontal disease smells like. We know what, when something's deeper in gut and, and 

[00:37:09] Rachaele: Yep. 

[00:37:09] Griffin: punches you, you have spherocytes and all that stuff So So, I'm with you on that. If which you know, your gut's, your second brain, if you don't take care of 

[00:37:17] Rachaele: Mm-hmm. 

[00:37:18] Griffin: forget the rest 

[00:37:20] Rachaele: And you moms may notice, like when your kids are getting sick, they tend to have more, a certain bad breath, which again, that's, they're, they're high in virus or bacteria, whatever it might be. So if that's happening, on a regular basis you have halitosis, then you know, we gotta look a little, little deeper and don't just accept that diagnosis.

[00:37:37] Rachaele: I think that's one problem we have in modern medicine that we get this diagnosis and it's like this thing around our neck and, so we can think about it differently is like, okay, that may help me go in a certain direction, but don't feel like now forever. I'm going to have high cholesterol forever.

[00:37:54] Rachaele: No, I just have blood pressure. Or that it's Right. Well, my mom had periodontal disease, gum disease, so [00:38:00] I'm gonna have it. Right. And maybe you are more susceptible because maybe your detox enzymes, maybe they're not as strong as they could be. Or maybe you eat the same kind of diet. Right. But just because we know now, right, with epigenetics, that, that, that the genetics are a blueprint and it's your gut bacteria.

[00:38:20] Rachaele: Right. It's the environment. It's what you're feeding it, which is what's gonna manifest disease or health. All right. So that's, that's where we really wanna focus. Well,

[00:38:30] Rachaele: tell me anything else you want our audience think they should, should know. 

[00:38:37] Griffin: Yeah you know.

[00:38:39] Griffin: what or things that I do you know, you are your doctor. Don't, don't expect Rachel or Griffin or anybody else to be the savior. You you need to arm 

[00:38:47] Griffin: yourself with information. Now we're, we're really good partners in this but um, arm yourself get to know what's going on with your body. Figure things out. Learn diet. Don't believe anything that you see on [00:39:00] mainstream stuff because most of it is lies like you mentioned with diet and, and, and the food pyramid and all that's nonsense. so arm yourself and when you go to a, a biologic dentist or an MD or I don't care who it is, them know that you know what you're talking about.

[00:39:15] Griffin: Cuz I always loved that. I was never afraid of somebody who came in armed with knowledge because I knew that I had a good partner here and if they knew even something more about a topic than I did Oh, that's okay. You just say, you know what? I don't know all about that, but, but you can bet yourself that I'm gonna spend some time and learn more about that so that our next conversation's even more, thoughtful. So, so arm yourself with knowledge, listen to podcasts like this. Read, look into things. And then when you go for your appointments, it's, they're gonna be so much more valuable. 

[00:39:47] Rachaele: And I think that's a really important point too, when you're, when you're looking for the right dentist or MD or whoever it may be, I know I always, feel free to call me or email me, talk to me, make sure that I'm the right fit. You wanna interview [00:40:00] the, the person and make sure that.

[00:40:01] Rachaele: The, the person you wanna work with has to be open. Right. Just like you said, I love it when patients teach me something cuz I'm like, this is great. And I think that's the whole idea of science is there's no set point. We are always learning. I don't do things that I did five years ago even because I keep learning new and, and more things.

[00:40:18] Rachaele: Cause I love to read and I love to listen to podcasts and so that's, that's really valuable. You want somebody who, like you said, is a partner 

[00:40:25] Rachaele: who's going to help you on that journey and get you what you need. That is a very wonderful point and I think a great place that we can leave our episode today.

[00:40:36] Rachaele: So again, Griffin, thank you so much for your time. You're a very busy man and we appreciate everything you're doing to improve the health of our our lives. So again, thank you so much and thank you everyone for listening. If you love this interview, please leave us a review. Bye-bye.