Root Canals, Ozone, Red Light Therapy & More!

This episode will blow you away as you learn just how amazing and beneficial the tools of biologic dentistry can be!

In this episode, Dr. Carver interviews Dr. Kelly Blodgett, founder & owner of Blodgett Dental Care, an international hotspot for integrative biologic dentistry and dental tourism. 

Since becoming a licensed dentist in 1999, he has positively impacted hundreds of thousands of people worldwide through the care he provides in his clinic and his social media Instagram post series “Toxic Tuesday” and “Wellness Wednesday.” 

Dr. Blodgett has over 100,000 followers on social media; he posts his weekly "Toxic Tuesday" and "Wellness Wednesday", where he shares truths that are not commonly discussed in traditional dental settings. His post series illustrates his patient's incredible journeys back to health and provides best practices for predictable oral and systemic health.

You are in for a special treat as Dr. Carver and Dr. Kelly explore hot topics: 

• Root Canals and when, if ever, they may be needed, as well as how to navigate existing root canals you may have, with information on best practices and understanding your options. 
• Ozone therapy and its many application and, at times, miraculous results for patients' health as it restores energy and stimulates healing. 
• Red Light Therapy for moving the body's nervous system into a healing state and allowing dental patients to experience the benefits of biologic dentistry.
• Dr. Blodgett also explains his approach of connecting with the human being first and focusing on their health goals as the guideposts to treatment. A refreshing shift from the “doctor knows best” dogma of some non-biologic dental practices.  

You can follow Dr. Blodgett on Instagram @blodgettdentalcare or go to his website:
https://www.blodgettdentalcare.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: 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 everybody and welcome back to our podcast, the Root of the Matter, with me, Dr. Rachel Carver as your host today I'm very excited to have a colleague and I should say friend Dr. Kelly Blodgett. Kelly and I met back in 2018, I think it was. Yeah, we both did Phil Malika's course with the American College for Integrative Medicine and Dentistry where we both became board certified in naturopathic and biologic medicine.

[00:00:28] Rachaele: Dr. Blodgett today is gonna talk to us a little bit about his take on biologic uh, medicine and how he practices out on the west coast there. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Blodgett has created a practice that's recognized as an international hotspot for integrative biologic dentistry and dental tourism.

[00:00:46] Rachaele: He attracts people who seek a holistic and biologic approach to their oral and whole body health through his weekly Toxic Tuesday and Wellness Wednesday social media post Dr. Blodgett shares truths that are not commonly discussed in [00:01:00] traditional dental settings. His post series illustrates his patient's incredible journeys back to health, along with providing best practices for predictable oral and systemic health.

[00:01:09] Rachaele: Dr. Blodgett was also on a, summit given by Dr. Savan Sharna if you go into Health means and you look under, there are only a couple oral Health summits, but he did a great presentation there and we're gonna get some of that, that information.

[00:01:22] Rachaele: So again, so tell us a little bit about your story. You, a lot of people who get into this field or have this philosophy, we all have some kind of story that that brings us because we're all trained traditionally. Yeah. And that, but some of us, I think. We've got that outside of the box thinking, in the first place.

[00:01:39] Rachaele: But tell us your story. 

[00:01:41] Kelly: Yeah. My story's kind of an interesting and unique one. I was trucking along through high school and college and was convinced that I was gonna be a psychologist. I don't know if I ever told you this when we were No, no. Yeah, it was an interesting thing. I mean, I had already, I applied to and was accepted to a master's [00:02:00] program in, in psychology.

[00:02:01] Kelly: And my wife and I were both gonna pursue that. And right at the end of college I, I, at that time I didn't have a faith life really. And I, I came to Christ at the end of my college experience and as I started developing a spiritual journey um, I heard God calling me to become a dentist and to reverse the negative stereotype of dentistry.

[00:02:25] Kelly: And I was like 21 years old and was like, what on earth is this all about? And it was a really interesting crossroads of deciding, do I follow what I've been, thinking I'm supposed to pursue or do I follow God's calling? And it's been. 30 years this April since making that decision to follow the Lord.

[00:02:48] Kelly: And I'll tell you, I mean it, I, I believe I the proofs in the pudding now, 30 years later that having gone through the traditional dental training and then really seeking out [00:03:00] ways to improve the human connection within our realm of healthcare. Because as you and I know, I mean a lot of people don't like going to see the dentist for many, many reasons.

[00:03:14] Kelly: So that's how I got here. And then I would say, over the first 10 years of practice, I, I was seeing these patterns of, let's say do a root canal and you've got that certain percentage of people who either they feel worse systemically or the tooth never stops hurting, or, there were plenty of scenarios with work, whether it was by an endodontist, something work, I'd done, whatever, where, you know, five years later I'm taking these teeth out and finding, you know, darkness inside that

[00:03:45] Kelly: it wasn't there when we filled it. And my eyes started opening wider to more of a biological approach. And it, and it coincided also with looking at materials. My wife 10 years ago [00:04:00] was looking into a company called Beauty Counter that, that, offers safe beauty products and such.

[00:04:05] Kelly: And it got me to thinking like, huh. I wonder what's in the cements we use and composites and, certainly, I mean, mercury, like, that's an obvious thing that isn't really healthy for anybody, but materials, right. So it, it turned me onto the biological way of thinking, which led me to some books like Whole Body Dentistry by Mark Breiner.

[00:04:29] Kelly: Mm-hmm. I read that nine years ago and it just totally changed my perception of what was possible. So that's the background on how I got connected with you, yeah, exactly. In the biological dental world. 

[00:04:43] Rachaele: Right. And, and that's what I love too. So many times it's, our own lives, but also our patients, right.

[00:04:48] Rachaele: Our patients are teaching us. Oh, absolutely. And, and for me, I'm always the kind of person, can I do it better? Can I do it better? Or why, why, why, why? So when there's, there's a reason we call it practicing dentistry, right? I mean, [00:05:00] I don't do anything. I did, I learned 20 years ago because as my knowledge and experience has evolved, you learn, you learn different things and your patients are telling you the story.

[00:05:10] Rachaele: Right. Just like how, when you drill a certain type of filling, you can do it so much easier now cuz you've done it 10,000 times. Yeah, absolutely. But, but when you, like you said, you keep seeing patients who maybe had, had root canals, and not everybody obviously, but some people feel worse, or they have some kind of dental procedure and they feel worse.

[00:05:26] Rachaele: And, and most of the time it's never connected to the mouth. Right. It's, it's where people get thrown into this category of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and in my experience that is more like there's some kind of toxin, there's some kind of infection. And the tricky thing in the mouth right is most of the time you feel nothing here.

[00:05:44] Rachaele: Right. You could have a massive abscess and feel. I had a patient just the other day, the benefit of the 3D X-ray right? Felt nothing massive infection on a shoot that hadn't been root canal. And so she didn't feel anything. So she said, well, I don't wanna have my tooth out. Right. So then [00:06:00] we have to educate them.

[00:06:02] Rachaele: Why is it a problem if it doesn't hurt and they have no swelling? Yeah. Why should they have that tooth removed? So let's say that's your patient. How would you have that conversation with patient and how can we, as people who are listening to this, how do we make them understand why that's a major impact on your overall health?

[00:06:20] Kelly: Yeah. It's a funny you bring that specific scenario up because one of the earliest aha moments I had was. My father came in to see me. He, he had been seeing my twin brother who lived, or, had an office across town. It was more convenient for him to go there. And then when my brother moved to Texas, my dad started coming to me.

[00:06:41] Kelly: This is probably eight, nine years ago. And we took the 3D x-ray. And lo and behold, at, at the time, by the way, all of his left-sided molars had root canals. The upper ones were severely abscessed. And of, of course, I was a bit shocked and [00:07:00] shared with him what I saw, and he said exactly what you're saying.

[00:07:03] Kelly: Well, it doesn't hurt. I said, well, you know that that's fair enough, but you know, it's chronic infection your body has to manage. And he chose to wait, said, gimme some time to think about this. And within the following year, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the left cervical chain of his neck.

[00:07:24] Kelly: Wow. And it was such a, an awareness, creating experience as I was able to connect with his oncologist, show the oncologist what was going on in his head. And thankfully the oncologist was awesome. He is like, yeah, absolutely. That's gotta go before we're doing radiation, mm-hmm. And, and I mean, that was a real eye-opener for me.

[00:07:47] Kelly: It's your own, your own family member. You know that, I mean, clearly I've known him my entire life, and it's like, wow, if we could prevent this for other people by at, at the very least, at the very [00:08:00] least, informing them of the risk. Because I'm not one to say like, oh, root canals are all bad. You know what I mean?

[00:08:06] Kelly: Right. They're not, I mean, it's sometimes it's the best choice of a bunch of bad options. Mm-hmm. I mean, arguably by the time you're, you're considering a root canal, things have gone awry with the tooth. Anyway, it's, it's something that now, or in our practice, I mean, we, and in my social media writings, I do.

[00:08:27] Kelly: I've spent most of my time writing on root canals because they're being done by the millions every single year, and so many people are suffering unnecessarily. And at the very, very least, I, I would like to see people having the option to be informed, which when you're telling somebody you need. And then fill, fill in the blank.

[00:08:51] Kelly: In this case, you need a root canal. Most people aren't gonna argue because, it's like, well, you're the professional. Who am I to question you, [00:09:00] right. I, I am seeing a, a lot more people becoming aware of this. Granted this is what, I do. That's the people who are gonna find me.

[00:09:08] Kelly: Right. But anyways, yeah, it's, the other thing I would share is going back almost a decade as well, or I'll never forget, we, we had a, a woman called our practice and she said, I have these two teeth that have been root canaled and I am positive that they are negatively impacting my health and I want them out.

[00:09:31] Kelly: And my front office person at the time said, well, gosh we'd certainly need to do an examination and it's all this sort of thing. But I know Dr. Blodgett takes teeth out and he does that well, so it's your body, right? If you wanna do that. And so she did come in, we did examine the her situation and she did choose to take those teeth out.

[00:09:53] Kelly: What was such a mind blowing experience was seeing her two weeks after her extractions. And [00:10:00] this woman who had just been struggling with her health for years came in just bounding with energy. And thankfully, I got to watch her over a number of years as she was coming back for her recare visits, maintained her great health ever since she had those root canals out.

[00:10:16] Kelly: And it was such an aha moment for me that, again, not everybody's gonna be negatively impacted like that, but some will. And if we as practitioners, Our, our, brainwashed into thinking it was a good root canal. It looks good on the x-ray. There's no way you can have problems with it. It's just simply not true.

[00:10:37] Kelly: And unfortunately, as we were talking about earlier that we're trained not to listen. It's like, well, we're the experts. Ironically, I think in our note writing, we have to indicate what's the subjective aspect of what they shared. Right. But we weigh almost 99% on the objective of what we see and what we're able to, objectively [00:11:00] identify.

[00:11:01] Kelly: And then we just give 'em solutions based on that, not listening to people. And I guess that's the. The wannabe psychologist in me, that, that loves to listen because there's so much truth in what people are sharing, mm-hmm. 

[00:11:14] Rachaele: And I think that's, that's such a valid point. I can't, I'm sure you've had the same experience where patients come to you and they say, well, that dentist said nothing was wrong, and that does, and they just wrote me off and, and that is the biggest thing when a patient comes to me and they have pain, I may not be able to objectable see a reason, right?

[00:11:32] Rachaele: But I never discount the patient's feeling, and a lot of times I will say to a patient, What do you think is wrong? Yes. Right, because nobody knows your body like you do, especially like as a mom, you're a kid better than anyone. So when a pediatrician or a dentist or somebody tries to tell you what's wrong with your kid, if it doesn't feel right to you, don't ever negate that instinct because you are, that gut feeling that is often, very true.

[00:11:57] Rachaele: And I think that's another [00:12:00] difference with those of us who, who believe in this biologic philosophy. That we know it's more than physical pain, right? We know there's, there's energy involved. There is the spirituality of us. There's our, our emotions and our traumas. They all play into physical manifestations of disease, so we can't discount that person's feelings or their thoughts, if somebody thinks that they have a pain from a tooth, It may actually manifest that way.

[00:12:28] Rachaele: Yes. And that's woo woo thinking. And people say it's crazy, but there is so much evidence behind this, this basis of energy medicine now that, that you cannot discount that and then the patient really feels cared about because we care about that patient. And, maybe we can't see something specifically, but that's why I use like a lot of energy protocols and looking for what's the underlying

[00:12:52] Rachaele: problem here. Have you been under a lot of stress lately? Right? Yeah. How many times do you have that patient comes in and their jaws killing [00:13:00] them? And one of my first questions is, what have you been going through lately? Yeah, right. Absolutely. A lot of times it's, it's stress related, but other thing I want to highlight what Dr. Blodgett said about root canals, not at there are some biologic then just to say every root canal is terrible and must be taken out. And both Dr. Blodgett and I, don't believe that's true. Do the problem with a root canal. It is a dead tooth. So there's definitely the potential. And. Can it harbor things?

[00:13:26] Rachaele: Yeah. And I think probably most of them do. Yeah. However, each of us have a different immune system and some of us have such robust immune systems that we can, we can deal with that. But some of us, if we're under a lot of stress or we have autoimmune conditions and we're already, our immune system is already taxed.

[00:13:45] Rachaele: It's like thinking about that bucket, and the more toxins, the more things, and sometimes it's like that final root canal maybe that, pushes and all of a, all of a sudden, right? Yeah. You get disease, nothing is all of a sudden it's you. We get to the point where our immune system [00:14:00] just can't hack it anymore.

[00:14:02] Rachaele: Well tell us speaking about that, you do do a lot of extractions and there is a company, I think you use Connections DNA, is that right? 

[00:14:08] Kelly: Yeah, DNA connections. 

[00:14:10] Rachaele: So DNA connections, tell us what that is and how, how, how we see what's in a root canal. 

[00:14:15] Kelly: Yeah, so I, I came across them a number of years ago.

[00:14:19] Kelly: I think I got their name through Judson Wall. Mm-hmm. Nice dentist in Utah there. And I, I had read Weston Price's work, and, and what he was, how he studied the toxicity of root canals. I was reading about Boyd Haley's work and what he was doing with root canals and assessing those in like the nineties and two th early two thousands, as I understand.

[00:14:40] Kelly: And I guess I just had to prove it to myself, right? I started sending these teeth 

[00:14:44] Kelly: in and 

[00:14:45] Rachaele: before you continue, tell me like, what were those people, what did they 

[00:14:48] Rachaele: talk about? 

[00:14:49] Kelly: Ah, well, yeah, so Weston Price I thought was, was highly interesting where they, he would remove dead teeth, root canal, treated teeth [00:15:00] from the human being, and then put the disease root under the skin of a rabbit..

[00:15:06] Kelly: And what he was finding is that the rabbits would then develop the same systemic diseases that the human being had, and they would, as it gets crazier, he would then take the root out of the rabbit and put it into another rabbit. And successively, he would find the same thing would occur over and over.

[00:15:26] Kelly: It. I would love to get my hands on that original work, although I imagine somebody burned it along the way. I don't know. I don't know where you would find that, but it's intriguing to say the least. And from what I understand with Boyd Haley, he was taking these root canal treated teeth and testing them against like five different human enzymes to see what kind of an impact would this tooth and whatever's in it have on these human enzymes.

[00:15:51] Kelly: And my understanding is, is that, All root canal teeth were having negative impacts on these human enzymes. [00:16:00] The controls were health, otherwise healthy teeth being removed for orthodontic purposes that they tested against these same enzymes in that, that had no impact. In their days they didn't have the same DNA technologies that we do currently.

[00:16:14] Kelly: And of course, the I started sending these roots in, in these sterile vials and, and part of what intrigued me just from a, a visuals standpoint was, as I mentioned earlier, taking roots out and seeing blackness inside the canal that's sealed. Well, if it's sealed, how's this black stuff getting in there?

[00:16:35] Kelly: And I'm not talking like, oh, it's one out of every tent. No, it's every single tooth I would take out where it had been root canaled for at least a year. It's like, wow. I mean, it's just disgustingly black. They stink. So I started sending 'em into DNA connections. They have what's called an oral panel. I couldn't tell you exactly how many microbes they can assess for with that that panel, but it's a few hundred as I [00:17:00] understand it.

[00:17:00] Kelly: Mm-hmm. Bacteria, viruses. 

[00:17:03] Rachaele: Parasites. 

[00:17:04] Kelly: Parasites. Thank you. Mm-hmm. No, no fun guy. Which I, they've explained to me why but anyway, it's. Fascinating. And I also have them run their lyme panel because other, people who've. Don't recall some sort of bullseye lesion in a tick bite. It's like, well, how do you how would you explain developing Lyme disease?

[00:17:25] Kelly: Do you have any open areas or open gateways through which microbes can enter your body? And it to turns out, that's, that's what root canals are. My post just this week for toxic Tuesday illustrated. The sponge-like nature of the dentin, which is you and I know it's the majority of the tooth is dentin.

[00:17:45] Kelly: It's sponge, literal sponge. We remove the blood supply and the nerve supply to that tooth. It becomes open pores through which the microbes crawl into the tooth and just load it up. So I sent in [00:18:00] a few hundred, like probably I'm up over 500 extracted teeth now. I've yet to have one come back, not loaded with microbes, some more than others.

[00:18:13] Kelly: I actually even did a study with DNA N Connections cuz you know, I'm, I'm curious. And I asked them, well, you send in this root they do whatever they do with it. And I asked them like, well, what would you find different results? If you pulverized the root and had, many small particles to expose as opposed to just the whole root.

[00:18:34] Kelly: So we actually did a study where we took two rooted lower molars, that had been root canaled. Mm-hmm. Tested one whole root and the other one pulverized. And interestingly enough we got the Found as no statistical difference in how we tested them. So interesting information, but point being they're all loaded with microbes and an open gateway into your body.

[00:18:55] Rachaele: What people don't recognize, I think a lot of times is that teeth are organs, right? We [00:19:00] think of them as a mechanical chewing force, but every tooth has its own nerve supply. Anybody who's had a toothache, you know there's a nerve in there, right? Absolutely. Has its own blood supply, its own lymph channels, right? And so when you do a root canal, the advantage is great. You get to keep that tooth so you can chew. You don't have to have a gap. However, anything that is dead in the body is going to harbor. It's a great place for these microbes to hide out because with no blood supply, the immune system can't get up there and, and fight and kill those micros.

[00:19:34] Rachaele: But they're byproducts, if you will. They're excrement. Yeah. Leeches into our lymph node. Do we have so many, just like your dad, right? The cervical lymph nodes. There are so many lymph nodes drain right down into our chest area and, and impact us negatively. So it's a, it's a major deal. It's kind of like, I tell patients, when you have appendicitis, we don't open you up flush out the appendix, shove some rubber in there and [00:20:00] suture you back up. That would be ridiculous. But we do that in teeth and again, a very great service. And there are oftentimes that that's, that's necessary. And, but I like what you said that it's the best op, best bad option, right? Yeah.

[00:20:13] Rachaele: However you worded it that. Sometimes, especially like if you're young, and you hit a front tooth, okay? So we tell the patient we're gonna do the root canal, and maybe at a later date, maybe you're gonna need an implant. But sometimes, and again, if you're so healthy, you have zero systemic issues, then that can be an option.

[00:20:30] Rachaele: But as Dr. Blodgett said, it's not me telling you you need to have a root canal, you need to have a crown. You need to have, here are your options, right? And we're gonna educate the patients and we're, we're gonna be your partner. So what, what is it that you want? I'm gonna help you get you what you need.

[00:20:46] Rachaele: Here's, here are pros and cons of those, those options. But you, ultimately it's your body. So it's your choice. So thinking again about how you're saying those pores. Right. So another big thing we talk about in biological are [00:21:00] cavitation, right? Some people are savvy to this as a dentist.

[00:21:03] Rachaele: I'd never even heard this term until, 3, 4, 5 years ago, whatever it was. Because, we learn about osteoradionecrosis in school. But it's this vague thing, that that happens. And really we only think about as people who are on bisphosphonate drugs, right? But. Tell us a little bit about what a cavitation is, and you talked about lime and stuff like that and Yeah.

[00:21:25] Rachaele: And who's more prone to get it and, and how do we treat that? 

[00:21:29] Kelly: Yeah. Well, just like you, Rachaele, I mean, I, went through dental school, went through a residency program, did a ton of surgery, and never once heard of this quote unquote cavitation. So I mean, I guess the, the best way I, I can describe it, Is bone that does not regenerate appropriately after a tooth is removed.

[00:21:51] Kelly: My clinical experience would lead me to believe that it's more common in the lower jaw. I don't know if that's an [00:22:00] issue of vascularity. I don't know if it's an issue of the fact that the bones so dang dense peripherally and makes a great bowl, into which your saliva and food particles can collect.

[00:22:11] Kelly: Or I, I don't know. But basically, and I've, I've been reading Johan Lechner book about. FDOJs, fatty degenerative osteonecrosis of the jaw, which we call cavitation. And it's baffling to me what we're starting to understand about the biochemistry of these fatty degenerated areas in the jawbone and the chemicals that they're releasing and kicking off, all sorts of systemic health issues and by and large, Well, first of all, if we're limited to two-dimensional radiography, we, I don't, I mean, we really don't stand much of a chance in evaluating these at all.

[00:22:54] Kelly: Maybe if you get real lucky and it's an absolutely horrific, cavitation, you could see it. But [00:23:00] generally speaking, I don't think that's gonna help. And, and that being said, even three-dimensional radiography is limited in its ability to help us understand whether bone is or is not infected. I see a lot of people who travel to come see us and they're, they wanna know, well, what is my cone beam scan say, do I have cavitations and I, and I feel like a broken record, but it's like, I can't, I can't tell you.

[00:23:24] Kelly: I can tell you whether it is, is, or is not appropriately dense. That's all I can tell you. If I, until I do either a DNA connections analysis or if I had the ability to do some sort of biochemistry assessment to see different types of inflammatory chemokines, that would give us an appreciation for what was going on in there.

[00:23:47] Kelly: But it's highly common. I have worked with a number of patients who either have gone in to do infrared thermography. Mm-hmm. As in means of assessment who do [00:24:00] EAV assessment or acupuncture meridian assessment. I've seen people doing muscle testing, doing pendulum testing. I mean, there's all sorts of different ways of testing energetic field, and I love it.

[00:24:12] Kelly: I love it. Love it, love it. I, I find that stuff to be so helpful. So leaving it there long term, just like a, a root canal poses risks. It doesn't mean you're gonna die from infection in your jaw bone, but it's a risk and it's a possibility. When I first got exposed to this stuff, it was not shockingly another patient

[00:24:32] Kelly: scenario where she came in and described, I mean, this woman was like in her mid to late sixties. She described having her wisdom teeth out 40 plus years prior. And the day following surgery, she had pain and it, and it, the pain continued. And the pain. And she went back to see the dentist, and it was, oh, you know what it looks like your second molar's dying.

[00:24:56] Kelly: You need a root canal. Kept, didn't fix the pain. Pain [00:25:00] kept on the next year. Oh, you know what it looks like the first molar, five root canals later. Mm-hmm. Rachel, five root canals later. And she was like, it still hurts. Oh, well you just need chemical management. So they prescribe her drugs and interestingly enough, It was pretty obvious.

[00:25:20] Kelly: Of course, looking hers was a, a situation where the clinical presentation on her three-dimensional scan was like, wow, like that seems like a big black hole. We cleaned it out. Totally fatty lesion in there. Ozone, L P R F her own healing cells. The following day, her pain was gone for the first time in 40 plus years, and it remained away.

[00:25:46] Kelly: I mean, it's fascinating. I don't see her often cuz she and her husband live in Arizona, but, Oh my gosh. I saw her for probably three years in a row. Once a year. It kept, feeling fantastic. 

[00:25:56] Rachaele: This is so common. And again, the [00:26:00] dentist who's recommending the root canals, that's what we're trained.

[00:26:02] Rachaele: Yep. Right. It's, it's, that's all that, that dentist knew, so it's not like they were trying to harm that patient. That's all that they had with their, in their education toolbox. Yeah, because again, we didn't learn about these cavitation in school. It just happens to, by chance or by reading that we learn these different things.

[00:26:20] Rachaele: And that's why sometimes if you have unexplained pain, you wanna try to seek out a biologic dentist who has this extra training and knowledge. But I had a similar case. A woman came to me. And so cavitation are most common in the lower wisdom teeth area, and yeah, maybe it is the vascularity. Yeah, we don't know a hundred percent sure.

[00:26:38] Rachaele: Why if you've had a dry socket from wisdom tooth extraction, that puts you at a very high risk for having cavitation what a dry socket is when the blood clot kind of comes out prematurely, exposes that underlying bone very, very painful, and that blood clot is really, really important for healing the blood

[00:26:58] Rachaele: has all these good [00:27:00] stem cells and stuff that helps try to regenerate that socket. So if you've had a dry socket, again, you may be predisposed to that. And then if you've had Lyme disease or Epstein bar or parasite infection, that's a wonderful, nice warm, moist place that those babies can just sit out and hide.

[00:27:18] Rachaele: Mm-hmm. But I had a woman who she came to me and she was having pain on her an upper right pre-molar. And, I looked, I was like, I, I really don't, I don't see anything, there's, there's no problem here. Gave her a little bit of ozone, right against the tooth. And ozones are great anti-inflammatory, helps with pain.

[00:27:34] Rachaele: It, didn't really do much. She came back, had it a couple times, and then I just so happened to have just gotten my 3D x-ray machine and I had been to a lecture where they were talking about how often cavitation in the lower jaw will have referred pain. To the upper jaw. So I said, Hey, I'm gonna take a 3D X-ray.

[00:27:54] Rachaele: And she was like, that patient, it was very obvious that there was a huge cavitation. And [00:28:00] interestingly, so she'd had that root canal, I don't know, 15 years prior, but she said eight years ago she developed all this like cervical weird pain and she never mentioned it because she didn't think it was at all connected to her teeth.

[00:28:12] Rachaele: Right. Right. And so what we did, and, and it was still hurting and. I said, maybe before I knew this, maybe you're gonna have to have the root canal. And I said, but I really don't think you should because I really don't think it's the nerve of that tooth. I really don't.

[00:28:25] Rachaele: But you know, a long time, and I was talking to her about cavitation and it was new to me, and I don't blame her. She was weary of my experience and expertise, and so again, she let me give her ozone. In the cavitation area, again, not around the tooth that was hurting, but back where the cavitation was.

[00:28:42] Rachaele: And, she disappeared for a little while. She ended up getting the root canal and guess what? Pain did not go away. Mm-hmm. And then maybe a year later everything had had healed Ozone is in a really amazing non-invasive treatment sometimes for these cavitations. So because we gave [00:29:00] the ozone in the right area and you could see it was awesome, her C B C T had healed.

[00:29:04] Rachaele: Wow. And so ozone is another amazing way. It doesn't work, necessarily for everybody. But because we were able to sterilize that area, the bone was finally able to regrow pain, pain went away. That's awesome. So just those of you listening, if you tend to have some of this vague pain, Do ask, ask for a 3D x-ray to check for these cavitation.

[00:29:25] Rachaele: Could it be, a potential source of, of this discomfort? Absolutely. So yeah. Really, really, really interesting what we've, what we learn, from our patients. 

[00:29:36] Rachaele: Right. 

[00:29:36] Kelly: Oh, totally. Well, and I love that you're sharing about Ozone. I mean, I I think we have four ozone generators around our office now.

[00:29:44] Kelly: Like, we use it all day. It's, it's so awesome to get literally give people energy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's, I, all, all of these technologies are so amazing, 3D X-rays, cone beams, lasers.

[00:29:58] Rachaele: So tell us a little bit [00:30:00] about ozone. When do you use that in your practice and what is it helpful for?

[00:30:03] Kelly: Oh, golly. Well, we, do a lot of neural therapy. So combining Procaine, just like basically what you were sharing, injecting adjacent to areas of either dead teeth, infection, what have you. Both like pre and post-surgically. Gosh, we use ozone, like we don't use Chemicals in our water lines anymore.

[00:30:24] Kelly: We just ate the water, which I love cuz you know, nobody's allergic to oxygen turns out, right? So that's kinda nice. I use it in all of my restorative and surgical care. So before I seal up of tooth, Every tooth, I'm gonna bathe it, so to speak, in ozone gas before I seal up the dentin.

[00:30:46] Kelly: Similarly, in in surgery areas, we're gonna oz the extraction socket or the cavitation or whatever kinda hole we're dealing with before putting in their healing cells. My hygienists, help us as well. In Oregon, our, thankfully our hygienists are [00:31:00] licensed to use injections like anesthetics and things, and we do a lot of supportive, like head and neck ozone things to get lymph moving.

[00:31:09] Kelly: Mm-hmm. So that as we engage in whatever restorative or surgical protocols, their body can drain this stuff and get rid of it. So yeah, it's, it's awesome. 

[00:31:22] Rachaele: I'm a big fan as well. This is one of my first avenues into the whole biologic. And like you, I, I rarely give people TMJ splints anymore.

[00:31:32] Rachaele: That therapy of using the Procaine combined with the ozone, which is called. Prolozone therapy is unbelievable because not only does it take away the pain, yeah, but with that ozone, when you get rid of the infection, you drain all that lactic acid and inflammation, the cartilage can actually rebuild itself.

[00:31:49] Rachaele: And I think that's the most fascinating thing about the body. And we are are taught that, as you get older, well, too bad, nothing's gonna work anymore. Well, a lot of the things that can't work because it's so [00:32:00] bogged down by chemicals and toxins and these infections right. If we can remove those burdens from the body, the body knows how to work and it's amazing how things turn back on.

[00:32:10] Rachaele: What I, what, another fascinating thing I've seen is, Patients who are undergoing, detoxification and then all of a sudden a piece of bone, will come out from an old extraction site because they've created so much health in their body that now the body can deal with that little piece of dead bone and it'll work itself out.

[00:32:29] Rachaele: I think that's, that's really, really cool because what are we doing with ozone? We're flooding the body with oxygen. It makes nitric oxide, which helps with circulation. So many of us, maybe our circulation isn't great, so we don't have good healing. And there's no side effects.

[00:32:45] Rachaele: There's no contraindications really to, to ozone. We are, we are. It's not a drug, right? We're not trying to. Stop a certain reaction, we are actually stimulating the body to heal itself. This ozone is like a [00:33:00] messenger creates all these mediators that tell our body, Hey, we got a problem up here. Come and come and clean it up.

[00:33:06] Rachaele: So it's really, really fascinating. And it's not super expensive either, right? So it's, so a lot of people get Botox for migraines, they're spending thousands of dollars and they have to do it every three to four months, right? You're injecting a, it's in the name. Botox, you're injecting the toxin.

[00:33:22] Rachaele: And, and some people it works great for, my own sister was, was having that first, she had like a tick and I said, can you please just let me try the ozone? And, and it's much longer lasting and again, it's totally safe. And we're getting at the root cause, right? Because if there's some kind of infection or something, Why are you getting those migraines?

[00:33:40] Rachaele: There's something off with the circulation there. And also there can be an energy or a trauma component to a lot of migraines too. Ozone is so loaded with energy. A lot of times when we have pain and energy medicine, we talk about pain being the interruption of energy flow. So how do we [00:34:00] get and scars, right?

[00:34:01] Rachaele: Scars anywhere on the head and neck. We have scars. We're preventing that flow. Just like Dr. Kelly was talking about the, the draining of lymph. If we have a lot of scars on our face, we not be, but a little injection of ozone or Procaine, boom, you reconnect the energy pathways. Another really important thing to think about when we talk about like interference fields and the ability to drain those toxins, we wanna think about those scars.

[00:34:24] Rachaele: So that's another. Place we might use the, the ozone. 

[00:34:28] Kelly: Yeah. Well, and it may brings a thought to mind. So part of, of what I've been doing for 20 years, I bought my first two lasers in 2002, is photobiomodulation or the utilization of light energy, particularly red and infrared energy to stimulate biological functioning in human beings.

[00:34:50] Kelly: And I guess it was two years ago now. We took it to the next level and, and, and invested in a NovoTHOR bed. It's like full body, red light, [00:35:00] infrared light therapy that almost all of our patients choose to use. Cuz it's just there, I love watching how they go from this state of like, oh boy, I gotta have this dental stuff done.

[00:35:11] Kelly: They do the NovoTHOR that photonic energy somehow, engages with their cells and helps them reach this more chilled out parasympathetic state and Oh my gosh. Like sending them home in that condition. Yeah. Instead of like stressed out. It's just like magic. And it's, it's simple, right? It's the giving of energy to others which.

[00:35:37] Kelly: If I may, I'll share, I'll share something that I, we, we came to doing oh goodness, I guess it was two and a half years ago. It was right after Covid actually, right after Covid hit, we started doing what's called a new patient Mondays. Speaking of giving energy, right. We realized that when we're busy doing crowns and taking teeth out and things like that, it was really hard to be [00:36:00] present.

[00:36:01] Kelly: With these people who, whether they came from two blocks or two states away it was just too busy. This June will be three years now that on our Mondays all we do is meet new people and nothing else is happening. It's fully focused on us giving them our time, focus, and energy. And it has completely changed how we

[00:36:27] Kelly: are able to help others. I, I mean, our increase in people saying, yes, I want my, you know, best health and moving forward with it is just unbelievable. It's so fun, especially during, a time like Covid when the world had just, everything has felt crazy. Mm-hmm. To slow down, focus in on connecting with other humans and helping them feel the best they've ever felt.

[00:36:49] Kelly: And If, if it didn't work, we would not keep doing it. And it's been a real blessing, not just to the patients but to our team to feel less stressed.

[00:36:57] Rachaele: I absolutely love that idea. I'm probably gonna steal [00:37:00] that from you. We haven't had taken new patients in our practice for years and year, but we just, we just opened back up and just this week alone I did, I felt torn, because a new patient's coming in, like you said, they're traveling, had one yesterday, travel three and a half hours, and I wanted to really sit down and spend the half an hour to an hour.

[00:37:17] Rachaele: Really, because these people, to me, they're just fascinating because, they love, they're coming to me because they, they love that biologic and they teach me so much. And when I have to run and do this or that, you don't, you don't feel as cared about. That's, that's awesome. And again, another reason why everyone just loves Dr. Blodgett so much because he takes that time and, and he is listening and he's caring and he, because this is a big deal, and, and where do you go anymore? Where you actually get that dedicated time? You try to. Try to make an appointment to see your doctor, it's probably six months out and you get, eight minutes of time.

[00:37:52] Rachaele: And so we've, we've, right. Really there's a disconnect between healthcare. It's become more of a business model. You go [00:38:00] in, you get your prescription and you're done. But the, the actual healthcare is really lacking today. And so people like, like Kelly and I, we really, we wanna bring that health, the wellness.

[00:38:11] Rachaele: Back for people, because it's so possible to live a wonderful, healthy life if you have the tools you, if you have the people you know, who are in your corner and, and help and as biologic dentists. And we're only one piece of the puzzle. Right. But a lot of us, we have connections and other people that help, form that community and it, and it's really important that we have that community.

[00:38:34] Rachaele: Cuz even as much as we try to do everything, we aren't experts in everything. So having good chiropractic care or fascial care or, having a health coach, these, these kind of things are so important. Some of us who are biologic have a good nutrition background, but some don't.

[00:38:49] Rachaele: So we wanna have, again, that, that family. And then talking about that red light, we have a, a pad that fits in our dental chair. I love it. And so the patients, with that, the [00:39:00] infrared energy, and that's what we wanna do. We wanna turn on the parasympathetic nervous system, right.

[00:39:05] Rachaele: Because most people hate going to the dentist. They walk in there and their blood pressure is already, high. Yeah. And I'm sure you hear it all the time. No offense doctor, but I really don't wanna be here, yeah, absolutely. So those, those therapies super easy, and it just is, and ours has a little heat too, so you know, where we are in Massachusetts where it's cold, it feels really good in the wintertime to have a little bit of that heat when you can be in that, especially if you're gonna have an extraction, right, or a root canal or something more extensive.

[00:39:34] Rachaele: You might, you're not gonna heal as well if you're super anxious. That's why a lot, some biologic dentists will sedate you. I don't do sedation, so my patients have to hold crystals and sit on the mat and deep breath, yeah. But when we can get those patients in the parasympathetic, you're gonna heal better and you're gonna have less of a chance of having those cavitations or you know, bad reactions to, to any kind of dental treatment.

[00:39:59] Rachaele: So for sure, [00:40:00] light therapy is great. The lasers, as Dr. Kelly was talking about, the photobiomodulation I love lasers. They're so fabulous to for kids too, so easy to treat them with that. But again, it's another way that is less invasive, but incredibly healing. A lot of us don't realize that our cells communicate via light.

[00:40:19] Rachaele: So why do we get seasonal effective disorder, right? Because we're not getting enough light so our cells aren't working as well. So these techniques and being able to use them on the living breathing teeth is really effective for healing. Biologic Dentists we have so many more tools, right? In our toolbox we have a little bit more than the drill and the scalpel and antibiotics, oh yes.

[00:40:40] Rachaele: That's, that's what's exciting. As we wrap up here, is there anything else you'd like the listeners to know about, 

[00:40:47] Kelly: I, yes, I would. Well, you mentioned something about the feeling that people have in their gut and my encouragement to folks, regardless [00:41:00] of the, the healthcare provider you're connecting with, Listen to your gut.

[00:41:05] Kelly: If somebody is, advising you, or generally it's not advising, they're telling you what you need. Which by the way, I love sharing with folks that you know, you don't need teeth. You and I both have patients that some patients who are, have no teeth at all, and they're lovely people. So anything we do is certainly not a need.

[00:41:23] Kelly: Right. But if somebody's advising you to do this, that, or the other, and it doesn't feel right in your gut, I would so encourage you to get a second opinion and certainly listen to your gut. It's giving you information. We in the Western world are quite trained to discount that. Like, well, doctor said, or I, one of the phrases I hear sometimes, thankfully, not that often, but, well, you're the doctor you know best.

[00:41:50] Kelly: And it's like, oh man, I, there's so much. I don't know. But if you had any idea right. That's why, to your point, like we learn by listening. They're sharing with and [00:42:00] giving us the gift of information and experience and all that. So anyway, I encourage people to listen to their gut. And if folks would go to my follow my Instagram feed, it's @BlodgettDentalCare and share it with a, thousands of people please.

[00:42:16] Kelly: I, I do believe that by sharing truthful information, it, it helps to empower people to make. Choices that best resonate with their values. But if they're not informed, they, they won't know because most practitioners are just saying, well, you got this one option and you need it, so therefore we gotta get it done.

[00:42:36] Kelly: And they don't all turn out so great. So I would love it if you'd follow me on social media and share it with others. That would be super appreciated. 

[00:42:44] Rachaele: And what if they wanna to reach out and find out more about your practice? Do you have a website? 

[00:42:48]  Kelly: Yes. Yes. They can go to blodgettdentalcare.com.

[00:42:52] We, we do have portals there. If you're interested in coming out to see us, you can just enter your information there. [00:43:00] I have two amazing team members who whose titles is New Patient Coordinators. That's what they do is. Connect with people from across the country mostly and help them figure out their tourism and what are they gonna, how they're gonna get out here and what they're gonna see in Oregon while they're here.

[00:43:17] Follow the Oregon Trail, come and see us, right? Yeah. Yeah, but that's the website and would love people to check it out and please do reach out to us if you're suffering and you're looking for help. Either we can help you or we can connect you with people who are like-minded, like

[00:43:33] Rachaele and, thankfully you and I both know people across the country. Mm-hmm. So it's, we can help in, in any way for pretty much anybody. 

[00:43:42] Rachaele: Absolutely. Well, this has been an absolutely wonderful conversation, and I really appreciate you coming on and letting our listeners hear about biologic dentistry, the different options they have.

[00:43:53] Rachaele: And I think what we both want them to know is really listen to your gut, right? Absolutely. Your, your absolutely your body knows. [00:44:00] And please I had somebody just yesterday, it was a third opinion, because the previous, you just didn't feel right to her. My treatment was no different, but I listened.

[00:44:09] Rachaele: I sat with her for half an hour before I even opened her mouth. Wow. And it was listening to the story. And so that's, gonna be the difference. And that again, is where. We're gonna, we want to see healthcare return to that, that really important doctor patient relationship. Absolutely. Thank you again.

[00:44:25] Rachaele: Please look up Dr. Kelly's Instagram, follow him. It's really great, really eye-opening information and very exciting stuff. You can find him on He's done a bunch of podcasts too, and his summits and everything. So if you wanna learn more look there. And otherwise we'll just say goodbye for now and we'll see you next time.