Dr. Nammy Patel of Green Dentistry shares her approach to evaluating hidden dental inflammation in patients with chronic illness. She discusses oral microbiome testing, jawbone cavitations, CBCT imaging, ozone therapy, and the root canal and ceramic implant options she presents in her practice.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher, and I’m here today with Dr. Nammy Patel, founder of Green Dentistry in San Francisco, California, helping patients recognize the vital connection between dental health and whole body health and author of the bestselling books, Age with Style: Guide to a Youthful Smile and Healthy Living, and Total Wellness: Understanding the Link Between Your Teeth and Your Health. Today, we’re talking about dental inflammation. Welcome, Dr. Nammy.
Dr. Nammy Patel: Hi, John. I’m delighted to be here.
Chronic Illness and Hidden Sources of Dental Inflammation
John: Thank you. Dr. Nammy, what do chronically ill patients often ask you about things like root canals, old dental infections, cavitations, and how do these things relate to inflammation in the mouth?
Dr. Nammy: Most of my chronically ill patients come to me very scared, very overwhelmed, very confused, and wanting to understand, “how is the mouth related to the rest of the body? What is going on? How are there hidden infections inside the mouth that can be contributing to their disease”? Because they’re tired, they’re exhausted, they’re drained, and they feel horrible. So they want to know, how can I help them look at the missing link and help them get better? So when they’re coming to me, what I like to do is be very systematic. I really want to deep dive in and understand what is going on with them. We know all of disease as toxins and inflammation, because whether it’s mold, whether it’s mercury, whether it’s acrylic, it’s all a toxin. And that toxin is what our body creates inflammation with. And that inflammation is a problem because that inflammation is our body’s response to the toxin.
Oral Microbiome Testing and Personalized Dental Care
So when we are looking at inflammation, we want to get rid of the causing agent. What is causing that inflammatory response? What is causing my body to react? And what are some things that are in the mouth that most people don’t look at? And so when we talk about these things, I like to go through the process. I have a systematic way of doing this for patients, and I want to data dive. So I don’t even want to know just, it could be these things. I want to know how much of it do we have. And I want to test it, and I want to make sure we remove it, so that we can have that confidence in health. So when patients come to me, I usually have them start with an oral microbiome test. And when I look at the oral microbiome, I look at two things.
One is their genetic response. What is your immune system like? Because I want to know how their immune system is, because I want to work with it to lower inflammation. I want to know is that immune system hyperactive? Is it mediocre? Is it sluggish? Because that gives me a lot of information on how I’m going to support my patient. Am I going to add supplements? Am I going to take away supplements sometimes? Am I going to add more simplistic things to their regimen that’s going to help their immune system work better, faster, and more efficient?
That’s my foundation, so that I can personalize and customize their care through their genetics. Now, the second thing I look at is a specific bacteria that cause diseases or inflammation, and that comes in many ways, that comes in diseases like cardiovascular diseases, that comes in forms of brain diseases, gut issues, arthritis, anything that’s a chronic illness over two years of time is what it’s related to.
Jawbone Cavitations and Other Areas of Concern
We look at the oral microbiome, we make sure that we make that healthy, that is the foundation of everything. Then we start looking at hidden infections and those hidden infections or energy leaks are in many forms. It can be in a jawbone cavitation, areas of wisdom teeth that didn’t heal really well. And I’ll know which patients are probably going to have that. They’re going to give me certain clues.
For example, if somebody’s listening here, just so you know if this is you, if you had your wisdom teeth out and you had a dry socket, you probably have a cavitation. If you are somebody who is anemic normally, you probably might have a cavitation. Your body probably just didn’t heal probably. If you had low platelet counts, that would’ve been somebody who probably had a cavitation. We know these things because we’ve seen it throughout time.
So the first thing we look at is jawbone cavitations. We’re looking at metal fillings and mercury fillings. We’re also looking at titanium implants. We’re looking for any hidden sources of infection that might exist. And we really want to test for these things because it’s really important that we remove the source of the toxin so that we can reduce the toxicity or the inflammation. And we have to do it in a way that is very systematic and we have to get to the root cause and we also have to measure once we’re done, is this looking really good?
So the immune system, we know it’s only going to work a certain way because that’s genetics. So that’s going to tell us how we’re going to approach you. With the oral microbiome, what we like to do is we like to make it healthy once we go through a gum detox program, we do the gum detox program and then we test it again so that we can know that, hey, all the work we’re doing is working and you can have that data driven confidence to know that everything we’re doing is actually working.
Tracking Changes in Symptoms and Lab Results
And that is really beautiful for somebody who is struggling through chronic illness and is dealing with inflammation for a long, long time, when there is a vote of confidence that, oh my gosh, my lab tests are improving. Because the majority of the time people who are struggling with this, their lab tests are not improving. They’re having problems, their lab stays stagnant. Whether they’re doing all the work and they’re like, I don’t understand why my needle isn’t moving. So when we’re moving these toxins out of the mouth, we see the needle move and we’re really excited to see that in the mouth and the rest of the body.
Once we get rid of jawbone cavitations, the same thing. We see HRB improve, we see their blood work improve, we see their mental clarity improve, and they’re coming back to stating these things. Once the metals are removed and the detoxification is done, we’re finding patients where their anxiety goes away, their tremors go away, their brain fog goes away.
They’re coming in feeling really empowered and really excited because they now have their life back because what we’ve done is looking at hidden infections, hidden areas that nobody ever though to look at. Whether they’ve been going to the dentist every three months, six months or whatnot, most dentists aren’t trained to be able to look at these and they’re also not trained how to fix it. So when they come to a specialist like me, they know that I know what I’m talking about. I’m looking for hidden infections and I know how to treat them so that they can get healthy quickly. We can lower the inflammation. We can also make some lifestyle changes so that it allows them to stay healthy longer. It’s not just about removing the mercury fillings. It’s not just about removing the metal fillings. It’s not just about getting rid of the jaw cavitation.
It’s really, the conversation goes from removing inflammations to now optimizing the body so this never happens again. So a specialist like me focuses on both. I want to be able to use your mouth as longevity medicine. So what can I do to help you get rid of toxins and inflammation? And also what can I do to help you optimize your body and use your mouth as your longevity medicine so that you are independent of me, of a provider, of anybody else? We’re designed to work. Our bodies are amazing machines. We just have to give it the right nutrients. We just have to debug it and we’ll be in good shape. So that’s our focus.
CBCT Imaging for Dental Infections and Inflammation
John: What is CBCT imaging and what can that reveal in terms of a patient and whether or not they’re dealing with a dental infection and inflammation?
Dr. Nammy: CBCT is a cone beam scan and it is the only way to be able to see a cavitation or a hidden infection. The reason why CBCTs are so important is because they’re 3D cone beam scans. So when you go to the dentist, they’ll take x-rays, but they’re two dimensional. They’re not three dimensional. So if there’s a foci of infection, we won’t be able to see it unless it’s very, very, very large. So when we start looking at cone beam, we can deep dive in and really get to the center of the tooth, the root, and start really looking at hidden infections at the beginning stages because we want to catch it early rather than the time that it causes diseases.
So a cone beam scan actually helps us look at several things. It’s going to help us look at bone loss. It’s going to help us look at the airway, the tongue position. It’s going to be able to look for cysts. It’s going to be able to identify silver fillings, metal fillings, metal implants. It’s going to also able to help identify any cavitations or hidden sources of infections from areas where teeth were extracted and that didn’t heal really well. So a CBCT really is the foundation for a biological dentist to be able to identify all of these things.
And in our practice, we actually take a cone beam or a CBCT scan. We work with our radiologist who actually helps read for them. And also we’re looking for things that are not just mouth related. So if there’s something on the spine, if there’s something in the brain, any areas that we can see that comes available in that CBCT scan, we work with a radiologist who is actually going to be able to read that for you and be able to help you and give you a full assessment.
Ozone Therapy in Biological Dentistry
John: What about ozone therapy? How does that fit in with biological dentistry and how does it help with your teeth, your gums, and dental infections?
Dr. Nammy: Ozone is one of my favorite things in dentistry. The reason being is ozone is natural. Ozone is extra oxygen and extra oxygen is wonderful because number one, it acts like a natural antibiotic. It kills bacteria, viruses, and fungi that are bad for us because everything that’s good needs oxygen. So it kills all of that off. The second thing it does, it helps us regenerate. And the reason why it’s really great is because our bodies also need oxygen to live. So it helps us regenerate our bodies.
I use ozone in many forms. I use ozone in the gums to help get rid of gum infections. I use ozone in fillings so that I can help regenerate the teeth and also help avoid root canals. I use ozone for that. We use ozone in cavitations in order to disinfect the socket before we are able to put some fibrin in and some bone graft in to help heal the area.
We use ozone when we do teeth extractions so that the area is thoroughly clean so that you don’t have any future risk of cavitations and also help your body heal itself, get rid of the infection, help your body heal itself. Those are some ways that we use ozone. I also love to use ozone through the ears. So we can use ozone through the ear, nose, and throat.
A lot of patients who have sinus infections consistently, we’re able to use ozone. And what that does is that ozone gas goes in through the sinus cavity and disinfects and gets rid of mold and also other toxins. So it’s one of my favorite, favorite, favorite thing to do. And then the other thing we like to do in our office is to be able to use it for dental detoxification. Ozone is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite tools because you can’t go wrong with it. It literally is like the wonder drug. It’s kind of like nitric oxide. It’s one of the things that your body can use, will use to help get rid of infections and also regenerate and heal itself.
Discussing Root Canals and Ceramic Implant Alternatives
John: And then finally, how do you talk about root canals with your patients in a way that they can understand the risks and the alternatives?
Dr. Nammy: So if a patient was coming to me and they needed a root canal, I would let them know, listen, if you need a root canal, you’ve got an infection that goes all the way into the nerve and now you have several options. One is to do a root canal or a second is to extract the teeth and do a ceramic implant. Now you can do a root canal. The concern really with root canals is a dead tooth or a dead bone that’s in your mouth and it can lead to different diseases down the road. Do I know what’s going to happen to you? I don’t, because I can’t read a crystal ball because I don’t know how your body works yet. So that’s one thing, right?
And so your other option is to know with certainty that you have removed the infection and there’s no foci of infection and you know you’re not going to get an infection there in the future.
So that would be the two ways I would explain root canals to a patient is that if you did the root canal, is there a risk? The answer is yes, but yes, you’re saving the tooth. The second is if you take the tooth out, you have 100% certainty to know that there’s no infection inside there, there’s no dead tooth, there’s no dead meridians, and there are very, very, very, zero chances of any sort of diseases happening because you know that the infection is gone. There’s no foci, there’s nothing brewing, there’s nothing that may be on your mind unconsciously that you might worry about. So if you want total confidence, I would say the extraction and ceramic implant is the way. If you’re like, “Hey, I’m willing to take my chances,” that’s when patients go for a root canal. If they go through to a root canal, I have them done by a biological dentist or endodontist specifically.
And the reason why they’re done in a specific way, they use ozone, number one, they use lasers to disinfect. Thirdly, they use PRP, which is they take your blood, spin it down and take that layer, because that vascular layer is very important to help heal. And they also take a layer with all the white blood cells that kills off all the infections. All of that is being utilized, even with minerals, to be able to save your tooth. So if you were going to get a root canal it needs to be done with a biological endodontist, there’s very few of those. So I usually have my patients travel to go see a biological endodontist in order to do that, but my preference would be 100% certainty.
John: All right, well, that’s really great information, Dr. Nammy. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Dr. Nammy: Absolutely.
John: And for more information about Green Dentistry, you can visit the website at sfgreendentist.com or call 415-433-0119.
