My Experience with a BioDentist

I tend to err on the side of precautionary principles with health, and one of my favorite decisions is to find a family BIO dentist.

They do all the regular stuff, like cleaning and x-rays.

So what is so different?

• They do NOT use fluoride

• They try NOT to use harmful chemicals

• They try NOT to recommend root canals

• They do NOT use mercury fillings

  • so like other wholistic methods, it is a lot of NOTS.

• But they DO

  • They will do whatever they can to preserve the natural quality of your teeth (nature knows best)

  • Tell you about bacteria, and how managing plaque is all about keeping a more balanced pH in your mouth (more on that below)

  • They will recommend how to clean your teeth more thoroughly

    • water pick with a few drops of iodine

    • soft brushing into your gums

    • Flossing AROUND your teeth and into gum line until you get NO plaque coming off

    • toothpaste as simple as baking soda

  • Research the latest in harmful chemicals and techniques (most doctors/dentists are terribly outdated)

  • Analyze your plaque on a microscope in front of you, discussing what they see

  • Feel your jaw, and how it moves, looking for inflammation or imbalance which can also cause wearing down teeth

  • Discuss your teeth shape, and how that effects your gums (rather than just saying you brush too hard)

  • They also helped explain that if you have bloody gums in a certain area, that is where you need to focus extra hard to floss. Bleeding means irritation, and buildup of plaque into tar, which can still be reversible before a cavity develops

• Resource:

  • Book: Holistic Dental Care

  • Articles: Is it safe? and Is it a good idea?

These are the things I ended up coming home with, and some other options if you have more to spend.

• The needed thing:

  • simple X-soft toothbrush, Nimbus, ($4 each, $19 for 5 pack)

  • Coco Floss (extra thick! and no weird chemicals), ($9 each, $27 for 3 pack)

  • Baking soda ($10 for the one with a lid, but any cheap kind will do!)

    • and i like having a little to-go powder container for the baking soda ($16 for 2 pack)

• Extras

  • Toothpaste: Boka Orange Cream Natural Toothpaste

    • If you have kids, or just WANT a paste. (they also have mint and unflavored)

  • Mouth Rinse

The Fluoride Debate

• I have been listening to both sides of the fluoride debate, and unsurprisingly, I think nature wins out. We have not used fluoride for millions of years on teeth, and most of us have been just fine.

  • In fact, if you find the societies with most beautiful teeth, they just eat real food. (not sugar, not processed, and NO FLOURIDE). So stopping right here, it makes sense to me we do not NEED it.

• So what is the debate about? Harm of chemicals. And we all know safety studies are not up to snuff. Some major indicators of harm

  • the michigan fluoride water spill (and major harm)

The “Science”

I tend to fall on the side of science - and my interpretation of that means being cautious of indications of harm. And yes, I tend to choose the more wholistic science than the mainstream science. (yes, it is all science, you just have to pick which “scientists” you choose to follow, and I don’t like the politically correct ones that are mostly bought out. In any deep dive, the wholistic version almost always wins for me with more real data to back it up).

Insurance

The doctors and offices that “follow the science” (in my opinion, the real ones, the ones with real data), tend to NOT like working with insurance. If you have ever had to CALL an insurance office to ask about something, you will realize how unorganized and UNscientific they are. Anyone intelligent and willing to work a little (which is what real health is all about), chooses NOT to work with insurance. It sucks for the patients, whose work tends to PAY for the insurance already, but real health is worth it.

So sadly, this does mean paying more, at least up front, but not as much as you would expect. Most of the time, the cost is pretty similar to using insurance anyway, I just have to pay up front. This means about

• $180 for a cleaning, and

• $350 for X-rays

  • and I will let you know what insurance reimburses me

  • It pays out what it THINKS a dental appointment should cost. (using cheapest materials, etc). They also have not raised what they pay back the dentist in 20 years, so many dentists are choosing to walk away from working with them. This does not mean you are in charge of the whole cost, you just have to pay up front, and may pay $50 or so more than typically.