Naturally supporting cavities, gums and oral health with holistic dentist Dr. Kelly Blodgett

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I am joined by holistic dentist Dr. Kelly Blodgett. In this episode, we discuss how to naturally support your gums and oral health. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Ways to protect our gums beyond gentle brushing and flossing. 
• Can you heal cavities naturally without any fillings?
• Can we detox through our teeth?
• How to find a holistic dentist?

ABOUT GUEST:
Dr. Kelly J. Blodgett is redefining the modern dental experience.  Over the past 20 years, he has created a practice that is recognized as an international hotspot for Dental Tourism.  He attracts those who seek a holistic and integrative biological approach to their oral and whole-body health.  This is the dentistry that every human wants, but few know exists!  Through his weekly Toxic Tuesday and Wellness Wednesday social media posts, Dr. Blodgett shares truths not commonly discussed in traditional dental settings.  His post series illustrates his patients’ incredible journeys back to health along with providing best practices for predictable oral and systemic health.   

WHERE TO FIND       :

Instagram: @blodgettdentalcare
Website: www.blodgettedentalcare.com 

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:

https://www.christabiegler.com/

On IG: instagram.com/anti.inflammatory.nutritionist/

Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

TRANSCRIPT: 

[00:00:00] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Everything that happens in your mouth matters. There isn't anything that won't matter, whether it's the application of fluoride to a tooth dying. I mean it's, it all has impact. 

[00:00:12] Christa: Stress is the inflammation that robs us of life, energy, and happiness. Our typical solutions for gut health and hormone balance.

[00:00:22] Christa: Have let a lot of us down we're overmedicated and underserved at the less trust life. We are a community of health savvy women exploring solutions outside of our traditional Western medicine toolbox and training to raise the bar and change our stories. Each week, our hope is that you leave our sessions inspired to learn, grow, and share these stories to raise the bar in your life and home.

[00:00:55] Christa: All right. Today on the less Rest Life I have Dr. Kelly Blot, who is redefining [00:01:00] the modern dental experience Over the past 20 years. He's created a practice, which is recognized as an international hotspot for dental tourism. He attracts those who seek a holistic and integrative biological approach to their.

[00:01:11] Christa: Oral and whole body health, and this is the dentistry that every human wants but few know exists. Through his weekly Toxic Tuesday and Wellness Wednesday social media posts, he shares truths not commonly discussed in traditional dental settings. His posts series illustrate his patients incredible journeys.

[00:01:26] Christa: Back to health with providing best practices for predictable oral and systemic health. What a lovely, concise but awesome bio welcome logic . 

[00:01:35] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Thank you. Yeah. 

[00:01:36] Christa: Sometimes I'm reading three paragraphs of things. I'm like, oh, so much said here in just a few sentences. 

[00:01:41] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Congratulations. Well, Thank you for saying that.

[00:01:44] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I appreciate it. I know 

[00:01:45] Christa: it does not come easily . I feel that. So, you know when you're in this place, when you are the international hotspot for dental tourism, and I certainly kind of know you as that, I'd love to hear about how that all started. and how [00:02:00] you ended up, like what were some of these catalysts that took you down a path of, hey, this isn't working in dental.

[00:02:07] Christa: Mm-hmm. right now. And how did you start to kind of bring some of this in? And this, I'm so curious if you were inspired by some of these leaders, or I think of them as, as kind of thought leaders or those that change things. Dentists kind of started chiropractic, right? Mm-hmm. . And so I'm kind of wondering if you have any, if some of.

[00:02:24] Christa: Were any inspiration to you, so take it away with this history of how this Certainly, 

[00:02:29] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: certainly. Well, I appreciate you asking. It has been an interesting journey. I mean, I've, it's been almost 30 years since I got outta college and took a total u-turn from my training in psychology and I was gonna start a master's program in counseling and headed in the direction of dentistry instead.

[00:02:50] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: 30 years later, my progression to where we are today and my practice really started out with respecting the psychology and emotional [00:03:00] connection to human beings first. Mm-hmm. . So even when I was in dental school, the way that I would choose words and the way I would engage in having conversations about states of health was intentional.

[00:03:13] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I'm not a fan of phrases such as you need, or you should. So like my team is trained to think about the words that they're using. So the psychology was first. 20 years ago when I was a newbie business owner, I really went deep into the technology side of things, which for me looked like lasers and cad cam thing, you know, computer aided dentistry, and then maybe eight to 10 years ago, Started appreciating the biological nature of like what was going well biologically and what wasn't going well biologically, such as root canals for me, you know, I was trained to do root canals at dental school.

[00:03:52] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I'd been doing them for 15 years or so, and I don't know if it must have been, you know, the two or 3000th. [00:04:00] Root canal I'd extracted. Finally, it dawned on me like, why are these teeth always black when I pull them out? You know? And, uh, started digging deeper into the aspects of what we consider holistic dentistry or biological dentistry.

[00:04:14] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Integrative dentistry. I mean, there's a lot of words being used to market that this style of care these days, but, you know, I just look at it like what is interrupting energetic flow for a person and. Helping uplift energetic flow for a person. So, and in the mouth, go figure, you know, everything that's in your mouth, your gums, your bone, your teeth, your fillings, your crowns, your implants, your orthodontic brackets.

[00:04:39] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It all relates to the energetic experience of our lives. So that's where we are today. This progress of psychology technology in biology has led us to where we are honoring people's feeling. First and foremost, and like when someone tells me, I feel like such and such is going on for me, and we're like, [00:05:00] okay.

[00:05:00] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: When I hear the I feel statement, it's time to, you know, be quiet and listen. And, you know, it's part of our, our ethos here is that we believe people come to us with the answers already, and our job is to listen well and ask good questions rather than telling them what they need or should do. Mm-hmm. . So that's kind of the nature of my.

[00:05:18] Christa: Yeah. I love hearing about that. You just opened yourself up to so many more questions for me today. Oh, good. Thank you. Yes, . Well, it's fun because, you know, I see energetics and what's going on with stress and all of those things playing such a huge role, nutrition, and that makes perfect sense to me. But who would've thought that it plays such a role in such a structural area and the teeth as well?

[00:05:39] Christa: And actually, to go back, I, I loved how you kind of lined that up, but you, you said, , you were really paying attention to what was going on biologically, and why were the teeth black when you're pulling out these root canals. Mm-hmm. . And on that note, maybe you wanna touch on that. I know that's not something you just necessarily touch on.

[00:05:54] Christa: It's a huge part of what you talk about sometimes. Mm-hmm. , but also, you know, on the note of how we [00:06:00] change, that's a thing, right? Where we see teeth. Are progressively getting worse. . Mm-hmm. or they don't look as nice or they're not quite as straight. Do you have anything to say about that and kind of the change in our culture over time and kind of how you're seeing teeth now, even when you started 30 years ago?

[00:06:17] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah. Yeah, I think that, uh, Steven Lynn cool dentist down in Australia wrote this book, the Dental Diet, and he talks a lot about, you know, over the past 150 to 200 years how we experience nutrition. The foods we eat, especially in the last. Gosh, 30 to 40 years, the nature of processed foods, I mean, they're so calorically rich and nutritionally poor.

[00:06:42] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And as we're seeing, I mean, it, it has a real effect on the epigenetics and the, the growth expression and the health expression of our. entire bodies, which includes our teeth. I mean, like teeth are not structural only is, uh, you know, components of our body. I mean, [00:07:00] they, they actually like stem from the same cells that, that create our central nervous system.

[00:07:06] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. . So it's no wonder when we alter their shape or their health, how much that can alter a person's health experience. Hmm. So, yeah. It's interesting cuz I, you know, I was fortunate to have grandparents who were, you know, pretty old. My mom was the youngest of a bunch of kids and you know, when I look at their lifestyle, they both lived to be 94, died of natural causes.

[00:07:28] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: They lived off of whole foods, grown in their backyard, you know, raised their own rabbits and chickens. And I look at. They ate their entire lives and how I was eating in the 1970s and eighties and you know, it's like, wow, , you really can eat from a garden. It turns out with our modern lifestyles, that's not always easy to do, of course, but it sure causes me to think about.

[00:07:53] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: The foods that my, our patients are eating. Like if it's out of a squeezy tube [00:08:00] and, uh, it's, you know, laden with sugars and acids and, you know, processed, it's like, oh man, it no wonder we're not healthy as a society, you know? Mm-hmm. . And again, the, the teeth are a reflection and not just teeth, of course, gums, bone health.

[00:08:15] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's all a reflection of what else is going on in the body. 

[00:08:17] Christa: Yeah, I was gonna say, I always feel like I love dentists because I think the mouth is a picture of what's going on inside the body, and you brought up the epigenetics of what's going on, and you brought up that. Your oral health kind of starts when the same time the central nervous system is being developed.

[00:08:35] Christa: Mm-hmm. . And so I see this, and I don't know if this is an awareness, I don't believe it's just awareness, but we're seeing these all time elevations, and I know pediatrics are not your focus, but we're seeing these huge. increases in tongue ties and lip ties and all these things going on with people mm-hmm.

[00:08:49] Christa: In an oral cavity sense, which can have, I mean, I've, I've heard this and I think, I dunno if it was from Steven Lens work or, or someone else where that some of this stuff does come from, essentially Yeah. In, [00:09:00] in uterine or different epigenetic expressions happening. Mm-hmm. where it's causing that. But you know,

[00:09:05] Christa: Hindsight's always 2020. Mm-hmm. . So it's like you don't really care about it unless it's affected you. People are like, oh, I always wanted, I wish I'd had done something about that. Well, we're always doing the best we can with what, what we know. Right. But do you have any comments about those changes seen?

[00:09:18] Christa: I feel like I'm seeing, or I definitely am seeing a bigger awareness of discussions around, around just other oral things as well. Lize, tongue ties. Do you, when you're looking inside of a mouth, maybe a way to phrase this, do you see other things going on? I mean, do you sometimes find these in adults later 

[00:09:34] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: on?

[00:09:35] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Oh, yeah, sure. You know, it's because of the nature of my practice and, and, and probably the nature of my spirit, which is to listen to people who have suffered and to help them despite the fact that they hear, they've heard from a lot of other practitioners that, no, that can't be connected, or, no, that's not the case.

[00:09:52] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I primarily see people who they're not well, you know, uh, orally, like they might have. Six root [00:10:00] canals, or they've got 12 mercury fillings, or you know, so they're kind of at the, on the bell curve of experience. They're on, you know, one end. Whereas some of my counterparts that do pediatrics are seeing things on the front end, right?

[00:10:13] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. . So I guess point being that. Yeah, I might see things like tongue ties or, you know, labial freedom issues or constricted palatal arches. Mm-hmm. , uh, you know, no space for the tongue issues with sleep apnea and airway and things like that. You know, that's not my personal area of, of treatment. That's not the, the area I'm most passionate about helping people, uh, manage.

[00:10:37] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But it's something we see all too often. Right. I'm in my fifties now and I. when I was a kid, middle school kids getting pre-molars extracted. Hmm. Like without a second thought. Just so that we could have straight teeth. Right. They'd condense the arches to make teeth straight cuz you know, they're too crowded.

[00:10:57] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: The irony is like their skull's gonna grow . You [00:11:00] know, like most people's teeth will kind of fill into the space if we allow it. But you know, 11, 12 years old, oh, not enough room. We better pull teeth and squish the arch and then they're left with an airway issue. For many people for the rest of your life.

[00:11:14] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: So it's, this stuff does start early. It's, um, thankfully, I would say by and large, the orthodontic community has become aware that, eh, maybe we should, you know, rethink that, that practice and, uh, see about optimizing bone growth and, you know, encouraging mothers to breastfeed and, you know, all those things that.

[00:11:32] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Day one, or even in utero, frankly, you know, to honor how things were designed biologically, of course, we're gonna end up with a better physiological expression of our growth rather than trying to force it into some other box that's, that's a person made. . 

[00:11:48] Christa: Mm-hmm. . Tell me about, you said you have your passion area, so why don't you tell us a little bit about the areas that you are most excited about in your work.

[00:11:55] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Oh, boy. Yeah, so I would say that probably [00:12:00] 80% of my time I spend removing dead stuff now that oftentimes is dead teeth, such as root canal, treated teeth, you know, abscess teeth and dead. So these areas, wh, which are commonly referred to as cavitation lesions. Mm-hmm. , they're areas of bone which go through a degenerative process where the structural integrity inside the bone just melts away and it turns into this fatty degenerative tissue that gives off chemical messengers.

[00:12:30] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: which stimulates, uh, silent inflammation throughout the body. And when I say silent, like I'm reading a textbook right now by one of the world's leaders on the subject, and he is talking about how like interleukin one receptor antagonist, the, the chemical that tells your body or blocks your body's ability to sense inflammation is amplified by these lesions.

[00:12:52] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I mean, how crazy is that? You've got. Chemicals coming off of these, the which start creating issues like, you know, breast [00:13:00] cancer, prostate cancer, d you know, putting at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes. And at the same time it's shutting down your body's ability to sense inflammation about it.

[00:13:10] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. It's pretty creepy. Yeah. Um, so that's what I spend the majority of my time doing a part of. Also is, you know, recreating or, or stabilizing a person's smile. It's one of the most interesting aspects about dental care, right? Is that, you know, it's not like you're going to, you know, replace a knee, let's say, and then close it up with the skin and nobody's gonna see the knee.

[00:13:34] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I mean, everything we do is gonna be front and center usually, unless it's like a second molar, maybe. But all too frequently, you know, it's in a a place where people are gonna see the end result. And there's a lot of emotion tied up with that too, right? Like how people look influences and impacts how they feel about themselves, how they feel about the life experiences, which led them to that place.

[00:13:58] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: The emotional [00:14:00] aspects of what people are dealing with, with their oral health can be. . Yeah. 

[00:14:04] Christa: Well I was gonna ask you about recognizing early inflammation. As you said this, it made me think about sometimes when people hear podcasts like this, they say, well, this would be great if I could go see dr. B bla so he could tell me that I've got these things and, and I've had where really?

[00:14:19] Christa: Kind of stealthy tooth infections or inflammation. Yeah. Are really creating a wrench in MyCare plan because it's dumping a whole pile of pathogens into the bloodstream very efficiently and quickly. Yeah. So what would you say to people who would like to recognize this early inflammation? But you know, they don't see like, there are two, it's not overtly.

[00:14:40] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah. Well, and I think that the vast majority of, of, uh, the dental profession is still trying to convince people that, you know, when you have a dead tooth, let's just say one, just one dead tooth, you know, one root canal, that there's no way that that can impact your health. And unfortunately there are a [00:15:00] lot of people who have an intuitive sense that that isn't the case for them.

[00:15:05] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. , um, yeah. What you're talking about so significant. I, one of the, uh, the most frequently, how should I say this? The person to whom we refer the most frequently is a functional nutritionist here in town. Mm-hmm. , because she has come to appreciate the value of what we do and we, for what she's doing, and.

[00:15:25] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Like we can't work without each other. If we could add to that mix, somebody who's really savvy in energetic testing, whether that's, uh, some form of muscle testing, some form of acupuncture, meridian assessment. I don't know. There's a lot of different ways to do energetic testing it. I have found that to be one of the most helpful things because what I'm looking at, somebody's three-dimensional.

[00:15:48] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Scan, you know, like a x-ray, a CT scan of their head. I can tell the variances in black and white, you know, but I can't tell. , what's the energy of that tissue? Uh, reading. I have [00:16:00] no idea. I don't have energy, vision. Mm-hmm. . Uh, so it's a tricky business. It's not a simple one. I will say when we do see things on 3D scans that are obvious, I mean, typically it's a hot, hot mess.

[00:16:13] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Like it's always a. And I, I'm cautious with how I use always, but in those cases it's always you open it up and it's like, wow, it might be totally black inside the bone, or just a massive fatty cyst, or you know, something odd. But it's all the times where, , you really can't tell if something's off or not a person is doing.

[00:16:33] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: They might be working with someone like you and they're like, I'm doing everything right. I'm following what you're telling me. And I still feel like garbage and the mouth oftentimes is the last place to be investigated. Mm-hmm. . So it's hopefully through communications like we're having today, we can make more people aware that it actually, you know, everything that happens in your mouth.

[00:16:57] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: there isn't anything that won't matter, whether it's [00:17:00] the application of fluoride to a tooth dying. I mean, it's, it all has impact. So what we're willing to accept is up to each individual person. Of course. So, all right, 

[00:17:11] Christa: well, this is bringing up lots of questions that I had submitted, so, Speaking of gum changes and kind of being aware of inflammation and energetics.

[00:17:22] Christa: Yeah, so mouth grinding or teeth grinding. The most common things we see for teeth grinding would be parasite type infections or stress, emotional, spiritual blockages, et cetera. So is there. Anything for protecting your teeth if you're doing some grinding besides mouth guards, is there anything to protect not only the teeth, but also the gums beyond brushing and flossing that people can 

[00:17:47] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: be doing?

[00:17:48] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah, that's a, that's awesome question. So, I mean, when I look, look at mouth guards and when we certainly make them, you know, some people have had a lot of damage and it's a, a non-invasive way of helping to [00:18:00] protect what they have left. , but you, you just hit the nail on the head there like, you know, stress.

[00:18:05] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Oh man. You know, like who doesn't clinch and grind and do something that's rough. I mean, by the time we're 60, I don't know a human being who doesn't have significant wear patterns on their teeth unless they just have a open bite. You know? I mean there's always the the one off, but stress energetic issues.

[00:18:26] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Past trauma you mentioned as well, parasite infections, like all of those things are at the root cause of why it's happening. A thoughtful oral healthcare provider is going to consider those things. Maybe you offer up a, a night guard as a, you know, until we understand more, this would be a good way of decreasing risk.

[00:18:47] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But I mean, arguably we weren't born with a quote unquote need for a bike yard, right? Mm-hmm. . So it's like, well, if we do believe that in fact our bodies are brought into this world [00:19:00] with the capacity and intention to, to experience health, then what's in the way of that? And I think that's the real question, is if, whether it's a tooth that's breaking down, whether it's gum health that's not looking well, whether it's, you know, grinding of.

[00:19:15] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: What's at the root of why this is occurring. You manage that and the symptoms go away. And I would much rather help people in that fashion. Mm-hmm. Um, than, you know, like for instance, somebody who's diabetic and has massively inflamed gums and, you know, of course they're, they're risk for gum disease if you're dealing with diabetes, increases significantly.

[00:19:37] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Well, what's going on with the diet and the lifestyle that you, they could do that would improve their diabetic. You know, it's not like, well, I'm diabetic, I'm just gonna, you know, give myself shots in the arm and, you know, monitor my, my blood sugar level, but still eat Snickers and, and Coca-Cola. You know, that would obviously be like a high risk way to go about it.

[00:19:57] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But the gums are gonna tell us the story. [00:20:00] You know, it's like, are they well managed or not? , are they experiencing cardiovascular complications? And they've put, been put on beta blockers. You know, the gums are gonna tell you the story. Similar to night guards. There are ways to, to help people reduce risk orally.

[00:20:14] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Of course. One of my favorites is a, it's a product called Perio Protect. I love, love, love the people that run the company. It's just a smart, it's a smart way of decreasing oral microbiological risk in your mouth. You gotta manage the gut health as well. You gotta make sure that you know the whole body health is doing well, not just putting trays in the mouth with a gel.

[00:20:36] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Right. It's a whole health picture. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:20:39] Christa: Totally on this note, there's so much, so many questions for what's happening inside the mouth. So first up is really the main dental, the very common dental concern about cavities. So one person asks, can you work on cavities? Without fillings, can you do remineralization or other things?

[00:20:58] Christa: And kind of when's the point of no [00:21:00] return or is there not a point of no return? And I mean, there's, there's books and things I think out there on this topic. Sure. So have you seen this be successful and, uh, if so, tell us 

[00:21:09] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: about it. Yeah, sure. So let, let's start with the basics. You know, the tooth is built in three layers.

[00:21:15] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You have your enamel layer, which is super hard. It's the part that we see when we smile, and that's maybe, you know, 15, 20% of your tooth is enamel. The majority of your tooth is actually a collagen based material called dentin, and it's. You know, much less mineralized than the enamel. And so if you're ex, and the third layer, by the way, is your soft tissue, nerves, blood supply, things like that right in the center.

[00:21:39] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: If enamel loses enough mineral that it opens itself into the dentin. It's not really an option at that point to remineralize, because the structural matrix, which was mineralized, is now gone. So in those cases, like yeah, there's not much you can do. If the loss of mineral is still within [00:22:00] the enamel and the superstructure of the enamel is still present, then it's totally possible to remineralize the enamel.

[00:22:07] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You can expedite that process by using O. In the areas where you're experiencing that, I get asked a lot like, oh, hey, what's, what's the best product I could be using? You know, like, what's, what's the best toothpaste or, or remineralizing paste or gel or powder or whatever. My encouragement to people is to think about what's the one thing your teeth is exposed to all day long?

[00:22:29] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Not just two minutes to five minutes. It's your saliva. You know, your saliva is teaming with minerals, and one of the functions it has as we. You know, we eat anything, right? We take our mouth, takes a dip into the acid pool, and then 20 to 30 minutes later, assuming we're not continuously snacking, we're gonna be coming back out of that pool.

[00:22:49] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And it's the saliva that's doing the job of buffering and providing the mineral content. So it's. In order to have healthy saliva, you have to have healthy blood. Hmm. To have healthy blood, you gotta have [00:23:00] good clean water and, you know, be able to absorb your nutrients. Mm-hmm. And nutrients of all types, you know, you know, fat soluble as well.

[00:23:07] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: So it's, it's a whole health picture when teeth are breaking down. Unless it's somebody who's like, I'm just so addicted to Dr. Pepper right now, I'm, you know, I'm just picking on one soda. Or it could be kombucha for that matter. Mm-hmm. Anything, uh, And or sweet is going to put your teeth at risk, but it certainly can happen where due to poor digestion, due to poor chronic whole body acidity, like we could easily see teeth start breaking down.

[00:23:37] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And we're thinking that like if toothpaste is gonna help, do you know f. Patch the holes. It, it generally, I do not see that. Mm-hmm. , uh, be helpful. But I have absolutely seen people who were experiencing states of breakdown of their teeth. They changed their diet and lifestyle. They improved their gut health and absorption.

[00:23:55] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And, you know, five years later, areas of teeth that were breaking [00:24:00] down have become healthy again. It's a, it is absolutely possible if you catch it early. Yeah. So yeah, on this 

[00:24:08] Christa: note, I don't forget too far off. No, no, not at all. On this note, before we depart from to the co the topic of toothpaste and mineralization, et cetera, I remember a dentist saying one time to my child, or, or someone, you know, it's just hard once they get that bad bacteria in there, you just can't get it out.

[00:24:25] Christa: And I thought, I'm not sure that's accurate. ? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure that's accurate, sir. And so there are different toothpaste with antimicrobial properties and then there's remineralizing toothpaste and I tend to kind of try to land between the two and do a little bit of both. And I've tried a lot of different ones and man, it makes a huge difference if, let's say I waited a really long time to get my teeth cleaned in Covid times.

[00:24:47] Christa: I mean, I don't know if you, I'm sure you know this, like dental cares like a, it is a premium to get a dental appointment sometimes. 

[00:24:54] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Oh boy. Yeah. Um, 

[00:24:56] Christa: We need more people in your field, I guess. Yeah. So, uh, so anyway, but [00:25:00] using very good, nice antimicrobial toothpaste were like a dream for my teeth being on point.

[00:25:06] Christa: And so I would say I felt like that was not accurate at all. And I think what you're saying is you would say that's not accurate either. You can shift what's going on in the mouth. Oh, have healthy blood . 

[00:25:15] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Absolutely. Just as if you had, you know, you change your diet suddenly like, I don't know, maybe you're a vegan and you know, you suddenly change your diet to something else.

[00:25:24] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You become paleo. I don. Like, you're going to experience a different state of health. Mm-hmm. , you know, I'm, I'm not saying good, bad, or the other, it's just, it's just different. Yeah. So if we think about the microbiological nature of our mouths, which by the way, when I was in dental school, you know, the term microbiome didn't exist.

[00:25:44] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It, it's just we've learned so much in the past, you know, 25, 30 years. 

[00:25:48] Christa: Yeah, totally. Um, and before I depart further from this topic mm-hmm. , uh, we can't leave talking about teeth and, and the conversation around cavities without talking about fluoride as it's kind of [00:26:00] the go-to. Right? So, And before, let me come back to fluoride.

[00:26:05] Christa: One person asked, what are your thoughts on xylitol based tooth products? I've heard mixed things about it being a good alternative to fluoride for teeth, but other things say it disrupts oral and gut microbiota. 

[00:26:15] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. ? Yes. , 

[00:26:17] Christa: yes. All 

[00:26:18] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: of the above. . Yeah. I mean, I just go back to the same thing, like I really don't, you know, there's no panacea.

[00:26:26] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. , the solution is lifestyle. And your daily habits and like what you choose to eat, drink, think. There's nothing that you can expose your mouth to for two minutes. It's going to create miracles. Hmm. You know, if, if we want miracles, we've gotta respect and I'm a human being. Right? Like I have the fit my vices things.

[00:26:46] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I like that. You know, like, Coffee or whatever, you know, like, could I eat cleaner? Sure, yeah. Like who couldn't? But it's, where's the balance struck? I think that's a bigger question to me. Rather than like, well, is xylitol the panacea? Is [00:27:00] fluoride the panacea? I would say, no, there's no panacea. There's like, Daily practices.

[00:27:05] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's not sexy, you know, it's just like you gotta do the right things and your body says, thank you and, and rewards you with good health, you know? Yeah, 

[00:27:14] Christa: totally. And on that note, do you use fluoride in practice? I always feel like this is kind of a, the conversation around fluoride is some people are like, oh, I heard this wasn't good for me.

[00:27:24] Christa: But the real, the issue for me is that it's disrupting. , it's competing with other halogens, like mm-hmm. iodine, and it can be an endocrine disruptor as well. Mm-hmm. . So do you have any comments on where you feel like fluoride has a place or doesn't have a place? Or do you just spit and do 

[00:27:40] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: other things? I think there can be some specific situations for people at high risk, particularly let's say like the pit and fissure parts of permanent teeth for children who are at high risk.

[00:27:53] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You know, there are certain like glass iion or materials you can actually. Stick to a tooth, which will help [00:28:00] the enamel mature in a way that's more acid resistant. And, you know, that's a healthy thing. What 

[00:28:07] Christa: did you call it? You called it something? 

[00:28:09] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Glasser. Oh, okay. Glasser. Yeah. It's, it's an interesting material.

[00:28:13] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I use it occasionally in, in specific situations. I rarely. Use it in a situation where it will then be exposed to the mouth. It's always sealed up, so I personally don't use it. I stopped using it by and large in the practice. A number of years ago, if a person walked in and said, doc. I love fluoride varnish.

[00:28:35] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I just know that it's the best for me and I want it. You know what? I would say, let me get some fluoride varnish and we can put that on your teeth for you if you feel like it helps you. Great. I would also inform them that the mucosa of your lips, your tongue also is going to be coming in contact with that fluoride, which you will absorb into your bloodstream, and it does decrease IQ and have negative neurological.[00:29:00] 

[00:29:00] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: If that's what you want, we'd be happy to do it. I have yet to have anybody actually say they wanna do that once I explain to them, and anybody can go onto PubMed and look this stuff up. I mean, the amount of information for explaining how and why that happens is so vast. . And again, when it comes back to you have to have healthy saliva anyways, why are we trying to, you know, fluoridate people literally to death or to stupidity at least it just doesn't make any sense to me.

[00:29:29] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, I wish there were 

[00:29:31] Christa: some other options. . 

[00:29:32] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Well, and thankfully, you know, I live in Portland, Oregon where we're not Fluoridated, which is fortunate. Not that it hasn't, they haven't tried to push that a number of times, but our community continues to say, , which is refreshing. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:29:45] Christa: Yes. Refreshing.

[00:29:46] Christa: All right, so let's talk about detoxification through the gums and oral tissue. I had someone wondering if she could be experiencing bad breath as she worked through her mold [00:30:00] protocol because it was happening for her and her daughter, and I feel like, again, the mouth is this window and you can have, you have lymph and other things moving through there, but what is your thoughts around.

[00:30:10] Christa: Around not only detoxification in the gums and what happens there. I mean, I usually think about more absorption, uh, but anything, uh, possible. And so that, and bad breath 

[00:30:20] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: overall. Yeah. I would say, I mean, , this is such a massive topic to try to cover in, you know, such a tiny space of time, but it's also very important of course.

[00:30:32] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I mean, I, when I think of detoxification, you know, I'm thinking of, you know, four primary routes, right? Are you breathing it out, sweating it out, peeing it out, pooing it out? Mm. , those are your four primary ways. If there's bad smells coming from your gums, it much more likely has to do with the nature of the microbiome under your gums, like what we call sub gingival, meaning under the gums, could there be, you know, tartar buildup or things that literally have sulfur compounds in them that [00:31:00] stink?

[00:31:00] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Um, absolutely a possibility for any one person. It's like if they just notice that they're breast smelled. that could be for so many reasons. I, I'm not dogmatic and I don't like generalizations of any kind. It's like, well, for that one person, who knows, we'd have to investigate. Mm-hmm. . Um, but certainly detox issues from oral sources.

[00:31:24] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: of, I'm just gonna lump it all into junk. How about that? Mm-hmm. , you know, whether it's mercury, whether it is fatty degenerative stuff around root canals or dead two spaces or what have you, it's your body has to clear that stuff, you know, which depends for any one given person, it descends. It depends on where is their whole body, state of health.

[00:31:47] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Are they cap. Of detoxification. I mean, we're all born with that capacity, but how much we've damaged our overall toxic load over time. It's like some people are in a state of health [00:32:00] where they literally are so toxically loaded that they can't clear it. You know? I see a lot of these. A lot of people in that situation, unfortunately, like they've been diseased for so long, it's like, eh, how do you even get there?

[00:32:12] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: So, yeah. As it relates to gums, I, I mean, I am like, I, I just look at it from the perspective of you wanna optimize that state of health, which there are a lot of different ways to go about doing that. But detox, I would look whole body health. We encourage every one of our patients, make sure you're working with a great naturopath or functional medicine provider.

[00:32:33] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Or functional nutritionist or you know, somebody who is thinking whole body and detox pathways. Mm-hmm. cuz it's so critical. Yeah. 

[00:32:40] Christa: Well, on this note, I had another question that came in about if you're going through, if you're doing some active detoxification, like, you know, one of the big ones like mold and we feeling more films in our mouth than usual.

[00:32:51] Christa: Can I increase my daily brushing or is there another way I can care for my teeth without being too? 

[00:32:56] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yes, . Again, it would [00:33:00] depend on what's appropriate for that person, what's going on in their mouth, what techniques or therapies might we advise? There are just so many, whether it's are you looking to use some sort of.

[00:33:13] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Oral rinse protocol multiple times throughout the day. Are you looking to increase or change brushing habits? Are we looking to use something like perio protect trays? Are we using photobiomodulation therapies? Mm-hmm. I mean, we use, we use light in my practice every single day. Lasers, LEDs, all sorts of biophoton therapies, because it works, which goes back to the detoxification concepts.

[00:33:38] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But yeah, it's, if you're noticing changes in your. It's an indication, something's changing in your body. Hmm. That could be an indication of good things. Right. Without knowing a person's story. I, I just, you know, I can't say one way or the other. What, what would be an appropriate set of steps. Right. Will 

[00:33:55] Christa: you talk to us about photo biomodulation and the lasers and LEDs they use and [00:34:00] why you use them and what you see from those?

[00:34:02] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Absolutely. So in my practice, we started back, you know, literally over 20 years ago. It was actually my first step when I mentioned like I got into technology early. My first step in in that direction was I bought two lasers before I bought those. I read so much data and scientific studies on how light impacts the body.

[00:34:26] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I mean, we can take a simple one, right? Like, well, , you know, wanna get outside for X amount of time a day, get some, uh, you know, sun exposure because some of those rays are going to create some vitamin D in your body, which you want for X, Y, and Z. Right? It's like, that's cool, it's light, you know? Mm-hmm.

[00:34:43] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: generally, when I'm out in the sun for 20 minutes, I feel great. You know, it's a warming experience, blah, blah, blah. So what we find is, Light of particular wavelengths, particularly in my practice. We use a lot of red and infrared wavelengths. We actually have a a, a [00:35:00] bed in one room called a Novo Thor bed.

[00:35:03] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's a dual wavelength red and infrared light therapy bed where patients can use it anytime they want. , it's a 12 minute session and their entire body gets exposed to red and infrared light. It's like magic. But before we owned that, uh, we've had that about a year and a half before we did that, we would do more localized areas post-surgically, let's say, or, or even after having some fillings.

[00:35:25] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: where you've had some tissue trauma through mm-hmm. , you know, having injections and things. We use those light therapies to stimulate healing red and infrared light wavelengths increase, or they amplify the production of a t p, the, the universal fuel of all living cells. It's like, well, who wouldn't want that?

[00:35:46] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You know, after any type of therapy. So we have just continued on. In our understanding and utilization of light as a therapy. As a matter of fact, every patient who has surgery in our practice goes home with [00:36:00] their own. It's part of their goody bag, along with their homeopathics and lymphatic drainage remedies and things like that that we make for them.

[00:36:07] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Everybody gets a dual wavelength. Red and infrared light that they can just, it's theirs to keep. I mean, we have them use that once or twice a day over the sites where we've provided care. And it's like, it's awesome. Like most of our patients don't take NSAIDs. They don't take pain medication. If they do, it's very minimal, which allows their body to get straight to healing, which is really cool.

[00:36:30] Christa: Yeah, very cool. That's really special. Uh, so trying to apply this at home, if you have a. Feel free to shine it on your face. . Absolutely. Oh, increase that. Well, you just brought up a couple more things, which is that you send people home after surgery with lymphatic support. Yeah. And homeopathy. What do you wanna say about that and what is kind of the mechanism that you're, are you just trying to reduce inflammation immediately and then support lymphatic drainage 

[00:36:54] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: overall?

[00:36:54] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: All that. Yeah. So like, you know, part of my learning journey was doing a, I did [00:37:00] about a year and a half through an integrative medical dental college back in New Jersey. And, you know, we learned about all these kinds of things, you know, gut health, homeopathy, energetics. It was just awesome. And, you know, I was looking to apply like, how can I help people heal more predictably?

[00:37:17] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Certainly, like if we take Advil, you know, ibuprofens, it sure enough is gonna block your body's ability to sense pain to some degree, but it's also gonna slow down the healing process. Pardon me? So, you know, I figured if we can arm them with light therapy with a custom remedy. So the lymphatic drainage remedy that we typically use is lymph fines by Marco Pharma, and I use a remedy maker.

[00:37:42] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's, I know it sounds crazy, but we put anything that came out of their mouth that was infected or energetically disruptive, we invert the electromagnetic frequencies of that substance into the lymphs and they take that home and do 30 drops in water twice a day or three times a day. And they do that along with [00:38:00] four different types of homeopathics.

[00:38:02] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I'd have to go look at my list. Uh, but you know, RN. Ruda gravis. It's basically the things that stimulate bone healing, improve nerve healing and connection, reduce inflammation. Yeah. Things like that. So it's, they get a whole goody bag of things that are pro healing rather than anti-inflammation. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:22] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: very cool, but, but I have no, you know, I have nothing against, if somebody wants to take an Advil or a Tylenol, it's your body. You know, do what feels right to you, but I want them to have. . Yeah, for 

[00:38:32] Christa: sure. Yeah. Well, this would be a great segue to talk about resources for learning, but I have one more random in mouth question, which is

[00:38:40] Christa: Anything you wanna say about tonsil 

[00:38:41] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: stones? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I look at it like, does a person develop tartar? And again, we're going back to the universal fluid in the mouth, saliva. Mm-hmm. , you know, why would a person's saliva have more mineral component than another [00:39:00] person? So if we look at overall states of acid, If the body's in a more acidic state, it will pull mineral out of other areas, bones, you know, things like that.

[00:39:11] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You will then see more mineralization within the mouth and included in the mouth are these the Crips of the tonsils? So if you're seeing those stones, it could be an indication that there's something going on within the blood work. You know what I mean? Like maybe. , go, go see your naturopath physician, whomever, you know, and just get things checked out.

[00:39:31] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It also could be an indication of, let's say the Crips are greater in size due to somebody's, the way that their body's immune system is responding to maybe the foods that they eat. Mm-hmm. . Right? Maybe it's a, an environment that's being created where they're able to pick up more food gunk, things like that.

[00:39:50] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And that's possible for some people. So in terms of therapies, , now I'm speaking this hypothetically, you see? Mm-hmm. , because you know, the tonsils [00:40:00] are technically outside the oral realm. Mm-hmm. , if you're asking a dental board, you know mm-hmm. . But in truth, the injection of ozone, the treatment of said, Tonsils with laser therapy, which I have seen using mid-infrared wavelengths where you're actually stimulating the heat shock proteins within the, the fibrous connective tissue, it can cause that to tighten.

[00:40:30] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: So if there's a therapy that we use for helping people with severe snoring or apnea where you can actually tighten up the soft palate, the same thing is true of the tonsil. So by providing dual wavelength, Activation through and on the surface of tonsils or soft palate or what have you, you can actually get that tissue to tighten up.

[00:40:51] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm. And if the tissue tightens up, it's going to self-express. the stones within that. Therefore it'll have smaller spaces to keep those stones. So [00:41:00] it's kind of cool. I mean, there's all sorts of options. Yeah. For stimulating healing in those areas. Not just, I mean, sometimes the tonsillectomy is appropriate, but Of course.

[00:41:09] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But there are lots of things you can try outside of that. Mm-hmm. that might be less invasive. Yeah, 

[00:41:14] Christa: no. What I love about this conversation today is sometimes people say, well, I've tried so many things, but I like to separate those into this triad, right, of emotional things, structural things, and nutritional things, and you've really beautifully covered every single corner of that today.

[00:41:28] Christa: Oh, thank you. You know, I'm, I'm sitting here thinking about my red light and I think it's at what, 650 nanometers? Mm-hmm. . I wonder what mid, and this would not be something we necessarily keep in our brain, and I don't know what kind of laser or red light you're using, but can you adjust it on your laser or how do you decide what mid, uh oh 

[00:41:46] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: good.

[00:41:46] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah. For us it is, so lasers by definition are of a fixed wavelength. Mm-hmm. . So like in our world, like you, you could easily get on Amazon and order. , like the lights that we send people home with are [00:42:00] 660 nanometers. Just like the one that you have. Mm-hmm. and 850 nanometers. Mm-hmm. . So that's the near infrared wavelength.

[00:42:07] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: We have a couple of 1064 nanometer lasers, which are really cool. They run. what we call freerunning pulse, which is a whole different thi, you know, topic on lasers. Meaning they have high pulses that are very, very short in timeline, like a hundred microseconds long. Mm-hmm. , we might use that at 20 pulses per second, let's say, to do something therapeutic and they target darker substances.

[00:42:32] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Hmm. Um, the mid-infrared lasers we have, which are in around. 2,800 to 3000 nanometer. We, we have two different versions of those. They're called ium based lasers. It's the ium is part of the crystal that makes the laser work, those target water. Mm. And you wanna talk about, you know, like anything in the mouth is gonna be pretty much teaming with water outside of maybe enamel, even enamel has water.

[00:42:57] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You're able to use these lasers. [00:43:00] Enamel, but very effective at, uh, doing anything to the gums, to the bone tissue inside of a tooth. There's lots of different ways you can use it. Like lingual frenectomies. That's the wavelength we use for releasing tongue ties. Phenomenal laser. And what's so cool, in my 20 years of laser dentistry, the pulse modulation style has become so flexible and the hand pieces that we utilize for these things, oh my gosh.

[00:43:25] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: So different than 20 years. , uh, which is how we're able to do these things like tightening up tissues. Mm-hmm. , uh, it's wonderful. So yeah, the world of laser and light utilization in dentistry is phenomenal. Mm-hmm. , it's pretty hard to find somebody like me who has been doing this 20 years and understands how it actually works.

[00:43:45] Christa: Mm-hmm. , I was gonna say, where did you learn it? Did you just pick it up in pieces? I 

[00:43:50] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: have read so much and I've literally been pursuing continuing education. You know, I mean, since I got outta dental school, it's just you have to continue [00:44:00] developing and understanding and follow the technology as it evolves.

[00:44:03] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. 

[00:44:04] Christa: Well, this makes me think about other places I see lasers used, which is a lot of places, but I think about my laser hair removal lady has another kind of laser for vaginas, for tightening. I'm like, Hey, yeah. Probably the same thing. Yep. probably 

[00:44:18] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: the same thing. No, that that's, that's the one.

[00:44:20] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's, it's actually the same company that does, they have a pan piece. Go figure. I didn't buy that one. . You know, . Don't think so. I'm kidding. But no, the idea is exactly the same. You're activating heat shock proteins to tighten collagen. 

[00:44:36] Christa: Mm-hmm. , and they're like a lot of money. Right. 75,000, something like that for these.

[00:44:42] Christa: E easily. Yes. Easily, if not more so just throwing that out there. And then one more note about lasers. I have some very introductory laser training for scar therapy from way back in the recesses of my brain. And the conversation was always be careful around your thyroid. You don't wanna be lasering that.

[00:44:58] Christa: And is that a [00:45:00] thing? Like is there places? Cuz I think about red light and I think it just depends on the nanometer. I think about red light being supportive of ATP production, but that's probably just at certain nano. 

[00:45:08] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: That's exact. You're exactly right. Because it's like, well, if the absorption of say, let's say an erian based laser, like we're just talking about like, or a CO2 laser, which has a wavelength of like 9,000 or 10,000 nanometers, that wavelength can't even penetrate the epithelium of, of a tissue, so I wouldn't be too worried about that affecting somebody's thyroid.

[00:45:28] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. , however, , if you're using a near infrared wavelength that's going to penetrate tissue deeply, you could potentially cause an issue. So it's safety is of the highest importance when you're using light. So that's why an understanding of how it works makes such a difference. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, we have so many colors of light protection glasses in my office.

[00:45:54] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: It's crazy. It's like, well, which laser are we using? Okay. We need to have those protective eyewear, you know? 

[00:45:59] Christa: Ah, very [00:46:00] nice. Love it. Well, we've covered a lot today, you, Jess, briefly skidded by even things you can do for sleep apnea, and we talked a little bit about frenectomies and tongue ties and things like that.

[00:46:11] Christa: We talked about. Just quite an assortment. We talked about detoxification, we talked about cavities and fluoride, and just in general, you underscoring the importance of whole body health, which is very lovely and refreshing. So the thing about integrative or holistic dentistry is that you don't know what you don't know.

[00:46:29] Christa: And so if this interview has really piqued someone's curiosity to say, well, gosh, I would like to be as proactive as I can be. What can I do? on my own. How can I learn more about holistic dentistry? Where would you send people to learn a little bit more about things they can be doing for themselves or some different 

[00:46:49] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: resources?

[00:46:50] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: You bet. Yeah, I mean, uh, first I would encourage people to, you know, go to my Instagram page. I've spent the last three and a half years sharing [00:47:00] so many stories and acknowledging so many truths about health as it relates to oral health and systemic expression of, of issues. There's so much information there.

[00:47:10] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: If you're looking for a dentist, this is the question I get more than any other question on Instagram is, you know, how do I find a dental practice that functions like you do? And it's a tricky question to answer because if people love what I'm talking about, they're probably gonna be best served to come and see me cuz we have an energetic connection.

[00:47:27] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Mm-hmm. , if they like the idea of what I'm talking about and they're kinda like, well I don't care about your vibe or not, you know, your vibe. I wanna find somebody who will listen to me and not use fluoride or force mercury on me or things like that. You know, again, go to my Instagram. I've got, I actually have a post on there that's like, where to find a dentist that thinks like we do.

[00:47:49] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And you know, there's resources listed. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, I A O M T. That's a great. There are plenty of dentists [00:48:00] listed on their website in different parts of the world. The I A B D M, international Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine is similarly a wonderful group.

[00:48:11] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: A lot of us are members of both. You know, the Holistic Dental Association can be a good resource. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, however, it's gonna require. Because you might go to find somebody where they're like, you know, we're doing all the protocols. We have every laser in the world. We have ozone. And they speak down to you, or they don't listen to you.

[00:48:32] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Or you know, like I'd rather see the dentist who doesn't have all the fancy stuff, but is willing to listen and be present. You know, as opposed to just, you know, telling you, well, I'm the doctor. I know what's right and not listening. But that's, you know, every person's different. So I, I would, when you feel a good connection, I would trust your gut.

[00:48:54] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: And similarly, if you feel something is off, trust your gut. I [00:49:00] just helped a woman two days ago who sadly had every one of her upper teeth, which by the way, had never had so much as a. Not one had every one of her teeth completely whittled down to little nubs for crowns because her dentist told her that was the best way to get the aesthetic results she wanted.

[00:49:20] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: I mean, she could have had braces, she could have had Invisalign, she could have had non-invasive veneers. And sadly, what the worst part about the whole thing? I mean, now she's missing teeth cuz they've died and Oh, it's horrible. The worst part about the whole thing is she had this. That something wasn't right about it, but we're not trained to listen to that sense.

[00:49:39] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Hmm. And, and I, I would encourage people, when your spidey sense is tingling, listen to it. You can always come back and do the care later. You know, once you're sure. Once you're sure. But if you're not sure for whatever reason, you're feeling like, eh, I don't know. Respect that, honor it. You can always come back for the care later, you know?

[00:49:58] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah. 

[00:49:58] Christa: Beautiful advice. Listen [00:50:00] to your gut. I love it. Amen. So, so you are on Instagram. What's your name and then what's your website? Dr. B Blak. 

[00:50:05] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Yeah. Yeah, it's at Blot Dental Care is my Instagram handle and the website is the same. www.blotdentalcare.com. You can find us on Facebook, although I'm never there, , you know, I do actively manage.

[00:50:22] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: People ask me like, who writes all your. Yeah, that's me. Well, I actually write everything. I do have a team who posts it, thank God, because I don't really know how Instagram works. And I do have a, a couple team members who help me answer questions because they're just too many for me to answer. Yeah. Uh, in a 24 hour, seven day week.

[00:50:40] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: But we do try to honor people asking questions because it's like, these are real human beings just like you and me. The questions are valid and we want to do our best to connect with them. Yeah. 

[00:50:51] Christa: Well, thank you so much. I think it's appropriate to acknowledge that we're not exactly superhuman, and if it looks like someone's doing everything, they're probably not alone.[00:51:00] 

[00:51:00] Christa: But I think you have such a, you're a heart, heart led dentist, heart led entrepreneur, and it's, and you've mentioned a lot of things that I think are so needed to be talked about, but it usually doesn't come up. So I really appreciate your take and your perspective on this, which went so much beyond dental 

[00:51:16] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: care today.

[00:51:16] Dr. Kelly Blodgett: Well, thank you, Krista. 

[00:51:19] Christa: Sharing and reviewing this podcast is the best way to help us succeed with our mission. To help integrate the best of East and West and empower you to raise the bar on your health story, just go to review this podcast.com/less stressed life. That's review this podcast.com. Less stressed life, and you'll be taken directly to a page where you can insert your review and hit post.