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Top Takeaways
- Root canals, fillings, tooth extractions, and our daily dental care can cause toxins in the body.
- If there is an imbalance in the mouth’s microbiome, or if there is, what Nadine calls leaky gums, toxins can more easily leach into the body.
- Even “silver fillings” are about 51% mercury, and also contain nickel, silver, and copper, which can be very toxic to the body.
- New and old mercury fillings are leaching mercury vapor into the body 24/7, and when hot liquids come in contact with them, the vapors are increased by 500%.
- Mercury fillings create an electrical current that is harmful to the body, so when having them removed, it is important to seek a dentist that is specialized in removing them.
- If you have challenge to your health it could be associated to either having mercury fillings, or root canals, that cause a large amount of bacteria to enter the bloodstream and overwork the immune system.
- Nadine was able to stop and reverse a cavity by using a blend of botanicals.
- The roots of teeth are like trees, that draw nutrients through the roots into the pulp chamber, which, once inside, creates a lymphatic fluid that makes up the dentineal lymphatic flow. This fluid then gets pushed out onto the teeth and mixes with the saliva to create barriers against cavity causing bacteria.
- Fluctuations in body chemistry, do to stress or diets that make the blood sugar high, causes this fluid, or what Nadine compares to as teeth sweat, to become less prevalent on the teeth, and can cause it to draw back into the teeth along with bacteria. This is when a cavity is formed.
- Nadine calls for a stop, seal, and seed approach to keeping teeth healthy, by stopping the use of harmful dental products, sealing the teeth and the gums by using products that promote the teeth’s natural protection system, and seeding the body’s natural healthy bacteria by taking probiotics and eating fermented foods.
- Nadine recommends staying away from glycerin as it causes only temporary plumping followed by longterm dryness.
- In some cases a vegetarian or vegan diet can lead to dental issues because of the potential nutrients deficiency that does not properly mineralize the teeth.
- Essential oils are great to use in the mouth because they are quorum-sensing inhibitors, meaning they inhibit pathogens from communicating and joining forces to create biofilms.
- Living Libations uses essential oils in all of their dental serums, working great to reduce gum sensitivity, and establish healthy bacteria.
- Using baking soda and charcoal toothpastes are great alternatives to generic toothpastes while still whiting the teeth while detoxifying the mouth.
- Nadine recommends brushing using a manual brush first, with low pressure and correct strokes, and then using an electric brush to polish the teeth.
- You should always use a soft or extra soft toothbrush, floss twice at first using a dental serum, and do an alkaline rinse using baking soda or salt water.
- Go to livinglibations.com where you can learn more about Nadine, view her whole dental line, read tons of dental articles, and email them with any dental questions. If you need extra care, they also have half-hour free consults for skin and dental care!
- You can also read Nadine’s books Holistic Dental Care and Renegade beauty to learn more about proper dental care.
Wendy: Hello. My name is Wendy Myers. Welcome to The Myers Detox Podcast. You can learn more about me and heavy metal detox at myersdetox.com. On this show, we talk about everything related to heavy metal detoxification, chemical detoxification, supplements, protocols, biohacking techniques, and every natural alternative approach under the sun.
Wendy: I really love to provide you guys with solutions to your health issues and help you figure out those missing pieces of the puzzle when you’re trying everything and nothing is working. I want you to be looking at heavy metals as a possible underlying root cause to some of your symptoms and health issues.
Wendy: Today, we have a great show with Nadine Artemis. She’s going to be talking about the hidden health cause of dental procedures and our conventional oral care products, and choosing an alternative route.
Wendy: This show is so good because she talked better and more in depth than all of the dentists combined that I’ve had on the show. I thought that was really amusing because we’ve had a lot of dentists on the show talking about mercury fillings and oral cavitations, and nothing could discredit them at all. It’s just that Nadine, who’s a layperson, who’s not a dentist, just explained things so clearly and crisply, and talked about a lot of things I’ve never heard before. It’s just a really, really good show.
Wendy: We talk about some ingredients that are natural, oral care products that can be problematic and why, and we talk about should you be using an electric toothbrush or not, and her oral care routine that she recommends that’s very, very simple, that anyone can do at home. We talk about mercury fillings and the exact problems that those cause, and we talk about bridges and cavitations, and we talk about how the alternatives to mercury fillings, the composite fillings, why those are problematic, and why some dental implants can be problematic, just lots of really good tips on the show today.
Wendy: If you guys are concerned about your heavy metals and if heavy metals may be contributing to your symptoms, I created a two-minute quiz that can help you to determine your relative levels of heavy metals in your body. Just go to heavymetalsquiz.com. Take it. It only takes a couple of seconds, and you get a lot of information about what are the next steps, where do you start when you’re wanting to detox your body, and have a little free video series after taking the quiz. So, take the quiz, enjoy that, and learn more about your heavy metal burden and what to do about it.
Wendy: Our guest, Nadine Artemis, is the author of two books, including Renegade Beauty: Reveal and Revive Your Natural Radiance and Holistic Dental Care: The Complete Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums. She’s the creator of LivingLibations.com, a luxury line of organic, well-crafted, non-GMO serums, elixirs and essential oils for those seeking the purest of the pure botanical, natural health and beauty products on the planet.
Wendy: Artemis is an innovative aromacologist developing immune-enhancing formulas and medicinal blends for health and wellness. Her healing creations along with her concept of Renegade Beauty encouraging effortlessness, eschew regimes, and inspire people to rethink conventional notions of beauty and wellness. Her potent dental serums are used worldwide and provide the purest oral care available.
Wendy: She’s received glowing reviews of her work including being featured in the Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, People, Elle, Yoga Journal, Natural Health, The New York Times, and The National Post.
Wendy: Celebrity fans include Shailene Woodley, Carrie-Anne Moss, Mandy Moore, and many others. Alanis Morissette describes Nadine as a true sense visionary. Nadine has the greatest collection of rare and special oils. She has a wondrous knowledge and passion for it all. Aveda founder Horst Rechelbacher calls Nadine a pure flower of creativity. You can learn more about Nadine and her essential oils and natural care products at LivingLibations.com.
Wendy: Nadine, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Nadine: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
Wendy: So, we’re going to be talking about dental procedures and how they can promote heavy metal toxicity in the body and some healthier solutions, healthier alternatives. So, what are some of the procedures that we should be aware of that promote heavy metal toxins in the body?
Nadine: Yeah. Within the dental realm, there’s quite a few things that form together to create a perfect storm for creating toxicity in the body. So, some of it is the procedures like root canals, fillings. Even a tooth extraction can cause toxins in the body, which we can get in, too, and then it’s also just like our daily care of our teeth.
Nadine: So, from the sodium lauryl sulfates in toothpaste, the triclosan, which just is wreaks havoc on the microbiome, along with Listerine and different mouthwashes that have alcohol in them and that the study show can be quickly Googled. Alcohol, mouthwashes causing over 36,000 cases of oral cancer a year. So, we’ve got all that coming at us. One reason why the mouth is such a vehicle, if there are toxins in there, there could be toxins in the rest of the body, is because we have such a rich microbiome in our mouth. So, I think a lot of us are understanding more and more about the gut microbiome and how the gut microbiome is connected to the brain.
Nadine: Well, the mouth’s microbiome is connected to all of that, too. So, when there’s an imbalance there, and we might be aware of leaky guts, well, there’s also what I coin leaky gums. So, that’s when your gums are bleeding or you have something like a root canal, and then those are draining toxins into the bloodstream and passing the blood-brain barrier. So, we can get quite a chemical cocktail going in there, and then we’ve got common toothpaste and mouthwashes that are further imbalancing that microbiome. Then you throw a mercury filling in there. So, it can be quite a soup of issues that we have to unpack.
Wendy: Yeah. So, let’s talk just first on mercury filling. So, why is mercury used? It kills bacteria. I mean, that’s the reason that it’s used to sterilize the tooth and prevent further cavity and decay. So, what is the problem with that? What are the other issues that that’s causing?
Nadine: Yeah. Well, mercury has been used for many decades for fillings, and sometimes it’s even recommended for children because it’s easier to place if the child is a bit restless in the dental chair, and then some people don’t even think they have mercury fillings. They’ll be like, “Oh, no. I have the silver fillings.” So, it is the silver fillings that are about 51% mercury. They also contain nickel, silver, and copper, which can also be toxic. Nickel is quite toxic.
Nadine: So, the interesting thing, too, is if I … We live on a beautiful lake. If two mercury teeth fillings were popped into that lake, it’s just about a 30-acre lake, that would be deemed you couldn’t swim there by the EPA. So, that we have in our mouths inches away from our brain, and there’s a huge protocol. Once a mercury filling has been removed, it’s treated like a hazardous good, which is good. It should be, but the mercury filling doesn’t change alchemy or properties from being removed from the mouth. There’s no change in that.
Nadine: So, what we now understand, there’s lots of studies that show that mercury fillings, whether they’re old or new, are excreting mercury vapors into the body 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whether you got them in 20 years ago or just yesterday. When we drink hot fluids or chew something like gum, then the increase in mercury vapors increase 500% in our mouth. So, it is quite an issue. It is important to get those mercury fillings removed, and sometimes they can also be under a crown, and that would look white.
Nadine: So, if you do have crowns, maybe you know your history or you can have your dentist check because the crown would be white, and it’s hiding there underneath. So, again, it’s important to remove, and it’s also important to remove mercury fillings in a proper way. A proper biological dentist will have the proper ventilation and have you suited up properly, so you’re not swallowing the vapor. So, it’s not something you just want to casually go to your normal dentist for because now that people are a little bit more aware about mercury, it is common and it’s still something that needs to be done properly and even in a correct order because there’s a bit of a voltage exchange in the mouth.
Wendy: Yeah. Can you talk a bit more about that? It’s something we haven’t really discussed on the show. There’s an issue with that voltage exchange, and even when people have both mercury and gold fillings, which some people do, that creates a really terrible reaction in the mouth that a lot of people aren’t aware of.
Nadine: Yeah. It does create an electrical current that isn’t healthy. This electrical current … I’m not dentist, so I don’t fully get the order that they do it in, but a proper dentist will do it in the right order. From other things I’ve read, it’s also affected by underwire bras if you have the mercury filling. So, there’s a full electrical current that we don’t want to be experiencing beyond the toxins.
Nadine: Then the thing with mercury and other heavy metals, as you know, is that they feed fungus and they feed pathogens. So, one doctor, Dr. Hal Huggins, who was really educating us about mercury fillings since 1963, he says that bacteria eat the heavy metals for breakfast. It’s a perfect union, and they’re so happy to have that food sources, the food source, but also, there’s different things like braces or a lot of people have a wire behind their front lower teeth once they got their braces off, and that’s all made out of nickel. That’s also throwing off the microbiome as a heavy metal wood, and also adding that toxic load to our bodies.
Wendy: Yeah. They don’t realize that they have these infections like candida or they’ve got parasite infections that they get on to treat it, and then it keeps coming back. It’s because you’re feeding that with these mercury fillings and this mercury that you have in our body, too, as a result of all this stuff leeching into your system for decades.
Nadine: Yes. I mean, at least this part we can control. Maybe you can’t move. Maybe the air quality is not so good. You know what I mean? These are areas where we can let some of that toxic burden let it off our bodies because in this day and age, there’s a lot of stuff coming at us.
Wendy: Yeah, and a lot of people, they don’t think about also the braces or bridges or other things in their mouth that are made of metal.
Nadine: Yeah. Another is implant. So, there’s that titanium post, and that is a danger as well. So, anytime you’re going to introduce something foreign into the body, there’s going to be a toll on the autoimmune system, but the one choice that they’ve done a lot in Europe is using a zirconium implant, and it’s still a foreign object, but it has a very good track record for people that are sensitive to that.
Nadine: So, often, you have to have a choice where you may need an implant because bridges are a bit awkward, too, because then you have to shave down the other two healthy teeth to get in that one perfect bridge tooth. So, that can be a challenging moment. The other procedure which often leads to an implant is root canals, and these are quite toxic. So, whether a root canal, you may have one, and it may be perfect and not bothering you, but what studies are showing, and I cite these studies in my book, is that no matter even if a root canal is textbook perfect, it’s not showing any issues on an X-ray, this study took those perfect root canals that didn’t show anything on an X-ray, and then they sent them to independent labs for testing, and all of the root canals showed severe bacteria.
Nadine: So, you don’t necessarily have to have a root canal removed, but if you do have a challenge to your health right now, it could be one of the root causes because the theory behind a root canal is to take a dead tooth and sterilize it, clean up the pulp chamber, and then it’s a good theory, then you can have your original tooth at least being a placeholder in your mouth.
Nadine: However, it’s impossible to sterilize because each tooth contains over, like a back molar has over three miles of microscopic tubules inside. That’s impossible to sterilize. So, the studies show that a root canal is just squirting bacteria into the bloodstream also 24 hours a day just like those mercury fillings creating the vapors.
Nadine: Then if you have mercury fillings in the mouth and you have a root, all those things can combine to really be pulling the immune system down. So, often, people go, “What do I do if I have a root canal because it is a bit of a conundrum?” If it’s a back tooth, it’s pretty easy. You can just have it extracted, and you can leave the space. So, contrary also to people saying your face might cave in or different things. You really can leave that space, and that is the simplest thing to do for one of those teeth.
Nadine: If it’s a front tooth, there’s a bit of a conundrum, but you do need to remove it, and then also what’s not common for most dentists but is for a holistic biological dentist is they will remove the periodontal ligament, and that’s very important because if it’s left in, and it is standard to leave it in, then you can create what’s called a jaw cavitation because the periodontal ligament is left in, it’s like leaving the placenta in after birth, and then the gum grows around that, and then that starts to rot the jaw. That’s call a jaw cavitation.
Nadine: Jaw cavitations don’t show up on an X-ray eye until it’s about 80% decayed. So, that’s not too fun, but if that is happening, a dentist will scrape the jawbone. They’ll just go in there with the … It doesn’t even hurt because you already have the extraction done. They’ll scrape the bacteria off the jawbone, allow a blood clot to form, and then they inject that area with ozone and also, if it’s a really great dentist, some plasma therapy. Then that brings the stem cells and stuff to heal the area over the next few months.
Wendy: You have explained this better than all of the dentists that I’ve had on the show. What is going on here?
Nadine: I think just because I am patient, right? I’m not the dentist. So, really, my whole goal with my first book Holistic Dental Care was to say, “Hey, we’re all people. We all have teeth. We need to know what to do everyday.” So, we’re not just giving it up to the dentists once or twice a year, and then not being informed and being confused, and also, what can we do everyday so we’re not maybe going to the dentist as much.
Wendy: Yeah. I think even if you’re going to a biological dentist, his training might have been … Hal Huggins died. It might have been 30 years ago or he might not really be updating his training, and maybe very well-meaning, but everyone has maybe their skillset that they continue to use. You still have to ask these important questions even if you are going to a “biological dentist”. They range in their quality.
Nadine: Absolutely. I do. There’s an article on our site that says what to ask a prospective dentist because, okay. Great. You found what’s in the realm of holistic, and then you still have questions to ask. Personally, I feel like the best dentist never consider doing a root canal. They know. There’s still some in-between people, but if the real hardcore dentists, they know not to do one.
Wendy: Yeah. I mean, I can testify to that because I have a root canal that I got when, I think I was 20. I had an abcess, and they had to do my front tooth. They had to do a root canal. There was a time when the front tooth came off or whatever. The glue came off. It is the most ungodliest smell. I mean, it is completely infected. That spews that every single day you’re immune system is fighting this chronic infection that never goes away. It can never be healed.
Wendy: So, you have enough of those and you have enough mercury fillings, not surprising why you might not be feeling so hot or drained, not have enough energy because it’s all going to your immune system.
Nadine: Exactly.
Wendy: Yeah. So, another comment I wanted to make about implants is that if you have a root canal, the implant is not always … It’s like the lesser of two evils. It can still be problematic. It can still have complications. Now, the ceramic ones, there’s new ceramic ones that take out that metal reaction factor, that potential metal sensitivity that people can have to titanium or other metals. So, that seems like a good option, which not every dentist is going to offer.
Nadine: No. Yeah, because you want to know that you’re going to a dentist that has done all the homework, and is really just picking from the cleanest options for your mouth, the latest technology because there is going to be compromises or really so many of us have to really clean up previous dental work.
Wendy: Yeah. I know. I had my mercury fillings taken out just by a regular dentist when I was 20. I was like, “Ew! You’re ugly.”
Nadine: Yeah. Me, too, as soon as I heard about it. I was like, “Okay.” I was 20. It was a regular guy. I think he’s skilled. He was a good dentist, but I don’t think they knew anything about the dance and the-
Wendy: No. My dentist … Oh, I just inhaled all that. I had a nice little breakfast. My parasites had a nice little breakfast with my mercury filling removal, but, yeah. I had them taken out, but then you have to have the fillings redone. 10 years later, I had to have them redone again because one of them cracked. Then lo and behold, there was mercury still underneath the tooth.
Nadine: Oh, yes.
Wendy: So, even if you have them redone and replaced, make sure you just look in the mirror. “Hey, doc. Before you fill it in, can I look in the mirror, see if there’s still some mercury in there.” That’s a precaution you might want to take.
Nadine: That’s a great tip. Of course, we’re filling with plastics. So, then there’s other. Yeah. So, you really want to be with a doctor that’s so on it for the latest and greatest, cleanest.
Wendy: Yeah. There’s just, again, the bearing quality in biological dentists as well. So, what about alternatives to fillings? So, you touched on that a little bit because, again, the filling, the composite filling, again, compared to a mercury filling, is the lesser of two evils, but it’s still problematic. Can you explain why?
Nadine: Exactly. Well, they’re, yes, still problematic because of the different chemicals or plastics or BPA. What we don’t know culturally is that cavities can be reversed in some cases and stopped at least. So, there is an option. So, if you see a filling, and this was really great for me on my dental journey because I was already formulating and doing skin care and working with all kinds of botanicals. Then I went to my holistic dentist back then at 22, which was different than the mercury guy, and this was beginnings of holistic, not at the biological stage yet.
Nadine: I don’t think the dentist is that holistic, but the hygienist really was, and she was quite revolutionary. So, she saw the beginning of a cavity, and she said, “Well, you know what? Go home. Play with your things, and then come back in six months,” and that’s when I created the Happy Gumdrops. It was a blend of botanicals that I was using on the cavity. Then I took the X-ray six months later and it was gone. That was the first I ever even knew that … because I just grew up. You think they’re fixed, they grow in, they’re like stones in your teeth, and that’s, again, when you get your adult teeth.
Nadine: What I didn’t really understand is that the teeth are alive. So, that was the beginning of that opening up my understanding about that. So, while our conversation could be scary because people are probably like, “Oh, my God!” but really know that your mouth is alive, the gums are alive, the enamel is alive. So, all of that, you can evolve wherever your mouth is at right now, it can evolve. Gum pockets can come back down, and you can stabilize a cavity.
Nadine: So, when we understand how cavities or the genesis of cavities, this is really mind-blowing because we’re taught to believe that acid and sugar sitting on the teeth is the cause, but what’s actually going on because, of course, the teeth are connected to the body, and the roots are like trees, and so they draw up nutrients just like tree roots into the pulp chamber. So, it comes in with how blood delivers nutrients, but once it’s in the pulp chamber, it become lymphatic fluid. So, we literally have something called the dentineal lymphatic flow or transport system.
Nadine: So, once it’s in the pulp chamber, it becomes this clear lymph liquid, and then it gets pushed out onto the surface of the teeth by the anterior, these odontoblasts, and then it goes on to the surface of the teeth. It coalesces there with the saliva, and it’s like microscopic sweat on the teeth.
Nadine: Then this juice along with the saliva coalesces, and it propels bacteria and what would cause cavities, and biofilm, and all of that. When we’re stressed or strong hormonal times like teen or pregnancy or what also were showing as maybe a lot of cellphone use or fluoride or chemicals or a high-sugar diet, which is making the blood sugar really high, all of these things contribute to this flow, this dentineal flow becoming stagnant, so then we’re stopping that microscopic sweat or it actually, if your situation gets worse, it reverses. Then the teeth suck in bacteria and viruses from the mouth into the tooth. That’s how a cavity is formed.
Nadine: So, then we can also see how other things like antibiotics because it’s all part of our bloodstream can get drawn up in the tooth and then cause different things like from the fluoroquinolone or am I saying that right? You know that type of antibiotic?
Wendy: Yeah, the fluoroquinolones. Yeah.
Nadine: Yeah. So, crumbling teeth or fluoride making these white modeled marks on the teeth. So, that’s when we’re really getting this whole systemic connection of our teeth. They’re really a part of our bodies. So, we want to understand that, so we’re understanding maybe we can get motivated then to keep our blood sugar down and to free up the chemicals in our mouths.
Nadine: So, what I always, to bring that home and what people can do at home, is I think of stop, seal, and seed as a protocol that people can do at home. So, the stopping is stopping Listerine, stopping brushing with triclosan, sodium lauryl sulfate, and even health food store toothpastes that may seem better, but they actually are high in glycerin, and glycerin coats the teeth invisibly, but it blocks the saliva from getting to the teeth. It blocks the tooth’s respiration system.
Nadine: So, all of that, you want to stop, even eating GMO. You want the glyphosates in your mouth stopping things because you’ll also be having your mercury removed. Brushing with cleaner water, all of those things, and then sealing, so stop, seal, so that’s when we’re looking to maybe the plant world, things like baking soda, sea salt to start healing and sealing the gums, and 98% of the population have some sort of periodontal disease, which can lead to all kinds of things.
Nadine: So, we really want to get the saliva alkaline, so you could … These simple ingredients like sea salt, baking soda, if you just have those in your cabinet and you ditch all the rest, you are a thousand times better off. I make all kinds of dental serums and stuff, but I’m saying you don’t even have to go there. If you’re on a tight budget, you just get that baking soda and the sea salt and bulk, and you’re done for years. You could literally just live off that for the rest of your life for your oral care.
Wendy: Yes.
Nadine: That’s really liberating. Most people might have that at home right now. So, you can literally start today. You can rinse. You can put a pinch of baking soda in water and just do rinsing, and that’s really good for kids, too, because they’re never brushing ever crevice of their mouth. That’s going to take years for them to get that skilled.
Nadine: Then that also helps with getting the gums in shape to be a little more resistant. Some people have really white gums, and you want to bring the blood flow back and get them pink and healthy again. Also, changing how we’re brushing, so you got to brush from the gum down or the gum up not like this. So, you get to the flow. You’ll be faster than I’m what I’m showing right now, but you lift up on your way back. So, it’s always brushing down, and that’s really important for the gum line because that’s where a lot of the gum pockets raise up.
Nadine: I say you want a nice turtle neck of gums around the teeth. You don’t want to get to a cowl neck situation because that part of the tooth, it doesn’t have enamel. Once the gum is rising up, it’s very vulnerable to gum line cavities. So, where the gum and the teeth join is very important to take care of.
Nadine: Seeding, too. I mean, sorry. That’s the next step. So, sealing, and then working with botanicals like sea buckthorn. We make an ozonated gel, different essential oils. That can all help to reseal the gums. So, people that bleed and then floss, and then bleed, once they apply the serums to their mouth, many people do not have bleeding the next day. It’s that fast because it is also the gums which are quite, while they’re vulnerable, they’re also fast, fast. The tissue is fast to heal.
Nadine: So, depending on the person’s constitution and current health state, the bleeding may take a week to stop, but, literally, people have results overnight. Then what you can do with the serums is you take a drop, put it along the floss, and then you can get those botanicals right in between the gum line and places where the brush can’t reach. Then for whitening, baking soda, sea salt are also so great for that. Really, though, the whiteness comes from inside the tooth. So, that’s with a healthy diet, a lot of fat-soluble vitamins, some sunshine creating the vitamin D because the enamel is actually translucent, and so it’s about the quality of our diet showing the whiteness of our teeth. Of course, anything that’s bleaching or anything that’s going to make the enamel weaker and weaker and more vulnerable to yellowing. So, that’s the whole seal.
Nadine: Then the seeding is about, I think of our bodies as this … We want to think of them as a bacterial bank account. We want to have a diverse variety of bacteria, friendly bacteria doing their jobs, so we don’t have to. So, you can take probiotics or eat fermented foods, and then you can also do oil pulling, but add a probiotic to the oil pulling, and then you can swish that around your mouth for 10-15 minutes, and that helps to pull out toxins and whiten the teeth as well.
Wendy: Yeah. I actually got some probiotics for my daughter to take. The dentist that gave them to me said that they have a study that shows that children just do not get any more cavities once they start taking these oral probiotics.
Nadine: Oh, that’s so great that you’ve found an effective brand because I’m always looking at the ones for the mouth, and they seem to sometimes have other things, but what you can also do, what dentists are also starting to do is they’re using a syringe and putting probiotics into the gum line after cleaning, but you can do that at home. We have these little syringes and they’re blunt tipped, which is they’re great. We use them for cleaning the gum pockets, especially for people that are too high. You can use anything in there like a hydrogen peroxide mix. You could put baking soda in there. You can put one of the dental serums in there, and you can put probiotics in there. Then you can shoot them into the gum line as well.
Wendy: That’s really interesting. That hasn’t occurred to me to do something like that.
Nadine: There’s so many fun options.
Wendy: So, I want to talk to you about some of the ingredients that people should be avoiding. So, number one, you talked about glycerin. So, glycerin is considered fairly inert. It’s in a lot of natural tooth care products. So, why exactly should we be avoiding that? You mentioned that briefly, but so say you were taking a supplement or you’re using a toothpaste or something that has glycerin, does that rinse out of your mouth after you use that? Because there are a lot of supplements that have glycerin in them.
Nadine: That’s true. I think as a supplement, it’s just going to go down. You know what I mean? You can get it, so it’s not fully getting all around the mouth if it’s a tincture, but, yeah, you definitely don’t want to brush with it because the rinsing, we’re not even sure. It’s not like, “Oh, 10 rinses will make it go away.” It seems to just affect the saliva’s flow. I’m not a big fan of glycerin in skin care either. That was also through understanding. I was looking at a study because I also talk a lot about the vaginal microbiome and yoni health. So, KY Jelly or a glycerin-based lubricant seems inert as you said.
Nadine: What actually happens is it causes osmolarity, and so the cell releases its water to bounce on the outside. So, you get this short-term plumping, but a longterm drought. What the scientists saw was that the vaginal cells sloughed off. They became shriveled cells. One scientist called them shriveled raisins. That’s happening inside. So, also for skin care, it does the same thing. You get this temporary plumping, but longterm dryness, and also, it’s made out of GMO corn and usually foods that we’re going to be avoiding. So, it doesn’t come … These days, it’s not manufactured in a pure way either.
Wendy: Yeah. That’s good to know.
Nadine: Yeah, and it’s like a filler and things, really. It’s useless.
Wendy: it’s a carrier.
Nadine: Yeah. It plumps up the product, too, in a way like it’s doing to ourselves, but I really like making things concentrated, and where every single ingredient counts. There’s no fillers. There’s none of that stuff. Everything is active and useful because, really, when we understand ingredients, like things that are in a paraben, a methyl paraben preservative, it’s only in products at 0.01%, but it’s showing up in our livers and breast tissue. So, we, really, from that example, understand that every drop matters. What we are putting on in and around our body, we can have control, wherever we can.
Wendy: You have to do that. You have to look at every single product you’re putting in or on your body and every single ingredient, and then maybe what’s not on the label. There’s a lot of things in the fragrants that in that term is on the label, so it’s-
Nadine: Hundreds of ingredients are in that one word.
Wendy: Yeah. I mean, you’ve got to do this investigative work and just evaluate every single thing, and go with companies you trust that are caring enough about their customers, about the people using their products to make better choices in what they’re producing.
Wendy: Then you also talked about alcohol. So, I’m this for years, I had the freshest breath. I always got compliments on it because I was using Listerine. I use Listerine for, I mean, probably 20 years. So, unfortunately, I’m going to have to pay the price for that, but tell us again about alcohol, what’s the problem with alcohol in the mouth.
Nadine: Well, alcohol, in general, there’s times for it. You know what I mean? We’re talking about a pure alcohol that’s like in our perfumes. We use a beautiful biodynamic, organic grape alcohol, which is different than the propylene alcohols that are used in Listerine and all that. There’s a time and place for it, but that’s definitely the synthetic alcohol is not something we want to be engaging with in our bodies, but there’s so many. You could just take one drop of peppermint and there you’re helping your microbiome and you’re not causing any issues. So, there’s so many options. That’s a great thing, too, nowadays. We really …
Nadine: Sometimes I think people felt restricted or maybe back in the ’80s when we had to have an alternative switch, but now, you literally enter a whole other banquet of beautiful options. I mean, walking down the drug store aisle is not inspiring. Even though there’s this plethora of periodontal, this promise land of options, none of that stuff is actually helping us at all.
Wendy: So, I was going down the aisle in Target the other day, and it’s just amazing all of the marketing that’s involved in sensitive teeth, and whitening your teeth. There’s so many different whitening products with hydrogen peroxide. What are some of the problems with hydrogen peroxide?
Nadine: Yeah. Hydrogen peroxide is a useful tool, but we ought to use it properly, and you want to have real and pure hydrogen peroxide, and you want to make sure you’re diluting it to 3%, and that it is only pure hydrogen peroxide, and then you can use that once or twice a month because it can be a bit astringent on the gums, but it is great, and it is also bacteriostatic, so it does help and it does keep things clean.
Nadine: Usually, though, there can be whitening stuff, and it also has types of bleaches. So, it would have more than just hydrogen peroxide. So, that’s what you want to be careful with. Often, people’s discoloration, it can be plaque and tartar that is really deeply discolored from all the blueberry smoothies and red wine. So, if you get a really good cleaning and a holistic dentist can also do salt blast like they sand blast old buildings. Well, you can get your teeth salt-blasted, and that’s really whitening, and not harsh at all.
Nadine: So, then you can see, “Oh, it was just that red wine stain plaque.” So, once you get all the old calculus and tartar off your mouth, then you can really … You probably do have white teeth under there. Otherwise, if you’ve got gray and glassy teeth, you might be mineral or vitamin deficient, and that’s what’s showing up. You really want to get that inner pulp chamber fat again with fat-soluble vitamins. That’s important.
Wendy: Minerals, too. I think a lot of people that are mineral-deficient, they need to mineralize their teeth from the outside, placing minerals with salt, and also mineralizing from the inside, and they need saturated fats to absorb minerals into their teeth. So, vegans have a problem doing this because they’re not getting the fat-soluble vitamins as much, and they’re also not getting a lot minerals, which are in animal products.
Nadine: A higher carb and fruit situation could also then start that dentineal lymph flow, could start getting reversed. There’s also in vegan and vegetarian diets, there can be a lot of eating rice and lentils and oats, that kind of thing, which are all really high in phytic acid. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient, and it will draw out phosphorus from the body. When you speak of minerals, some of the key minerals for teeth health is phosphorus and magnesium.
Nadine: What’s also important with that is the fat-soluble vitamins of vitamin D 3 and K2. So, we need those because those act like ushers. They usher the minerals into the bones. So, if we don’t have those vitamins, then the minerals stay in the blood flow, and they’re not going into our bones. So, that’s a very important combination that’s actually been studied for decades, really. Even at the 1920s was the first understanding of vitamin D, and then the people that did the dentineal lymph flow studies, they could see when drops in certain minerals cause that flow to drop as well. So, yeah, if you got your basic nutrients down and everything, then that will keep raising the health of your teeth as well.
Wendy: Yeah, and I wanted to mention that because I know there’s a lot of people that are vegetarian, and especially vegans that start having dental problems within a couple of years of going vegan, and that’s why. Your teeth are nutritionally deficient. It’s not just, “Oh, I, all of a sudden, have a cavity. I wonder why.” It’s because of your diet. You’re not getting adequate nutrition, minerals, and the right kinds of saturated fats.
Nadine: Yes. That’s showing your bone health, too. So, if that’s the situation in your teeth, then your literal bones are being compromised as well. It’s a reflection.
Wendy: Yes. I thought that was really interesting. You said that the glassy or clear teeth, that’s from mineral deficiency. I hadn’t really thought of that before.
Nadine: I have seen a lot of vegan children or vegans over the year with that. I get it. I had many years being vegan. I really understood it. It was actually like being pregnant and birthing and all of that, and doing my dental research that really further just clarified that you can maybe have vegan moments in your life, but it’s not a birth to death situation. It’s not the best for growing children.
Wendy: Yeah. I have my vegan moments.
Nadine: Yes.
Wendy: I have my vegan moments or I have a couple of days like, “I don’t want meat.” I’m just listening to my body. I’m like, “I want a veggie burger. That’s what I want right now. I just want a wrap with just vegetables and sprouts and raw hummus, and all that jazz,” but, yeah, birth to death, it’s not how we were built. Sorry. So, that’s a very good point.
Wendy: So, let’s talk a little bit about a good solution for a more natural approach. So, you own a company called Living Libations. You have lots of options for people to have better oral care naturally. You touched on that a little bit, but can you expand on what you’re discussing before?
Nadine: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, yeah. We make all our products and, of course, they all work beautifully with the mouse microbiome. That was really neat. As I was writing my last book, Renegade Beauty, and I have full dental chapter in there as well, there had been more and more stuff coming out about the microbiome, and what was really great was seeing really understanding in present time why for thousands of years ingredients like frankincense, rose, cardamom, cinnamon, tea tree, peppermint, mastic, myrrh, clove, all of those beautiful plants have really been used across time and cultures to take care of our mouths.
Nadine: Now, we have modern science showing us why. So, what we now understand is that essential oils are quorum sensing inhibitors. So, what that means is they inhibit the pathogens from communicating and ganging up to create biofilms. So, what’s going on in our mouths is we, obviously, have our friendly bacteria, our good bacteria. Hopefully, that’s the majority, and then they can keep the pathogens in check because we’re never going to be pathogen-free.
Nadine: The pathogens are normally floating around freestyle like a plankton in the ocean. They’re just floating around, but when they can gain traction and start communicating and quorum sensing, then they start bunching up and gaining momentum, and forming biofilms. So, we can have biofilms in the mouth, but those can also form inside the body as well. Those can be formed from the biofilms in the mouth.
Nadine: So, what essential oils do, and I’m speaking in general terms, but all the ones like the clove and stuff that I mentioned, is they’re able to break up that communication, stop the gene expression. They’re able to break up biofilms in ways that antibiotics can’t and certainly can’t anymore. They can burst that. They’re bacteriostatic, so they’re going to clean up the pathogens while keeping all the friendly bacteria in check, which is if the medicine we need today really is take care of the pathogens but don’t screw up the friendly bacteria, that’s what they’re searching for now that we’re in this age of antibiotic resistance.
Nadine: So, they really do provide a good solution. Generally, of course, you’re not going to be putting those straight into your mouth because one drop is so potent, especially something like clove, which is great for tooth pain, but don’t ever put it on straight because it will burn. If it’s a pure 100% clove, you just want to be diluting that. You still want some strong clove, but you want to be diluting that with olive oil or something or coconut oil.
Nadine: So, the dental serums in our line of toothpaste all contain varying essential oils that all work for things like sensitive teeth. Sensitive teeth really come from gum issues. It’s not fully the teeth. It’s because the gums are starting to recede, and then we’re getting more sensitive to hot and cold. So, even our sensitive toothpaste, people will use it overnight and, again, a lot of sensitivity is literally going away the next day. It’s without anesthetizing the mouth with chemicals, and it’s cleaning up things.
Nadine: So, the essential oils create a beautiful pallette where we can do … A great thing, too, different botanicals are going to work with different bacteria, which is great because there’s a lot of diversity whether it’s from disease in our mouth, from varying one, we’re all going to have different bacterial problems. What’s also interesting that’s going on because we’re losing species of bacteria in our mouths, everybody has strep in their mouth, and that’s a cavity-causing one. So, why is it causing cavities in one person but not the other?
Nadine: The theory now is that the strep is missing some of its ancestral bacterial buddies to keep it in check. So, that’s why it’s really important to not do all these things that are mutating and making extinct microbes in our mouth with the things like the Listerine. That’s why we got to chill on all that because we’re literally just … The whole ecosystem in our mouths were wrecking every time we go in there with a toothbrush of triclosan and the friendly bacteria are just like, “Oh, no! Don’t do that.”
Nadine: So, we want to harmonize, calm things down, start brushing slower, not with a lot of pressure, and all of those. You just got to really turn things around and doing things like the baking soda rinse that I mentioned before. That really sets the tone, so that you should do that before you brush. Then you could brush, and you could do another rinsing. It neutralizes the mouth and alkalinizes it from a day of food that might have been more acidic.
Nadine: Then you can get those essential oils working as toothpaste. You’re ditching your toothpaste. You can add the drop of the essential oil dental serum to baking soda, so you can get a bit of that grit going because the baking soda is really good for gentle polish. It isn’t abrasive. Sometimes people think it’s abrasive, but there’s an RDA index for that and its abrasivity is so low compared to … It’s under 10. Whereas most toothpaste are at 60-70. So, baking soda is really something you can use daily in your mouth.
Wendy: Yeah. You want to get aluminum-free baking soda like Dr. Bob’s or the Bob Mills company because the Arm & Hammer’s, a lot of aluminum in it. So, it’s a good idea to not be putting that in your mouth, in your face.
Nadine: Yes. You want to have a good source of it. Yes. Then we have fun making a bunch. We have a charcoal wintergreen toothpaste. We have a clay toothpaste. So, you can have whole kinds of fun with that. You can use things like that at home, too. You can use clay with your baking soda. My books have recipes for some do-it-yourself toothpaste as well.
Wendy: So, how does charcoal, this black substance whiten your teeth exactly? I’m like, “Why am I putting this in my mouth?” is what I’ve been thinking?
Nadine: There’s seemingly quite a few staining things that do like black walnut hull powder, turmeric powder, charcoal, which is black, that is scary putting it on, but they do really create whiteness afterwards. For the charcoal, it’s helping detoxify the mouth as well, which is really great, especially if there has been mercury fillings and that kind of thing.
Nadine: You can also, with oil pulling, you can also put a pinch of charcoal in there as well. I have never fully … I’ve done a few months of oil pulling, but I know people that have a lot of stuff going on and they really dedicate themselves to an oil pulling program. It’s phenomenal to see that turn around. People’s teeth are glowing after a few months of that. It’s really neat.
Wendy: Yeah, yeah. I haven’t done consistent coconut oil pulling. I definitely do it on occasion, but I haven’t really thought about doing it consistently for, say, two or three months.
Nadine: Yeah. It’s really neat to see the changes in that. If people want more, got another article on that on our site, and different things, and we even make serums for that, but it’s really fun because you can add little things to it to help. I even have a recipe in our book and on our site about these little oil pulling cups you can make.
Nadine: So, you make little cubes with coconut oil, and you get a silicone, not an ice cube tray, but that’s too big, but one that has little, for making little chocolates. You melt your coconut oil, put some essential oils in there, probiotics, a pinch of charcoal, pour it in the little silicone tray, pop that in the fridge, and then they’re solidified, and then you can put them in a mason jar. At room temperature, they’ll stay solid, and then you can just pop in these little oil pulling things, and it’s fun for kids as well.
Wendy: Well, I understand the up my oral health game. I am just not on top of this like I should be.
Nadine: Well, it can get really boring after so many years.
Wendy: Well, let’s talk a little bit about electric toothbrushes, and how those impact … I’ve been using one for a while, but sometimes I feel like it’s just too rough, and if you brush too hard, it irritates the gums, and they want to recede. So, what’s going on with the electric toothbrushes in your oral health.
Nadine: There is a place for them, I think. So, first, I always recommend that you have just a normal manual brush, that’s the word, and then you really … This is really when you’re brushing the gums, but, again, it’s one direction, and you’re starting as high as you can get up on that gum, and brushing it down, and that’s dry brushing your gums and massaging them. So, there’s good things there.
Nadine: You do that with toothpaste or a dental serum. Then you can use your electric brush, which is more like a polisher. So, sometimes I think of the janitor doing that with the floor with those buffers. So, that’s what the polishing is about.
Wendy: That’s me every night.
Nadine: Yeah. It’s good to use it on a dry brush, a pinch of baking soda, and then a drop of a serum or a drop of peppermint. Then you’re going over, and I love … Actually, the Sonic ones are good, but they’re really expensive, and I found what I liked is the small round-headed one because then it’s different than your other toothbrush, and then you’re getting in areas that the rectangle standard one doesn’t really get in to, and behind the front teeth. That’s such a good one for that round-head. The tops of the teeth, obviously, you can go to town on this.
Nadine: Again, you still don’t need to be hard. So, if your toothbrush six months down the road should look exactly like when you bought it, obviously, except maybe used, but the bristles should not be splayed in any way. If they are, you’re just using too much pressure, and everybody needs soft, extra soft toothbrush heads. I don’t care if you like a big man. You need your soft-headed toothbrush. Nobody should be using anything above a soft. So, that’s important, too.
Nadine: Then, yeah, you’re buffing the teeth, and that’s where you’re really getting off that extra plaque, and then you want to take your floss, put a dental serum along there because it’s just going to make flossing like a thousand times more worthy effort, and you’re going to floss each tooth. Then I do recommend in the beginning for people to floss twice like that. People ask why and I say, “Well, when you’re on your second floss, you’ll see why,” because there’s still stuff coming out.
Nadine: So, you want to do that, and then you want to rinse again with that alkaline rinse of the baking soda or you can also make a rinse with saltwater. Then you want any special areas where maybe the gum pockets are rising or anything, and then you can take the dental serum, massage it on your gums, and give them that extra treat or maybe at that stage where you need extra, extra care, and you can use that syringe, and then get things good going along in the gumline, and then if you want, you could just do oil pulling for 10-15 minutes as you walk around the house and do something else.
Wendy: I feel like I need to go to a tooth spa to do all that. I mean, a dentist with a tooth spa, so I can go and make my appointment.
Nadine: There’s a woman that uses our stuff, and she has what she calls it a tooth spa. We do. I mean, think about all the facials we get, right? I think we do need to think to that more for our teeth.
Wendy: Yes. You do. I mean, your teeth only last so long. I mean, you have to take care of them if you want them performing for you into old age. I mean, you really have to take care of them. If you’re really taking care of yourself like the people listening to this podcast, you’re going to be living into your 80s and 90s and even 100 detoxing your bodies.
Nadine: Even in your 20s, 30s.
Wendy: Yeah, and using infrared saunas. You’ve got to be really on your tooth game if you want to retain all of your teeth. I don’t plan to have dentures and have all these terrible dental work that our grandparents did. All of our grandparents had dentures.
Nadine: Well, you’re 80 less, just remove them all and put in a denture thing.
Wendy: Yeah. No, thank you. No. No. I want to take care of my teeth. Yeah. So, yeah. So, tell us where to find you, where we can learn more about you, and your natural solutions.
Nadine: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, our website is LivingLibations.com, and we have, obviously, the things we create on there, our whole dental line, tons of dental articles, and you can also email us any dental question. Of course, we can’t diagnose, but we really can help people and direct them to resources that can help them. So, it can be a good first stop. We also do free … So, you can email us about anything, and then also, if you need extra care, we have half-hour free consults for skin care and dental care, so all that.
Nadine: Then I have my book, Holistic Dental Care, and my book, Renegade Beauty, which also has a good portion of dental care in there, and yeah, and then our regular social media channels.
Wendy: Yeah. I mean, I’m on your website earlier today, LivingLibations.com, and I was like, “Wow! You have all kinds of stuff on here like the essential oils and beauty care products, lots of really amazing natural products for beauty and dentistry and a whole range of things.
Nadine: It’s pretty prolific because there’s a lot of creativity going on here, but, really, it’s also because as people love their libations, and they really just want us to just take care of every facet of their body. So, we just also keep coming up with other things because we just know we will always do it so well and so purely.
Nadine: So, that’s why we even made the dental serums, the toothpaste, and we have an ozonated gel or in body care, we go from Poetic Pits to shampoo, to even yoni care products because we want the-
Wendy: Well, tell us about the ozone as long as we’re talking about dentistry, tell us about the ozone gel and how that’s helpful.
Nadine: Yeah. So, that’s really helpful because it’s also bacteriostatic, and it also helps to heal and seal the gums, and it’s antibacterial, and it’s very regenerative, and it helps speed up healing. So, we ozonate the … which was created by Nikola Tesla, Tesla, yeah, sorry. I thought I’m saying his name wrong. He invented so many things, but he literally invented ozonating, sending ozone through olive oil, and he made the patent for that, and a lot of doctors at that time would use it. So, present day time, now, we’re ozonating. We took our very popular happy gumdrops gel, and then we ozonated it, and just brought it to a new superhero level.
Wendy: Yeah. I mean, I have some ozone gel that I use, and I mean, it is strong.
Nadine: It is strong.
Wendy: I mean, you just need the tiniest little drop of it, and your whole mouth and your sinuses are just getting blasted, and killing off bacteria, especially important if you have mouth infections or cavitations or receding gums. You can do this stuff that at home that normally that’s reserved for just biological dentists.
Nadine: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. So, you can put that on your gums after you brush your teeth. It even makes a lovely lip gloss. You can even combine that with other essential oils and stuff, too.
Wendy: Yeah. Well, Nadine, thanks so much for coming on the show. This is just full of so many good tips and tricks. I mean, so much better than all of the dentists combined that I’ve interviewed on this podcast. It’s something maybe they might not want to explain things like they think people aren’t going to understand. So, thanks for the depth, the level that you went to in explaining how our teeth work, essentially.
Nadine: Oh, it’s my pleasure. Truly, though, I mean, I’m so indebted to some maverick dentists out there that really through their work, I feel like I was able to just translate it and tell us all about it.
Wendy: Yes. Well, thanks for coming on, and everyone, thanks for listening to the Myers Detox Podcast, where we explore all kinds of topics related to detoxing your body of heavy metals and chemicals, and giving you natural solutions, alternatives that you can use, so you don’t retox your body when you’re trying to detox. So, thanks for listening, and I will talk to you guys very, very soon.
