When was the last time you went to a dentist and they asked, “So, what are the health goals that you’re looking to achieve?“
When we hear the word “dentist”, most of us don’t think of a teacher, helper, health guru/coach, or good listener.
But what if a dentist could be all of the above?
Dreamy, right?
Thankfully, this dream is now more and more a reality because some of these awesome holistic dentists already exist! These dental professionals create time to listen to your goals, acknowledge your experiences and feelings, and focus on meaningful conversation to gain an understanding about your health systems.
Their objective is to help you become informed so you can make empowered choices for your body.
In today’s expert interview, OraWellness founders Will and Susan have the honor of chatting with holistic dentist Dr. Kelly Blodgett.
Dr. Blodgett is redefining dentistry by providing a personalized, positive, empowered, and enjoyable patient experience. His office is an intentionally crafted, judgement-free environment, and he and his team work to help their patients achieve their oral and systemic health goals.
In this video, Dr. B shares his perspective on a range of topics, including:
- fillings, root canals, cavitations, wisdom teeth, trigeminal neuralgia, bone grafts, and more;
- the ongoing learning and growth journey that can be found in dentistry;
- how a dental team can create meaningful, trusting relationships with their patients and help them achieve their goals;
- and how patients can identify a great dental team.
Welcome to the future of dentistry and dental self-empowerment!
Show Notes:
- 1:30 – What’s the big deal with having dental work done in a more conventional and less whole-body mindset?
- 4:51 – Why Dr. B thinks of fillings as “trauma to a tooth” that shouldn’t be normalized or minimized.
- 8:13 – The importance of intentionally creating more time with patients.
- 12:33 – Root canals, chronic hidden infections, and whole-body issues.
- 16:30 – Dr. B’s thoughts on mercury amalgam fillings.
- 18:09 – Accepting the learning journey in dentistry: understanding that our knowledge and technologies progress over time.
- 20:10 – Continuing the discussion about root canals.
- 26:49 – How Dr. B’s background in psychology helps to shape the way his practice interacts with patients.
- 34:36 – What’s a cavitation, and what’s its link to wisdom teeth and/or trigeminal neuralgia?
- 40:43 – Dr. B’s unique practice: creating time to listen to the patient to understand their situation.
- 42:43 – Ideas and questions to consider when a wisdom tooth extraction is recommended.
- 47:03 – What is LPRF, and why does Dr. B prefer this method over bone grafting?
- 50:31 – How to tell if a dentist is really holistic/biological/functional or if they’re just greenwashing.
- 57:17 – Dr. B’s closing tips for great health.
More Info About Dr. Blodgett:
Feel free to visit Dr. Blodgett’s website, BlodgettDentalCare.com, and/or follow him on social media:
- Instagram: blodgettdentalcare
- Facebook: @DrBlodgett
- YouTube: Blodgett Dental Care
Wrapping Up…
We hope you enjoyed this fascinating look into Dr. Blodgett’s philosophies. We know we did!
What about you? What are your thoughts on Dr. Blodgett’s novel approach to dentistry? Have you ever worked with a holistic dentist or medical professional who took the time to really listen to your story and goals and then helped you devise a plan to work towards them? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below so we can all learn from each other. And if you’ve worked with a really awesome dental or medical professional, feel free to name drop so other members of our community can find them.
As always, if you know anyone who could benefit from the information in this video, please help us to help others by sharing our work with your loved ones.
Helpful, Related Resources:
- Helpful resources to find a qualified dentist to assist you [article]
- Guide to Safe Dentistry [free eBook]
- HealThy Mouth World Summit [[series of expert interview videos]]
- Meridian Tooth Chart [free interactive resource]
- Understanding the issues with root canals [article]
- “My dentist says I need a root canal. What are my options?” [article]
- The 3 questions to ask your dentist about root canals [article]
- I Have A Root Canal – What Are My Options? [article]
- Is Thermal Imaging the Solution to Screen for Problem Root Canals? [article]
- What Causes an Abscessed Tooth and How You Can Avoid Them [article]
- Is It Possible to Stop a Dental Abscess? [article]
- The Common, Unknown Risk of Having Wisdom Teeth Removed [article]
- Is it Really Wise to Have Your Wisdom Teeth Removed? [article]
Great ! keep going
Very nicely done. I’ve been having problems with the entire upper molar area for about 6 years now. No one has been able to give me any definitive diagnosis, it’s like the woman in the story that had the wisdom tooth extraction, then the molar root canaled, then the next tooth, etc. I had a very minor cavity in my wisdom tooth, the dentist I went to treated it with ozone and sealed it. I was still having pain radiating into my ear, jaw, back of my throat, basically the entire area around the tooth. He couldn’t figure anything out so he suggested I get the wisdom tooth pulled. I did. I had excruciating pain in the area a couple days after the extraction. Enough so that I broke the stitching in the armrest of my leather couch gripping it because of the pain that kept ramping up and up. Went back to the dentist, he checked all the surrounding teeth, nothing on the panoramic x-ray. Been seeing various Chiropractors thinking the pain is TMJ related, some of it helped. I definitely think there was something to that I was certainly under a lot of stress, probably grinding my teeth at night. Went to a new chiro that adjusted my atlas and the first thing that he said after he read the email where I was detailing my symptoms was “cavitation”. I had never heard of it before. He referred me to a new dentist, but the appointment unfortunately isn’t until November. My question would be is it possible for me to have cavitation or infection in that upper area *before* I had the tooth pulled? Everything I’ve read is talking about the infection being there because of the gum healing faster than the bone and sealing that infection in a pocket. But I was having these same symptoms for a few years before I had the tooth pulled. Another problem is no one had done any xray other than the panoramic one, so they wouldn’t have known to begin with. I should have had a cone beam xray done of the area, but I didn’t know anything about it at the time and I’m obviously relying on someone else’s expertise, something I have learned the hard way is not the greatest of game plans unfortunately. I’m really hoping that I get some definitive answers here in November because this pain really impacts my quality of life and sometimes very severely with very sharp pain into my ear and the area where the wisdom tooth was.
Aloha AG,
Thank you for your comment. 🙂
We’re sorry to hear about your ongoing dental difficulties! We here at OraWellness aren’t medical or dental professionals, so we can’t treat, diagnose, advise, etc. Instead, what we can do is share information with you to help you become self-empowered on your journey. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s see what information we can share to help.
“Is it possible for me to have cavitation or infection in that upper area *before* I had the tooth pulled?”
It’s our understanding that any time a tooth is extracted, there is a risk of developing an infection in the jawbone known as a cavitation.
So, we don’t believe a cavitation infection can occur before a tooth is extracted, because cavitations occur when an extraction site becomes infected and then heals over with gum tissue.
Here’s an article that explains more about cavitations: The Common, Unknown Risk of Having Wisdom Teeth Removed
It’s important for whoever performs a tooth extraction to take steps to reduce the chance of a cavitation infection occurring at the tooth extraction site. Here are a couple email snippets I’ve received from dentists that address how they do this:
Dennis Kudlik, DDS: “I do not do traditional cavitation surgery. If people want that, I typically refer them to an oral surgeon. What I do is try to scrape away the entire ligament attaching the tooth to the bone, and I use ozone to disinfect and irrigate the extraction site. The oral surgeons I refer to usually use your own blood to add growth factors to help the healing as well.”
Jamie Ross, office staff member for Dr. Joseph Sarkissian DDS: “When we do extraction of teeth on the same day of the extraction we clean out the ligament from the jawbone and we clean out the socket area. After the socket area is clean we put ozone gas in the area to kill the bacteria and we pack it with PRF (platelet rich fibrinogen) and place sutures… I have included a youtube link for the PRF so that you can have more information.”
We don’t know for sure of course, but it’s possible that the pain you were experiencing before you had the tooth pulled could have been due to an oral abscess (as opposed to a cavitation infection).
Addressing Abscesses / Infections:
Homeopath Joette Calabrese has a video titled, “Dental Infections and Bone Spurs”. In the video, she shares how she addressed her own dental infection.
If it were us, along with increasing our vitamin C intake, we’d consider optimizing our fat-soluble vitamin intake (vitamins A, D, E, and K2) and cut the sugar WAY back. None is best.
You may also want to visit a holistic health practitioner to help you boost your immunity, and you may want to look into Hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Here are two articles that share more strategies to support the immune system:
Is It Possible to Stop a Dental Abscess?
What Causes an Abscessed Tooth and How You Can Avoid Them
We sincerely hope that you’ll get some definitive answers in November (or sooner) so you can take steps to reduce the chronic pain and improve your quality of life.
Finally, is there any way you could see a qualified dental professional sooner than November?
I hope that helps! Aloha 🙂
Thanks for the very detailed reply. I had assumed cavitation was the result of extraction as it leaves a “cavity” in the bone. Quite possible I had an infection they couldn’t detect on the xrays or mirrors. I really don’t understand why they never referred me to someone that had the 3D xray if they were unable to provide it themselves. I had complained about the pain in the upper molars radiating into the upper jaw/ear/throat for more than a few visits and they were suggesting mouth guards, chiropractic, etc. They seemed to be convinced it was muscle related and the pain wasn’t tooth related at all but disfunction/clenching in nature. As those were “virgin teeth” and I didn’t negatively respond to the tapping/cold water/air tests on any of those teeth. I had a large filling replaced and crowned on a molar below, all the problems I’ve had have been on the left side. Again, they never xrayed to see if there was infection or anything going on with the tooth or roots before it was crowned. Another dentist suggested I have the tooth removed, which was ridiculous given they never did anything other than look at the pan x-ray and ask my symptoms, saying the pain in my ear could be referred. It’s not constant pain, but it was there before the wisdom tooth extraction. I’m going to try and do myofascial release massage and the upper cervical chiropractor that suggested this new holistic dentist has helped a lot as well. There’s just something missing in this puzzle and I’m hoping the cone beam xray will provide those answers and relief. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do to get in to see him before November unless someone cancels, they’re booked up solid till then. Thank you for your time, I appreciate your reply and putting together this video. I am a user of your tooth powder as well and its a great product.
You’re welcome, AG. 🙂
We sincerely hope you’ll be able to identify the missing puzzle pieces with the help of a holistic dental professional and technology like the cone beam x-ray.
We also hope you’ll be able to receive professional help sooner than November (if someone cancels or through some other means).
Thank you for using our products—we’re honored to play a role supporting your oral health.