Barbara is a new patient of a dental colleague I know well. He is a well-trained biological dentist. Barbara was at her wits end, and he was perplexed.
Barbara frequently had sore, inflamed, and sensitive gums -- especially after she had any dental procedure performed. She also had many existing dental restorations.
Interestingly, Barbara had blood tests to determine the compatibility of these dental materials before they were placed. No problems were identified. Also, her current biological dentist could not find any active periodontal disease, bone infection, or problems with her existing dental work.
Obviously, Barbara was confused and distraught. She wanted to know what was going on. And her dentist was perplexed and needed answers too.
First things first
Dr. Alvin Danenberg.First, Barbara's new biologically oriented dentist completed a thorough dental exam. Among other things, he was looking for at least 11 potentially irritating factors that might be causing inflammation and infection. Obviously, if any of these were the problem, each must be resolved correctly.
Second, the dentist consulted a medical doctor and various specialists. Together, they looked for any systemic medical conditions that could be the cause of her gum issues. If any were detected, they would need to be addressed and treated.
For Barbara, it turned out that her gum problems were not caused by something typically investigated by her dentist or medical doctors. But once the team identified the cause, Barbara responded well.
9 questions
Barbara's dentist called me to describe his dilemma and Barbara's negative findings. I suggested that he ask Barbara the following nine questions:
- Do you avoid eating healthy beef or lamb?
- Do you eat bread?
- Do you eat processed sugars?
- Do you eat any vegetable or seed oils?
- Do you eat chicken or pork more than once a week?
- Do you have allergies?
- Do you have frequent sinus infections?
- Do you have frequent skin lesions or rashes?
- Have you taken various regimens of systemic antibiotic therapy in the past?
A "yes" to any of the nine questions might indicate a leaky gut:
- If you avoid eating beef or lamb from nose to tail, you could be missing many bioavailable nutrients in their natural state that are required by the body. If you do avoid such foods, desiccated organs in capsule form could be included in your diet. Think of them as high-powered, multivitamin, multimineral whole foods with nothing added and nothing removed except water.
- Eating bread and/or processed sugars could damage your gut microbiome and the lining of your gut. Try to avoid such foods or eliminate them from your diet.
- If you regularly eat vegetable and/or seed oils as well as a lot of chicken and/or pork, linoleic acid could be a problem. Linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) that can cause weight gain, immune system dysfunction, and mitochondrial damage when consumed in excess. Vegetable and seed oils should be removed from the diet completely, while chicken or pork should be eaten only once a week or every other week.
- Allergies, sinus infections, or skin irritations may be emanating from the same source as the mouth problems.
- Frequent use of antibiotics in the past could damage the garden of healthy bacteria in the gut as well as in the mouth.
2 solutions for leaky gut and mouth problems
Sore, inflamed, and sensitive gum tissues may be due to an imbalance of bacteria in your gut and damage to the epithelial barrier that separates the inside of your gut from your blood system and the rest of your body. Damage to the gut could cause improper absorption of nutrients even if you are consuming healthy nutrients. The breakdown of this gut barrier is called a leaky gut.
A leaky gut will cause inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation will affect all organ systems negatively -- including the mouth!
My suggestion is to improve the health and diversity of the bacteria in your gut and repair the gut epithelial barrier to help solve your mouth problems. In essence, you need to treat your leaky gut. I have two solutions that will help repair the gut lining and improve the gut microbiome.
1. Consume spore-based probiotics
Spore-based probiotics have been demonstrated in human trials to increase the diversity of the gut microbiome and help repair the gut epithelial barrier.
I take and recommend these two spore-based probiotics:
2. Swish and swallow bovine colostrum
When you swish with bovine colostrum, some of its beneficial elements will enter the blood system rapidly because they are absorbed through the soft tissues in your mouth. After you swallow the colostrum, all of it gets into the gut to bind to toxic elements and help heal the damaged epithelial gut lining.
I personally use and recommend Pro Colostrum-LD. If dairy is a problem in any way, colostrum may cause gut discomfort. I suggest taking a very small dose of Pro Colostrum-LD and titrating to higher doses over the next week or two.
If you cannot tolerate colostrum at any dose, then I recommend MegaIgG 2000 capsules. MegaIgG 2000 is like colostrum but derived from bovine serum instead. It has the immunoglobulin antibodies IgG, IgM, and IgA as well as transferrin, but it does not have all the other beneficial bioactive elements that bovine colostrum provides.
Barbara's experience
As I said, Barbara's biocompatibility blood tests for her existing dental restorations were negative or inconclusive. Also, her medical doctor specializing in allergy medicine was uncertain as to the actual cause of her reactions. Additional medical complications were ruled out by other medical specialists.
When Barbara's dentist finally asked her the previous nine questions, he discovered that she ate mainly plant-based foods and possibly was missing some very important nutrients. In addition, Barbara gave a medical history of frequent sinus infections and antibiotic usage.
To solve the puzzle, Barbara's dentist helped her transition to some animal-based foods -- especially the desiccated organs. Also, he had her begin the two solutions I suggested.
Within 45 days, Barbara resolved most of her mouth soreness, inflammation, and sensitivity. Also, she said she felt more energy without any gut disturbances.
While my two solutions are not a cure, they can support the body in healing. What's fascinating is that every cell in the body communicates with every other cell in the body in some way. And the gut microbiome, which is made up of 38 trillion microbes, significantly influences our overall health and well-being.
By the way, the human body only has 30 trillion human cells. So we are more microbial than human! Think about that!
Dr. Alvin Danenberg has retired from the private practice of periodontics in Bluffton, SC. He continues to be on the faculty of the College of Integrative Medicine and created its integrative periodontal teaching module. He also spent two years as chief of periodontics at Charleston Air Force Base earlier in his career. His website is drdanenberg.com.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
