Kim Vopni (00:01.506)
Hi, Dr. Sanda, thank you so much for joining me today. We met recently at a business conference, a business mastermind conference, and I learned more about what you do and really wanted to have you come and share with my community who is, you serve women, I serve women, and this is something we haven't talked about on the show, is our mouths and how what we do and what we experience in our mouths.
dental history we've had can influence our microbiome and our gut and all things and especially associated with the perimenopause menopause transition. So I'm excited to learn more from you. Can you please introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, what brought you into the world of being a periodontist and specializing in detoxifying the mouth.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (00:51.603)
Yeah, my name is Dr. Sandal Moldavan Kim and thank you so much for having me on your between two lips because I work between two lips. Very fitting My journey started with my own health to go into integrative and holistic dentistry. I had my own issue gut health issues. Actually I had
Kim Vopni (00:58.742)
Yes!
Dr Sanda Moldovan (01:12.447)
large mercury fillings in my mouth, 16 of them that I unfortunately had removed unsafely and I have to pay the price for it later. I had a root canal which I no longer have. So I've gone through it. I know it's a journey through hell. So that kind of moved me into the integrative holistic dentistry or biological dentistry. So right now we have three offices in Beverly Hills.
Newport Beach and Encino in which we help people detoxify their mouth from microbes and metals for healthier body.
Kim Vopni (01:48.27)
Got it, okay. So, that's a lot of mercury fillings, but you said remove safely. Can you expand on, because we just think of, know, I think many people will be aware that mercury is not something necessarily we want in our body, and they would potentially have been given an option to have it removed, but I don't know if, I'd never heard anybody before you say remove safely. I automatically think, well, they're removing it, they're professionals, it must be safe, but.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (02:16.227)
Right? Yeah, great question. And you know, I was actually just finishing dental school and my residency when I decided to have my mercury fillings removed. Then I didn't know in dental school, they don't teach us this. That whenever we cut into a mercury filling, the vapor that comes off that filling is actually very toxic and it's odorless. And we just inhale it, not just the people sitting in the chair having it removed.
Kim Vopni (02:16.363)
what would be the safe versus the unsafe way.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (02:44.867)
but also the dentist and the assistants, pretty much everybody who's in that room. And for me, after I had those mercury fillings removed, unsafely, meaning with no protection from the vapor, I started getting headaches. I didn't feel well.
because mercury is a neurotoxin. So it'll lodge into fatty tissues such as the brain, which is fatty, areas such as the nerves. So people can develop Parkinson's disease with high levels of metals in their body. IAOMT, or the International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, has actually developed a
A special technique into which we can remove these fillings from someone's mouth, taking certain precautions such as, you know, using a big suction or rubber dam to isolate those teeth that are needing a mercury detoxification, taking out the filling in a certain way, using ozone, things like that to help protect the patient. The patient also wears actually a mask during this whole procedure so they will not be inhaling anything.
Also, the dentist and the assistant are actually wearing gas masks in order to protect themselves because most people in dentistry, especially all the ones that are removing mercury fillings, they're toxic. Their bodies are so toxic that they don't feel well. And unfortunately, it's just not a known fact that removing mercury in the dental chair basically
Kim Vopni (04:01.666)
Wow.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (04:19.7)
gets into everyone who's there, who's breathing it in. The masks that dentists wear is not enough to protect them from inhaling mercury.
Kim Vopni (04:27.501)
Okay, wow. And you mentioned, well, actually, before I go to the root canal, so if somebody has, had to they had like you needed the filling for a reason. So you take out the mercury filling, what now goes in place of it. And like I think of amalgam, is that better and safer?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (04:49.411)
Great question. An amalgam is actually a mixture of things. And we refer to amalgam in dentistry to something that contains mercury. So all amalgams in dentistry contain mercury. Up to 50%, as a matter of fact. In Europe, mercury has been banned.
Kim Vopni (05:03.757)
Yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (05:10.741)
starting in the last year or so is no longer allowed to even be placed. Unfortunately in this country mercury is still being placed. Amalgam fillings are still being placed in people's mouth. And why would we remove them? What happens is with mercury that stays in the mouth for a while, it accumulates water. So it expands and it can actually crack a tooth. That's what happened to me and that's why I ended up with an implant. The mercury got so big and it cracked my tooth.
So if you're looking, I recommend people, okay, they say, I have no pain. Why would I remove my fillings? Well, look at them. Are they black? Is your tooth turning black? That's a good reason to remove them. And unfortunately, there's a lot of dentists who look at them and say they're corroding. When they turn black, you really have corrosion in the mouth.
A lot of dentists are like, yeah, you don't have to bother removing them. But the fact is, any time we remove an amalgam filling, there's a lot of decay, a lot of cavity underneath it. So...
Our recommendation is always to remove it safely, especially somebody going through a detoxification. You you probably have heard patients, you know, they're going through a full body detox, but they still have mercury fillings in their mouth. It's a bad idea to actually chelate because you can actually chelate off those fillings of mercury. So it comes off. There's a great video called the smoking tooth video where you can actually see if we rub a pencil on the mercury filling on a tooth, vapors come off.
those mercury vapors. So if somebody has mercury in their mouth, whenever you drink hot water, mercury comes off. If you brush your teeth, mercury comes off. Like we know this. It's actually...
Kim Vopni (06:47.916)
Wow.
Kim Vopni (06:53.461)
Wow. So what would you then, what do you fill a cab, what should you be filling a cavity with instead of a Malcolm?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (06:59.885)
Yeah, great idea. We have so much better materials than we used to, even a few years ago. I love some of the materials that come out of Germany. They're biocompatible. They have liquid ceramic fillings in them, so they're a lot stronger. They're BPA-free. A lot of people think, you know, it's a white filling. It must be good for me. Not necessarily. There's just so many different white fillings out there. And BPA, this phenol A, which we know it's cancer-provoking,
is found in a lot of these plastic fillings. Sadly...
people don't know how to ask their dentist. So anybody listening to your podcast, I highly recommend if you're planning on removing your mercury fillings, ask them, is this a BPA free filling? If the dentist doesn't know, you're probably at the wrong dental office, right? Because we have to know what goes in our mouth. A lot of people don't like even, you know, there's chemicals even in a polish when you go for a dental cleaning, there's gluten in it, for example, for those people that are gluten free. But in terms of replacing mercury, the best option is definitely
Kim Vopni (07:46.604)
Yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (08:03.257)
porcelain in the form of inlay or unlace the most biocompatible followed by a ceramic type of filling that's more of a liquid that goes on there.
Kim Vopni (08:12.727)
Got it.
Kim Vopni (08:16.247)
So I think a lot of like there's a lot of people getting cosmetic dentistry procedures with inlays onlays. And so if they are porcelain that would be considered appropriate or safer. Yeah. Right. Got it. Cool. I want to come back to the root canal. I have never had a root canal.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (08:29.604)
Absolutely, because it doesn't leech anything and you know it's neutral.
Kim Vopni (08:39.533)
thought of it. I don't even know why a root canal is done. So if you can explain why a root canal would be done, but also you said now you don't have a root canal. So what happened that you didn't need the root canal anymore?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (08:49.487)
Yeah, so living in Romania, I actually moved here when I was 14 years old. I had a root canal when this tooth was just coming in. It's a six year molar. So we get these molars when we're six years old. And I think around the age of maybe 11 or 12, my tooth was hurting. So I went in and I had a root canal on it in Romania. So they don't have, they don't have the best materials in communist Romania back in the day. This was in the 80s. And
When I came here and I was going to school, I was assisting one of the residents at the school doing a research project. He looked at my dudes, he's like, my God, you need to have this filled. It's got a lot of microbes trapped in it. So he did that. He redid the root canal.
And it wasn't until later on after I finished dental school that I started learning about how there's bacteria that gets trapped in a root canal treated tooth and it gases off toxins. And it also puts a barrier or a blockage in that meridian. Like every tooth in our body is connected to an energetic meridian.
So when we have a root canal treated tooth that's infested with bacteria, typically that energy doesn't flow thoroughly. Jerry Tennant, who was an MD, actually spoke about this and he has a book called Healing Its Voltage. He himself had a tumor on the same meridian where he had an infected root canal treated tooth. And when the tooth was taken out, his tumor healed. So it's...
Kim Vopni (10:23.083)
I've heard another similar story to that of another. Yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (10:25.301)
Exactly. And I see this in my practice. When I take out root canals, other things in the body starts to heal. For me, it was my digestion. That particular tooth was on the lower left. And I started to have a smell when I was flossing around it. So a lot of dentists told me and my friends, your root canal is fine. It doesn't show anything on the x-ray, but it was turning black. And I knew intuitively, you know, it's not good for me. So I had it removed and cleaned out. My digestion got better.
I actually didn't expect it. I didn't know that it was connected. But yeah, we don't recommend a Rukanal. You were asking me why would somebody need a Rukanal. Usually when you have pain, the dentist will recommend a Rukanal. Sometimes dentists might say, oh, know what? This cavity is deep. You don't have any pain now, but let me do a Rukanal for you preventatively to avoid you having pain. That's a bad idea.
Kim Vopni (11:22.039)
Yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (11:22.061)
Bad idea! When we do a root canal, we kill the tooth. So we definitely don't want to do that. We want to keep the teeth alive as long as possible. We have different methods today to help somebody through that process. A tooth when it's alive can rebuild itself, can protect itself, rebuild the tooth structure. Once it's dead, it's
Kim Vopni (11:44.354)
Wow, okay. And all of this from like, Topsin, he talked about microbes and the gut microbiome. So we have the oral microbiome. I guess maybe if you can talk about what is the oral microbiome and how is it, I mean, we eat and what we eat and what goes through our, from our mouth down is part of the digestive process. But can you elaborate a little bit on how what's happening, how our oral health is influencing our gut health?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (12:04.088)
Yes.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (12:12.143)
Definitely. mean, the mouth is the opening of the GI tract. So when we chew, we actually, lot of the bacteria from the mouth is swallowed and it can be transferred into the intestines. Some of my physicians that I work with, they actually refer clients to me when they take a stool test, for example, and they actually find Fusobacterium or other oral bacteria that is known to be pathogenic or disease causing in the stool.
So they will refer those patients to me. That's how I work with integrative physicians. some of those bacteria like P. gingivalis, that's a bacteria actually that's very stealth. It can cause brain inflammation. It can cause joint pain, but it can also cause leaky gut or it's involved with leaky gut. So if somebody is going through leaky gut issues, we always say leaky gums, leaky gut.
So most likely they have some form of periodontal disease. And it works hand in hand. If you're just treating the leaky gut, but you're never going to a dentist to actually treat the gums and the oral microbiome, it keeps kind of reinfecting itself. So super important to look at both ends. I'm super fascinated about the oral microbiome. We've learned so much more in the last few years about...
what constitutes a healthy microbiome. There's still a lot we don't know. And in my office, our standard protocol is to actually do a saliva test, which is basically a swish and spit test.
Kim Vopni (13:48.013)
Thanks
Dr Sanda Moldovan (13:50.927)
very easy and it kind of allows me to see what are... does somebody have those bacteria that cause inflammation in the body and gum disease? Why are the gums bleeding? 80 % of the population has some kind of bleeding of their gums. Some people have general, some people it's just the back areas where they're hard to reach and they're not getting cleaned. And a lot of people think, ah, my gums are bleeding. What's the big deal? It's fine, it doesn't hurt, but it's not a good thing, you know, like
If my hand was bleeding, I'd be like, my God, my hand's bleeding. whatever it is. If people notice that gums are bleeding, it's not so important, but it's not a good sign. Whenever gums bleed, it means there is some bacterial activity underneath the gum that's causing an ulceration.
Kim Vopni (14:23.885)
you
Dr Sanda Moldovan (14:39.115)
At that point of the bleeding, blood vessels are open and bacteria from the mouth can enter into the bloodstream and start traveling through the body. For that reason, we say periodontal disease is a systemic problem. It's not just an oral problem.
Kim Vopni (14:51.565)
Huh.
Wow. Okay. So something you said a few minutes back was you talked about about fat and where toxins are stored. can't remember even exactly what you were referencing. But if somebody had more adipose tissue on their body, theoretically, could they have a higher toxic load or burden?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (15:20.309)
Definitely. Because toxins get stored in fat. And we also know there's a correlation from obesity to gum disease. So the more fat storage, the more inflammation. And it makes sense because the more fat storage, the more toxins, the more inflammation we have in our body.
Kim Vopni (15:31.043)
interesting.
Kim Vopni (15:40.738)
Yeah. And I think about, we both work with predominantly women in sort of the perimenopause menopause transition when there is, the body is often creating more fat to become a source of estrogen as we're losing our ovarian function. So is like, I'm just thinking could potentially just that transition be an addition like
Dr Sanda Moldovan (16:01.06)
Yes.
Kim Vopni (16:09.141)
Are we more prone to toxic load or toxic burden just by nature of going through that process, especially if we don't have hormonal support where we already know there's also going to be increased levels of inflammation throughout the body as well.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (16:21.047)
Yeah, that's a good question. There's definitely more storage for toxins and I think it becomes super important to do a regular detox. For myself, you know, I'm actually turning 50 this year, so I always try to do one or two detoxes a year.
Kim Vopni (16:27.916)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (16:31.607)
Yep.
Kim Vopni (16:39.083)
Okay, how do you detox? What's your protocol? Like parasite or liver or what do you do?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (16:45.251)
Both, actually, both. I think it's important to support the liver at phase one and phase two detoxification. It's important to reduce some of the more inflammatory foods. I also like fasting. I think it's a great way for autophagy to reduce the amount of cells that are not needed in the body. mean, fasting has been around for thousands of years. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (17:10.455)
Yeah. Food-wise, so we think of gluten, dairy, sugar, processed food, artificial sweetener. We can go down a list of things we know that are good for us and could contribute to inflammation. Would that be the same list that's also not good for our oral microbiome?
And are there any others that maybe we might not be aware of? Maybe things we think are of as healthy that may be not so good for our oral microbiome?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (17:43.191)
Yeah, great question. Just like you cultivate a healthy microbiome in the gut, we need a healthy microbiome for the mouth. So things like fiber, lots of fiber is good. Like actually increasing the amount of chewing. Most people don't chew enough today, especially we're in a hurry. We're run from one place to another and I'm guilty of that myself. We chew a little bit and then we move on, but it's super important to stimulate cell Ivan and chew your food well because digestion starts in the mouth actually.
And with a microbiome, we want to minimize the amount of sugar. And for those of you out there listening that have a sweet tooth, my recommendation is always to switch to something that's sweet, like let's say allulose, example, erythritol. For those of you that can tolerate it, to just be able to kind of wean you off the sugar without that, you know, like sudden cut. And actually erythritol has good effects of antibacterial effects, as well as xylitol, actually, for the mouth.
So if somebody's prone to cavities or somebody's prone to gum inflammation, what we'll see is when xylitol or erythritol are being exposed to the oral microbiome. And you can do this nowadays. You can buy the powder, you can mix it in a liquid, you can bake with it, you can actually use it in the of candy, you can find it. And we recommend it for people to actually use that. Also people with dry mouth. When somebody has dry mouth, it actually changes the oral microbiome.
it becomes more cariogenic or cavity causing. So it's important to use like a lozenge, especially with xylitol or erythritol to stimulate saliva and at the same time have an effect on the oral microbiome and thinning the oral microbiome.
Full disclosure, I have a company that focuses on chewable probiotics. And we were looking at the vegan chewable probiotic formulation that we have. And actually we're seeing the xylitol and the probiotic lozenges thinning out the plaque. Because when somebody has dry mouth, they have more plaque build up as well. And really stimulating that salivary flow.
Kim Vopni (19:54.65)
So it's funny because as you said the word chewing I was writing down just on my notes here to ask you chewing because I think about there are a lot like we we eat quickly a lot of people are we have coffees and smoothies so there's a lot of liquid nutrition that people have that takes away the need to chew and so part of you know I don't know what my question is per se but I was making the observation that we we chew less
than we used to and I think processed foods also require less mechanical digestion in many ways. And so that's also from a like a face function muscular perspective, jaw function, teeth. There's a whole bunch of ramifications there from a chewing perspective. So we should make sure like I remember somebody saying if you're making a smoothie, just eat some of the ingredients, choose some of the ingredients as you're putting them in there as well. If you're putting some banana or an apple or some
fruit in there, have a couple of pieces to chew as well as putting it into your smoothie to blend it up.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (20:56.995)
Well, good idea.
Kim Vopni (20:59.679)
On the point about the dry mouth, I think a lot of the people in my community as well who may be on medications, lot of them like overactive bladder medication that dries things out and dry eyes and dry mouth is a consequence of some of those medications. So I think indirectly with what you've just said here as well, especially if they may not have an appropriate diet, that's another thing that could potentially lead them down the path of having more bacteria, more plaque.
potentially more cavities. Would that be accurate?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (21:32.641)
Yeah, 100%. We'll definitely see an increase in cavities when that happens.
Kim Vopni (21:39.171)
Yeah, yeah, that's super fascinating. So what would be, you've mentioned fiber. What about things like acidic foods or, so we've talked about sugar, but things that are acidic, that, like people say, don't, we should drink lemon water for our gut health, but we shouldn't have lemon water because it's gonna break down the level of our teeth. So what should we be doing there?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (21:59.947)
Yeah. Yeah, so acidity is not good for enamel. The enamel layer on the teeth will...
respond negatively to acid, it'll dissolve and the teeth will become more brittle. That's why you like if you look in the mirror like some people will notice that the enamel is getting thin, the teeth are getting more see-through, they're seeing like ragged edges at the edges of the teeth. That's because you know we especially as we have diets that are full of acidity like lemon juice. I always recommend by the way lemon water to be drinking it through a straw.
super important, especially don't sip it. You some people sip lemon water throughout the day. Definitely not a recommendation. Lemon water is healthy, it's alkaline for me, but we want to drink it, not let it sit on your teeth for hours. And typically, if you don't have a straw, then my recommendation is drink your lemon water and then immediately swish with regular water to get the acidity off the teeth. So other things that are acidic,
just basically all the limes, lemon, oranges, even like tomato sauce, pineapple, things like that can actually attack the enamel. So I know there's people out there who like to eat a lot of fruit and unfortunately fruit is acidic. So we do see more tooth wear in people that consume a more acidic diet. My recommendation to help to strengthen the enamel is using a calcium hydroxyapatite, a toothpaste or tooth powder.
Like as part of the Orsana line of products we were looking at, particularly tooth powders, I like tooth powders better because they don't have glycerol. Glycerol is everything nowadays and it actually comes from an oil. So most toothpaste actually contain an oil byproduct or a diesel byproduct called glycerol. So what happens when a layer of glycerol coats the mouth, then the teeth don't get remineralized.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (24:01.527)
So I always recommend using a tooth powder for remineralization. And how do we apply this? You can use it, a tooth powder instead of a toothpaste by just brushing it on for two minutes, twice a day, then rinsing. People that have sensitivity, I actually recommend them to actually apply it with a finger, apply it on the enamel and then leave it on overnight.
Because that calcium hydroxy, as long as teeth are alive, and we have research on this, it actually gets absorbed in the teeth and teeth can become stronger. But it has to be in nano-format, super important.
Kim Vopni (24:36.109)
So
Okay, so glycerol is an ingredient we would want to avoid in a toothpaste. When you talk about the powder and I was, took you generously provided some samples of yours and I have been using that and I really like it. Is that, should we be doing that in addition to brushing or that is our brushing?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (24:56.865)
You can do that as your brush. I just use that for brushing. I don't use toothpaste. But I always have people try this. You use your toothpaste, brush, and then brush with a powder. You can experience a different kind of clean when you use a powder.
Kim Vopni (24:58.87)
OK.
Got it, got it, okay.
Kim Vopni (25:10.283)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it feels, yeah, it's, it's a different sensation initially, but yeah, but I found it lovely and it's a, it tastes really, it tastes really good too. So I liked it. So glycerol and then from a kind of thinking about the perimenopause menopause transition with the loss of bone that we have, does that same
the same risk of osteoporosis, like the bone loss that we are facing, how does that influence our teeth? You know, we think of all the minerals that we need from a tooth, from an oral health perspective to keep our teeth. What happens during that transition into menopause and post-menopause to the integrity of our teeth?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (25:59.139)
Yeah, great question. My teeth are actually bone. The outer layer of the tooth called the enamel layer, that's an area that's actually doesn't have any cellular function. It's just basically a layer of minerals. But inside the dentin basically is like the bone we have in our jaw. And we need the same kind of minerals. as the mouth gets drier, what happens is the saliva
doesn't mineralize the teeth anymore. Our teeth get stronger from saliva. So people that have dry mouth actually will see more brittle teeth. There are things that we can do. Number one is calcium hydroxy for sure, but it's also what we eat. So increasing organ meats, for example. Retinol is a super important element of...
strong teeth and Weston Price back in the 20s and 30s he actually did a lot of observational studies about diets and how important it is to eat retinal type of products like grass-fed butter, organ meats, also important to take dark leafy greens for the mineral content such as calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Phosphorus is also of course found in organ meats and calcium and phosphorus form calcium phosphate which is what teeth and bone are
made of.
Kim Vopni (27:20.205)
Got it. What about vitamin D? I know that's a big one from bone, so I'm assuming because teeth are bone, that's going to be important as well.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (27:28.675)
Yeah, you're absolutely right. We actually have a few studies that show that the higher the vitamin D level someone has, less risk of tooth loss, less risk of gum disease, and less risk of cavities.
of super important to make sure that vitamin D is at optimum level. So how do we test this in our office? We actually have a blood spot test as a finger prick. Our patients that go through our procedures, we actually need to test for this because if, let's say I'm doing dental implants, then somebody needs to have good vitamin D levels or we're treating gum disease, same thing for optimum healing. So a small blood spot test is easy way to check.
for vitamin D and I always recommend between 70 and 80 nanograms.
Kim Vopni (28:17.601)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. in your, believe I, if I read the label now, I, I wear contacts sometimes and when I don't, can't, I can see up close better, but I had my contacts in, so I don't see up close in the small print on some of these bottles. can't read it, but it's, I believe there was, is it lactobacillus? Like what there was a probiotic element to it is, that, don't know if I'm wording it correctly, but
We think of probiotics for our gut. So if we're talking about the oral microbiome, probiotics is going to be beneficial as well. Was that in that product? Did I read that correctly?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (28:45.487)
Yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (28:54.401)
Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's actually a probiotic mineralizing tooth powder. I'm a big fan of probiotics and we've had quite a few studies in dentistry on the beneficial role of probiotics. They're a little bit different strains that we want for the gut and we want them to stay in the mouth. Like a lot of people aren't already taking probiotics in the form of a capsule that they swallow.
But we actually want the beneficial probiotics to actually stay in the mouth. So we use probiotics for many reasons. Cavities, we know there's decreasing cavities, especially for kids, you so we made our probiotics super tasty because we wanted kids to eat them. And also with probiotics, if somebody has a coated tongue,
Kim Vopni (29:32.215)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (29:39.245)
And I always advise people to do the self-exam. Look at your tongue. What is your tongue telling you? Is it white-coated? When you wake up in the morning, that's usually a sign of a little bit of digestive sluggishness, but also a sign of oral dysbiosis.
A white coated tongue could mean a higher level of candida in the mouth. So when we use a triobol probiotic, it helps to balance that. Somebody that eats more sugar or more carbohydrates, we will see more coated tongue issues for them.
somebody who's more stressed may experience that. know, even these redness at the corners of the mouth some people get, that's actually candida. And we recommend definitely a chewable probiotic for that just to help to balance out the yeast and of course decreasing the amount of sugar that is in their diet.
Kim Vopni (30:31.767)
So would be, it's like, it's not a multi-vitamin, but you chew it, it's not the one that you brush with, or could you be brushing with it as well?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (30:38.975)
This one is a tablet, but it's also the lactobacilli. So we have Rupieri, Rhamnosus, there's some Salivarius that are really been studied in dentistry. Those are the strain that we want. Some of them that are more bifidobacteria, those are not really found in the mouth. So we don't put them in a chewable or probiotic or powder. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (31:01.965)
Got it. Yeah. If somebody theoretically were to optimize their oral health, their oral microbiome. So I think of people who struggle with IBS, IBS constipation, IBS diarrhea, there's, feel like there's way more IBS type conditions now than there were before. Is that because we're aware of it? I don't know. But theoretically, if somebody were to optimize their oral health, you're
saying they could potentially be eliminating the gut distress, the diarrhea, the constipation, whatever it is that ails them from a gut health perspective.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (31:39.119)
If somebody has IBS issues, they'll need to treat both ends. By just treating this one end, that's a lot smaller surface area than the rest of the intestinal lining. So if you put the intestinal lining in, it could fill up a whole tennis court of surface.
Kim Vopni (31:49.516)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (31:57.858)
Bye.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (32:02.143)
It's important to if somebody has periodontal disease and IBS, okay, treat the IBS, but also treat your periodontal disease just by treating the periodontal disease usually.
Kim Vopni (32:09.186)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (32:12.501)
Right. Yeah, it's so overlooked. Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about some of the like, teeth whitening. So there's teeth whitening all over the place. I'm going to assume that this is something that would not be beneficial for the oral microbiome. Is that correct?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (32:28.079)
So let's look at the tooth whitening. What's in it? So a lot of the teeth whitening things on the market are actually hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is antibacterial and if it's overdone, it can definitely damage the enamel surface. Let's say the strips, for example, that are just put on the actual enamel, those are actually safe to use.
Kim Vopni (32:36.642)
Mm-hmm.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (32:53.075)
There's also little like liquid pens that are available and like 3 % hydrogen peroxide. That's a pretty low level. So those can be used. I definitely wouldn't be swishing with hydrogen peroxide every day to whiten teeth. Some people use that. It's not good to have the entire microbiome. Most of the microbiome resides on the gums, the tongue underneath the tongue and the cheeks. So teeth whitening won't disrupt that aspect, especially if it's controlled just on the enamel side. That's why I'm saying those
Kim Vopni (32:59.757)
Mm-hmm.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (33:22.929)
swish with antibacterial things like hydrogen peroxide if you don't have a problem. Like I always say, nourish your oral microbiome. Don't just try to kill it all the time. You know, we can't win that war. But that's why I'm not a fan of mouth washes that are antiseptic. And I'm not just talking about Listerine. Listerine, by the way, does have essential oils, but it also has a pH of around three, which is not good for the mouth. It's super acidic.
Kim Vopni (33:32.877)
Right, right.
Kim Vopni (33:50.647)
Mm-hmm.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (33:51.247)
But things like tea tree oil, way too antibacterial for the mouth. Okay, if you have a bleeding gum, by all means use it, but using tea tree oil every day, I actually have this one patient that came in, he had ulcerations all over his gums. And I asked him what he was using, he was brushing with tea tree oil. So he killed the entire microbiome of his mouth, and we can't live without microbes.
Kim Vopni (34:16.738)
Wow.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (34:19.821)
That's the thing, gums are not gonna be healthy. We need that layer of healthy microbes. Of course, we took them off the microbiome, we tried to regrow healthy bacteria, put them on probiotics, and the gums got healthy again.
Kim Vopni (34:20.684)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (34:32.449)
Yeah. I remember, well, two things. So I wanted to come on to the Candida piece, but I read or I don't remember, could have been like an Instagram thing. I don't remember where I saw it, but there was a link between mouthwash and heart disease. I think it was. that what so mean? Yeah. How does that happen?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (34:51.629)
Yeah.
What's the correlation? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the probiotics of good bacteria in our mouth actually produce nitric oxide. So when somebody uses mouthwash all the time, and that includes, by the way, hydrogen peroxide rinses, will actually destroy good bacteria in their mouth, which in turns lowers their nitric oxide production.
Kim Vopni (35:09.965)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (35:19.757)
Huh.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (35:20.163)
when we don't have enough nitric oxide, then it's a simple test to do actually. And on my podcast, the holistic dentistry show, actually had somebody, talked exactly about this, about the nitric oxide issue and how to measure it with strips just to make sure somebody had adequate issues. So more of a reason not to destroy all the oral.
Kim Vopni (35:42.38)
Yeah, fascinating. What about fluoride? I have, so when I have a thyroid autoimmune condition that I have managed really quite well, but one of the things that was sort of a no-no specific to that condition was fluoride. I have said no to fluoride for many, many, many years and dentists always get angry at me and they think that I'm putting my teeth at risk. What are your thoughts on fluoride being good or bad?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (36:11.791)
Well, we live in such a great time right now because we only have two states that banned fluoride. That's Utah and Florida. And we know fluoride affects the thyroid. We know fluoride affects the pituitary. We know that kids who ingest fluoride have a lower IQ. We know fluoride is not good. And in Europe, it has been banned. In United States, we're still allowing it, but it's nice to see that some states
Kim Vopni (36:17.707)
Mm-mm. Yep.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (36:40.111)
already standing up saying, okay, no more fluoride in the water. And there's a good documentary called fluoride gate about fluoride ended up, how fluoride ended up in the water and it ended up as a byproduct of agriculture. And cause they have nowhere else to put it. But there's actually so many other ways to treat cavities without fluoride. Of course, the number one thing is diet, oral hygiene. Then we can use of course calcium hydroxyapatite instead of fluoride.
Kim Vopni (36:55.543)
Right.
Kim Vopni (37:09.911)
Right.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (37:09.953)
And it actually mineralizes just as well. Yeah, so I'm not a big fan. It's good that you're staying away from fluoride. Sounds like you need a better dentist.
Kim Vopni (37:12.759)
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Okay.
haven't actually looked in Vancouver where I am. I had looked at one point, I had looked for somebody who I'd look for biological dentists for somebody who was doing there was an appliance and I'm forgetting the name of it. It was essentially for not really a palate expander, but oh gosh, I'm forgetting the name of it. But it was it was about, you know, if you have asymmetries in your face and anyway, I'll think of the name after and I can put it down the links but
Dr Sanda Moldovan (37:25.679)
Okay.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (37:50.511)
Yes, yes, yes. Is this called maybe an Alpha appliance, ALF? Yeah.
Kim Vopni (37:54.156)
Wasn't that one? There was a few of them. Anyway, I'll think of it. It's it's I have a mind block about it now. Anyway, but there really aren't I couldn't find anybody in Vancouver who which Vancouver is really, you know, we think of Vancouver is that it's very healthy and you know, I could so I have to dig a little bit deeper and see if I can find somebody.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (38:12.911)
is IAOMT.org. On IAOMT.org there's actually lists of biological, it's a biological dental association that I belong to as well and people there are mercury removal certified, they follow certain protocols, yeah.
Kim Vopni (38:16.525)
Okay, awesome.
Kim Vopni (38:28.621)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (38:32.011)
Okay, that's perfect. The other thing that I, Candida. I remember, I remember, this is probably 40 years ago, I was in a job, I had just started a job and there was this teacher we had who was training us. He had little, it was like.
formed spit that would collect in the corners of his mouth and as he was talking and I couldn't learn from him because all I was just thinking he's gonna some some word he's gonna say and that's gonna come flying at me and stick on our page. Would that be Candida?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (39:04.589)
That can be candida, yes. Or could be that maybe he wasn't swallowing enough. Like swallowing is a big part of the oral function. You probably need a myofunctional therapist, they're called, actually, to teach them how to swallow properly. Because when you have saliva gathering like that at the corners of the mouth, it will cause candida. In a moist environment, yeah, it can cause that. What an experience for you.
Kim Vopni (39:06.123)
Yeah, okay.
Kim Vopni (39:11.735)
Kim Vopni (39:15.051)
Yeah, okay, interesting.
Yes.
Kim Vopni (39:25.889)
Yes. Yeah.
Okay, interesting. Yeah, I will never forget that I just had was like tormented by. So what would be like to kind of wrap this up with a bow? What would be an optimal oral health routine on a day to day basis so that we can keep everything healthy? So you mentioned a few things hydroxyapatite, tooth remineralizing tooth powder, avoiding toothpaste that have glycerol.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (39:36.463)
yeah.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (39:57.858)
Yes.
Kim Vopni (39:58.042)
and avoiding like if you're going to drink lemon water drink through a straw is there anything else that we've missed?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (40:02.447)
I always say there's three steps in terms of oral hygiene routine. Brushing, you know not necessarily with electric, I think a manual does just as well with calcium hydroxyapatite. Second, flossing or water flossing. For those people that don't like to use string floss, I highly recommend a water flosser or water pick because it goes in all the way around to actually clean the bacteria. If you're just brushing, it's not enough.
And thirdly, pop in a triobal probiotic. That's going to help also with airway health. It's going to help with the level of bacteria with a coated tongue. Yeah, that's that. And see a biological dentist.
Kim Vopni (40:44.033)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll put a link to that. Thank you for that recommendation in there. I am going to go and search for that right now. Where can people find you learn? You mentioned your clinics here in Beverly Hills, but what's your website and where can they learn more?
Dr Sanda Moldovan (40:58.049)
Our website is BeverlyHillsDentalHealth.com. We actually have a download. It's a free ebook called Detoxify Your Mouth, The Real Secret to Health and Longevity. And of course, I'm on Instagram, DrSanda. If any of you want to listen more biological dentistry, it's the Holistic Dentistry Show.
And I also have a YouTube channel with different informational things. And really my goal is to get out the, you know, like how dentistry is changing and motivate as many people to go biological and holistic as possible.
Kim Vopni (41:21.581)
amazing.
Kim Vopni (41:30.281)
Yeah, yeah, super fascinating. Thank you so much. Thank you for your work. Thank you for the sample that you provide. I'm almost done. I love it. And, and thank you for joining me today.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (41:34.499)
Thank you so much.
Dr Sanda Moldovan (41:41.069)
Thank you so much, Kim. Thank you for having me.
