Oral Health: The Root of the Matter

75. The Hidden Oral Infections Keeping You Stuck in Chronic Illness Dr. Kelly Blodgett

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 4 • Episode 75

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Dr. Kelly Blodgett returns to The Root of the Matter for a heartfelt conversation about his new book, Feel Whole Again, and the profound intersection of psychology, human connection, and dentistry. With a background in psychology and over 30 years in practice, Dr. Blodgett shares why understanding a patient's mindset, emotions, and intuition is just as important as clinical expertise. This episode dives deep into the power of truly listening, the limitations of symptom-focused healthcare, and how treating the whole person (not just the teeth) can transform lives.

What You'll Learn

Why Dr. Blodgett wrote Feel Whole Again and how his psychology degree shaped his approach to dentistry

The often-overlooked connection between thoughts, beliefs, and physical health outcomes

Real patient stories of transformation, from feeling hopeless to reclaiming vitality

Why biological dentistry treats the mouth as a whole system, and why that matters for predictable healing

The role of nutrition and prep work before dental surgery

How social isolation and mindset can be the missing pieces in chronic illness

What to look for (and ask) when choosing a biological dentist

The energy component of oral health, and why removing toxicity is essential

Key Quotes

"Listen to the patient. He's telling you the diagnosis."

"Every cell of your body is listening to your thoughts."

"Thoughts become beliefs, and beliefs become reality."

"We're not solving a math equation here. It's a human being with feelings."

"To have predictable results, you treat it all."

Patient Transformation Stories

Dr. Blodgett shares two powerful cases of women from Seattle who felt like they were losing hope in their health journeys. One, a chronic smoker who hadn't chewed real food in 20 years, went through a comprehensive protocol of nutrition, mindset work, and full-mouth rehabilitation, and by the end of the year, she was biting through sandwiches and kissing her husband without worry. The other, a former triathlete whose health tanked after incomplete dental work, underwent proper cavitation and bone cleaning and is now back to training for triathlons.

Resources Mentioned

Feel Whole Again by Dr. Kelly Blodgett, available on Amazon (ebook, paperback, hardback)

IABDM (International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine): iabdm.org

Bio Dental Global Standard by Dr. Dominic Nischwitz

Megan Barnett, Functional Nutritionist

Root Cause Protocol (Morley Robbins)

Connect with Dr. Kelly Blodgett

Practice Website: blodgettdentalcare.com

Coaching & Speaking: drkellyjblodgett.com

Connect with Dr. Carver 

Join the 6-Week Gum Disease Course: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage

Book Your Personalized Consultation: htt



Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Root of the Matter. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Carver, and today we have one of my dear friends, colleagues, mentors, you know, you name it. He goes on the list. Dr. Kelly Blodgett, welcome back for a second visit. You are one of my very first guests. We're now in uh the third season, so um, I'm really excited and I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today.

SPEAKER_03:

It is so my pleasure. I mean, we we go back a good eight years now.

SPEAKER_02:

I know it's crazy how how how fast that time has gone, you know. Dr. Bladge and I, we both finished the um naturopathic degree uh in 2020, January, right before you know the shit hit the fan, right? So we were really, really lucky to kind of squeeze it in there. So the reason I wanted to ask um Dr. Bladge back on today is he has just published his new book, Feel Whole Again. So I'm really excited about this, you know, reading the book, you know, it's a pretty quick read, but I felt like he was he was, you know, downloading my brain onto the pages. And so, you know, he and I come from a similar background of connecting to people. Yes, we are technically dentists, but we really believe in in human behavior and the fat and listening and compassionate care because you can be the most technically expert dentist there is, or you can be a person who maybe doesn't have the technical skills, but man, you're compassionate and you listen and your patients feel good. And that compassionate dentist is going to have a more successful practice because at the end of the day, we are human beings wanting human connection. And, you know, technology, this whole AI, I mean, it is coming at us so fast, yeah, but yet at the expense, right, of human connectedness. We see this in our, you know, the teenagers and the kids today, but we're really seeing it in medicine, medicine and dentistry. You know, it is great. You can really cut your staff costs because you have so many automated things now, but you really lose. I mean, how many of you call the doctor's office and you got a, you know, dual three and you're just sitting there going zero, zero, zero, zero, zero? You know, I just want to talk to a human being, right? Because it's so frustrating, you know, again, trying to have that connected. I still have my team members call the patients, even though we have an automated reminder system, I still make them call every day. You know, yes, it wastes a lot of their time. Well, I wouldn't say waste, you know, it takes some of their time. But to me, that little touch is so valuable, right? And I still make them stagger lunch because during the day, when we're in the office, I want somebody to be able to connect to a live human being and not have to leave a million messages. So why don't we start with, you know, tell us a little bit about why you wanted to write this book and what it's about.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share about it. You know, part of my story goes goes back to college. So I got my degree in psychology and, you know, took the the GRE so I could get into grad school and go get a master's and a PhD in psychology. That's that's what I thought I was uh supposed to do, or that's what I what I thought I was going to do with my life. And when I came to Christ as a senior in college, I heard God calling me to become a dentist and reverse the negative stereotype of dentistry. And I remember at like 21 years of age, I'm like, what? Like, why on earth would I have a guy with a degree in psychology become a dentist? And what what I put on the pages of this book is the accumulation of 30 years of experience of why there is so much value in understanding people's psychology and their humanism, their emotions, their feelings, the words that they use, their mindset. And it's, as you were just talking about, healthcare having trended so far into the objective. You know, like, I mean, there's wonderful technologies, of course, right? You can you can do bioresonance stuff, you can do an in-body scan, you can do blood tests and learn all sorts of things about your DNA. But in my opinion, that's only half of the puzzle. How a person feels, how they communicate, I mean, gosh, you and I as small business owners certainly can appreciate the value of understanding different people's different personalities. And, you know, in my opinion, that aspect of our life experiences, like how people think, how they communicate, if we can learn to resonate with each individual person's preferred way of communicating, and maybe be the door or window that can open for them to see possibilities, thereby bringing hope rather than hopelessness, which I know you and I see people every week where they are so frustrated with their health experience because it's been so focused on the objective. They might have feelings where there's they're saying, you know, a classic one, I had this root canal done three years ago, it's never felt right. You know, that's yours and my world. And they're saying, look, it's never felt right, and I've noticed these changes in my health, and I suspect it might be this root canal. And what they hear is, nope, everything looks fine. It's like completely discarding a person's intuition, their feelings. And so the reason I wrote this book is to help first and foremost, the human beings who which include us, who go to receive healthcare or engage with healthcare providers, to understand and appreciate that there is tremendous values in our intuitive senses. And that in the book I talk about not using the words need and should, but once in a blue moon, I think it's appropriate to say, like, we should be able to state how we feel and it be received in a way where there's value given to that information. So, and I also wrote it, as you noticed at the end of the book, kind of an ode to healthcare providers, which is a loving wake-up. You know, please understand you're not solving a math equation or an organic chemistry equation here. It's a human being with feelings. So that's why I put it out there.

SPEAKER_02:

One of the quotes you had in the first chapter, right, was listen to the patient. He's telling you the diagnosis. And I find this to be so true. Like, you know, somebody will come in and they have, you know, hot tooth, and clinically, you don't really see anything wrong. Every time I will look at the patient, I say, What do you think is wrong? Right? It's like you are living in your body and you are the only one who knows your body the best way, you know. And and you know, at first the patients would look at me be like, what? Like, you want my opinion? I'm like, of course. I'm like, you know, you, you know, I like like in your book, you said, listen, I don't know everything. I don't know anything either, but I I love to learn, I want to learn, I want to help solve like your book, you're right, the puzzle pieces. What's the missing, right? What's the missing piece here that we can put back together? Because human beings are complex, you know, with my own struggle in eczema so many years ago, and I, you know, just kept trying to learn and learn and learn. But at the end of the day, I was like, wow, I think, yes, parasites were part of the problem and the stress was part of the problem. What was, you know, what was all the way at the top was that the thoughts, the emotions which was causing this imbalance of my nervous system. I think, I mean, to me, it's become pretty clear that emotions may be 80 to 90 percent of chronic illness, right? I mean, I just I talk to my daughter all the time. Listen, thoughts become beliefs, beliefs become reality, right? So if we like this morning, she couldn't go to school. She said she had a migraine. And I was like, okay, you know, giving her all these options to try, nothing works for me, she said. I said, well then that's true. I said, what if you thought, hey, some of these things, I said, you know how to manifest stuff like crazy. I was like, what if you started trying to manifest positive things in your life, right? But again, she believes that nothing's gonna help and therefore nothing's gonna help and she's gonna stay feeling really bad, right? Her her thought process. So and another thing that I do in my practice too, on the very first like patient work, it's it's a little bit of values, like, you know, why are you here today? Like list these four things and top of one of them is like, you know, I want number one, I want, you know, the best possible preventative care. And the other one is cost and expense. Right. So depending on what somebody picks, if somebody picks cost and expenses number one, it's probably not the right practice for them, right? Because I'm all about whole body care, you know, all these things. And if you're just worried about cost, you know, then you probably want to go to the aspend dental, right, down the road, although they're getting expensive.

SPEAKER_03:

At least there's options. Yeah, there's options.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Yeah so that right there, it's kind of like what you talk about, you know, that's a starting point of where is this patient coming from? Like what do they value? Like what you talk about in the book. One of the first questions is what is your goal? Right? Because I love that example you gave in the book. Like, you know, you're typically the dentist comes in, the hygienist has done her thing, and you go, do, do, do, do, yep, we need those three feelings. Okay, treatment planet, and send them to the front desk.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02:

And in medicine, too, right? Doctors don't have, what do they have, eight minutes per patient or something? You can't dive into all the nuances and complexity of human behavior and physiology. So that's where we're feeling so disconnected. And I think that's why this movement of not only functional medicine but biologic dentistry is exploding. Because people want answers and they know, right? Inherently, you know, we're trying to get people back to their intuition that something's not right. They just have to find the right doctor who's gonna listen. So I think that's that's really, really exciting. There's another thing in your book you talked about, um, I can't remember if this was a quote or not, every cell of your body is listening to your thoughts. So just like I said with my daughter, okay, every cell is listening, that nothing she puts in her body, even, you know, ibuprofen or prescription, it's not gonna work because her cells are, you know, that's what she's telling, telling the cells, right? And so I found in my practice the really tough patients, one, they appear to be socially isolated. They, you know, these are the people who have a million, you know, chronic issues and nobody can ever, ever fix them. And the biggest one I see is that social isolation, right? They just they don't have the support or the community um around them. Um, and they're feeling, you know, very depressed and lonely. Like the this is a huge one that I see in 100% of the patients that you can categorize with these like really serious chronic stuff. And they just and sometimes, you know, what I did, you have a great new patient practice, right? Like everybody, you know, have one day to do that. I love that. I started doing it a little bit differently because I'd have new patients right in the middle of the day. And those patients, those are the ones you just want to talk to. And with our background, you know, we just want to talk and you know, like, hey, did you know this and this is connected and all these kinds of things? And it was ruining my schedule, right? Because I had to go do this check, and then I had another patient waiting for me, and it didn't feel authentic to that new patient, right? Yep. And so I started, especially patients who would be traveling, started doing Zoom sessions on Fridays. And so I was like a hundred percent dedicated to that patient, no distractions. And that felt, and to see, like, do we resonate with each other? You know, is this gonna be, you know, a good fit? And then they could come into the office and do the club stuff. But I think that's important, you know, like people like us, that's what we're trying to do is understand the human, their thoughts, their beliefs, what they're trying to get out of their, you know, what is their end goal in the dentistry here. And even though it may have been different, you know, or people want to have, you know, healthy teeth, right? But depending on they want to resonate and feel like I always say, I'm gonna partner with you. I'm not gonna dictate treatment to you, right? I am I am your partner. Let's come to this together. I'll give you all the options and the pros and cons, but ultimately it's your body. And the patient just crying the other day because she was so upset, she had two abscessed, you know, teeth. And I was like, you know, it's everything's gonna be okay. I was like, you know, we have these, we have these different options and we're gonna get there. I'm like, I, you know, it it's so upsetting. I I 100% get it, but I got you. We we're gonna do this together. Yeah. And I think that's that's what patients want to know, right? Like you've got their back, you're gonna support them, you're gonna be there through the process.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I think it's knowing, but it's also what you're conveying is a feeling, which is hope.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, and trust. And the power of those feelings is, you know, it's wise to lend a lot of credence to the the power of how we feel.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, a hundred percent. Because and I again, I like with these younger generations, you see, they're all about feelings, right? You know, in our generation, it was like put your head down, like, you know, you got a migraine, tough, you're going to school, right? I mean, and now, you know, we're all more about you know, this feelings that, you know, they they teach all this kind of stuff in school now, you know, they have all sorts of acronyms and you know, trying to do that.

SPEAKER_03:

I need a self-care day.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's like, you know, and we need to to balance this, but but again, I just I go back to that thoughts become beliefs, and beliefs become reality. So if people can understand that, you know, and it's not about, you know, toxic positivity, right? Where you have to feel positive all the time. It's important to, like you talk about in the book, acknowledge your feelings, right? And then you make a decision. Okay, am I gonna wallow in these feelings or I'm gonna acknowledge them? It stinks, but now I'm gonna make the choice to do something different. I'm gonna think a little differently so that I can get that reality, you know, that that I want, right? So that's and that's part of what you talk about, also is empowering patients. So you have people coming from all over the world to see you. So I love you had some great stories in the book. Maybe tell us some of your favorite stories of people who felt completely hopeless, and then you come in, you know, just again, you're just giving them that hope, not to mention all your expertise.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um, I'm thinking of of two women actually. Coincidentally, they both live like 15 minutes from each other up in the Seattle area. So it's not, you know, we're not next door, it's a three and a half hour drive for each of them, but they both came in as new patients within a month of each other. And both were suffering from almost like feeling like they didn't want to live anymore. You know, that kind of level of depression. Each each individually dealing with very different expressions of oral disease. You know, one gal, chronic smoker, all of her front teeth, like canine to canine, upper and lower, teeth are literally flapping in the breeze. She, you know, didn't smile, she hadn't chewed normal food in, you know, probably 20 years. And kind of like what you were just saying about the woman who was in tears, you know, this was the same kind of situation where my gosh, the the amount of tears at her new patient experience visit was immense. And when I started to like diagram for her, this is what's possible for you if you're open to doing the work, which by the way, doesn't start with your dentistry. It starts with your mindset, it starts with your nutrition, it starts with you quitting smoking. And she was like, oh my gosh, it could look like this and I could feel like this. And uh, you know, so throughout 2025, um, we went through this journey of removing all the infection in her head three months after I first met her, because I had her work with the functional nutritionist that you know I refer to, and it was so awesome. I mean, her healing was so predictable. She cold turkeyed her like two packs a day, which sent her for a spin for a month, as you might imagine. But um, Megan Barnett, my functional nutritionist referral partner, like she just got her on great nutritional protocol, got her gut functioning well, and like boom, three months later, we were ready to go. Uh, in December, we were able to put on all of her final prosthetics or bridges, you know, onto ceramic implants. And when it finally dawned on her, you mean I can take a sandwich and bite through it? You mean I can kiss my husband and not worry about my teeth flapping? I mean, she just, again, the tears. It's just so powerful, you're right. Uh of course, the clinical aspects for sure, like removing infection. But knowing from the start what is possible when you have the right mindset, the right nutrition, the right support team, which is not just my team here, you know, it's many people outside of us, even referral practices when she's at home, you know, in Seattle. Um and the the second gal, interestingly enough, same situation, feeling so sick, like physically felt like she was dying. And uh sadly, she had gone to a dentist who calls himself biological, but you know, he's just basically extracting root canals, you know, and and not cleaning the bone, not ensuring that there's energetic balance. And after she had her root canals removed, she felt so much worse than before. And I mean, she just looked green, you know, horrible. She it she was like prior to all this stuff, a triathlete, insanely fit, and literally her oral health infection, cavitations, and root canals tanked her health for about five years. So she thought, oh well, I'll just get the root canals taken out up here in Seattle, and then I'll go see Dr. Blodgett for the cavitations. You know, it ended up being like we had to open everything back up, clean out all the infected bone, and help her to regenerate. But here we are, you know, eight months later, and she's back to training for triathlons.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03:

And has this spirit of gratitude, deep appreciation, confidence in her own health and abilities. I mean, it's been kind of magical to watch her come back to life, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That's the coolest part of transformation. Like you said, it's when you have a pretty new bridge, whatever, whatever, now your your teeth are aligned, whatever, that's great. But the the change, the effect that you have on the person's overall well-being is so much more satisfying. It makes me think of when I did the Dawson um curriculum and the very first course, they asked everybody, you know, what's your favorite part of dentistry? And probably 90% of them were like, Oh, when I make somebody's tooth look all pretty and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, hmm. I was like, you know, I really like taking teeth out and getting people out of pain. It's really satisfying to see their change in behavior and how grateful they are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I was like, Yeah, okay. You know, from from the get-go, I always guess I was always. a little bit you know different.

SPEAKER_03:

Well yes that's why we are so synergistically along the same path.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah yeah but what what I love you that you said and I want everybody to really think about is you know when your oral health is you know in kind of disarray you got a lot of issues just fixing the mouth does not you know fix the problem right and and it's really important we talk on this podcast all the time about the real importance of of nutrition right diet nutrition like that is at the foundation so much of what in my opinion you know gum disease decay um starts in the gut right that inflamed gut the microbial imbalance like it's all the same thing so we can't really um completely eradicate disease in the mouth if we're not paying attention to that so like you said it's important you can't just have the dentist even if you have a biologic dentist you know as knowledgeable as Dr. Blodgett you know we can't do everything you know even though we know a lot about stuff it's like having that support team is so vital right you know and having the the people there's only so many hours in a day right that you work so having that a functional nutritionist you know having somebody or a health coach right something like that that that helps you get those you know we all know what we should and shouldn't eat but again nutrition has to be personalized right yeah for sure carnivore diet doesn't work for everybody vegan doesn't work for everybody like you really need some somebody who's gonna understand you your lifestyle you know your thoughts your beliefs all those things to help you get to that place and then like you said you have incredibly predictable dental work right oftentimes you know dental work can fail left and right sure because if we're not again considering the whole body that we have a tongue we have muscles right we have an airway there's all these things besides just the teeth that we need to consider how are you sleeping right that's gonna make a difference are you grinding and clenching and you know again we have all these kind of band-aids we throw a splint in here and you know just fill a cavity but again if you really want to have that whole well-being we we've got to look at the in entire body so and and what you you made an interesting point too right just because you call yourself biologic right you really want to research you know your biologic dentist because it's not a specialty it's more of a philosophy but there's so many different you know variations so you know it's important to uh you know have some questions going in to be able to ask and first of all if the dentist isn't willing to talk to you beforehand that should be your first red flag right or having a team you know it doesn't necessarily have to be the biologist but having making sure that the team right you that they can answer all your questions. You know when I first got SMART certified to remove amalgam I wasn't good about communicating the term SMART to my front office. So somebody called and asked if I was smart and the front des was like what she's like well then I don't want to and I don't blame the patient right like if the front desk doesn't even know then yeah things probably aren't real organized there, right? So I I think it's important to you know understand what your goals are right and then come up with like a set of questions and whether it's the team member or the doctor themselves in order to be able to answer them and to feel that you know that what you want right and in my previous podcast we talked about values and different health pillars so then putting that together with who do you want on your medical team? You know on my on my health and wellness team I've probably got six different six or more different practitioners right that are referred to for different for different things. So it would be nice to just have the internists and be in the internists be able to do everything. But in reality they're so burnt out and you know tired they you know may not have all the capacity to do everything you want to do. So I think again it is important to have that and some people say well you know I don't want to do the nutritionist or I don't you know I don't have time or money for this but you're not going to get the you're not going to achieve the final goal without all the pieces.

SPEAKER_03:

I would agree with that. You know one thing I I want to acknowledge too because as we're talking about nutrition and absolutely I I could not agree more that you know health starts in the gut. And of course the mouth is part of the gut I certainly I I can think of a handful of patients where they were doing and it seems to be the phrase these days I was doing all the things you know whatever that means but you know typically that means like I am seeing the nutritionist I mean I'm I'm doing the detox protocols I'm you know seeing my acupunctures and blah blah blah blah blah. They're doing all this stuff. And the final you know the needle in the haystack of their health journey is in fact their toxic dentistry. And one of the things that it's probably taken me up until the last two years to really grab a hold of is that when people are asking me, you know my goal is I want to experience my best health. And it it can be challenging to share this but it's like then we have to treat the dental aspects as a whole system. There's no like if you have five root canals and four cavitations my choice in order to help them is we will do that all in one visit while you're sedated so you're not under stress. But it it's like if you went into your your oncologist and had you know six breast lesions they're not going to tell you well how about we take out two and see how the other four go right it we will treat this as you know the whole system. And I believe like and you if anybody can go and look at the the Google reviews that have been written for my practice in the past two years almost every one of them acknowledges a couple of things. One is the team. They're like Dr. Blodgett and his team are amazing. And secondly they acknowledge like they were honest with me and explained by treating it all at once was the only path to predictably feel whole again or something to that akin. Not to not to bang the drum of my book title. Might as well and I I mean I have just seen like wow the difference it makes in actually addressing the metals the dead stuff you know the bite imbalances when when people are then balanced in a biologic sense and an energetic sense in their mouth stuff starts turning on you know it's like literally some sometimes turning a light switch back on you know so for those people listening to this that aren't in the dental profession and you know are considering some type of biological dental rejuvenation my encouragement is to appreciate to have predictable results you treat it all those are the people I have seen like get their lives back not the people who go well I'm gonna start with you know these two teeth out of the 12 teeth that are dead you know which which I think the reason I'm mentioning is that like for most of us this would include me like that would be something I would want to plan for you know it's not like coming in and oh you you know there's a cavity on the cheek side of this tooth it's gonna be$500 to fix it. You know most people could fit that into their budget. You know oftentimes you're talking somewhere you know$50 to$100,000 to rebuild 40 50 years of you know symptomatic management and bring it back to a state of biological health. So just wanted to put that out there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes no but it's important it's an interesting what you said you know I'm really into the energetic aspect of of health and and dentistry too. So you know we know that a root canal it's dead right there's no nerve there's no blood supply anymore and we've kind of it's like a scar, right? We've we've stopped you know the energy then you have dissimilar metals and that's screwing up the energy. So exactly what you said you get all that out of there and suddenly energy can flow again. Like to me anytime you have pain something is stopping energy from flowing properly right so is it is it a microbe is it you know a scar whatever and and the thing about dentistry right is most of these things are asymptomatic. So this is why you know the medical profession they don't put a lot of credence in dentistry because one they just don't know right and you know and two they're not if you don't have a symptom in the head and neck they're not looking there right so that's the that's the tricky thing and this is what we talk to you know some patients say well I don't want x-rays I'm like okay I can't see anything you know I've got if your goal is you know or you know people will say well you know it's it's too expensive. I'm like you know what's more expensive is you know you miss something then you have lose the tooth now you need an implant all these things like so again it's like that those first conversations when you're meeting something really trying to understand their values you know what is are they worried about radiation? Are they worried about cost? You know, and then again trying to meet that with what are your ultimate goals. So like you said really trying to listen to somebody and understand and and being in the Devon perfection, you know, that can be some of the frustration and actually patients just refusing. But I think that refusal comes from the doctor and team not educating the patient, not listening to what their true needs and values are. Like you said, I mean in your book you have examples of people who'd been to a million dentists and you know could maybe have had similar treatment plans but they never felt listened. They didn't understand the value of it. That's and that's why your degree in psychology I used to say all the time oh my God especially for children I was like I need a degree in child psychology you know to treat kids but again understanding human nature and how you know all the different personality types and you know how many times do people say I hate the dentist nothing against you Doc but you know I hate the dentist right so so many people come in already with these negative preconceived notions. And so you know yes it takes a little bit more time with these patients but what we get in return is so and the patient is so much more valuable when you really have that true connection. And it makes dentistry can be challenging physically mentally you know but when you have those patients who hug you and say you know you changed my life I had my patient bring me this she made this huge it must be like I don't know 11 by 14 picture of pressed flowers. It is the most I started crying and I was like oh my oh my God like it was just the appreciation for that and I was like so I hang it right between my two main operatories. So you know for some reason in human nature right we only remember the bad things you know oh that case that didn't you know go as planned or whatever. So when I look at that and every day I'm like I'm doing good things right like that absolutely that thing so I'm like that person appreciated me let's let's focus on you know all that that good stuff because right like you're saying before I'm a human being just like you're a human being and I may have more knowledge in this one aspect you know than you but still I have the same feelings and thoughts and frustrations and stuff like everybody else. So um and that's what I try to do on the podcast right I share my struggles. I talk about you know my kids and stuff because you know people want to know you're real. I think you will you you connect with people like oh I'm going through the same stuff I I saw an Instagram reel yesterday that made me crack up. It was like a woman she's like I just you know I worked all day then I come home and I cook and I clean and I do the laundry and I was like I was like yes okay it's not just me you know yeah you know you know just feeling that that connectedness like we're all you know you're we're all one and again then we have the amazing ability to help people you know kind of take the next step and get at the wellness part of it. And this the other thing that makes me think of too like why you know insurances will say scaling and root cleaning right the deep gum cleaning you can only do half the mouth at a time like that just makes no sense oh my gosh so and then it has to be like two weeks apart. I'm like who came up with this arbitrary thing because I'm like okay so the other side's gonna be all totally reinfected again you know I was like we you know if we can get a patient to do it all at once we're gonna do it all at once. Like you said it makes no sense.

SPEAKER_03:

Well in my opinion I always like to start with that in my opinion the entire aspect of insurance participation it's a farce. It is you know it's all a lie. Like I'll I'll be talking to a hygienist later today and one of the questions I want to ask her is why do you think that you know dental recare visits are set for every six months? Like is it that every human being actually has identically the same cleaning needs I mean are you kidding me but you know and to your point like that's absolutely insane you have one like let's say your your appendix has burst well sorry your insurance says we can only do the anterior portion of your appendix this week we're gonna have to come back next week to clean out the posterior it's like that's insanity it's the same system and we allow it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah well you know those of us that's why so many of we're like we're done we're out of insurance because it is just and that's you know frustrating and sure so biological energy can be more expensive. But again what what is your ultimate goal? How much money are you going to spend having these chronic ailments? I mean because it's spread out over time maybe you don't see those but it's it's 10 times the cost of really taking care of something totally you know yeah I would argue that biological dentistry is what you know might you spend more money per procedure on the front on the front end but have such a greater degree of health that you actually not only feel better and experience fewer symptoms but you spend way less money over time. Yes you know and you may be able to work longer right and you can you know you may live longer work longer you know you have more potential for earnings but where you're not you know every day having to call into work because you know some ailment. So I think that's really true and and trying to under have people really understand that. So like you said in in a biological it's not necessarily every six months it's like what does this person need, you know, because that again we're all different. We all may be humans but we have so many different variations just like with diets right certain diets work for some not for other like you really that's another big thing we do in biologia is individualize treatment to that person. Right. And so for years we would always try to come up with like these hygiene protocols and it never worked because you know we had all these float charts and I'm like you know it just doesn't work right we have ideas right and we have all these different modalities like in biologic dentistry our toolbox is enormous. But it always has to be and that's why our our hygiene patients are an hour to an hour and a half even for uh routine recare because maybe that patient leads laser uh we got to look under the microscope how's it going do we need to do a saliva test you know all these kind of things and then also having the time to talk to them where are you at?

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah how you doing yeah how are things progressing what's worked what had what's been a challenge absolutely I I've really had to turn my brain off you know going up going in sometimes I'm so busy and I'm going in and I had to stop myself and be like how are you?

SPEAKER_03:

You know, because I just rot in and go right into the mouth and I'm like that's terrible right like Yeah you got to switch out of the the the fix it mode right yeah well it's funny like when when an other dentist come and visit and they take a look at our quote unquote hygiene schedule you know in our software they'll notice that almost the entire day is open. And they're like like you're paying them to be there to not do anything. I'm like they're doing things but because of our new patient day on Mondays what it allows for them to do is be available to take care of the the whatever we've decided would be most appropriate for those people that week while they're here. And or they'll or they'll be reviewing information from somebody who's in Tallahassee or something. You know what I mean? Like these are smart individuals clearly there's got to be greater value to a dental hygienist and their deep knowledge of oral health and systemic body wellness than just scraping teeth. So I I my my hygienist I have two hygienists that work for me now and like that's their favorite part of the job is using their brain.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Being a participant yeah I hired a new new hygienist and she's absolutely amazing and she's really interested you know in the health and wellness and the biologic and so right from the get-go and she's still young and like hungry right so she she came into the practice I'm like okay you got to get your laser certification all right you got to get your anesthesia license and you're signed up for the functional nutrition health coaching curriculum which she already finished in two months. And she's like wow like this is this is so amazing and I was like well because we're training you you're you know you are not just you know the gum polisher right you know the two you are you are the health coach in this office I have another hygienist who went through um Morley Robin's whole root cause protocol. So she's been putting a lot of our patients um with hair mineral tests right we had um a new patient the other day and she was young she's like I'm really healthy but she had pockets of six seven eight millimeters and so I start asking I'm like because she said there was nothing on the health history I'm like have you ever had acid reflux? Yeah okay you know you know how are your bowels but a lot of times people don't think to like my dentist doesn't need to know that right even though you know you know you're going to a you know integrative dentist and so I had to ask these questions I'm like absolutely you know you think you're healthy because you're young but now we're seeing a result of something's not right in the gut and I'm like I was like do you want to keep these teeth your whole life absolutely I was like well then we need to figure out why you've got an autoimmune reaction happening and your body's eating well your bones and she's like oh you know and so she's like okay let's do the hair test right now right right so it's a really nice tool just to start with you know because it to me at the foundation is our minerals right if those are all out of whack then all of our systems right and are there heavy metals right you know you'll you'll see that on that test too so that's been really cool for the hygienists you know because now and some of my other hygienists now they're they were a traditional hygienist for most of their career and they've come into my practice now and they're learning and it's really really cool to see conventionally trained practitioners open their minds and be like well there's so much more I can do for this person versus just getting tartar off their teeth.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I think that's it's really cool to see that um in my patients that really and again these women who've been doing this for thir over 30 years and now suddenly I'm like you gotta think differently if you're gonna work here.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah well that's it's funny because the last golly well about the time I hired Mara, you know who was one of our classmates at the naturopathic program, you know, I think for the last 12 years the only hygienists that I hired were those who just got out of school. And I mean it's just I don't I mean whether it was Providence or dumb luck or whatever. Interestingly enough, I'm just like you in the process of hiring an associate dentist. I just had the guy out here two weeks ago and he's finishing his senior year in dental school. And I'm so thrilled because I mean, I've talked to dentists who've only, you know, they've only been out of school a year, but they, you know, they know things now, right? And not only that, but they've been tainted by what it feels like to come out, be put in a high volume situation where it's yes, it's stressful and you're not really doing anything meaningful, but you're making good money. And it's like, boy, it's hard to divorce yourself like I did in residency, where it's like you're gonna make$18,000 for the whole year. Like you're basically not even able to pay rent with this, but you're gonna learn a ton. And uh, you know, obviously it takes a person, any person, whether they're seasoned or brand new, it takes a spirit of openness and humility that we don't know squat about this new human being that we're meeting today. You know, to your point, we we know a lot about a few things, but we don't know anything about this human being. They're brand new to us. So I find that those of us who have pursued this approach, we understand in our hearts that, you know, our role is to be open and to be of service and to be humble. And uh and that's that's a wonderful spirit through which you can partner with somebody and help them get back to health.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. You know, with the as we're just kind of wrapping up here, one, you know, at the kind of end of the book, I like the the You talked about the principles of the human, humanistic approach, right? So one was like honoring, honoring the truth, right? Honoring their their feeling, right? Trusting intuition. Yes. You know, I think so much we we've lost that ability to trust ourselves. But it's really important to find the right practitioner who's gonna listen to what you feel is is true, right? Value the connection, right? We've been talking all about that. It's so important to feel, you know, we get very vulnerable when we're ill and you know, and our whole mental state is shattered a lot of the time. And we just want to feel supported and connected and and you know, finding people like that, you know. I think if you're looking for that in dentistry, look towards the biologic, you know. Go to the IABDM.org, you know, look, that's where you're gonna find these people who are, you know, have this philosophy in our and are trained that way. But then number four, you wrote is like we gotta eliminate the toxicity, right? So we can talk happy feelings and we can change our thoughts and stuff like that, but we still have to get rid of the toxic stuff. It's amazing what kind of microbes, I mean, not just bacteria, but fungus, parasites, lime, you know, all of these things sit in dead jawbones. They sit around these root canals. A root canal is a dead organ, right? And now, interestingly, what I find too is I think every single root canal you pull out, you're gonna find microbes, right? Um, they may vary because it's something that is dead. You know, how I think the other important thing is that there has to be some prep work sometimes too. Like you said, you have referrals. You have your functional nutritionist, health coach, whoever it may be, get you prepared for these surgeries. Because sometimes you can have these surgeries and the cavitation never really heals. And that's because the prep work wasn't done. If your if your elimination organs, right, aren't draining, your body doesn't know how to detox, like there has to be that prep work so that once that's removed, now your lymph can clear the rest of it. But if you're all cloggy and you're eating the wrong things and you're still, you know, your liver is just completely messed up, you're not gonna get the best results. So that prep work, I just want to tell people that like that's really important that you have that other team member to help you get clean, like you said, and then you get super predictable results.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and if I may add to that, and thank you, that's that's beautifully acknowledged. I think that the work that uh Dr. Dominic Nischwitz has done through his biodentistry global standard, looking at nutrition and appreciating that going into surgery is not a passive endeavor. You're asking your body to go through a significant reparative process. You know, we know like if we want to have best results going to the gym, working out, getting our body fit, we're going to eat a specific way so that our body has, you know, all the bits and pieces it needs to grow and heal. And really, I would say through working with him, I've come to appreciate, man, yeah, I've I've got to be more direct with people, or it it would benefit my patients to be more direct about. Let's acknowledge that you're you're moving into a phase where your body has to be able to build back. And uh, you know, if anybody wants to look up providers like us who acknowledge that yes, nutrition, how we're feeding ourselves to prepare for this kind of biological dental journey matters. His biodental global standard is is a really good resource.

unknown:

Great.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we'll definitely um list that in the uh show notes for everybody. So then the last two that you have principles you talked about was uh embracing the energy. So again, we we talked a little bit about that, you know, the the energy, right? It's is that the right one I'm saying? Embrace energy. And then commit to growth, right? Um, I love that, you know. Like you said, like I don't know everything. We are we don't need to go to continue education, you know. We already know a lot. We our businesses can thrive, but that's not who we are, right? We're always seeking to help learn as much as we can for ourselves, right? We better ourselves so that we can better our patients' experiences. And um, I think that's that's you know how we've gotten as as far as we have, you know. We just we love to learn, there's a reason. Greater being, whatever you believe in per se, you know, has given us all kind of a path. And and our path is to commit to that growth and and uh meet people where they're at and help them have that same ability, you know, to have good energy and and to grow. Um again, I thought your book was great. Um, you know. Thank you. Where can uh where can people buy Feel Whole again?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, thanks. They can go to Amazon and pick up either the ebook or the paperback or the hardback. Yeah, check it out. It as I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I wrote it intentionally to be a streamlined read. I mean, this isn't like uh, oh, it's gonna take me two months to finish this. You know, in a in an afternoon or two, you can easily get through it. I think the stories will resonate with people. Yeah, I encourage people to get a copy and check it out.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. I think the stories are are some of the strongest parts of the book because you do, you see yourself in a lot of these different stories. And I know when I started storytelling, you know, when I was got that eczema, that's what changed my whole practice and my whole thinking and and you know, brought me into where I am today. And I think as much as a horrible pain that was, that was my wake up call. That was the universe pointing me in the right direction. And so as I was learning and going through healing phase or whatever, sharing those stories, people would resonate that. Or you tell stories about other patients and how they got better. Like that feels more genuine and authentic than saying this is just the way it is. You've got an abscess, well, root canal, right? Um, you know, like how people got better. So I think that's that's that's very exciting. So well, I know you're a busy man. Is there anything else you would love to leave the audience with today? Any more words of wisdom? And definitely then tell us how um how we can connect with you on social and your office.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you know, thank you to you and and to all people who take the time to listen to this. And I guess some parting thoughts is never never underestimate the power that your own belief system has in your life experience. Simultaneously, also don't underestimate how any change made in your mouth when you're visiting a dentist can impact your health either for good or for bad. The mouth is an integral part to our entire body and life experience. It is so foolish to think that we can make changes and it doesn't change our body. It's literally a change to our body. So I'm so grateful that, you know, you and I and the hundreds of other dentists who are choosing to think more broadly and acknowledging, not just acknowledging, but also pursuing learning so that we can better be of service to our patients so they can experience better health. It's very inspiring. I know you and I have been on this journey of biological approach for over a decade, and it's so cool to see more and more dentists getting excited in their teams getting excited about this approach. Um, people are welcome to go to my website, bloggettdentalcare.com. For any dental people who are interested in the coaching services that I provide to teams, they can go to my personal website. It's drkellyjblodgett.com, dr Kelly Jblodgett.com. And there are some different options on there where, you know, I come out to people's offices for two days with either, well, with one of my two two of my team members, and uh we help people solve problems in their dental practices or uh reshift or shift thinking processes that maybe we got taught in dental school that don't serve the best interests of their patients and their practices any longer. So I'm really excited about the coaching I'm doing with teams these days. It's I've seen real life practice elevation and spirit elevation for the dentists who have been working so hard finally getting to see the patients getting healthier, their businesses doing better, you know, their family life getting better. So it's really exciting to be a, you know, pursuing that new aspect of my career as well.

SPEAKER_02:

I love it. I think, you know, that's one of my favorite things to do too, is you know, just talking, talking with others and and uh letting them see there's another way. You know, we don't all have to be, we don't all have to burn out, you know. We just need to kind of live, live in our values, live in our find that authenticity and and find a different way to practice that's so much more fulfilling, but doesn't have to be, you know, feel like you're on the treadmill, right, all the time.

SPEAKER_03:

Amen.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, thank you, sir. It was always a pleasure seeing you, and I look forward to seeing you at our meetings coming up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Take in the morning. And yeah, I'll see you in person real soon. So I hope you all enjoyed this episode. Um, please leave us any comments or questions. Uh share it with anybody you think might be interested, and we'll catch you on the next episode. Have a great day, everyone. Huge thanks to you, our amazing listeners, for helping us climb into the top 5% of podcasts in the oral health space. With all the love and support, we've been getting many requests for one on one consultations. So we made it happen. Are you ready to take your oral health to the next level? Click the link in the show notes to book your personalized consultation and let's kick start your journey to a healthier, brighter smile starting today. We'll see you then.