Dr. Michelle Jorgensen On: Why Your Dentist Should Be a Gut Health Expert
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In this week’s episode of The Cheeky Podcast for Moms with IBD, we’re diving into the fascinating and often overlooked connection between oral health and gut health. Our guest, Dr. Michelle Jorgensen, is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and pioneer in the field of biologic and holistic dentistry.
This is a gem of an episode, full of ah-ha’s and insights!
Get your pen and paper ready as we discover how your dental health could be the missing link in your IBD management and overall well-being. Dr. Michelle shares her journey from traditional to biologic dentistry after discovering she had mercury poisoning from her dental practice. She explains the importance of mercury-safe practices, the concept of Tooth Meridian Charting, and why your dentist really needs to be versed on all things gut health related.
This episode is packed with step-by-steps and actionable insights on how to integrate dental health into your holistic healing journey.
Tune in To Learn About:
✅ [00:07:34] The basics of biological dentistry and how it differs from traditional dentistry
✅ [00:13:20] The phenomenon of Tooth Meridian Charting and its impact on health
✅ [00:18:32] The dangers of mercury fillings and the safe removal process
✅ [00:43:35] The significance of Cone Beam CT scans for those with gut and thyroid issues
✅ [00:54:20] The relationship between vitamin D, calcium absorption, and dental health
✅ [01:02:18] The role of mineral-rich tooth powders and mouth rinses in maintaining oral health
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Mentioned in the Episode:
>> The IAOMT (International Academy of Medicine and Toxicology)
>> The Ultimate IBD Diet Decoder Quiz
>> Join The Gut Love Community for Moms with IBD
>> Book Your FREE IBD Consultation with Karyn Today
Connect With Karyn:
Connect With Dr. Michelle:
Shop Mineral Building Tooth Powders and Mouth Wash
Episode Transcript:
Karyn [00:00:08]:
Hey there, mama. Welcome to season two of the Cheeky podcast for moms with IBD. I’m Karyn Haley, functional IBD nutrition and wellness coach and Crohn’s warrior. This podcast is all about us moms because our IBD plays by different rules. Season two is juicy, full of unconventional wisdom, real talk, new ways to tackle our illness, and a whole lot of community empowerment, and all of us advocating the hell out of our illness. We’re in this together, and I’m here to help you find healing on your terms. Let’s do this.
Karyn [00:00:50]:
Hey there. Welcome to the Cheeky podcast for moms with IBD. We have got a treat of an episode. I’m so excited in store for you today. Seriously, so many aha moments were had by me during this conversation. I know you’re gonna have them, too. It’s a topic that is so necessary but rarely discussed. I love it when that happens, and it’s happening all the time in season two of this podcast.
Karyn [00:01:19]:
It’s like explosion.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:01:21]:
Bam, bam.
Karyn [00:01:22]:
Aha, aha. It’s really, really cool. So I want you to get your pen, your paper ready, because this is a masterclass and we are in session. I just have to say, wouldn’t you think it was. At least I would think this. Wouldn’t you think it would be great if there was an all health masterclass channel?
Karyn [00:01:40]:
I don’t know.
Karyn [00:01:40]:
Maybe masterclass is just a phenomenon in the United States. So you know what I’m talking about if you live in the US, maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about if you live elsewhere. But I, for one, I would be all in on that. An all health masterclass channel.
Karyn [00:01:54]:
Today.
Karyn [00:01:56]:
We are in for that treat I was telling you about, because it’s time for an insightful, highly intelligent, outside the box masterclass thinker of a guest named Doctor Michelle Jorgensen. Now, Doctor Michelle, she is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, teacher. She’s a pioneer in the field of biologic and holistic dentistry. She has listened to this. Listen to her educational background. She has certifications as a therapeutic nutritional counselor. She’s a certified nutritional autoimmune specialist. She’s a board certified traditional naturopath.
Karyn [00:02:32]:
She has a degree in dentistry. Can you imagine having all of those credentials? That takes a lot of commitment, my friend. So, Doctor Michelle, she is bringing her vast education and her experience to this episode today. Now, as Doctor Michelle tells us, after practicing traditional in that more traditional realm of dentistry for ten years, she ended up facing severe health challenges, and she discovered that she had mercury poisoning, not from her own mouth, but from drilling out mercury fillings from her patients. And this life altering experience, it led her into the world of biologic and holistic dentistry. So for the last decade, she has been paving the way in this field, helping patients from around the world restore their health. At her practice, it’s called total care dental and wellness. It’s located in Utah.
Karyn [00:03:32]:
So today we are going to uncover many of the questions that I know we all have about the link between your oral health and your digestive health, because, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. The link is so much bigger than we know. It’s a shame that this is not a more mainstream topic. How often does your dentist connect that. That cavity that you’re dealing with, that cavity you’re in for, is actually connected to your crohn’s or your colitis? Not often enough. Doctor Michelle, she starts at the very beginning. For anyone who’s new to what this is, she starts at the beginning with what the term biological dentistry actually means.
Karyn [00:04:14]:
She answers the questions for us about mercury fillings that I know so many of us have. She talks about whether mercury fillings themselves pose a risk, or is it the process of removing that that’s more dangerous? You might be surprised by her answer there. And she explains the fascinating science of tooth meridian charting. I have had this done myself before, and I have to say it was really accurate when we connected the dots between my tooth ailments and my gut health. So that’s going to be really cool. When she talks about that, she also shares details about the effects of mercury on your mouth, especially when you have gut challenges. She gives us a step by step guide to safely removing mercury fillings and why it’s so important to find someone trained, not just somebody who does it, but trained in doing this safely. Before you dive in, Doctor Michelle also provides practical advice on making sure that our detoxification pathway is something that’s really challenging for those of us with IBD, but making sure that those pathways are moving smoothly before we get any major dental work done.
Karyn [00:05:29]:
And she also enlightens us on the amazing ways that she uses ozone therapy in her practice. We have talked about ozone therapy in this season of the Cheeky podcast, so we’re going back to the importance of ozone therapy, this time in the mouth. And then finally, she talks about how to choose the right dentist, not just for your oral health, but for your digestive health as well. So there’s that, all of that that I just said, and there’s so much more coming your way in this episode. You just have to listen to it. I can’t possibly fit in all, all of the juicy bits, all of the life changing information we talked about in this convo. But I do want to say, before we dive in on just a little side note, unfortunately, I do have to say that Doctor Michelle and I, we had a bunch of technical and sound issues while we were recording. There’s some lagging and weird connections at times.
Karyn [00:06:23]:
Unless you’re watching it on YouTube, I don’t think you’re going to notice it much. My team was able to cut out most of those glitches, but just in case you notice kind of a weird flow at times, that’s what’s going on. We just have kind of a lag between the two of us talking. All right. So I think that’s it. That’s all the information you need to get into this episode. Get ready, sit in, get that cup of tea. It’s going to be a good one.
Karyn [00:06:50]:
So let’s have an eye opening conversation with Doctor Michelle Jorgensen. I, trust me, it’s just going to, it’s going to transform how you approach your dental health and your gut health all rolled into one. Let’s dive in.
Karyn [00:07:04]:
Welcome doctor Michelle Jorgensen. It’s such a pleasure to have you on the show. We’re going to talk a lot today about gut health and oral health, how the two are interconnected. And what I’d like to do is start with just the most basic of questions. And that question is, what is a biological dentist? I know that many of my community, they have what’s considered a traditional dentist and they may not even be familiar with what that is. So what is biological dentistry?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:07:34]:
That’s a great question, and I didn’t know the answer to that when I started either. So that’s, I think that my story really kind of lends itself to understand a little bit what biologic dentist is. So if it’s okay with you, I’ll just share that a little. I think it really gives a good segue into explaining what it means. I’m a general dentist, so I’m just like dentists of all of your listeners, you know. And I went to school and I learned how to do dentistry. My father’s a dentist. And so I just thought that that’s what you always did.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:08:04]:
You went to school, you practiced what you learned, and you just kept doing it for a lot of years. And that’s not what happened for me. I started getting really sick. And interestingly enough, one of my biggest symptoms was gut health, and I didn’t know what was wrong, so I started really changing everything, all the things that I’m sure you already talk about and teach about. I started doing all of those things, doing diet changes, and I was diagnosed with IB’s myself. So a lot of changes, a lot of things, and some of it helped, but not all of it helped. And I was also having some major issues with memory. I just wasn’t remembering things, and I’ve always had a really good memory, so I knew something was wrong.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:08:46]:
And my biggest thing was my hands were going numb to the point that I literally couldn’t hold an instrument anymore. So I had my practice for sale. I was going to. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I was going to, how I was going to support my family, you know, all these kind of big, big things. And finally a practitioner said, you know, and I’d gone to every doctor, done every test, nobody had any answers. And finally someone said, have you looked into mercury poisoning? And I had never even considered that. I knew that silver fillings were 50% mercury.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:09:18]:
But I’d always been told, and the dental profession tells us, even as a dentist, that once it’s in the filling, it’s fine, it’s stable, it’s inert, it’s not a problem. The problem is, I was a cosmetic dentist. So I was drilling out all of those fillings and releasing all of those vapors while I was working. And I was breathing all of that in my head’s right above your head when I’m doing the work. So it was, I got tested, and that’s what it was, mercury toxicity. And so I had to figure out, was there a different way to do dentistry? Was there something else? And, you know, a way that I could keep being a dentist and yet get well myself? And I found that there were ways. I didn’t know of them. The profession doesn’t talk about them.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:10:00]:
Dentists don’t know even. And there’s an organization that had an entire protocol set up for how to remove these fillings in a way that the dentist didn’t get mercury exposure, that the patient doesn’t get mercury exposure. I didn’t even know it existed. So this is what’s termed biologic dentistry. Looking at the biology of the body and how does things in the mouth affect it. So I didn’t just stop there, because I thought, whoa, you know, I nearly lost my profession, my career, over this thing. I didn’t even know about what else could be related to dentistry, to the mouth, to everything I’m doing on a day to day basis that affects overall health. And I didn’t know what I didn’t know, I’ll tell you that.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:10:40]:
I started learning, and honestly, I started learning from doctors as well. They would say, hey, I have a patient that I think needs this. Do you do it? And I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, so I’d have to go and learn and research and go, oh, yes, now I can help your patient with that. I didn’t even know what that meant. And so really, my journey to where I’m at now, which I call health focused or health based dentistry, was simply because of my own health journey, but also doctors leading me and saying, we have patients that are struggling with this. We know or have heard that it can be related to dentistry. Can you help them? And so I started learning and bringing things into practice, and it’s totally exploded. We have now six doctors in our practice, and we see patients from all over the world.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:11:23]:
And so for us, biologic dentistry is. It’s simply saying the mouth is connected to the rest of you. Could what’s going on in the mouth be affecting the rest of you? And vice versa? And I’ve even taken a little further to say, could the mouth actually be a little bit of a mirror for the rest of us? Where can we look in our mouth and say, ah, our gums are doing that. That means our gut is doing that. Our tongue is looking like this. That means this is what our liver or heart is struggling with. So using the mouth is a little bit of a rosetta stone to read and interpret the rest of the health as well. So for me, it’s been an enormous cycle change to go from general dentistry to now seeing dentistry as an integral piece of health.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:12:07]:
So, long answer for you. But that’s basically what biologic dentistry is in my hands.
Karyn [00:12:14]:
I’m so glad you did that. I’m so glad you went into all that, because it’s so helpful to see just, well, number one, most people that I talk to in this field, they came to it because of something that happened within themselves. They started in the traditional form of medicine, and then something kind of threw them off, and then they started searching.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:12:33]:
Right?
Karyn [00:12:34]:
And so that’s your path. You started searching, and you found a better way. And now that better way helps people. And I want to touch on something that you mentioned, how the mouth is like the window into what’s happening in the rest of your body. I once went to a biological dentist, or as you call it, health based dentist, and he said to me, I’m looking at these various cavities that you have in your mouth, and they are connected to these various organs in your body. And so I can tell you what’s going on with you now. I have Crohn’s disease. And I never said to this dentist, I have Crohn’s disease, but he knew because he said, look at this particular tooth you’ve had dental work on.
Karyn [00:13:13]:
It’s connected to your gut, and this is connected to your gallbladder. And do you know what I’m talking about here? And can you explain that phenomenon?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:13:20]:
Yeah. It’s called the meridian tooth meridian. Charting, it’s really something that’s not new. We just forgotten to look or pay attention to it. It was mapped hundreds of years ago through, you know, in some of the asian medical traditions with acupuncture and acupressure, they mapped all of these. These energy systems. And the easiest way that I like to explain it, because sometimes when you start talking energy, people are like, what are you talking about? Okay, now we’re getting crazy, but. Exactly.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:13:49]:
So I like to explain it in very simple terms. In your body, we have all. We have lots of different wiring systems. So we all are very aware of, like our circulatory system. We have blood vessels that go top to bottom. We’re very aware of our nerves. We have nerves that go top to bottom. We know about the lymphatic system.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:14:06]:
That’s our drainage system or our sewer for the body, it goes top to bottom. But we also have an energy system. It’s what keeps our brain working, it what keeps our heart pumping. You know, when you go and you get an EKG at the hospital and you see that little beep beep, beep, beep? Well, what are you seeing? You’re seeing literal electrical current that’s passing through the heart when we die. It means the electrical flow has stopped in our body. So we are alive because we have electricity passing through our system. For some reason, we kind of leave it at that. We go, oh, our heart pumps, our brain works, and that’s, like, all the electricity? Well, no, that’s how the rest of us works.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:14:44]:
That’s how we move every muscle. That’s how every internal organ continues to operate. And that electrical system is also a wiring system throughout the body. And interestingly enough, they’ve mapped and found that every one of those organ systems throughout the body is actually represented, or there’s a. Basically, I like to think of as an on ramp to that electrical flow. There’s an on ramp in the hands, in the feet, in the ears, interestingly enough, and in the teeth. And as you think about it, think about the stimulation we get on our hands, stimulation we get on our feet, and stimulation we get in our teeth. You know, every time we chew, you know, we’re actually activating that energy line that goes to all of those organ systems.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:15:28]:
This is how we keep our body charged, is by hand movement, is by foot movement, is by tooth movement. This is, this is charging our electrical system. So every tooth is actually connected to an organ system in the body. You’d think, oh, gosh, maybe all the teeth are just connected to the heart. No, that’s not how it works, actually. So, like, all the teeth here in the front are the bladder, the gallo bladder, the liver. That’s up here in the front. About halfway back here is stomach, spleen, breast.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:15:58]:
So I have yet to find a person who had breast cancer that doesn’t have a root canal right here or an infection right here. It’s very interesting how this works for the lungs, large intestine. So that’s where you probably had your cavities was back on molars, because that’s going to be large intestine based. And then back wisdom teeth areas is going to be the endocrine system. So the adrenals, thyroid, as well as all the sex hormones. So estrogen, progesterone, testosterone is all back in that wisdom tooth area. So when you have weaknesses or deficiencies in those areas, it gives you two things. First of all, that weakness in a tooth could lead to a weakness or deficiency in that organ system in the body, and vice versa.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:16:40]:
If you have a problem in the organ system, it may show up as a weakness in the tooth. So we use the tooth as an indicator both ways, both directions, so we can say, okay, this is probably going on in your body, or, oh, hey, you know, let’s pay attention to the system because something’s going on here. This might be the reason that this problem there.
Karyn [00:17:00]:
And so what’s happening is when people are going to their traditional dentist, I bet there, there’s no chance they’re being told that. It’s really when you say, you know, these are the things that are happening, this is a biological dentist that’s telling you that, because a traditional dentist is just not talking in those terms.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:17:17]:
No, no, never. Well, I just had, I have an interesting story that relates to that. I had a patient that came in once, and he. As I looked at him, I just. I’m pretty upfront with patience. And I said, has anyone ever told you you’re orange? And he said, well, yeah, actually, people ask me all the time if I do, like, self tanning cream. He said, and I don’t. I don’t do any self tanning cream.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:17:47]:
But he was very, very much orange. And as I looked at his x ray, what I found is he had root canals on the forefront. Teeth right here from an accident when he was just teenager. And those four front teeth have actually. They had actually failed. The root canals had failed, and there was infection at the end of them. Well, those are all the liver meridian or the liver energy channel. And so it was leading to jaundice.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:18:09]:
And he was jaundice all the time. People were asking him if he used self tanner cream.
Karyn [00:18:14]:
Wow.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:18:15]:
It was really these root canals that had failed and were infected that were affecting his liver function.
Karyn [00:18:22]:
Wow. Yeah. So, see, it’s there. The signs are there, but it’s just that most people who specialize in oral health are not focusing on it.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:18:32]:
Yeah, they don’t know it.
Karyn [00:18:33]:
I want to go back and talk about something that you mentioned. Yeah, exactly. They don’t. Yes. It’s, you know, something that I’ve learned over my. I’ve had Crohn’s disease since I was 14. And so something that I learned is that with traditional doctors, for a while, I was angry at them, and I had to let that go because it’s not that they are being malicious or mean or trying to get you, it’s that they weren’t taught it. And so I’m sure in your traditional dentistry training, these just weren’t things that you were taught.
Karyn [00:19:05]:
You had to learn them on your own. And that all happened when you had this mercury poisoning. So I wanted to go back to talk about that because I think that many people have mercury in their mouth.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:19:16]:
Right.
Karyn [00:19:16]:
If you have metal fillings, you have mercury in your mouth. And so I guess my question would be, if I have that, and I’ve had it for years, what should somebody do about that? Is it dangerous to get it taken out? Should you keep it? Is it still impacting you 20, 30, 40 years later? How does that work, and what should we do about it?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:19:38]:
Great question. And you actually had some really important questions in there. So the first thing is, people will say things like, that feeling is really old. It’s inert. There’s no mercury in it anymore. The mercury is gone. And if they’re saying that they don’t understand mercury. It’s a physical metal.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:20:01]:
Like, there’s. It’s a thing. It’s not like it’s a. A, you know, a vapor or a fume. It creates vapors and fumes, but it’s a physical metal, just like in a thermometer. It’s that silver stuff that used to go up and down in our thermometers before they banned those kind of thermometers, because mercury is so dangerous. So mercury doesn’t just disappear into the nothing. It stays there.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:20:27]:
And the idea is that as it’s bound with other metals, there’s silver in those fillings, there’s copper in those fillings, there’s other metals. As it’s bound to those other metals, it does create a hard material. However, the mercury doesn’t go away. So what happens is, as you’re chewing, as you’re toothbrushing, as you’re grinding your teeth, as you’re doing any of those things, you actually are wearing away the surface of that filling and releasing mercury. And this is something. It’s actually interesting. So, in dental school, we were told, the entire mercury talk in dental school is that if we tell someone that mercury fillings could impact their health, we will lose our license. So that’s the entire talk that we learned in dental school.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:21:16]:
We can’t tell anybody that the mercury fillings may affect their health. So the good news is, is that there’s been a lot of research that has shown that 100% mercury fillings affect your health. So now I can tell you mercury is released from those fillings 24/7 every single time you chew. There’s research that’s showing these things. Now can I come and tell you that caused your crohn’s disease? I can’t tell you that, but I can let you go. Okay. Mercury is this. This, this.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:21:53]:
Perhaps this could be a problem for me and my crohn’s disease. Disease. So I’m very capable and able to tell you what research shows when it comes to mercury, if that makes sense. And mercury is always released from these fillings all the time. So when you have them in your mouth, it is going to affect you. What are the things that it’s going to affect? Well, mercury is a neurotoxin, so it’s going to affect nerves. It’s going to affect memory. It’ll lead to brain fog.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:22:21]:
It’s going going to affect, like, for me, it created a lot of numbness in my hands. It’s going to create numbness. Neuropathies it’s also going to create gut problems. So this is a big one for your listeners because zinc is important for stomach acid creation. It’s one of the precursors for stomach acid creation. Well, mercury actually binds at the same receptor site that zinc does. So if you have mercury in your system, it’s going to affect the way your stomach is creating stomach acid and it’s going to affect your absorption and the way your stomach is handling foods. So I can tell you all of this and then you can take these pieces of information and then take it to your own health and say, could this be my thing? Now, really the really important piece that you said was, is it dangerous to take them out? And the answer is yes, if you don’t do it safely.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:23:15]:
So there are entire protocols around this and there’s an organization called the IAOMT. And I can send you this and you can put it in shell show notes I aomt.org. i will. Yep. And they’ve created a protocol, and doctors can get certified in this protocol to be able to do this the correct way because I tell people all the time, it’s actually more dangerous for you to have them removed unsafely than to leave them in your mouth. So to just go to any dentist and say, just get my mercury fillings out, that’s actually more dangerous than leaving them be for a little while. So don’t do that. You need to find someone who’s going safely, otherwise you are going to just have all of that mercury redistributed in the entire body.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:24:04]:
I like to think of it like neighborhoods. It’s just going to move neighborhoods and it’s going to start ganging up on another organ system and another thing in the body. And don’t do that. You don’t want the mercury just to move to a new neighborhood in your body. You want it to actually leave your system. And you’re going to need to do some very specific things in order to make that.
Karyn [00:24:21]:
So if I look up a biological dentist in my area because I want these removed, is that assurance that this is going to be done correctly? What should I be looking for?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:24:34]:
So you’re going to ask them, are they smart certified? It stands for, like, safe mercury amalgam removal technique. I think that’s what smart stands for in this acronym. You’re going to ask specifically, have you been trained in the smart technique?
Karyn [00:24:50]:
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Karyn [00:25:38]:
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Karyn [00:26:27]:
Find out what you’re meant to be eating to help put your IBD in its place. Got three minutes? That is all you need. Go to karenhaley.com quiz. That’s K A R Y n h a l e. Answer a few simple questions and get your personalized quiz results immediately. Now let’s get back to the show. Which is what, basically what? Like just in a nutshell, what are the kind of things I should look for then?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:26:57]:
So they’re going to do coverings on you. So when you go to the end of the room and you’re in the chair, you’re going to have something that goes that drapes over your body. You’re going to have something that’s actually over your face so it’s not getting on your skin. You’re going to have a rubber dam that’s used in your mouth so that you’re not swallowing any particles. You’re going to have a nose covering so that you’re not getting any of the fumes. And they’re going to use a giant vacuum at your chin that will suck all the fumes towards the giant vacuum. While they’re being removed. The dentist and the assistant should also have a special mercury filter mask on their face as they’re working on you as well.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:27:35]:
You also need to do a detox along with this. So either your functional medicine practitioner or the dentist should be able to tell you what to do to detox your body. And all you’re doing is you’re basically saying the mercury is going to be released. You’re going to get more, no matter how careful we are in the removal. So your body needs to be able to grab it and dump it. So those are the two detox pieces as grabbers and dumpers so that the mercury doesn’t stay in the system.
Karyn [00:28:03]:
Gotcha. I wanna touch on that. You just mentioned detoxing, that the body is gonna detox when this happens. And that’s a concern, because when detoxification pathways open for people with Crohn’s and colitis, for people with gut challenges, it typically sends a flare to our gut. So if we do these detoxification protocols, I’m assuming it’s something like a toxin binder, things like this, depending on what your health practitioner recommends. Is this enough for us? Because people with gut challenges are going to be a little bit more sensitive to this removal.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:28:40]:
So I always talk about how before you do this removal, you need to make sure that your deep detox pathways are working properly. So for someone with some gut challenges, that may be more than just the regular run of the mill. So I will usually recommend and say, make sure you’re working with your functional medicine practitioner, whomever you’re working with. Make sure that your detox pathways and the way that this mercury detoxes is actually through the kidneys mostly. So you need kidney function very, very good. You need liver function. Very, very good. You know, there may be some swallowing, so you do need gut function, but for sure, kidney and liver need to be working well.
Karyn [00:29:23]:
Okay, gotcha. Yeah, that’s helpful for people to know if they’re thinking about doing this. They really do need to do some planning ahead, especially when you have gut challenges. Do a little bit of planning ahead. Work with a functional medicine doctor so that you are prepared for this process and it doesn’t set off a flare for you.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:29:41]:
Yep.
Karyn [00:29:42]:
Okay. So speaking of gut health, something that I noticed with all of my clients when they come to me, they seem to have the most cavities, they’ve had the most crowns, root canals, all of those kinds of things. More than other people. People with gut challenges seem to have more issues with their mouth. Why is that?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:30:03]:
Great question. It’s funny because in my practice, I see a whole day of new patients on Wednesdays, just yesterday, I had a whole day of new patients. And we always joke at the beginning of the day. We say, what’s the theme going to be today? For some reason, I have no idea why this happens, but the same people with the same challenges always seem to show up on the same day. So yesterday morning, after patient number two, I said, oh, I guess today is cavity day. And my team kind of laughed, and they’re like, yep, I guess today is cavity day. And all day long, that is what I saw were people that had a lot of cavities. And the thing that I hear over and over is frustration.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:30:47]:
You know, one woman, she said, I take meticulous care of my teeth. My husband, he doesn’t even hardly brush his teeth. He never flosses. He’s never had a cavity. And every time I go to the dentist, I have four more. And she was so frustrated. And she said, and I know that this is my kid’s problem, too. She told me that she had just taken her daughters to the dentist.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:31:10]:
One was diagnosed with 16 cavities and another was 17 cavities. And I was just, first of all, the cost alone, thousands and thousands of dollars to get this work taken care of. But then these young, these are teenage girls. These teenage girls are now going to have teeth that are going to be set in a cycle of dental work for the rest of their lives. Now, because you go from a filling to a bigger filling to a crown like this is pretty well documented. So it just really is devastating for me to hear that. I’m like, oh, my gosh, we’ve got to get on top of this. So how do you get on top of it? What is it from? There’s always, there has to be a reason other than just, you didn’t brush your teeth.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:31:53]:
Well, I have way too many people who brush their teeth perfectly and get tooth decay, and they usually have a gut function issue. So let’s talk about what’s going on. The way the gut works is, you know very well the gut, our food, the things that we consume, whether it be in food form, supplement form, whatever they are, the things that we bring into the body have to actually be absorbed, right? To be able to get from the mouth, the esophagus, the stomach, into the rest of the circulatory system and then benefit the rest of the organs. You actually have to absorb that. That’s going to be the first issue. I mean, we talk first about, okay, make sure you’re eating the right things. You know, if you’re never eating a mineral, then obviously your body’s going to be mineral deficient. But usually people are saying, no, I’m actually doing everything right, too.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:32:49]:
You know, I’m eating really well. So this comes down to absorption issues, and that is, I think, the tie in with gut health and absorption or with gut health and cavities. Because what happens is, if the body is mineral deficient, it has to have minerals. It has to have minerals to keep the brain going, to keep the heart going, to keep the bones working, to keep, you know, any growth that’s happening, any repair in the body, it all requires minerals. If the body is not getting enough because you’re not eating enough or because you’re not absorbing enough, this is the gut health piece, then it will go searching for minerals. Where can it find them? Because there’s some systems that have to operate no matter what. So where does it find minerals? Ready, make ready made mineral bank is the teeth and the bones. So if you are getting tooth decay and it doesn’t make sense, you’re brushing your teeth, you’re eating correctly.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:33:45]:
This means that your body is mineral deficient, and it’s having to go mine your teeth for minerals to just operate its normal operating system that tells us you are not absorbing minerals properly. So we tackle this in a couple of different ways. I like to recommend what I call a baking soda test. You may have done this already. You take a quarter teaspoon of baking soda and a half a cup of water, you drink it, and you see how long it takes you to burp. So what are you doing here? It’s kind of a rough and easy, you know, test that you could do at home to see what’s the stomach function like. I tell people it’s a science experiment, just like when you made that volcano and science fair, and you dumped baking soda and the vinegar together and it erupts. That volcano, that’s what happens.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:34:33]:
When the baking soda hits the vinegar, you get an eruption, and it comes out as a burp. So you should be burping in two to three minutes after drinking the baking soda water concoction. If you are not burping in two to three minutes, it means you have inadequate stomach acid. Well, stomach acid is incredibly necessary for a few different things. Stomach acid changes the way minerals are based. Basically, it makes minerals absorbable. It breaks proteins apart into the absorbable piece. That’s called an amino acid.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:35:09]:
It actually kills bugs and things that we consume with our food. Stomach acid does so many things. Now, here’s one thing that’s really interesting, that’s been a fad lately. You’ve probably heard of all of the alkaline water people are drinking. Alkaline water like, oh, I need to alkalize, I need to alkalize, I need to alkalize. Well the problem is when you drink alkaline water, you’re actually alkalizing your stomach. That is a place that you do not want to alkalize. You want your stomach to be very acidic because the acidity is what breaks the food apart.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:35:43]:
So if you are dumping gallons of alkaline water into your stomach or drinking alkaline water along with a meal, you have basically taken away your body’s ability to digest the food you just fed it. So that food will go through to the other side. It’ll show up as all sorts of symptoms and you will be mineral deficient and will have a mouthful of tooth decay. You also will have bones that are full of holes. I just can’t see your bones as easily as I can see your teeth. So you’ve got to be very cognizant of where do we want alkalinity and where do we want an acidity? We want acidity in the gut. So if you don’t burp in two to three minutes, it tells us that you don’t have enough acidity. You do not have an environment that’s conducive to actually absorbing minerals, to breaking minerals apart, to absorbing, breaking proteins apart, all of these things.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:36:35]:
So there’s a couple of things you’re going to have to do. Obviously in the long run. We want to heal things and that’s why they work with people like you. You know, you’re going to help with the healing side of things, but you can’t even do your job. You can’t even help them with supplements or anything else if the stomach can’t absorb them. I tell people this all the time. They’re like, oh, no, no, I’m working with a functional medicine practitioner. I’m like, great, hope you’re not paying too much for all those pills because none of them are getting in because you aren’t absorbing if your stomach isn’t acidic enough.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:37:09]:
So you have to supplement and make the stomach acid acidic enough to be able to even get the benefit of diet changes, of supplements, of any of these kinds of things. So I recommend using a supplement called betaine. It’s derived from beets, it’s basically stomach acid is what it is. And betaine, along with something called pepsin, which is a digestive enzyme. So often you get these two things together, and I just tell people, you’re going to need to take this along with food. And people will say, oh, my doctor told me I just have to take it with food that’s high in protein. Like, well, that’s only if you want to only absorb proteins. Do you want to absorb minerals, too? Then you need to take it with food.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:37:53]:
Better have minerals in them, because both things go along with this. So I just say, just take it every time. Take it with food and take it with supplements. Now, the goal is that that’s not a forever life sentence. I don’t like supplements for life. That’s not my goal. But you can’t get the benefit of any of the healing supplements unless you absorb them. So this is a band aid that has to be step one.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:38:19]:
You do the band aid of the acidity, adding the acidity, step one, so that you then get the benefit of all of the things you are recommending and teaching people and helping people with. Now, one really nice thing is the mouth is an indicator. So if you’ve been doing all of these, all of this gut work, and things have been changing and things are getting so much better, and you come to the dentist and you find out you have three cavities, especially along the gum line, okay? Especially along the gum line, that is the first place that mineral deficiency cavities will show up. If you show up just yesterday at a lady who literally had a gum line cavity on every single tooth in her mouth, I mean, how devastating is that? So it’s just telling us, your stomach is shot, you’re absorbing nothing. So you’re doing all this work, you’re working really hard. You go to the dentist, you have two more gum line cavities, you’re not done. You’re not done. You still are not absorbing.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:39:13]:
You’ve got to back it up. You’ve got to add the acid for a little while. You got to keep working on some healing things. And some people may just always have to add stomach acid. They may not be able to really create enough. Now, remember, mercury may be a reason, maybe a reason you’re not creating stomach acid because of mercury in the mouth. That’s getting out. The other thing that’s absolutely huge is, and I know you probably talk about this, is if the body is in fight or flight mode.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:39:41]:
So, you know, there’s two modes of operation with the body. Sympathetic, which is our fight or flight. This is I’m being chased by a bear. When you’re in sympathetic or fight or flight mode, your digestive system stops. You don’t need to digest food when you’re being chased by a bear. You need to run really fast, so all the energy goes to the extremities and moves away from everything that functions here. The other side of the coin is the rest and digest or parasympathetic side. Well, some things in the mouth actually lead your body or push your body into the fight or flight mode non stop.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:40:17]:
So these are really important to think about when it comes to gut function as well. Because if your body’s in fight or flight mode, no matter if you supplement, no matter if you change your diet, no matter if you do all these things, your body will not create stomach acid because it’s being chased by a bear. So what are some things that can leave the body or make the body feel like it’s being chased by a bear? Two things that are biggies in the mouth. One is hidden infections. We already talked about the mercury, but one is hidden infections. And two places they hide is under old root canals and where teeth were removed. So that’s one of them. The other one is if you’re not getting enough air while you’re sleeping, you literally feel like you’re suffocating.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:41:04]:
People will term this as sleep apnea, snoring, poor sleeping. I toss and turn all night. I wake up three or four times a night. Those are all signs that you are not getting adequate air when you’re asleep or clenching and grinding. I squeeze my teeth all night long. I wake up with a headache. You’re not getting enough air. Your body’s trying to get more.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:41:22]:
Those will all push your body into fight or flight. Have you ever suffocated? Have you ever had a pillow head to your face? Have you ever swam underwater a long way and have thought, oh my gosh, I’m never going to make it? Your body gets into that panic mode, you won’t create sumic acid, you won’t digest properly. Sure, these are huge pieces that have to be addressed. If you have poor gut function. Is there something that’s just turning the gut off? So sorry, that was a really long answer for how does it relate? Because there’s so many things that relate.
Karyn [00:41:57]:
Thanks so much for tuning into the cheeky podcast for moms with IBD today. The great information we’re dishing out on this pod is exactly the same type of conversations I get to have with my clients every day. If you’re ready to take your IBD healing journey to the next level and move into being the mom you always dreamed you’d be. Hop on over to karenhaley.com consult and book your free IBD consultation with me. Remember, my mom had to be a little bit different and spell my name with a y. So it’s karynhaley.com consult on our call, we’ll dive into what you’re struggling with most right now and make a plan for how we can work together to help you achieve your big, bold, beautiful, life transforming goals. No more sitting on the sidelines waiting for that miracle cure to magically happen. You’ve got what it takes to do this right now, mama.
Karyn [00:42:53]:
You just need a little nudge in that right direction, and I’ve got your back. Karenhaley.com consult and now back to the show. It’s a massive topic. I know. So, number one, and I have taken the betaine before. I’ve had to do that, and I regularly now take a, a digestive enzyme with pepsin in it, and I need to do that for life. I know that about my personal digestive system. And then if those things are not working, just to kind of recap, because you’ve mentioned so much, I want to make sure everybody gets it.
Karyn [00:43:24]:
Then you’re talking about looking at airway challenges. And so who would be a good practitioner to help with that?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:43:32]:
Again, a biologic dentist. So what you need the very first.
Karyn [00:43:35]:
Oh, really? Okay.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:43:37]:
Yep. The screening tool that you’re going to use is what’s called a cone beam CTA. So biologic dentist is going to take this cone beam CT scan. And what we tell us.
Karyn [00:43:45]:
Yeah, tell us about that.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:43:47]:
Yep. What it is is it’s a dental specific ct scan. It’s not like anything that you’ve done in the hospital. So people are always like, oh, no, no, I don’t want to do that. No, it’s not like that. It’s, it’s very dental specific. It’s called cone beam because it focuses just on this head. And so what I’m able to see when we look in this scan is, number one, are all the teeth healthy? Do they have infection at the end of the roots? And I can see things that you cannot see on a traditional dental x ray.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:44:15]:
There is no way. In fact, I will compare side by side multiple times during the day. I’ll say, let’s put the regular dental x ray. Let’s pull up the ct scan. Oh, and I’ll just show patients and they’ll go, oh, my gosh, it looks totally like I can see my abscess on that and I can’t see it, you know, absolutely. We see things that we couldn’t see. So we’re looking for failed root canals. So has a root canal reinfected and often they’re called silent.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:44:40]:
They don’t hurt. You don’t even know what’s happening. I’ll find people that have literally a quarter size hole in their jawbone that’s full of infection and there’s zero pain, no symptom whatsoever. And it’s from an old root canal, because the root canal, they remove the nerve. You don’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt. So bone doesn’t actually feel a lot. So huge abscesses.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:45:03]:
So we can identify these big abscesses or where a tooth was removed, and most everyone’s had wisdom teeth removed, so you need to have these areas checked if you’ve had wisdom teeth removed, because infection can stay in those spots for decades and can affect gut function, and that’s actually stomach and endocrine systems. So anyone that has fatigue, thyroid problems, adrenal issues, or gut function issues needs to have a cone beam ct scan and have their wisdom tooth area is checked. So that’s one thing we see on it, is that. But the other thing I can see is what’s called your airway. And people are always like, oh, shouldn’t you see an ENT about that? Yes and no, because an ENT is going to look at the tube, they’re going to look at the size of your nose. They’re going to look to see, is the septum deviated? They’re going to look to see, are your tonsils in the way? They’re going to look at a lot of things. So am I. But I’m also going to take it.
Karyn [00:45:54]:
They’re going to look at the structure.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:45:56]:
Yeah, yeah, they’re looking at the structure. Exactly. The physical structures. So do I. You know, I’m going to look at the exact same things, but then I’m going to say, okay, the tube you have to breathe through, there’s like half a tongue sitting in that tube, and the tissue at the back of your throat is all swollen and blocking off half of that tube. So then we’ll take it a next step and say, why? Why is the tongue so large and hanging back into the way where you’re supposed to breathe? Why is that tissue so swollen? Why are the tonsils swollen? Why are those things happening? And it usually comes back to an infection somewhere in the mouth. So then we’ll identify the source, which is the infection, or it may also be mouth size. There’s not room for everything to fit, and so it has to fall back into the airway.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:46:46]:
So again, the dentist can address the mouth size problem. We can expand the mouth, make more room for everything to fit so that you can breathe properly. So biologic dentist is the place to go for these things. And again, you go, what does this have to do with gut health? These things leave you in fight or flight, leave your gut turned off. So you need to find out if they’re going, if they’re happening.
Karyn [00:47:10]:
Yeah. There’s no way to separate these. Right. We are a complete being, and it’s all related. It’s fascinating to me how related our oral health is with our gut health. You know, one impacts the other, the other. I mean, it’s just, it’s just a constant, continuous connection. So it’s really important that we have a very good relationship with our dentists, no matter who they are.
Karyn [00:47:38]:
And hopefully, it’s somebody that has a more health focused perspective so that they’re looking at these things, not just the structure of these, you know, things, but they’re seeing behind it, what is the function? And then I love the question that you asked. It’s why? Why? I don’t see many dentists asking that question. Why? Right. But hopefully a biological dentist is going to ask that question. Why? Take it a little bit deeper so that you can then get the benefit in both your oral health and your gut health.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:48:11]:
Yep.
Karyn [00:48:12]:
Something that I wanted to ask you about is vitamin D, because it’s something that so many with gut challenges are deficient in. I’ve heard you speak about the relationship between vitamin D and gallstones in kidney stones. And so, like I mentioned, many people with gut challenges are d deficient. They also are more prone to gallstones, to kidney stones. This is a personal question for me, doctor Michelle, because I’m dealing with kidney stones right now. So can you please help us understand what is the link between all of this and how does it relate to our oral health?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:48:53]:
So vitamin D and its buddy, vitamin k two. So really, we have to be pretty specific here. It’s vitamin D three and vitamin K two. And the reason we have to be very specific about k two is there’s a k one. That’s a very different vitamin. If I were to name these, I wouldn’t have named them the same letter. So we’re talking about vitamin D three. Vitamin K two.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:49:19]:
So vitamin D three, one of its main purposes is to grab calcium out of the circulatory. System. So it, once we digested and absorbed calcium, it starts to float around and find a place to be used. Well, vitamin D three is the thing that grabs it, that can grab hold of it in that circulatory system. Vitamin K two is then the thing that takes a that complex and puts it in the cell. So unless you have both of those, what you end up with is a lot of free floating calcium. What does that free floating calcium do? It goes and clogs up kidneys, creating kidney stones. Calcification.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:50:01]:
Have you heard that word, calcification? Calcification is calcium where it doesn’t belong. So it will create a kidney stone. It will gum up a gallbladder and create gallstones. It will create calcification in arteries. This is often what leads to blockages and heart attacks is calcification in arteries. It will lead to tartar on the teeth because it’s just free floating calcium. It gets in the saliva and it lands on your teeth. So all of those things are signs that you are not utilizing calcium properly.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:50:34]:
So you need to increase the vitamin D three and make sure, sure that it also has the vitamin k two along with it, because if you just do the d three, you’re still not going to get it in the cell. So make sure you have both of those together. Now, why, when people have poor gut function, do they have poor vitamin D three? That’s the next why, right? Most likely it’s an absorption. So there’s just not absorption. Absorption just isn’t happening the way it should. Because vitamin D three is actually a difficult one to get. It isn’t in a lot of foods. It’s only pretty much in animal products.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:51:13]:
Vitamin K two is another one that’s difficult to get. It’s only in animal products if the animal has been fed grass, which that’s pretty few and far between in our world anymore. So really, we’re all pretty deficient in vitamin D three and k two in our world day. And then if you add on to that poor absorption, you’re just going to exponentialize the deficiency that everybody sees, but you’re going to be even more deficient. So I think if you have poor gut function, you’re going to just have to plan to take a vitamin D three k two supplement. It’s just going to be part of what you do.
Karyn [00:51:57]:
And it’s not a risk to be taking it at higher doses because I see a lot of my clients, their doctors have said, well, you need to be taking the 50,000 ius weekly and they put them on that for long term. That’s a really high dose. So any, you know, side effects, problems with that long term, especially for people with gut challenges.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:52:21]:
I’ve heard controversy both ways. So I learn in Switzerland, one of my mentors is teaches at a place called swiss biohealth and he has scores of research showing that there is no toxic dose of vitamin D. Three. But then I also have colleagues and others that have said that that’s not true because this is a fat soluble vitamin. So there are two different kinds of vitamin types. There’s water soluble vitamins, that’s going to be vitamin C, vitamin D, or, excuse me, vitamin B. All the B vitamins are going to fall in that category, which means they are just excreted. If there’s too much, you just pee them out.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:53:08]:
Vitamin D, A, E and K are fat soluble. So what that means is they’re stored in fats and they don’t excrete the same way that the water soluble vitamins do. However, it’s pretty interesting to watch a blood test because I’ve done this with myself before taking high doses. I’m way up here. I cut my dose in half and I dropped pretty quickly, so they leave the body fairly quickly. My safe dose is about 5000 ius a day. I think you can stick with 5000 ius a day at a consistent level and it will keep you dosed. What you need for calcium metabolism.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:53:48]:
Now you asked, how does this affect oral health? Well, remember we talked about minerals being essential for dental health? These minerals and vitamins are essential for no cavities. They’re essential for remineralizing cavities. They’re also essential for gum health. So again, if you’re low in vitamin D, we’re going to see it in your mouth. So this is the thing that I actually prescribe to patients most frequently is vitamin D. Is that all right? You’re just going to have to really? Yep. You’re going to have to take this if you don’t want cavities anymore.
Karyn [00:54:20]:
And when it comes to people with gut challenges in my practice, I’m always saying I really like the liquid supplements, the sublingual, like I’m trying to think of the company that I. Orthomolecular. I think it is, the d three k two. It comes in a dropper. I really like that. How about you?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:54:37]:
Yes. Anybody that has a gut health challenge. So an absorption issue, I will tend to defer to liquid if possible, and powder next and capsules third, because the capsule is going to additional processing in the gut. And if your gut is a little wimpy, then we can’t really ask it to do extra work. So let’s just give it a liquid form to make it really easy to get it in. Yeah, there’s. There’s great sources. In fact, we use the orthomolecular one.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:55:06]:
There’s a few. There’s great sources of liquid vitamin D. The other nice thing about the liquid is you can dose it quite easily. So if, let’s say, you know, you started at a higher dose, you can just back it down quite easily. You just do a half dropper full instead of a full dropper full now. And so that’s another reason I like the liquid for that reason.
Karyn [00:55:25]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I agree. Now, Doctor Michelle, I cannot let you go without asking you about ozone, because rectal ozone is something that I have been talking about for a while now with my community, and I’ve heard that ozone is something that is being used in dental practices. Obviously not the rectal ozone, but ozone in general. And it’s something that I think is so misunderstood and just not talked about. Right. You’re not going to your gastroenterologist or your traditional dentist, and they’re saying, let’s try ozone. So how are you using it, if you are at all? Are you using it in your practice? What do you think about the benefits of ozone?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:56:04]:
We use it every day, nearly every patient. So, yes, we use it all the time. The beautiful thing about ozone is it’s a broad spectrum antimicrobial, so we use it in a few. Well, first of all, what is ozone? You know, everybody’s like, oh, it’s like that dangerous thing. No, it’s actually three molecules of oxygen. So what are the side effects of ozone? Oxygen, what are the, you know, what is it? What are the, you know, the downstream metabolites? Oxygen. Okay, well, but it’s. Yes, it’s oxygen.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:56:37]:
That’s all it is. So what does it do? Well, when there’s three molecules of oxygen together, I always tell people oxygen likes to be in pairs, so it doesn’t like that third wheel. And that third molecule of oxygen is very unstable. He’s looking for his own buddy to go hang out with. So it loves to bind to microbes. The great thing is, is our cells are actually resistant to the oxidation or this oxygen molecule binding to it. The only cells that aren’t are eyes and lungs. So those are the two areas that you need to be cautious with when using ozone, because eyes and lungs are actually, they can be damaged by ozone.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:57:21]:
So you need to be careful about that. Don’t breathe it in and don’t. Don’t blow it in your eyeballs. But it will bind all the rest of the cells. It can’t do anything to. But it will bind to every single kind of bug. So it doesn’t matter if it’s a bacteria, virus, a parasite, fungus, it will kill all of them. It’s not specific.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:57:40]:
So what we use it for are a lot of different things. We use it to keep all of our water clean in our dental office. So that’s a real simple thing. We use. We use ozone water in all of our water lines. We use it for underneath the filling. So if you have a real deep cavity, and if we keep removing the cavity, if it would uncover the nerve and then kill the tooth, this is how teeth go to root canals. If that would happen, what we do instead is instead of removing that deepest part of decay, we actually use ozone on it.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:58:13]:
It kills all of the bacteria in that cavity, and we’re able to fill over the top of it and save a tooth from needing root canal. We do this all day long, every day, keeping teeth from needing root canals by killing the deep bacteria inside of the cavity. We use it in gum disease. So we use it to flush all of the gum pockets everywhere and balance the oral biome. You talk about gut biome, there’s an oral biome as well. So we kill bacteria in the mouth. It desensitizes teeth. We use it when we remove these failed root canals or clean out areas where a tooth didn’t heal right, because it kills any bugs living in those holes in the jawbone.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [00:58:52]:
So we use it in gas form and in water form to clean out all of that. And the beautiful thing is we don’t even need to know what we’re killing because we know we’re killing anything and everything. So that’s great, because there’s a lot of tests. Yeah, there’s a lot of tests that, you know, you can go, okay, exactly what bugs are living in your mouth? And I say, I don’t actually care because guess what? We’re going to kill them all. So let’s save your $250 on that test, and let’s just kill everything and just make sure that you stay healthy from here on out. So we use it for everything. What are the side effects? Nothing better help. That’s the side effect.
Karyn [00:59:30]:
I wish more people were talking about it. Yes, and I wish more people were talking about it. And I love your explanation. It just it’s so simple and layperson. It’s something that I think a lot of people complicate. So thank you so much for that explanation, because that I think that’s really helpful for everyone. Good. Yeah.
Karyn [00:59:49]:
So, okay, so I know that there is a wealth of information on your website. Make sure I’m getting it right. Living well with Michelle. Did I say that right? Okay, so, folks, we have been talking about living well with Doctor Michelle. Thank you. Okay, so we have been talking a lot about biologic dentistry, but you are a very smart woman, very accomplished. You’re also a naturopath. I think there’s some nutrition training in there.
Karyn [01:00:18]:
You’re fermenting. There’s just a wealth of information on that site. One of the things that I was looking at lately was about the tooth powders that you have on your website. Can you tell me a little bit about the benefits of those, especially for somebody with gut challenges?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:00:37]:
Yeah, there’s actually a huge benefit for those who have gut challenges. So I formulated these tooth powders and the mouth rinse as a tooth powder and a mouth rinse, because I didn’t want to have, well, two parts. I believe that you can heal teeth, especially if the cavity is in the outside layer of the tooth. But you have to have the correct minerals in order to do that. So both the tooth powder and the mouth rinse have something called hydroxyapatite. What is that? It’s just a mineral complex that your teeth are made of. It’s the actual thing that these are made of. So we’re going to just put back what came out so that you can prevent cavities.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:01:18]:
So anyone who has a gut health problem absolutely needs to be on both of these products forever to keep the teeth strong, because if your gut isn’t absorbing minerals, then you better be putting them on your teeth. So this is putting minerals literally on the teeth themselves to help keep them strong. The other thing that I formulated these to do was to avoid fluoride. Fluoride does all sorts of things, and it definitely affects the gut in a negative way. I don’t have time to talk about the bazillion problems with fluoride. Let’s just say you don’t want it, especially if you have gut health problems. So this does not have any fluoride. It does not need fluoride.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:02:00]:
All you need are the minerals that your teeth is made of or made of. So right here, just put minerals back on them and they will stay strong. All of the surfactants, disinfectants, the things that are in traditional toothpaste and mouth rinse that ruin your own gut biome. Mouth rinses are full of alcohol. They kill off all the good bugs. So you don’t want to use regular mouth rinse. It’s alcohol containing. It’s going to change your gut biome completely.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:02:28]:
There’s so many things. So basically all the things you don’t want aren’t in these. And all the things you do want to stay healthy are. And I’m not a big self promoter, but just go get these. Like, literally just go get these.
Karyn [01:02:42]:
Yeah. That good? Yes. I need to do that myself. So living well with Doctor Michelle is the place to go to get those correct?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:02:49]:
Correct.
Karyn [01:02:51]:
Okay. So we’re going to finish up today with a quick lightning round. And doctor michelle, these questions are not as hard as the ones I’ve been giving you today. Just really quick, easy, fun questions, a way for my audience to just get to know you a little bit better. Is that okay with you?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:03:06]:
Sounds great.
Karyn [01:03:09]:
Fantastic. Okay, here we go. What is your favorite gut friendly snack?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:03:16]:
My favorite gut friendly snack is applesauce and dates.
Karyn [01:03:23]:
Oh, I love dates. Okay, name one supplement you can’t live without.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:03:28]:
Vitamin D three and k two.
Karyn [01:03:32]:
I love it. I’m so glad we talked about that one. Okay. How do you advocate for yourself during doctor visits?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:03:40]:
If you have a question, make sure that they’re not done until you’re done getting an answer. It’s really okay to keep asking.
Karyn [01:03:51]:
I love it. Okay. What’s one thing that you do on a regular basis to connect with yourself, like a mind body technique or something? Self care, something in that realm?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:04:01]:
I work in my garden. It grounds me literally and figuratively.
Karyn [01:04:07]:
Oh, that’s great. Okay. When someone says to you, do you have any good book recommendations? What is the one book you recommend most?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:04:19]:
My very favorite book is called.
Karyn [01:04:21]:
It’s okay to shamelessly plug your book.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:04:23]:
Yeah, well, any of my books. But the book I really do love is called Animal Vegetable Miracles by Barbara Kingsolver. And it’s my very favorite book I’ve ever read. And I read.
Karyn [01:04:37]:
I love that.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:04:38]:
A lot of books, but that’s just my favorite.
Karyn [01:04:42]:
Yeah. Okay, cool. What are you currently binge watching?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:04:48]:
Nothing. Because I have too many books to read.
Karyn [01:04:55]:
You’re binging books. Okay. Coffee or tea? And how do you take it?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:05:02]:
Definitely tea. I’m not a coffee drinker and I love chai tea with a little bit of oat milk in it.
Karyn [01:05:10]:
Yes. Yes. What is one cheap food that you can’t resist.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:05:17]:
I absolutely love snickerdoodle cookies, but I eat gluten free, so I very rarely find one that I get to eat. Mm hmm.
Karyn [01:05:28]:
Gotcha. Last question. The name of this podcast is the Cheeky podcast. And to me, cheeky means a little bit sassy, a little bit quirky, and a lot badass. So what’s one thing that you are cheeky about in your life?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:05:44]:
I have had a lot of resistance in my career, and people telling me, you can’t do that. You can’t do that because you’re a woman. You can’t do that because you don’t know enough. You can’t do whatever. Basically, my response is always, watch me.
Karyn [01:06:01]:
Amen. Amen to that. Thank you so much, doctor Michelle. It has been such a pleasure to have you on today. I know that after listening, people are going to want to find out more about biological dentistry. About you. If we’re looking for a biological dentist and we’re not in your area, I know you live in Utah. So if we’re not in your area, what’s the best place to find a biological dentist in your own area where you live?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:06:28]:
I actually have a directory on my website, so if you go to living well with Doctor Michelle, I have a dentist directory of dentists that have been vetted by me and that is the first place to go. And then there’s a couple of other directories as well that I’ll send you that you can put in the show notes to check, but the ones that I personally know are on my dentist directory, on my fabulous.
Karyn [01:06:51]:
And to connect with you, is your website the best place to go living well with Doctor Michelle?
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:06:56]:
Yes. Website or on social media as well under that same, that same name, Instagram.
Karyn [01:07:03]:
Facebook, all the goodies there.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:07:06]:
Yep.
Karyn [01:07:07]:
Yeah. Wonderful. Doctor Michelle, thank you so much for your time. It’s such a pleasure to talk with you.
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen [01:07:12]:
Thank you.
Karyn [01:07:21]:
If this podcast is meaningful for you, if it’s been helpful in your IBD mom life, I’d love it if you would do a couple things. First, follow the pod. You’ll never miss an episode. And those moms who are searching for podcasts about Crohn’s and colitis, they’ll find us easier. There’s probably a plus sign or a follow sign where you’re listening in right now at the top of your screen. Go ahead and give that a tap. And then also give the Tiki podcast a five star rating and review and share it with your friends who are also struggling with IBD. The more we are open about talking about our illness and bringing awareness around it, the more we’re able to connect and build a safe community around each other.
Karyn [01:08:06]:
I love being in community with you and I appreciate you, my friend. One last thing before we wrap up today. You know, I think you’re a rock star for taking time out of your busy life to listen in and invest in your healing. It is capital h huge. And the reason I know how huge this is for you is because I am right there with you in all of this, working my wheel of wellness, keeping my crohn’s at bay. It’s something that I invest in every day and I’d love it if we could continue our gut healing journey together. If you’re like me and you’re ready to soak up even more amazing gut healing information, it’s time to join the gut love community@karenheathy.com. community the GLC is my free and fabulous space, dedicated to dishing out even more IBD resources, recipes, healing hacks, lots of BTC secrets on how I manage my life with IBD, all wrapped up in a weekly newsletter to help you keep your momentum going strong.
Karyn [01:09:10]:
This IBD dish is gut healing insights that I only share within our tight knit community. Basically, it’s your one stop shop for a more diversified approach to true and lasting gut healing. Amen to that my friend. Let’s walk this gut healing journey together. Join me in the glc@karenhaley.com. community that’s karynhaley.com community. I can’t wait to meet you.