Total Health Dentistry Throughout Life’s Many Stages

Intro:
In the first of its kind dentists-to-patient podcast, you’ll gain incredibly valuable insight into the mouth-body connection. You won’t hear any fluffy filler here. You’ll actually be able to connect the dots. Join us for a worthy jolt of insight on the Total Health Dentistry podcast with Dr. Ali.

Dr. Ali:
Hey everyone, it’s Dr. Ali. In this episode, you’ll gain a worthy jolt of insight about Total Health Dentistry. This is going to be a walk through the stages of life. It’s going to be a 10-part series. Let me explain. In the last episode, we finished off the three pillars of Total Health Dentistry. If you missed it, make sure you go back and check out the first five episodes, as it will give this episode and future ones greater context. The three pillars again are airway, nutrition and structure. You got that Matt?

Matt: Yeah.

Dr. Ali:
Airway, nutrition, structure. Have you heard me say that enough times now?

Matt: Yes, yes, yes. It’s important.

Dr. Ali:
I sleep and all I can think about now when I close my eyes is airway, nutrition and structure. I’ve been talking about it so much. Anyhow, so now that we’ve covered the three bases, and then the next 10 episodes, episodes 6 to 15, I’d like to go through an age-specific walk-through, and highlight at each stage of life what should you and your loved ones focus on.

What should you watch out for, and which dental options do you have? And maybe some of them you probably didn’t even know that you had. So, in this episode we will discuss why do I even view my patients through this type of lens? This is not a typical approach.

Why is it good for patients, in my opinion, that we view them through this lens, and what proof do I have that this approach even works? So, as I mentioned, in this episode, I’d like to introduce the whole concept of treating patients purposefully by looking through the lenses of life’s various stages. Given that any approach has some limitations, my general lens is as follows. Ages zero to three, ages four to six, ages seven to nine, young adult, the midlife years, and the senior years. So why do I look at my patients through this type of lens?

Usually in dentistry we divide up our patients based on which teeth they have or which teeth they don’t have. That’s a typical way that we actually look at our patients. Personally, through my lenses, I look at my patients and in addition to the teeth that they have or don’t have, of course I look at that, I look at them not just in the here and now, but what is coming down the line.

Without ego, Matt, I can tell you when it comes to dentistry I can see the future. I wish I could see it in many other things, but I can see it in dentistry, and it’s my duty to see today what can’t be seen and to help my patients avoid going down a road if it’s going to lead to bad outcomes, such as constantly breaking teeth, losing jawbone, etc. I’m a big believer in the adage that balance is health, imbalance is disease.

Okay? You ever heard that? Balance is health, imbalance is disease?

Matt:
I’ve heard balance is health. Imbalance is disease, that’s a new one for me, yeah. Makes sense.

Dr. Ali:
When you boil it down to its core, almost any disease basically is an imbalance of something.
You either have too much or too little, right? That’s an imbalance.

Matt: Yep, yep, makes sense.

Dr. Ali:
So I look for which areas are out of balance in my patient. Is it the bite? Is it the contour or gaps of the fillings? Is it the bacterial ecology of the gums? Is it all the different metals in the mouth that’s acting like a battery, something people really don’t know much about. Is it breathing 90% through the mouth, and only 10% through the nose? I look for these types of imbalances. Then the question is well, why is this good for my patients? I like asking easy questions that I can answer, so here’s an easy one. By seeing what is coming down the pipe, I can help my patients avoiding the big dental problems like losing a tooth, which could have been prevented if we had seen what was coming.

Having to remove a half-impacted tooth that you can’t clean at age 85 when it could have been done decades earlier and prevented a world of problems. Or treating a group of mouth muscles who aren’t properly coordinated, that’s called myofunctional therapy, to avoid the need for jaw surgery, for example. Or treating crooked muscles that are crowding the teeth and either preventing or lessening the need for future braces. So I mean this is really, really good news, right? Preventing the loss of a tooth, preventing having a horrible healing period at age 85, potentially preventing the need for jaw surgery, potentially preventing or lessening the need for braces. These are good outcomes, and using this lens we can often achieve these good outcomes.

Another question is how do I know if this is working? Well, fortunately, since 2007 in my Stratford practice, I have seen thousands upon thousands of patients from all over Canada and Ontario, and that practice was actually uniquely designed for adults with the most challenging problems we face in dentistry. Missing teeth, bone, gums, bad bites, you name it.

Using this lens, and a whole lot of advanced training for both myself and my team, we successfully have treated many thousands of patients over a period of over a decade.

And since many of these patients came from significant distances, my approach to treating them had to literally stand up the test of time. These folks didn’t live around the corner from me, so the way I was approaching them and treating them had to work.

If it didn’t work, I was in big trouble and they wouldn’t be, of course, very happy. So I couldn’t have had these folks having all kinds of dental emergencies left, right and center.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Ali:
We found the root cause of the problem, came up with a few different options. It would typically take one to three years to complete the treatment, and then many times they would return to their local dentist and come back to see me periodically as needed. And if you look at, for instance, our Google reviews for Ali Farahani, DDS you’ll see that these folks didn’t need to come back, because things didn’t keep breaking and the big problems did not resurface.

Matt: Wow, yeah.

Dr. Ali:
So that’s my lens. Screen for the root cause, see what’s coming down the pipe, fix it once, fix it right, and I have abundant proof from my Stratford practice over 10 years of doing this, that this approach does work very well. Thanks everyone again for joining us for this episode, the beginning episode of a 10-part series, and I wanted to introduce this 10-part series, a walk through the stages of life, by sharing with you why I even view my patients through this type of lens, why I feel it’s good for my patients, and the proof that I have that this approach really does work. Please join us for the next episode as we are beginning our walk through the stages of life, which will start with looking at how to treat a child’s teeth before they are even born. Please join us.

Legal:
Please note that Dr. Ali Farahani is a general dentist and that Total Health Dentistry is not a specialty of dentistry. While we make every effort to broadcast correct information, dentistry is a constantly changing science and art. One doctor may have a different way of doing things from another. Dr. Ali Farahani is simply presenting his views and opinions that will be as evidenced based as possible. We welcome any comments, suggestions, or corrections of error.

Dr. Ali Farahani takes no money from drug or device companies. By listening to this podcast or reading this blog you agree not to use this podcast or blog as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including, but not limited to patients that you are treating. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast or blog. Under no circumstances shall Sante Family Dental, Dr. A. Farahani Dentistry Professional Corporation or Dr. Ali Farahani, or any of their employees, associates, or affiliates, any of the guests or contributors to the podcast or blog, be responsible for damages arising from use of this podcast or blog.