The Ancient Health Podcast: Five Key Takeaways From My Interview

My mission to #GiveTeethAChance has transformed into something far beyond what I ever envisioned. What began as a modest goal to teach dentists how to do root canals with confidence has become a holistic effort to educate as many people as possible about the tooth-saving power of root canals. So I’m always looking for new ways to be able to share empowering tooth wisdom with a wider audience!

(Want to know more about the future of my mission? Learn about my website rebranding project and how it connects to my overall vision.)

That’s why I was thrilled when the Ancient Health Podcast invited me to talk about the importance of oral health and how everyone can become their own healer. We touched on a bunch of topics relevant to both you and your patients, such as what it means when we talk about endodontics, the regenerative power of root canals, and how oral health relates to your overall well-being.

Host Courtney Bursich’s insightful questions elicited a lot of really great nuggets of wisdom that are worth repeating. They’re important reminders that you can share with your patients to help them become well-informed advocates for their own dental health! So if you don’t have time to listen to the whole podcast, here are the top 5 things to take away from the interview that will help make you a better healer—and your patients more empowered individuals.

5 Nuggets of Wisdom from The Ancient Health Podcast

1. When done correctly, root canals can not only save teeth but regenerate bone.

Thanks to prevailing myths and bad experiences, a lot of patients (and dentists!) still believe root canals are toxic. But this couldn’t be further from the truth! Root canals can not only save teeth but regenerate bone. How? By clearing out infection.

When bacteria gets into a tooth and sits there long enough, the body sets off an immune response that causes the bone to start to pull away from the tooth, creating a big dark shadow on the x-ray. As scary as that can look, it’s actually a natural reaction of the body to avoid further infection, and it’s entirely reversible.

As I told Courtney of the Ancient Health Podcast, as long as you follow the two cardinal rules of root canals—find every canal and get to the bottom of each one—you can clear out enough bacteria for the body’s immune system to take over and rid itself of the infection. Once you do that, the bone is free to regenerate, reversing the process altogether. Hell yeah!

2. Root canals are not linked to systemic health conditions, but periodontal disease is.

Another common myth I see circulating is that root canals are linked to system health conditions like cardiovascular disease. Once again, I’m here to tell you that there is no scientific evidence to support this. Instead, it’s periodontal disease that has been shown to play a role in a variety of conditions—not just cardiovascular disease, but also gastrointestinal diseases, respiratory tract infections, adverse pregnancy outcomes, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and even certain cancers. This misconception is a great example of why it’s important to interpret data in the right way!

Another thing to know about the mouth is that it can signal to us when something is wrong elsewhere in the body. For example, Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract) can cause mouth ulcers that may help doctors identify the condition.

So while root canals don’t cause disease, the mouth itself is definitely an important indicator of people’s overall health. That’s why it’s crucial to keep it as healthy as possible with procedures like root canals—and why endodontists like me need dentists like you to help us save teeth (wink wink)!

3. Endodontic technology can transform the way you do root canals. 

I couldn’t go on the Ancient Health Podcast and not talk about how transformative endodontic technology can be for your dental practice. Thanks to technological advancements, the way we do root canals today is eons more effective and efficient than in the past.

While there’s a whole list of technology I encourage any dentist to use in their practice, there are three types in particular that really make a huge difference: 

• A dental operating microscope, which helps you see even the tiniest of canals in the tooth
• Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), which allows you to make faster and more accurate diagnoses and appreciate the anatomy of the tooth before even going inside
• Tools that allow you to get into hard-to-reach places, like lasers or the GentleWave System (which uses sound waves to get into nooks and crannies)

4. Your patients’ ability to heal is directly impacted by your beliefs.

Perhaps the most important idea Courtney and I touched on during my interview with the Ancient Health Podcast was the power of beliefs in endodontics. If you don’t trust in your ability to perform a root canal—or the body’s ability to heal itself following treatment—you’re setting you and your patient up for failure. It’s that simple.

The human body is a freaking miracle worker, y’all! Simply trusting it to do its job can go a long way, for both you and your patients. It’s a concept I call bioflow, and it works better than any medicine or supplement “biohack” ever could when it comes to healing post treatment. There’s nothing to hack when the system isn’t broken in the first place!

Whenever I catch myself doubting that I can save a tooth, my patient ends up proving me wrong and restoring my faith. They trust in me to get the job done, and they trust their body to do its thing. And you know what? It WORKS.

5. Endodontists need your help!

There are a lot of dentists out there who either don’t feel confident doing root canals or don’t have interest in doing them. And hey—I get it! Dental school has to cover so much ground that root canals hardly get touched, and it’s difficult to feel good about doing a procedure you don’t have much experience with.

But here’s the thing: There are way more people needing root canals than endodontists alone can handle. At the end of the day, only 20% are performed by specialists—the rest are allllllll you, baby! So it’s well worth your time to invest in your endodontic training so you can provide your patients with the best care possible.
E-School, my online endodontic continuing education course for dentists, is your all-in-one toolbox for building your endo knowledge, enhancing patient outcomes, and increasing your revenue. With comprehensive online modules and weekly personalized group coaching calls, it’s designed to give you the endo confidence you’ve always wanted.

– Sonia