Friday, July 29, 2016

Give Your Smile a Facelift Part 2


 Getting The Molds Ready

Now that my jaw has relaxed and I'm not grinding my teeth like I once did, it's time to create the molds of my teeth to be sent to the lab. You'll see the process of getting molds done which is painless and super exciting!




Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Going Gluten Free Without Breaking The Bank

Going Gluten Free Without Breaking The Bank


I’ve been on an interesting health journey lately that may change my life.  I want to share, because it may change yours too.  If you’ve ever read any of my blogs, you know that food and I have a very rocky relationship.  I often feel lousy after eating.  There was even a time that I would feel lousy when I would think about eating.  And I LOVE food.  I love growing food and cooking food and trying new foods and EATING food!  So why does food not love me?

I’m the odd ball in my family.  My parents and siblings can eat whatever they want, my husband feels the same after a salad or a chocolate shake, and my kids chow down on whatever is in front of them.  Believe me, I’ve said “this isn’t fair!!” a time or two.

Green Beans and Ice Cream
This isn’t new.  My mom still laughs about my food choices as a little girl.  She couldn't get me to eat ice cream unless she put a green bean on the front of the spoon.  I used to sneak into the fridge and eat the leftover peas for a snack.  Everyone thought it was because I just liked vegetables more, but I think some foods bothered me even back then.

I’ve tried every diet, internet fad and nutrition plan known to man. I’ve gone to doctors and had my gut scoped.  I’ve visited alternative care providers and have purchased thousands of dollars in supplements.  I have read countless books about diet and food. Everything from eating all “white” to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome, to a Macrobiotic Diet with loads of rice, to a raw diet with enough kale to turn your eyeballs green.  Over the years I’ve given up dairy, gluten, corn, tomatoes, white potatoes, beans, meat, eggs, soy… you name it, I’ve stopped eating it at one point or another.  

Nothing works
I’ve had mixed results with all of these changes.  And the trouble is, I often feel a little better but not a lot.  And I can’t always tell what is helping.  So, the saga of my food troubles continued.  

The new twist is that I have been putting on weight.  Not a lot, but enough to make my clothes fit tighter than I would like, and the number was steadily climbing.  And all this while I changed nothing about what I eat - and I eat well and in moderate amounts.  Frustrating!  

About this time a patient came in that looked amazing.  I asked her what she had been doing and she told me about a guided nutrition program she had been doing.  I signed up and started on a 12 week journey to lose fat and build muscle.  It sounded great, and my coach had me eating more food than I ever had before.  Awesome - more food to lose weight.  Problem is, it wasn’t working.  


Try and Try Again
I thought perhaps what I have is hormonal, so I visited a nurse practitioner and she got me on medicine to help my sluggish thyroid.  Nothing, other than a reassurance that this just happens when you get to “my age”.  

So then I thought maybe I wasn’t exercising enough.  I signed up for an intense workout program near my home.  I loved it - was working out harder than I have in years and sweating up a storm.  Then I hurt my back - badly.  I couldn’t stand up and nearly couldn’t work for a week.  And the weight was still going up…Ahhhhh!

Next stop was my chiropractor's office.  He said my liver was the problem.  I started a liver detox program with him that completely changed my diet again.  And I started to see some small changes.  

Wait!  Something might be working?  I analyzed what I was eating under this plan, and compared it with what my nutrition coach had me eating under her plan (yes, she was a little ticked off that I wasn’t following her plan).  Some things stood out:
  • No wheat in my diet again, and very little grain.
  • No dairy - not even my fermented kefir I make
  • No corn, potatoes or soy.
  • Less eggs
  • Less protein powders
  • More fats

Still Searching
I felt like I had part of the answer, but I was going to have a hard time narrowing it down to what really was making the difference.  After all, I can’t continue avoiding all of these foods for the rest of my life.  Life is too short for that!

Being a book lover, I felt guided to find another book that would offer some answers.  I found a book called “Fat Flush for Life” and it spoke to me!  Now, before you jump to any conclusions, this is not a book just about losing weight.  It’s a book that helps you identify what your sources of fat, or inflammation or just feeling yuck are.

There is another reason it spoke to me as well.  All of the eating, exercise and wellness plans are based around the seasons.  Now that is my language.  I eat food that is locally grown (preferably in my backyard) and in season. Right now I’m not eating lettuce salads because it’s too hot to grow lettuce.  But I am eating buckets of apricots...and this book tells me that is exactly what I should be eating right now.  I’m pretty much in love.

False Fat
Interesting right?  But why has this changed my life??  The book introduced me to a concept called “False Fat”.  It’s defined as “water-logged tissues, which can result from prescription medicines, food sensitivities, hormonal imbalances and insufficient  water and protein consumption.”  

I think this is where my weight gain is coming from.  I’ve always known I have a sensitivity to dairy, but the wheat (gluten) sensitivity is a new finding.  It serves me right really.  When all the gluten free stuff started, I made fun of it - saying it was just the latest fad.  When my daughter was complaining about her stomach, a doctor suggested we take her off gluten.  It’s too hard to do that for one and not the whole family, so everyone went gluten-free for awhile.  I felt better than I had in 20 years.  Fine. I guess I’m sensitive to gluten too.

Results, please

This eating plan has you do a flush specific to the season, and avoid all of the foods you might be sensitive to.  The status right now is 1 week on Fat-Flush and no more yuck feeling.  I am breathing clearer than I have in a long time.  I don’t feel miserable after a meal.  And (drum roll) 5 pounds down.  I am a little bit hungry, but I’ll live.

Why in the world am I telling you my saga??  Because I think there are a lot of you out there in the very same boat.  There are reasons why so many of us suffer, and I’ll get into those in future posts, but for now, know that there are answers to be had.

As I was talking about this at work a few days ago, a team member told me her young daughter tells her 50 times a day that her stomach hurts.  I wanted to cry for her.  She asked if I thought taking her off gluten would help, and I said for sure!  Then she said words that for me are fighting words, “I don’t think I can afford to have her go gluten free.”  

Gluten Free Cooking Class
This is an entire blog post all on it’s own - why eating gluten free DOES NOT mean eating all of the exorbitantly priced, nasty tasting gluten free products in the store.  So I decided I would be doing a gluten free cooking class for my team.  Then I will be doing it for all of you.  I want to teach you how to eat well, feel great and take it easy on your pocket book.  Seems impossible but it’s not.

So stay tuned for the reasons we have this surge of food sensitivities, and for details about the cooking class.  For now, if you often feel yuck too, check out the Fat Flush for Life.  Might be the best $14 you’ve spent in a long time.

Until next week!  Love,
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen

Thursday, July 14, 2016

No More Guilt if Your Kids have Cavities!

No More Guilt if Your Kids Have Cavities!


This morning our dog was acting weird.  She would go look up at the tree by her kennel, then pace around the yard, then come look in the window to my bedroom.  She wasn’t barking, but she seemed very tense and did this over and over again.

My husband commented that she was acting strange and told me to see if something was wrong when I went out to pick greens for our smoothie.  There was a very noisy bird in the tree that I hadn’t heard before, so I thought maybe it was the bird that was bothering her.  

Ignoring the signs
When I pick greens, she usually walks against me so I have to pet her.  Today she sat right on my feet, stuck her face in my face and wouldn’t move.  There was definitely something up, but I couldn't see what it might be.

I went in to  blend up the smoothie, and my son and husband starting yelling outside.  I ran out to see what was going on.  As my husband had walked out the back door, the dog took off sprinting toward the tree - and toward the raccoon coming out of the tree.  Yep - a raccoon!  Apparently she had chased it up the tree in the night, keeping the chickens safe,  and had been trying to tell us to go look!

The Fight is On!
She chased it under an evergreen hedge and all we could hear was terrible growls and hissing and a big fight.  We were worried about the dog getting hurt so were all yelling for her to stop.  She came out from the hedge unharmed, and we never saw the raccoon again.  What we did learn is not to take unusual things for granted.  We should have paid more attention to the signs she was giving us.

As I was sharing this story with a patient today, I realized there are areas in dentistry that perhaps we need to pay a little more attention to as well.  We go to work every day and see the same 10-15 conditions.  We clean teeth, we fill teeth, we crown teeth, we pull teeth.  Then we do it all over again.  If something falls outside that pattern, we should pay attention.

Paying attention to signs
This same patient had a couple of examples of things that fell outside this pattern.  I was working on her cute, brave 14 year old daughter.  She had a lot of cavities after getting her braces off.  They were both frustrated and told me that her gums had been very swollen the entire time she was in braces.  So swollen they were covering half of her front teeth, and she wasn’t able to clean them completely, which lead to the cavities.

The orthodontist and her dentist at the time talked often to both of them about making sure she was cleaning her teeth and telling her she needed to do a better job.  The funny thing is - she was cleaning them.  Better than most teenagers I see that don’t have swollen gums.  She felt terrible that she was getting cavities, and didn’t know what to do because nothing was helping.  

Jewelry and Braces
As the mother was telling me this story, she said something that caught my attention.  She said she had the same problem when she was in braces - same swollen gums that nothing seemed to help.  Must be something genetic….  I said, “I bet she has a metal allergy.  The wire on the braces has nickel in it, and a large percentage of women are sensitive to nickel.”  The lightbulb went off!  Mom said her daughter couldn’t wear cheap jewelry ( which often has nickel in it) and she knows that is why her gums were so irritated the entire time in braces.  So why had nobody thought of this - the poor girl had been in braces for 5 years!  

Same reason we didn’t even think to look in the tree.  We had never had a raccoon before.  Why would we think there would be one there this morning?  Most kid’s gums are fine while they are wearing braces, and those that aren’t don’t brush their teeth very well.  She wasn’t the norm and no one was paying attention.

Does this happen elsewhere in dentistry?  Yes!

Let’s tackle a big one for parents - the “my kids have cavities so I must be an awful parent” scenario.  This same patient expressed this frustration.  Despite a very conscientious diet, ultra-diligent dental care from the first tooth on and excellent tooth care at home, her kids had cavities.  And not just a few - they had to be sedated to have their baby teeth crowned and pulled because of extensive decay.  She felt like a failure.

After more than one child in the family has the same situation, I think it’s time to look at a different reason for the problem.  What is the raccoon in the tree??  Moms and dads, read on.  This one is for you.  Let’s get rid of some parent guilt and talk about reasons WHY kids have tooth problems.  (Spoiler alert - it’s not just because they don’t brush their teeth).

There are four reasons kids - and adults - get cavities. 
  1. Bugs - There are millions of bacteria in your mouth, and their favorite food is sugar.  Yum!  When they are fed sugar, they produce acid.  That acid is the thing that causes cavities.  The more bugs you have and the longer they sit on your teeth making acid, the more cavities you can get.
    - Solution - Brush your teeth!  I like the phrase “Once a Day, the Right Way”  If you clean your mouth completely at least once a day, you are doing what you need to do to keep acid and bacteria off your teeth.
  2. Diet - I like the analogy of the leaky roof.  If your roof is leaking, do you blame the rain or the roof?  The roof of course!  And that is what you fix.  Same goes for your teeth.  If your tooth is getting cavities, you need to blame the tooth, not always what lands on the tooth.  You can make your teeth more cavity resistant. - Solution - Strengthen your teeth!  My favorites helps are a diet rich in Vitamins A,D,E,K.  Dr. Christopher’s product called Complete Tissue and Bone, and homeopathic cell salts called Calc Phos and Calc Fluor.  (Take as directed on the bottle)
  3.  Hormones - Your tooth has a very cool internal cleansing system.  It has fluid that flows from the inside out to push things off of your teeth.  This fluid flow is controlled by hormones.  When you are pregnant, during teenage years, stressed or sick, that fluid flow can reverse and actually pull things into your teeth.                                                                                                            -Solution - Protect your teeth!  During times of hormonal change, you have to be doubly diligent about cleaning and rebuilding your teeth.  So follow the suggestions for #1 and 2 and visit the dentist more frequently than every 6 months.
  4. Genetics - This is the frustrating one.  What are you going to do to change this??  You can’t, but you can be aware and work extra hard to build and protect your teeth.                                  -Solution - Defend your teeth! ask your family about their teeth.  If your parents lost their teeth at 40, and your sister is going to lose hers soon, you can bet you have genetics that will lead you down that path... unless you identify the problem and work with a holistic dentist to create an individual plan for you and your challenges.  

So if you feel like you have dental issues that are not usual, that have been ignored, or that you’ve never found an explanation for, you just might have a raccoon.  I love helping patients figure out how to be cavity and dental problem free.  We even have gold stars to put on your forehead when you reach your goal!  Don’t ignore the signs, just give us a call!

Love,
Dr. Michelle Jorgensen, Total Care Dental Utah 801-756-3737