The problem
Most people don't know they have a problem in their mouth.
Dr. John's view, after 34 years in biological dentistry: the mouth isn't separate from the rest of you, and trouble usually starts long before anything hurts.
They separated the mouth and the body.
Dentistry and medicine are taught, licensed and paid for separately. A dentist fixes teeth. A physician treats the rest of you. Almost nobody's job is to ask how the two affect each other.
Dr. John's work starts with that question. Researchers have published studies linking infection and inflammation in the mouth with conditions elsewhere in the body, including heart disease. Many of those studies show a link, not proof of cause, and we say so where it matters. The library lists them so you can read them yourself.
Pain is a late sign.
"When there's pain, the damage has already been done." A tooth can die, or an old extraction site can fail to heal properly, without pain the patient notices.
That's why Dr. John asks about your history, not only your symptoms.
Three questions worth asking
Dr. John asks every new patient these three things.
Did you have your wisdom teeth out?
A socket can close over and look healed. Dr. John looks at whether healthy bone ever filled it in. Where it didn't, he calls it a cavitation.
Do you have a dead tooth?
A root canal or an abscess means a tooth without a living nerve. His concern is what a dead tooth leaves in the body over years.
Does a tooth react to cold?
A tooth that twinges is alive and may be inflamed. In his view, that's the time to ask why, before it becomes pain.
What you're usually told
That a root canal saves the tooth. That wisdom teeth come out and that's the end of it. That a filling is just a filling.
Dr. John has spent his career questioning each of those. His reasons, and the research behind them, are in the library and in his root canal course.
Start with the free guide
A plain-language guide to understanding your mouth, caring for it better, and finding the right biological dentist.