Dr. Gerry Curatola

Dr. Caitlin:
Hello everybody. It’s Dr. Caitlin and boy, do I have a special guest for you guys. I have the renowned, drum roll please, Dr. Jerry Curatola. He is one of the top biological dentists in the United States. He is also an adjunct clinical associate professor at the New York Dental College up in New York.

And you guys need to listen to him because he’s going to be at the event and HCF in November. And thank you Dr. Jerry for being on here with me.

Dr. Curatola:
My pleasure. My pleasure.

Dr. Caitlin:
You are such a busy guy. Holy moly. So I’m so, so pleased that we were able to figure this out. But any who tell everybody, why is it that they need to come listen to you talk? What is it that you’re going to tell them about?

Dr. Curatola:
You know, it’s really interesting. Basically oral health, what’s over here is the 800 pound gorilla in the room for the wellness movement. So you cannot be well if your mouth is unwell. And what’s interesting is that there’s this bi-directional thing between the mouth and everywhere else. And the mouth is the source of over 80% of the toxicity in the human body, ranging from mercury fillings, BPA composites, jaw cavitations, which we’re going to talk about in a little more detail.

Gum disease, gum disease has been linked to breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer. The number one bacteria in colorectal tumors is the most common bacteria in the mouth, fusobacterium nucleatum. So if you do not start to pay attention to what’s in here and you think it’s all about a pretty smile, white teeth and fresh breath, you’re wrong because there are stealth infections in the mouth that can cost you your life.

Dr. Caitlin:
Isn’t that the truth? And so more doctors actually need to be way more aware of how interconnected the mouth is to the rest of the body. You know, most people think, “Oh dentists, you’ll just go, you’ll get a cleaning and everything else is fine as long as your gums aren’t bleeding.” How far from the truth is that?

Dr. Curatola:
Exactly. So you know what’s interesting about what you said that is most dentists are uneducated and pardon the expression, unconscious about toxicity and amount. So patients go to the doctors such as your doctors and in HCF and at these conferences and get empowered and refer their patients to the dentist to get these things taken care of. And the dentist is uneducated. We need to get the dentist to come to this. Just because you didn’t learn it in dental school doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Dr. Caitlin:
Oh my goodness.

Dr. Curatola:
And so I’m going to just going to pick out one little morsel here. What every doctor can expect coming to this conference. One little morsel. If you have had your wisdom teeth removed the old fashioned way where they pull the tooth, scrape around a little bit and have you bite on a piece of gauze and when the bleeding stops, you’re okay.

86% there’s estimates now because of the advance of 3D computerized tomography where we can do this low radiation, 3D X-ray of the jaw. We can see things we never ever could see before on two dimensional X-rays, whether it’s panoramic or the individual little pictures, the dentist take the teeth. That’s not showing. That’s missing about 90% of what we’re seeing with 3D.

So what do we see with 3D with people who have had wisdom teeth removed? We see these caves in the jaw. It’s called jaw osteonecrosis, cavitational osteonecrosis. They’re colloquially called, or the slang term is cavitation, right? Cavity is a hole in the tooth. Cavitation is a hole in the human jaw. What’s the significance of these?

These are opportunistic areas of dead where it’s dark, it’s moist, and it’s warm that can harbor all kinds of pathogens ranging from [inaudible 00:04:54], all kinds of other bacteria, candy, you know, mold, and metals such as I took out of the cavitation of a patient today along with a infected cyst, filled with pus in the jaw.

Not hurting, no fever, no pain. And it’s there. So I find it fascinating because in the last 10 years that we have this exciting new technology, we’re seeing all kinds of things we never knew existed before. You know what it reminds me of Kaitlin? It’s like when Jacques Cousteau invented scuba diving and we could see and the iron lung where we could see under the surface of this big ocean and amazing diversity, biologic diversity of all kinds of things in some friendly, some faux, but they’re there. So what we look with regular X-rays is sort of what we can see down as far as we can, let’s say, in shallow water. But when you get into the deep part of the ocean, there’s some scary stuff.

Dr. Caitlin:
Isn’t that the truth? And honestly, four years ago I would have been like, “What is this guy talking about?” Until I went through it and I was just telling you how no symptoms, worst cavitations the oral surgeon has seen. Like they have to hold the nerve up to clean it out. It was that bad. And the thing that I love about and the reason I’m super excited I get to talk to you right now is I love the fact that you’re looking at it from a dental perspective. And you’re looking at it going, “What do we got to do differently here?” Because just because this is what we were taught in school doesn’t mean it’s still okay and what are the ramifications? So I love that I’m going to be able to talk about the systemic component behind those infections and why people need to be looking for these because this is why people aren’t getting well.

Dr. Curatola:
People have a 20% higher chance of getting the cancers I spoke about when we first came on, breast cancer. So women are more prone to periodontal disease than men and women are subject to a gigantic amount of serious issues ranging from auto immune problems, thyroid problems, and cancer. Gum disease is the body’s number one source of chronic low grade inflammation. What’s that?

Chronic low grade inflammation is like a silent-, excuse me. It’s like a silent alarm bell going off that no one’s answering and it has ravaging effects causing degeneration of organ systems and all kinds of problems ranging from Alzheimer’s to pregnancy complications to Type II Diabetes to pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, and I could just keep going. Rheumatoid arthritis, lung complications, even pulmonary edema and all kinds of COPD and other respiratory distress, all from disease in the mouth links to all the systemic problems.

Dr. Caitlin:
Well, and the crazy part is there’s research backing this up and to throw on top of all of those things, hormone imbalances, fertility issues, then we can talk about menopausal issues, and the list goes on and on. And I think what people don’t understand is the mouth-

Dr. Curatola:
I also want to point out erectile dysfunction. Gum disease and erectile dysfunction for you men out there. So it’s just menopausal, there’s all kinds of problems in sexual performance, in the health of the genital urinary system. All of these things, you know, and if you think about it, yeah, you’re right. What goes on in this mouth is basically very intricately connected. So what we’re seeing gum disease causes-, it changes the genotype to a more pro inflammatory genotype. And what that means is that we now have genetic changes that damages your DNA. And what’s really interesting about this is Western Price, who most dentists don’t even know who he is. He is probably one of the most famous dentists. He is the Charles Darwin of nutrition, believe it or not. He founded the research arm of the American Dental Association. He actually postulated in his first book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Do you have it there?

Dr. Caitlin:
I sure do. Look at this.

Dr. Curatola:
There it is.

Dr. Caitlin:
It is a monster, guys.

Dr. Curatola:
And he wrote that in 1935. In 1917 he lectured to the St. Louis Dental Society on focal infection in the mouth and systemic disease and it’s pretty amazing. They laughed at him. So the idea of a mouth body connection in 1917 they didn’t get it, but Western Price was speaking about it, which I admire and I revere him. There should be a statue of Western Price in front of the American Dental Association.

Dr. Caitlin:
Well, and think about it though, what people don’t understand, they push back on and it’s just a matter of time before there’s numerous people shouting from the mountain tops, not just dentists, but you don’t have to be a dentist to come to this event. Any kind of healthcare practitioner needs to come and learn this information because guys [crosstalk 00:11:27].

Dr. Curatola:
Absolutely. that’s right. That’s right. And they won’t get well. And that’s the interesting thing about stealth infections. That’s the interesting thing about chronic fatigue. That’s the interesting thing about not getting over Lyme disease. That’s the interesting thing about rheumatoid arthritis continuing out of control. And that’s the interesting thing about anyone who is facing breast cancer, fighting breast cancer or colorectal cancer. I mean I had a patient who had a metal implant that was placed.

It was a horrible metal implant, supposedly titanium. And actually we had the metal analyzed, it was one third barium and he came down with stage four colorectal cancer. Where was that implant? That implant and in the surrounding cavitation was on a lower first molar, which energetically on meridians, which Chinese medicine has talked about for thousands of years and now we’re coming to understand we have this energetic shield. Our teeth are like circuit breakers for that shield. And where was that? Young doctors. He was a doctor, he’s a chiropractor and it was right on the first molar, which is the energetic meridian for the large intestine and colon. And we got it out. He is, by the way, all of his markers, his cancer is going, it’s going because he’s taking steps to not only deal with what’s going on in the body, but what’s going on in the mouth as well.

Dr. Caitlin:
So Jerry, to wrap this up, why don’t you give people three things that they get to look forward to coming to the HCF event, listening to you speak on the mouth? And the thing like I said that I love about it is you and I are going to get together and we’re going to figure out how we can best serve everybody by really immersing them in this mouth body connection that weekend. So what are three things that people can look forward to?

Dr. Curatola:
Top three things. One, they’re going to understand what hidden toxicity and disease may exist in their mouths. Number two, they’re going to understand the importance of maintaining a microbial balance. That the old approach of killing germs is not only ineffectual but harmful. At this amazing community of bacteria, six to 10 billion a number actually help to keep us alive. They actually help to transport minerals from saliva to mineralize your teeth and oxygen to your gums. The third thing that they’re going to understand is the steps that they can take with diet nutrition, the elimination of toxicity, regulating stress. Oh, that’s an interesting one. What happens with stress? A lot of things happen, a lot of inflammatory cascade of inflammatory events. And I’m also even going to talk about healthy exercise for immune system competence. Not just in the body but in the mouth and healthy exercise improves fluid flow in the dental tubials of all your teeth to keep you healthy. So those are the top three areas we’re going to focus on. I’m really excited to share it. I can’t wait to be there. Long Beach, California.

Dr. Caitlin:
Yeah, in November. Much nicer than the weather in New York. So I can’t wait to hear how you’re going to cram all that information into your talk cause you got your work cut out for you, Jerry.

Dr. Curatola:
I’m from New York. I can talk fast.

Dr. Caitlin:
You can. Well, I’m so excited for that. You know everybody, if you’re working with people, you got to come listen to this information because this is cutting edge. This is on the forefront and this is why your parents, or your patients, maybe your parents aren’t getting well.

Dr. Curatola:
Maybe your parents. Absolutely.

Dr. Caitlin:
So come to the event HCF in November and we’re going to connect the mouth body for you guys so you and your patients can get well, thanks.