546: What Your Dentist Isn't Testing (And Why It Could Be Making You Sick) with Dr. Elmira Shojai and Lora Hooper

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Did you know you swallow about six cups of your own saliva every single day, and that saliva could be quietly feeding disease throughout your entire body?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Elmira Shojai and Lora Hooper, two women working at the cutting edge of something almost nobody in traditional dentistry ever talks about: your oral microbiome. I did a consult with them on my own mouth, and even though I feel amazing and have done so much work to clean up my health, my results shocked me. We go deep on why the mouth is the second largest microbiome in your body, why traditional dentistry cleans and fills without ever asking why the problem keeps coming back, and why killing every bit of bacteria with harsh mouthwash might actually be making things worse instead of better.

If you've done everything right and still feel like your body is working against you, this conversation might hold the missing piece.

We Go Deep On:

Why the oral microbiome is the second largest microbiome in the body, and why almost nobody tests it

How swallowing your own saliva can reinfect your gut with harmful bacteria

Why traditional dentistry fixes symptoms but ignores root cause

The real reason killing 99.9% of bacteria in your mouth can backfire

The three primary ways oral dysbiosis develops (imprinting, over-sterilizing, mouth breathing)

The truth about root canals, and what actually determines if one becomes a problem

Natalie's own root canal story and what her MPO bloodwork revealed