Whole-Body Wellness Through Dentistry

Holistic dentistry integrates nutrition, toxin reduction, and alternative therapies for a more natural, health-focused dental experience.

One of the hottest wellness topics in recent years has been the human microbiome—specifically, the gut microbiome, which is our body’s home base. It helps us digest food and absorb nutrients, but it also regulates our immune system and affects our risk of getting a number of diseases or chronic conditions.

So Gerry Curatola, DDS, a Manhattan-based biologic restorative dentist, oral health expert, and wellness pioneer, poses this question: What feeds our gut biome?

The answer: Everything we ingest through our mouths.

That’s why our oral microbiome being in balance is vital to our overall health, he says. If it is not in balance—meaning pathogenic bacteria are overwhelming the “good” probiotic bacteria—the tiny microbes in your mouth will trigger inflammation, not just in your mouth, but throughout your body.

Inflammation contributes to everything from heart disease to dementia, and many other disease states. Medical research has linked periodontal disease—a sign of significant inflammation, as is bleeding of the gums—to numerous diseases and conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel disease, and, in pregnant women pre-term births and low birth weights.

Dr. Curatola, a graduate of Colgate University and the NYU College of Dentistry, also completed Harvard Medical School’s program in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He has been a practicing dentist since 1983, with offices in Manhattan and East Hampton. He is also the author of the book The Mouth-Body Connection.

Starting his dental practice 40 years ago was only the beginning of a vastly deeper endeavor.

“I realized our mouths mirror what is happening in our bodies, and our overall health,” he says.

That was the foundation not only of his life’s work, but what he considers his life’s purpose.

When Dr. Curatola speaks to his patients, or to audiences around the country from panel discussions, online videos, and TV interviews, he’ll often start with attention-grabbing advice.

“Do not use mouthwash,” he says, emphatically.

Why not? Many of us can recall TV commercials emphasizing that a certain mouthwash “kills germs that cause bad breath,” as would most mouthwashes.

Yes, mouthwash can do that, but it does not discriminate between killing “bad” bacteria and the probiotic bacteria that keeps our oral microbiome in balance, says Dr. Curatola. That in turn has a negative effect on the gut microbiome.

He also warns against using fluoride toothpaste, pointing out that most any brand’s tube cautions against ingesting more than what is used for brushing. If that happens, the label states “Call a Poison Control Center,” because fluoride is considered a poison.

So Dr. Curatola spent 25 years and his own money on research to create a toothpaste that would clean teeth but also be safe for kids, who are much more likely to swallow toothpaste than adults.

Eventually, he came up with the toothpaste Revitin. Randomized, double-blind controlled studies proved it to be safe and effective, and it is sold on various online shopping sites as well as through his practice.

“I created Revitin long before I thought about the oral microbiome,” he says. Years later, he realized that since it didn’t have fluoride or harsh detergents such as sodium lauryl sulfate, it wouldn’t destroy probiotic bacteria. (Some dentists have said that a lack of fluoride means a toothpaste won’t prevent cavities, a scourge of childhood; Dr. Curatola says a balanced oral microbiome is inhospitable to cavities.)

He also warns against the amalgam metal-based fillings used to fill cavities, because they contain mercury. Instead, he says, choose a dentist who uses materials such as composite resins or ceramics.

If you already have metal fillings, Dr. Curatola is among the dentists who advise getting them removed safely. (While the American Dental Association says there is no evidence that mercury-containing metal fillings are harmful, some studies have shown that they are. The FDA has issued an advisory on their use in children and pregnant women, while many countries have banned its use for those patients.)

Even getting such fillings removed—and they have been the go-to for many decades—can put a patient at risk of inhaling mercury vapor or particles. So, the procedure must be performed carefully, with a dentist trained in their safe removal using a high-volume evacuation system and other protective measures.

If you’ve ever had a root canal, you’ll undoubtedly remember it. They are a common procedure in many dental offices, but Dr. Curatola explains that a root canal is incapable of sterilizing a tooth and often these teeth are a source of chronic low-grade inflammation. That can eventually lead to a serious infection, and an abscess or bone damage, known as a cavitation.

Biologic dentists often use ozone therapy or laser therapy to avoid a standard root canal, or they will perform a complete extraction and replace the tooth with a ceramic dental implant.

Being a biologic dentist, however, encompasses more than offering warnings and advice about dental materials and dental care. In Dr. Curatola’s practice, Rejuvenation Health, he and his team focus on proactive dentistry—comprehensive checkups and regular cleanings, airway health, and nutrition that targets overall oral health—but they also assess other aspects of patients’ wellbeing, including their genetics, metabolism, biochemistry, and emotional health and behavior, and seek the underlying cause of any disease.

“We work to support the body’s innate healing and repair mechanisms,” he says. “By eliminating root causes of dysbiosis and imbalance, many of which may exist in the mouth, we help the body to achieve microbial, or balance.”

In contrast, conventional medicine often involves suppressing symptoms and can be driven by pharmacology, he says. He and his team want to provide a patient with more than temporary relief, because they know symptoms might be masking serious health concerns.

Looking at the complete spectrum of a patient’s biology helps them determine what is actually at the root of the symptoms—whether it is an illness, an imbalance, chronic stress and anxiety, or something else.

Amie Valpone, who like Dr. Curatola is a longtime New Yorker, had spent nearly 12 years of her life, starting in her early 20s, with myriad chronic health issues. They included Lyme disease, colitis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and hypothyroidism, to name just a few. During those years, she spent time on detoxification and clean eating, among many other restorative practices.

One evening, she attended a seminar on functional medicine at a restaurant in Midtown New York, which Dr. Curatola had also attended. The two met at the cab stand and ended up sharing a cab to their homes on the Upper East Side. That’s when she discovered what biologic dentistry was and what it entailed.

Soon, Valpone became Dr. Curatola’s patient.

First, she took his advice on some of her daily habits. She was drinking lemon water every morning, to the point that it was eroding her tooth enamel, which Dr. Curatola pointed out. But it also was too acidic for her body, so she switched to plain filtered water. She had already had her mercury fillings removed and replaced with porcelain, and now she also stopped using mouthwash and fluoride toothpaste.

Then she learned much more from her new dentist.

“I knew a lot about the gut microbiome, but until I met Dr. Curatola I knew nothing about the oral microbiome,” she says. He noted that she had gum recession, which was related to her teeth-grinding because of anxiety. She addressed that through practices that included meditation and energy healing.

Dr. Curatola also used red light therapy on her during office visits, because of its anti-inflammatory effects on the body and to promote cellular repair. Valpone had already radically changed her diet, giving up gluten because of an intolerance, becoming mostly plant-based, cutting out sugar and simple carbohydrates, and emphasizing whole, fresh produce, just as Dr. Curatola advises his patients to do. All those changes reduced inflammation.

She wrote a book about her healing, which includes hundreds of healthful recipes that she tested and perfected: Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation and Reset Your Body. She also created TheHealthyApple.com as a resource for people embarking on their own health journeys.

Dr. Curatola says that eating clean is vital to a healthy microbiome. His book, The Mouth-Body Connection, also contains recipes and other advice about what to eat to promote an environment of homeostasis, which is inhospitable to all kinds of pathogens. The book features a 28-day Care Program that includes recipes, some inspired by his Italian heritage, all with health-promoting ingredients and preparation.

Dr. Curatola notes the paradigm shift in medicine and dentistry in the past 50 years that has created this understanding: “We are made up of microbes and these microbes run us. There is no such thing as ‘good’ bacteria or ‘bad’ bacteria—they either behave well, as probiotics, or poorly, as pathogens, depending on whether our microbiome is balanced.”

And when it is, the patient’s body can self-regulate and heal.