Believe Big Podcast

81-Dr. Sharla Aronson - Biological Dentistry

• Ivelisse Page & Dr. Sharla Aronson

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Today, you get to hear from my friend and personal dentist, Dr. Sharla Aronson!

Dr. Aronson shares her journey into biological dentistry, which began after her first child was born with hearing loss. This life-changing experience led her to explore alternative health approaches, eventually resonating with biological dentistry's focus on root causes and prevention. 

Dr. Aronson explains how biological dentistry connects oral health to overall well-being, using 

  • personalized treatments, 
  • cutting-edge technology like 3D x-rays, and 
  • biocompatible materials. 

Join us as she dives into the importance of eliminating harmful infections and the unique, holistic approach to dental care she offers.


Learn more about Dr. Sharla Aronson:
https://www.alive-dental.com/about

Suggested Resources:



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Ivelisse Page:

Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page, and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take a deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page, and it's always a pleasure to be with you. I am super excited about today's podcast guest, Dr. Sharla Aronson, a biological dentist here in Colorado. Sharla's journey into biological dentistry began after the birth of her first child, who was born with hearing loss. This life changing experience led her to explore alternative approaches to health that delve deeper into finding the root causes and promoting preventative measures. Biological dentistry strongly resonated with her values. It places great emphasis on eliminating harmful infections and tailoring treatment plans based on each patient's unique biology. She completed her undergraduate studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University, followed by dental school at the University of Colorado. She furthered her education and expertise through a residency at the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto and in 2019, she completed holistic dental education, gaining a deeper understanding of comprehensive and natural approaches to dental care. Sharla also holds a S M A R T certification from the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology and completed the Bio Dentist Way training in 2022. She is married to her high school sweetheart Chris, and has been blessed with two beautiful daughters. Welcome to the show, Dr. Aronson.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Thanks so much, Ivelisse. It's great to be here.

Ivelisse Page:

So, we like to begin our podcast with our guest's favorite health tip. So do you have one to share with us today?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

I do. and it resonates with me because I've seen a lot from it. So my recommendation would be that everybody get a baseline 3D dental x ray. It's something that can be used to look for hidden infections, checking root canals to see if there's infections if needed, or other abnormalities. You would not believe how often we find something on those x rays.

Ivelisse Page:

Now, when you say x rays, immediately people, especially in our realm, will say, Oh, no, wait, I want to avoid radiation. And, what are the health risks versus benefits? And is it a lot of radiation? And how does it compare to other imaging that is done at dental offices?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Luckily, now that we're in a digital age, the amount of radiation is significantly lower than what we would think of previously. I think the best thing to compare it to is that dental x rays are going to be lower amounts of radiation than what you would get when you take a flight across the country. Do we want to expose you to them all the time? No, but prevention is so important with dental care. And the consequences of living with a chronic low grade hidden infection are greater than the consequences you would have from getting radiation to make sure it's not there.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes, I completely agree. And Jimmy's a perfect case. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing this, but he had been complaining about this tooth for a long time. And we had gone to a different dentist's office. And we were so excited to get connected with you because you hold similar values and what we appreciate in health and how to approach dentistry. So we were so glad to find you in Fort Collins. And he went in for your intake and he did that 3D and it did find an infection in the area where he was saying he was having pain. And the other, dentist office did not catch it and everything looked good from the outside. But when you did that 3D was there that it was discovered. So he is so happy that's gone and he's healing from that and able to move forward. But you're a hundred percent correct that you don't want an unknown infection or something happening that may cause even more issues.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

And I think what's confusing is sometimes people think, I got my dental x rays, everything looked fine. The problem with a regular dental x ray is it's two dimensions. And so these infections can hide, especially on this upper area where you have a sinus in the background. Sinus is black, infection is black. You can't always see it. When you look in 3D, it becomes very clear. The other thing that's kind of wild about dental is that when a tooth dies and it either has a root canal or doesn't. The tooth no longer can feel pain, and so people often think, if I have a problem, it will certainly hurt. I'll know it, but you don't. You get these weird things, right? Oh, it only hurts sometimes. It hurts when I fly, and then it's fine when I'm on the ground. I have these headaches every day. Those are the things that I hear from my patients, but then we find an infection, and they're like, Oh, I've been dealing with this for 20 years, and nobody's ever found it.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow. Wow. So share with our audience. What is the difference between biological dentistry and how it differs from traditional dentistry?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

I think the main difference is, there are several. One, we understand that the mouth is connected to the body. And so when we see things presenting in the mouth, that could be a result of something systemic. And if you have a systemic condition, that can also impact your dental health. So, that is always front of mind. But we're also looking at an individual. So instead of we do X, Y, Z. It's always X, Y, Z. We're looking at that specific patient and having a conversation and deciding what's best for them. So in conventional dentistry, it might be like, The tooth died, now you need a root canal. Period. End of story. In biological dentistry, I'm going to sit with that patient and say the tooth is dead. We have the option of doing a root canal or removing the tooth. Let's talk about you, your condition. Do we think your immune system can handle that? Do you have cancer? Do you have a chronic disease that your immune system is so busy fighting that we don't need another challenge, right? So it's taking that individual approach. And on top of that, from a really techie standpoint, we're using different things. We use ozone, we use laser, we're using biocompatible materials. So our goal when we're actually doing the dentistry is also to keep the tooth vital and alive, and to minimize inflammation and immune system activation.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. And I feel like your experience at your office is night and day difference than what most people experience at a traditional dentistry. And, not only do you have the water filters and tea and, just beautiful environment, it faces the window, very relaxing. You have even warm neck pillows that, that helps to calm us. But even during my procedure, when I had my amalgams removed and had the SMART removal, you guys also gave me, is it called STEM? Is that what it is?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Alpha STEM.

Ivelisse Page:

Alpha STEM. And it just really was amazing night and day difference in how I felt because I was so covered up and, we're taking all the precautions not to get mercury and be contaminated by that. I felt a little claustrophobic. And so you guys put that STEM on. And I could immediately tell I, I became at peace and, at one point I think the batteries were dying and I was like starting to feel anxious again. And I'm like, is this thing working? And sure enough, you change the batteries and it's like calming again. It's unbelievable the tools that you have available.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yeah. And what you're talking about is that connection between the mouth and the body. So you can have two completely different experiences and healing. So if you were in my chair and I let you just be terrified or in pain, claustrophobic, the way you're going to walk away and the way your body is going to heal is going to be very different than if I get you calm and relaxed. We get you into parasympathetic. We can do that while we treat you or the best that we can. So you're not in that full like fight or flight. You're going to heal better. You're going to have less post op pain. So that is important. I think some people look at our office and go, Oh, you just want it to be very luxury. Yes, we want people to have a great experience, but all of that matters in the way that your body responds to being in the office. It's important that when you walk in, you're not like, Oh, it smells like a dental office. And now that's triggering a memory from when I'm a child. Like we're trying to make sure you have this fresh memory, your body's calm, because it matters.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. Yes. I've also heard that the teeth have meridians, right? And that you had mentioned before certain chronic health conditions that can be connected to an infection, and I've even had people who said that they found it interesting that the tooth that they had issue with, the meridian ended up being a breast cancer diagnosis, or have you found that to be true?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yeah, what's wild is that the scientist in you wants to see it, and you can't see meridians. But meridians are very valid and true, and it is a science. It's what acupuncture is based on that we have these energy lines that run through the body, and the meridians are actually connected to different teeth. Yes, I have seen that. I, in fact, when I was talking about CT, I was thinking about a patient who we took a CT on because we take them on all our new patients. She'd never had a cavity in her life. We had no reason to think she had an infection because usually it starts cavity or trauma. But her, she had an infected lower front tooth that she did not know about and it was on the meridian of the cancer that she had.

Ivelisse Page:

Wow.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

And she was like, and she came in going, I know there's something else and I think it's something in my mouth. But she had no, no symptoms, no other indication. The other thing that's pretty neat is like thermography. So when you talk about breast cancer, I have had thermograms sent to us where it's a hotspot from a tooth, which is typically your first upper molar, straight down to the breast, right? And so they're going, okay, we're seeing changes in the breast and we think it's related to this infection, this chronic low grade infection in the mouth.

Ivelisse Page:

Incredible.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Again, it's not isolated. Your teeth are not isolated from your body.

Ivelisse Page:

No. And we're all interconnected parts, right? Whether it's physical, emotional, spiritual, we always tend to focus on one or the other. And when you group all of that information together as a whole person, you really see a much bigger picture in the healing process. So I'm so glad that you guys do that. Now, what types of materials do biological dentists use for fillings or crowns and other procedures? And why are they considered safer?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

So in general, we're going to avoid metals when possible. And that's because speaking of meridians, meridians are energetic, right? If we put a metal on a meridian, it's blocking it. So we're staying away from metals when we can. The other thing about metals in the mouth, specifically, would be like mercury fillings. We know mercury is a toxin. The ADA would say, when it's in your mouth, it's amalgamated, it's stuck with other metals, so it shouldn't be exposing you. But if you want to go on a deep dive, go to the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. They have all the research showing that if it's in your mouth, every time you're eating, because of friction and heat, it is releasing mercury. So we're staying away from that. We're going to be using ceramics or porcelains instead. So our crowns are made of a certain type of porcelain called zirconia, which is different from zirconium, which is a metal. So we're using ceramics. Even our composite that we use, of course it has no BPA, no Bis-GMA, but even the particles in it, instead of being plastic are made out of ceramic. So we're trying to use the most inert, Inactive materials. I will tell you though, there are some people that know they're sensitive to everything. I had one in the chair yesterday and she was like, I'm just sensitive to everything, right? Like she doesn't. lotionsgetter, all kinds of things getter. For those particular patients, we can actually do a biocompatibility test, which is where they check the blood to a whole bunch of dental materials. And then we know, is there a certain one we can use that's going to be better or worse for that person and really personalize it that way.

Ivelisse Page:

That is fascinating. Fascinating that you can go to that extent and individualize care, which is what should be done. So can you share the potential health risks associated with mercury amalgam fillings and the process to safely remove them like you did for me?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yes. so mercury is a known neurotoxin, right? I think when they first discovered it, it was from the hat makers, Mad Hatter's Disease. You have depression, there's neurological issues, suicide, all kinds of things. But in addition to that, it's going to be contributing to your toxic load in your body. And more and more, I think we're becoming aware of toxicity because we are exposed to so many chemicals now. You know, a hundred years ago, they probably didn't think about it much because you only had little exposures in your life. Now, it's everywhere, all the time. And, we don't know at what point toxicity is going to cause a problem with people, but once you sort of reach the burden level, now it becomes a problem. So if you come in and you want them out at our office, what we don't want to do is drill it out and expose you to a bunch of mercury. When I put a drill on that filling, it's going to release mercury vapor. So it's important that you get protected from inhaling it. So you have oxygen mask on. We also want to make sure it's not getting in your mouth. You're not ingesting it. It's not getting on your skin. So you do get, as you got to experience, like fully covered. You have a rubber dam on which kind of holds everything out of your mouth. We have special, like I wear a special mask, so I'm not breathing it all the time. I'm fully covered. You're fully covered. And then there's this big vacuum that's pulling all the vapors off. And that's, again, we don't want you to walk away and go, wow, I felt really bad for like weeks after I had that filling done, which I do have patients who will say, I did it somewhere else. I didn't use the SMART protocol which is Safe Mercury Amalgam Removal Technique, and they feel sick afterwards because the toxic burden is too much, right? The other thing that I find really important is if you have a practitioner who knows you well. So I know you, some of your audience may have cancer, right? And they say, okay, I need to get this out. Well, we might want to make sure with that practitioner that you're at a good place to do that at this time before we just jump in and do it. We need to make sure detox pathways are clear and all of that. That's not, of course, what I do, but partnering with those providers to make sure that you are ready to do it.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. Yeah. And you did that with my integrative practitioner, which I was very grateful for. And something that you also did that I found really helpful is that you had a protocol with supplements prior, whether it was charcoal and glutathione. Can you share a little bit about what you have patients do before and after in preparation?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yes, so the supplements before and after are the same, but we're using some sort of binder, activated charcoal is the one that we typically recommend, that you start taking before. And that's because if you have amalgam fillings in your mouth and you're constantly ingesting a little bit, you've got mercury in your gut, even if you've been doing detoxing. So, leading up, we are clearing out the gut a little bit. So that if you have an exposure, it's not immediately getting absorbed. So we're doing that before and after we're supporting your antioxidants just so we can help support your detox system, so glutathione and vitamin C. We do talk a little bit about gut health. Of course, that's not, again, what I do, but for people who maybe don't have a practitioner, we want to make sure digestion is working, and elimination, right? So like just making sure that gut is working. And some of our patients too, they might go and do a Myers, did you do that?

Ivelisse Page:

I did. I actually did a high dose vitamin C is what I went after.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yeah, so they like the day of or the day after people might go get an IV so that you're like, okay They did all the protocol. I don't hopefully have much exposure, but anything that's in my system that vitamin C is helping eliminate

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, and most people like you said would probably do the Myers But I did the high dose just because it was I guess six six months maybe nine months post my original surgery. So we really wanted to make sure that, my body was healing well. And yeah, like you said, it's really important to, if you're in a cancering process or just past the cancering process, that you really talk the specifics with your integrative practitioner so that you do it in a place where you are coming from place of strength. And, I've had people ask me all throughout these years, you've had these amalgam fillings Ivelisse, this mercury filling since you were 13, and why have you waited so long to get them out? And, and initially when I looked into it after my first cancer diagnosis, I asked my practitioner and he, at that time, the SMART removal wasn't around. And he also said that, at this point, you just keep healing and half of it is already in your bones. And I didn't realize that. And what pushed me to get them done this time was that as you did your checkup, one, the SMART removal process is in place, but two, I also really realized that mine were leeching. And it's so they were when I was eating hot things or grinding my teeth or whatever it is. I was getting slightly poisoned every day. So let's get rid of that. I don't need any more of that. And so I can honestly tell you that I feel better without them in there. I don't know if it's the placebo effect or not, but I can literally tell that I feel better and so I really encourage people to really look into that if you still have mercury fillings to really check them, one, to make sure they're not leaching and two, to find a way to get them removed if possible. And how does oral health impact our overall wellness? So are there specific diseases or conditions where you have seen a notable improvement after addressing the dental health issues?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Well, yes, I think there's more than we're even aware of because if we look from a really like zoom way out beyond diagnosis, a lot of times dental infections are a source of inflammation, right? And we know inflammation is often just that root cause of things going haywire. With dental disease, so if we talk about gum disease, periodontal disease, there's also certain bacteria that have known correlations to cancers. We know that if we have uncontrolled gum disease, it will impact a person's ability to regulate their blood glucose. That is well known, and it should be known by all dentists, not just biologic dentists. If we can control gum disease, it will help people control blood glucose, well known. Other things we see in the mouth is a lot of times the mouth shows signs of an airway or an airway issue, sleep apnea issues. That can be highly correlated to stroke and high blood pressure. So there's all these things, signs, symptoms, the bacteria that really impact the rest of the body.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. And so what natural or preventive measures do you recommend for maintaining good oral health and how does nutrition play a role here?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Oh, absolutely. You know, when you think about nutrition, dentists were the first ones to talk about it. We know that diets high in carbohydrates and sugars, candy, soda, that's going to cause cavities, right? So the nutrition part, yes, you guys maybe have heard that from any dentist. We know about hygiene. A few of the other things that are very impactful are gut health. So the mouth is the start of the gut. If you have a gut issue, it's very likely that the microbiome in your mouth is also off. Reflux, a lot of people have reflux, whether it's related to sleep apnea or just a digestive issue. But with reflux, we'll see the pH of the mouth become too acidic and people become prone to disease. So improving gut health is huge. Making sure that people are absorbing nutrients. It's huge, that's also kind of part of gut health, right? Like, are you absorbing your fats? Are we getting those important fat soluble vitamins and minerals out of our food and actually absorbing it? One of the other things that is super impactful is the way that we breathe. So, nasal breathing is really important for keeping the mouth healthy. When we breathe through our mouth, it dries the mouth out. It favors the more pathologic bacteria in the mouth. So we're always talking, looking at airway in association with dental as well, because it's often one of the gut health and airway are often kind of those root cause that we're looking at.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. Yes. And so how do biological dentists manage infections without the use of harsh chemicals? I know you touched on it earlier, but I would love for you to expand on that.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Yeah, definitely. So, when I think that kind of the scary infections are the ones where you have an abscessed tooth, whether it's symptomatic or not, you have an infected tooth, that infection is damaging the bone. When we take a tooth out, conventionally the tooth comes out, you're given a piece of gauze, you bite on it, you're done. When you have a tooth removed in a biologic office, we're going to make sure that we do a few other things. One, we're removing the periodontal ligament, which is the ligament that attaches the tooth to the bone. And that's because that ligament is all infected as well. That gets removed, and then we know that we have these tiny little bacteria in this, the porosity of the bone, that we're not going to get rid of all the bone, but we can then go in with laser and ozone to help kill the bacteria in the bone. One of the other things that would be done typically at a biologic office is if you've ever heard of a dry socket, that's when after the fact you had a tooth taken out and you get an infection in the bone because there's no blood clot protecting it. We're going to take some of the person's blood, make their own clot, and put it in there. So we're kind of speeding up the process of healing by about three days, protecting the bone immediately. So we're kind of, we've disinfected the socket, we put that in, it's now protected, and then we just have better outcomes. The other thing is, we use antibiotics when we have to. Sometimes we have to. You know, if I have somebody who has uh, immune system that's struggling or is preoccupied with something else. I may use a systemic antibiotic, but my first go-to is gonna be using ozone gas in that area as a local antibiotic so we can actually inject it around the infection. It kills the bacteria, but it also sparks the immune system to come to the area and start cleaning, it's very helpful. We use ozone in pretty much every procedure as well as laser.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. I saw the benefit of the ozone immediately after my cleanings and to do the ozone on my gums and then they weren't swollen for a day after the cleaning. So it's really helpful to have that be a part of the process. What advancements in technology do you find most promising in biological dentistry?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

I would say ozone is an old technology, but it's actually starting to gain traction. Ozone is one that I don't think I could practice without anymore. It's just O3. So I like to tell my patients it's a super oxygen. It breaks down really quickly to oxygen and peroxides. It sparks your immune system. So that's huge. It's not expensive. It's easy to use. Technologically, laser is huge. So laser is using light energy for stimulating healing, disinfecting, even growing bone that we never thought we could do before. Those are all huge. The other thing that's really exciting and newer, but has been around long enough that it's safe to use are zirconia implants. So instead of using titanium, which is metal, and is often mixed with other things like nickel, zirconia is ceramic material, it's strong, and to see the way the body heals around it, compared to titanium, is amazing. Even the surgeons who are not biologic, they'll be like, yeah, it, the gums are so much happier around it.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes, I've noticed that personally myself when you replaced one of the crowns that I had to get replaced. So yeah, the gums are happier. What advice would you give to someone looking to transition from a conventional dentist to a biological dentist? How would they find them? What advice would you give them?

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

I think a great way to find them would be look at the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. They'll have a list of people who are part of the I-A-O-N-T. They'll also specify people who've gone through the training to be certified in the SMART removal. So what that means is that those people have all of the things needed, and they've shown that they do it that way. They also have an accreditation system, which is, I think it was 16 hours of training, at least, in addition to reading a lot of research on all different facets of biologic dentistry. So that you're not just going to someone who puts on a rubber dam and takes out your amalgam and says that it's safe. It's somebody who understands the deeper implications of why we're doing it. Things like timing, like we were talking about. We, we waited for quite a while before you, we took yours out. I didn't meet you and do it immediately. We waited and that's because we have a greater understanding of what can happen if we don't do it correctly. So I'd look at the IAOMT. And, or there's a couple other organizations, Holistic Dental Society. And then I would be prepared that it's going to be different than what you typically experience. Most people at a conventional office are getting maybe 15 minutes with a doctor, maybe their whole appointment takes, I don't know, an hour. When you come to a biologic office, you're going to have a lot more conversation. We're going to ask a lot of things about your history, not medically, personally, dentally. We're really trying to put together the pieces of what's going on. Oftentimes doing a consultation later, but also getting those images, right, of the 3D and those kinds of things. So at our office, our patients typically spend about three hours with us. Two at the new patient, one at the consult. I spend time in between. Which means you're going to invest more in it, but what you get out of it is also so much greater. You get a really, it allows us to like really zoom out. What's the big picture? What are the things? The plans we make might be several years. Phase one, phase two, how do we kind of get you to the point? Our goal is always like, how do we get you to the point if you're healing yourself and you're just, you're not having more disease?

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. thank you so much for sharing your insight with us today. I mean, it's valuable information and we will put the links to the site to find a biological dentist in your area in the show notes. So if anyone's interested in looking into this further, we'll make sure to put those in the show notes. And thank you so much, Sharla, for being my amazing dentist. I appreciate you so much and a friend. I really appreciate all that you do for us. And thank you again for your time today. This was really fascinating to hear about.

Dr. Sharla Aronson:

Thanks so much for having me. I really valued our time together.

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