I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Sanda Moldovan, the founder of Beverly Hills Dental Health and Wellness, award-winning periodontist, nutritionist, and world-renowned oral health and wellness expert.
Dr. Moldovan tirelessly advocates non-narcotic alternatives for healing, which is the subject of her new book, Heal Up! Seven Ways to Faster Healing and Optimum Health — available today!
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I suffered as a child in Romania from an antiquated dental health care system. I had sixteen dental fillings with no dental anesthetic. This is all a result from not having dental floss, not knowing anything about oral hygiene — -so now my passion has become teaching people proper oral health care habits. I believe that no one should suffer from dental issues or nutritional deficiencies.
How have your personal challenges informed your career path?
My own health issues led me to seek out a better understanding of the importance of nutrition.
When I was in college, I was hypoglycemic. I had a hard time paying attention and learning — because I would fall asleep after lunch. I always thought I needed more sugar, so I would eat sugar, but it wouldn’t really help me stay awake and I wasn’t feeling good — -getting the sugar blues afterwards. The spike in sugar and then the low blood sugar level.
I wanted to have energy all day, so that’s when I started experimenting with my diet, and substituting sugar….I wanted to feel better. That’s when I figured out that keeping a low blood sugar is really the key to having more energy. The opposite of what I thought: thinking that eating sugar gave me energy.
Early in my career as a periodontist — — I couldn’t understand why I would do the same surgical procedure on two different patients and one would feel great, and the other wouldn’t. I would use the exact same technique, and it became clear to me that it must be a question of where they were in their own nutritional health. Through the courses I took during my studies to become a nutritionist, the research backed up my theory that yes, being nutritionally fit prior to any surgery will make one heal better. So I started incorporating nutritional interventions to help people heal better.
So, in my book, Heal Up!, I summarize the things that I have learned throughout the course of the last ten years, personally and professionally.
Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Doctor”
When I finished my residency program at UCLA, I still had a lot of questions.
1) Why patients don’t heal the same:
When I was first getting started, no one told me why one patient heals better than another, even though I would do the same surgery on both. This is how I started my quest for learning about nutrition. I learned that being nutritionally fit matters when it comes to healing. Over time, I developed my own techniques that I now incorporate In treating patients to access optimum healing.
2) Why my health matters, too:
I was not in optimum shape when I finished school. Lifestyle choices were not discussed this part of overall health for us or for our patients. I was hypoglycemic and I didn’t know why. Through attending different nutritional conferences, I’ve come to realize that hypoglycemia has to do with diet choices. Whenever I would feel hypoglycemic, I would just have more sugar, but in reality, that’s not what I needed. Now I have more energy to sustain running two companies, lecturing, and working at my practice. I have more energy than I used to, without crashing in the afternoon.
3) Amalgan fillings are toxic:
I also wish someone would’ve told me how toxic amalgam fillings are, especially when they are being replaced in the dental office. I had to learn the hard way. When I grew up in Romania, I had 16 amalgam fillings placed. I have these replaced a few years ago. Following that, I was diagnosed with high Mercury level. I did not know that amalgam fillings are 50% mercury, and when we cut into them as dentists, they release high levels of mercury. I did not know that amalgam fillings are 50% mercury, and mercury vapor is released when they are cut into, and that is a neurotoxin. I was having frequent headaches because of this, and I had to follow protocol to detoxify from mercury.
4) What to expect running a wellness practice:
Learning how to run a wellness practice was not talked about in school. We focused mainly on surgical inpatient management skills. Running a wellness practice can be stressful, especially managing employees. It is important to have a skilled office manager to help with this .
5) The importance of listening:
The most important skill as a practitioner is listening to your patient. There’s a lot of psychology involved in understanding someone’s values and how certain experiences have impacted them. As a health practitioner, we must understand and connect to our patients so we may better serve them. This part comes with experience, and it’s not something we can read in a textbook.. It’s about opening our hearts and listening with compassion.
Social media and reality TV create a venue for people to share their personal stories. Do you think more transparency about your personal story can help or harm your field of work? Can you explain?
I think for anybody who wants to help as a health care professional — — being transparent and being vulnerable is one of the most important things. It really helps people have problems connect with you. It’s about connecting. “She understands, because she’s gone through this.”
I have toothaches and I’m a periodontist and a dentist. I have gum inflammation once in awhile. It’s not like because I’m a periodontist that I don’t ever get any tooth problems.
In today’s day and age it is all about being transparent. I see my role with my patients as a health care advocate, a collaborator with them on them achieving and maintaining optimum health.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant to your life?
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
Thomas Edison
Natural and alternative remedies for healing and overall health and wellness are at our fingertips. They are gifts that Mother Nature provides, so I feel compelled to share these methods, especially the importance of good nutrition with others.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The number one most preventable disease is cavities in kids!
For me, my Orasana home dental care product line is a movement- to make oral hygiene at home easier for everyone. I believe no child should go to bed in pain from cavities. For instance, nobody uses string floss properly, and nobody wants to floss — -period. I see floss cuts or they avoid it all together, so I developed a lightweight oral water irrigator, WaterJet, as an alternative to string floss — — My goal is to help people find easier ways to keep their mouths healthy. A healthy mouth — healthy body, that’s what we’re talking about here. This is a dream that can become a reality for everyone.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://www.instagram.com/DrSanda/
https://www.youtube.com/user/AskDrSanda
And my book is available today and can be purchased on Amazon.
Originally published at medium.com