Blog

Year of the dragon.

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on December 31, 2011 | No Comments

The new year is upon us. Year of the dragon. A scary creature for
sure. Scary, much like a trip to a dentist. Those of you who saw ” How
to train your dragon” saw that we live in camps. Those who hate, and
those who love. Chose to hate and be guaranteed to have a battle you
can be proud of..a reason to live, so to speak.

Chose to love. A different road entirely. Results can be magical
and,for sure, unpredictable.

And then there are dragons.

Scary and mean. Always hungry and ready to kill. A purposeless creatures?

Little do we realize that we all can be dragons at one point or
another. Until somebody loves us, …and then the choice is ours.
We choose which dragon we will be.

Please accept our most hardiest wishes in this coming year. We want to
share it with you.

Thank you all,
Andrea, Sasha, and Dr. Kundel ( aka Lenny ).
P.S. While practically no one likes to go to a dentist….it is a
dragon we must all eventually conquer

A great testimonial

Posted in: Blog, People's Stories by Dr Kundel on September 20, 2011 | No Comments

As an herbal &nutritional educator educator & practitioner I have long understood the relationship between the health of the body & the health of the mouth. They are obviously connected. My studies led me to the works of Dr’s Price & Pottenger. Their findings illustrate the importance of traditional whole foods for optimal health of humans and all life forms on earth. While I was able to work on improving my own health through good local food from conscientious farmers, my search for a holistic dentist continued as did the pain & suffering at the hands of conventional dentistry. Until I met Dr. Kundel. His office is nearly a hour drive from my home but after the 1st visit I knew his practice was for us. The way he calmly took his time explaining our options and dealing with my frightened and angry teenager whose prior dental treatments left him traumatized moved me to tears. Finally a gentle dentist who truly cares for his patients! I don’t feel like I’m speaking some crazy foreign language anymore, when I used to feel like such an oddity in the dentist’s chair.

Thanks Dr. K!

Fear Your Dentist No More

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on September 8, 2011 | No Comments

Every single day I hear: “nothing personal doc, but I just hate the dentist.”  Oh boy! Great ice breaker! Thanks?!

Pablo was not kidding.  He was mortified.   Here is the good news:

Pablo asked: please treat me like a special person.

My reply: should not every patient be treated this way?

Take time, explain, be calm.

Love what you do.

What a beautiful mouth looks like

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on August 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

Being a dentist I look at teeth and mouths all day long. Being a dentist that understands that one’s mouth affects how a person breathes I pay close attention to body structure and oral structure in particular.  I wanted to show what a great mouth looks like for a long time so people could understand what I strive for.  Here is the video of Heather Headley.  She is an incredible singer that has chosen to perform a very beautiful song.  While enjoying this music please pay attention to the size of her mouth as well as its relationship to her skull.

Hearther’s mouth is large and very well proportioned.  Her jaws are sitting forward of her face. Both of these parameters allow her to have a great posture and ease of breathing. Here is another song by her. Enjoy!

This is an ideal that one should strive for.  While we all have our own unique structure and limitations we also have potential. It is this potential that I want to help to express.

Baby’s First Steps to a Healthy Mouth

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on August 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

Parents are a child’s first teachers in life and they play a significant role in maintaining their child’s overall health. In observance of National Children’s Dental Health Month, the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) encourages parents to introduce good oral health habits to their children during infancy.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tooth decay affects children in the United States more than any other chronic infectious disease, highlighting the need for thorough oral care and regular dental visits. The ideal time for a child to visit the dentist is six months after the child’s first teeth erupt. During this initial visit, a dentist will be able to examine the development of the child’s mouth.

“Parents are surprised when I tell them that their infants can develop tooth decay and cavities soon after their teeth first appear,” says AGD spokesperson Steven A. Ghareeb, DDS, FAGD. “We usually call this baby bottle tooth decay, which is caused by the long-term exposure to liquids containing sugars like milk, formula, and fruit juice.”

In addition to tooth decay, other dental problems, such as teething irritations, gum disease, and prolonged thumb or pacifier sucking, often start early. The sooner the child visits a dentist, the better.

There are many things that parents can do with their child at home to maintain good oral health:

Clean your infant’s gums with a clean, damp cloth twice a day.

• Ask your dentist when you may begin to rub a tiny dab of toothpaste on your child’s gums. Doing so will help your child become accustomed to the flavor of toothpaste.
• As soon as the first teeth come in, begin brushing them with a small, soft-bristled toothbrush and a pea-sized dab of fluoride toothpaste.
• Help a young child brush at night, which is the most important time to brush, due to lower salivary flow during sleep and higher susceptibility to cavities and plaque.
• By approximately age 5, your child can learn to brush his or her teeth with proper parental instruction and supervision.

“The best way to teach a child how to brush is to lead by your good example,” says Dr. Ghareeb. “Allowing your child to watch you brush your teeth teaches the importance of good oral hygiene.”

TMJ pain releived!

Posted in: Blog, People's Stories by Dr Kundel on August 23, 2011 | No Comments

Here is a video of a person that took responsibility for how he felt. He went online, did his own research, asked questions, and made a decision.  Decision one: I want to feel better!  Decision two: Dr. Kundel, please help me to feel better!  We made one SOMA appliance which was worn evenings and nights. The following symptoms have been resolved: restless sleep, TMJ pain, difficulty breathing through nose.

People like David make our day a pleasure. Thank you David for being what you are.

Below is David’s video.

Disclaimer

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on June 8, 2011 | No Comments

Traveler, if you are reading this you are searching to improve your life. You ask: why me? Answers will eventually become apparent. Read on .

Do not expect others to heal you. It takes more than one person.

Do not blame anyone. Please. Blame retards your ability to heal.

There are no justifies resentments.

Learn to love unconditionally. Learn to forgive. Learn to repent. These are VERY hard things to do. These are not empty phrases. These are practical solutions to managing our minds and bodies given to us by avatars of old and present.

Look deep into yourself and ask yourself: Do I deserve to be healthy? You may be surprised by your answer. How does my pain serve me? What lesson do I need to be learning?

Important: Information changes. What is correct or moral one day may with time become incorrect and immoral. Examples: slavery, physics, killing.

What we think of health and healing today is a leap from a decade ago. In ten years other modalities or improvements on present modalities will be available. That doesn t make what’s used today “wrong.”

Also, just because you spent money to get better does not entitle you to get better.

Books haven’t been written yet about some of the things that you will read here.

Cracked tooth

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on | No Comments

Oftentimes when a large “silver” filling is removed from a tooth, your dentist may tell you that there are cracks that go through the tooth. That most likely is true. Metal when exposed to water corrodes. When it corrodes it expands. So a “silver” filling that is in constant contact with saliva will overtime corrode and expand. That creates a high likelihood of either breaking a tooth or at least creating cracks in the tooth. So a decision has to be made on what to do next with this tooth. In this practice, 99% of the time a tooth like that will be filled with a plastic filling and left alone. A patient is informed that the tooth does have cracks and what will happen to it long term nobody knows. However, because the tooth does have a questionable prognosis it would be prudent not to invest a lot of money on it but rather restore it conservatively. The reason this tooth would have a questionable prognosis is because it has been restored (re – drilled) several times. Anytime a tooth is touched there is a possibility that the nerve will act up and the tooth may die. If this occurs the only options left for the patient to decide is if they want a Root Canal or Extraction. In our practice, we educate, but always let the patient decide what they feel is best for them. We have a no pressure philosophy.

A word about filling materials. Plastic filling is called a composite. It is composed of plastic with tiny glass particles imbedded in it. A “silver” filing is composed of five metals. Fifty percent of that is mercury. We feel a composite filling is the best and least toxic material available today.

Growth and Development

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on | No Comments

A beautiful flower grows and blossoms when the right conditions are present. Flower needs sunshine, good soils, and water.
In order for a child to grow and blossom one very important criteria needs to be met. Oxygen needs to be plentiful and easy to get.
If the nose is stuffed up or tonsils are swollen it is harder to breath. When a child has to struggle to breath, immune system becomes weaker.
This leads to more colds, infections, antibiotics, and missed school days. Childhood years are forming years. Relationships, life views, self esteem all get affected when a child struggles to perform the most basic action necessary to survive. Breathing is the one action we cannot do without. Nose and mouth are the two gateways that let the air in. Optimal breathing is through the nose only. Mouth plays a pivotal role, however, if there is a breathing problem.
Any parent can spot if her child may potentially have breathing difficulty. Just look at your child’s teeth. Baby teeth need to have spaces, especially in the front.
It’s that simple.
Children that have their teeth tight together are prone to mouth breathing, ear infections, eye problems, croocked teeth in adulthood, neck and back problems, snoring and grinding, and even overeating.
To help correct these problems a simple dental appliance can be made that is easy to wear. Over time as more room is created in the mouth and your child no longer needs to struggle to breathe many other conditions should start to resolve.

Study shows that people with sleep apnea have a high risk of death

Posted in: Blog by Dr Kundel on August 2, 2008 | No Comments

A study in the August 1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that people with severe sleep apnea have a much higher mortality risk than people without sleep apnea, and this risk increases when sleep apnea is untreated. Results show that people who have severe sleep apnea, which involves frequent breathing pauses during sleep, have three times the risk of dying due to any cause compared with people who do not have sleep apnea. This risk is represented by an adjusted hazard ratio of 3.2 after controlling for age, sex and body mass index. When 126 participants who reported regular use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy were removed from the statistical analysis, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality related to severe sleep apnea rose to 4.3.

“We found that both men and women with sleep apnea in the general population – not patients – mostly undiagnosed and untreated, had poorer survival compared with persons without sleep apnea, given equal BMI, age and sex,” said principal investigator and lead author Terry Young, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

According to Young, most previous studies of sleep apnea and mortality have involved patients referred for a clinical sleep diagnostic evaluation; the mortality risk for sleep apnea in the general population has not been previously reported.

The study was an 18-year follow-up of 1,522 participants in the ongoing Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, which was established in 1988 and involved a random sample of men and women from the community who were between the ages of 30 and 60 when the study began. After spending one night at the University of Wisconsin General Clinical Research Center for assessment by polysomnography, participants were categorized by apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which is the average number of breathing pauses (apneas) and reductions (hypopneas) per hour of sleep. Sixty-three individuals (about four percent) had severe sleep apnea at baseline with an AHI of 30 or more and a range of 30 to 97 apneas and hypopneas per hour. About 76 percent of the study group (1,157 individuals) had no sleep apnea with an AHI of less than five.

For the follow-up study, state and national death records were reviewed up to March 1, 2008, to identify participants who had died and to note the causes of death listed on the death certificates. Eighty deaths were recorded, including 37 deaths attributed to cancer and 25 deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease and stroke.

About 19 percent of participants with severe sleep apnea died (12 deaths), compared with about four percent of participants with no sleep apnea (46 deaths). Although participants with mild sleep apnea (AHI of five to 14) or moderate sleep apnea (AHI of 15 to 29) had a mortality risk that was 50 percent greater than those with no sleep apnea, the results did not achieve statistical significance.

Hazard ratios for all-cause mortality remained high after further adjustments for other factors such as smoking, alcohol use, sleep duration and total cholesterol. Severe sleep apnea was associated with increased mortality whether or not participants experienced daytime sleepiness.

About 42 percent of deaths in people with severe sleep apnea (5 of 12 deaths) were attributed to cardiovascular disease or stroke, compared with 26 percent of deaths in people with no sleep apnea (12 of 46 deaths). When the 126 participants who reported regular CPAP use were removed from the analysis, the hazard ratio for cardiovascular mortality soared from 2.9 to 5.2 for people with severe sleep apnea. The results suggest that regular CPAP use may protect sleep apnea patients against cardiovascular death.

“I was surprised by how much the risks increased when we excluded people who reported treatment with CPAP,” Young said. “Our findings suggest – but cannot prove – that people diagnosed with sleep apnea should be treated, and if CPAP is the prescribed treatment, regular use may prevent premature death.”

Statistical adjustments show that high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes may play a role in the association between sleep apnea and mortality, but the specific mechanisms by which sleep apnea contributes to mortality remain unclear.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) involves a decrease or complete halt in airflow despite an ongoing effort to breathe. It occurs when the muscles relax during sleep, causing soft tissue in the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway.

The most common treatment for OSA is CPAP therapy, which provides a steady stream of air through a mask that is worn during sleep. This airflow keeps the airway open to prevent pauses in breathing and restore normal oxygen levels.

Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine