A few weeks ago, I went to my biological dentist expecting to talk about my jaw.
What I found was something neither of us saw coming.
I had been feeling unusually tired and not quite like myself, nothing dramatic, just a quiet sense that my body was trying to tell me something.
So I asked my dentist to take a closer look using advanced 3D imaging rather than a standard scan.
The result came back as a hidden tooth abscess. One that had been quietly simmering beneath the surface without a single symptom most people would associate with a dental infection.
No severe pain, no swelling, nothing that would have sent me rushing to an emergency appointment.
And once we found it, something clicked. Several other things I had been experiencing suddenly made sense… the elevated liver enzymes, a chronic urinary tract infection I didn't even know I had. Pieces of a puzzle I hadn't realized I was trying to solve.
This is something I have been teaching for decades. But there is a difference between knowing something and living it. The mouth is not separate from the rest of you.
And I am far from the only one. What surprised me most wasn't finding the infection, it was learning just how common this is.
Most people have no idea what may be quietly happening beneath their teeth, because standard imaging simply isn't designed to catch it.
This is why I now ask for advanced 3D imaging. Every single time. And why I think you should too.
, if you've never had this conversation with your dentist, this is your sign to start.
Read this before your next appointment, it may be the most important thing you do for your whole-body health this year.
To your whole-body health,
Ann Louise
P.S. Four decades in nutrition has taught me one thing above all else, listen when your body starts whispering. Because if you don't, eventually it starts shouting. This is one of those stories.
