EP241: Root Causes: Exploring the Hidden Links Between Your Mouth and Your Health - Corbin Popp, DMD

🎧 Episode Summary

In this episode, Corbin Popp, DMD, explores the hidden links between oral health and complex chronic illness through the lens of biological dentistry and whole-body care.

He examines the oral microbiome, interference fields, mercury amalgams, root canal-treated teeth, and jawbone cavitations, including emerging research on covered socket residuum, patient readiness, and strategies for supporting bone healing.

The conversation then explores biocompatible materials, ceramic implants, airway health, Dentosophy, tongue-tie, sleep apnea, and jaw and bite stability, emphasizing conservative treatment and collaboration with systemic healthcare providers to support better outcomes.

🧭 In This Episode

- Biological dentistry and its relationship to complex chronic illness

- Dental interference fields and potential effects on systemic health

- Oral microbiome testing and connections between oral and systemic health

- Cavities, enamel erosion, and approaches to remineralization

- Gum recession and the role of tissue health and bite forces

- Dental biofilms and the use of ozone and xylitol

- Mercury amalgams, safe removal, and replacement materials

- Root canal-treated teeth and persistent infection

- Connections between dental issues and sinus health

- Jawbone cavitations, covered socket residuum, and biopsy-based diagnosis

- Patient readiness and medical collaboration before cavitation surgery

- Platelet-rich fibrin and bone grafting for jawbone healing

- Zirconia implants and dental material compatibility testing

- Dentosophy and training nasal breathing, tongue position, and swallowing

- Palate expansion, tongue-tie, and dental approaches to sleep apnea

- TMJ dysfunction, clenching, grinding, and jaw and bite stabilization

👤 About the Guest

Corbin Popp, DMD, grew up in small-town Nebraska around his father's dental office. He excelled in science and math and earned a biochemistry degree with honors from the University of Nebraska.

A Fulbright Scholarship took him to Germany, where he put dentistry on hold for a decade-long career as a professional dancer on Broadway and international stages. Dance taught him to see the body as one interconnected system, and that view now shapes his dentistry. A tooth functions within a bite, a jaw, a skeleton, and ultimately a whole person.

He graduated top of his class from the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health and was named Resident of the Year in his Graduate Practice Residency at the University of Colorado Anschutz.

His practice focuses on ceramic implant surgery, regenerative bone augmentation, and complex Bioesthetic full mouth rehabilitation and jaw stabilization. His surgical work also includes managing root canal treated teeth and poorly healed extraction sites. These sites have historically been called cavitations or FDOJ lesions and are now being studied through newer concepts such as Covered Socket Residuum.

He has completed Level 3 training through the OBI Foundation for Bioesthetic Dentistry, as well as Level 1 dental technician training in dental morphology. That combination reflects his view that bone, implant position, jaw stability, and tooth morphology must all come together to create function, which is why he stabilizes the jaw before restoring the teeth.

He was the first American dentist certified in the Swiss Biohealth Concept, trained under Dr. Ulrich Volz, and later studied Biological Bone Augmentation with Dr. Frank Zastrow. He is currently in advanced postgraduate training with Professor Shahram Ghanaati, whose work in wound healing, regenerative biology, and jawbone healing informs his surgical approach.

On the more controversial questions in biological dentistry, he is careful to separate clinical observation from established science. In his words, "Biological dentistry shouldn't mean less science. It should mean more biology and better science