-By Kelly Gallagher
I was at the end of my rope.
As a cancer thriver who had outlived Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer, five times, survived 48 radiation treatments, 14 months of chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant, 120 blood transfusions, numerous chronic illnesses along the way, and is currently powered by a Medtronic’sPacemaker, a prosthetic heart valve, and a variety of energy and wellness protocols like theRasha.com, I was now ready to mentally crack over the state of my crumbling mouth despite all the wonderful opportunities I have in my adventurous cosmic life. After all, I was given a year to live in 1998 by Doctors at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. By those standards, I’m doing great.
However, once upon a time, I had been on stage…an actor, a filmmaker, an activist and even a singer and a closet spoken word artist. I used to have aperfect smile and now I no longer wanted to smile, be on camera or speak in public.
I was ashamed that despite seeing about 18 dentists over 15 years, and documenting a story about dental health, I hadn’t managed to get my mouth fixed. It was held together with superglue more often than not despite the fact that I knew so many fabulous dentists in the world of biological dentistry. No one could really handle all my multiple health problems; scoliosis, degenerating discs, lymphedema, hemochromatosis, blood clots,necrotic bone, no veins, pacemaker, prosthetic aortic valve, pulmonary fibrosis, pain/anxiety management, and my perpetual lack of money.
Let’s face it…
I’m complicated…and expensive. Working on me is not easy. And I am truly grateful to all who tried. But by 2021, my mouth hurt constantly, I hadno back teeth. I was embarrassed to eat in public as I was chewing on my front teeth. I was hiding. I was an investigative filmmaker who had been around the world from trailer parks to the United Nations in Geneva documenting the issue of mercury in dentistry and researching the toxic aspects of dentistry ad nauseum.
Now I couldn’t leave home without toxic superglue in my pocket in case my front teeth fell out. I will explain more of the details of my health journey in future chapters right here at West View and on my www.kellychronicles.com website which is in process but for now what you need toknow is that I had all the toxicity taken out of my mouth and then had a terrible time getting restorations for multiple reasons. My non-compliancewas one of them. It’s expensive, invasive and after surviving a bone marrow transplant, I have a complicated health history and priority list from hemochromatosis to lymphedema to heart and lung management. But dentistry is a priority because it is connected to everything in our body throughthe Chinese Acupuncture meridians making dentistry a much more important part of medicine and over all body health than we were ever taught.
I share all this with you not to criticize dentistry but to shine a light on the importance of dentistry and the importance of choosing the right dentist for your needs. I know many people struggle with the search for the right dentist because I get so many calls to me with the same issues…money, toxicity, and restoration questions.
Shortly after I got a grip on all these multiple health issues of my own, I was hired to do some branding work for a biological dentist on the East Coast. She was trying to patch my mouth while I was there working on her brands but the torque of the jaw was snapping every restoration she attempted to make. I looked horrible, was in excruciating pain, couldn’t chew and really just wanted to cry. I was really tired of supergluing my front teeth back in. My neck hurt. My teeth hurt. My ego hurt. My vanity was impacting my sanity. And every estimate to fix my mouth was coming inaround 100,000 dollars.
I finally broke down from the pain and went to get a cortisone shot in my neck. The day I got my cortisone shot the dentist I was working for fired me as an employee and a patient all in the same day. I was now hopeless on more than one front again… mainly my front teeth. I had my heart in that job along with my teeth… and well…my teeth were painful and in disastrous shape. I was in tears again but took a job on a private train. No one reallyhad to see me so at least I had a reprieve from my vanity. Maybe this was God or the universe doing me a favor by putting me in the right place to receive. The door I needed for so long was about to open. Here’s how it happened. While I’m on the train working in LA my longtime friend and Numerologist, Julian Michael, calls from NYC to thank me for connecting him to such an awesome dentist. Julian is staring in the mirror at his newperfect front teeth talking about the Dr Gerry Curatola who I had just re-introduced Julian to when he had tooth drama. Poetic full circle loop. Julian now tells Dr.Curatola what has happened to me and Dr Gerry decides right then he is going to help me. He knew I had advocated for so many in the arena of mercury detox and in that moment, I really just needed someone to be a stand for me. I was praying to have my prayers answered. Thank you God,Julian and Dr. Curatola for hearing those prayers. I was thrilled to get to go see Dr. Curatola as a patient. I had seen his work and I had seen him overthe years at Biological dental conferences. He had a great reputation, he was fun, gregarious, great speaker and according to his list of celebrity clientele, a fabulous biological, cosmetic dentist. I knew him but the line to get into his office was long.
And besides, he’s in NY. I live in LA and I needed total reconstruction. I needed someone who cared about what my teeth were supposed to look likefrom the color to the shape to the length to the bite to the seal to the gums. I needed someone who could deal with all my problems with grace andease. When Julian patched Dr. Curatola into our conversation on the train that day, I cried again. This time because I knew everything was going to be alright. Dr. Curatola had a plan. He had seen my mouth. He knew what I needed and he told me to get on a plane and I did.He did what he said he could do. Fix me. He has. I feel blessed even though it’s been expensive, it has been done right on all levels with a great team ofexperts; biological, cosmetic, implants, bone graft, sinus lift, structural repair, integrative wellness, and nutritionally supported. All the things medicine and dentistry should be.
It is no wonder that Dr Curatola has graced platforms from Forbes to Goop to Dr. Oz to Oprah to Purist.
What he did in my first appointment changed my world. You can see it in the above photo. My bite was straightened out by Dr. Curatola withtemporaries in the first visit. I have had much more permanent work done since that first day a year ago in December of 2021 at Rejuvenation Dentistry in their East Hampton office. My entire face looks better. They not only restored my teeth, they corrected my jawline and performed a sinus lift while installing the dental implants. They restored by confidence. Life changing. We all love our dentists but all dentists are not created equal. All biological dentists aren’t non-toxic and all good cosmetic dentists aren’t biological. It is important to be both which really is integral to a full dentalrevision. I feel blessed to have gotten to work with Dr Curatola and his team. I highly recommend you take the 6 train from the West Village to 59th Street and walk to 521 Park Avenue. They also have a Rejuvenation Health and Dentistry office in East Hampton with additional wellness support offered. A new larger office is opening in 2023 on 5th Avenue overlooking Central Park.
