Dr. Tammy Holliday

09/02/2026

09/02/2026

Your mouth has warning lights, just like your car does. Most people don’t know how to read them. A recurring canker sore is a small example, we fix what we can see instead of asking what it’s pointing to. In this case, it’s often tied to a B12, iron, or folate deficiency, sometimes the same nutrients chronic stress burns through fastest. The sore isn’t the problem, it’s the light telling you something’s off underneath. Your mouth gives you information constantly. The question is whether anyone’s actually listening to it.

09/01/2026

Some days you just have to say it out loud. Today is one of those days for me, full practice, full life, full plate, and I’m not pretending it isn’t. Naming it instead of pushing through it silently is honestly half the battle. If today’s hard for you too, you don’t need a bigger reason than ‘it’s a lot right now.’ You’re allowed to just say that.

08/30/2026

I didn’t become a wellness dentist because it’s trendy. Standard advice almost cost me my health. For decades I did everything I thought was right, vegetarian, disciplined, health-conscious, and I was still exhausted, inflamed, and winded playing tag with my own kids. My doctors never asked why. I was just told that’s normal, that’s aging. When I finally found the real answers, it all clicked at once. My body needed meat. I couldn’t tolerate gluten or dairy. I had sleep apnea. I was nutrient deficient. I even had mercury toxicity from my own profession. I realized I’d been trained to treat teeth, not people. My life today is a complete 180 from where it was. Your mouth isn’t separate from the rest of you. If you’ve ever been told your symptoms are just normal, I don’t believe that. And neither should you.

08/29/2026

The sleep rule I tell patients about: 3-2-1. No food 3 hours before bed. No work 2 hours before bed. No screens 1 hour before bed. I’ll be honest, I don’t always follow my own advice, especially the screens part. My real goal is getting all electronics out of bedrooms for good, one central charging station for the whole family. Haven’t gotten there yet. Progress over perfection. Which one of the three is hardest for you?

08/28/2026

If you grind your teeth at night, it might not be stress, it might be your airway. Think of it like a generator kicking on when the power grid fails. When your airway narrows at night, your body pushes your jaw forward to open it back up. Sometimes it’s loud and obvious. A lot of the time it’s silent. I have patients tell me constantly, ‘I don’t grind,’ and they’ve got wear straight down into the dentin of their teeth. A night guard protects your teeth from the damage. It does nothing about why your body is doing this in the first place. If you wake up with a sore jaw or worn teeth, even if you don’t think you grind, that’s not cosmetic. That’s your airway asking for help.

08/28/2026

I spent 28 years being told I was doing everything right. Then during COVID, folding laundry in my basement, I was half listening to a Zoom training by a periodontist turned functional nutritionist. He was talking about inflammatory foods, gluten and dairy, leaky gut, the body actually needing grass fed meat. And it all just made sense. I stopped folding laundry, walked upstairs, and told my husband, I’ve been eating wrong this whole time, I need to eat meat. He just looked at me and said, what? I remember trying to play tag with my kids around that time and being completely winded in five minutes. I’m an athlete, that wasn’t supposed to happen to me. That Zoom call changed everything, not just how I ate, but how I practice. I stopped just looking at teeth and started asking what’s happening in someone’s whole body.

08/27/2026

Dental school never taught me this. I had my lower wisdom teeth pulled 30 years ago and thought that was the end of the story. It wasn’t. I’d been dealing with autoimmune issues, fatigue, nerve symptoms, and I couldn’t explain any of it, even after addressing my diet, my airway, my toxic exposure. Then I got a 3D scan of my own mouth. A radiologist found cavitations in both extraction sites. I’m a dentist and I still missed it for years. I had cavitation surgery this past December. Afterward I had more energy, my skin glowed, I just felt better overall. If you’ve had teeth pulled and you’re dealing with symptoms nobody can explain, ask about a cone beam CT. A flat X-ray won’t show this.

08/24/2026

“Cavities run in my family, there’s nothing I can do.” I hear this every week. Here’s the truth: genetics isn’t your destiny, it’s a dial. What you eat, how you sleep, your stress and your hormones turn that dial up or down. I lived this myself with my own health for 28 years before I found the real root cause. Your mouth is doing the same thing right now. Stop asking why and start asking what’s driving it.

08/23/2026

Here’s what I want you to know: unlike genetics, this is modifiable. Sleep, stress, nutrition, and yes, your mouth all play a role. Gum disease, a failing root canal, chronic infection… these are inflammation sources hiding in plain sight. As your dentist, I’m not just looking at your teeth. I’m looking for what your mouth might be telling us about the rest of your body.

Ask your doctor to add hs-CRP to your next lab panel. It’s a small ask that can tell you a lot.