Dr. Vi Ho

While exploring a local fish market, I stopped at a seaweed vendor’s stand because I’ve always appreciated the nutritional benefits of seaweed. She gave us a quick lesson on the different varieties and how they’re used, and of course I brought some home. 🌿

The best part was having the kids there to learn alongside me. I’m hoping they’ll become more familiar with these nutrient-rich foods and start welcoming them into their own meals. 🌿🌊🇰🇷

We made it to Busan, Korea! Such a beautiful place with ocean and mountain view. Im grateful for the clean air that is much needed for lungs health and delicious seafood and kim chi! .viho

We made it Tokyo!

First trip to Japan and the trains have become part of the adventure, especially for the kids.🚆 Coming from Texas, where cars are king, it’s been such a cool experience learning how to navigate the subway system.
We decided against private shuttles and go for the experience! .viho ✈️

24 qt pot
1. 4 chicken breast (~4-5lbs), beef bones( 8lbs) 1 daikon, 3-4 onions, ginger
fill water all the way up
-add in 1/2cup of sea salt, 1/2 cup of rock sugar
-cook for ~10 hrs

2. remove chicken breast, onion, daikon,ginger. leave beef bones
3. refill water up to edge
4. add half of 1/3 cup of sea salt, half of 1/3 cup of rock suga( if eat next day bc it will get saltier, if like saltier or eat immediately add a full 1/3 cup of salt and likewise for sugar
-cook for another 6-10 hours

5. 1 hr before serving, add spice
-spice: handful of star anise, 5-6 small sticks of cinnamon, 5 amomum costatum, 1TBSp of cumin granule, 1 TBSP of coriander seed, 1 tsp of cloves

6. add 1 TBSB of mushroom powder right before serving

remove beef bones once done, water level should be about 2 inches below edge

Healing Dentist Kitchen Recipe: Dua Chua — Vietnamese Pickled Mustard Greens

This is one of the most probiotic-rich healing dishes in Vietnamese cooking — and almost nobody outside Vietnamese culture knows about it.

What makes this healing:
— Mustard greens: rich in antioxidants and antimicrobial plant compounds
— Rice starch water: feeds fermentation bacteria naturally, deepening the probiotic healing profile
— Natural salt fermentation: no vinegar shortcuts — this is real lacto-fermentation

My grandmother made this constantly. She never called it a probiotic. She called it something every meal should have.

A healthy oral microbiome needs this kind of diversity — not just supplements.

Recipe:
3.8 lbs mustard greens
6.5 L of water ( some of this is from the washing of 1.5 cups of dry rice)
6.5 tbsp of pink salt
6.5 tsp of sugar
1 yellow onion
1 bunch of green onion
Wash and cut up mustard greens into 2 inch pieces. Place them in the glass jar along with onion wedges and green onion segments. Combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a soft boil so that everything is completely dissolved. Let cool completely and pour into the glass jar. Let the fermentation begin! You can start enjoying it as early as 4 days or when the greens turn yellow. Stir it up a couple of times during those days. You can store on the counter or fridge after 4 days.
Save this — this one is worth making.

Eat Well. Heal Well. Smile Well.

Most dentistry focuses on reducing harmful ones. Fewer conversations happen about supporting the beneficial ones.

Traditional Vietnamese cooking understood this intuitively. Fermented dishes like Dua Chua — pickled mustard greens — were part of daily eating, not a wellness trend.

This week I am going to show you the healing ingredient secret behind that fermentation, and exactly how to make the dish itself.

I am going to be honest with you about something. I do not use commercial mouthwash. As a healing dentist I stopped a long time ago. Here is why.Commercial mouthwash kills indiscriminately. Good bacteria, bad bacteria, everything in its path. Every time you use it you are disrupting the oral microbiome — the ecosystem of over 700 bacterial species that your mouth depends on to stay healthy, fight infection, and heal. Traditional Vietnamese meals always came with a plate of fresh herbs. Without exception. It was never optional. It was never decoration. Thai basil. Perilla. Vietnamese coriander. Fish mint, Vietnamese balm. Mint. Each of these herbs contains natural antimicrobial compounds that work selectively — supporting the beneficial bacteria your oral microbiome needs rather than destroying everything indiscriminately. The younger generation is growing up without this plate. They do not know the names of these herbs or why they were always on the table. They are reaching for processed food and commercial products instead of what their culture already knew. This tradition needs to come back. As an integrative endodontist what I know is this — the microbial environment around a root tip is not created in my clinic. It is created at your table, every single day. The herb plate that traditional Vietnamese culture served at every meal was quietly maintaining that environment long before modern dentistry had language for it. This is integrative endodontics in practice. Put this plate on your table. Teach your children the names of these herbs.

My kids are learning something most adults were never taught. Real healing ingredients. What they do. Why they matter. My grandmother taught me this way. Now I teach my children the same way.Follow The Healing Dentist if you want your family to eat for healing. .viho