Dental Trauma Recovery on a Raw Vegan Diet with Nathan @rawnattyn8
Dental Trauma Recovery on a Raw Vegan Diet with Nate Maris
An abscess, emergency surgery, a foot long drain tube, and what raw food had to do with surviving it all…
Nate Maris from @rawnattyn8 joined me for one of the most honest and detailed conversations of the entire bundle window, walking through his full dental trauma recovery story from the first signs of infection all the way through emergency surgery, hospitalization, a month of antibiotics, microbiome testing, and the raw vegan approach that helped him rebuild. His contribution to the bundle, Raw Recovery, grew directly out of this experience and the questions people kept sending him about what to eat when you cannot chew.
I am sorry to say that the 2026 Ultimate Raw Vegan Bundle is now closed. If you are not already on my mailing list, sign up here to be notified when the next one opens. We do this annually and I am part of other bundles and events throughout the year you will hear about first.
How It Started
Nate had a tooth that had been worked on multiple times going back to childhood, first a mercury amalgam filling, then a replacement filling using a SMART certified biological dentist to safely remove the amalgam, then a third drilling and refilling after the replacement filling failed. The procedure itself went smoothly. By the next morning heading to a yoga retreat in Sedona, swelling had started. By midday his lip was fully numb. By Wednesday night he was driving himself to the emergency room with his face visibly doubled in size on one side.
Three separate ER visits. A CT scan. Eventually a rushed surgery in Flagstaff where a surgeon made an incision, inserted a drain tube, and pulled it out at discharge. The tube was a foot long. Nate still does not fully know where it went. The surgeon was in a hurry. These things happen.
He was hospitalized for three days, on a morphine drip, antibiotic drip, ibuprofen and Tylenol around the clock, and barely eating. Lisa was catering the retreat alone while checking on him between sessions. He lost thirteen pounds in a matter of days.
What the Doctors Said About His Diet
This is the part worth highlighting. Both the ENT surgeon and another doctor doing rounds found out Nate was a raw foodist. Their response was direct: if it was not for your diet, you might not have had the same outcome. The infection had gone systemic enough that without his level of baseline health and immune function, the trajectory could have been very different. Tooth infections kill people. They go to the heart, to the brain. This was not a small thing.
Dental trauma recovery on a raw vegan diet is not a guarantee of anything, and Nate was clear about that throughout the conversation. Sometimes things just happen. But the lifestyle absolutely affords you higher levels of vitality and resilience to handle what comes, and he experienced that firsthand.
The Microbiome Collapse and Rebuild
Before the abscess Nate was testing around 96 to 97 percent microbiome diversity on the Ombre Lab test. After a month of antibiotics he tested at 48. Nearly half his microbiome wiped out. He could not feel the difference acutely, which he acknowledged says something about how much baseline reserve he had going in. Someone already starting from a compromised gut would have felt it significantly more.
He has a follow up test pending now, about ten months on, to see where things have rebuilt to. Polyphenol rich foods, especially berries, have been a focus for feeding akkermansia and rebuilding diversity. He is expecting meaningful improvement.
For anyone interested in tracking their own microbiome, the test he uses is from Ombre Lab, an at-home stool test that gives a full breakdown of bacterial diversity and short chain fatty acid producing species. Worth doing if you have been through a course of antibiotics or are just curious where your baseline sits.
What to Actually Eat During Dental Trauma Recovery
This is what inspired the book. Nate was getting fifteen to twenty messages from people asking what to eat when they have dental problems, dentures, or oral surgery recovery and want to stay raw. The answer he kept coming back to was the same framework he used himself, broken into phases based on what the mouth can actually handle.
In the acute phase when swallowing is painful and chewing is impossible, cold pressed juices, coconut water, and blended soups were the staples. Blending for a couple of minutes produces something warm enough to feel satisfying and smooth enough to get down without effort. A little depth from onion or miso makes a huge difference when you have been on liquids for days.
As healing progressed and stitches came out, Kendallized vegetables became a key tool. For anyone unfamiliar, Kendallizing is the freeze and thaw technique that breaks down cell walls in vegetables, creating a soft cooked-like texture without any heat. Cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, and asparagus all respond beautifully. Nate also incorporated some lightly steamed vegetables during this phase, which he addressed directly: steaming broccoli or cauliflower when you genuinely need soft texture and warmth is not a failure. It is honoring where you are. The guilt around that kind of choice does more harm than the steamed vegetable ever could.
Root Canals, Amalgam Removal, and What Nate Learned
A few practical points from Nate’s experience worth passing on.
On amalgam removal: always find a SMART certified biological dentist. This stands for Safe Mercury Amalgam Removal Technique. A dentist who just drills and refills without proper protocol exposes both you and themselves to mercury vapor. Do not let anyone talk you into just drilling it out without asking how they handle the removal process.
On root canals: Nate was repeatedly pushed toward one and held firm. A root canal leaves a dead body part in your mouth. There are legitimate concerns about the long-term systemic effects of this. He recommends the documentary Root Cause and several dental books he references in Raw Recovery for anyone navigating this decision.
On dental trauma recovery on a raw vegan diet in general: be adamant with your dentist. If Nate had insisted on extraction from the beginning rather than the drilling and refilling that preceded the infection, the whole ordeal may not have happened. He knows that now. The book is partly his way of giving that knowledge to others before they need it.
300 Years of Raw Food Experience in One Bundle
We spent the tail end of the conversation reflecting on what this community has actually built together. Between the contributors to the 2026 bundle, combining years of raw vegan experience across Dr. Graham nearing 50 years, Karen Ranzi at 32, myself at 22, Nate, Lissa, Yin, Christina, and everyone else, we estimated somewhere north of 300 years of lived raw vegan experience represented in one collection. That is not nothing. That is a genuinely extraordinary resource and the reason the bundle keeps growing every year.
About Nate and Raw Recovery
Nate and Lissa are based in Las Vegas and are the kind of people you want in your corner. Warm, real, knowledgeable, and always showing up. Find Nate at @rawnattyn8 on Instagram.
Raw Recovery is available through Nate directly. The bundle has closed but his work continues. If dental trauma recovery on a raw vegan diet is relevant to you or someone you know, reach out to him directly.
To be notified of the next Ultimate Raw Vegan Bundle and other events and bundles I am part of throughout the year, sign up at therawadvantage.com.
As Always
Wishing You Much
PeaceLovenSeasonalFruit ck
