The Real Cause of Cavities Isn’t Sugar, You Won't Believe What Is | Dr. Staci Whitman, DMD

I mean, they look rank and they're like, "This is what's happening to my kids teeth after switching to clean or toothpaste."

“I think there are some people who are getting paid.”

Dave Floyd is very threatened by some of these alternative toothpaste. They've taken a hit. I'm a board certified PD after Goddess. I see 200 patients a week. I've been working practicing for 20 years.

And I've never seen these things that you've seen in Facebook groups.

Toothpaste does not cause cavities. Most people think cavities, bleeding gums, bad breath, even fertility issues start everywhere except the mouth. That's completely backwards. Today's episode might permanently change how you think about fluoride,

mouth breathing in kids, and adults.

“The signs in your mouth that reveal something is off with your hormones and even how erectile dysfunction”

could start in the mouth. My guest is Dr. Stacey Whitman, one of the leading voices in functional dentistry. She's board certified in pediatric dentistry and functional medicine. Co-founder of the Institute for Functional Dentistry. And she focuses on the oral microbiome, airway, and sleep health.

Women's hormones and true whole-body prevention. You can watch this episode on the Real Alex Clark YouTube channel or Culture Publicary on Spotify. Make sure to leave a five star review and tell everyone why this is your favorite podcast in the health and wellness space. Please welcome functional dentists, Dr. Stacey Whitman, to Culture A Publicary.

You're a functional dentist. What does that mean? So a functional dentist takes a look at the root cause of your issues. So unlike traditional dentistry where we're putting out fires and we're dealing with end-stage disease, like much of the medical system, we're looking upstream to see why. We're trying to unpack why, and it's a lot about systems biology.

So how the mouth is connected to other parts of the body. One thing that I do, Dr. Stacey, that apparently you are anti- and against, is 24/7. I have a steripod on my toothpaste. I have that little pod that it makes my toothbrush taste mending. It allegedly kills germs and I won't travel without it.

And I always have it on my toothbrush on the counter.

Why are steripods bad to have on your toothbrush? Well, it's covers in general. It's because when you take something wet and you cover it, it can't breathe. And so it can breathe things like mold and bacteria. So you really want it to air out ideally. Okay, but it has little holes in it. I'd have to see it. So a lot of the holders are, they don't have holes. So yours might be fine.

Okay, fine. And also with all of these recommendations, we're all bioindividual. So are you having issues? You know, if someone is doing this and they keep getting candida or fungal infections or they keep having gum disease or cavities, it could be they're not collating themselves with bacteria, microtoxins, mold, et cetera, from their toothbrush. But if you're doing fine, Alex, just stick with it.

Are we getting cavities because we're not brushing our teeth well enough or because we're eating too much sugar? The villain is big food. So it's beyond sugar. On everyone thinks it's just sugar, but it's actually our ultra-processed foods. It's for multiple carbohydrates. It's all the preservatives. It's the dyes, et cetera. And why is that? It's for many reasons. So yes, sugar feeds bad bacteria,

“which release acid and that leeches minerals out of your teeth. And that's how you”

get a cavity. But flour does the same thing in the mouth. But also everything we put in our mouth is going to shift the microbiome. We have an oral microbiome. So many people are familiar with

the gut microbiome. We've an oral microbiome. It's the second most diverse microbiome in the body.

And so if you're putting in things like food dyes, preservatives, artificial colorens, et cetera, that's going to shift to be a state that's more acidic generally. And bad bacteria love acidity. Okay. So for putting things that drop the pH in our mouth, we're going to have more bad bacteria. But also these foods are meant to be over-consumed. So we are constantly sipping and snacking all day long. There's something called the bliss point, which is that perfect blend of

fat and sugar and salt that just makes it. So we can't stop eating and consuming these foods. And every time we eat the pH in our mouth drops, this is part of the digestive system. I want everyone to start thinking the mouth is the gut. It's the beginning of the digestive system. And the pH will drop that is normal, but it's supposed to get an opportunity to rise back up again. So if we allow our mouth a chance to rest essentially, our saliva will naturally

remineralize our teeth and it usually can take 30 minutes to two hours. But what are we doing instead?

And so this is leading to the cavity epidemic. I need to say, in mention,

cavities are the top chronic disease globally, more than asthma, more than allergies, more than asthma, and we've normalized it. 50% of children suffer from dental decay. And by the time you're an adult, that rises up to 90% of people have had dental decay. In gum disease, effects up to as an adult in your 70s, up to 96% of the population. So if you looked at this as any other disease, which is preventable by the way, we would be alarmed. We'd be talking at the rooftops and yelling

about this, but we've normalized this in dentistry. And in our lives, I just get cavities. My teeth are soft. It's a family thing. But really, it all goes back to our food. Wait, when it is having soft teeth, is that even like a legitimate excuse? Because that's like a

Michael Scott quote. Yeah. We hear it all the time in dentistry. There are some people that have

“mineral deficient teeth. And actually, this is I believe a silent epidemic among children. So”

this is a whole other conversation. I can get into it a little bit now. We can pin it for later. But I am seeing, you know, I focus in kids and pediatrics. And I am seeing so many children. Their teeth are wrapped under mineralize and it's due to nutrient deficiencies. And this can be epigenetic. So fat, celibular vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, their teeth come in. It's something called hypoplastic enamel. That is a real thing. But when people say, my teeth are soft. This

runs in my family. Generally, that's not totally true. There are genetic, you know, polymorphisms that can be linked. But not to the degree that people are claiming. And really, it is generally a food issue. It is certainly a hygiene issue. It's how we're breathing. And I know you've had people on your podcast before to speak about how important it is to nasal breathe. And also, it has to do with how our teeth develop. And how healthy our saliva is. Our spit is really

important for our dental health. And we are undernourished. We're under mineralized. We're not getting the appropriate nutrients that we need. And so your saliva isn't protecting your teeth as it should. But even starting in pregnancy, we're not giving our babies the appropriate amount of nutrition needed to develop skeletal systems in dental, um, dental development appropriately because of our nutrient deficiencies. So it's more likely that if you're chronically getting cavities, it's not

that you suck at brushing your teeth. It's that you are choosing the worst possible foods. There's something else going on. We need to look upstream because, for example, I can have this happens all the time. I have two siblings come in, even sometimes twins. And one eats very, very well and takes

great care of their teeth and one eats garbage and never brushes. And the parents are usually like

what gives because the child very often who's eating well and taking great care of their teeth,

“they'll get cavities. And it's the kid who isn't doing anything may not. And so what is that?”

And it drives parents crazy. You know, they're just so frustrated. So there's more going on. It has to do with their microbiome. It has to do with their gut and their oral microbiome. It has to do with how they're breathing. It has to do the foods that they're eating and how frequently they're eating them and their drinks. So we don't think of this, but many drinks are acidic. Including some bottled water is acidic. What bottled water is acidic? Desani is, I don't

quote me on these numbers. But some of them are as low as 3 to 4 pH and we want to be up around 6 or 7 pH. That's really important to know. The water you drink is because of your cavities. It could be, it could be dropping the acid, the pH in your mouth. Yeah, making your mouth more acidic. And especially if you're sipping it on it all day. That is really interesting. I know. If people want to know more about this, obviously we can use chat or AI. But you can go on

Amazon and just get little pH strips and you can start testing your drinks. It's really important. We just don't think about everyone just thinks sugar, but it's actually acid. I want people to

“sort of think it's acid. That's the villain. Why do you so many women get cavities in pregnancy?”

Mineral deficiencies. Mineral depletion. And, you know, your babies do take a lot from you. And so if you're not optimised yourself, they will take it from mama, from your bones and your teeth. So many women have issues with what they're eating. You know, and so they might be sick. They might be vomiting. They might be eating more carbohydrate rich foods, kind of comfort foods. That can do it. Some women have an exaggerated gag reflex while they're pregnant. So just brushing and flossing can

be really challenging too. A lot of women suffer from gum disease when they're pregnant. This is because we do have estrogen receptors in our gums. And so when our hormone shifts, there's something called pregnancy gingivitis. And up to 75% of women will suffer from this. It does usually go away after you've had the baby. And you've been breastfeeding for a while in your hormones regularly. But you can get gingivitis. And it's because our hormone shift on estrogen and progesterone.

So estrogen can affect the gums. Make them inflamed. Progesterone can affect the ligaments

Symptoms or headaches. Or they might notice their teeth shift. And this has to do with, relax and is released to help us give birth. And it affects the ligaments around your teeth too. So your teeth literally can shift a little bit or move. And some women will notice that they're bite chefs. And it's not in their head. This is a real phenomenon. And imagine if we supported and listened to women and educated on this. And sort of, you know, just saying,

"Oh, it's fine. It's in your head." Brush and floss more. When women are throwing up a lot

in their first trimester with morning sickness, what should they be doing after they're throwing

“up? The worst thing to do is to immediately grab your toothbrush and brush.”

Oh, which is what you would think you'd want to do. Yes. Why is that? Because when you vomit, you've put acid into your mouth. When you've put acid into your mouth, you will lose minerals out of your teeth as I mentioned before. So that that is a normal phenomenon where there's something called de-mineralization and re-mineralization. And this is a normal process that happens throughout the day. If we're not sipping and snacking all day and if our saliva is optimized.

So after you vomit, the pH is going to be low because of stomach acid. So if you grab a toothbrush, you now have weak and denamble from that acid and those toothbrush bristles can literally

wear away your enamel and that's irreversible. So you could be damaging your enamel. So what is

better to do is to rinse with water. Ideally with a little baking soda or even high-quality sea salt. Like, I like red men's salt because it's mineral rich. Just rinsing is good. And then

“wait 20 or 30 minutes before you brush. That's the best thing to do. Okay, I love this for pregnant”

women. So we need to have that like on our sink. I have a little bowl of baking soda on with a lid on my sink because I do baking soda rinses a lot. This is a low-cost, no-cost way to neutralize or even create alkalinity in the mouth because remember what causes disease acid. So if you can raise the pH of your mouth, you're going to be in a much better situation. And so all those expensive rinses and things, a lot of them you don't need. Just water and baking soda. A little bit of salt can be

antiseptic and very therapeutic too. What are your thoughts on homeopathy as a dentist? I use them daily in my practice. Okay. Yeah, really. Yeah. So this is something interesting. I had to write this down. So I got all this and I'm probably not pronouncing these things, right? Okay, but I just want to get your thoughts on this because I saw this and I was like, now that's interesting to ask Dr. Stacey. According to moms who are into homeopathy, you can heal a cavity with this protocol.

Calc floor 12C, Silicia, and Calc Foss, a real food diet, keen ton minerals, and then concentrated butter oil directly on the tooth. Do you buy that you can use homeopathy to reverse cavities as a functional dentist? Yes, but with a caveat. So those are cell salts. They are part of my protocol too. It sounds like a Western price protocol, a bit of what you're communicating. Totally. And also I probably said all of that wrong. But no, I think you know that. I don't know. I think it was great. I

“knew you're talking about. Yes, we can heal cavities. Okay. But here's the thing. It's really”

important that people don't just go rogue on this and do it without any guidance. So not all cavities can be reversed, remineralized or arrested. That means stopped. So if a cavity is still in the enamel, which is the outer layer of her tooth, you absolutely can reverse it, remineralize it or arrest it. If it's a little bit deeper to the next layer, which is called the denton, it's maybe. Okay. Now with kids, I like to time when is that tooth going to fall out? Because if it means the tooth

going to fall out soon, but if I did a filling, the child might need a sedation or anesthesia, you know, I'd my father give the parent the option to let's try these protocols. The thing with

humans is nothing is perfect. We're all bioindividual. So what would be most important with that

protocols, I wouldn't want to know, why did your child get cavities to begin with? Let's start there. Was it? Is it truly a hygiene issue? Have you not been flossing? Are they on goldfish crackers all day, which by the way are mainly nemesis? I think they're the top reasons for cavities in the world, more than soda and candy bars. It's these crackers and chips and pretzels and granola bars and fruits facts and dried fruit. These things that we are marketed to is busy parents that we think

are healthier, but they are actually meant to be overconsumed, snack on. They're sticky. You know, think about when you need a handful of salt teens or crackers, they're all through your teeth. They sit there all day and what are they doing? They're breaking down into acids all day and feeding pathogenic bacteria. And then you have a two or three year old hygiene is very challenging. It's hard to brush. It's hard to floss. I ask any parent out there. So those crackers are now sitting there

maybe for a whole day or two days or three, or kind of indefinitely because the next day they just

breathing? You know, some of these things won't ever work if we don't really figure out the why.

“But I'm a big advocate for remineralization protocols and there's different ones out there. That's”

that is great. You can also use iodine, some people use hydroxy appetite, some people might use fluoride, we'll get into that. These are all personal preferences, but we also need to make sure we're hydrated, we're mineralized, and we're just optimized from a nutritional standpoint too. And when you get a lot of those things under control, you will see a big improvement in oral health, but a big thing for parents out there listening, so many genists don't speak of this, but

Candida or fungus is a top reason for cavities in children. Is that in the tummy? It can start in the mouth and go to the tummy or vice versa. So testing and so many genists aren't testing. Now there are oral microbiome tests that you can do. They're tricky in kids because kids microbiomes are very transient because they're constantly putting things in their mouth, but you know, you can do a gut mapping test too. So it's just something to think about if your child keeps getting cavities

“and you're just at Whitsend why I wonder could it be Candida? And many of these kids do show up”

with Candida. I was at a wedding recently and a mom came up to me. She listens to this show. She said, "Alex, tooth pillow, change my family's life." She tells me that her eight-year-old son was going death. They couldn't figure out why. Dr. After Dr. At one point they told her, you know what? It's probably just like an attention issue. He's just choosing to not listen to you. I love when they gaslight moms instead of investigating the problem. Don't you? I'm joking.

Long story short, her son was a chronic mouth breather. His body was constantly an overdrive, trying to compensate drying out his mouth, producing excess mucus. And so that mucus was blocking his ears. Is that not insane? So nobody connected this. He started wearing a tooth pillow at night. It helped guide proper tongue posture and support nasal breathing while he slept. And now completely different kid. He's hearing just fine. Not death at all. We have normalized things in

“kids that are not normal. Okay? Narrow faces crowded teeth, snoring, bedwedding, mouthbreeding,”

ADHD symptoms, chronic congestion. Teeth grinding. They're common, but they're not normal. When jaws grow too small, it restricts breathing and affects development in ways that most doctors

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dentists by using code Alex Clark. Last week I had allergies or a cold or the government was testing seasonal pollen warfare. I don't know, but my nose was a faucet. I was blowing it every six seconds. At one point I thought about just installing a clean ex holster like an old west sheriff. And then it happened. You know that moment when the skin under your nose turns into sandpaper, raw red, shaved. I kept putting random motions on it. And then I remembered I was like, wait a minute,

I have active skin repair. Active skin repair is non-toxic and uses hypoclorist acid, which sounds scary, but it's actually a molecule that your body already makes as part of your natural immune response. When you spray it on your skin, it helps cleanse through the irritation, calm redness and support healing. So I started using it on my nose and in one day almost completely healed. It is natural. It's non-toxic, medical grade ingredients. You can use it on cuts,

burns, rashes, sunburn, acne prone skin, eczema, rosacea, literally head to toe from pets to grandparents. Over a half a million happy customers, thousands of five star reviews and now it lives permanently under every sink in my house as well as my car and my purse. Go to activeskinrepair.com, use code Alex for 20% off your order. This is something that you buy before you need it. Okay, it's activeskinrepair.com code Alex for 20% off. Now I'm seeing all the time in these crunchy

mom-face book groups. Stuff like, okay, I put my whole family on, you know, cleaner toothpaste

and now we're all getting cavities. I'm so tempted to go back to fluoride. And I've always been like,

no, it's not the fluoride, but then you just said some people opt to use fluoride to help with their cavities. So now you're telling me something that is new to me. So can you explain, you know, what do you think about fluoride as a functional dentist? Yeah, I'll break all that down. So I see those posts also, and I find them to be very frustrating, because toothpaste does not cause cavities. Ever, I don't care what you're using. If you are eating optimally, if you're eating a more paleo diet,

factually about the cavity process. If you are eating clean and breathing appropriately and you're

“in balance, you could never brush your teeth, and you won't get cavities. Our ancestors had very few”

cavities hardly any. And go to the natural history museum and look at a skull. Do you see a bunch of fillings? Do you see cavities in the teeth? No, the teeth are pristine. Why is that? Because they were foraging. They were hunters and gatherers. They were eating a natural diet, which changed. Why are cavities the top chronic disease now? We went from a hunter, gatherer society to an agrarian society. We started farming, started farming corn, soy, rice. We started growing wheat,

and then the industrial revolution happened, and we started mass producing food and milling and processing, and pre-digesting food. We stopped chewing. Okay, so think about everything now. It is kind of dissolves in the mouth and it has flour and has sugar and has additives. So this is why we have the cavity epidemic. So when I see these posts, I want to sit with that family and say,

“if you're blaming the toothpaste, you're missing something really important going on in your child,”

because cavities are a kind of a metabolic imbalance. They are not about your toothpaste. Okay, so toothpaste is like extra credit. It can protect your teeth. If you're not eating, optimally, it can help ensure you won't get cavities, but it's not for sure because if it were with water fluoridation and all these fluoridated products out there, why are cavities still the top chronic disease in the world? And I will tell you people are speaking about hydroxy

appetite and regardless of what you use, I don't see this in my patients. I see 6,000 patients a year and no one's getting cavities because they switch from one toothpaste to another. I see plenty of patients who use fluorid products that get cavities. I see patients that use non-fluidated

products that get cavities. We're missing the point. Speaking of fluoride, I always have to break it

down between systemic and topical. So systemic is water fluoridation. Systemic is supplements. Systemic is, you know, swallowing things. Okay, I am not an advocate for a systemic fluoride at all. We have shown in the data that it doesn't even work. The latest caucon collaborative came out in 2024, showing the water community water fluoridation only reduces cavities by such a small percentage, it's not even statistically significant. And so a lot of the data that we had previously

is just inaccurate. Not to mention there are concerns with thyroid dysfunction, neural cognitive issues, IQ issues. We're not following the EP's on guidelines for margin of safety. So we should be to protect vulnerable populations. The EP's margin of safety is a 10 x threshold. We flirty about almost five times that amount and who are the vulnerable. It's pregnant women, it's infants and children with fluoride specifically. It's if you have iodine deficiencies,

calcium deficiencies, if you are sensitive to fluoride, which that does exist. And then there's genetic polymorphism. So those patients shouldn't be exposed to fluoride. So there's an issue there, obviously. There's a medical ethical issue that we're not getting consent. It is a medication. We're not getting consent. We're not factoring in dosage based on weight. You know, we're just treating everyone the same. You might drink one glass of water a day and I drink two gallons of water a

day. I'm obviously going to be exposed to a lot more fluoride. And the big thing for me that I think we need a lot more studies and research and as fluoride's antimicrobial. So what is it doing to the gut microbiome? And I would love to see more research going into that. There's some preliminary studies I've read that it is concerning. It lowers diversity. It can create intestinal permeability, maybe IBS, IBD, etc. So can you imagine that we're just blanketly fluorinating the water and

actually causing other health issues. And as a provider who said, I'll do no harm. And I'll prioritize the brains of the children. I treat. I choose brains over teeth. Baby teeth fall out. They're important. They do fall out. You get one shot to grow a brain. Okay. So the burden of proof needs to be on the safety. We shouldn't have to prove it's unsafe. Okay. They need to prove

“it actually is safe, which I have not done. That's how I feel though. Systemic. Okay. If you could tell,”

I'm not a fan. And this includes supplementation. It also just doesn't work. Okay. We know that fluoride works topically, not systemically. So topical. That is toothpaste. Those are rinses. Those are varnishes that the dentist does at the office. I personally do not use fluorinated products.

My kids have never been exposed to topical fluoride. I support patients and what they want to

use. I do worry about topical applications. If they're swallowing young children, now we're in the same issue of ingestion. How much is absorbed through the oral mucosa?

but then I'm like, okay, but using fluoride toothpaste. I'm like you're following it.

You could argue probably adults aren't, but certainly children are. So absolutely I do not

“think you should be using it in children, unless they're spitting. I've not seen a study.”

Maybe please listeners, if you find one, send it to me. But that looks at how much is absorbed through the oral mucosa. Okay. Now it could be negligible and it's on an issue. But I just want to risk it. And also I'm worried about what is doing to my oral microbiome. You know, the advocates of it say we love it because it's anti-microbial. Okay, but it's not selective. So it's killing bad bacteria, but also your good commensal bacteria. And we now know the microbiome is king or queen.

Okay, we need to treat it with respect. We need a nourish that we need to support it. We need to start carpet bombing it. And over perscribing antibiotics and, you know, in the septicrances and alcohol conferences, et cetera, and really start looking at how do we nourish and feed our microbiome. It's much more important. So if families choose use tropical fluoride, I am not going to tell you not to, but it is a discussion I have with my patients who are open to hear my opinions about it.

The argument is access to care that some patients may be don't have access to the obromine or hydroxy appetite or some of these other remineralizing agents. And I do understand that. But again, topical fluoride is very accessible. You can get it at the dollar tree. But the thing with fluoride is it doesn't remineralize teeth. It actually just makes them

“more acid resistant. So to, remember, we talked about acid is what causes disease. So it might”

create a little armor around your tooth, just to protect it a little bit more. But if you're chugging big gulps of mountain do all day and talkies and you're going to get cavities this period. It doesn't matter how much fluoride you use. Fluoride is no match for big food. I am personally anti-hydroxy appetite. Here's why. I started using hydroxy appetite toothpaste when I switched away from fluoride. I started developing all of these black gray dots on my teeth and in-between my teeth.

I thought I had a cavity infestation from hell. I did not understand what was going on. I couldn't brush it off. I went to the dentist. They were able to polish it off well with a professional cleaning. But then I would use this toothpaste to come back. Finally, I switched to a zylitol-based toothpaste. Zero issues completely went away. I would love to hear your take on why this happened to me. And by the way, I don't say that people get so upset when I say I don't like hydroxy appetite.

They're like, so what? I can't use it. I'm not saying that. It might be great for you.

For me. For me, it clearly was creating this stuff on my teeth. I will say this. I have never

seen an ingredient with that my patients use that have helped their teeth more than hydroxy appetite. Genrely speaking. But that being said, I have seen these reports. Yes, it's staining. And so you may be of a small portion of patients, but I need to know, I don't want to name brands right now. We'll talk offline. Where did they source their hydroxy appetite from? What was the concentration? What were the other ingredients in the toothpaste?

Okay. But you're staining and I have seen this and it always polish his off. It's extrinsic. But it's not, it's unsightly. Like we don't like that. And so that tells me there's probably some shift in your microbiome. So there's something called cromogenic bacteria, which is actually benign or even beneficial, but it's gray or brown. So your microbiome may actually have been healthier, but it didn't look great. Now a lot of times patients when they continue to use it for three

“to six months, your microbiome will re-establish. Just like when you have to do like a gut microbiome”

reset, it takes a while. And then we do see that seen and go away. But not always. And this is my point.

We have to be very cautious listening in a podcast and listening to social media posts because we're not one-size-fits-all. And so what works for you may be very different than what works for me. And this is what I like about this show is I've had other dentists on this show. They had different takes on fluoride than you. They were all no fluoride at all period. You're saying you have a nuanced take on it. And people will hear that and they're like, "Well, I don't understand what I'm supposed

to do because you had people with different opinions on." And I am saying, "No, this is what is so cool about it." It's because we're not one-size-fits-all. This is the problem with the medical industry as is right now. We're trying to treat people like it's one-size-fits-all. I need to have different experts that have varying levels of different expertise within the same. I'm we all agree on a more holistic way to live. That's at least that is the main thread

throughout the show. Some people have different ideas of how to get there. But because everybody's different, like me, with hydroxy appetite, not agreeing, I need to hear from somebody saying, you know, explaining why that may not be ideal for me. So like, I have so many people in my audience that need to hear different things and something might work for someone that doesn't

Yeah, you're going to hear people that say, "Zyla tall is terrible for you. I completely disagree with that." And there's no data to support that. We can find anything we want, kind of about anything from any side, right? I like to take a very balanced approach to my recommendations because of that, because I know not everyone has access to everything I'm talking about. Not everything works for everyone. But again, in my office, I generally don't promote fluoride. Okay, I don't use it

personally because I have concerns with it from my family and from myself, and I choose to avoid it. But you may find that's all you have available to you, or you may really be a believer in it. This is why I recommend for everyone to take the information they hear and do a little bit of their own research and see what resonates with them. One thing that I see also speaking of these

“mom's Facebook groups. And I'm in these because I think it's fun. I think it's interesting.”

Oh, I'm in them too. The other thing is parents are always posting their toddlers teeth

that have these like brown spots all over them. I mean, they look rank. And they're like, this is what's happening to my kids teeth after switching to, you know, cleaner toothpaste. Is this like what you're talking about with the staining and the microbiome rebalancing? No, those posts, I just don't even understand what they are. I think there are some people are getting paid. I swear. I get to buy big fluoride. Exactly. No, there are.

This is a legit conversation happening to scare other parents. Yes, really. Fluoride is very threatened by some of these alternative toothpaste. They've taken a head. Don't, yeah, absolutely. I didn't even know that was real. I was just being funny. But that's interesting. No, I mean, listen, I don't know. I'm a board certified pediatric dentist. I see 200 patients a week. I've been working practicing for 20 years. Okay. This is actually my 20th year anniversary

this year of being a dentist. And I've never seen these things that you've seen in Facebook

groups and you're practice. So what is that happening there? I don't know. I don't, again, I'd have to do a full work up on them. I want to know what they're eating with their drinking. How are they breathing? Like, have there been this changes? So I have a theory. Maybe this has to do with this huge amount of adults in their 20s and their 30s that opt to not go to the dentist regularly. I feel like it's a mass problem. I have grown up always. I go to the dentist for professional

cleaning every three to six months. Now I do every three when I was growing up. My mom took me every six, but I go three. And none of my friends go. Really? None of my friends. And I'm talking like all of my friends are very into holistic health. All these things. They will go to a naturopath. They will do functional medicine doctors. All the all of this. Chiropractor will not go to a dentist. And I'm just like, why I mean, I just feel like I'm fine. I don't think I have any cavities.

Do you see this? Do you feel like there's an epidemic of 20s and 30s just thinking they don't

“necessarily have to really go to the dentist? Unless they have like a glaring pain or problem?”

Yes. I mean, I don't even know if I'd say in that age group. I think a lot of people don't go to the dentist. They don't take it seriously. I'm in. I think there's many reasons for that. I think there's true general phobia. Many of that dating back to when they were kids, which is actually why I went into pediatrics. I was an adult dentist and I couldn't take the chronic disease and I couldn't take how it was nonstop. And I couldn't take how I felt like I was into making a

difference. And I couldn't take how everyone was terrified of me. And I'd say, why? It was always

a story going back to childhood. I was like, good Lord, we need to change that. I need to get upstream. And what is that? That's with kids. That's with educating parents. So I do love children, but that's not why I went in in pediatrics. It's because that's the most upstream that I can get. So I think what is happening. Dentistry went one way in medicine when another. And because of that, the mouth is just separate outside of the body. We've done it with our eyes too, right? Just the

separation from you going to the optometrist, your eyes are different insurance plan. Like, they're just outside of the body. That's ridiculous. So for anyone that says they're holistic and in a functional medicine, the mouth, the gateway to the body is the beginning of your digestive tract. The oral microbiomes, the second most diverse microbiome in the body. And we now know about the oral systemic connection. That is the bacteria in our mouths, can influence Alzheimer's,

dementia, cancers, including pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disease. It can impact your fertility or rectal dysfunction can become from your mouth. What? Yes. What do you mean? Yes. So the bacteria in our mouth influence nitric oxide production. So you'll see these on, post perhaps about how we shouldn't be using alcohol-based mouth washes or a stringents. Have you seen not like stop using flisterine?

And that is because it wipes out the healthy bacteria in your mouth, but including the ones that

“support nitric oxide production. And that's why the studies show that there was an increase in blood”

pressure and patients that were chronically using these products. But also, it changes your

influence rectal dysfunction. I mean, this is how the, the, the erectile dysfunction medications work,

they boost nitric oxide and blood flow. That is crazy. But to me, what I get, what gets people motivated,

“I think, is Alzheimer's. So there is a very popular eye study out of Harvard where they looked at”

the brains of deceased patients who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And 96% of them had pigeons of alice in their brain. And that is a gum bacteria from gum disease. They had controls and all the confounding variables were taken care of. And there's no reason this bacteria should be in your brain unless you have gum disease because there's something called leaky gums. We've all heard of leaky gut intestinal permeability. Okay, if your gum's bleed when you brush or floss,

we call pink in the sink. You've now created low-grade systemic inflammation. Okay, and we know inflammation is terrible for us. That's like having a low-grade chronic infection in the mouth, essentially. But now you've created a pathway through the bleeding gingiva for bacteria to get through into the circulatory system. And it can end up in different organ systems that shouldn't. Plus,

they release endotoxins. And basically, these really terrible byproducts that can cause inflammation

in distant organ systems, including leading to, like, amyloid plaques and cow tangles in the brain. And so if you are not flossing and not brushing and not seeing the dentist may, I please tell you, you will have a better cognitive outcomes if you have a healthier mouth. You'll be less likely to have dementia and Alzheimer's. The other thing that dentist do, that's important to go is oral cancer screening. Oral cancer is very prevalent and very underdiagnosed in medicine. Who can

“else can do that besides a dental hygienist or a dentist? Because you have to a lot of him that's”

deep under the tongue or they're looking back in your fairings. And those are things you want to catch early. I wonder if we're going to see an increase in oral cancers in young people because of vaping. vaping and pouches, nicotine pouches. Really talk about that. So there's some case studies and there's more research coming out about this. And nicotine is a neurotrophic and people are using it for, you know, focus and cognitive performance. RFK loves it. Yeah, be careful with the pouches.

Because it's not necessarily the nicotine. They do put additives in there at the flavoring grains. They can actually get by with putting a little soup or loss in there and not reporting in it. And so what happens is people are leaving them there way too long. Okay, like some people will leave them there for hours and hours and it's creating, ginger wool, inflammation, you can see recession but it does create cellular changes too. And we also see an increase in

cavities, like rampant cavities from these and it's because it's shifting the microbiome. So patch, not pouch. Patch, I mean, I'm sure it's someone's created like a spray or just something that is quicker, I meant even, but like to leave a pouch there for so long. It's not something I suggest. Listener DM me recently asking for advice because her insurance denied a claim for stitches,

stitches after birth. Apparently her cut was non-emergent. I didn't realize that we're ranking laceration now, like Yelp reviews. Another woman message me saying that her insurance

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And this is exactly why I had Andy from Crowd Health on the podcast because the traditional system feels less like healthcare and more like a bureaucracy obstacle course. If you're in that season where pregnancy is on your mind or it's already happening, you're realizing fast

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I just went to Disneyland and let me tell you, it's magical. It's also a nutritional crime scene. You walk 10 feet in a sugar seed oil, something labeled beef inspired product. I'm standing there looking at a $19 corn dog thinking, this is how civilizations fall.

fried. So I packed my own food. Front center in my bag, paleo Valley 100% grass fed beef sticks. They're totally organic. They're not gas station meat tubes with preservatives. Paleo Valley makes the only naturally fermented 100% grass fed and grass-finished beef sticks in the U.S. They use organic spices, no artificial junk. And the beef comes from cows raised entirely on grass pastures by family farmers here in America. And the big difference is they're naturally

fermented instead of loaded with chemical preservatives. That means real food, better digestion, clean, protein, steady energy while everyone else is crashing, waiting a line for space mountain.

“They've got flavors like original, jalapeno, garlic, summer sausage, cherry hockey. And honestly,”

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So when women's hormone shift, we do norm bacteria shift. And we a lot of times can get more pathogenic bacteria, but also a lot of those medications cause zero stormy, which is dry mouth.

“And remember, I was saying that spit is the golden elixir of our bodies. I want you to start”

really cherishing and appreciating your saliva because it has enzymes in it. It has immune cells in it. It's the first line of our defense. Think things come into the mouth and our body needs to recognize it. It's as foreign. You know, what do I do with this? So there's a lot of immune cells in your immune system begins there. And so with pregnant women too, that hormonal shift can influence your saliva very health and patients who have dry mouth, they do tend to get a lot of

dental disease. We see this with our cancer patients and with our elderly patients too. Their disease skyrockets is because they lose their saliva very health. In certain medications, we'll do this too, like SSRIs and, you know, a lot of prescription medications cause dry mouth. So we need to be very

cautious with that. Why do you advise people to never use whitening toothpaste? I wouldn't say

never suggest it, but just buyer beware. So I want everyone to feel good and feel confident and I understand that having bright white teeth is part of that. And I like that too. Just be aware that bleaching on with peroxide. So carbon my peroxide hydrogen peroxide, that does release reactive oxygen species. It's basically oxidative stress. This isn't good in the body. And so that can shift the microbiome. And if you overuse these products, you could also be causing permanent nerve

damage. So people that had sensitivity after they bleached, that is a red flag that you're causing minor nerve damage. Like a minor trauma to your teeth. And so imagine if you're doing this day and in day out, you're overdoing it. I've seen these TikTok challenges, whether they're just basically ex-wigging hydrogen peroxide for these super white bright teeth that don't even look human. I just think, oh my gosh, you're gonna have so many root canals in the future. So just be careful.

I'm not saying never, like I don't like charcoal toothpaste cause it's abrasive and it can wear away

or enamel. I'm okay with bleaching. I just want people to not overdo it. And listen to their body. If you're using it and it hurts, if it's too sensitive, back off on it. Find a lower dose of the bleaching agent or maybe find alternatives, you know, more natural like baking soda and water. Going for cleanings more frequently, you know, there are different ways to have brighter white teeth. The problem is we're so used to filters and we're inundated with veneers. I am so anti-veneer.

Yeah. I'm anti-veneer. It's not even that they look like crap. Most of them do. They do. The other thing that I don't think anyone is thinking about is you're shaving down your real

“tooth and you're interfering with the meridians. Am I wrong? Am I off base? Is this fair tutorial sound?”

No, no, it's not. I'm not a huge fan either, but I will say there are providers out there doing very quality veneers and being very ethical and functional about them, but they're few and far between who are some of them? Can you name any of them? Well, I know Dr. Vexer and L.A. I launched the Institute for Functional Dentistry and he's on faculty and we can put him in the show notes for people. Yeah, can go flood his office. And anyone he's trained with, either his mentors

or who he's trained in, he's in he does beautiful veneers. But I do see this too, like, unfortunately, it's usually kids and they go because it's cheap and they get their teeth like just filed down and nubs and then have veneers put on and that is malpractice. Quite honestly, those teeth will all need to be root canal. So I'm not a huge fan either. I prefer natural teeth.

teeth. And again, I want everyone feeling good about themselves because mental health and how

our confidence impacts our health too. It's worth the extra money to find someone who really knows what they're doing and just know anything you put in the mouth, it is going to shift the microbiome, nothing lasts forever in dentistry, nothing. Fillings, crowns, veneers, they're going to need to be replaced. So if you're 25 years old and you're having veneers put on, they're going to need to be replaced once twice, maybe three times in your life. So just be aware of that. So if you

can get by with maybe just bleaching and brightening, maybe getting some of this line, like just straightening your smile a little bit and avoiding veneers, that is what I would suggest. But I agree with you, there's some really bad veneers out there. And so many, I feel like the more wealthy people get the brighter and wider their teeth get. Have you noticed that? Like some people, their teeth are so white. Is there a non-toxic way to wipe your teeth? There are brands like

lumineaux, have it used more herbs, like herbal medicaments, and a blend that can work, you know, those on strawberries or supposed to brighten and whiten your teeth. Really? Because of the acid, it's very mild gentle acids. But again, I just like baking soda. I'm a huge fan of baking soda. So like make a slurry and you can brush with it and it's not going to be the Hollywood white

“blinding, but it can brighten. I think natural white is prettier anyway. I agree. So is flavored”

kids' toothpaste problematic? Ah, it's evil. Especially because, okay, so most of these flavored toothpaste, I have found, are the Florida-to-type, they're the bubble gum, and they have cartoon characters on them. And I think that's just outrageous. It's terrible marketing to a vulnerable population, and those are the kids who shouldn't be using it because they're going to eat it and swallow it and adjust it like candy and have to call poison control. There is a poison control,

label, morning, on Florida-to-products for a reason. If over-consumed, it does act as a poison, kids will vomit sometimes. I have kids after those trays I used to do, and fluoride varnish, which I've really moved away from. I don't really offer it now in my office. They get sick. They get nauseous. That's a real thing. Because they're swallowing in that. It's a mild poison to them. But yes, you want to be careful with natural flavors. Sorry, artificial flavors and things,

and the whole flavor industry is so sketchy. So much is proprietary, and there are flavorings. It's kind of like the mafia that are actually cleaner, but they won't release the ingredients,

“and then you have to go through like EWG or similar thing to reverse engineer to see if they're”

clean or not. So if you can use natural flavors, that's best. But the problem is essential oils,

which would be natural flavors, they can act into microbial in the mouth. So over using them, can cause some of the same issues we were talking about with antiseptic and alcohol-based melthrinces. They can just carp it, bomb. And so you just want to be cautious. You know, um, but I'm very opposed to like the bubblegum. They used to put like these sparkles in the kids who pitch with their microplastic. It were literally little beads of plastic. I didn't even know that.

Yeah. I was not a discipline flosser until probably a couple of years ago. Now, when I became one, it dramatically changed my life. Yeah, dramatically like I couldn't even believe it. I just thought that was annoying thing that you guys had to say or something for some reason. I just thought this

is not a legit thing. Why do they always care about flossing? And then I started doing it. I think

that my gums were a major source of inflammation in my body. Absolutely. And once I started regularly

“flossing, I think the inflammation of my mouth went down and I just felt better everywhere. Can you”

speak to flossing and why you cannot roll your eyes when your dentist asks you about it? I love that you just said that. Thank you so much. I feel so validated. You're spot on. So I always tell the kids at my practice and I'm really speaking to their parents too. If I was on a desert island and I had a peg between a toothbrush and endless floss, I would always pick floss because I think it's profoundly important because your gums are a barrier. Okay. They're a barrier from the outside world to the

inside world, from all those microbes getting inside your body. And you want them to be healthy. And we want to reduce any source of inflammation in the body because you'll have better health outcomes. Chronic inflammation can lead to autoimmune disease. It can lead to cancer. It can lead to mood disorders. You know, arthritis, all of these things. So you were right in feeling that way. I will tell you if I go on a camping trip and I don't, I forgot my floss and I don't floss for a

few days. I feel inflamed. I really do. And I don't believe it's in your head. So when you're gonna say that, we're what we're looking at is inflammation but bleeding, too. And if you have bleeding gums, you know, week after week, month after month, decade after decade, you're more likely to have all these inflammatory issues including the things we spoke about. So, you know, not only

disease fertility issues, sexual health issues, cancer, et cetera. So if your gums bleed when you

flush your teeth, that could be causing your infertility. Yes, there's a lot of data around that. So women, this not only blame women, so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna talk about both partners, two to ten go. So women, their studies that show women who have gum disease can take two to seven months longer to conceive. And this is because that inflammation and the bacteria can influence ovulation and implantation and your cycle in general. Okay, because of inflammatory

markers, men who have gum disease or more likely to have issues with sperm, counts, sperm mobility, sperm motility. Again, because of inflammation. This is crazy. It's crazy. And fertility clinics are really talking about this for every fertility clinic should be

doing an oral microbiome test, which is salivary analysis. It's spit. It could not be an

easier test. You don't need a poke, you don't need a blood draw, you spit in a tube, you send it out, you get the microbiome. We look to see, do they have gum disease bacteria, peridonal bacteria, or not? And if they do, they need to go to see a dentist and get cleaned up and get on a protocol. And some of these bacteria are so virulent. There's something called spyrarchetes. Their corkshush shaped and they actually will like embed and pregnant into tissue. So no amount of pressure

in your flossing is gonna get them out. Sometimes you need antibiotics. But then it's like one and done, and then we start fresh, and then we rebuild, of course. And we want to avoid antibiotics, but if you're not addressing us, they have serious downstream effects. So bleeding gums automatically mean you've gummed as well. Okay, and gummed as easy as responsible. It can lead to all those other health issues. Wow. Okay. So if you have pink in your sink, that's a huge literal red flag

“in your face that you need to do something differently. Now, important to know. So many patients”

get shamed and blamed that you're not flossing and brushing enough. But what else could cause bleeding gums? Vitamin C deficiency. Remember, scurvy? Okay, dentists aren't talking about this. Nutritional deficiencies. Zink deficiency. B vitamin deficiencies can lead to bleeding gums too, chronic mouth breathing. Got dyspiosis. So this is where functional dentistry. We don't just say hygiene. We don't just say brush floss and use fluoride. We have to look at the human in the systems

biology of it and to really understand. And I see so many patients that they really, their teeth come in. They're so clean. You know, and they're like, "I brush and floss all the time, they're gums bleed." So I'm looking like more nutritional airway. It's you have ill-fitting like a crown that doesn't fit right or a filling that's broken or the margin that can cause gummed disease too. So we need to really look at the why. Is it a good idea for a dentist to check your

vitamin D levels? Yes. Do you do that with your patients? Yes. Why is that? I don't know. I've never

heard of that until I went and saw your colleague and friend, Dr. Blodgett, also practicing important linoregan where you are. And he checked my vitamin D levels. I was like, "Why? You're my dentist." So can you explain that? So vitamin D deficiency is one of the top reasons for cavities.

“There's tons of research about this. So what do you need to have a healthy tooth? You need vitamin D3,”

you need K2, you need magnesium, you need calcium, you need phosphorus, you need minerals. Okay? So the data shows chronic vitamin D deficiency is going to impair calcium metabolism and how essentially you utilize minerals. Just in vitamin D does a slew of other things too. And including, in fact, are sleep and arguably how we're breathing at night. And so we do see patients with chronic cavities, recurring cavities. They do tend to have chronicly deficient in vitamin D. And

what's interesting back in the early 1900s before the whole water fluoridation thing happened, which was in the 1940s. Dennis used to talk about this. They used to talk about vitamin D. They would suggest that patients go out into the sun and eat more vitamin D-rich foods to up these levels because they knew it was associated with cavities. But it came big pharma. I mean, fluorid is pharma and all of these going getting back to the basics just kind of

disappear, but it's all throughout the literature. In fact, I did a little pilot study on my office where I would test all the children undergoing general anesthesia, which I hate doing, but sometimes they need it. Okay? When they're in pain, they have infection. And I did a finger spot test and they all were chronically deficient. Every single one of those children in my

“opportunity. And if I just met them earlier, you know, I met them too late. I think we could”

of course correct it, but a lot of them were in the single digits or the teens. And we really want to be to be optimized if you follow functional medicine protocols up around 60 to 80 nanograms a millimeter. And you know, conventional medicine will say, "Ah, you're in the teens or 20s, you're fine." That's very deficient. That's like houseplay at level. You know? So it

Is there a certain ingredient and conventional toothpaste that could actually be causing your kanker source? Yes. Sodium, Laurel, sulfate, or it's derivatives. So sodium Laurel, sulfate, it's SLS is what you'll see. It's the foaming agent. So a lot of people think that their toothpaste needs to burn and foam for it to be working. This, again, is manipulative marketing from our toothpaste manufacturers, but that foaming is very aggressive on the oral mucosa.

And it can strip it. And it can cause ulcerations or kanker source. And SLS was originally used as a derivative in floor cleaners, just for reference. So your toothpaste really doesn't need to

“foam. And I believe it shouldn't. That's my opinion. It can take a lot of getting used to people.”

It's just like when we change our shampoo, right? It takes some time. Your hair needs to adjust. Just like your microbiome may be needs to shift a little bit. Okay? So we have to give it time. But a lot of times, people will notice their mouth actually feels so much healthier when they get off that foaming. So but if you do suffer from chronic ulcerations, I would look at your toothpaste ingredients, rule out SLS. I also would look toward, do you have crones or celiac or gluten sensitivity?

Many people think gluten sensitivity, celiac, these issues, they have got manifestations. A very small percentage actually do. Most are in the skin or we'll see in the gums or the mouth.

So the mouth is one of the first places that we can dye, you know, celiac or crones.

The toothpaste that I use is called zebra. And that's the zylatol toothpaste. It doesn't foam or anything. And so when people try it, sometimes at first, when they're used to conventional toothpaste, that's like the number one thing that I get told to my DMs. They're like, I don't understand. There's nothing's happening. Like it's not foaming. Like I feel like it's not working. I'm like, you've got to get over this. Like you will get used to it. And it is the best

ever. And then once they're used to it, they're like, oh, I love this. But yeah, I hear that a lot. And I'm like, you've got to get over that. It's just a marketing tool. Just like when you've got these chemical cleaning products that people are used to using. And they're like, well, my house is clean

“because I smell the chemicals. And that is a terrible sign. You should never be able to smell”

your house is clean. You should smell nothing. We know that we're over disinfecting everything.

This is my asthma in allergies in XMR. We never want kids back playing in the dirt getting exposed

to these microbes. But this is all marketing that your products have to smell or they have to foam or they have to burn the crap out of your mouth. Like that's not how they're working. That's right. Some of the people that I know in my life. And I love them dearly. And they eat very clean. I know their diets. They are very, very good about real food only zero-old process food. And they still have rank breath. So what is happening there? So there are people you can be on a plane or in close

proximity on an elevator and you just have to like take a stop back because it's that offensive. That's very likely period on all disease. It's what you're smelling. Some people refer to it as kind of smelling like mothballs. I don't know if that resonates. So that's a big red flag that they have

“these bad gum disease pathogens. These period onal pathogens that are the ones that can lead to all”

timers and dementia. All the things we talked about. So they really need to get worked up. They need to test their oral microbiome. And there are direct to consumer tests. Now that you can test it home, you can just bypass your dentist. What are those called? Bristle is what I really like. It uses shotgun medigenomics. It has a really awesome interface for consumers, for people that maybe don't have a dentist that can read and interpret and even know what we're talking about right now and

necessarily. But you'll see like is it, is it lighting up with these period onal pathogens? My mother and law, for example, incredibly healthy. She's 82. She swims every day. She does yoga. She's please pick a ball. It's going out of style. She's a farmer by choice. It's kind of just her hobby. So she walks like literally 30,000 steps a day. She's incredible. She can play in longer than I can. Wow. I tested her and she had, she had great checkups at her dentist and she was really high

in F nucleatum. F nucleatum is a bacteria associated with colon cancer. She has a history of

colon cancer and her family. So I did a whole protocol and her to eradicate that and you never

get it to zero necessarily, but we reduced her pathogen load significantly. She never would have known how we not tested her microbiome. How did you do that less than the pathogen load? The protocol I used with her, we used hypoclorous acid, which was a rinse. We used baking soda and a water pick. I up to her nutritional level. We used prebiotics and probiotics that I knew were targeting her oral microbiome and her gut microbiome too. So that was a more gentler approach and then I

wanted to retest before I did antibiotics. Had it not moved, I probably would have done antibiotics

washing water pick in with some of these agents. You could use iodine, people use ozenated water, ozenated gas, different functional dentists will do laser therapy too that can help with with gum healing. You can use oregano oil, colloidal silver. You want some sort of antimicrobial

“but not for too long. And this is where essential oils can be really beneficial too. But again,”

not forever. This is an acute issue. So we want to just use them for a set amount of time and then kind of move away from that. Why do some people get more plaque than others? That can be dehydration. Certainly it can be hygiene. Okay. Let's assume it's not. So that can be dehydration. That can be mouth breathing. That can be mineral deficiencies and also if they eat a high carbohydrate or fermental carbohydrate diet. So again people who tend to eat paleo or carnivore, they're not eating

a lot of carbohydrates. They're not going to get plaque. They really don't have plaque. It's the biofilm is created when those bacteria which eat fermentable carbohydrates they thrive and they flourish and they can grow and they're sticky and they stick to your teeth. And so people who get a lot of these foods, bread and pasta and cereals and chips and crackers and all that, they will tend to get more in plaque. There's that nursery rhyme about that old lady who lived in a shoe.

And I always think, what was happening in that shoe? You know it smelled insane. No ventilation,

30 kids, probably one bar of soap from 1912. That woman needed dry shampoo. She needed help.

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What are the top catastrophic mistakes that parents are making when they find out that their child is a mouth breather? Panicking? Take a breath. I do see this a lot. I'm so thankful for social media for educating but I do think it can elicit a lot of fear and anxiety and moms who all, you know, we just care about our babies more than anything and sometimes they think we're looking for something to be wrong but maybe it isn't or we want it fixed immediately and that isn't

always available and so just take a breath. I think ignoring it is also equally as bad, you know,

finally fell asleep. She was snoring so loud and her mouth was wide open and the first thing

I thought is my goodness. She has inflammation somewhere and is a chronic mouth breather and the parent, you know, a lot of times we think that little snoring is so cute and we just just miss it and this happened with my own daughter. This is why I became an airy focused dentist, my daughter who's now almost 13 was just like that little girl and I didn't even know. I didn't even see it and then I look back at photos and every photo of her mouth open. This is how I went on my airway journey and

got more certifications and trainings. So don't ignore it. Any amount of snoring really isn't typical. Of course if your kids are sick, it's going to be different, you know, they're going to be breathing through their mouth but they should get back to nasal breathing and so if it is chronic,

try to find the why. When young young kids wears the inflammation coming from like if someone says

their adenoids are bigger, their tonsils are big, I want to know why. Why is the why is that inflammation happening? Listen, not just go straight to surgery, magnesium deficiency, iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency can all impact sleep quality and even how we're sleeping, it can be structural.

“Do they have a high neural palate? Do they have a missed tongue tie? Do they have low tone?”

I really love body work. Like higher practic work and cranial, um, sacral work can really help too. It just, there's so many variables about airway that we need to work up but I don't want parents ignoring it and then the other thing I think is buying appliances online without any work up because they want to have a solution but um, I caution you any appliance out there that says they're the the gold standard. We just spoke about earlier. Nothing is one size fits all. We're all different

into what might work for one child may not be what you're a child needs and so this is why trying to find somebody who is trained in this to to get you on the right path is my recommendation. What age is imperative to act on correcting mouth breathing in your kid as soon as you realize it? Okay. So like if they're like a two young age, like they're two years old, that two young,

there are always things that you can do but it's strategic. So in an infant, for example,

they're having a hard time latching or breastfeeding or their mouth breathing. Well that is where we can work with an IBCLC electrician specialist. Maybe we can get some body work done or maybe there is a tongue tie that we need to address. Okay. So that's kind of the young

“years. Then as they get older, you know if it's chronic mouth breathing or is it low tone?”

It's a low muscle tone and there are appliances, something called a myomancy which literally is helping with muscle tone that's kind of it. People want it to change the shape of the skull and the jaws and it doesn't really do that. It might a little bit but it's very hard to crack generations and generations of human skulls shrinking. So I'll go on a little tangent here. So just like ancestral humans didn't have cavities. We also didn't have so many airway issues.

We had nice broad wide jaws. We didn't have crowding. Okay. Again, look at that skull. The next time you go to the natural hissy museum, the teeth are so straight. The wisdom teeth have grown. Why was that? The anthropologist theorist is because we used to chew for hours and hours a day because we were foraging. Okay. Now we chew for minutes a day. So that active mastocation or chewing it actually pushes everything out. It starts with breastfeeding but it lateralizes. It grows the

face broad and wide. Now it's been 12,000 years of not much chewing and so you can't undo that amount of

“time or kind of dis-evolving. And James Nester speaks about this who I believe you've had on your podcast”

before that the human face is shrinking instead of broad and wide, we're growing long and narrow. And that not only creates crowding but it makes our sinuses shorter. It can deviate the septum and you just lose all this beautiful real estate for airway health. If your child truly has skeletal issues, we do like to get little retainers in there to help grow the face wide and broad and expand. They're called Expanders, the palate. This all has to be timed on when it's appropriate for your

child. It has to do with their behavior. It has to do with their need. But we do know most facial developments done by 10. Okay. So window I like to start. I like to start the conversations as soon as I meet the child. Maybe they need to see a chiropractor cranial sacral therapist. Maybe they need to see a mild functional therapist. And we do a functional orthodontists where I am thank goodness. But most children won't tolerate these appliances till they're about four or so.

And so between four and six or seven, I definitely want to get started. And there are still a cone appliances which I see marketed a lot. I think those are good not great in their case dependent. Most kids who really are constricted, they do need a little bit more. And then they can be removable appliances or fixed appliances. And again, this is not one size fits all. So

What is worse pacifiers, thumb suckers, or sippy cup users? They're all not great for

oral development. It all has to do with intensity, duration, and frequency. So if you just passively set your thumb in your mouth and then it falls out, probably not a big deal. But if you're

“like Maggie Simpson, like you have to pop it out, a lot of force, and you do it all day long,”

those kids are going to have probably major skeletal deformities. And so it just depends. Thumbs tricky because you can't take it away. You can't take a pacifier away. What do you mean? We can't just chop it off. And pacifiers are fine in those early months, all right? It gives moms a break. And that's called non-nutritive sucking. And that's very normal.

It's developmentally normal to have that sucking reflex. That usually disappears around six

months old. So I do like between six and eight months old up through a year, that is when I want you to take the past right away. If your child benefits from one. So if you're beyond a year, it's a it's we we have to have a talk. I want it gone. Okay. So don't again, if you're listening, please don't panic. But some kids will go right back to the thumb. So then you have to think about why does this child have this sucking reflex past a normal developmental point? Why are they still

doing it? And a lot of times it's tongue tied. A lot of times it's like a neural cognitive reflex that didn't sink. So you can have something called retain primitive reflexes. And this is where chiropractors and cranial sacral therapists can come in. They can have muscle balance and muscle tone issue. So again, we want to get to the reason why. And it's hard to it's hard to unpack. And so sometimes you have these conversations, but you can't expect like an overnight fix in your

“kids necessarily. But I think the biggest thing with pacifiers is please try to have it gone.”

The latest by the age of one, ideally more to six to eight months. Thumb is trickier. Thumb I really want to know the why or they if thumb suckers still pass those that month, that month, that six months or so. And then sippy cut. You know, I haven't seen a lot of issues with sippy cut personally. I mean, we're taught that even in dental school we're taught like sippy cuts are bad, but it's it has to do a density duration of frequency again. Okay. Yeah, do kids just grow

into straight teeth. Not usually. I I have been surprised, but usually if so in baby teeth, we should see space in the front. We should see space in between all the front teeth. If your child has no space, they might have beautifully straight teeth, but they're probably going to be crowded because adult teeth are bigger and wider and baby teeth. So I have been

“surprised before, but usually if I see no space in primary teeth, their baby teeth, or certainly”

if I see crowding already in baby teeth, they're going to be crowded and they usually don't grow into it. Our kids losing baby teeth later than they used to. I see it both ways. I actually see it kind of the opposite that they're losing them earlier and just like they're getting men's ears earlier. Yeah, they're going to puberty earlier and I blame endocrine disruptors and I have a concern. Like when kids lose teeth really, really early, it makes me a little uneasy. Like why

why biologically are they doing this? Now, there are variables to everything, right? And so when did your child first get their their first baby tooth? Most get them around six months old. Was it earlier? But it's just something to think about on the endocrine disruptors or concern.

Now, if it's late, sometimes like can be not always, don't panic. It can be a sign of

thyroid imbalance. That's true. Okay. We know about airway and pallet expanding devices for kids, but is there a device for adults? Yes, there is. There are different devices. There's one. I really love called a Marti, M-A-R-P-E. So back in the day, if you wanted to expand, you usually had a had jaw surgery, it's very invasive. And with fluid with side effects and questionable outcomes. So a Marti, it's not not invasive, it's just less invasive. So it's

little mini screws. They truly are tiny that go up in the pallet. We used to think an adult pallet can't expand, but we know now it can't. And I've seen incredible cases with that. So you have to find someone who knows what they're doing. So it's called a Marti. There's something gentler called an alpha plant. And a lot of cranial sacral therapists and caraparkters like this, but it's slower moving. And you don't get as much skeletal change. I don't think as you do

with a Marti per se. So again, it just depends on what do you need. How much change you need. Homeel block is something that's been used before an adult. So there are ways to fix your airway

Brath by James Nasser will definitely motivate you. We are still so young. We're living longer

“lives. And I really believe the most important foundational way to achieve health is how we sleep”

and how we breathe. Period. More than food, more than exercise, more than anything. It's that restoration and it's oxygenation. Okay. And once you get your airway effects, when you're sleep fixed, so many of your health issues may not go away, but they'll get a lot better. Everybody is looking to reshape their jaws. Okay. This is a huge epidemic. You've got team boys on TikTok. We're hammering their jaws with hammers right now. I don't know if you've seen that. Yeah,

they're trying to like break their jaws into being like you're joking. More, I don't know. sexier, I guess. So crazy. Yeah, it's a huge thing. And then people are loving mouth tape. Yes. So I want to know if mouth tape actually works to change the shape of your jaw. I'm mouth tape every night. And and I have gosh, maybe for five years. And I do it because my jaw, during the day, I don't mouth breathe. But at night, when I relax, my jaws weren't lined up appropriately. And

I had a really terrible bike accident when I was 10 and I facial trauma. I'm kind of a mask. So I'm not going to go through jaw surgery. So I melt in because it just makes my lips not come

apart and I breathe through my nose and I wake up feeling like a million bucks and I love it.

Once you're an adult, it's not going to change your face shape. Like in theory, maybe in kids, but I don't want everyone just going to taping their kids. The kids need to be cleared that they don't have airway obstruction, too. But you can tape a child over the age of three, but please work with an airway focused dentist. I have a friend who mouth tape circuits. Yeah, I have an airway dentist and all that. Yes, I am. I'll tape my daughter as we were unpacking

her other issues because we have one chance to grow a brain. When you breathe through your mouth, you get 20% less oxygen to the brain. You it impacts your hormones. So growth hormone is released in deep restorative sleep. You'll see more bad wedding in kids who mouth breathe because anti-diorotic hormone helps you not pee during the middle. And I is released in deep restorative sleep. So I'm like his breathing through their nose. It releases nitric oxide,

which we talked about earlier, that helps with inflammation, cardiovascular health. Your nose

“filters, if you metaphize, it has immune cells in it. It's really important to breathe here”

now. So I wanted her breathing through her nose as we're trying to unpack some of the other things, expansion in my functional therapy, etc. But we had to make sure her nose wasn't blocked. Okay, and so that was really important. So I was saying my tape doesn't really change the shape.

I don't want anyone hammering their face, please. I at the first thing I'm going to do and I

leave this podcast and I'm going to look bad up because I haven't seen that one. You know, I hear I see people muwing. It's all it's the same group. Yeah. Now they've moved on to hammering. Okay. Well, all right. Um, yeah, I don't know what to say about that. I mean, we're dealing with this, the skull and the jaws and the muscle. So there's, there's soft tissue and hard tissue. So the hard tissue is bone and teeth and soft tissue's muscle, lymphatic system, and biofascial

“adhesions and things. So I think a lot of this is just trending. Um, and won't have a lot of”

long-term benefit. Is it better to brush your teeth before or after coffee? This really confuses people. Everybody wants exact protocols with like the morning routine, especially. I get hammered on this on Instagram a lot. So I want people brushing their teeth whatever works for their schedule aside from the fact that anytime we eat or drink, especially coffee, our mouth is acidic. Okay.

Just like I always talk about vomiting. Your mouth is acidic. So you have lost some minerals in your

teeth. You're, and mammals a little bit weaker. This is normal. This is part of the digestive process. This is demeneralization. Your saliva if it's healthy is going to remeneralize those teeth and it'll be fine. But we have to give it time to do that, which can take 20, 30 minutes up to two hours. So if you're going to brush after, please don't do it immediately after, because your enamel is weaker. The bristles from your toothbrush could be damaging your enamel, so wait 20

or 30 minutes and then you're safe. I am somebody that likes to brush my teeth after I eat. Yeah, that grows as a lot of people out. A lot of people are like the first thing I do when I wake up. I have to brush my teeth. I can't stand it. And I'm not. I'm not either. And this is one of those things. Again, I get hammered on it because people want an exact answer. And I'm like, it's different for everyone. You do what works for you. I just want you brushing in the morning.

I don't need to brush my teeth right away because I'm also nasal breathing. So I find

And they just kind of feel gross when they wake up. I don't feel that way because I'm breathing through my nose. You know, my lips are closed all night. So I tend to brush after breakfast too, but I wait. I wait a little bit after I eat 20 or 30 minutes. I'm not timing that by the way. Like these are general protocols, right? But I don't brush right away because I

don't want to damage my normal. Our electric toothbrush is always better or you can

turn about the microplastics because they're usually plastic bristles. Well, all toothbrushes really are possible. So what do you use? I use a normal toothbrush. And I know I can't take out all the microplastics in my life. So you're not using an electric? I use electric. Oh yeah,

“but all toothbrushes are plastic. I mean, there is bore. I think it's bore hair. You could you?”

Exactly. So you know what I mean? I don't know, but that's a little thin eyelash. Yeah, I don't know. I think, again, if that is a huge concern for you, I get it, but I also don't believe and I think perfects the enemy of good. So I try to eliminate plastics from other areas of my life. Like, I don't eat out of plastic. I don't drink out of plastic water bottles if I can help that. Of course, I've been traveling. There's nuances to these conversations. But I like electric toothbrushes.

Let's do some rapid fire questions. Okay. Charcoal toothpaste. Helpful or harmful. Harmful. Oil pulling legit or placebo. Legit. Tongues scraping

“fat or essential. Essential. Zyletal gum every day, yes or no. For how long? How long are you doing it?”

Let's just say 20 minutes. Too long? No. Salt water rinse is underrated or useless. Underrated. Coconut oil for teeth. Yes or no? Yes. Dry mouth at night. Harmless or dangerous. Dangerous. Can people hire you as their dentist? Yes. I'm still taking new patients. I'm work in Portland, Oregon. I was doing online consultations, but I had a pause for a moment because I just couldn't keep up with it. But the good news is we are training more people to think hopefully and practice

like I do and others like me at the Institute for Functional Dentistry. So many people maybe have heard of the Institute for Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine's foundational. It's definitely what dentists don't receive and so we are trying to get a little army of dentists globally out there thinking and practicing this way from a system's biology approach and we just launch. So stay tuned, but soon there's going to be a database where you can find dentists that practice from

a functional mindset. What's your Instagram? It's at Dr. spelled out under score, Stacey with an eye. If you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically emotionally or spiritually,

“what would it be? I would say prioritize what brings you joy. I think we're missing a lot of joy”

from our lives and we're running amped up with so much anxiety and just remember it's your community as the people used to round yourself with and that can have profound health benefits too and don't forget to have fun. Well, Dr. Stacey, I'm so excited to have you on culture

apothecary. Thanks for coming out. I've got to meet you for the first time when we marched at

Kellogg's. So it's been a long time coming. The last year has been insane and so I'm happy that you finally came on. Thank you for having me. It was really fun. What toothpaste do you use? I'm so curious now. Leave a five star review and let us know. New episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific 9 p.m. Eastern with new expert guests anywhere you get your podcasts. You can find the show on Instagram at culture apothecary

in me at Real Alex Clarke. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to

be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified health care professional regarding

any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. Amounts Clarke and this is a culture apothecary.