Looking in your mouth reveals more than just your smile—it's a window into your overall health that most of us have been taught to view all wrong. In this eye-opening conversation with functional dentistry pioneer Dr. Staci Whitman, we journey beyond the standard "brush, fluoride, avoid candy" advice that's failing millions worldwide.
Dr. Staci Whitman, a leading authority in functional dentistry, is on a mission to revolutionize oral healthcare.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, today we are going to be talking about some
mouth matters and tooth truths.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Tooth truths.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Say that five times fast.
Tooth truths, nope, toothtruths.
I'm already done.
The oral health secrets no onetold you.
With Dr Stacey Whitman, are youready for some tooth truths,
tooth truths.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tooth truths, tooth truths, tooth truths, tooth
truths, tooth truths, toothtruths.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
See that Are we ready for tooth truths.
Tooth truths.
Tooth truths and a lie.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Tooth truths and a lie.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That's pretty good, but your mouth matters Sometimes
you say really cute jokes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I know that one was good, yes.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I would say many times, not some Like what is
this?
Some bullshit.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Again, we're speaking tooth truths here.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Tune in now.
Yes, tune in.
Okay, tune in as.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Dr Stacey shares her knowledge and insights on
creating happy teeth and healthylives.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Welcome to the Empowerment Couple Podcast,
where your path to self-masteryexpands.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Empowerment Couple podcast where your path to
self-mastery expands.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
My co-host is empowerment coach Zuri Starr and
he's expansion coach, MikeyStarr.
Together we are the EmpowermentCouple.
Our mission is simple to serveyou love, so you can make
informed decisions to regain andmaintain your personal power.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We'll take you on a journey to a life filled with
purpose, passion and limitlesspossibilities, while sharing
stories of transformation,wellness hacks and healthy
habits backed by science andancient wisdom.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Plus, we'll keep you entertained with engaging games,
banter and funny innuendosalong the way.
Each episode is an excitingblend of education,
entertainment and empowermentdesigned to help you create a
mindset to be a magnet for morelove, happiness and abundance.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Together with our special guests.
We are dedicated to sharinginformation that empowers you to
create your most beautiful lifeA one Z, a two Z, a three Z
your most beautiful life.
I got nothing.
I got nothing.
You're supposed to saysomething I forgot.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Welcome to the show.
We have Dr Stacey Whitman, aleading authority in functional
dentistry.
She's on a mission torevolutionize oral health care.
With a unique blend ofscientific expertise and
compassionate care, she'sdedicated to creating a
cavity-free world.
Dr Stacey is a board certifiedin pediatrics, integrative
(02:34):
dentistry and naturopathicdentistry and is one of the only
dentists in the world to haveher functional medicine
certification from the Instituteof Functional Medicine.
She founded one of the leadingfunctional pediatric dentist
office in the country, where shetakes a whole body and holistic
approach to her care.
She's the co-founder of theInstitute for Functional
(02:56):
Dentistry, launching in 2025,and lectures globally on
functional dentistry and theoral systemic connection.
Okay, well, welcome to theEmpowerment Couple podcast.
We have Dr Stacey Whitman herewith us today and we are so
excited to have you here with us, and I met Stacey in September
(03:18):
in all places Battle Creek,michigan.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Answering the call.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Creek, michigan, answering the call.
Answering the call to standwith people who were fighting
against Kellogg's usingartificial dyes and also BHT.
We delivered over 400,000signatures and Stacey was one of
the speakers that I was luckyto introduce that day as the
emcee and I didn't know anythingabout Stacey Pryor, but then I
introduced her and I was like,oh, that was like one of the
(03:49):
best speeches of the day and Iwas like I have to get her on
the show.
And the other backstory is thatVani had text me right after
the Senate hearing leading up toannouncing the Kellogg's March.
And she says, hey, can you cometo Michigan?
And at the time I was in Spainand I was in Spain with my
(04:14):
daughter just my daughter and Ito get dental work.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Because it is so expensive to get dental work
done here, even if you havedental insurance.
And so I was like, oh, this is,like you know, a line that I'm
meeting stacy at this event andshe's speaking truth to all of
the things, um, that I, you know, have studied about, about oral
(04:40):
health.
And I told mike I'm like wehave to have her on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh yeah, most certainly.
I mean we've covered.
We've covered all kinds ofdifferent ways of healing the
body and we have not yet talkedabout the entrance into the
whole body.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Gateway.
It's the gateway.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right Gateway into the gut gateway, into the
bloodstream gateway, intoeverything.
So, yeah, I mean, you live andyou breathe and you eat out of
that orifice.
So it has to be, it has to bespick and span right.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Indeed, you can tell a lot about a person's health by
looking in their mouth, and Iwould argue the mouth is the
start of the gut.
I want people to start thinkingof it that way because I think
people will start taking it moreseriously.
I want people to start thinkingof it that way because I think
people will start taking it moreseriously.
So, yeah, it's really important.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
It's really important .
And how did you get sopassionate about it?
Because obviously you're superpassionate about this.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, ooh, this is a long story I'll consolidate,
though.
I mean I didn't.
I wasn't raised by medicaldoctors or dentists.
This was a total rogue move.
I was an artist and a theaterkid and a dancer and on, and
that's what I was studying incollege and English.
I didn't know what I was goingto do and I was just worried
(05:56):
about my future and supportingmyself.
So I did a 180.
And I went into pre med andthen I ended up in dental
because I had a very severebicycle accident when I was 10.
And I really I broke my jaw andI knocked teeth out and I was in
and out of dental offices andso that always piqued my
(06:16):
interest.
But then I would be workingwith my hands, kind of like with
my art and my sculpture.
So it was really piecemeal.
But I remember on day onesitting in my first dental class
and like looking left, lookingright and just saying where am I
?
What is happening?
And from the very beginning Ijust didn't have a great feeling
(06:38):
about how we were approachingdental health.
It was all being approachedfrom a surgical standpoint, from
end stage disease, putting outfires, and it never made sense
to me.
I was raised a little moreholistically.
I was raised in rural Maine.
We had a garden.
My mom cooked all the meals wecanned.
(06:58):
She wanted us outside gettingdirty, like that whole thing,
and to not talk about preventionand how the dots are connected
between the mouth and the body.
It just never resonated with me.
But of course I just blindersup, head down, went through
dental school, got out,practiced as a general dentist
so I've seen adults and then theamount of disease that is out
(07:22):
there.
I really don't think peopleunderstand how rampant decay and
gum disease and periodontaldiseases I mean these are the
top chronic diseases.
Globally, 80% of people havegum disease and 50% have
periodontal disease and we knowperiodontal pathogens.
That's when you have chronicbone loss.
(07:42):
Periodontal pathogens are theones that are causing issues in
the brain like Alzheimer's anddementia, in the heart, like
cardiovascular issues, fertilityissues, autoimmune issues,
cancers, et cetera.
Okay, so it's a big deal so,but I got out and I practiced as
a general dentist and it wasjust turn and burn.
Now I had no time to speak to mypatients and I was miserable.
(08:05):
I was truly miserable.
I was so depressed.
I was like this is why dentistsare so depressed and I almost
moved to New Zealand.
I was going to abandon myprofession.
I wanted to just go surf andsnowboard and bartend.
I was like, well, you have allthe student debt.
That is not smart.
How do I salvage this?
(08:27):
And I thought, well, what's themost upstream that I can get so
that I can educate and coursecorrect and help things when
they're smoldering and not fullblown emergency fires?
I wanted to practice more.
I wanted to be more like adental physician.
I wanted to think about how thepieces all fit together to
really help my patients.
(08:48):
And so that was pediatrics Iwanted.
I had to get to the kids andthe parents and, like, course
correct all the mistakes we'vemade with some of the education
and how we're approaching dentalhealth.
And so that's what I did Backto school, became board
certified and went out as anassociate and, lo and behold,
the same thing happened.
I was still miserable becausenow I was seeing kids in a
(09:10):
traditional model.
But pediatrics is even faster.
You have even less time withthe child.
So now, instead of 30 patientsa day, I was seeing 70 patients
a day and it was just awful.
So I just was at a loss and Istarted reading.
You know, I was exposed toWeston Price's work nutrition
and physical degeneration andthen Dr Stephen Lynn out of
(09:33):
Australia, a functional dentist,kind of modernized that and his
book really changed my lifebecause he spoke about how he
almost left dentistry too and Ijust kept meeting people in the
biological dental world, theholistic world.
I went to conferences, then Istarted additional trainings and
I now have my own practicewhere I've taken all of that
education from the past 12 years, put it together and I created
(09:55):
a functional pediatric dentalpractice which is, from what I'm
told, one of the only ones inthe country and I now love my
job ones in the country and Inow love my job and it's
wonderful because I'm reallyhelped.
I see the change in these kidsand in these families and it's
in, in, it spreads.
That's the cool part and therereally is an awakening.
People want answers and theywant.
(10:17):
Everyone wants to be healthy.
They just want tools.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And also I think they're confused, right?
So that's the thing that is soprevalent with all things health
is that you are told so manydifferent things.
It's confusing and like oneperson will say, you know, do
this, and another person willsay, do this, and then you know,
all of a sudden you'recontroversial and it just it.
It's hard to know unless youhave somebody that you, you know
(10:43):
, trust and you know you, yousomebody that you trust and you
have a good experience.
It's really hard to findsupport.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Indeed, it's hard.
You have the game that you havegoing on.
Huh yeah, so I have this game.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
We always play a game on our show because we've found
that you know people learn bestwhen they are having fun or
when they, you know, you add alittle competition factor and
also we just try to entertainwith as much education as
possible.
Um, it's also something thatyou can listen to with people,
and we find that on social media, people usually resonate more
(11:18):
with just the game thanlistening to people chat back
and forth.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
This is like with kids gamify it If you want to
get energy done in life.
Make a game success.
So I love this.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, there's a bunch of science behind it, and I was
like Mike, we're doing a game,and also like, if we're going to
show up, I want it to be fun.
I want my life to be enjoyed.
So we are always trying to havea lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
How can we, how can we talk about, uh, oral health
without smiling right you'regonna have to smile, right, yeah
, yeah, smile.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
You know, when you see them and smile, there's a
cascade of responses in yourbody, you know, like
parasympathetic and calming, andit's really, you know, I wish
more of us did that yeah, forsure.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Um, okay, so this is just a rapid fire game.
I have 30 topics that are kindof controversial and okay, so
well, so it you know, like thissets you apart from, maybe, like
somebody who believes in it'sokay to have artificial dyes in
your toothpaste, for example.
Okay, so, okay.
(12:24):
So I'm going to say the thingand then, and Mike's going to
listen and like, take note,because he's going to, he's
going to flag which one thathe's most surprised by, because
I do think you're probably goingto surprise us with something,
one of your thoughts onsomething that people think is
good and actually it's not good.
So you're the expert.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Amazing, I think this is the best thing that's ever
happened to me right now.
Okay, well, you can use thisall you?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
want, and, and what I want you to do is just yes or
no.
We're going to try to goquickly, because I would like
you to be able to use it howeveryou would like for educational
purposes, and then you can diveinto each one if you want.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And yeah, I think like this is how we learn, so
yeah, or we can dive into onesthat maybe were surprising or
need more.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Exactly Got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Time to answer afterwards.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The goal is yes, no, and you can also use maybe, if
you're like, thank goodness,because there might be might be
okay, because there might be amaybe, and human health isn't
black and white, right so, andit's like you don't want to give
the advice.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
As you know, I would imagine if I were a dentist, I
wouldn't want a blanketstatement you know a serious
thing, you know, and like,because we're all so different,
um okay let's get into it ready,ready, I'm so ready, okay.
So let's just do a practice sothat you know I'm gonna say, and
like, because we're all sodifferent, okay, let's get into
it, ready, ready, I'm so ready,okay.
So let's just do a practice sothat you know I'm going to say
artificial colors, no, okay.
(13:52):
So it's going to go like that,but I'm going to go fast, cool,
all right.
Here we go Play along with us athome.
Mark down anything that youthink is kind of funny or that
you're like what?
Okay, ready Remineralizing gum,maybe Tongue scraping yes.
(14:13):
Pulling wisdom teeth, maybeMouth tape Love it.
Sleep study.
Sleep study, maybe.
Biocompatibility testing yes.
Water pick yes.
Carrageenan no Mouthwash, noAmalgam, no Oral microbiome Love
(14:41):
Hydroxyapatite.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Love.
Well, depends on this type andsource.
We'll get into that.
Braces Maybe, but hopefully notOral probiotics.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yes, usually.
Baking soda yes.
Sodium lauryl sulfate no.
Oil pulling yes.
Fluoride no.
Breastfeeding yes.
Gut health Love Xylitol yes.
(15:16):
Electric toothbrushes, maybeFlossing yes.
Veneers, no.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
X-rays when necessary yes.
Mouth guards yes.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Hormonal health yes.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Root canals Maybe to no Artificial flavors?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
No, Woo, you got through it right.
All right, the only you had toresist.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
There I noticed you were like, oh well, it's so hard
because it's so nuanced, andthis is what I'm just going to
add before we get into it.
This is what I don't like aboutsocial media is that I'm going
to just open up here it.
It seems like, especially allof a sudden, everyone's chasing
the algorithm and we're allstruggling to grow our platforms
(16:11):
and be seen and get our contentout there.
So what does it fear?
Sensationalism, and I just seeso much black and white and it's
just not.
Everything can be so nuanced,which is why I said a maybe.
Yeah, it requires conversations, and so I encourage everyone
listening to try to be someonewho doesn't look at life black
(16:35):
and white Like this is good allthe time.
This is bad all the time.
I mean, there are some thingsfood dyes, for example, bht, for
example, but you know.
But we'll dig into it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, okay.
Well, which one was mostsurprising to you?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Actually there's two of them.
Zuri did this thing on me andand I got all of them right,
except all of them the same asyou, except for amalgam.
For some reason I messed up onamalgam.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Because that was like mercury yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I was like wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I said no, didn't I yeah you did, you did.
You did.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Okay, I said yes, and then, and then, and then she's
like no, that's, that's mercury.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well, that doesn't count you, it was a word.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and, and Imessed up on fluoride.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I know fluoride is bad, however how bad is it?
Fluoride is nuanced.
Sorry to interrupt.
Yes, nuanced, sorry tointerrupt.
Yes, how bad is it?
So the reason that question'snuanced is I would answer it a
little bit differently if yousaid systemic fluoride, water
fluoridation and supplementationversus topical fluoride
toothpaste rinses, okay, okay,let's dive into that.
I have opinions of both, one isa hard no.
(17:42):
Water fluoridationsupplementation to me is a hard
no, and this is in the news alot lately, but I've been
speaking out about this for 12years.
I want everyone to know.
I was trained as a traditionaldentist and I used to promote
water fluoridation.
In fact, in Portland, oregon,where I am, we don't have
(18:02):
fluoride in our water and it wasa ballot measure in 2012.
And I was on the pro fluorideteam volunteering, picketing
with my pin, handing out flyerslike we need a fluoride, you
need it, you need it, you needit.
I was hell bent on it, but atthat point, I'll be honest, I
had not done my due diligence.
I went to school and was toldby higher up elders that this is
(18:26):
what we do and fluoride is whateveryone needs and that's what
dentists do and that's it andyou don't question it.
I had never heard ever thatthere were concerns with
fluoride.
Until that campaign, I sat withthe pro fluoride side to listen
to a debate and I was fumingand I was like these tin hat
(18:48):
brigade woo, woo, caucus, blah,blah.
You know I was that and Ilistened and I was the first
time.
I was like whoa thyroidendocrine disruption,
neurotoxicity, bone cancer.
I had never heard of it,absolutely.
And so then I went and startedlike PubMed, pubmed, nih, and it
(19:11):
doesn't take long for you toraise an eyebrow and say, oh my
gosh, where's the safety data?
There's no long-term safetystudy, et cetera, et cetera.
This got grandfathered in froman observational experiment,
essentially, and so now pops inthe TASCA trial.
So the TASCA trial is basicallythe trial that just concluded,
(19:34):
and it was over the past sevenyears, the people versus the EPA
, where the people said, hey,epa, where's your safety data on
water fluoride agent?
And the EPA kept delaying anddelaying and appealing and never
answering the question.
And so there was a trial andeveryone can go onto the
Fluoride Action Network.
They have it beautifullyoutlined, you can see all the
testimonies of the experts, andwhat was interesting about this
(19:56):
trial is the judge, for the oneof the first time, said hey,
dental community, americanDental Association, I know you
guys like fluoride.
I don't really want to hearfrom you.
I want to hear from theendocrinologist, the
epidemiologist, theneuroscientist, the biochemist.
I want to hear from thesescientists about what it does to
the rest of the body, becausethe mouth is connected.
(20:17):
What happens in the mouthdoesn't stay in the mouth, and
now we're talking aboutingesting something.
So the judge ruled last fallthat there was an unreasonable
risk posed to current waterfluoridation practices because
there's no safety data, and heput it on the EPA to do
something about it.
He said now it's in your handsto correct this and actually
(20:39):
manage this and regulate this.
This came after the NTP reportcame out.
Finally, it was the NationalToxicology Program's report that
was also under lock and key foryears and he received it
because of the Freedom ofInformation Act.
And as no surprise, it said youknow, the fluoridation
(20:59):
practices are associated withlower IQs in children.
The way we're doing itcurrently.
Now the backlash on this is, itwill say, at 1.2 milligrams per
liter, and the US nowfluoridates at 0.7 milligrams
per liter.
We used to do 1.2 up until 2015, but they dropped it because of
(21:20):
osteosarcoma issues andconcerns.
So they dropped it.
But here's the issue If you diginto that report, there are
sections where it says even atoptimally fluoridated levels,
there are concerns with pregnantwomen and children, even at 0.7
, but the mainstream media, theAmerican Dental Association,
they're not pulling from thoseparagraphs, they're.
(21:40):
They're cherry picking whatthey share with you.
The other thing is, if you testwater fluoride in your community
, do you think it's actuallyexactly a 0.7 milligrams per
liter?
Of course not.
So I was in a campaign where wetested some areas around us.
Some were as high as 2.2, 1.8.
(22:00):
You know it's all over theplace.
Was that in Portland or no?
Because they are aroundPortland, yes.
So I encourage everyone to ask,because it's really hard to
titrate it, you guys, how theyadd fluoride?
They're these huge 50 poundbags of hydrofluorosilicic
fluoride acid.
They dump it in.
(22:21):
It has skull and crossbones onthe front and so they're just
titrating it.
This is not very scientific.
They just are dumping it intothe water supply.
Now here's the other issue.
Okay, so that's at one liter.
Now I drink more than a literof water a day.
The American Academy ofPediatrics wants pregnant women
(22:42):
drinking three liters a day.
So now we're saying, well, butwith the safety standards we're
regulating water so you can onlydrink one liter a day.
But no one knows that.
So people are getting too muchwater.
You're drinking it, you'recooking with it, you're making
your soup with it, you'reboiling your pasta with it.
Plus, people don't understandthere's a halo effect too.
(23:08):
So pharmaceuticals manypharmaceuticals have fluoride in
them.
It makes it more bioavailable.
So you're getting fluoride fromyour prescription meds.
You're getting fluoride from anyprocessed food that you consume
your Gatorade, your Hi-C, yourcanned soups.
They're not filtering the waterin these factories, so you're
getting it from ultra processedfoods.
You're getting it from blacktea and green tea and I'm not
(23:28):
saying don't consume thosethings, but you know kids are
swallowing it.
We're brushing with it.
Now we need prescriptions.
It's just too much.
So there's no safety, a windowof safety and toxicity is very
narrow.
There's no safety, the windowof safety and toxicity is very
narrow.
And it's being associated withfive to seven IQ point drops in
(23:50):
children whose pregnant moms andin formula fed because that was
fluoride water were exposed totoo much fluoride.
And there's copious amounts ofdata on this.
To me it should just take onestudy, but we have dozens of
very high quality studies thatare pulled in this NTP report in
this trial and there was justanother meta analysis that came
out.
But for some reason, fluoridethe burden of proof should be on
(24:13):
safety, but with fluoride it'sthe opposite.
It's like we have to prove it'sunsafe, it's wild.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And then yeah, that's like a common thread though.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, I know, with many things I know.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And if it's not fluoride, it's red dye.
It's going to be somethingright.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I know, I know.
And then the other thing isfluoride is antimicrobial and so
what is it doing to the gutmicrobiome?
No one is talking about that.
It's not selective.
There aren't any studies onthis.
I would love someone to do astudy on the gut microbiome with
people who drink fluoridatedwater versus those that don't.
I think that would befascinating.
So what's even wilder and thisis what the public really needs
(24:56):
to know you know it was toutedas the top public health, you
know, achievement of our centurywater fluoridation.
That's all just smoke andmirrors.
You guys, oh yeah, are stillthe number one chronic disease
in the world, whether yourcommunity is fluoridated or not.
Countries that fluoridate havethe same decay rate as countries
(25:17):
that do not.
We're one of the last countriesto fluoridate our water.
97% of the world does not.
But also, the CochraneCollaborative came out in
December that's the goldstandard of all medical review
and they found that fluorideslow down not so fast.
Fluoride actually doesn't workas well in our water as we
(25:38):
thought.
It only reduces decay by onequarter of a cavity per person.
One quarter.
You see the number 25%reduction.
That is extrapolated data.
That is inaccurate.
It is one quarter of a cavity,so that's not statistically
significant.
Yes, Other point is I went todental school to learn to fix a
(26:02):
tooth.
I can fix a cavity a onequarter of a cavity in a tooth
but I can't fix a developingbrain.
That goes awry, you know with aneurocognitive disorder.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, so we, we have some experience with fluoride.
I want to, I want to share withyou that we left LA and when we
lived in LA, we in 2017, webought a house in Vermont.
So you were talking aboutgrowing up in Maine, which which
is where we're we're filmingthis today, but we left LA and
(26:40):
at the time, we were spendinglike a couple hundred dollars on
filtered water that came inglass bottles that was delivered
to our home Sometimes he wouldbreak them and I was like, oh,
you know, like the amount ofwater that you're supposed to
drink, that was healthy and likeit was tested, and they would
constantly send us the monthlytest and we were spending all of
this money on water beingdelivered to us in LA, because
(27:03):
we knew what was in the water,because we had been working on
these issues for a long time,and so then we moved to Vermont,
get a house, we have a well andI had to find a different
dentist, and we had a biologicaldentist.
There in LA, it's easier tofind that type of support, and
(27:24):
so, of course, we werewell-informed about all the
things.
However, when we got here,there's nobody we could find, so
we took her to a pediatricdentist, my daughter and she had
some decay in her molars.
And so we get there and they'relike, okay, well, here's what
we can do, we're going toextract and then we'll do a root
canal.
And you know, it was like allof the things that they would
(27:46):
have totally been against at ourother dental office and they
said, well, have you fluoridatedyour?
Well, yet, I'm not joking.
And I was like like my wholebody kind of went numb and like
cold and I was like what, why doyou?
think we moved here out here fora while and, like we did
(28:08):
extensive water testing when wewere in the like you know um
home buying process, you know itwas so mineral rich, and I was
like, oh my gosh, like thiswater is just pristine.
Like when we found this houseand it wasn't even our first
choice, but I was like but thewell, you know what I mean?
It was really a part of ourdecision-making and they wanted
(28:28):
us to fluoridate our well.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I grew up in a well, too, I did.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, and so I just think, like this is the
education that they were given.
You know, and it's such a smallcommunity, these people my
daughter went to school with andit's like they thought I was
crazy.
They're like, oh, she doesn'twant to fluoridate her.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Well, like Dr Strangelove or whatever.
Yeah, it's unfortunate.
It's like they just have onetool in their toolbox, but the
but the thing is that's abandaid.
I mean, if you look ancestrallywhich I think we showed many
times we didn't grow.
Humans don't have fluoride intheir body.
We're not fluoride deficient.
No one has a disease because oflack of fluoride.
(29:10):
That is not why we get decay andmoved to agrarian societies,
because we started growing cornand wheat.
Then we started building it andprocessing it and the
industrialized revolutionhappened and everything was soft
and squishy and sugary andflowery and that's when decay
(29:30):
skyrocketed.
But no one wants to go upstreamto talk about this.
I mean, I haven't used fluoridesince my teen years and that
was a long time ago.
My teeth are great.
My kids have a long time ago.
My teeth are great.
My kids have never had it.
Their teeth are great.
I have plenty of patients whodo not use it.
Their teeth are beautiful.
I have plenty of patients thatdo that get decay.
(29:50):
It's not the fluoride and Iwill say fluoride is no match
against big food period yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, I love that mic
drop boom indeed period.
But it's, it's an easy, it's theno different than you going to
the physician and they havethree minutes with you and they
write a prescription.
They code it and they write aprescription.
The dentist is like I don'thave time to dig into mineral
(30:14):
deficiencies, vitamindeficiencies, airway health, gut
health.
You know all these.
We're not trained in it, sothey don't know about these
things, unfortunately.
So they just say use fluoride,brush your teeth, floss your
teeth, don't eat candy bars, usefluoride.
And it's so much more involvedin that decay is very often a
nutritional deficiency.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, and and it made me really dive deeper
into less leaning on thebiological dentist that we had
and more into like OK, I've gotto figure this out, like you
know.
And then we finally foundsomebody was two hours each way,
so you know, that meant likedriving in the snow and all of
(30:57):
the things when you move backEast, um, and I do what you
gotta do but you do what youhave to do.
But what I really found was likeI have to, I have to figure
this out, Like we can't rollback the clock.
But there was things that wedid with, like you know,
crackers and things that I'mlike, oh my gosh, I wish I would
have known that, even thoughthey're organic, even, you know,
it's like things that I justdidn't think of, you know, and
(31:20):
like I wish we were educatedyoung, Like if we had had, you
know, a second child, like thatwould have been helpful to know,
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
It would be helpful to know when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Absolutely.
I know Well and that's why Iwent to Peds, so it's important
for those listening.
And this gets me.
A lot of people get upset whenI say this, but crackers are one
of the top reasons we have acavity epidemic, because that is
a staple in so many kids' dailylives and you don't think
(31:53):
anything of it.
You are, you're like well,they're organic, non-gmo,
they're fine, they're yellowwith turmeric, it's fine.
Right, it's not that, it's theflour, it's flour acts like
sugar in the mouth, and then, ontop of that, they tend to be
nutrient devoid, and so are ourkids mineral and fat soluble
(32:14):
vitamin optimized?
No, we're not.
We're magnesium deficient,we're vitamin D deficient.
We're inside all day.
We're not outside magnesiumdeficient, we're vitamin d
deficient.
We're inside all day, we're notoutside.
There's junk light,mitochondrial health, metabolic
health, I mean it.
It's all connected, all thethings everyone's talking about.
It connects back to oral healthtoo.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, yeah, every single system in your body is
interconnected, so there's noway of of experiencing positive
health if you have negativehealth going on in your mouth or
anywhere else in your body.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Absolutely.
I mean, if your gums areinflamed and bleed, like many
people's do, and they justignore it, that is systemic
inflammation.
That is a huge red flag thatyour body is begging you to get
healthy, and we all seem to befamiliar with the term leaky gut
.
Well, if your gums bleed,that's leaky gums.
So you are now creating anentry point of oral bacteria
(33:07):
pathogens, because if you havegot swollen, inflamed gums, you
have oral pathogens to get intothe bloodstream, to get into the
lymphatic system, and they cantravel all over the body.
They release exotoxins,endotoxins and increase
inflammation.
And this is why we're seeingoral bacteria in the brains of
(33:27):
Alzheimer's patients anddementia, you know patients, and
in heart disease and fertilityissues, and you know people who
have low birth weight, babiesand even miscarriages,
autoimmune diseases.
It's now oral pathogens are nowlinked to colon cancer,
pancreatic cancer, it goes onand on, and so it's incredibly
(33:49):
important.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And it comes back to the microbes, you know, and
those microbes love crackers,they love fermentable
carbohydrates, that's what theyfeed on, and I feel like what
would have been great as a youngmom with a young child as you
know, she started to getcavities is, first of all, just
(34:11):
like five minutes of educationof like hey, read this book, or
hey, you know.
Instead, what I haveexperienced multiple times is
kind of like shame culture.
You know where you go in andthey're just like, oh, are you
drinking soda?
It's like no.
Like.
Are you eating candy?
No, like we're an organichousehold oh, I breastfed her.
Like it just started so earlythat it was like there wasn't
(34:35):
the education that I felt likeas a mom.
Oh, like this is reallyempowering.
I know what to do now and likeI can reverse some of this.
You know I can prevent it.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
But she did eat a lot of crackers.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
She did eat a lot of crackers she was a cracker
eating fool yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah, but still, I mean, I'm with you.
I have worked with colleaguesthat are like that and they just
don't.
It's not coming from a badplace, I don't think.
It's just the way we'reeducated and trained, and I just
(35:09):
think people aren't thinkingoutside of the box.
They're not.
We're not taught to connect thedots, we're not.
We're taught medicine'scompartmentalized.
Okay, I'm taught to stay in mylane.
It's the teeth, it's the teeth,it's the tongue, it's the gums
and that's it.
I don't need to know anythingabout the gut, I don't need to
know anything about hormonehealth or you know, immune, the
immune system, or metabolichealth or mitochondria, like.
(35:31):
But and this is wherefunctional dentistry comes in
Functional dentistry is, yes, myspecialty is the mouth.
However, I look at it throughthe lens of the entire body and
I need to understand all thesystems, and there's not
training for that in dentalschool, and that's why I'm
working with a couple otherlovely colleagues.
(35:52):
We've co-founded the Institutefor Functional Dentistry.
We'll be associated with theInstitute for Functional
Medicine to try to get moredentists trained this way,
because I do think there's a lotof dentists out there that they
are dissatisfied too.
They're depressed, they hatetheir career, they're burnt out.
Nothing we do makes adifference.
The patients keep coming backsick because we're missing the
(36:17):
root issue.
With many of them yeah, withchildren.
What I'm seeing and this iswhere I really like to tell
parents this this issue isbigger than you.
We are chronically,epigenetically mineral deficient
and it is passing fromgeneration to generation, and
that we're seeing that in teethand under mineralized teeth it's
(36:37):
called hypoplastic enamel, iswhat I believe to be a silent
global epidemic.
I see it skyrocketing in mypractice, and that's when the
teeth come in either crumblingor defective.
The armor, the enamel, isn'tthick or it's crumbly, it's just
deficient, and so those acidattacks, they just dissolve the
(37:00):
teeth so quickly and this iswhen breast milk gets blamed or
you get accused of things.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, we definitely.
I breastfed for two a littleover two years and I definitely
got told oh well, the decay iscoming from that.
I mean, the journey we've beenon together as a family has been
wild when it comes to dentalhealth and all three of us and
I'm like mike and eric makingfaces because I was like.
(37:27):
Well, sometimes my gums bleed,like you know honestly, just
before we met you.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Uh, we're all flossing, just in case you ask
floss and water pick.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yes, please, and we're in the same age group.
So what I do, you know, as weage we do lose a little bone
around our teeth, and so Ireally like floss and then water
pick, like alternate everyother night.
Night they will do slightlydifferent things, but eating
gums can be a sign of vitamin Cdeficiency, kind of zinc
deficiency, or B2, b6, b b9, soit could be nutritional too.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
And if you mouth breathe, yes, I'm, I'm mouth
taping now I'm trying to getthis guy on board, oh do it.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It you will.
It will change your life.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
So tell us, like if you could pick five things and I
I know I threw some random shitin that list but like if you
could pick five things and Iknow I threw some random shit in
that list but like if you couldpick five things that you could
empower people right now,whether you know at any age, or
if you want to talk cancer, ifyou want to talk pediatrics,
like I've, I've consumed a lotof your content and I'm, like
(38:36):
blown away by a lot of it.
But if you could summarize likejust a few things that you
think would be digestible andtangible, that all of us have
access to.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yes, I love low cost, no cost tips.
Um, well, I I really am a.
What you put on your fork makesso much of the difference.
So I'm a big advocate for justa whole food diet and whatever
that means to you.
But we have to start cooking athome more.
We have to go to farmersmarkets, we have to talk about
(39:10):
regenerative agriculture andless stuff from more stuff from
farms, less stuff from boxes andpackages and factories.
That, I think, would correctabout 95% of the dental issues
out there, to be honest with you.
So that's very important.
The other thing I would say isprioritize your sleep and sleep
(39:33):
hygiene and with that I'm kindof cheating is how you breathe
so you can do all the thingscorrectly in life.
Be, you know, the best atresistance, training and all the
supplements and all the things.
But if you're not breathingoptimally and oxygenating and
restoring um, you will feel likegarbage and it's going to have
(39:55):
a lot of downstream effects forsure, uh, including
cardiovascular.
And you know it can affectmental health, gut health,
obviously your teeth.
So people who mouth breathe aremore likely to have gum disease
and cavities too.
So either work with an airwaytrained doctor to figure out why
(40:16):
?
But a little simple hack ismouth taping.
You just want to make sure youcan breathe through your nose
for three or four minuteswithout feeling panicked.
If you feel fight or flight,you probably have some
obstruction.
You have a deviated septum.
You need some work with theneural feedback loop to train
your brain.
This is safe.
So work with someone.
(40:36):
But so I would try lip tapingand you can put it on for 15
minutes while you're choppingvegetables for dinner and then
wear it for a show 30 minutesand wear it for a movie, and
then you're good, you know andjust put it on and then it ends
up in your hair and you're like,wait, maybe I bought the wrong
(40:56):
product.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I well, yeah, I know I've tried a few different ones
and now now I'm good, now I'm,I'm happy it's working and I
love it, and so I'm kind of likethe I'm the guinea pig usually
for these things, and so he'syeah, yeah, well, we'll see
about that.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I mean, I can see it on my aura ring.
My sleep scores are so muchbetter if I'm lip taping or
mouth taping or sleep taping andif I forget it for some reason,
I'm traveling.
I mean, I sleep like garbageabsolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
I'm actually noticing a difference that I I crave it.
Now I'm like, oh, it's time,Like my body knows that it's,
it's good for me.
Initially it was like forcingmyself to do it, but I like your
tips about, um, you know,trying it at different times
during the day.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
This just works for you.
So the other thing I'd say ishydration I mean in electrolytes
and minerals, you know.
So that's profoundly important.
Our saliva is this goldenelixir in our body that we just
ignore.
But your saliva protects yourteeth.
It has immune cells in it, ithas enzymes for digestion, it
has calcium and phosphorus fornatural remineralization.
(42:04):
Many of us our saliva is notoptimized because we tend to be
acidic and we're dehydrated andwe're nutrient devoid.
But hydration is reallyimportant From a hygiene
perspective.
I can't emphasize flossingenough.
If I had to pick, I thinkflossing is much more important
than brushing.
It's not just to remove foodfrom between your teeth, but
(42:26):
it's to shake the biofilm off.
So the biofilms, your stickyplaque, that's the bacteria and
a lot of pathogenic bacteria areanaerobic, so they love to live
in all the nooks and crannieswith low oxygen.
So we're shaking the biofilmoff so it can't sit there long
enough to release acid to leachthe minerals out of your teeth.
But the bummer is it will comeback again.
(42:47):
So it's like you're shaking therug off.
Every day you have to clean,clean between um gosh, what else
?
Um, I think most of us do needsome sort of remineralizer.
Now why?
Why I said no to gum.
I just think it's overkill.
I don't think we need this muchremineralization, but I do like
an active ingredient intoothpaste.
Yeah, so I said a remineralizer.
(43:10):
And then I guess.
Just, I'm a big advocate ofknowing your nutrient levels.
You know, I think it's hard totest kids, but test, don't guess
.
Like how would you know whatyour vitamin D level is unless
you test it?
How do you know if yournutrient optimized but people
who are vitamin D optimized areless likely to have disease?
You know vitamin D deficiencyis linked to cavities.
(43:31):
In fact, what's so interesting?
I only recently learned thisBefore water fluoridation,
dentistry would approach theirpatients talking about vitamin D
and calcium and nutrition first.
Isn't that interesting?
Yeah, yeah.
I wonder why we got rid of that.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Well, because there's money in treatment, not a cure.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
We patent vitamin D and make billions.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You know what's interesting.
You know what's interestingwhen you did say something about
, uh, bleeding gums, because it,you know it's, it's stuck, and
I was like, whoa, you know, Ireally only get that during the
winter.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, that's what I'm noticing, and so it's
definitely vitamin d deficiency,we have less sun totally
vitamin c, and women may noticetheir gums bleed more when their
hormones fluctuate too, andthat can be normal.
So certainly there's pregnancygingivitis, but some notice it
around.
You know their cycle, andthat's a whole other talk that I
(44:28):
could get about women'shormones and oral health.
But there is something thereand we're not getting paid
attention to and no one'stalking to us about this.
But you know, yeah yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Well, I don't want to take up too much more of your
time, but I want to give youtime to talk about how people
can find you and how we canconnect with um.
I want to talk about fig, whichis toothpaste that everyone
needs to know more about, sotalk to us about that.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah, so I I'm mostly on Instagram and I'm trying to
get more on YouTube and I reallydo that just for free education
.
You know that's we were bothtalking how we started kind of
our platforms in 2020.
And just trying to help peopleas much as we could, and so
that's the whole premise of myplatform and and I try not to
(45:19):
algorithm chase, so I hope Ihope I don't, but you can find
me there.
I have a website, drstaceycom,so my handle on Instagram is Dr
underscore Stacey, and you spellout doctor, and it's
S-T-A-C-E-I.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
And we will link everything in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
So my website's drstaceycom.
I have more education there,but I do offer online
consultations.
But, most importantly, I have anewsletter that I've been
putting out weekly.
I just reformatted it and it'sit's called open, wide Um and
it's it's about all things.
So it's not just dentistry butit's about community and life
and support and pop culture andthe latest science and my
(45:58):
thoughts on all kinds of things,and there's always like a
really great, easy tip that'saccessible to everyone, so great
title, by the way.
I'm thinking of having apodcast someday.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, you are someday .
Speaker 3 (46:19):
And then we're also fig.
That's yes.
That's a toothpaste I cofounded with Dr Mark Burhenne,
who's also a functional dentist,online quite a bit, and it
stands for feed your good guys,because we want to focus on the
oral microbiome.
So that's truly the premise ofour brand is oral microbiome
supportive ingredients.
So we took out all the thingsthat can disrupt.
(46:41):
So we took out the emulsifiers,the surfactants believe it or
not the essential oils you knowcoconut oil these things are all
antimicrobial and can haveimpacts and we just cleaned it
up.
And then we did put inhydroxyapatite which, if sourced
from the appropriatemanufacturing facility, ours is
SCCS approved that's theScientific Committee for
(47:03):
Consumer Safety out of Portugal.
It's called Fluidinova.
It's a wonderful biomimeticmaterial.
It's basically calcium andphosphorus, which is what's in
your teeth and in your saliva.
So and we are, we've won awardsand we just had some
comparative studies come out andwe are performing as well and
(47:25):
even better than fluoride, whichis really cool, yeah, so we're
very excited about that, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, we'll link everyone to FIG as well in our
show notes.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, and I have a little discount for all your
listeners too that you can throwin there.
But I see a lot of changes inmy patients with it.
They their teeth.
We just get a lot of greatfeedback.
People say my teeth just feelsmoother, they feel stronger, my
mouth feels more hydrated and Ithink because so many of the
these gross ingredients thatstrip were taken out, and that's
(48:01):
likely why you said somethingabout mouthwash.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
You said no, because it strips right.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Yes the no with mouthwash.
Of course it depends on thetype, but if you were talking
more traditional, like Listerineand the prescription one that
the dentist will write for you,those are very strong
antimicrobials and astringentsand alcohols and they just
carpet bomb and there's actuallystudies now to show
particularly Listerine andChlorhexidine, they impact the
(48:30):
nitrate-reducing bacteria thatlive on the dorsum or on your
tongue.
That affects nitric oxidelevels and nitric oxide levels
and nitric oxide levels affectcardiovascular health and
there's studies showing peoplewho use these mouthwashes
consistently tend to have higherblood pressure and it can
affect sexual health becausenitric oxide is really important
(48:51):
for sexual health, so morelikely to have ed.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
So it's a big deal there's so many nasty products
out there, isn't there and theyall have blue dye, nasty red dye
.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Get it out of there yeah, so gross.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I think that it'd be fun to also have you come back
on the show and talk about how,um, when you find your romantic
partner, a lot of it is aboutyour microbiome and like that's
to me, that's so fascinating.
We haven't had a.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
I really like you.
Can you take this test?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
But also like that you're taking the test.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Yeah, sure, why not?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Are we compatible in all of the signs?
Speaker 3 (49:34):
And then I need you to spit in this cup, yeah well,
I really do want everyone, soI'll add that one too.
And this isn't a low cost, nocost per se, but it's really
important.
I think everyone, just like wedo blood work, I want everyone
to know what their microbiome is.
It's just like gut mapping.
Maybe you just do it once everyfew years.
But here's an interesting thing.
We see this all the time.
(49:55):
Patients can seemingly behealthy and we test them and
they're really high in Pgingivalis or F nucleatum or T
denticola.
These are pathogens and they'relinked to cancer and they're
linked to Alzheimer's.
And how would you know unlessyou test it?
And so at that point you'reasymptomatic, it's just, it's a
(50:16):
higher level, but you can dothings to eradicate them so that
you're lowering your risk forall these long term chronic
systemic diseases.
You know that you mightliterally get 10 or 20 years
down the road.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, I think that's such good advice and I think
that you know you have to investin your health and you know you
have to stay vigilant in thiscountry in your health, and you
know you have to stay vigilantin this country.
I know it's our podcast goesglobally, but we're always
talking about like if you're inthe us, this applies to you.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yes, totally so what I find funny and interesting is
that, uh, just before we havesomeone like stacy, who's well,
uh, renowned in regards to, youknow, knowing about oral health
and all that stuff, you and Iare in there flossing our teeth
and getting ready as if she'sgoing to be able to view our
(51:11):
teeth over the screen.
Hey man, I got like dental fear.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm like, okay, what's happening with my teeth?
I'm going to the dentist.
It's like you'll never cleanyour house like as clean as when
somebody's dentist.
It's like you'll never cleanyour house like as clean as when
somebody's coming over.
Like you'll never brush yourteeth or clean your mouth as
clean as when you go to thedentist.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Right, that is correct so.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
But when you're on a podcast, obviously she's not
going to be looking in her mouth.
But when she said oh like, ohum, you could tell a lot of
whether your teeth you know areyour gums are inflamed.
That means there's inflammationin your body.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
I was like, oh shit yeah, she, I, I and the teeth,
you know, the gums bleeding.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I was like, oh, like the amount of red I saw in my
sink.
And it was not red 40 or redthree or red four, it was blood.
I was literally.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
I was all smiles when we first started talking to her
and then she talked about allthe things that you know going
on with your mouth.
And every time she mentionedsomething like my mouth got you
know more and more tight.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
I may have to take another look at this oh my
goodness.
Okay, sending you the highestvibrations.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
You are held, you are loved, but it is the truth.
You know what I'm saying youweren't saying anything wrong,
it's going to get cut because wealready have too much, so just
(52:45):
key takeaway okay, my takeaway,my key takeaway, my takeaway
takeaway.
One of my key takeaways is thethe fact that if you are
struggling with sleep or focusor chronic fatigue, that it
might not be your diet or stress, that that it could actually be
your airway health, and thatbecause your mouth controls more
than just your smile right,it's like it's how you breathe,
it's how you eat, so it's crazyLike when you are on a health
(53:11):
kick, you should start with yourmouth.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
That's awesome.
Yes, exactly, detox what'sgoing in that mouth.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Detox starts with what's going in your mouth.
Most certainly yeah, I likethat yeah, mm-hmm.
Well, today we are going to be talking about some
mouth matters and tooth truths.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Tooth truths.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Say that five times fast.
Tooth truths, nope, toothtruths.
I'm already done.
The oral health secrets no onetold you.
With Dr Stacey Whitman, are youready for some tooth truths,
tooth truths.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tooth truths, tooth truths, tooth truths, tooth
truths, tooth truths, toothtruths.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
See that Are we ready for tooth truths.
Tooth truths.
Tooth truths and a lie.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Tooth truths and a lie.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That's pretty good, but your mouth matters Sometimes
you say really cute jokes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I know that one was good, yes.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I would say many times, not some Like what is
this?
Some bullshit.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Again, we're speaking tooth truths here.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Tune in now.
Yes, tune in.
Okay, tune in as.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Dr Stacey shares her knowledge and insights on
creating happy teeth and healthylives.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Welcome to the Empowerment Couple Podcast,
where your path to self-masteryexpands.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Empowerment Couple podcast where your path to
self-mastery expands.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
My co-host is empowerment coach Zuri Starr and
he's expansion coach, MikeyStarr.
Together we are the EmpowermentCouple.
Our mission is simple to serveyou love, so you can make
informed decisions to regain andmaintain your personal power.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We'll take you on a journey to a life filled with
purpose, passion and limitlesspossibilities, while sharing
stories of transformation,wellness hacks and healthy
habits backed by science andancient wisdom.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Plus, we'll keep you entertained with engaging games,
banter and funny innuendosalong the way.
Each episode is an excitingblend of education,
entertainment and empowermentdesigned to help you create a
mindset to be a magnet for morelove, happiness and abundance.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Together with our special guests.
We are dedicated to sharinginformation that empowers you to
create your most beautiful lifeA one Z, a two Z, a three Z
your most beautiful life.
I got nothing.
I got nothing.
You're supposed to saysomething I forgot.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Welcome to the show.
We have Dr Stacey Whitman, aleading authority in functional
dentistry.
She's on a mission torevolutionize oral health care.
With a unique blend ofscientific expertise and
compassionate care, she'sdedicated to creating a
cavity-free world.
Dr Stacey is a board certifiedin pediatrics, integrative
(02:34):
dentistry and naturopathicdentistry and is one of the only
dentists in the world to haveher functional medicine
certification from the Instituteof Functional Medicine.
She founded one of the leadingfunctional pediatric dentist
office in the country, where shetakes a whole body and holistic
approach to her care.
She's the co-founder of theInstitute for Functional
(02:56):
Dentistry, launching in 2025,and lectures globally on
functional dentistry and theoral systemic connection.
Okay, well, welcome to theEmpowerment Couple podcast.
We have Dr Stacey Whitman herewith us today and we are so
excited to have you here with us, and I met Stacey in September
(03:18):
in all places Battle Creek,michigan.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Answering the call.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Creek, michigan, answering the call.
Answering the call to standwith people who were fighting
against Kellogg's usingartificial dyes and also BHT.
We delivered over 400,000signatures and Stacey was one of
the speakers that I was luckyto introduce that day as the
emcee and I didn't know anythingabout Stacey Pryor, but then I
introduced her and I was like,oh, that was like one of the
(03:49):
best speeches of the day and Iwas like I have to get her on
the show.
And the other backstory is thatVani had text me right after
the Senate hearing leading up toannouncing the Kellogg's March.
And she says, hey, can you cometo Michigan?
And at the time I was in Spainand I was in Spain with my
(04:14):
daughter just my daughter and Ito get dental work.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Because it is so expensive to get dental work
done here, even if you havedental insurance.
And so I was like, oh, this is,like you know, a line that I'm
meeting stacy at this event andshe's speaking truth to all of
the things, um, that I, you know, have studied about, about oral
(04:40):
health.
And I told mike I'm like wehave to have her on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh yeah, most certainly.
I mean we've covered.
We've covered all kinds ofdifferent ways of healing the
body and we have not yet talkedabout the entrance into the
whole body.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Gateway.
It's the gateway.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right Gateway into the gut gateway, into the
bloodstream gateway, intoeverything.
So, yeah, I mean, you live andyou breathe and you eat out of
that orifice.
So it has to be, it has to bespick and span right.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Indeed, you can tell a lot about a person's health by
looking in their mouth, and Iwould argue the mouth is the
start of the gut.
I want people to start thinkingof it that way because I think
people will start taking it moreseriously.
I want people to start thinkingof it that way because I think
people will start taking it moreseriously.
So, yeah, it's really important.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
It's really important .
And how did you get sopassionate about it?
Because obviously you're superpassionate about this.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah, ooh, this is a long story I'll consolidate,
though.
I mean I didn't.
I wasn't raised by medicaldoctors or dentists.
This was a total rogue move.
I was an artist and a theaterkid and a dancer and on, and
that's what I was studying incollege and English.
I didn't know what I was goingto do and I was just worried
(05:56):
about my future and supportingmyself.
So I did a 180.
And I went into pre med andthen I ended up in dental
because I had a very severebicycle accident when I was 10.
And I really I broke my jaw andI knocked teeth out and I was in
and out of dental offices andso that always piqued my
(06:16):
interest.
But then I would be workingwith my hands, kind of like with
my art and my sculpture.
So it was really piecemeal.
But I remember on day onesitting in my first dental class
and like looking left, lookingright and just saying where am I
?
What is happening?
And from the very beginning Ijust didn't have a great feeling
(06:38):
about how we were approachingdental health.
It was all being approachedfrom a surgical standpoint, from
end stage disease, putting outfires, and it never made sense
to me.
I was raised a little moreholistically.
I was raised in rural Maine.
We had a garden.
My mom cooked all the meals wecanned.
(06:58):
She wanted us outside gettingdirty, like that whole thing,
and to not talk about preventionand how the dots are connected
between the mouth and the body.
It just never resonated with me.
But of course I just blindersup, head down, went through
dental school, got out,practiced as a general dentist
so I've seen adults and then theamount of disease that is out
(07:22):
there.
I really don't think peopleunderstand how rampant decay and
gum disease and periodontaldiseases I mean these are the
top chronic diseases.
Globally, 80% of people havegum disease and 50% have
periodontal disease and we knowperiodontal pathogens.
That's when you have chronicbone loss.
(07:42):
Periodontal pathogens are theones that are causing issues in
the brain like Alzheimer's anddementia, in the heart, like
cardiovascular issues, fertilityissues, autoimmune issues,
cancers, et cetera.
Okay, so it's a big deal so,but I got out and I practiced as
a general dentist and it wasjust turn and burn.
Now I had no time to speak to mypatients and I was miserable.
(08:05):
I was truly miserable.
I was so depressed.
I was like this is why dentistsare so depressed and I almost
moved to New Zealand.
I was going to abandon myprofession.
I wanted to just go surf andsnowboard and bartend.
I was like, well, you have allthe student debt.
That is not smart.
How do I salvage this?
(08:27):
And I thought, well, what's themost upstream that I can get so
that I can educate and coursecorrect and help things when
they're smoldering and not fullblown emergency fires?
I wanted to practice more.
I wanted to be more like adental physician.
I wanted to think about how thepieces all fit together to
really help my patients.
(08:48):
And so that was pediatrics Iwanted.
I had to get to the kids andthe parents and, like, course
correct all the mistakes we'vemade with some of the education
and how we're approaching dentalhealth.
And so that's what I did Backto school, became board
certified and went out as anassociate and, lo and behold,
the same thing happened.
I was still miserable becausenow I was seeing kids in a
(09:10):
traditional model.
But pediatrics is even faster.
You have even less time withthe child.
So now, instead of 30 patientsa day, I was seeing 70 patients
a day and it was just awful.
So I just was at a loss and Istarted reading.
You know, I was exposed toWeston Price's work nutrition
and physical degeneration andthen Dr Stephen Lynn out of
(09:33):
Australia, a functional dentist,kind of modernized that and his
book really changed my lifebecause he spoke about how he
almost left dentistry too and Ijust kept meeting people in the
biological dental world, theholistic world.
I went to conferences, then Istarted additional trainings and
I now have my own practicewhere I've taken all of that
education from the past 12 years, put it together and I created
(09:55):
a functional pediatric dentalpractice which is, from what I'm
told, one of the only ones inthe country and I now love my
job ones in the country and Inow love my job and it's
wonderful because I'm reallyhelped.
I see the change in these kidsand in these families and it's
in, in, it spreads.
That's the cool part and therereally is an awakening.
People want answers and theywant.
(10:17):
Everyone wants to be healthy.
They just want tools.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And also I think they're confused, right?
So that's the thing that is soprevalent with all things health
is that you are told so manydifferent things.
It's confusing and like oneperson will say, you know, do
this, and another person willsay, do this, and then you know,
all of a sudden you'recontroversial and it just it.
It's hard to know unless youhave somebody that you, you know
(10:43):
, trust and you know you, yousomebody that you trust and you
have a good experience.
It's really hard to findsupport.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Indeed, it's hard.
You have the game that you havegoing on.
Huh yeah, so I have this game.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
We always play a game on our show because we've found
that you know people learn bestwhen they are having fun or
when they, you know, you add alittle competition factor and
also we just try to entertainwith as much education as
possible.
Um, it's also something thatyou can listen to with people,
and we find that on social media, people usually resonate more
(11:18):
with just the game thanlistening to people chat back
and forth.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
This is like with kids gamify it If you want to
get energy done in life.
Make a game success.
So I love this.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, there's a bunch of science behind it, and I was
like Mike, we're doing a game,and also like, if we're going to
show up, I want it to be fun.
I want my life to be enjoyed.
So we are always trying to havea lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
How can we, how can we talk about, uh, oral health
without smiling right you'regonna have to smile, right, yeah
, yeah, smile.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
You know, when you see them and smile, there's a
cascade of responses in yourbody, you know, like
parasympathetic and calming, andit's really, you know, I wish
more of us did that yeah, forsure.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Um, okay, so this is just a rapid fire game.
I have 30 topics that are kindof controversial and okay, so
well, so it you know, like thissets you apart from, maybe, like
somebody who believes in it'sokay to have artificial dyes in
your toothpaste, for example.
Okay, so, okay.
(12:24):
So I'm going to say the thingand then, and Mike's going to
listen and like, take note,because he's going to, he's
going to flag which one thathe's most surprised by, because
I do think you're probably goingto surprise us with something,
one of your thoughts onsomething that people think is
good and actually it's not good.
So you're the expert.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Amazing, I think this is the best thing that's ever
happened to me right now.
Okay, well, you can use thisall you?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
want, and, and what I want you to do is just yes or
no.
We're going to try to goquickly, because I would like
you to be able to use it howeveryou would like for educational
purposes, and then you can diveinto each one if you want.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And yeah, I think like this is how we learn, so
yeah, or we can dive into onesthat maybe were surprising or
need more.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Exactly Got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Time to answer afterwards.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
The goal is yes, no, and you can also use maybe, if
you're like, thank goodness,because there might be might be
okay, because there might be amaybe, and human health isn't
black and white, right so, andit's like you don't want to give
the advice.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
As you know, I would imagine if I were a dentist, I
wouldn't want a blanketstatement you know a serious
thing, you know, and like,because we're all so different,
um okay let's get into it ready,ready, I'm so ready, okay.
So let's just do a practice sothat you know I'm gonna say, and
like, because we're all sodifferent, okay, let's get into
it, ready, ready, I'm so ready,okay.
So let's just do a practice sothat you know I'm going to say
artificial colors, no, okay.
(13:52):
So it's going to go like that,but I'm going to go fast, cool,
all right.
Here we go Play along with us athome.
Mark down anything that youthink is kind of funny or that
you're like what?
Okay, ready Remineralizing gum,maybe Tongue scraping yes.
(14:13):
Pulling wisdom teeth, maybeMouth tape Love it.
Sleep study.
Sleep study, maybe.
Biocompatibility testing yes.
Water pick yes.
Carrageenan no Mouthwash, noAmalgam, no Oral microbiome Love
(14:41):
Hydroxyapatite.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Love.
Well, depends on this type andsource.
We'll get into that.
Braces Maybe, but hopefully notOral probiotics.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yes, usually.
Baking soda yes.
Sodium lauryl sulfate no.
Oil pulling yes.
Fluoride no.
Breastfeeding yes.
Gut health Love Xylitol yes.
(15:16):
Electric toothbrushes, maybeFlossing yes.
Veneers, no.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
X-rays when necessary yes.
Mouth guards yes.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Hormonal health yes.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Root canals Maybe to no Artificial flavors?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
No, Woo, you got through it right.
All right, the only you had toresist.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
There I noticed you were like, oh well, it's so hard
because it's so nuanced, andthis is what I'm just going to
add before we get into it.
This is what I don't like aboutsocial media is that I'm going
to just open up here it.
It seems like, especially allof a sudden, everyone's chasing
the algorithm and we're allstruggling to grow our platforms
(16:11):
and be seen and get our contentout there.
So what does it fear?
Sensationalism, and I just seeso much black and white and it's
just not.
Everything can be so nuanced,which is why I said a maybe.
Yeah, it requires conversations, and so I encourage everyone
listening to try to be someonewho doesn't look at life black
(16:35):
and white Like this is good allthe time.
This is bad all the time.
I mean, there are some thingsfood dyes, for example, bht, for
example, but you know.
But we'll dig into it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, okay.
Well, which one was mostsurprising to you?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Actually there's two of them.
Zuri did this thing on me andand I got all of them right,
except all of them the same asyou, except for amalgam.
For some reason I messed up onamalgam.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Because that was like mercury yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I was like wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I said no, didn't I yeah you did, you did.
You did.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Okay, I said yes, and then, and then, and then she's
like no, that's, that's mercury.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well, that doesn't count you, it was a word.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and, and Imessed up on fluoride.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
I know fluoride is bad, however how bad is it?
Fluoride is nuanced.
Sorry to interrupt.
Yes, nuanced, sorry tointerrupt.
Yes, how bad is it?
So the reason that question'snuanced is I would answer it a
little bit differently if yousaid systemic fluoride, water
fluoridation and supplementationversus topical fluoride
toothpaste rinses, okay, okay,let's dive into that.
I have opinions of both, one isa hard no.
(17:42):
Water fluoridationsupplementation to me is a hard
no, and this is in the news alot lately, but I've been
speaking out about this for 12years.
I want everyone to know.
I was trained as a traditionaldentist and I used to promote
water fluoridation.
In fact, in Portland, oregon,where I am, we don't have
(18:02):
fluoride in our water and it wasa ballot measure in 2012.
And I was on the pro fluorideteam volunteering, picketing
with my pin, handing out flyerslike we need a fluoride, you
need it, you need it, you needit.
I was hell bent on it, but atthat point, I'll be honest, I
had not done my due diligence.
I went to school and was toldby higher up elders that this is
(18:26):
what we do and fluoride is whateveryone needs and that's what
dentists do and that's it andyou don't question it.
I had never heard ever thatthere were concerns with
fluoride.
Until that campaign, I sat withthe pro fluoride side to listen
to a debate and I was fumingand I was like these tin hat
(18:48):
brigade woo, woo, caucus, blah,blah.
You know I was that and Ilistened and I was the first
time.
I was like whoa thyroidendocrine disruption,
neurotoxicity, bone cancer.
I had never heard of it,absolutely.
And so then I went and startedlike PubMed, pubmed, nih, and it
(19:11):
doesn't take long for you toraise an eyebrow and say, oh my
gosh, where's the safety data?
There's no long-term safetystudy, et cetera, et cetera.
This got grandfathered in froman observational experiment,
essentially, and so now pops inthe TASCA trial.
So the TASCA trial is basicallythe trial that just concluded,
(19:34):
and it was over the past sevenyears, the people versus the EPA
, where the people said, hey,epa, where's your safety data on
water fluoride agent?
And the EPA kept delaying anddelaying and appealing and never
answering the question.
And so there was a trial andeveryone can go onto the
Fluoride Action Network.
They have it beautifullyoutlined, you can see all the
testimonies of the experts, andwhat was interesting about this
(19:56):
trial is the judge, for the oneof the first time, said hey,
dental community, americanDental Association, I know you
guys like fluoride.
I don't really want to hearfrom you.
I want to hear from theendocrinologist, the
epidemiologist, theneuroscientist, the biochemist.
I want to hear from thesescientists about what it does to
the rest of the body, becausethe mouth is connected.
(20:17):
What happens in the mouthdoesn't stay in the mouth, and
now we're talking aboutingesting something.
So the judge ruled last fallthat there was an unreasonable
risk posed to current waterfluoridation practices because
there's no safety data, and heput it on the EPA to do
something about it.
He said now it's in your handsto correct this and actually
(20:39):
manage this and regulate this.
This came after the NTP reportcame out.
Finally, it was the NationalToxicology Program's report that
was also under lock and key foryears and he received it
because of the Freedom ofInformation Act.
And as no surprise, it said youknow, the fluoridation
(20:59):
practices are associated withlower IQs in children.
The way we're doing itcurrently.
Now the backlash on this is, itwill say, at 1.2 milligrams per
liter, and the US nowfluoridates at 0.7 milligrams
per liter.
We used to do 1.2 up until 2015, but they dropped it because of
(21:20):
osteosarcoma issues andconcerns.
So they dropped it.
But here's the issue If you diginto that report, there are
sections where it says even atoptimally fluoridated levels,
there are concerns with pregnantwomen and children, even at 0.7
, but the mainstream media, theAmerican Dental Association,
they're not pulling from thoseparagraphs, they're.
(21:40):
They're cherry picking whatthey share with you.
The other thing is, if you testwater fluoride in your community
, do you think it's actuallyexactly a 0.7 milligrams per
liter?
Of course not.
So I was in a campaign where wetested some areas around us.
Some were as high as 2.2, 1.8.
(22:00):
You know it's all over theplace.
Was that in Portland or no?
Because they are aroundPortland, yes.
So I encourage everyone to ask,because it's really hard to
titrate it, you guys, how theyadd fluoride?
They're these huge 50 poundbags of hydrofluorosilicic
fluoride acid.
They dump it in.
(22:21):
It has skull and crossbones onthe front and so they're just
titrating it.
This is not very scientific.
They just are dumping it intothe water supply.
Now here's the other issue.
Okay, so that's at one liter.
Now I drink more than a literof water a day.
The American Academy ofPediatrics wants pregnant women
(22:42):
drinking three liters a day.
So now we're saying, well, butwith the safety standards we're
regulating water so you can onlydrink one liter a day.
But no one knows that.
So people are getting too muchwater.
You're drinking it, you'recooking with it, you're making
your soup with it, you'reboiling your pasta with it.
Plus, people don't understandthere's a halo effect too.
(23:08):
So pharmaceuticals manypharmaceuticals have fluoride in
them.
It makes it more bioavailable.
So you're getting fluoride fromyour prescription meds.
You're getting fluoride from anyprocessed food that you consume
your Gatorade, your Hi-C, yourcanned soups.
They're not filtering the waterin these factories, so you're
getting it from ultra processedfoods.
You're getting it from blacktea and green tea and I'm not
(23:28):
saying don't consume thosethings, but you know kids are
swallowing it.
We're brushing with it.
Now we need prescriptions.
It's just too much.
So there's no safety, a windowof safety and toxicity is very
narrow.
There's no safety, the windowof safety and toxicity is very
narrow.
And it's being associated withfive to seven IQ point drops in
(23:50):
children whose pregnant moms andin formula fed because that was
fluoride water were exposed totoo much fluoride.
And there's copious amounts ofdata on this.
To me it should just take onestudy, but we have dozens of
very high quality studies thatare pulled in this NTP report in
this trial and there was justanother meta analysis that came
out.
But for some reason, fluoridethe burden of proof should be on
(24:13):
safety, but with fluoride it'sthe opposite.
It's like we have to prove it'sunsafe, it's wild.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
And then yeah, that's like a common thread though.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, I know, with many things I know.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And if it's not fluoride, it's red dye.
It's going to be somethingright.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
I know, I know.
And then the other thing isfluoride is antimicrobial and so
what is it doing to the gutmicrobiome?
No one is talking about that.
It's not selective.
There aren't any studies onthis.
I would love someone to do astudy on the gut microbiome with
people who drink fluoridatedwater versus those that don't.
I think that would befascinating.
So what's even wilder and thisis what the public really needs
(24:56):
to know you know it was toutedas the top public health, you
know, achievement of our centurywater fluoridation.
That's all just smoke andmirrors.
You guys, oh yeah, are stillthe number one chronic disease
in the world, whether yourcommunity is fluoridated or not.
Countries that fluoridate havethe same decay rate as countries
(25:17):
that do not.
We're one of the last countriesto fluoridate our water.
97% of the world does not.
But also, the CochraneCollaborative came out in
December that's the goldstandard of all medical review
and they found that fluorideslow down not so fast.
Fluoride actually doesn't workas well in our water as we
(25:38):
thought.
It only reduces decay by onequarter of a cavity per person.
One quarter.
You see the number 25%reduction.
That is extrapolated data.
That is inaccurate.
It is one quarter of a cavity,so that's not statistically
significant.
Yes, Other point is I went todental school to learn to fix a
(26:02):
tooth.
I can fix a cavity a onequarter of a cavity in a tooth
but I can't fix a developingbrain.
That goes awry, you know with aneurocognitive disorder.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, so we, we have some experience with fluoride.
I want to, I want to share withyou that we left LA and when we
lived in LA, we in 2017, webought a house in Vermont.
So you were talking aboutgrowing up in Maine, which which
is where we're we're filmingthis today, but we left LA and
(26:40):
at the time, we were spendinglike a couple hundred dollars on
filtered water that came inglass bottles that was delivered
to our home Sometimes he wouldbreak them and I was like, oh,
you know, like the amount ofwater that you're supposed to
drink, that was healthy and likeit was tested, and they would
constantly send us the monthlytest and we were spending all of
this money on water beingdelivered to us in LA, because
(27:03):
we knew what was in the water,because we had been working on
these issues for a long time,and so then we moved to Vermont,
get a house, we have a well andI had to find a different
dentist, and we had a biologicaldentist.
There in LA, it's easier tofind that type of support, and
(27:24):
so, of course, we werewell-informed about all the
things.
However, when we got here,there's nobody we could find, so
we took her to a pediatricdentist, my daughter and she had
some decay in her molars.
And so we get there and they'relike, okay, well, here's what
we can do, we're going toextract and then we'll do a root
canal.
And you know, it was like allof the things that they would
(27:46):
have totally been against at ourother dental office and they
said, well, have you fluoridatedyour?
Well, yet, I'm not joking.
And I was like like my wholebody kind of went numb and like
cold and I was like what, why doyou?
think we moved here out here fora while and, like we did
(28:08):
extensive water testing when wewere in the like you know um
home buying process, you know itwas so mineral rich, and I was
like, oh my gosh, like thiswater is just pristine.
Like when we found this houseand it wasn't even our first
choice, but I was like but thewell, you know what I mean?
It was really a part of ourdecision-making and they wanted
(28:28):
us to fluoridate our well.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I grew up in a well, too, I did.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, and so I just think, like this is the
education that they were given.
You know, and it's such a smallcommunity, these people my
daughter went to school with andit's like they thought I was
crazy.
They're like, oh, she doesn'twant to fluoridate her.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Well, like Dr Strangelove or whatever.
Yeah, it's unfortunate.
It's like they just have onetool in their toolbox, but the
but the thing is that's abandaid.
I mean, if you look ancestrallywhich I think we showed many
times we didn't grow.
Humans don't have fluoride intheir body.
We're not fluoride deficient.
No one has a disease because oflack of fluoride.
(29:10):
That is not why we get decay andmoved to agrarian societies,
because we started growing cornand wheat.
Then we started building it andprocessing it and the
industrialized revolutionhappened and everything was soft
and squishy and sugary andflowery and that's when decay
(29:30):
skyrocketed.
But no one wants to go upstreamto talk about this.
I mean, I haven't used fluoridesince my teen years and that
was a long time ago.
My teeth are great.
My kids have a long time ago.
My teeth are great.
My kids have never had it.
Their teeth are great.
I have plenty of patients whodo not use it.
Their teeth are beautiful.
I have plenty of patients thatdo that get decay.
(29:50):
It's not the fluoride and Iwill say fluoride is no match
against big food period yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, I love that mic
drop boom indeed period.
But it's, it's an easy, it's theno different than you going to
the physician and they havethree minutes with you and they
write a prescription.
They code it and they write aprescription.
The dentist is like I don'thave time to dig into mineral
(30:14):
deficiencies, vitamindeficiencies, airway health, gut
health.
You know all these.
We're not trained in it, sothey don't know about these
things, unfortunately.
So they just say use fluoride,brush your teeth, floss your
teeth, don't eat candy bars, usefluoride.
And it's so much more involvedin that decay is very often a
nutritional deficiency.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, and and it made me really dive deeper
into less leaning on thebiological dentist that we had
and more into like OK, I've gotto figure this out, like you
know.
And then we finally foundsomebody was two hours each way,
so you know, that meant likedriving in the snow and all of
(30:57):
the things when you move backEast, um, and I do what you
gotta do but you do what youhave to do.
But what I really found was likeI have to, I have to figure
this out, Like we can't rollback the clock.
But there was things that wedid with, like you know,
crackers and things that I'mlike, oh my gosh, I wish I would
have known that, even thoughthey're organic, even, you know,
it's like things that I justdidn't think of, you know, and
(31:20):
like I wish we were educatedyoung, Like if we had had, you
know, a second child, like thatwould have been helpful to know,
you know.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
It would be helpful to know when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Absolutely.
I know Well and that's why Iwent to Peds, so it's important
for those listening.
And this gets me.
A lot of people get upset whenI say this, but crackers are one
of the top reasons we have acavity epidemic, because that is
a staple in so many kids' dailylives and you don't think
(31:53):
anything of it.
You are, you're like well,they're organic, non-gmo,
they're fine, they're yellowwith turmeric, it's fine.
Right, it's not that, it's theflour, it's flour acts like
sugar in the mouth, and then, ontop of that, they tend to be
nutrient devoid, and so are ourkids mineral and fat soluble
(32:14):
vitamin optimized?
No, we're not.
We're magnesium deficient,we're vitamin D deficient.
We're inside all day.
We're not outside magnesiumdeficient, we're vitamin d
deficient.
We're inside all day, we're notoutside.
There's junk light,mitochondrial health, metabolic
health, I mean it.
It's all connected, all thethings everyone's talking about.
It connects back to oral healthtoo.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Yeah, yeah, every single system in your body is
interconnected, so there's noway of of experiencing positive
health if you have negativehealth going on in your mouth or
anywhere else in your body.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Absolutely.
I mean, if your gums areinflamed and bleed, like many
people's do, and they justignore it, that is systemic
inflammation.
That is a huge red flag thatyour body is begging you to get
healthy, and we all seem to befamiliar with the term leaky gut
.
Well, if your gums bleed,that's leaky gums.
So you are now creating anentry point of oral bacteria
(33:07):
pathogens, because if you havegot swollen, inflamed gums, you
have oral pathogens to get intothe bloodstream, to get into the
lymphatic system, and they cantravel all over the body.
They release exotoxins,endotoxins and increase
inflammation.
And this is why we're seeingoral bacteria in the brains of
(33:27):
Alzheimer's patients anddementia, you know patients, and
in heart disease and fertilityissues, and you know people who
have low birth weight, babiesand even miscarriages,
autoimmune diseases.
It's now oral pathogens are nowlinked to colon cancer,
pancreatic cancer, it goes onand on, and so it's incredibly
(33:49):
important.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
And it comes back to the microbes, you know, and
those microbes love crackers,they love fermentable
carbohydrates, that's what theyfeed on, and I feel like what
would have been great as a youngmom with a young child as you
know, she started to getcavities is, first of all, just
(34:11):
like five minutes of educationof like hey, read this book, or
hey, you know.
Instead, what I haveexperienced multiple times is
kind of like shame culture.
You know where you go in andthey're just like, oh, are you
drinking soda?
It's like no.
Like.
Are you eating candy?
No, like we're an organichousehold oh, I breastfed her.
Like it just started so earlythat it was like there wasn't
(34:35):
the education that I felt likeas a mom.
Oh, like this is reallyempowering.
I know what to do now and likeI can reverse some of this.
You know I can prevent it.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
But she did eat a lot of crackers.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
She did eat a lot of crackers she was a cracker
eating fool yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Yeah, but still, I mean, I'm with you.
I have worked with colleaguesthat are like that and they just
don't.
It's not coming from a badplace, I don't think.
It's just the way we'reeducated and trained, and I just
(35:09):
think people aren't thinkingoutside of the box.
They're not.
We're not taught to connect thedots, we're not.
We're taught medicine'scompartmentalized.
Okay, I'm taught to stay in mylane.
It's the teeth, it's the teeth,it's the tongue, it's the gums
and that's it.
I don't need to know anythingabout the gut, I don't need to
know anything about hormonehealth or you know, immune, the
immune system, or metabolichealth or mitochondria, like.
(35:31):
But and this is wherefunctional dentistry comes in
Functional dentistry is, yes, myspecialty is the mouth.
However, I look at it throughthe lens of the entire body and
I need to understand all thesystems, and there's not
training for that in dentalschool, and that's why I'm
working with a couple otherlovely colleagues.
(35:52):
We've co-founded the Institutefor Functional Dentistry.
We'll be associated with theInstitute for Functional
Medicine to try to get moredentists trained this way,
because I do think there's a lotof dentists out there that they
are dissatisfied too.
They're depressed, they hatetheir career, they're burnt out.
Nothing we do makes adifference.
The patients keep coming backsick because we're missing the
(36:17):
root issue.
With many of them yeah, withchildren.
What I'm seeing and this iswhere I really like to tell
parents this this issue isbigger than you.
We are chronically,epigenetically mineral deficient
and it is passing fromgeneration to generation, and
that we're seeing that in teethand under mineralized teeth it's
(36:37):
called hypoplastic enamel, iswhat I believe to be a silent
global epidemic.
I see it skyrocketing in mypractice, and that's when the
teeth come in either crumblingor defective.
The armor, the enamel, isn'tthick or it's crumbly, it's just
deficient, and so those acidattacks, they just dissolve the
(37:00):
teeth so quickly and this iswhen breast milk gets blamed or
you get accused of things.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, we definitely.
I breastfed for two a littleover two years and I definitely
got told oh well, the decay iscoming from that.
I mean, the journey we've beenon together as a family has been
wild when it comes to dentalhealth and all three of us and
I'm like mike and eric makingfaces because I was like.
(37:27):
Well, sometimes my gums bleed,like you know honestly, just
before we met you.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Uh, we're all flossing, just in case you ask
floss and water pick.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yes, please, and we're in the same age group.
So what I do, you know, as weage we do lose a little bone
around our teeth, and so Ireally like floss and then water
pick, like alternate everyother night.
Night they will do slightlydifferent things, but eating
gums can be a sign of vitamin Cdeficiency, kind of zinc
deficiency, or B2, b6, b b9, soit could be nutritional too.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
And if you mouth breathe, yes, I'm, I'm mouth
taping now I'm trying to getthis guy on board, oh do it.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
It you will.
It will change your life.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
So tell us, like if you could pick five things and I
I know I threw some random shitin that list but like if you
could pick five things and Iknow I threw some random shit in
that list but like if you couldpick five things that you could
empower people right now,whether you know at any age, or
if you want to talk cancer, ifyou want to talk pediatrics,
like I've, I've consumed a lotof your content and I'm, like
(38:36):
blown away by a lot of it.
But if you could summarize likejust a few things that you
think would be digestible andtangible, that all of us have
access to.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yes, I love low cost, no cost tips.
Um, well, I I really am a.
What you put on your fork makesso much of the difference.
So I'm a big advocate for justa whole food diet and whatever
that means to you.
But we have to start cooking athome more.
We have to go to farmersmarkets, we have to talk about
(39:10):
regenerative agriculture andless stuff from more stuff from
farms, less stuff from boxes andpackages and factories.
That, I think, would correctabout 95% of the dental issues
out there, to be honest with you.
So that's very important.
The other thing I would say isprioritize your sleep and sleep
(39:33):
hygiene and with that I'm kindof cheating is how you breathe
so you can do all the thingscorrectly in life.
Be, you know, the best atresistance, training and all the
supplements and all the things.
But if you're not breathingoptimally and oxygenating and
restoring um, you will feel likegarbage and it's going to have
(39:55):
a lot of downstream effects forsure, uh, including
cardiovascular.
And you know it can affectmental health, gut health,
obviously your teeth.
So people who mouth breathe aremore likely to have gum disease
and cavities too.
So either work with an airwaytrained doctor to figure out why
(40:16):
?
But a little simple hack ismouth taping.
You just want to make sure youcan breathe through your nose
for three or four minuteswithout feeling panicked.
If you feel fight or flight,you probably have some
obstruction.
You have a deviated septum.
You need some work with theneural feedback loop to train
your brain.
This is safe.
So work with someone.
(40:36):
But so I would try lip tapingand you can put it on for 15
minutes while you're choppingvegetables for dinner and then
wear it for a show 30 minutesand wear it for a movie, and
then you're good, you know andjust put it on and then it ends
up in your hair and you're like,wait, maybe I bought the wrong
(40:56):
product.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I well, yeah, I know I've tried a few different ones
and now now I'm good, now I'm,I'm happy it's working and I
love it, and so I'm kind of likethe I'm the guinea pig usually
for these things, and so he'syeah, yeah, well, we'll see
about that.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I mean, I can see it on my aura ring.
My sleep scores are so muchbetter if I'm lip taping or
mouth taping or sleep taping andif I forget it for some reason,
I'm traveling.
I mean, I sleep like garbageabsolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
I'm actually noticing a difference that I I crave it.
Now I'm like, oh, it's time,Like my body knows that it's,
it's good for me.
Initially it was like forcingmyself to do it, but I like your
tips about, um, you know,trying it at different times
during the day.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
This just works for you.
So the other thing I'd say ishydration I mean in electrolytes
and minerals, you know.
So that's profoundly important.
Our saliva is this goldenelixir in our body that we just
ignore.
But your saliva protects yourteeth.
It has immune cells in it, ithas enzymes for digestion, it
has calcium and phosphorus fornatural remineralization.
(42:04):
Many of us our saliva is notoptimized because we tend to be
acidic and we're dehydrated andwe're nutrient devoid.
But hydration is reallyimportant From a hygiene
perspective.
I can't emphasize flossingenough.
If I had to pick, I thinkflossing is much more important
than brushing.
It's not just to remove foodfrom between your teeth, but
(42:26):
it's to shake the biofilm off.
So the biofilms, your stickyplaque, that's the bacteria and
a lot of pathogenic bacteria areanaerobic, so they love to live
in all the nooks and crannieswith low oxygen.
So we're shaking the biofilmoff so it can't sit there long
enough to release acid to leachthe minerals out of your teeth.
But the bummer is it will comeback again.
(42:47):
So it's like you're shaking therug off.
Every day you have to clean,clean between um gosh, what else
?
Um, I think most of us do needsome sort of remineralizer.
Now why?
Why I said no to gum.
I just think it's overkill.
I don't think we need this muchremineralization, but I do like
an active ingredient intoothpaste.
Yeah, so I said a remineralizer.
(43:10):
And then I guess.
Just, I'm a big advocate ofknowing your nutrient levels.
You know, I think it's hard totest kids, but test, don't guess
.
Like how would you know whatyour vitamin D level is unless
you test it?
How do you know if yournutrient optimized but people
who are vitamin D optimized areless likely to have disease?
You know vitamin D deficiencyis linked to cavities.
(43:31):
In fact, what's so interesting?
I only recently learned thisBefore water fluoridation,
dentistry would approach theirpatients talking about vitamin D
and calcium and nutrition first.
Isn't that interesting?
Yeah, yeah.
I wonder why we got rid of that.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Well, because there's money in treatment, not a cure.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
We patent vitamin D and make billions.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You know what's interesting.
You know what's interestingwhen you did say something about
, uh, bleeding gums, because it,you know it's, it's stuck, and
I was like, whoa, you know, Ireally only get that during the
winter.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, that's what I'm noticing, and so it's
definitely vitamin d deficiency,we have less sun totally
vitamin c, and women may noticetheir gums bleed more when their
hormones fluctuate too, andthat can be normal.
So certainly there's pregnancygingivitis, but some notice it
around.
You know their cycle, andthat's a whole other talk that I
(44:28):
could get about women'shormones and oral health.
But there is something thereand we're not getting paid
attention to and no one'stalking to us about this.
But you know, yeah yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Well, I don't want to take up too much more of your
time, but I want to give youtime to talk about how people
can find you and how we canconnect with um.
I want to talk about fig, whichis toothpaste that everyone
needs to know more about, sotalk to us about that.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah, so I I'm mostly on Instagram and I'm trying to
get more on YouTube and I reallydo that just for free education
.
You know that's we were bothtalking how we started kind of
our platforms in 2020.
And just trying to help peopleas much as we could, and so
that's the whole premise of myplatform and and I try not to
(45:19):
algorithm chase, so I hope Ihope I don't, but you can find
me there.
I have a website, drstaceycom,so my handle on Instagram is Dr
underscore Stacey, and you spellout doctor, and it's
S-T-A-C-E-I.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
And we will link everything in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
So my website's drstaceycom.
I have more education there,but I do offer online
consultations.
But, most importantly, I have anewsletter that I've been
putting out weekly.
I just reformatted it and it'sit's called open, wide Um and
it's it's about all things.
So it's not just dentistry butit's about community and life
and support and pop culture andthe latest science and my
(45:58):
thoughts on all kinds of things,and there's always like a
really great, easy tip that'saccessible to everyone, so great
title, by the way.
I'm thinking of having apodcast someday.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, you are someday .
Speaker 3 (46:19):
And then we're also fig.
That's yes.
That's a toothpaste I cofounded with Dr Mark Burhenne,
who's also a functional dentist,online quite a bit, and it
stands for feed your good guys,because we want to focus on the
oral microbiome.
So that's truly the premise ofour brand is oral microbiome
supportive ingredients.
So we took out all the thingsthat can disrupt.
(46:41):
So we took out the emulsifiers,the surfactants believe it or
not the essential oils you knowcoconut oil these things are all
antimicrobial and can haveimpacts and we just cleaned it
up.
And then we did put inhydroxyapatite which, if sourced
from the appropriatemanufacturing facility, ours is
SCCS approved that's theScientific Committee for
(47:03):
Consumer Safety out of Portugal.
It's called Fluidinova.
It's a wonderful biomimeticmaterial.
It's basically calcium andphosphorus, which is what's in
your teeth and in your saliva.
So and we are, we've won awardsand we just had some
comparative studies come out andwe are performing as well and
(47:25):
even better than fluoride, whichis really cool, yeah, so we're
very excited about that, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, we'll link everyone to FIG as well in our
show notes.
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, and I have a little discount for all your
listeners too that you can throwin there.
But I see a lot of changes inmy patients with it.
They their teeth.
We just get a lot of greatfeedback.
People say my teeth just feelsmoother, they feel stronger, my
mouth feels more hydrated and Ithink because so many of the
these gross ingredients thatstrip were taken out, and that's
(48:01):
likely why you said somethingabout mouthwash.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
You said no, because it strips right.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Yes the no with mouthwash.
Of course it depends on thetype, but if you were talking
more traditional, like Listerineand the prescription one that
the dentist will write for you,those are very strong
antimicrobials and astringentsand alcohols and they just
carpet bomb and there's actuallystudies now to show
particularly Listerine andChlorhexidine, they impact the
(48:30):
nitrate-reducing bacteria thatlive on the dorsum or on your
tongue.
That affects nitric oxidelevels and nitric oxide levels
and nitric oxide levels affectcardiovascular health and
there's studies showing peoplewho use these mouthwashes
consistently tend to have higherblood pressure and it can
affect sexual health becausenitric oxide is really important
(48:51):
for sexual health, so morelikely to have ed.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
So it's a big deal there's so many nasty products
out there, isn't there and theyall have blue dye, nasty red dye
.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Get it out of there yeah, so gross.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
I think that it'd be fun to also have you come back
on the show and talk about how,um, when you find your romantic
partner, a lot of it is aboutyour microbiome and like that's
to me, that's so fascinating.
We haven't had a.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
I really like you.
Can you take this test?
Speaker 1 (49:27):
But also like that you're taking the test.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Yeah, sure, why not?
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Are we compatible in all of the signs?
Speaker 3 (49:34):
And then I need you to spit in this cup, yeah well,
I really do want everyone, soI'll add that one too.
And this isn't a low cost, nocost per se, but it's really
important.
I think everyone, just like wedo blood work, I want everyone
to know what their microbiome is.
It's just like gut mapping.
Maybe you just do it once everyfew years.
But here's an interesting thing.
We see this all the time.
(49:55):
Patients can seemingly behealthy and we test them and
they're really high in Pgingivalis or F nucleatum or T
denticola.
These are pathogens and they'relinked to cancer and they're
linked to Alzheimer's.
And how would you know unlessyou test it?
And so at that point you'reasymptomatic, it's just, it's a
(50:16):
higher level, but you can dothings to eradicate them so that
you're lowering your risk forall these long term chronic
systemic diseases.
You know that you mightliterally get 10 or 20 years
down the road.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, I think that's such good advice and I think
that you know you have to investin your health and you know you
have to stay vigilant in thiscountry in your health, and you
know you have to stay vigilantin this country.
I know it's our podcast goesglobally, but we're always
talking about like if you're inthe us, this applies to you.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yes, totally so what I find funny and interesting is
that, uh, just before we havesomeone like stacy, who's well,
uh, renowned in regards to, youknow, knowing about oral health
and all that stuff, you and Iare in there flossing our teeth
and getting ready as if she'sgoing to be able to view our
(51:11):
teeth over the screen.
Hey man, I got like dental fear.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm like, okay, what's happening with my teeth?
I'm going to the dentist.
It's like you'll never cleanyour house like as clean as when
somebody's dentist.
It's like you'll never cleanyour house like as clean as when
somebody's coming over.
Like you'll never brush yourteeth or clean your mouth as
clean as when you go to thedentist.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Right, that is correct so.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
But when you're on a podcast, obviously she's not
going to be looking in her mouth.
But when she said oh like, ohum, you could tell a lot of
whether your teeth you know areyour gums are inflamed.
That means there's inflammationin your body.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
I was like, oh shit yeah, she, I, I and the teeth,
you know, the gums bleeding.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I was like, oh, like the amount of red I saw in my
sink.
And it was not red 40 or redthree or red four, it was blood.
I was literally.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
I was all smiles when we first started talking to her
and then she talked about allthe things that you know going
on with your mouth.
And every time she mentionedsomething like my mouth got you
know more and more tight.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
I may have to take another look at this oh my
goodness.
Okay, sending you the highestvibrations.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
You are held, you are loved, but it is the truth.
You know what I'm saying youweren't saying anything wrong,
it's going to get cut because wealready have too much, so just
(52:45):
key takeaway okay, my takeaway,my key takeaway, my takeaway
takeaway.
One of my key takeaways is thethe fact that if you are
struggling with sleep or focusor chronic fatigue, that it
might not be your diet or stress, that that it could actually be
your airway health, and thatbecause your mouth controls more
than just your smile right,it's like it's how you breathe,
it's how you eat, so it's crazyLike when you are on a health
(53:11):
kick, you should start with yourmouth.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
That's awesome.
Yes, exactly, detox what'sgoing in that mouth.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Detox starts with what's going in your mouth.
Most certainly yeah, I likethat yeah, mm-hmm.
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