Live LOUD Life PodcastLafayette Colorado
Episode 66
How to Improve Oral Health Naturally
With Sarah Wands
Tune in with Dr. Antonio and holistic dentistry specialist Sarah Wands as they discuss oral health. The effects of fluoride, nutrition, and bacteria on your mouth.
Episode Highlights
4:00 – What’s the deal with fluoride?
9:00 Daily practices to help with oral health
11:00 Eating hard cheese at the end of your meal
15:00 Good and bad bacteria in your mouth
17:00 Mouth taping to prevent mouth breathing
23:00 X-rays
27:00 Top 3 tips for oral health
About Sarah Wands
Background:
- Certified holistic nutritionist
- Holistic dental coach
- Owner of Root Raise Rise
Connect With Sarah:
Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/root.raise.rise/
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Anthony Gurule 00:08
Alright guys, welcome back to the Live LOUD Life podcast. My name is Antonio, your host of the Live LOUD Life podcast. And today we have Sarah Wands, on into we’re going to be talking about dentistry and holistic dentistry, functional dentistry, we’re trying to come up with like, what the name really is, but you know, it’s one of those things that’s kind of sometimes buzz wordy, but welcome. Thank you. And I’ll let you introduce yourself talk a little bit about, you know, your past your your, not your CV resume, per se, but what you’ve been doing and what do you do now?
Sarah Wands 00:40
Yeah. So thank you for having me. First of all, I love your guy’s practice. And I feel like we’ve known each other for a while. But, so, I’m Sarah Wands. I’ve been in dentistry for 10 years as a dental and surgical assistant, I just recently left after the birth of my daughter, she’s now coming up on a year and a half. And so I really wanted to fuse my background as a certified holistic nutritionist as well as my experience in dentistry to offer Holistic Dental coaching. So that’s what I do now. It’s essentially private coaching related to oral and dental health.
Anthony Gurule 01:22
That’s awesome. And so we were kind of chatting a little bit before, you know, get a little bit of background kind of helping me get an idea of where we want to go with this. And what you just mentioned was really great, because and rightfully so we give credit to certain professions based on more or less the, the letters behind the name, right, which is, which is fine, because they’ve gone through a lot of schooling and everything like that. But even like within our profession, you get to a sometimes complacent level where when you’re talking about it, or I’m gonna back up. We were talking about this came up with about a pediatrician and talking about the whole crawling CDC guideline that’s like another whole thing. But it was essentially like we saw kids, we’ve seen kids that are fine and have no health issues because they didnt crawl, like I understand that right?
Anthony Gurule 02:15
And you can see healthy or people being without disease without intervention. But some people want a different lifestyle. Some people want to be more proactive. And I think that dental coaching is great, because I mean realistically from what I remember about my dentist telling me was brush your teeth and floss and come in every six months, and then you occasionally which is gonna lead us to our first question, do a fluoride treatment because you need this in order to not get cavities and have healthy teeth, so on and so forth. Use it oh, this is a different one, I think come up Listerine and different things like that, to kill off gingivitis and gum disease and things like that. And it sounds like there’s a little bit more to the story.
Sarah Wands 03:03
Yeah, absolutely. And I would say that those general approaches and recommendations haven’t changed much. I you know, I think slowly, in different areas, dentists are starting to shift their focus on to supporting the body more versus
Sarah Wands 03:20
disinfecting, like you just said. But I think dentistry really mirrors the medical approach in general with what it’s doing. And I think we’re just a little bit behind on current information.
Anthony Gurule 03:35
So on that, let’s kick it off with with fluoride.
Anthony Gurule 03:39
That’s a big one. For you know, those are family, your family very similar to some people that are coming into us who are wanting less toxic. Take the things right now our body can handle toxins. This is like the big argument like well, we’re exposed to toxins and all these things all the time.
Anthony Gurule 03:57
But as you had already indicated, even with other things, there’s an accumulation level, right? And when you’re doing repetitive things, such as fluoride treatments or having it in toothpaste on and so forth. So what’s the what’s the 411 on fluoride?
Sarah Wands 04:11
Yeah, so you know, a fluoride I think we’ve all experienced it in I would say three main ways, which would be you know, in our toothpaste at home, at the dentist with you know, the little painting or the swishing, right. Oh, trays, the foam trays
Anthony Gurule 04:27
And they’re foaming out of the mouth…
Sarah Wands 04:28
yeah, just you just die and as a kid. And then the third way being fluoridated water, which most communities have at different levels. And it’s it’s kind of been touted and it’s a strong belief within the dental field that it’s absolutely essential for preventing decay, especially in, you know, poverty level communities. However, the actual evidence and research doesn’t support those claims. So and that’s not to say that fluoride doesn’t harden the teeth at does. But in order to harden the teeth, it actually has to pull minerals further out from the teeth. So it creates this kind of issue. So without without getting too crazy, without getting too far deep fluoride can actually weaken the teeth more so interesting. Yeah, florid can actually weaken the teeth more so and they did a really interesting pretty large study. They audited multiple practices, their insurance billing, and they wanted to know okay for practices that did more frequent fluoride treatments on kids, did they have a lower incidence of cavities and needing fillings, and they could not find a correlation. So of the offices that regardless of if they had, you know, high and frequent fluoride treatments billed for their kids, they didn’t have a lower incidence of cavities.
Anthony Gurule 05:55
Wow. Yeah. So the thing that we are assuming it is doing hardened teeth to prevent cavities, it’s not actually it is not happening.
Sarah Wands 06:02
And you look at how much we’ve raised the level of fluoride, which is completely unregulated and not tested for safety, by the way, it has not correlated in a, you know, lower incidence rates of decay. And in any community.
Anthony Gurule 06:18
what are obviously a little bit more of a deep dive of it could be possibly a bunch of different things. But what are some of the big concerns of high levels of fluoride?
Sarah Wands 06:27
So, specifically with fluoride in water lines is a big issue for your body. Because it not only are you getting it when you’re drinking it out of your tap, but you’re also getting it with any bottled juices.
Sarah Wands 06:42
And babies, whenever you’re mixing formula together. Anything that’s packaged, that has water in it, that’s going to have a fluoride factor to it unless it’s been purified water. And what they’re seeing with that, as they’re seeing in increased rates of ADHD in those communities, especially women who are pregnant and had frequent fluoride exposure, their babies have higher levels of ADHD, autism, cognitive disabilities, speech delays. So it really does, it really affects your brain development In those earlier years, especially,
Anthony Gurule 07:18
that’s interesting. So going back to Now, assuming that it was supposed to be doing the hardening teeth, when this, you know, one of the things we were chatting about beforehand, as well as like, what then would parents like us do when we have kids who obviously want to eat certain things on and so forth.
Anthony Gurule 07:36
But if we don’t want the fluoride treatments, and we’re trying to be, you know, mindful of filtration and things like that, what are the ways in which we can harden the teeth to prevent decay, cavities, so on and so forth?
Sarah Wands 07:47
Absolutely. And that’s where I come in, really, because just like you said, so many parents and families are becoming aware of the effects of Florida and they want to avoid them.
Anthony Gurule 07:57
But their big question is, okay, well, if, if we’re not doing fluoride, what do we do? And, and so my big approach is, you know, it’s looking at, why are your kids getting cavities? Why are they? Why are their teeth experiencing mineral loss? and just different other lifestyle factors. And so just for general prevention, I mean, it really comes down to diet and making sure that their mouth isn’t hanging open all day long.
Anthony Gurule 08:39
Yeah. And then as far as, I guess, a consumer product, because obviously those things take time to work on and first and foremost needs to be diagnosed and actually looked at, but most of us assume and no good daily hygiene for our oral health is good, right?
Anthony Gurule 08:59
Obviously brushing, brushing and flossing. So in terms of like, outside of dealing with deeper dive things of diet in life, or sorry, breathing and different things like that, what are daily practices that you recommend people do to to help in conjunction with the lifestyle? Things are changing.
Sarah Wands 09:17
Yeah, I think that’s going to be pretty standard across the board. You know, without looking at individual factors, I think,
Sarah Wands 09:27
You could brush before eating nobody really likes doing that. But you know, if you’re going to wait until after breakfast, wait at least 30 minutes so that your pH and your mouth can balance out a little bit.
Sarah Wands 09:42
Oh, yeah. You don’t want to start brushing your teeth when they’re in a de mineralized state. Yeah. So your teeth are at their weakest at right directly after eating. So I would say you know, either brush right away, or you know, have your breakfast and then brush. brush and floss.
Sarah Wands 10:01
You asked what you know, if people are avoiding fluoride in their toothpaste, then they can really go with a hydroxyapatite toothpaste. And hydroxyapatite is essentially the mineral that makes up the majority of our teeth. So when you have that in a toothpaste on your teeth, it can actually mechanically fill in to weak spots in your enamel.
Sarah Wands 10:21
So, brush with hydroxyapatite if you if you don’t rinse it out after that’s ideal floss. If anyone you know was working on imbalancing, their oral biome, sometimes they can do like either an essential oil mouthrinse or a brand I like is Brio tech mouthrinse that can be helpful. I know a lot of people like their mouthwash. So that’s a really great swap.
Sarah Wands 10:46
But without talking about diet stuff throughout the day, one of the main things to focus on is after you eat, helping to balance the pH in your mouth and getting those minerals back on your teeth as soon as possible.
Sarah Wands 11:00
And without even making significant changes in your diet. Two ways to do that is to eat hard cheese at the end of your meal. And I can explain that more if you want to by eating hard cheese at the end of your meal. It helps to balance the pH in your mouth, make it more alkaline so that those acids aren’t, you know, work in their devilry all day, but also supplies a lot of the minerals that your teeth use to remineralize right after you eat.
Sarah Wands 11:32
there’s actually some really cool research about other countries, they did a study with kids, they didn’t change their diet, they didn’t have great diets to begin with. But they didn’t change their diet, and the only thing they changed was adding one ounce of hard cheese after they ate and their cavity rates dropped. Like significantly.
Anthony Gurule 11:50
what would be an example of a hard cheese?
Sarah Wands 11:52
like cheddar cheese or parmesan or and it could be like goat or milk or you know, cow or whatever. But that can be significant impact, believe it or not. The other thing that’s a great thing to integrate is Xylitol gum, okay? Xylitol helps neutralize acids in the mouth and helps the teeth get back into that remineralisation state.
Sarah Wands 12:10
So, you know, for kids where obviously picky eating is an issue, right? And it’s hard enough as a parent trying to help your kid eat a healthy diet and an ideal diet. But if if you couldn’t change those things, or maybe you co parent, or you have other guardians that and you don’t have full control of their diet.
Anthony Gurule 12:31
Yeah, grandparents.
Sarah Wands 12:34
Grandparents we already know. You know, if you can get them eat, like cheese after meals or just send your kid was in Xylitol gum. Yeah. Interesting. It’s a great mitigating factor for those tough diet changes.
Anthony Gurule 12:48
Before I forget going back the hydroxy apatite. is that right? what are what are some brands that people can look up to that have that?
Sarah Wands 12:56
Yeah, because not all brands are great, actually. So hydroxyapatite toothpaste brands I love, we’ll be Rise Well. And there’s a small company of like a family owned company out of North Carolina calls happy tooth toothpaste. They both have Hydroxyapatite options. They’re really great.
Anthony Gurule 13:16
Now being that they that in particular, is the mineral Correct? Is the mineral that the tooth is mostly made of, and that’s going to fill in the memorization as you go. Is anyone creating a because you talked about mouthwash too. Is there a way in which or if anyone’s doing like a, like a mouth wash, where you swish it around, and you try to hold it? Or? You You know, what I mean? Is there anything outside of just gum in which hydroxy apatite and Xylitol I guess, can be applied and used to help with that for maybe someone who has a more serious case of demilitarization or something like that.
Sarah Wands 13:56
sure Yeah, both of those companies actually have mouthrinses that how okay have Xylitol and there I look at mouthrinse and and I like to distinguish between mouthwash and mouthrinse because mouthwash is more of clearing out bacteria in your mouth and the good bacteria as well. mouthrinses I like to look at more of as supporting your mouth’s natural biome.
Sarah Wands 14:21
So whenever people do have you know more chronic decay issues or you know, gum disease or periodontal issues a mouthrinse can be helpful if it’s you know, xylitol or more neutralizing essential oil based
Anthony Gurule 14:35
Oh, nice that…I just had a question I apologize it literally just ran out of my head.
Anthony Gurule 14:44
So we were Oh so the bacteria that’s what it was? Yeah. So very commonly as common practice in encouraged by at least one viewers younger dentistry and things like that is the mouth wash. So your Listerine and your things like that. So that’s Zapping everything right?
Sarah Wands 15:01
Yeah, you know, what’s interesting about most mouthwashes on the market, even prescription ones is they’re actually acidic. So completely counterproductive to what you want to have in your mouth.
Anthony Gurule 15:13
So why are they prescribed than just that you’re killing bacteria, right? You’re killing good and bad. But the thought is that if you have too much bad, then that’s what’s going to be causing an issue.
Sarah Wands 15:22
I don’t think that conventional dentistry really acknowledges the existence of the oral microbiome in general, they don’t really honor that, you know, environment in your mouth. So what they know is there are six specific strains of bacteria that cause cavities, Periodontal Disease, Gingivitis, bad breath, all of those things.
Sarah Wands 15:45
And so their thought is, okay, well, let’s just kill those. But they don’t respect the fact that there are certain strains of bacteria in your mouth that you want to keep colonized. And so when you bring in something like Listerine, or mouthwash, you’re really just disinfecting everything. And it, it just creates more of an imbalance. That’s kind of like taking antibiotics in your body. regularly.
Anthony Gurule 16:08
Yeah, well, and going back to which we did a previous podcast, if anyone is interested, we talked about holistic dentistry for tongue ties with Dr. Liz Turner in Lakewood.
Anthony Gurule 16:21
So this comes back down to how does the bad bacteria grow? diet, lifestyle, mouth breathing? Can you touch on some of that, and how that obviously, just like, our poor diet, and everything else can mess with our gut microbiome, diet and mouth breathing effect with our oral microbiome?
Sarah Wands 16:39
Yeah, so just like any other microbiome in your body, like your gut microbiome, everybody has to like, lots of different bacteria in their body at any given time. Yeah. And same, same thing for your mouth. So you really just want, you don’t want that overgrowth of the bad bacteria, you want that kind of balance happening, and you know, leaning on the good bacteria being more predominant.
Sarah Wands 17:03
So there are there are different theories with that, you know, a lot of conventional dentistry will point to, you know, acidic foods and sugars, and they just tell you, like, brush and floss more, which disrupts those strongholds of the bad bacteria.
Sarah Wands 17:17
Yes. But then they tell you, you know, snack less, cut your sugar, don’t eat acidic foods, which isn’t realistic for most people granted, but it all of that misses the part of supporting the good guys. So you know, what can we do to support the good bacteria in your mouth without blasting, you know, antibacterial washers in there.
Sarah Wands 17:41
And, you know, that can come down to it, there are different factors like mouth breathing, you know, if your mouth is dry, your mouth is open. That is just a playground for bad bacteria to flourish. So you know, if you sleep with your mouth open at night clenching and grinding. During the day, even people notice that that’s a huge factor. And certainly acidic foods and sugar are a factor as well. But you know, eating neutralizing foods, like fresh fruits and veggies. Fermented foods are a great source. Anything with dairy is fantastic. Anything mineral mineral rich with bone broth is going to be great, too. So I try to tell people take care of your mouth, like you would take care of your gut, because what’s happening in the gut is going to show up in the mouth eventually and vice versa.
Anthony Gurule 18:34
Yeah. with the fermented foods, right? So just because I know that that’s amazing for microbiome, so you essentially all the things that we’re saying for the microbial gut biome is going to essentially affect the oral cavity as well, just because, yeah, consuming it directly from there, right? that’s awesome.
Sarah Wands 18:56
You know, the, the only nuance there, of course, because there’s nuance in everything is for someone who’s experiencing inflammatory gut issues, leaky gut, IBS, things like that. You see those issues with your gums and your oral tissues as well. And for those people, sometimes, uncooked fruits and veggies and fermented foods aren’t appropriate for them yet. So, you know, that’s something that to take into consideration as well. You know, whenever someone has any kind of chronic disease in their mouth, gut health should be one of the first things people look at.
Anthony Gurule 19:31
Yeah, yeah.
Sarah Wands 19:32
So that’s the only time I would say that, you know, it’s not the same for everyone
Anthony Gurule 19:41
From the previous episode, right. So one thing that I have not done yet because I know I have a tongue tie,
Sarah Wands 19:45
I can see I can see.
Anthony Gurule 19:48
And I have a tongue thrust and I am habitual mouth breather, like during the day I catch myself but you know, the underlying cause is not being addressed. I just sit there and I’m open and When I when I, when I sleep, I know I sleep with my mouth open and I’ve tried mouth taping, but it’s so hard for me to breathe through my nose that then I just rip it off at night because I’m just not getting enough air.
Anthony Gurule 20:12
And so I have not done the thing that I know I need to do mostly because it’s it’s a process, right? But for adults, right? You’re kind of like, why do you know these things? Like the conversation of tongue ties in these things seem more prevalent when you’re talking about kids per se. But as an adult, you do have to realize and understand like, there’s still things that can be done. I’m not too far gone, right?
Sarah Wands 20:34
Yeah, no,
Anthony Gurule 20:34
but there are underlying things that sometimes you need, you know, additional support for our intervention for or if you want to call it microbe surgery, I don’t know what that originally would be called microsurgery.
Sarah Wands 20:48
Yeah. So, you know, having oral ties can show up and it looks different in adulthood. You know, it can because at that point, you know, some people have already experienced a lot of dental work because of those factors. And so, you know, they probably been told at that point that they just have bad teeth, or soft teeth, or whatever. Or they clench and grind, or they have a lot of different body tension or migraines. And so it looks a lot different in adults, because they’ve had that issue for so long. But it’s definitely not too far gone at any point you like you say, obviously, the first step for helping you breathe at night would be like, Okay, well, let’s tape your mouth until you can, you know, look at your underlying causes. root causes are important.
Sarah Wands 21:34
But let’s help mitigate where you’re at right now. Mouth taping is great. Unless you can’t breathe through your nose.
Anthony Gurule 21:40
Yeah, then you’re just suffocating.
Sarah Wands 21:41
Right, which it adds an extra step for you, it means you, you have to go to an ENT, an ear, nose, throat doctor and they have to scope and make sure there’s no obstructions, which is critical for kids too because you don’t want to take your kids mouth, and then they can’t breathe at night for sure. You know what I mean?
Sarah Wands 21:57
As adults, you have more control and awareness over it. But it just adds that whole extra step, which I know is great for you.
Anthony Gurule 22:04
Well, and that’s what’s great about Dr. Liz Turner at Fox point dental she has the imaging capabilities to look at airway obstruction and everything, which is good, which is I need to get it I need to get it first and foremost.
Sarah Wands 22:15
Yeah, because they can take a comb beam scan, a 3d scan, and they can see your nasal passages and your throat. With an ENT it’s a little bit different because they can evaluate you while you’re laying down they can see exactly what your airway is doing. Yeah. And what your nasal passages are doing when you lay down when you when you relax.
Sarah Wands 22:32
So it’s different. And let the scans are definitely helpful for diagnosing.
Anthony Gurule 22:37
well, and I’m sure because I on on any given basis like when we go to get our dental checkups and cleaning, which is this is prompting the next question is I seem to always have way more cavities than Nichelle does. now she’s definitely better at flossing than I am. I will admit that excuse me. But I do think it has to do more so with the fact that I am constantly mouth breathing. Yeah, bringing in the bacteria, everything else you had talked about.
Sarah Wands 23:02
Yeah, because when you nose breathe through your, your nasal passages are that filter, when you breathe through your mouth, you don’t have anything to stop that bacteria from coming in.
Anthony Gurule 23:11
which fortunately enough, I don’t get sick a lot. But when I do I get sick, sick. I don’t get sick a lot, even though I do a lot of mouth breathing. But that being said, I have in again, bad apples in any profession. Right? So, you know, we got to we got to call it what it is. But the evaluating the diagnostics for cavities and dental health, I have felt that there’s been a stronger shift towards relying on more technology to do that, ie X rays.
Anthony Gurule 23:43
And we’re talking about all of this beforehand to is when do, when would someone you know maybe speak up and say, hey, it seems like we’re doing a lot of X rays. Are those needed, right?
Anthony Gurule 23:54
Or, you know, kind of just being that advocate, obviously, for more so for your kids, or even as an adult understand. It’s just like, it seems like that’s a lot of X rays to rely on for finding cavities as opposed to the dentist actually doing an examination and looking so is there a benefit to doing the X rays?
Anthony Gurule 24:12
In general, as a screening, is there a benefits to doing X rays to seeing the underlying Silent cavities that are apparently under the enamel that could be dealt with before they become big cavities?
Sarah Wands 24:25
Sure. Yeah. So we could go in so many different directions here. Let’s just start with you know, we were talking before we started about different philosophies on X rays, and it’s hard as a patient to know what’s needed and what’s too much.
Sarah Wands 24:42
So my best advice is when you’re, you know, finding the dentists you want to partner with, you know, ask them what their philosophy is on X rays, if they’re if their philosophy is led with what your insurance will pay for, office policy. That’s not going to be a best fit for you or your kids.
Sarah Wands 25:06
A better approach for X rays X rays, first of all are, they are an important diagnostic, you know, tool to have, and we’ll talk about that in a second. But a better approach and philosophy to look out for Well, if you’re, if you’re looking for a dentist is risk based assessment, and their level of prevention, some dentists are more aggressive, some are more, you know, watching weight.
Sarah Wands 25:29
But, you know, if, if you know, and they know that you really don’t get cavities, much, you don’t have a lot of dental work, you have a pretty good diet and you take care of yourself, you probably don’t need X rays that often, you know, and I’m not gonna give a frequency, you have to work that out with your dentist. But if if you know and they know and you have a history of cavities at every visit, or
Sarah Wands 25:53
you’ve had a lot of dental work done, if you have implants or root canals, crowns, bridges, you’re going to need more monitoring, monitoring. And there are other different diagnostic tools. But there’s really not a great way to see cavities starting between the teeth, unless they’re too big, other than using X rays. But x rays, their purpose isn’t only checking for decay. It’s not always a great sign if your dentist doesn’t take thorough X rays, you know, as a new patient, it’s really good idea to have a full set every five years, maybe one, you know one that shows everything, because what’s important is that they’re also looking for any jaw cancers, any cysts, evaluating the bottoms of the routes that are not seen on routine X rays. There are different, you know, especially if you’re having your airway evaluated, you know, those 3d scans can be important. But having that full scan is important for for cancer checks and looking at any you know, the bottoms of your roots especially. So, you know, it’s hard if you get cavities a lot, or if you’ve had a lot of treatment, you’re you’re going to need more monitoring. Yeah. And it’s just it’s really comes down to philosophy, I would say. But, you know, if you if you’re someone who does need X rays more frequently, you’re doing things to help support, you know, glutathione levels, and just cellular health in general, upping your vitamin C around that time can be really helpful.
Anthony Gurule 27:30
That’s fantastic. What are some of the some of the what are, you know, one or two of the main things we might already touched on? So it could be like, yeah, what we said about this, this and this, but if you were to boil it down top one, two, maybe even three, like what are the top main tips, if you were, you know, I can see the blog post three best things, right.
Anthony Gurule 27:53
But like, you’re kind of like, you know, kind of like you’re kind of like your anthem, the thing that you like to really talk about and make sure people know when it comes to general good, holistic, functional, whatever you want to call it. Oral Health, like you’re like, these are the things that I really encourage people to look for and do.
Sarah Wands 28:14
Oh, gosh, that’s a good one.
Anthony Gurule 28:17
Like diet, right lifestyle, obviously, like starting from start starting from the bottom, like making sure the foundation of what good obviously health is because you could do you know, he said we talked about similar to like, like you use weight loss as an example, right? Like, you can be working out as hard as you want. But if you’re not eating well, and if you’re not sleeping, well, you’re not gonna get results, right.
Sarah Wands 28:39
Yeah. So you cannot out brush your diet. That’s yeah, it’s a bumper sticker. Oral Hygiene is not the top can like, factor for what determines if you get cavities or not. Your dentist might tell you otherwise. You know, their only advice like you said before is brush and floss more.
Sarah Wands 29:00
And you might get shamed into, you know, you might go in, you’re like, Hey, I’m brushing and flossing a lot of time. And they’re like, I know you’re not because you look at your mouth and you’re like I swear and it just turns into this guilt trip thing every time you go to the dentist because you’re like I swear I’m doing this but it’s not working. It’s because you cannot out brush What’s going into your body. So if I could, if it could only be three things it would be mouth taping if you can, and then getting minerals and fat soluble vitamins. So if you’re not getting magnesium, calcium phosphorus into your body every day, and you’re not getting enough vitamin A, D and K especially vitamin K especially then your teeth are never going to have the mechanical tools to rebuild early decay in the enamel. weak spots.
Anthony Gurule 29:59
And then as a side note, we talked about fluoride, right? What’s the best way that you have found or or products that help filter the normal levels of fluoride that are put into most water sources that we see?
Sarah Wands 30:14
Yeah. So you know, what’s interesting about fluoride in the water supply? Just what, there’s such a, it’s such a huge topic, but the EPA is actually currently in a lawsuit. Oh, four unsafe fluoride levels in the water lines. So that’s a whole separate thing, if you want to look into the lawsuit that the EPA is dealing with right now, because it is a it is interesting to say the least.
Sarah Wands 30:42
But I, if it’s accessible to filter your fluoride, I mean, reverse osmosis is going to be the gold standard. There are a lot of other countertop countertop options like Berkey, Aqua true is a reverse osmosis on your countertop, that’s going to get the most fluoride out.
Sarah Wands 31:00
And then if that’s not accessible, doing you just find Bill water, bottled water that’s been filtered, is going to be the next best thing.
Anthony Gurule 31:08
Do the, I don’t have those now, but it was like in college, I thought it was like the thing that was best, you know, good enough, but like, do the Brittas And those things, do much of anything?
Sarah Wands 31:19
No, they don’t touch fluoride.
Anthony Gurule 31:21
they don’t touch flouride? what do they filter out?
Sarah Wands 31:23
I mean, they they take out chlorine to an extent and some of the hard minerals, and you know, some percentage of the heavy metals. But they they’re not going to get like different types of bacteria out. And I mean, they might get a mild amount of sediment out of your water. But unless your filters specifically taking out the fluoride, I mean, you have to look for it. It’s not going to work to have an attachment on your faucet or a pitcher. Unfortunately, it tastes better because it has less chlorine.
Anthony Gurule 32:00
Well, that’s all the questions I had, is there anything else you want to leave us with? Before we wrap up?
Sarah Wands 32:08
You know, I would just say that the reason why this in a profession came up for me is there’s such a wide gap between, you know, conventional dentistry, people have their dentists that they like, they’re great dentists, but they’re missing the boat on true prevention and nutrition guidance.
Sarah Wands 32:28
And a lot of people don’t have access to biological dentists. And, you know, the care that they’re looking for, for whatever reason, distance, finances, etc. And so I love being able to bridge the gap, and help people with all the things they can take care of at home to take care of their teeth in a holistic functional way.
Sarah Wands 32:50
You know, and it just kind of takes some of that pressure and work off a dentist’s a dentist can only do so much in the office, so much of it is at home. And it’s it’s such a new topic for people. So self guided workshops. so that people can really dive in for themselves.
Anthony Gurule 33:36
Well, and I’ll make sure you get all that. Make sure you got all the correct links, everything but we’ll put obviously all that in the show notes and stuff so people can easily just click and find it.
Sarah Wands 33:44
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. This was great. I mean, I learned a few good things and about certain topics and obviously as a reminder to myself, you’ll get myself checked out. I do too. I mean, people are who work in dentistry they
Anthony Gurule 33:59
we’re always our worst.
Anthony Gurule 34:02
Well, thanks again. I really appreciate it.
Sarah Wands 34:04
Thank you.
Anthony Gurule 34:04
All right. Take care guys.