Digital Social Hour - Sugar Doesn't Cause Cavities, Is Fluoride Bad for You & Why People Fear Dentists | Monica + Donald Bailey DSH #325
Episode Date: March 1, 2024Monica and Donald Bailey come on the podcast to talk about Epic Dental, the importance of Xylitol and address if fluoride is bad for you or not. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENT...eurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: Jenna@DigitalSocialHour.com SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly Factor: Use code "DSH50" for 50% off your order at https://www.factormeals.com/dsh50 Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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woo saucy zack's piece i mean i think the thing that i see most commonly from people is the
assumption that if i do a better job brushing and flossing i can solve my cavity problem
the the reality is most of us have tried brushing and flossing and we still end up with cavities
right and when you have that struggle what's happening is most people don't understand the root cause of what's going on in their mouth.
They're like, I must be eating too much sugar. But the reality is you have acid that's dissolving
your teeth. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow
or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests,
and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking teeth today. We got
the founders of Epic Dental, Monica Bailey and Donald Bailey. How's it going, guys?
Good. Thanks for having us on.
Yeah. Can't wait to talk teeth because there's a lot of misconceptions on social media, I feel like.
Is there any that you see all the time that you want to address right off the bat here?
I mean, I think the thing that I see most commonly from people is the assumption that if I do a better job brushing and flossing, I can solve my cavity problem.
The reality is most of us have tried brushing and flossing, and we still end up with cavities, right?
And when you have that struggle, what's happening is most people don't understand the root cause of what's going on in their mouth.
They're like, I must be eating too much sugar.
But the reality is you have acid that's dissolving your teeth. And there are two
sources of acid. The acid's either coming from the foods you eat and drink. So there's a lot of
foods like strawberries, for example, or tomatoes that are acidic. Sour candy is super acidic.
And those will start to dissolve the calcium and phosphate bonds in your teeth just by themselves.
But you also have the challenge that if you have bacteria that live in your mouth,
they'll consume any carbohydrate that they come into contact with. They like especially
sticky processed carbohydrates that can sit on the teeth. Those are really easy for them to take
advantage of. But they could take advantage of a carbohydrate from a strawberry, for example,
and they will break that down and turn it into acid. So what you really need to do is you need
to solve the source of the acid, whether that's the food you eat and drink. Like if you sip on an acidic drink all day long,
it's horrible for your teeth. So grapefruit juice is terrible for you? Yeah, grapefruit juice.
I just bought some, so I'm going to throw it out. I wouldn't say you need to throw it out,
but I would say pair your acidic drink consumption with your meal times. Do it maybe three times a
day. Don't sip on a coffee all day long and let that acid. Don't
sip on a Gatorade or something like that all day long. That acid will sit on your teeth. But if
you pair it with mealtimes, then you get a decline in the pH of your mouth, but you can buffer against
that pretty quickly by getting your saliva going. We love to recommend xylitol gum. That's a big
part of what we do. Yeah, I've got a bunch here. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And it really
helps buffer against the acid. It gets the saliva going.
Your saliva has naturally got the minerals that can redeposit into your teeth.
And so you want to get that flowing.
But what it also does, what makes xylitol special versus, say, any other sugar-free chewing gum is when you're loaded with enough xylitol, you can actually start to get rid of cavity-causing, acid-producing bacteria.
Studies have shown that when you use enough
xylitol, we're looking at about six grams a day. So two pieces, three times a day,
you're going to get rid of this S. mutans bacteria. They're going to start to die off
when you do that regularly. In fact, in as little as two weeks, you start to notice your teeth
feeling slippery smooth. Like you just went to the dentist. You have that clean feeling.
I'm going to implement this into my daily routine. Thanks, guys.
Yeah, for sure. We'd love that.
For me, I mean, that was absolutely my story.
And I asked three different dentists in my teen years, like, why am I getting cavities?
I have great hygiene.
What is actually happening?
And all of them just kind of shrugged.
And they're like, oh, maybe try and floss more.
Like, they were really unhelpful.
And I was so frustrated.
And so I didn't find out until I was on one of my first dates with Donald.
He was telling me about his business and what the product does.
And I had no idea until that moment that cavities are caused by a bacterial infection and that I had been treating the problem incorrectly the whole time.
Yeah, that is fascinating because I actually gave up like sugar and ice cream because I thought those were causing cavities.
But you're saying it's basically the acid.
Yeah, it is the acid.
It can be the acid from the foods.
It could be acid from consuming a lot of fermentable carbohydrates like sugar that bacteria can turn into acid. But people who don't have that bacterial infection, then they don't end up – they could eat as much sugar as they want and they don't end up with cavities. That's why sometimes you see huge differences. Like I never brush my teeth and I never get cavities versus I brush my teeth all the time and I'm still struggling with cavities.
Yeah, I know people that don't brush.
Right.
And I'm like, how do you not have 20 cavities?
Well, and I think if you don't have that acid problem,
I mean, sugar is not going to do anything by itself.
You have to have the bacteria to turn the sugar into acid.
And then that acid creates the cavity.
And so when you don't have those bad bacteria,
you get away with a whole lot more.
And a lot of people don't know that the bacteria is contagious, right?
What?
Yeah, you can spread it, right? That's what happened to me. I never had cavities. And then
when I was a teen, I suddenly started getting cavities because I picked up the strep mutans
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And then from then on out, you have cavities.
So if you're making out with someone with a cavity, you can get a cavity.
You can.
So a lot of us have fairly defined oral microbiomes, right?
They're fairly established.
So it won't always transfer over to somebody new.
But let's say you just went and got a tooth cleaning and now you make out with somebody.
That tooth cleaning scraped all of that bacteria and changed that oral microbiome for you.
And that's what it's designed to do.
It's designed to remove
all that bacteria. But now what's the next bacteria you introduce? You have an open home for them to
take root. Wow. I can't believe that. I've never heard that. Yeah. Well, and that's what's really
interesting is if you look in families, that's why people think cavities run in my family.
It's not genetics. It's the fact that you are sharing bacteria in your family because you
share a spoon, a straw, a kiss, and you're transferring that bacteria. And so kids get
their bacteria in their mouth from their parents a lot of the time. That's where that oral microbiome
kind of gets formed is in childhood. And they actually did an incredible study where they gave
pregnant mothers xylitol gum and they chewed it for a period of time. And then they stopped
chewing xylitol gum. The mothers who did that, period of time and then they stopped chewing xylitol gum.
The mothers who did that, their kids didn't get cavities. They had a huge reduction in the risk of cavities in their kids that never even chewed xylitol gum. But it's because the mom changed
their oral flora and then that gets passed on. So the kid has a healthy oral microbiome at that
point. That is cool. So there are holistic ways to reverse cavities? Yeah. So I wouldn't say reverse all cavities, right? So the studies really suggest that
cavities that are in just the enamel layer, that outer layer of your tooth can be remineralized.
And a lot of times I wouldn't even call them a cavity, right? Technically they're called
incipient lesions. But a lot of dentists will tell you, oh, you have a small cavity. And there's
really two schools of thought when you see an incipient lesion.
One is let's wait and see what happens.
And the other school is let's drill it and make sure that we restore the tooth function
and make sure it doesn't get any worse.
And although I'm a big fan of the first approach, I can understand the dentist who says, hey,
I want to go ahead and drill this so that you don't risk it going any deeper.
But when you just have one of those in the enamel layer where it started to demineralize, you're starting to get the
minerals to leach out, the minerals can redeposit. Your saliva has, if you have a healthy diet,
calcium and phosphate that can get together on the teeth. And so what you want to do is make
sure that you're giving it lots of chances to remineralize in your mouth. The way it remineralizes,
you've got to keep the pH above 5.5. So ideally, if you can have a neutral pH.
So what I recommend for people is rinse with water following meals, snacks, sodas, any
kind of introduction with acid, then introduce in a xylitol gum, chew it for at least five
minutes, get your saliva going.
And you'll see that it's kind of like an alarm clock for your saliva.
When you start chewing that, the sweetness helps the saliva flow.
The chewing action helps the saliva going.
And if you just do that following meals, you start to see a really significant change in
what's happening with your oral health. That's cool. I haven't heard rinse with
water. So why not rinse with mouthwash? So a lot of mouthwashes themselves are acidic.
If you take a mainstream mouthwash like Listerine. Don't use those. They're terrible for your teeth.
Really? They're full of alcohol and that's going to be really awful for your teeth.
Oh, so it deteriorates.
Yeah, you need an alcohol-free mouthwash always.
Alcohol-free.
So alcohol dries out your mouth, right?
Saliva is your tooth's best friend.
You need saliva on the tooth for it to remineralize, and saliva is naturally going to buffer against acid.
So when you introduce a mouthwash that's alcohol-based, you can get rid of the bacteria that are there. That's a lot of
the reasons that people use them. It kills off all those bacteria, but it only kills them off
momentarily. They're going to come back because they're still hiding in other places in your
mouth, but it's going to dry out your saliva. And like a Listerine, I'm guessing I'd have to look
again, maybe a 3.2 on the pH scale. Way too acidic.
Super acidic. That's going to dissolve your teeth all by itself. If you were to put a tooth in Listerine
and just leave it there, it's going to
just dissolve. It's going to disappear.
That's how acidic it is. That's so ironic.
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Right. I used to use that because I thought it was good, like growing up. And to hear that is
kind of disheartening. Well, because no one's taught how cavities are actually formed and
what's going on in your mouth at all. Like they just say brush and floss, avoid sugar,
and hope your genetics works out for the best. Like no one is given real tools.
And so I think that's part of what's so cool about what we're trying to do is we want to give people real information.
You should not have to go to a dentist to understand how to prevent a cavity.
Like people should have this information available and that should not be for sale.
Like this knowledge is needed for absolutely everyone.
And so when people understand how a cavity is formed and how to prevent it, you can easily be cavity-free.
You just need the right information and the right tools.
That's cool.
How important is flossing?
Is there any studies done on the health benefits with it?
Yeah, for sure.
So flossing is really designed to mechanically remove the bacteria that are along the gum line.
So your toothbrush doesn't get up under the gum line as well.
And a lot of people don't realize there's bacteria that live on the surface of the tooth, both above and below the gum line. And they tend
to be different kinds of bacteria. The ecosystems are a little bit different. And people that
struggle with periodontal disease, they've got gum disease. You'll see if they floss, there's
the bleeding or there's reddened gums up there. Those people are ones that really have a bacterial
infection that necessitates some
kind of flossing. I think for most people, a water flosser is adequate. Studies show that's
very similar in terms of plaque removal capabilities. And for me, it's a lot easier
to implement a water flosser into my routine. So that's what I recommend for people who struggle
with that. The other reason we obviously use floss is if you have food debris that's stuck
there that you want to remove. Some of my teeth sit together pretty tightly and I have what my hygienist
calls a food trap. You know, she goes in there and she's like, oh, this is where a lot of stuff
probably gets stuck. I'm like, oh yeah, I definitely have to get that out, you know?
And when you leave food sitting there, that food can be a fuel source for bacteria, right? Depending
upon what kind of food it is and what kind of bacteria is present. So that's why people floss.
Do I think everybody needs to floss?
No.
There's a lot of people that don't have that bacteria.
I was sitting at a dental conference with a – he was the dental director of Delta Dental in Washington at the time.
And he got up and he said, I don't floss in front of all these dental hygienists.
And there were audible gasps from the audience.
Like this guy is a dentist and he doesn't floss what he's talking about. But he's like, look, I don't have the risk factors that make this a necessary intervention
for me. And I think if people can start to understand their own risk factors, it makes a
huge difference in evaluating what treatments are right for them. So often they think, oh,
I need to brush and I need to floss because that's what my dentist told me. Yeah, those are great
hygiene habits. You probably should do those kinds of things. But understanding what's really behind your cavities is interesting.
Like I had a guy message me on Instagram one day.
He's like, I get cavities all the time, but I'm on keto.
I'm not eating sugar.
I don't understand what's going on.
And I messaged back and I said, any chance you're drinking electrolytes regularly?
He's like, oh, yeah, for sure.
Full of citric acid.
I was like, oh, yeah.
I was like, what electrolytes are you using?
Flip over the ingredients.
The very first ingredient is citric acid.
Wow.
So that is working to dissolve his teeth.
And he thinks he's being very healthy.
I'm consuming water throughout the day.
And it's got the electrolytes my body needs in it.
Yes, it does.
But it also has citric acid that's dissolving your teeth as it comes into contact.
Dang.
So what companies use a lot of citric acid?
Well, so, you know.
Any of them that are flavored. I mean, that's how they get that kind of fruity flavor.
So that naturally flavored stuff.
So, yeah. I mean, if you can do an electrolyte that has no flavoring, you don't have to worry
about that same risk. But I mean, I understand the desire to have flavoring. I mean, we use
one that does.
Yeah. So when I use an electrolyte drink, I don't mind that there's citric acid in there.
I just pair it with mealtimes and I follow it with a xylitol gum to get my saliva going.
I don't think you need to avoid all acid or all sugar.
Like we want food that tastes good.
You want to live your life.
And so you don't want to live your life and then know the right intervention so that the risk factors that are present in your world can be overcome by the choices you make.
Yeah.
And I think that's what's so incredible about xylitol is when you know how to use it,
you know, you can be a good enough brusher and avoid cavities. You can be a good enough flosser,
you know, good enough at avoiding sugar and acid, and you're going to be fine. And so
what's really incredible is if you chew xylitol gum or mints after a mealtime, it gets your saliva flowing,
it kicks off cavity causing bacteria, and it's also going to get you back to a neutral pH
faster than if you're not doing that. And so it's just hitting all the places that you want to hit.
And it's such an easy habit to integrate that it makes it really realistic rather than trying to
eat perfectly or brush perfectly. Yeah, that's cool.
And are other gums similar with the health benefits or is it mainly xylitol?
Yeah.
So I'm a big fan of 100% xylitol sweetened gums.
The studies show that you need enough xylitol to really have an impact.
In fact, when I first started the business, I got pushed back.
There was a study done in Montreal, Canada, I'd say it was in the late 90s, where they showed that it didn't
matter if you had a xylitol chewing gum or a sugar-free chewing gum. And this contradicted
a lot of evidence that said, no, if you get xylitol chewing gum, it really has an impact.
And so people had pushed back and I said, well, I want to do something. And I plotted a graph with
all the studies that looked at the dose of xylitol that they got. And it looked like somewhere
between five and six grams was the really critical dose. So Dr. Milgram up at the dose of xylitol that they got. And it looked like somewhere between five and six grams was the
really critical dose. So Dr. Milgram up at the University of Washington a number of years ago,
I'd say maybe 15 years ago, said, I want to do a study and see what happens if I give people
three grams of xylitol, six grams of xylitol, 10 grams of xylitol each day and have them do that.
What's the threshold to really get rid of the S. mutans
bacteria? And it looked right around that six. If you got the six grams a day, you were good to go.
And that's six of these?
That would be six of those pieces of gum. Yep. So two pieces, three times a day is what we really
recommend.
That's so doable. Like that's not even that bad.
No, it's really, really easy. But if you get one of those gums that has xylitol as one of the last
ingredients, I remember looking – this was years ago.
But I took a sample of Trident and I sent it off to the lab and I said, tell me how much xylitol is in here because they don't disclose that on the label.
And they came back with a minuscule quantity and I was like, okay, to get my six grams, how many pieces do I have to chew?
35 pieces, right?
Now, that's hard.
That's something you can't do.
So you want to get a xylitol gum that's loaded up.
Yeah, that makes sense. When it comes to brushing, the typical advice is twice a day. Is that something you can't do. So you want to get a xylitol gum that's loaded up. Yeah, that makes sense.
When it comes to brushing, the typical advice is twice a day.
Is that something you guys agree with?
Yeah, for sure.
I'd say twice a day.
Oh, sorry.
You want to?
No.
So, I mean, I heard a dentist once describe it as, you know, you have these bacteria that
are building up this plaque film, you know, on your teeth.
And he described it like when you make a house out of cards and you stack it up.
And as soon as you touch it, the whole house of cards falls down.
And so he said that's really what brushing is designed to do is to kind of break up this biofilm that they've created and to break down that house of cards.
Then after you can kind of, you know, get access to those bacteria to give them the xylitol to kick them off.
And so there's a lot of benefit to the manual effort of brushing to kind of remove that plaque film.
But what most people don't realize is it's not removing acid and it's not getting rid of bad bacteria.
You're just breaking down their house and then they build it up again.
And so that's why you have to brush over and over again.
So it's an incredible habit.
It's absolutely necessary.
But if you've got cavities, you need another tool.
Got it.
So you can't brush a cavity away.
Yes.
Well, so I'm going to push back on that. A lot of dentists will tell you, you can use fluoride. You can brush on a remineralizing
agent like fluoride or hydroxyapatite, which will read upon it. Fluoride really changes how
calcium and phosphate bond together. Normally they bond together in a matrix called hydroxyapatite,
but when fluoride is present, it's called fluoroapatite. It's somewhat more acid resistant
than hydroxyapatite. So a lot of dentists will tell you, you can brush with enough
fluoride that I can get your tooth to be acid-resistant, and we can solve your cavity
problem that way. The problem is we've been using fluoride as the go-to solution for 60, 70 years,
and there's so many people still struggling with cavities. So to me, it feels like a pretty
inadequate solution, right?
Does it pair nicely with xylitol?
Yeah.
Do you need fluoride?
No.
Fluoride's not a necessary chemical for your teeth.
It's not a mineral that has to be deposited in your tooth structure.
And there are some real drawbacks to fluoride.
And so you'll see a lot of people online saying no fluoride ever.
And I completely understand that.
And I personally don't use a fluoridated toothpaste.
I use no fluoride because I don't want all those neurotoxins leaching into my brain at all, right?
They've done a study.
The CDC released it after a lot of pushing this last year where if you consume –
in communities where they fluoridate the water, there's an inverse correlation with IQ.
Wow.
So the more fluoride that's in the water, the lower the IQ.
That's crazy.
And that's a big risk to take to avoid cavities when there's plenty of other tools available.
Yeah.
And I think if fluoride were really the magical cavity prevention tool, we wouldn't have so
many cavities.
Like they're so prevalent that I think we really need another solution.
That's scary.
So the water has fluoride and you're washing your fruit with it, you're brushing your teeth
with it, you're showering in it.
Well, and fluoride only works topically.
You can't ingest it and get a benefit for cavity prevention.
So if you're drinking water, it's not going to do anything.
It has to topically sit on top of the tooth to really provide a benefit.
So that's why people have fluoridated toothpaste.
And you can get enough fluoride that way.
I mean, studies have shown when you drink fluoridated water, some of that will go on your teeth while it's going across, but you're not going to see that coming in systemically.
But it can deposit into your bones. And the way that fluoroappetite works is it's also more
brittle, right? So you don't want more brittle bones. Too much exposure to fluoride can lead
to that. There's a lot of things out there that just cause me pause. And I think everybody can
decide for themselves what makes sense. And there's a lot of dent out there that just cause me pause. And I think everybody can decide for themselves what makes sense.
And there's a lot of dentists that are big fans.
And I completely understand it because it does make your teeth more acid resistant.
Yeah.
When I went to get a deep cleaning, it was straight fluoride everywhere.
Yeah.
When it comes to toothbrushes and toothpaste, what brands are you guys using?
Well, we use our own.
So we have two types of toothpaste that we sell.
And it's loaded with xylitol more than any other toothpaste I've seen.
And so you can get that exposure right as you're brushing, which is great.
I'm going to switch over.
I try to use all-natural toothpaste.
Yeah, so the Epic one, you know, all-natural is one of those terms that's not super well-defined.
It's not a regulated term, right?
So we try and keep out all the garbage ingredients.
We don't put sodium lauryl sulfate in there, which is a foaming agent, for example, because it can be harsh and it can cause irritation to your gums and other challenges.
So, yeah, I definitely recommend getting a high xylitol dose one.
We love, obviously, ours.
For toothbrushes, I swap between two.
It depends if I need a manual brush or if I'm going to use my electric.
I have an oral BIO for my electric toothbrush. And that's solid. The things I like about it, it buzzes every 30 seconds. So it gives you a hint to focus on that.
And so, you know, oh, two minutes, I can be done with my whole mouth. But if I just do it in a
minute and I do 30 seconds top, 30 seconds bottom, it gives me like a frowny face. I'm like, I don't
need more shame. There's so much shame in the dental industry. So I get a little annoyed at it. And the other reason I don't love
it is because of the head that it comes with. It comes with a pretty strong bristled, not hard
bristle, not soft bristle tooth. And you want soft bristle because you want to be soft to your gums.
The other reason is sometimes I use a manual toothbrush just to make sure I'm getting up
under my gums regularly. And so for that, I use Dr. Plot because it's a unique toothbrush. It's got
flossing bristles, so they extend beyond the main head. They're really long. They're very small.
And his is made with silver. So it's got nano silver infused into the bristles, which gives
it a naturally antimicrobial effect. A lot of people don't realize, oh, that toothbrush that
I just took out of my mouth is now covered in bacteria. Well, when you store an antimicrobial effect. A lot of people don't realize, oh, that toothbrush that I just took out of my mouth is now covered in bacteria. That's cool.
Well, when you store an antimicrobial toothbrush with the silver in it,
the bacteria goes away pretty quickly, certainly before you use it the next time.
Nice. Were you guys scared of dentists growing up? Because that's a common fear people have these
days. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I got so fed up in my early 20s that I was like, what is the
point of going to the dentist? He's just going to say I have a cavity. I seem to have no way to solve it. They're not doing anything to help me. And I just was fed up.
So I gave up for a couple of years and didn't see the dentist. And so then, you know, when I met
Donald and found out about Epic Xyltal gum and mints, you know, it was an absolute game changer
for me because I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't think there was a way out of this problem. I
thought I was just doomed to have cavities forever and it sucked and I didn't know what to do. And then now I have a way out of this where I can
completely change that. And so being able to use Xyltol regularly, like I've completely left
cavities in the past. It's been years since I've had a cavity. Nice. Yeah. I used to be scared of
them. Yeah. I think a lot of people are scared of the dentist. I mean, a couple of things happen.
A lot of times when you go in and the hygienist cleans your teeth and you're sitting there and
you're waiting for the dentist to come in, you feel like you get a grade.
Did I do well?
Did I pass?
Did I fail?
And I think nobody likes to get, oh, I got a failing grade.
I got a cavity.
And a lot of times I've seen dentists with shame kind of attached to it.
You're doing a bad job.
It's your fault.
You're the problem.
And nobody wants that.
So I think you want to find a dentist that doesn't promote that kind of shame.
And then if you address a cavity problem early, it's way better than if you wait too long.
So I'd encourage anybody to go into the dentist, even if you're afraid and you think you've got a cavity, go see it now because it can only get worse.
Right?
Going untreated is just going to cause problems.
So you've got to put an intervention in that can stop the progress of what's going on.
But I think the best thing you can do is find a hygienist you really like, because you're going to spend the most time with your dental hygienist and some are really
nice and some are not so nice. And so I think you can always request at your office to get
a new dental hygienist next time you come. And when you find one you like, ask to book with them
every single time because they can give incredible tips. Like my hygienist that I love, she pointed
out a place where she's like, Hey, when you're brushing, I think your tongue is fighting the toothbrush and you're not getting in this particular area.
And so that was super useful.
And so they have a ton of knowledge to share.
And so you just have to find the right ones and they'll help you solve rather than shame you.
Yeah.
How do you guys feel about brushing the tongue?
Because I started gagging and I just don't do it, honestly.
But I've heard there's people that do it.
So, yeah, I don't typically brush my tongue, but I do use a tongue scraper.
So it's a metal head, right, a little bit of an oval, and you just pull it back and scrape it off.
What that does is that removes bacteria that tends to build up on your tongue.
Not everybody has, again, that particular bacteria that they want to remove or that they need to deal with.
So not everybody needs to do it, but it's a good habit.
If you struggle with bad breath, certainly something you should consider doing.
There's some people that have some bad breath.
Right?
Yeah, there are.
Does the gum help with that too?
It will not change that part of the oral microbiome to shift that bacteria.
Will it cover it up like any other gum with flavor?
Certainly.
Yeah, absolutely.
Wow, I didn't know bad breath came from the tongue.
That's interesting.
Typically.
I mean, it can come from more places than that. If somebody struggles with bad breath,
that's one of the first places I would look. Yeah. So what do you guys think sets Epic Dental apart from other dentists? Because you guys seem to be doing very innovative stuff.
Yeah. So I'll start out first from other dentists. We're not dentists, so that sets us apart for
sure. But from other people playing in the dental industry, we've really chosen to focus on bringing products to market that help people focus on the root cause of what's going
on in their mouth. So often we see people slap the tried and true things on and pretend like
that's a real solution. That's why when you show up, so many of your dentists say, well,
just do a better job brushing and flossing. Maybe you won't have to worry about this.
And I struggle so much with that. You want a dentist that's going to ask you the questions
to help you figure out what's going on, what your particular risk factors are so that they can make
recommendations that help you change it. Just like I did for that guy who's like, hey, I don't eat
sugar. I have no idea what's going on. I was like, any chance you're drinking an acidic thing
throughout the day? And he's like, oh yeah, that electrolyte thing. And now he has a root cause that he can solve instead of, I don't know, just do a better job brushing, man.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
That's some practical advice rather than you have a cavity, brush your teeth more.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, because I think the status quo is not working for most people.
Being told to brush and floss and avoid sugar, that is not working for people.
And if it was working,
people would not have so many cavities. And so I think people need an actual real solution. And so
that's what we're all about at Epic is trying to fight against the status quo that's broken and
say there are better things out there that are backed by incredible scientific research. People
just don't know about it. And if they have the right information and the right tools, they can
take control of their oral health. Yeah. Certain dentist practices just seem so outdated. Even the machine they use,
it's so uncomfortable getting those x-rays.
Right.
And the ones where you have to like bite down and like.
Oh, that's the worst.
It sucks. Like I feel like they should use AI or something to see if you have a cavity.
Well, and what's funny is new dentists coming out of dental school, they learn about Xylitol.
They understand the science behind how it works. And so new dentists absolutely love
xylitol and they recommend it to their patients. But if you're seeing an older dentist that's been
practicing for a long time, he might not have been taught that. He might have some old techniques and
some old information he's working on, depending on how hard he's worked his day after day.
I feel like most of them are old school, honestly.
Right.
Yeah, that's scary.
I mean, a lot of dentists, so dentistry is really designed
to restore function of teeth, right? That's what dentists are great at. They know how to drill and
fill. They know how to prep a crown and make it work so that your teeth can fit together the way
they're supposed to. And you can end up with a great looking smile and hopefully a healthy smile
that gives you all the function you want. But they don't spend nearly as much time on prevention because they're not incentivized to.
The insurance companies don't pay for it, right?
They don't charge the patients for education and prevention.
And so they're going to focus where the money is.
It's natural in any given industry for that to be the case.
So I don't fault them for what they do.
I just think people should understand that their own health is their responsibility.
It's not their dentist's responsibility.
And although you want to lean on your dentist and use your dentist as a tool or your dental hygienist as a tool, that's all that it is.
It's someone else that can help you solve problems.
But you've got to own your own health.
Yeah, it's not preventative.
So it's similar to doctors almost where it's just fixing, not preventing.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's cool.
What's it like been balancing family and business life?
Because I've heard some interesting stories there.
It's intense.
Yeah, it is.
So we have three young kids.
Wow. And our oldest is nine right now.
Our youngest is five.
And we're just coming out of the years where you're changing diapers and you're waking
up through the middle of the night and it doesn't matter how much help you get. You can't seem to stay on top of everything. It's been fun because
I was struggling in the business just by myself, running it, dealing with the challenges. I have
ADHD and I'm not always as organized as I should be, things that are pretty typical. My wife,
on the other hand, is super organized. So I said, come help me in the business. And she is very much
the opposite of me.
She brings the structure. She'll lead the team the way that they need to be led. And it's been
really awesome to have her there. And I'm super grateful for that. It's been great. But it's been
a challenge because maybe we both need to be at the business at the same time. And who's got the
kids, right? And you're like, what's that going to look like? Do we have a nanny that helps with
the kids, which we've done before? But I married her because I wanted her influence on my kids.
I don't want the nanny's influence on my kids.
You know what I mean?
It's a tricky balance, right?
It's a lot to juggle.
But what's funny, the way we started working together was Donald read a book called Traction.
And then he's like, you've got to read this book.
I read it, and it was like someone went inside of my mind and took out all of my business principles that I absolutely believe and put it into a book. And so, of course, I loved it and it was like someone went inside of my mind and took out all of my like business principles that I absolutely believe and put it into a book and so of course I loved it
And it talks about how you know
Most founders are like that visionary personality and they need to be paired with an integrator
That's really gonna you know, make sure things are operating really well within the business
And so we read this book and he's like this is exactly who we are
This is who he's built to be as a visionary. I'm built to be an integrator.
And he's like, let's work together.
And so that started maybe like seven years ago.
Wow.
And lots of hard moments, but it's been overall amazing because I just feel like we have really complimentary skill sets.
Amazing.
So the company's been around a while.
What are some of the biggest challenges you guys have faced and lessons you've learned?
I mean, I think just getting the message out there. And so I think that's one of the cool things about right now, just the power of social
media to get people educated.
Because when you're a small company and you're trying to run your business as a family, you
don't always have the same marketing budget as a huge corporation.
And we're going up against Colgate and all these massive corporations that have a totally
different marketing budget that have failed the end consumer.
And so that's a lot to go up against.
They probably spend more on their Arbor Day party than on our entire marketing budget for the year.
I used to do it every day and now they gross me out.
Yeah.
And so having TikTok and Instagram where we can educate people for almost free for them to be able to understand what's actually happening in their mouth has been huge. Yeah, that's powerful because people really don't know much about
the prevention side of things, I feel like. Yeah, I mean, I remember the way I learned it was in
elementary schools. A dental hygienist comes in, they bring in the little plaque disclosing
tablets that you chew on and you can see all of the purple all over your mouth. Oh, here are the
spots you're missing. So do a better job brushing and make sure your brush stay away from the sugar. That is literally everything I learned. Right. And I
struggled with cavities throughout all of my teen years. And it wasn't until I came across the
that I was like, wait, there's, there's an actual solution. You can do something different here.
And, and I kind of went all in. I'm so excited to start eating this. Yeah. Well, I think the
big thing you'll notice, um, after using it for maybe like a week or two, your teeth are going to feel so slippery smooth. Like we have people
leave reviews all the time to talk about how it feels like they just came from a dental cleaning
because their teeth feel that clean. And it's because you're disrupting the bacteria that are
laying down the plaque film. So you're not going to get that like sweaters on your teeth kind of
feeling. That's so cool. Did you guys have braces? You guys both have really straight teeth. Yeah,
I did. Yeah, I did not have braces. Oh, you didn't? No. But I also
have six veneers on the front. Probably something I wouldn't do again either. This was before I dove
in the dental industry deeply. I got veneers put on because when I was a child, I fell in the jungle
gym with my permanent teeth and I've got a nice triangle between the two of them. And I had
composite fillings there for a long time. And the composite just needed to be replaced all the time. So I asked for veneers, but veneers
increase your risk for periodontal disease, for example, because the way the crown is fitted over
the actual tooth, you end up with a ridge underneath your gum line and it's a perfect
place for bacteria to build up. It's one of the reasons that I have to be religious about using
my water flosser, whereas my wife's kind of like, I don't need to be as religious about it, right? Because
I have that risk factor. So these six here, they're just, they're caps, basically.
Interesting. Because I know friends of mine that have gotten veneers and I've never heard of that
side of it. I don't think a lot of them think about it. I remember even leaving the office,
they're like, you need to make sure you're doing a really good job flossing. That was lit. That
was it. They didn't provide any more information, right?
It's when I dove in deeper to understand what was going on that I was like, oh, here's why I have to do a better job flossing.
Now I need to take this seriously because I understood my own risk factors.
Yeah.
So when someone has a cavity on the inside of the tooth, you pretty much have to get a procedure, right?
Yeah.
That's really consistent with the best practice in the industry.
You need to get a filling when it's gone deeper than the enamel surface. I've seen some dentists
say, hey, you can remineralize and cure a cavity that's that deep. But I think the evidence is
at best anecdotal. And the problem is once you drill into a tooth, that tooth is never the same.
You have lost so much function and you're likely going to have to do more work on that tooth because dental work doesn't last a lifetime.
Well, most people don't know that.
I mean I thought for years when I was getting a filling like, okay, this is how my tooth is going to be forever.
And then later down the road, I found out, oh, I have a cavity beneath that filling, which was so frustrating to me.
And that happens all the time where either they don't take enough out or there's just nooks
and crannies where the bacteria can go live. And so, I mean, there's always a risk anytime you
drill into the tooth. Wow. And you said it loses function after you drill in?
It loses, yeah. I mean, they're restoring the function. They're compromising the tooth's
ability to heal itself naturally, for example. You're exposing it to new risk factors. So when
you have a filling and a natural tooth,
you're going to necessarily have a margin.
And you can put a bonding agent there
between the filling and the tooth.
But that doesn't mean bacteria can't sometimes seep in there.
Bacteria are tiny.
They can fit in all kinds of places.
Yeah, and so the doctor does a lot
to prevent that from happening for you.
But no filling's perfect.
And so they've done studies, like Delta Dental did in the early 2000s. And I think I've seen updated numbers,
but they were like, hey, if you get a single filling in a tooth, you're going to spend another
$2,000 over the lifetime on that tooth after the first filling. But that's early 2000 numbers. I
think the current numbers are somewhere like $4,500. Right, adzimum flake. Yeah, adzimum flake. We all know what that's like, right?
So it's definitely come up a lot since then.
Is there any upcoming dental technology that's exciting you guys, or is this still pretty old school from what you're seeing?
So I think I see a lot more people talking about solutions that are different than fluoride, and that I like. So theobromine, hydroxyapatite, xylitol, these are all different
ways to approach similar problems where what you're trying to do is think about how can I
improve the remineralization capabilities of what's going on in my mouth while reducing the
challenges with acid. But I haven't seen anything that's like a game changer. I see people talking
about probiotics, and I think those could be useful to change your oral flora. There's a lot of things that are helpful, but there's no silver bullet
that I've seen coming out. Oh, I haven't heard probiotics with dental health relations, because
I drink kombucha a lot, so that's interesting. So you want to get probiotics that are designed
for the mouth. They're somewhat different than the probiotics that are for the gut.
So you're looking for healthy strains of bacteria that can come into your mouth and fill in the ecosystem so that they effectively crowd out the bad bacteria.
Going back to the fruits, the pineapple and the grapefruit, what other fruits or foods cause –
Anything that's acidic, you can basically assume it is – anything that's sour, you can assume is acidic.
Sour, okay.
Yeah.
Well, an acid is part of what makes food taste so amazing.
And so, I mean, like salad dressings, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, vinegar,
like there's so many things.
And so I think the idea is to not completely change what you're eating,
but to know how to handle it afterwards.
So if you make sure you're eating, you know, at mealtimes,
you're not snacking all throughout the day,
you're not sipping on acidic drinks all throughout the day. You have those in a small period of time. Then after you
rinse with water and then you follow a xylitol, like that's going to change everything and you
don't have to change what you're eating. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. It's a good rule of thumb
just to balance it. You don't have to necessarily cut it out. Just eat something off. Yeah. I think
most people are worried that I have to be perfect to have great health. And I'm not a big fan of perfection. Dental care needs to be easy enough and realistic enough
to drive results. And that's why I love the gum so much. It's like pop two pieces in after your
meals and you're in a way better place than you would be if you're just letting that vinegar
or Coke sit on your teeth. Yeah. Where can people find out more about the products you guys sell?
Yeah. Epicdental.com is an easy place to learn more about the science.
You can follow us on social media at epic.dental.
Every day we're putting up a video where we're talking about stuff that's useful that way.
Both Instagram and TikTok.
Cool.
Yeah, we'll link it in the description.
Anything else you guys want to close off with?
I mean, I would say if you're someone that has struggled with cavities, that does not have to be your story forever.
You can absolutely take control, and it not have to be your story forever.
You can absolutely take control and it's easy to do.
It's not complicated.
Anyone can understand the science behind it and you don't have to live like this.
There is a way out.
I love that.
You're inspiring people with cavities.
Thanks so much, Sean.
Check out Epic Dental, guys.
Yeah, thanks for coming on, guys.
And we'll see you tomorrow.