Dr. Derek Gatta, DDS, is a dentist and the co-founder of RiseWell, an all-natural, science-backed oral care brand that is revolutionizing the industry with its dentist-formulated, non-toxic products. Derek is dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle and believes that optimal oral health is vital to achieving this. Together with his sister, Kori Estrada, and John Estrada, Derek embarked on a mission to help them create safe and effective alternatives to traditional oral care products after realizing that most products on the market were toxic.
As the head of the scientific council for RiseWell, Derek leads the brand in searching for the healthiest, cleanest ingredients, like Hydroxyapatite, and raising industry standards for quality and purity. Formerly in the Navy, where he studied dentistry while on active-duty scholarship, Derek attended Vanderbilt University and Nova Southeastern University for dental school, with a residency in Prosthodontics. He is passionate about educating people on how to achieve optimal oral health and currently runs a busy practice in Boca Raton.
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Hey, mama, welcome back to another episode of the well nurse mama podcast. I'm going to be 100% honest. This is my fifth time trying to record this stupid intro because it is currently 10 o 'clock at night and I am yawning like crazy and I am so tired, but I am committed to telling you about how amazing my interview was today with my guest.
This interview has been a long time coming and it's one that I have been so excited about for months, like excited enough that anytime any of my friends or family asked me about how work is going and how the podcast is going, literally I say, oh my gosh, I have this amazing interview lined up with Dr.
Derek. So today's interview that you're listening to is with Dr. Derek from Rise Well. Rise Well is the oral health brand that I have partnered with. They do all things toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, all that good stuff.
Um, and I wanted to bring Dr. Derek on because I know that gut health is really trendy right now. And a lot of people are starting to realize how foundational gut health is to like just their overall health in general.
But what we always forget is that the mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract and what goes on in our oral microbiome directly impacts our gut microbiome and all of the work that we're doing to support our gut health.
So I wanted to bring Dr. Derek on to talk about all things holistic dentistry, holistic oral care, and just really set the record straight. There are definitely some practices in the dental care industry that have been going on for decades and they served us at one point in time and Derek actually points us out.
They have been serving us for decades, but now that we have more research and more knowledge available, we know that there are better ways to do things and unfortunately the majority of the dental industry has not caught up with current research, but thankfully there are people like Dr.
Derek who are keeping up -to -date with research and are implementing best practices with their patients and have the evidence to support it. So Dr. Derek is going to be sharing all of the up -to -date things with us today, things that we can do for preventative care, so basically just maintenance and taking care of our oral microbiome as best as possible, and then the last half of the episode we are talking about some conditions that maybe we have experienced in the past or things that are currently happening to us right now like maybe you struggle with bad breath or maybe you struggle with sensitive teeth or maybe you're pregnant and you have pregnancy gingivitis.
We talk about all those things and how we can heal our oral microbiome with natural and holistic remedies and products based on science and research of course, and what I loved most about this interview is that Dr.
Derek is so freaking good at explaining everything. It literally sounds like he's reading out of a textbook, but in the best way possible. Like, he does not stutter. He does not trip over his words. He's just like one conscious stream of thoughts, and he is so thorough in his answers.
And it's like drinking through the fire hose, but it is all such good information. So I really hope you love today's episode, and hopefully it can be something that you refer back to often when you have questions about your oral health or how you want to approach the dentist for your kids, or maybe you're pregnant and you need to go to the dentist.
It just like gives a whole different perspective on basically everything that we've learned about dental care our entire lives. And I make that comment a couple times where I'm like, wow, this is like so different from everything that I've been taught.
And it's not to say that what we've been taught is wrong. It's just that there are new and better things that we know now. And so it's building on those habits and that information that we have and really rounding out our care and making sure that it's the best care possible.
So I'm not going to keep you from the interview any longer. I've also had to pause this intro recording like five times to yawn. So I should probably stop talking too. But as always, if you know someone who would benefit from today's conversation, please send this episode their way.
And then make sure to leave a star rating and review. So me and my guests know how you liked the episode. And without further ado, let's jump into today's episode all about holistic oral health with Dr.
Derek. Our cup needs to be filled first. Here on the Well -Nourished Mama podcast, we learn about all the different ways we can nourish our bodies, minds, and souls in every stage of motherhood, including pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
As a momma of two and certified postpartum nutritionist, I'm here to educate, empower, and inspire you as you navigate your unique motherhood journey and raise your family. Tune in each week for episodes about nutrition, exercise, wellness, lactation, marriage, and so much more, and walk away with simple but actionable tips to help you be a well -nourished mama.
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Dr. Derek Gatta is a dentist and the co -founder of Risewell, an all natural science -backed oral care brand that is revolutionizing the industry with this dentist formulated non -toxic products. Derek is dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle and believes that optimal oral health is vital to achieving this.
Together with his sister, Corey Estrada and John Estrada, Derek embarked on a mission to help them create safe and effective alternatives to traditional oral care products. after realizing that most products on the market were toxic.
As the head of the scientific council for Risewell, Derek leads the brand in searching for the healthiest, cleanest ingredients like hydroxyapatite and raising industry standards for quality and purity.
Formally in the Navy, where he studied dentistry while on active duty scholarship, Derek attended Vanderbilt University and Nova Southeastern University for dental school with a residency in prosthodontics.
He is passionate about educating people on how to achieve optimal oral health and currently runs a busy practice in Boca Raton. Hey, Derek, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today. We're really excited to have you here.
Hey, thank you so much. Excited to be here and share with your audience. Derek, you are a holistic dentist, correct? That's correct. And how long have you been practicing? I've been practicing since 2009 in South Florida.
Okay, perfect. That's awesome. Well, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your story and how you came to co -found RiseWell and what RiseWell is all about. Absolutely. So my sister has been very open about some of the fertility challenges she's had.
And around the 2017 timeframe, she and her husband were trying to start their family. They had to go through the IVF process. She has a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome, which made it challenging to conceive.
And they're going to be making a large investment of both time and resources to build a family. And their physician mentioned this to them, that, look, you guys really should try and increase your odds of success best as possible by improving your nutrition, really examining everything you're putting into your body and onto your body.
And they really understood. And the food and nutrition aspect made sense to them. But one thing that I think is often overlooked is the beauty product industry, things that go on your skin, in your mouth.
They turned upside down. They're their cupboards and cabinets. And we're trying to live a more healthy, clean lifestyle. But when they got the toothpaste, I was talking to them about some of the challenges I've had with my patients here in South Florida, very high -dental IQ, very health -conscious folks looking for alternatives to fluoride.
And I was mentioning to them that we applaud folks that are other companies in this space that were trying to be more natural and remove the detergents and unnecessary chemicals. But if you're not using fluoride, you may as well just be brushing with water because you're just mechanically removing debris if you're not using a remineralizer.
So we had been working with our team here and had realized that hydroxyapatite has been used overseas with success at remineralizing incipient lesions for many years. It just hadn't caught on in this country for whatever reason.
And that was kind of the brainchild of Rise Well and working with my sister and brother -in -law to bring more natural products to market. That's super cool. So did your family have success with their fertility journey?
They did. They did. They have baby Leo. He's about uh five uh his birthday this month and it's a very exciting journey and uh they they were able to uh move forward with success. Oh that's so exciting.
I love that. So not only did we get a baby but we got an amazing company out of it too. Absolutely. That's awesome. Well there's so much to unpack with this story and I know we're going to get into a lot of it but just for all the mamas listening who aren't aware um I certainly didn't know that there were holistic dentists out there um until like last year.
So can you just kind of describe the difference between a holistic dentist and a traditional dentist that maybe like I've been going to for the last 15 years? Yeah so you make a good point and uh again I applaud my traditional folks in this space.
I think dental education is very traditional in a lot of regards and look they're trying to educate many people and make sure they're practicing safely and they want to make sure that the research is behind whatever they're doing.
But I think, you know, back in the day when medicine was kind of separated into different parts of the body, it's a very kind of Western approach and look for acute medicine, great. You break a leg, wonderful.
Go to the emergency room, get a set, get a fixed. But for some of these long -term metabolic syndromes or chronic diseases, we're finding that we really sometimes need a more holistic approach, really examining that the mouth is part of the body, not just separate.
Digestion starts in the mouth. Nutrition starts in the mouth and really understanding that in dentistry traditionally, it was kind of see decay, see a hole, fill it. Well, in more of a holistic approach, we're really trying to wonder, well, why did the hole get there to the begin with?
What is this, what is happening? What's the etiology? And a lot of this goes back to nutrition. Decay comes from the bacteria that break down the food that we eat into acids, and those acids lead to decay.
And, you know, a lot of my patients are kind of surprised about why I'm talking to them about nutrition. And I explained to them, well, I want to help you break this cycle, like decay is a preventable disease.
I see a lot of seniors. And unfortunately, one of the side effects of prescription medications is xerostomia, which is also known as dry mouth. And when you lose saliva, you're losing a protective barrier against decay.
And so talking to folks about that and nutrition and just overall body health is something that I really strive for, it's in more of a holistic approach here. Okay, that is so incredible. I like that you're not necessarily like renouncing all of the training that you had or everything that you have been doing.
It's just, it sounds like you're adding another layer to your care of, okay, we're gonna take everything that you've been taught and we're gonna add to it, and we're gonna kind of round it out so that we're covering all of our bases, not just one.
Is that right? Yeah, it's a great way to phrase it. I mean, look, I don't, I don't, I want to take anything for granted and look, I really have enjoyed my education and, you know, practicing in South Florida, I was in the military for eight years and kind of picked up a lot of nuggets of advice in that style as well.
And once I got out and came back to South Florida, I was really continuing to educate myself on, you know, why things keep happening with my patients and kind of use the traditional conservative mainstream type of dentistry, which is fundamental I use every day, but still just being open to learning new things, new treatment about modalities, and just making sure that there are signs behind whatever we're doing,
and just really trying to treat the whole individual, not just the mouth or the hole in a tooth. I absolutely love it. So let's dive into that a little bit. I've kind of split our conversation today into two different sections.
We're going to talk about protecting our oral microbiome and then healing our oral microbiome based on like certain things that we have. So first, let's get into protecting our mouth. You know, just like you mentioned, fluoride has kind of been like the number one thing in dental care for decades, right?
Basically, the only thing I remember from going to the dentist is, okay, you've got your fluoride, you've got this specific toothpaste, we're doing this treatment while you're in the office, like that's just kind of top of mind, right?
But now, we've got dentists like you and companies like Risewell who are outwardly saying, we're not using fluoride in our care, we're not using fluoride in our products and in our toothpaste. So my question to you is, why should we be switching to fluoride -free toothpaste?
Why should we be minimizing the fluoride that goes into our mouth? So you make a great point here, and again, when I was first going down this journey, I was also skeptical. I mean, look, in dental school, questioning fluoride is like questioning religion, like you just didn't go there.
We really didn't even talk about hydroxyapatite, even though it's the layer of naturally occurring enamel on the outside of your tooth. It's calcium and phosphate, it's naturally occurring, but maybe one hour in oral histology really didn't talk about it at all.
It was kind of later on in life going through this journey that I was able to educate myself and get more familiar with other remineralizing agents out there. So again, I advocate for hydroxyapatite, but it's a personal decision for everyone, but I will let you know that no one gets decay or cavities because of a fluoride deficiency.
You know, we're not here to dispel the merits of fluoride. It absolutely worked. It does work, but you know what? Metal fillings work too, but a lot of people just don't want metal fillings anymore. I think there are better materials that are out there that have less health consequences and side effects.
And you know, it's interesting, when you look at a box of toothpaste, when you turn over on the back, it says do not use for children under six years old. If you swallow some call poison control, well, how much is too much?
I don't know. So I think there are some concerns for younger folks out there that have trouble controlling their swallowing muscles, like toddlers and infants. If you're not going to give them a remineralizing agent like fluoride, what's your alternative?
I think hydroxyapatite is a great alternative to fill that space. It doesn't have some of the health consequences that I had alluded to. Also, you don't need it in your drinking water. You don't need fluoride systemically.
It's a very reactive molecule. It's a very electronegative on the periodic table, meaning it's highly reactive. There are studies to link it with hypothyroidism or thyroid dysfunction. Sometimes it can displace the iodine that's needed in thyroid, which helps with metabolism.
There are concerns about that. There are concerns about potential toxicity, if you swallow it too much, like I had mentioned. I just think we're at a time and place where there are better alternatives that are out there.
There are some allergy conditions to think about as well. I think we're at a time and place where there are just better materials with less side effects like hydroxyapatite. I agree. It's not necessarily saying that fluoride is bad.
It's just saying now that we're progressing in our science and our research, we're finding better and so it's a matter of trying to find the better option, right? That's a great way of saying it. Also, when you look at some of the studies that are out there, fluoride works by re -mineralizing the outer surface layer of the tooth, which is the outer enamel layer.
But to do that, to re -mineralize, you still need a surplus of calcium and phosphate. So that usually comes from your saliva. So when you have a healthy saliva flow, you have these ions floating around your saliva.
They're able to attach and bind to the enamel surface and re -mineralize or re -harden any outer incipient lesions. Hydroxyapatite, the mechanism is a little bit different here, so it doesn't rely on fluoride.
Calcium and phosphate is already in your saliva. So you have a wonderful reservoir and surplus of re -mineralizing agents in your saliva. And hydroxyapatite is able to bind to any incipient or weakened lesions.
And not only does it re -mineralize or re -harden the outer lesion, but the subsurface lesion. So you get a more homogenous re -mineralizing capability with a hydroxyapatite re -mineralizer compared to a fluoride re -mineralizer.
I love that. That's so fascinating that it is kind of achieving the same purpose, but it's going about it in a different way and it's being more thorough as well, is what I'm getting at from hydroxyapatite.
That's a great summary. OK, I'm paying attention. This is kind of cool. There's going to be a quiz at the end. Yeah, I did want to touch on something that you said about the connection between, I think it was fluoride toxicity or like too much fluoride and hypothyroidism.
Something I wanted to mention is. fluoride and chlorine and those other ions compete for absorption in the body with iodine. And so like a lot of swimmers are going to see, they might see some problems with their thyroid or other things that rely on iodine because the chlorine that they're getting on their skin and like in their ears or whatever is competing with whatever iodine is in their diet.
And so there's that balance. So I really loved that you brought up that the same relationship applies to fluoride because it's in that same column on the periodic table, right? So they're kind of competing for absorption.
And so if we can be mindful of our intake of fluoride, where we're getting it, how we're getting it, then hopefully it minimizes the risk of these other things that might come up that otherwise wouldn't have been a problem.
Yeah, you make a good point. I hadn't even considered the angle for swimmers and what they must go through daily with chlorine exposure, but yeah, very electronegative or highly reactive molecules can have some consequences on your body.
So your yearly physical blood work done, important to check your levels and just see if you're in the healthy ranges. Yeah. All right. So we've kind of hinted at this with a little bit, but let's kind of dive in a little bit deeper.
We're kind of hinting at like non -toxic oral care products, right? We're switching from fluoride and these toothpaste that have a whole bunch of stuff that like call poison control if you eat it to more natural products like rise well that have hydroxyapatite and ingredients that you can pronounce and the ingredients list is very short.
So in your opinion, why is it important to switch to non -toxic oral care? Because like you said, we're really good about our nutrition. We're starting to be more aware of like lotions and stuff, but like why is our mouth important?
So great question. And I think one of the things to consider is that digestion starts in the mouth. Nutrition starts in the mouth. Your mouth and oral mucosa is a highly absorbent part of the body here.
And I think in the past, you know, I applaud my predecessors and people that came before me and everyone is doing their best based on the science available at the time. But, you know, there was a time and place where bacteria bad must kill everything kind of a scorched earth approach to health care.
And when we were first learning of infections and antibacterial properties, I understand where that connection may have been made and sure if you have an acute infection, take an antibiotic or whatever you need to kill the infection.
But in the normal course of your day to day living, you don't need to be killing every piece of bacteria in your mouth or body is actually where we're realizing there's such a strong link between this symbiotic relationship between naturally occurring bacteria.
And it's really only a problem or considered bad bacteria when it gets out of control. control. If you're using an alcoholic mouth rinse by inadvertently killing off everything in your mouth where you can create these ecological niches where overgrowth can occur and you look at the overuse of antibiotics and the potential for causing C.
diff. If you kill off everything in your gut, you create the space and niches for potentially deleterious bacteria to overgrow and cause issues. I think also when you're looking at tooth decay, well, it's an imbalance of strep mutans and having the food source to create the acids to produce decay and so making sure that your oral hygiene is on point and keeping the debris and basically essentially the food source away from the bacteria.
So xylitol is a great sugar alcohol that's able to stop or arrest the bacteria's fermentation to create the sugars so they can't metabolize it, can't create the acids that lead to decay. really trying to stop the overgrowth of the deleterious strains and just keep the harmony in your mouth.
When you're looking at gum health, there are issues regarding gingivitis. Again, certain bacteria lead to the breakdown of the soft tissue attachment to the tooth, but in a healthy functioning individual, that should not be a problem if you're keeping plaque and debris off the teeth.
The bacteria does not lead to gingivitis or bleeding gums. It's really an out of balance or dysregulation of the natural state of what you're supposed to be in. Those are some of the oral manifestations and there are systemic manifestations of the disbalance as well.
Okay, you are so good at explaining everything. I'm so impressed that you can just do it without stumbling on your words or needing to take a breath. It's so fascinating. I'm going to try and summarize what you said and make sure that we got everything.
Basically, you're talking about how the mouth is the beginning of the digestive system and essentially our gut microbiome. It matters what goes into our mouth because that then affects our gut microbiome and that's super trendy to care about right now.
Making sure that the beginning of everything is optimized so that everything that goes after it is also going to be okay. Then the idea that we don't need to be killing all bacteria because our mouth just like our gut has good bacteria and bad bacteria and we don't want all of it gone.
We just want to minimize the bad bacteria and keep that ratio between the two in check. Did I get that right? Yeah, great summary. Absolutely. Okay, perfect. I'm passing the test. We're doing good. Yup.
Yup. Okay, one last question in our section for protecting our oral microbiome. This one I know probably sounds a little bit silly but I genuinely had this question in my head so hopefully I'm not the only mala that's asking this.
Do we need to care about our little kids mouth products? even though they're going to lose their teeth and get their adult teeth eventually. Cause in my head, it's like, well, maybe it's not as big of a deal until their adult teeth come in because they're just gonna lose their teeth anyway.
So what would you say to that? Great question. But I say there's a lot of value in those little pediatric teeth. The pediatric teeth serve as placeholders while they're developing adult teeth underneath.
The gums are forming and solidifying. And when you prematurely lose baby teeth, you can get crowding. You can lose kind of the guiding or guardrails for the adult teeth to come in. In addition to countless hours of lost enjoyments of dragging young ones to the dentist and creating unfortunate experiences for them.
I think a lot of my adult patients who have a hard time starting treatment in a dental care because they had a bad experience as a child. It's so. challenging to undo the trauma that can occur from a bad dental experience as a little kid where you're vulnerable, you don't trust what's going on, you're in pain, you're not really sure what to do, and you're just trusting the adults that are around to take care of you.
And if you have bad or painful experiences, it can really turn you off for a long time. So creating positive experiences, I mean, decay is a preventable disease. A lot of it goes back to nutrition. And I would say there's absolute value in keeping your pediatric teeth until they're supposed to exfoliate and come out.
And absolutely, yeah, so I would there's a lot of value there for sure. Okay, that's what I figured. It just seemed like a little bit nuanced. So I'm glad you brought that up. I think it's really I think it's really cool that you spoke to just our mental sanity of taking the kids to the dentist less and not having traumatic experiences at the dentist.
Because yeah, I think back to my childhood, it wasn't like anything super dramatic. It was just like, oh, I have to go to the dentist today, my teeth are going to hurt for the next 24 hours. And I can't eat for X amount of time.
And it was just it was never fun, right? So if we can minimize that, then that's a perk in addition to all the other like health benefits of our individual child. Absolutely. I've talked to hundreds of moms about their breastfeeding journey.
And one of the things I hear so often is that they feel that if they knew more before beginning breastfeeding, they would have been so much more successful and less stressed. They talk about how they wish they knew what to expect and what to do at the hospital.
So they didn't jump straight into supplementing with formula and doubting their natural ability to produce enough breast milk for their baby. They also talk about knowing what's normal and what's not normal with breastfeeding, and what they can do to improve their milk supply on their own.
I know that knowledge is power. And this is why I started the Well Nourished Mama to give you those resources. that otherwise would not be available to you. In honor of World Breastfeeding Awareness Month, I'm offering my one -on -one breastfeeding support calls for 30% off through August 31st to make lactation help more accessible to you and give you the knowledge you need to succeed.
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All right, so let's jump into healing our oral microbiome because it's one thing to do preventative medicine and preventative care, but what if we already have problems, right? What if we're already struggling with things, especially as grown women, as adults who have had certain habits in place for however many years and are like, okay, I guess we need to change those.
So we're just gonna go down a list if you have any recommendations for either like lifestyle and nutrition changes or specific rise well products that can help or maybe certain procedures from a holistic dentist.
Does that sound okay? That sounds great. Okay awesome we'll just go right down the list. First up is bad breath. Is this something that like we can actually prevent other than just like popping mints in our mouth?
Yeah so that hits close to home with a lot of the patients that I treat and a lot of the time I talk to them well it just goes back to nutrition and regular great oral hygiene. So looking at brushing and flossing regularly making sure that we're moving debris, cleaning with a mouth rinse it's not alcoholic.
It sounds obvious but it really is a cornerstone of preventing bad breath. Also tongue scraping. You're not only do your teeth collect plaque but your tongue collects plaque and debris and you don't need to gag yourself and go crazy but you know gently brush the front of the tongue or scrape the front of the tongue gets a lot of dead cells off and gets a lot of the kind of the decaying or organic matter off out of your mouth as well that can contribute to bad breath.
When you're looking at tonsil stones that's an area of bad breath that people may not have thought of but sometimes you get these like little calcified secretions that are lodged in your tonsils and sometimes you can see it sometimes you accidentally cough them out like little white pieces of phlegm but they smell terrible and they can contribute to bad breath so if you tried everything and still have halitosis or bad breath might want to consult your nose and throat position to see if you have tonsil stones.
Also looking at staying hydrated water is critically important to stay keep your mouth moist wash away debris and food particles that can be causing the bad breath. Looking at some of the opportunities to enhance your breath through diet and nutrition increase things that increase your saliva flow.
Crunchy vegetables. can help neutralize bad breath. Things like mint, so chewing on mint leaves can help neutralize bad breath. Fruits, vegetables, anything that stimulates saliva flow. They're gonna be really helpful with your bad breath.
And again, I'm Italian, so limiting garlic is hard to do. Sometimes I bite the bullet and eat it anyway, but limiting foul or challenging odors, like your garlic, onions, spicy foods can contribute to bad breath.
So those would be my tips to try and mitigate existing bad breath or heal existing bad breath. Okay, couple of follow -up questions, because that was so good. For like, effects will be removing all the stuff on our teeth, around our teeth.
Do you, like, are you in the camp that electric toothbrushes are like the way to go? Or are you like traditional toothbrush, we should be manually like swirling our toothbrush around? Is there like a better option for how we go about doing that?
Yeah. I mean, I would definitely advocate a motorized or electric toothbrush. I think their ability to oscillate and vibrate debris off is just going to outlast your patience of trying to do it manually.
And plus, a lot of them have timers now, so they do 30 seconds in each quadrant for a full two -minute cycle. Also, they have pressure -indicating gauges. So to try and reduce your chance of causing recession if you're brushing too hard, it flashes red.
And when you're right in the right pressure zone, it flashes green knowing you're not brushing too hard and potentially not inducing recession. So I would absolutely advocate for electric brush. Okay, perfect.
And now about tongue scraping, because I just learned about this recently. So with tongue scraping, I know that there's like a fancy tool out there that can do that. But can I just do it with my toothbrush?
Or do I need like the tongue scraper to effectively do that? Anything to mechanically remove debris is adequate. I use just a toothbrush. A tongue scraper could be a nice upgrade, but a toothbrush has efficacy as well.
Okay, awesome. Let's move on to sensitive teeth. This is something that I have struggled on and off with, where it's like, all of a sudden, I'll be eating food. And then whoa, it's like an Arctic wind came through and my teeth like can't handle anything.
Or I'm trying to think of other scenarios. But yeah, sensitive teeth, how do we recover from and I guess heal our sensitive teeth? Yeah, you know, that's a condition that afflicts so many people. It's such a challenging and frustrating condition to have.
And the first step is trying to prevent the condition from occurring. And so when you think about the anatomy of the tooth, the enamel or outer layer does not connect to the pulp. So it's like an insulating barrier, and you don't have sensitivity.
I mean, you can feel hot and cold, but it shouldn't be painful. It's really only when you have recession. The recession is what kind of when the gov comes kind of gently peel back as we age and mature through life, it shows the more sensitive tooth layer like the cementum or the dentin, that layer connects directly to pulp tissue.
Pulp tissue has the nerve and blood supply, it has feeling. And so you get some rosings when that is exposed. So trying not to accidentally induce recession, I know a lot of successful driven type A people think brushing harder is better, but you may just be costing recession everywhere.
So trying to limit your recession is job number one. If you already have sensitivity or recession, looking at some of the products that are on the market, look, we applaud other people in the space trying to help this problem.
But we've really found kind of inadvertently that hydroxyapatite is a wonderful molecule to occlude the dental tubules. And so traditional desensitizing agents like potassium nitrate that are in a lab toothpaste, that mechanism, a little neuroanatomy here, essentially when a nerve fires, it's a reaction.
that goes along the nerve process here, and it's a chemical electrical reaction here. The potassium nitrate tries to deaden that nerve temporarily, so the electrical impulse can't be transmitted through the nerve, but instead of just doing that, which has marginal efficacy, if you've ever tried a traditional big box sensitivity brand toothpaste, they kind of lose their effect after a while, if you even noticed anything.
But hydroxyapatite just plugs the tubule and it really creates a great lasting sensitivity relief that we kind of realized inadvertently through the process here. Okay, that is so fascinating. I was thinking about it, I've been using a tooth powder that has hydroxyapatite in it for probably, I'd say a year now, and I still have little instances here and there, but I feel like my teeth are way less sensitive than they used to be after consistently doing hydroxyapatite,
so that's super fascinating that it can, I don't want to say react, I'm losing the word, but that it- Clued, it blocks the hole. Yeah, it blocks the hole so that that nerve pulse doesn't get super sensitive, so that's really fascinating.
Yeah, and also, honestly, I tell people, when you're done brushing at night and you still have sensitivity, take a little dab and just smear it on some of the areas of recession or some of the areas of sensitivity.
That way, you're increasing the contact time, letting it absorb and soak into the tooth longer, and that really helps in the beginning as well, to kind of expedite the process of sensitivity relief. Okay, so does that mean that we should not be swishing our mouth and rinsing out our toothpaste or our tooth powder after we brush?
Yeah, I would advocate, if you're using a hydroxyapatite toothpaste or powder, I do that last. I do my flossing first, my mouth rinse seconds, my brushing last, and I leave the toothpaste residue on the teeth to help increase the contact time to absorb in and help with any incipient lesions.
Okay. is going against everything that I was taught as a kid. So it's like trying to relearn these new habits that are gonna be like better serving my teeth. This is so fascinating. Let's talk about plaque.
And I have like a little arrow that says like it can lead to gingivitis. I'm gonna kind of, if I'm understanding it right, I hope, I think these two things go together. Is that right? I do. Okay, so let's talk about plaque and gingivitis.
How can we heal and recover from plaque and gingivitis if that's something we're struggling with? Yeah, so again, looking at these different gum conditions, plaque is the buildup of everything you eat.
It's just debris. Plaque is a soft biofilm type layer. The first adheres to the tooth. If left untreated or if it's not brushed off, it turns the tartar, which is the more calcified, tenacious material.
Actually, you know, we call it calculus in the dental world. So tartar or calculus. And eventually that irritation leads to inflammation. The body reacts to those little barnacles on the tooth structure by causing gums that get puffy, they turn from healthy salmon pink to more beet red, and they bleed super easily.
And this is probably something that your audience experiences, because pregnancy gingivitis is a real thing. When your hormones are changing and you're going through big biochemical changes in your body, pregnancy gingivitis is a common condition where your teeth may feel loose.
You may have increased bleeding and gingivitis and sensitivity. So not to fear, those conditions will return after delivery. But during pregnancy, you could have some conditions with that as well. So you want to make sure that you're keeping debris off the teeth using a soft bristled brush, floss, a non -alcoholic mouth rinse.
These are all opportunities to get debris off of the teeth. And also with your mouth rinses, antibacterial rinses can help reduce the plaque and bacteria that cause the gingivitis. Essential oils are great at having antibacterial properties to help with the teeth and gums.
If you're looking for a more natural, kind of do -it -yourself type opportunity there, you know, just warm salt water can help to promote healing. The salt can help reduce your bacterial load. And so those are some helpful opportunities there.
Yeah, lots of options. So I'm thinking about pregnancy gingivitis. Maybe a mama like me is really good about taking care of her teeth. And it's just the fact that maybe like there's extra blood flow or, you know, like you said, the hormonal changes from pregnancy.
So it's not necessarily like poor oral care. It's just kind of like something that's coming with all of the other stuff with pregnancy. So because it is inflammatory, would inflammatory foods in our diet help like tame that?
Or is there something else that we can do to try and like help that if that's the reason why we're having pregnancy gingivitis? So a great point. And rule number one, would be just to really make sure your oral hygiene is on point, and again, just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you can't go to the dentist.
That would keep your normally scheduled cleaning visits. Keeping debris, plaque, tartar calculus off the teeth will go a long way to help minimize the signs and symptoms of gingivitis, and when gingivitis is left untreated, that inflammation can eventually lead to periodontitis.
So gingivitis is reversible. Once the plaque is gone, the inflammation subsides. If left untreated, the periodontitis is actually irreversible bone loss, and unfortunately, it does not cause pain. It takes many years to happen, so some people might not realize that they're losing healthy bone.
In 20, 30 years of untreated periodontal disease can lead to loose teeth that may eventually exfoliate or fall out, but that's a long process away. So step one is just keeping the teeth healthy. Again, looking at your diet, making sure you're drinking plenty of water, staying hydrated.
keeping your saliva production up. If you have folks out there that are into natural oils, we use natural oils in essential oils in our products and the concept of oil pulling. And so when you're able to match the hydrophobicity of similar cell membranes of the bacteria and the oils, when you swish, you're able to mix and they attract the bacterial cell membranes into a solution.
And don't swallow that mixture, but expectorate, spit it out, and you're able to reduce your bacterial load that way as well. Looking at probiotics, keeping your diet rich in probiotics with yogurt can be really helpful to promote good bacteria.
And again, a lot of these conditions happen when it's dysregulation, it's things that get out of balance. So really trying to keep healthy levels of good gut microbiome and healthy oral microbiome with yogurt is a good way to do that.
Trying to avoid deleterious habits like alcohol and smoking, like some of the obvious stuff, but it makes sense to just talk about it. It really just kind of shooting yourself in the foot. If you're ingesting these poisons, there's no safe level of those things.
And I know people always need a release valve or stress relief, but enjoy yourself in moderation. And it's really not helping your oral condition at all here and keep up with your regular visits. A healthy mouth is a great way to keep your confidence, keep your smile bright and cheery, and gum disease and different oral conditions.
Potentially, if your mother is unhealthy, you potentially could be affecting the preterm birth of your baby and the health of your growing family. So it's a lot to consider. Yeah, I love how many options there are to help.
It's not something that I'm familiar with, having so many options to solve all these problems. So I love that. I know what oil pulling is, but I don't know if all all of my mamas do, can you really briefly describe what oil pulling is and how you can do it and how frequently you should do it?
Yeah, so it's not something that I talk about too frequently in my practice, but essentially, folks that are in this community and use the oil pulling technique, you're gonna be swishing about a tablespoon of coconut oil is one of the common ones you use.
And the philosophy of this is that oils and waters don't mix, kind of like oil and vinegar, but the oils of oil pulling, that mixture has a similar solubility of the cell wall of membranes. Bacterial cell membranes are kind of, it's a fatty lipid bilayer, and it's very similar to the oils in coconut oil.
And that's one method for swishing. So you would hold this a mouth rinse solution in your mouth for about 10 minutes if you can. And it really helps to just kind of suck and pull any of the deleterious bacteria and kind of mixes in the solution and you can spit.
And the philosophy is to track the bacteria and spit it out. Okay, that's awesome. So I'm assuming it's melted coconut oil, right? Because it's usually solid at room temperature. So you need to melt it first.
That's a great point. Yeah, it's a liquid. Yeah, so make it a liquid. And then do you need to constantly swish for 10 minutes or do you want it to like sit in one side of your cheek and then move it to the other side and then spit it out?
Yeah, I mean, again, 10 minutes might be a lot when you're first starting out here. So, you know, work your way up to it, but you can just let it sit. You can swish. I mean, your mouth and cheek muscles might get tired, but just do the best you can.
And if you can't make it to the full 10, you know, just do it for as long as you can. And, you know, a couple times a day is what I've seen. But it's not something I practice routinely. I mean, look, our mouth rinse has essential oils in it.
So you kind of get the same philosophy type of mixing the similar solubilities, but for people that are doing the traditional coconut oil pulling, yeah, you can swish. You can leave it to one side than the other and try to get to about 10 minutes if you can.
Awesome. Well, I've been using your mouth rinse. So that makes me feel good. Because I really like your mouth rinse. It's very convenient. Oh, thank you. Glad you're enjoying it. Okay, let's talk about cavities.
So this one, I actually get questions a lot about because, you know, for however long we've been told, well, you get a cavity, you fill it, right? You just have, there's just nothing, you just have it.
They're like, oh, probably eat less sugar. And then they send you on your way. So if our mamas have cavities or they have a history of recurring cavities or maybe even in our cavities. kids, how can we prevent cavities?
But also like if we have cavities, is there another way to fix them without getting them filled? So a great, great question. And a lot of it, again, I'm going to go back to nutrition and I'll beat the dead horse here, but really trying to prevent and look at the cause of what's going on.
And, you know, nutrition and food can be very deceiving because essentially everything we eat reduces or breaks down into proteins, fats, or sugars. So even if you're not eating dessert or something sweet, things like crackers, pastas, breads, if they're not breaking being reduced to a fat or a protein, it's all getting reduced to sugar at the elemental level, even if it's not sweet.
And that's the perfect food source for the decay causing bacteria. And I don't want to name brands here, but, you know, some of those little crackers that are shaped like fist or taste like cheese, you know, they are incredibly karyogenic.
They are just. loaded with the fuel for the bacteria to cause the acids. So really trying to look at your nutrition, try to stick with fruits and vegetables. Yes, fruits have sugars, but you know, that's also combined with the fiber from the molecule.
So still much better than ultra processed foods. And really examining your nutrition, trying to keep liquid calories out of your body. I mean, soft drinks, energy drinks. Yes, when you need capping your energy, it can be great in a pinch, but I would not make it a regular habit.
I mean, it's just loaded with sugar, or if there's no sugar, there's acids. And it really is just highly destructive to your body and your teeth and not a lot of good nutritional benefit there. So name of the game prevention.
But if you already have decay, looking at opportunities to try and arrest or stop the decay from spreading. So again, back to dental anatomy, the outer layer of the tooth is the enamel. You can recharge or remineralize the incipient or beginning stages of a lesion if it's still an enamel with something like hydroxyapatite.
It's non -toxic, non -inflammatory, biomimetic, biocompatible, and it fills in the chips in the armor to try and arrest or stop that from spreading. Now, if the decay has already spread into the dentin, the dentin is much softer part of the tooth, you pretty much need a filling at that point.
Or if you have a visible hole in your tooth, you're not going to remineralize that. So we got to be realistic here. But when it's small and still in the enamel, you can absolutely recharge and re -strengthen those areas before you would have to get a dental intervention.
Okay, so if we go to the dentist and they say we have a cavity, and then we ask, okay, so do I need a filling? And they say, no. Is that enough information for us to say, okay, then I can just work on my nutrition and hydration and then focus on hydroxyapatite?
Is that the conclusion we can come to with that information? Yeah. That's a great starting point and I would get engaged with your dentist too in terms of like, well, have them show you the radiograph or the x -ray, like look at it on the screen and you can really see it's like a little dark triangle would be the incipient lesion.
And again, I know dental care can be frustrating or medical care in general because you talk to five different dentists, you'll get five different opinions really depending on how aggressive or conservative the practitioner is and what their philosophy of care is.
I really don't like cutting lesions if they're in enamel. I really want to give the patient every opportunity to recharge and remineralize. Once it's indented, yes, that's when I would intervene with a filling.
But getting engaged with your dentist, looking at the radiographs, really understanding how they determine when to intervene, when not to intervene and what you can do. But if they're still in enamel, I'd say you have a fighting chance to just tell your doc you want to try and remineralize it with hydroxyapatite, keep it clean.
And, you know, if it gets bigger... at the next visit, then you did all you could, but at least you gave it a fighting chance. Okay, perfect. We have two left. I want to ask you about root canals. I don't know a ton about this.
I just know it's like a dental term, but is there anything that we can do to help our mouth if we do need a root canal or if we are going to get a root canal? What can we do with that? A great question.
And I know there have been a lot of documentaries and a lot of blog posts and articles on the dangers of root canals. And look, any medical procedure done poorly can be bad and have a negative outcome.
So, you know, I'll preface it with that. I would make sure you, I mean, I would, if you need this procedure, I would get it from at least get a consult with an endodontist, they're specialists in the root canal procedure here.
So essentially, if you're having two symptoms of pain, the decay has gotten so big that it's kind of attacked and invaded the nerve. At that point, you need to clean the nerve out. And I know, you know, it's a horrible marketing term, root canal.
Who would want to sit through that procedure or pay for that procedure? A root canal, geez, I'd rather have anything than that. But it really is simply just cleaning out the inside of the tooth. They clean out the nerve so you can't have pain.
And if it were my mouth, I would absolutely invest in one over just pulling the tooth because even though you've cleaned out the nerve, you can still chew with the tooth, you still have proprioception, meaning you still have feeling.
Even though if a tooth is dead, there's the ligament or cells that interlock and hold the tooth into the bone, those cells are still alive. So you can still, for instance, like detect a grain of sand or food or debris between your teeth.
With a dental implant, you don't get any of that. There is no proprioception, there is no ligaments. It's just a rock solid connection of titanium implant to bone, which look, if you have a missing tooth, sure, it's a great remedy, but I would much rather keep my own tooth if you need it.
So unfortunately- if you are experiencing pain, abscess, blood pus, or a little pimple around your tooth, and if you need a root canal, the decay has progressed to the point where you need intervention, and you don't have a lot of good natural options to heal at that point.
So that would be my recommendation to prevent it at all costs, and if you need it, don't be afraid to get one because I'd rather keep my own tooth than having it pulled. Okay, so good to know. Now, I saved the best one for last because this is a really touchy subject for moms who have had their babies, and I want to talk about discoloration and getting our white teeth back because I didn't know this was a thing until after I had my first baby,
but apparently there's this thing where it's like, oh, new moms have horrible teeth. Their teeth are so yellow and so gross. So what's going on here, and how can we get our white teeth back? Yeah, well, I think there are a lot of things going on for new moms.
They are... a growing life, they're bringing life into this world. So it's really a miraculous process here, but unfortunately, the body takes a toll and the mouth is no exception. And so looking at the very beginning of morning sickness, well, what is that?
That's vomiting, it's stomach acid in your oral cavity, and stomach acid is incredibly caustic. That can erode and damage teeth depending on the frequency of vomiting and if the acids are left in the mouth.
So if you're the lucky few experiencing that routinely, you want to rinse out the acids, make sure you have a clean mouth in terms of getting the pH back to a normal level. The stomach acid really drops the pH into the dangerous demineralizing zone.
That's another thing I hadn't spoken about yet. But so decay usually occurs when the pH is just the measure of acid in the mouth dips below 5 .5. That's like the cavity causing zone. The lava is a natural buffer to bring the pH back into a more neutral zone and a slightly bouncing basic mouthwash can remineralize and get you out of the unhealthy acidic zone for when a decay occurs.
Besides that, mothers are also battling pregnancy gingivitis that we spoke about. So their teeth are mobile, they have bleeding gums, they're sore, they have discomfort. Also nutrition. Have they been having intense or bizarre cravings during this time period where they're eating things they normally don't eat, which may be contributing to darkening or kind of diminishing their bright and vibrant smile?
Also dental business. This is a stressful period of life. You kind of put everything else on hold. It's so common for mothers to take care of everybody but themselves. But when you neglect yourself, missing your routine dental cleanings might be sacrificed.
So I would recommend keep your dental cleanings. You can absolutely get your teeth cleaned while you're pregnant and continue to invest in yourself because when you're cups not full, it's hard to fill the cup of others if you're running on fumes.
So keep your energy and nutrition up. Mama's, I did not pay him to say any of that. I'm so glad it's not me that's been beating this drum for so long. Oh, it makes me feel so good. I wanted to add just the fact that we are so nutritionally depleted, and I think you kind of hinted at that, but really driving home the idea that we are so nutritionally depleted that our teeth require minerals to be healthy and to be white and have minimal problems,
right? And so because pregnancy is so nutritionally demanding, it just steals all of our minerals all the time if we're not you know we can't always control if we're nauseous or if we have cravings but doing the best that we can with our nutrition and then having really good products like rice ball products that not only prevent problems but literally you've been saying it the whole time re -mineralizing our teeth and giving our teeth back what they're losing.
I've noticed a huge difference in my smile when I started using your guys's toothpaste and your mouth rinse because it is adding everything back in that my teeth were missing when I was pregnant because I was growing a whole human so I love that it's a mixture of what we eat and just taking care of ourselves as a person and our stress and then also doing things to add back in what we are actively losing.
That's a great point and when you add back in what you've been missing with the calcium phosphate through hydroxyapatite you're actually able to create a more beautiful tooth because the more homogenous or full remineralization affects the obstacle or visual properties of the tooth altering the surface reflectance so it does help to create a more aesthetic tooth as well in terms of the optical properties when you have a fully mineralized tooth with the hydroxyapatite process.
I love it. Okay before we wrap up I want to just ask you about Rise Well products because there's a couple different things for adults and for kids so can you just give us a really basic rundown of your products and what might be helpful for our mommas to have in their home?
Sure so we have our traditional hydroxyapatite toothpaste for adults in wild mint. We have it in cake batter for the youngsters. We have hydroxyapatite infused floss. We have xylitol and pH balancing malference and we also have a professional line for stubborn sensitivity or aggressive decay rates.
It's got a high higher level of hydroxyapatite for both the adult and the kids line. And we have mints. If you are looking for additional hydroxyapatite exposure and contact time, we have mints that you can use that have been helpful people to just adding more remineralizing potential in their world.
The mints are so good mamas, I just kind of keep them like in my purse and every once in a while just pop in and be like, I'm helping my teeth. Not just my bad breath, it's helping my teeth too. So the mints are super cool.
And there's something really cool about your mouthwash. My husband was a little bit skeptical. Can you tell us what's so special about your mouthwash? Well, it's non alcoholic, so it's not going to have that burn.
We're using pH balancing sodium bicarbonate and xylitol. And so xylitol is the naturally occurring sugar alcohol that bacteria cannot use. to ferment to create the acids that cause decay. It also, it generally raises the pH or the acid level of your mouth up to more neutral or slightly basic range to minimize the chance of decay occurring.
It's so cool. And basically how it was described to me when I met with your team a couple months ago was that it's avoiding the bad bacteria as much as possible and really only targeting the good bacteria, which is so fascinating to me.
Well, thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. And it's helping a lot of people out there and we'd love for your audience to give it a try. Yeah, well, I do have a discount code. So mamas, if you're interested in Risewell products, I'll be sure to link everything in the show notes with my discount code so you can check them out.
My family has been using Risewell for, I don't know, I'd say probably three or four months now. My son hated brushing his teeth. Like he was literally in tears every single night brushing his teeth and then we gave him Risewell cake batter toothpaste and he literally will sit there and suck on his toothbrush if we don't brush him first because he wants to eat the toothpaste.
He loves it so much and he asks to brush his teeth every single night. So our son loves it. Love that, love that. And I have never liked mouthwash because I hated the alcohol in it and now I like mouthwash because I have your mouthwash.
So we love your products. Awesome, well thank you so much for the endorsement. That's why we're here, right? Well, before we close, I just wanna ask you one question and it's a question I ask all of my guests.
It doesn't have to be related to our conversation today. But I want to know, Derek, to you, what is a non -negotiable to living a well -nourished life? Wow, good question. A non -negotiable for living a well -nourished life, I would say be unapologetically curious and your own best advocate.
No one's gonna care more about your health or oral health but you. Be curious with your healthcare providers. Ask questions. Understand the rationale for why they're recommending certain procedures or not recommending other procedures.
Get curious with your nutrition. A lot of this goes back to preventing medical conditions, if at all possible, and keeping a well -balanced diet high and protein fiber, fruits and vegetables is a great way to do that and just stay healthy and prevent conditions from occurring before they have to.
Mamas, I did not pay him to say any of that. Seriously, you are like beating my drum. I love it. I am so for advocating for your health. And, you know, you're not claiming to be an expert. You're not walking into a room and saying, I know more than this doctor or this dentist, but it's saying, hey, can we, like, have a conversation?
And can you explain things to me? And can you look at this research that I found and let's, like, come to a conclusion together rather than just, like, Letting other people decide what's best for you when they don't live in your body and don't know what's going on I love that you beat that drum.
That is so amazing. Absolutely. Let's go. Let's go well, Derek, how can we connect with you and rise well and maybe we do have some mamas in Florida, where can we Where can we visit you as our dentist?
Where yeah, just help us be connected with you Yeah, well, you can check out our products at rise well calm Instagram rise well Co My Instagram, Dr. Derek gatta I practice in Pocahontas, South Florida So happy to help if anyone is looking for a second opinion to stay healthy and keep your smile looking bright And those are the best places to find me in the company Perfect.
Thank you so much. Derek for coming on the podcast today. It was like drinking from the fire hose But in the best way possible I Obsessed with our conversation and I know that our mamas are going to come back to this one for all things dental So thanks so much for coming on today And my pleasure great time holding space with you and your team and wishing you guys all the best Awesome mamas.
We'll see you in the next episode.
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