Transcript
Episode 5: How To Make 2024 Your Best Year of Oral Health Yet
This is dentistry disrupted with doctor Craig D Clayton. I'm a wellness and biomimetic dentist, passionate changemaker, social media thought leader and educator on disrupting the way we approach oral health care. Come along with me as we journey towards a healthier and more empowered you. Hello. I cannot believe it is 2024. It is officially January 1st today, and we have been pretty silent the last week on social media, podcasts, uh, every platform. Really, because the flu went through. Our family started with our kids. Then Eliza got it. I had a super mild case, so I lucked out, but it hit Eliza really hard. She was she was still feeling sick two weeks later, and our boys were like feverish for five days on and off. So it was not good. So we had to crawl away and hide for a little bit and just try to survive. But here we are into a new year. 2023 was a massive year of growth, a lot of surprises that we did not anticipate, we did not plan for. The largest being this social media growth that we've experienced and the opportunity we have to share our message with so many people and work to improve the general knowledge about cavities and dentistry and oral medicine and whatnot among our listeners and followers. So it is pretty darn fun. I really enjoy it. It's become one of the things that I look forward to the most. So for me, in 2024, my goal personally is to spend more time in this space, to create more content, to help more of you and educate more of you. And because we've been thinking about these changes, we really have been revisiting our mission and vision for our online presence in 2024. What does that look like? What do we want to do? Where do we want to take this? And to sum that up? Our goal is to educate and empower you so that you can be your own advocate when you are at the dentist. So regardless of where you are in the country, in the world, you will be equipped with the knowledge you need to have, at least a basic understanding, so that you can have a conversation with your dental provider about cavities, about gum disease, about, airway health, whatever it is, because we want you to feel like you're in the driver's seat. We want you to be the captain of your own oral health ship. So. That is our overarching goal for 2024. And that, of course, includes lots of little things that will help get you there. But I don't expect anybody to start out with having a high medical or dental IQ as far as a high understanding of how these things work, because it's just not something we are taught. We're not taught how to, honestly, how to properly care for our mouths. We're not taught about this bacteria balance in the saliva and all the amazing things that we need to keep healthy so that we can ensure that we have good oral health the rest of our lives. So you're going to learn so much from us over this next year. And if you have been here a while I hope that you have felt empowered already, and I hope you have learned a lot over this past year and get ready, because we're going to just keep pouring out the knowledge and lift you to be, again, more empowered to take control of your oral health. Let me tell you a story about what this looks like. I have a friend down in Utah and he called me probably two months ago and said, hey, you'll never guess what happened. I had a patient come in to my practice and he really understood How to talk about his oral condition. He knew how to talk about cavities and and the pH balance of his mouth and saliva and minerals and all these things. And he knew how to talk about gum disease and the bacteria that cause it. And he knew that he wanted to find someone that practices with a more holistic or comprehensive approach, and that he used this social media page’s provider guide to find someone that would more align with those values. And that was our provider guide that we had made to help people find like minded care professionals. So it was so cool to receive that feedback that this person used the resources and the knowledge that we had provided, and went out and found a provider that was like minded, that happened to be a good friend of ours, and as a result, is now in a good spot. And my friend said it was so refreshing to be able to have a conversation with this patient and have them already up to speed. He had a higher dental IQ, meaning he was able to understand more and get into a deeper conversation to be to in turn have more control over his situation and be able to really collaborate with the the dental provider on how to be an active participant in his care. And you can find this provider guide that I just talked about in the show notes. So check that out if you are interested. But I think it's really weird that we have been conditioned to just accept whatever treatment our provider tells us without much encouragement for critical thinking or, you know, what are my options? And so as a result, if we've grown up in this system where the doctor knows best, he or she tells you what you need to do, then you do it and you don't learn to question it, then that can get us into some sticky spaces. Uh, here's another example. My wife, Eliza, When she became pregnant with our first child, she really dove into the birth world. All things pregnancy and delivery and postpartum care. And she brought a lot of things to our attention that we had never, we didn't know were options. You know, we both grew up thinking when when a woman gives birth, they get an epidural, they go to a hospital, they labored on their back. This is normal. This is how you deliver, baby. And as she started looking into the options, she realized, whoa, whoa, this this isn't normal. And that actually increases your risk of having birth complications, of having a cesarean and, interventions that can be harmful to baby and mother. And she was not given those options. She was not taught at her OB appointments that, look, you have all these options, you can you can have an unmedicated birth in the hospital. You can have a midwife, you can have a doula. You can try these different birthing positions. You can try these different mindfulness exercises to be able to have a more comfortable, positive birth experience. She had to go find those. And so that's what we're trying to help you. This is what we're trying to provide you with here is we want to give you the information of saying, hey, you actually have a full menu of options here pertaining to your oral health. There's just not there's not just one cookie cookie cutter approach to receiving oral care. It's it's so important to me that that you all understand that you are in control and you are going to have the tools to make those decisions. And I never, ever want to sow distrust in my colleagues or make it a patient versus provider scenario. It really should be a partnership and team. You should be working together with your care providers. Um, however you as a patient, you're responsible to advocate for yourself and learn what your options are and to read those consent forms, to ask clarifying questions, to get second opinions. You've got to do your homework and your due diligence. but also know that largely providers I believe, are doing the best with what they, you know, with what they're given, with what they know. And it takes so long for the medical and dental community to get up to speed, to catch up to modern times, um, or to practice truly. Conservative or truly natural practices. For example, when we've been giving birth for thousands and thousands of years. And yeah, there are complications sometimes. Um, but largely, birth can be uncomplicated and a smooth experience, yet has become so medicalized, which has resulted in poorer outcomes. The United States has one of the worst mother baby mortality rates of any developed nation. Because we are so intervention happy we're so quick to. Well, we make it a medical event that has to occur in the hospital, and then we interrupt with the whole process. I think you can feel my passion about this, that we we need to change our systems. And it you have this responsibility. This is a huge part. You play a huge part in making this change by becoming educated. That's why you're here. And I'm so glad you're here. And I have hope, and I'm positive that you will be able to take these tools and make those changes and improve your quality of life, the quality of life of those around you, and and that you will help lift those providers and encourage them to learn more and to adopt better practices, more modern practices as a result, which is pretty cool that you can have that change. And I, I 100% believe that you will have that impact, and we have to do this all together. I want to revisit this distrust of dentists. And just a little bit ago, I was saying that I believe that the majority of dentists and care providers are doing the best they know how, and they have your best interest in mind. 100% believe that. And yes, there are those kooks out there that are money hungry or crooks or whatever you want to call them, but they're extremely this is an extremely small number of them. but There's deviance in every aspect of society. Right. But I believe that the reason why there's a general distrust of dentists is, is one, because we are not educated as patients, as we're brought up. We're not educated about dentistry. And what causes cavities, um, beyond just sugar, not brushing your teeth and what to do about it, and gum disease and bleeding. And so we go to the dentist and we're told you need X, Y and z, but then you go to a different dentist, you're told something else, and you go to another dentist, you're told something else. And so it creates this general distrust when in reality every provider practices in a different way. And some people are more aggressive, less aggressive. And that's why. It's so important for you to know how to have these conversations. Know what your options are. Insurance is as I've spoken about and ranted about before, Insurance is a total game, and because of it, it's really kind of pigeonholed dentists into offering a more limited menu of procedures instead of saying, hey, um, this, you know, you have this, you have a lot of decay on this tooth, or you have this large filling that failed. Instead of saying, well, you could get an inlay, we could do an onlay, we could do a crown, they just jumped straight to a crown because insurance is more likely to cover it, which then makes it an easier conversation with the patient. Um, and it's just more convenient. But you have to understand that. Sometimes these practices, these dentists have to chase this reimbursement. They may do a crown for you. It cost $1,200. You pay 600 of it and that other $600 they may not see for 3 or 4 months like, but they've spent the time and on seeing you and spent the time on the materials, but they're not getting reimbursed for it. So why they're not going to be incentivized to offer something that is more conservative. It's not going to be on their minds, because what's on their mind is I have to operate a business with really high overhead expenses, um, overhead costs and expenses. Uh, why do I want to recommend something that I may not get paid for, you know, um, sure. Your insurance may say that they cover 50% of it, but then we submit it and they're like, yeah, why don't you do a crown? We'll prove it if it's a crown. But you already submitted a claim, so sorry. You're out of luck. You know, things like that. So. You've got to know what your options are. And that, again is my goal for you is to help you know what your options are. And sure, I can't create an exhaustive list of every option under the sun, but we're creating resources, podcasts, posts, downloadable PDFs to help you understand, okay, if you have this problem, you know, here are some different options that you have. Uh, and for example, x rays reading x rays. It's hard to trust a dentist if they point to a picture and say, look, you have a cavity here, or look, you need a root canal treatment, or look, you need a crown or whatever it is. And you look at the picture like, uh, I don't. I don't see anything. Uh, and I remember when I was a kid, I was 16, and I had, uh, I had to get like, four, four fillings, and, and I remember the dentist pointing to the X-ray and showing me, like, see, here's the cavity right here. We got to do this filling. And I just nodded my head and smiled like, yeah, yeah, I see it. I didn't see it. I just didn't want to feel dumb. but if you know how to read X-rays and you go to the, you go to your dental appointment and you're told you have a cavity and you know how to look at the X-ray and you know at what point you have to treat versus at what point you could re analyze it or use other strategies besides doing a filling. Then now that puts you in the driver's seat to say, like, hey, can this be an option? I'd rather do it this way. Can we check up? You know, I see that this is just in the enamel. Um, can we check this in three months or six months? And if it's gotten bigger, then talk about treatment. But for now, can I try to modify my my lifestyle? Um, change what I need to, to be able to get this to re mineralized? Um, and then you will you're going to develop a trust in the provider that you find when you find a provider that you feel is a good fit for you, um, because you will now be able to have these conversations. So. Here we go. 2024 is going to be the year that you. Your dental IQ is going to go through the roof, and you're going to understand how to have these conversations with providers. You're going to understand what to look for in a provider. You're going to understand what to ask, how to analyze the data, the findings from exams, X-rays, whatnot, so that you can again be your own best advocate so that you can feel in control and feel like you can trust your provider and get well. Stop the problem by addressing the cause instead of just treating the symptoms. We need to be more preventative and less reactionary with our care. It saves us so much heartache, so much time, so much money over the long run. And it's just it's just a better way of life to focus on that preventative aspect. January is going to be a huge month for us. We have a lot of exciting things happening, the largest of which is going to just rock your world and help you accomplish this goal that I've been talking about today. If you haven't seen that we have a mini series covering that's designed to help you begin your journey to make the changes you need to to adopt a cavity free life and answers the three most common questions that we get in our DMs, which is is it possible to stop getting cavities and what even causes cavities? And what are some products that I can start using to help lower my risk of getting cavities? It's really great. Check that out. In the show notes, it's three videos. It takes about 15 minutes to watch, and you are going to feel super jazzed and excited after finishing it. And I promise you, you're going to feel like you have more knowledge and more empowerment to be able to fight this disease of getting cavities, which is one of the biggest things that we talk about here on our platform. So if you like today's episode and you want help advocating for yourself, especially if you get cavities. Then please join me for a live masterclass. It is called The 7 Step Framework To A Cavity Free Life. See the show notes for a link to the waitlist. You've got to join it. It's going to be super cool. And if this podcast was helpful in any way, it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe and leave a review. Share this with someone you love whose life would be improved by this information. I need your help to get the word out about this podcast, so we can change the approach to oral health care. Thank you so much for joining me today. Catch you on the next episode of Dentistry Disrupted.
