Dr Craig D Clayton (00:00)
Hello, hello, welcome to today's podcast.
I am joined by Dr. Vincent Buscemi, a biomimetic dentist who also focuses on total wellness. But unfortunately, during the first 10 minutes of our episode,
audio quality was pretty bad for some reason. So that was pretty useless.
So I'll have to summarize what we covered for you and then we can jump into the interview from there. By way of introduction, Dr. Buscemi is a like -minded, passionate dentist who, after becoming frustrated with the limits and negative consequences of traditional dentistry,
way to treat his patients.
the story of how we were first connected. Because it's a little random but totally fitting for our community, when I started sharing education on social media, I was flooded with DMs from people asking if I knew of providers who practiced, like I do. They'd ask, do you know anyone in Southern California, Pennsylvania, Utah, Florida, even Australia, India, and France? The requests were coming from everywhere.
Unfortunately, I don't know every biomedic dentist out there, but...
I still wanted to help people find the right provider. So I created digital guides to do just that.
Dr. Buscemi is one of those dentists that many of my students have connected with through one of my digital guides.
me to find one biomimetic dentist in the Detroit area.
me to find the one biome medic dentist in the Detroit metro
20 miles of my house. He's fantastic and saved me from a root canal treatment. He did a biome medic on lay and told me that if this was four years ago when he was still practicing traditional dentistry, it absolutely would have been a root canal treatment.
His name is Dr. Vincent Buscemi. He actually said your accountant has brought him four or five new patients by now.
I actually asked Dr. Buscemi what the count is now. And he said that our account is probably brought him over 30 patients. And now those patients are referring family members. So that's pretty cool to be able to help another another colleague across the country grow his practice with patients that know what they want and believe in better form of dentistry.
Now to properly introduce our guest. Dr. Vincent Buscemi began practicing biomimetic dentistry after discovering it in 2020 when we all had a bit more downtime. He also focuses on the connection between oral health and overall
airway medicine. Dr. Buscemi has extensive training from the Alimon Center for Biomimetic Dentistry and is a
of the Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Norina,
and loves taking part in imaginary tea parties with his four beautiful daughters, Seraphina, Antonella, Vicenza, and Santina. All right, we're gonna jump right into the interview now. Here is the recording. Hope you enjoy.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (02:53)
In your practice,
when you started to practice biomedic dentistry, how did that start to change
the lives of your patients, especially existing patients that, you know, weren't aware of this, weren't seeking it out. What did that look like as you introduced that, that to them? Well, immediately it's not welcomed because it takes longer. It's more expensive.
use a weird rubber shield that you never used before and they don't know what's going on. So I think you actually have to convince a few close patients to try it out. And then once they start getting better results, they're like, my gosh, this is better treatment. But the actual name bowel, the medic is such a stupid term. And all my patients like, what does that mean? I'm like, I have no idea. So I went, but overall though, much happier.
much less teeth going out for root canals, lower stress for my staff, for my patients and for me. So overall much better. Have you found that with treatment, the time that it takes to complete the treatment, is that what's contributing to better patient experience, better experience for your team and for yourself? Or what would you say is it more the outcome or what's contributing to that mainly? The outcome. The combination. No, the outcome for sure. Cause my whole goal is I want to fix your tooth.
And when you come back in six months, I want you to forget what tooth I fixed, because it feels like a regular tooth. And I'm seeing more and more of that. They go, how's your new crown? And they go, what tooth is it? And that's what you want your patients to feel, to forget they had the work. that's wonderful. That is exactly the goal we're trying to achieve, which is so satisfying. How about the conversation? You have adults seeking this out, adults that you're transitioning to this care, but do you see kids as well?
I do see kids. see a lot of kids actually go to school with my kids. So how do you explain this to do you have, especially now that you've got some people coming from our page, do you have mothers, parents asking for biomedic dentistry for their children for pediatric teeth? I do. And the easiest way, and I'm sure you explained it the same way, I say it's the most conservative way to drill in the tooth. And the more of your tooth we leave, the healthier it will be. And that seems to be the easiest way to explain it to patients.
Do feel like you've changed your styles as well for pediatric dentistry? Yeah, I did more stainless steel crowns earlier in my career, like a decade ago, and now I don't even have them in my practice. So it's much more conservative composites in kids than before. And now I'm looking at more airway in kids as you do as well. But, mouth breathing and just wreaks on their, their health. That's havoc on their health. Yeah, it's just, can't, I can't believe how much we're seeing it. You know, at first I just thought, you know, is, is this real? Like,
because it seems like nine out of 10, pedo pay patients at least have foreign dentition that sign that is a sign of, you know, upper airway restrictions, which is just wild to me. Same thing. And I, I'm not a physician. I never tell patients if you get in this, maybe the mild brace or the Vivo, so some type of guided orthodontic therapy, I'll never say it's going to cure ADHD. I'll never say it's going to cure this, this, and this.
But you see kids that have their airway expanded and they do better health -wise. I never make that claim that it's going to cure that. That is important. And I think that's important for our listeners, for everybody to understand is that there's not a typically in medicine, there's not a single cause and effect or a single solution for a problem. that I think is something that gets missed, especially with some treatment where it's like, if I have this done, therefore I'm going to get this, which is hard to do.
Yeah, absolutely. It's really hard to do. while we're talking about airway, what are some of the common signs that you see in your your pediatric population or the kids that indicate that they have a problem that you know, and how do you explain that to parents, especially if they're if that's something they're not aware of snoring at night, grinding in children's teeth. One that's very hard to approach as a dentist said I want to seem condescending because my kids are wild too. But like,
behavior issues or trouble focusing. I see a large correlation, not a causation, but a large correlation. If the pediatric child can't lay back in the chair and open their mouth and stay open for 30 minutes for their pediatric cleaning, they may have a behavior issue. And sometimes it may be, there may be linked to sleep disorder breathing as a child, not causative, but there may be a link there. So I'm very cautious. I'm approaching this with my patients. That's a really good.
measuring stick though as well, that's gaining the trust of a patient that there should be some sort of baseline cooperation to be able to work together to get patient, you know, to completely care for that patient. Absolutely. Cause I mean, you're a parent, you understand when your kids are poorly behaved, it's not cause they're bad kids. They're just struggling in other areas and they just need some guidance. These kids are innately so good.
Kids are innately about as good humans as you get. I think that can be frustrating, especially mixed messaging. As part of our evaluation, we look at tongue posture and that's really important because if their tongue falls back, then they're more prone to snore and get worse sleep. is definitely, sometimes it's this battle of like, my pediatrician said everything's good. It's like, yes, but.
You know, and then this isn't the cause just because a has a tongue restriction doesn't mean, you know, it's not causing the issue, but definitely a lot of, can feel like a bit of an island sometime as a, as a dentist to be in some ways working against the system to, be able to help our patients better. Absolutely. I feel very fortunate. I have an orthodontist down the street.
who is the equivalent of a biomimetic orthodontist in terms of she challenges the status quo and airway expansion. She's into all of those modalities. And I refer almost all of my pedo patients to her for early orthodontic intervention. Even my kids see her for expansion. And it takes the pressure off me because I'm not a pedodontist. I'm not an orthodontist. But if I can refer to specialists who think the same way I do, it makes my care easier.
I can focus on other things for my patients. kind of treatment is she doing for early expansion? mean, especially your kids are seven, six and four and two four year olds. you know, a lot of those ages, conventional orthodontist won't even touch. Correct. Maybe expansion for a seven year old, but any age below that it's like, let's just wait. She probably starts her own six, even five. It depends on the tolerance of patient and fixed expansion. But but still five. Yeah, it's early. Yeah. But needed.
Cause a million years ago, we used to chew on roots and chew on food all day and our jaws were huge and a third molars fit in there and there's like 10 millimeters behind your wisdom teeth. Now people can barely fit in 20 18. So our jaws have changed. You ever read the book jaws by the orthodontist in California, her and some other. I am in the, I'm in the process of reading it actually. Sandra Khan. Yeah. So she's tracked jaws over how long and notice that like they're shrinking.
And there's a reason for that. And there's consequences to shrinking jaws. I think something too with the, you know, with the messaging from orthodontics and cosmetics is that, you know, straight teeth and teeth touching is a good thing. But do you feel like that's a sign that, you know, someone listening to this podcast that is not close to a provider that thinks this way could look in their child's mouth and say, there's not space in between their teeth. I think they have an issue. Yeah. You say that's a safe, pretty safe measuring safely.
could be used at home? Yeah, I think if I'm gonna be blasted by other dentists for saying this, I think if your child's teeth doesn't have spacing as primary teeth, it's worth looking into to see an orthodontist or dentist who likes to look at airway expansion and see what they think about that. For those, I have a lot of patients that come in that have learned about toothpillow or early start, myobrace, alpha is a big one.
orthodontist is, are they, is she using alpha? Is she using just a, a fixed, in the still RPE or for patients it's attached to the molars. You do a turn, you know, every day for a set period of time. what is she using? In her experience, she has more success with fixed than removable, just purely based on compliance. Not that it's more effective.
but it's only more effective because the kids, can't take it out. So as long as she has enough of the tooth, we'll put a ring around, then she can start expansion. Well, I like her thinking that she actually puts it on baby teeth. yeah. Which is really nice. you don't touch the adult teeth long -term and you get the same expansion results. Amazing. You know, and we don't have anybody in the Valley that we found at least that does this. You know, we have some that
we've worked with that are promising, then don't really, really walk the walk front office manager, her child is seven. and he went through expansion and he was in low thirties and now he's at 42 millimeters. And you know, for people listening, you don't really have a measure for that, right? 42 millimeters. What does that mean? So to really give an example of how great that is very, I hold them. Do my patients have
an upper jaw wider than 37. The majority of my patients are between 30 and 37 millimeters. And I know this because I measure every single new patient. We see a lot of new patients being a new practice, a newer practice. And adults are just chronically do not have wide enough jaws. And here's a seven -year -old with a jaw that's, you know, five millimeters wider than, you know, than the 5 % of my patients that have
a white, you know, a whiter jaw. It's just, it's wild. It's an old style of, of orthodontic practice that really needs to go away. Like, like conventional dentistry, right. and dealing with crowns that fail and work that fails. And I don't want to be critical. And I'm not, I always like to make it clear. I'm not being critical of the providers individually, but, as we talked about earlier, the system, right. The systems that fall, these, these educate.
platform. you know, residencies, dental schools, but even then the lecture circuit, you know, we as dentists are all required to do X amount of hours of continuing education to renew our license, but we don't see this in the lecture circuit. I mean, even though like the sleep apnea circle, just seems like it's so focused on treating adults that already have severe issues and not focused on the pediatric.
population. Would you agree with that? Or what are you, what are you saying? You've been in practice a bit longer than me. I totally agree. And I'll say this. If I wasn't a dentist and I was listening to both of us talk about this, I would think this is a complete BS. So that your patients or someone on Instagram listening, I would think the same thing that these people are crazy, but you always have to look outside your field sometimes to find solutions in your field. So if you look outside dentistry,
Babies were breastfed for four years. We chewed food so much longer. Our jaws were so much bigger. So our physical structure of our face and jaws are different now. And it makes sense why people are treating teeth and not jaws. Cause we just don't know. And the public demands more cosmetics anyway. So definitely there's a problem in there that we're not noticing and we're fixing the wrong problem. So it's not that
We're like just money hungry, money driven, but there's problems these kids have that other fields are showing because the shrinking of the draws and it's huge impact in their future. So I totally agree with you, but dentists aren't the ones that are going to solve it. It's like you have to go outside like Sandra Khan, the book that you're reading. She wrote the book with anthropologists. The anthropologists have known this for decades. Yeah. But they don't tell dentists we're too busy putting crowns on. So you need more than just a dentist point of view to fix this problem.
I love that. I love that. It's so true. And I feel like, you know, in our education that creating these changes needs to be a grassroots, you know, patient up collaborative interdisciplinary approach to be effective. Cause we only know what we're taught unless we look outside. So it's an interesting problem to think about and a solution to that problem is that how can we get those fields that are
that are really noticing these changes and raising the red flags and saying, this is not good. This is not normal. To then integrate that into the learning system so that the hundreds, thousands of dentists that are graduating each year come out with that knowledge because I remember my ortho classes, we measure jaws to be able to fit teeth and learn procedures to be able to fit teeth.
Interproximal reduction, so making the teeth smaller, taking teeth out, expanders, but all to fit teeth for smiles, you know, not for wisdom teeth, not for jaw size. So this was new to me. A lot of this journey started with biomimetic dentistry, honestly, because it turned the tables over on me and I felt like there was something better. Did you have that feeling in dentistry? Is that something that led you to?
looking for an alternative? Did you kind of have that gut instinct of like, there's got to be something better? Yeah. Like I mentioned earlier in the podcast, after seven, eight years of mediocre results, I couldn't see myself live in the life of producing this kind of work. And I just thought it's impossible that there's not something better. It's impossible that it's 2020. We've been alive for
however long dentistry has been around for 200 years and we can't think of something better. I just knew there was something better out there. And is this what led to, for example, more focus on airway as well? Or were you doing that before biomemetic dentistry? Or did this else kind of open a door for you to change your thought? You'll laugh. I'm a little bit older than you. But when I was in dental school, something called the paleo diet was popular. Now it's called like the carnivore diet. It's all kind of the same.
But that's why I started learning about that these ancient tribes didn't have cavities, didn't have sleep apnea, didn't even know what insomnia was, didn't have depression, didn't have anxiety. And I'm like, well, what are they doing that we're doing different? And that kind of line of thinking led me to eventually biomimetic dentistry and then other avenues as well. That is so, that is so interesting. Mine was the opposite. Mine was the first time I ever was really introduced to this comprehensive, for example,
You know, our major focus on our page has been cavities. You know, cavities are curable disease. It's a disease. It's the most common, but we can treat it effectively by actually looking at all the risk factors outside of just do brush your teeth, defloss, do you consume, you know, consume less sugar, you know, use fluoride, but really looking at airway, you know, some of these kids that are, that struggle with mouth breathing and have airway problems.
have a lot of cavities and explaining to parents like, look, your child doesn't have bad teeth. Your child half the day, you know, for 12 hours in a 24 hour cycle has a dry mouth that is acidic and perfect environment for cavity bugs. So until we fix this issue, you know, this is going to be an uphill battle to stop this disease and
I have found that that's given a lot of desperate parents and hopeless parents, a lot of hope, a lot of hope to know like they have an answer for, you know, and it's not always cause and effect, right? that may not be the only reason. And we try to identify other risk factors that are at play, but sometimes that's what tips the scales. Absolutely. And I've had a lot of patients read that book, breath by James Nestor. Yeah.
And they kind of sparked their interest too. So there are some, there are some conventional resources out there that I hope will continue to push people like the, Koi center is extremely popular. And, know, for our followers, that's it's basically a, a residency kind of like a medical residency, but instead of applying to it, you have to pay a large sum of money to become a member and go through the program. But I mean, I think.
Dr. Koist for opening my eyes to treating Caries disease. Even though I differ in my approach now, it's been neat to feel like our profession again is now one of being a healer and truly an oral health expert rather than just a tooth technician. Which has been really interesting. Have you found that biomedic dentistry has...
how has that affected kind of the reception of these other things that you teach like, like airway and, you know, whole wellness and whatnot. especially in those that are coming from platforms like, like mine that come find you. Yeah. So the patients that come from your website are the best patients, but the patients that come seeking biomimetic, they're already in line. They already got their, their nutrition ready. They know about airway.
They all meditate, they all pray. They're such a different mindset because they know that the teeth, the mouth are just a small part of a big system and you need all the pieces working to get the whole system working together. So that's a very easy conversation. If you have a mom that comes in with her kids and they're like, I need more expansion. I need more Obama medic. They have a list of what they already need. So those are easy people to talk to. You're very passionate about this.
I could feel that you reached out. You've kept in touch with us. We've gotten to know you. What are some ideas that you have that could help us to get the word out and help people listening to this podcast, people coming into your office to help them encourage others to change? It's people like you. It's proof that it works because I think the reason
Maybe you get some negative comments on your Instagram, because you somehow entered the realm of like holistic medicine, holistic dentistry, and that's just like prime for scams. And whenever you enter that realm, unless you can back it with science and actually real life testimonials, people are going to think it's a scam. So I really think like if your dentist is a biomedical dentist and they do good work on you, post on social media, give them a nice Google review.
post on Dr. Clayton's Instagram, just promote the actual real life good experiences after the procedures. That's the best way to promote it. It's been interesting as our page has grown. It's funny you say that, we got, Instagram put us in this like holistic wellness community. The algorithm's really interesting, but our first viral video about crowns, when we looked at where it was being grouped, as far as
where it was showing up the most as far as which hashtag that was being searched or which keywords. It was actually oil pulling. I believe it. I believe that. my gosh. It was that crazy. Yeah, it's just, it's just crazy. And those of you, those of you listening and you know, people that come to see us, I admire so much because you have been true seekers. You know, these people are true seekers and they're open to change their way of thinking.
When I have patients come in to do ozone, oil pulling, do you know, what do you think about these things? It's need to present the research and say, doesn't, know, oil pulling doesn't hurt. And yeah, there's some limited studies that show it can reduce gingival inflammation. However, it's never been studied for cavities. So you have to be careful with that. Like, okay, thanks. Even the controversial topics of root canal treatments, which is extremely touchy.
but even just presenting the research back to evidence of like, at this point in time, this is what we have. Like, you know, if your root canal treated tooth is healed, we followed up on an x -ray, we can test, you know, I've been looking at testing inflammatory factors with their primary care physicians, just, it's interesting to see people even with a lot of fear around something to then kind of let down their guard a little bit and at least take it for what it's worth.
I never try to sway people one way or another with some of these topics and issues. I want people to be their own free agents, but that kind of mindset of reevaluating and wanting to learn and grow and then make a decision is, I feel like is extremely important.
a lot more co -diagnosing with patients, which is a blessing and a curse, but you definitely want your patients more involved. And I feel like the patients I get are more involved because when you make the decision with them, no matter the outcome, you both are happier at the end because it wasn't like authority and patient or patient dictates. was a decision made together. Yeah. Yeah. I like that for people that don't, you know, don't live near you.
and the wonderful orthodontist you work with. And tell our patients exactly where you are. So I'm in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which is right off the famous street of Woodward and then Big Beaver. So every year, Michigan has a Woodward Dream Cruise, which is famous in the Midwest, but not like all around the country. But it's probably 30 minutes north of Detroit, nice little neighborhood. Great practice, great area. The weather's good in the summertime.
All right. And the winter time, little, a little harsh. Little harsh, but makes it tough. So that's okay. That's good. So if you're in the Michigan area or close by that you've got to seek him out. but for people that don't have access, what are some resources that you'd recommend to them to start their journey and help them, get more education and then ultimately find help to address these issues? First, your page is a great resource.
Even looking up biomimetic dentistry, but what I do want to say is your own dentist is a wonderful resource. If your dentist does not practice biomimetic dentistry, it does not mean they're a bad dentist. Bring this up to them. I would rather a family member of mine go to a dentist who cares, who's not biomimetic, than a biomimetic dentist who doesn't care. So definitely please.
Please stay with your private practice dentist first. Bring these up, ask him or her about it, then reach out of it. But don't just dump your dentist for another biometric dentist, because the relationship you have with your dentist is more important than the materials they use. I really believe that. I like that. I really like that philosophy. Because people want to, I mean, they want to change, right? They become...
A lot of us, I feel like is fear driven and not that we're, that's never the intention to educate about better methods to drive fear. But I think that's really good for people to hear and then they can know they have options, right? Because I tell people, look, onlays, inlays, more conservative treatment, even if it's not biomimetic, it's still better than cutting down a tooth for a crown. It's an option you can ask for.
for people to know because it is a small field of practitioners right now. It's very small. Yep. Find someone who will listen to you. And I don't say this to put down any provider who takes insurance, but a provider that doesn't take insurance, who's out of network will just probably have more time. Doesn't mean they're a better dentist. They'll just have more time to spend with you because they probably see less patients per day. Another good point.
And we can talk a lot about dental insurance, but that's a whole nother story. But do not, cause they'll come after you. Do not mention, cut this out of the podcast actually. Yeah, they, they are upset about that. Dr. Bush Amy's you have, you've just, you've given us so many gems today. And what I like the most is how diplomatic you've been in the sense of, think you're speaking a lot of trust to.
people listening, that they don't need to immediately distrust their provider just because they're not offering biomemetic dentistry, for example. And thank you for sharing so much with us about your journey and kind of how to approach these things and how patients can learn more. It's been really insightful for me. I really appreciate the opportunity. I'm so impressed with how young you are and how successful you are. And I feel honored to be on your podcast.
Well, thank you so much. It's been a wild ride. I'm a dreamer to a fault. And so that gets me in a lot of trouble sometimes because I jump in before thinking, but it's worked out well for me as far as, mean, still, still above ground. We're still doing this. Good. We're still doing this. but thank you. it's providers like you that we need more of. We need a lot more of, and we need
people like you to inspire than other providers to change and adapt to change. And it sounds like you are just the perfect personality to do that because you know how to approach this kindly, carefully, but you're educated. You're so well -spoken, you know how to be able to help other people see that this is the future. This is what we need. Well, do you have any closing remarks you'd like to say? No, I just Particular?
I really appreciate what you're doing. And I would just caution people who read the negative comments on your Instagram and just really take a step back and ask yourself, what is Dr. Craig trying to teach you? What is he trying to do? All he is trying to do is improve your oral health and then subsequently improve your life. That's his only goal. And so take everything with a grain of salt, but he's teaching you the truth and he's trying to do good by you guys. So thank you to Dr. Craig.
Thank you. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk with me. It
it's connecting with providers like you that really helped me feel like I have a sense of community around me, that this is worth all the effort and the work. So I appreciate you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I hope you have a great day today and keep changing, keep changing the world, changing the profession, keep changing patients lives.
You're doing great things. You too. Thank you.
