Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (00:00.108)
Welcome back, friend. Today we are covering your questions that you submitted via Instagram stories. We are covering cavities in kids, cavities quick tips, teeth grinding, canker swords, cavitation surgery, and more. So here we go, let's jump in. Eliza is here on the podcast today. Hello, friends. So excited to have her here. Our first submission was a mother saying her five-year-old has a cavity and she hasn't even lost her baby teeth yet. What can she do?
I just feel for you, I have two little kids, almost five and almost seven years old, two boys, and see kids in my practice that have cavities and it's a hard thing. It's hard not to feel responsible. So first thing I want to say is please don't feel responsible for your child's condition. Most parents are doing everything they know how to take care of their kids and prevent cavities.
Something to know about cavities in baby teeth, they can progress a lot quicker and that can lead to the tooth dying, which then the tooth has to be taken out. So when a child has cavities, we really need to be more proactive and aggressive. Trying to reverse cavities in kids is something that you really need to be careful with. If they're teeny tiny, sure, but you want to follow up at least within three months to make sure those are not progressing. Because again,
We need to hold on to those baby teeth for as long as possible. So we don't want them to progress to that point where they have to be removed. And what is the problem with a baby tooth being removed too early? It causes space issues. Not only does it affect your child's function because they have less teeth to chew on, but also once teeth start being taken out, then the other teeth tend to drift together and close those empty spaces, which then affects jaw development and space for future teeth.
This is a really important decision to make when you are considering your child's future. Yes. And with pediatric dentistry, it's different than dentistry for adults. Adults, we're trying to make the teeth last for the entire life of the patient. For kids, we're just trying to hold onto those teeth for the, you know, until they're 10, 12 years old. That's, by 12 years old, they usually have lost all of their teeth. So things like crowns, pulpotomy, which sometimes referred to as a baby root canal.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (02:16.024)
but it's very different than root canal treatment. Those are good treatments. Those are okay because we want to save the teeth. So they're safe, they're effective, and they're much better than the alternative, which is risking an infection around the tooth that's chronic or having to pull the teeth out. What would you say to this mother as far as starting her journey for helping her child prevent future cavities? Okay, first, I would recommend finding a pediatric dentist that you trust. And...
Yeah, you may not find someone in this functional holistic space, but what's important is you find someone that you feel good about, you feel good energy from, and then trust their treatment recommendations. They want to do best by your kids. Even if it seems a little more aggressive than you'd like, if you feel good about the person, please don't hesitate in moving forward with treatment. So remember, cavities are a multifactorial disease that requires looking into all the different risk factors.
It's more than just brushing, flossing, not eating sugar. There's just much more to it. And I expand on that information in the guides and the courses we've created. best place to start if you're just joining us is we have a new free resource called Uncovering the Real Cause of Cavities. Three things that you weren't told. And you can go ahead and download that now to get started. The link for that is in the show notes. All right. Next question. Someone asked, what can you do right after you drink coffee or other acidic foods or drinks to help
prevent cavities and if you are new here, FYI, cavities are actually caused by acid. Not sugar. Okay, Eliza, you got this one. Well, the easiest and most free thing you can do is to swish with water after you eat or drink anything that's not water. So if you're having a snack afterwards, swish with water, try to remove as many food particles you can and this will also help to bring the pH of your mouth back up quickly.
And then the second thing, also pretty inexpensive, is to get xylitol mints or gum. Keep those in your pocket, your purse, your backpack, your car, and throw in a few of those after a meal or snack to help not only increase the saliva flow, saliva is important for cavities, but also help to kill the bad bacteria in your mouth that are the ones that actually cause cavities. And remember the number six. You want to consume at least six grams throughout the day. Space it out.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (04:41.356)
Now, these are just two tips of many that we would cover inside our courses or guides, but they're two really easy ones to do to get started today. Okay, the next question submitted was, how do you solve teeth grinding in children at night? boy, I remember when I noticed that my kids' teeth were getting worn down and chipping and contacted a pediatric dentist friend and asked, what do I do? And I was told, this is normal, they'll grow out of it.
If they don't grow out of it, we can make an appliance when they start getting their permanent teeth. And that just didn't feel right. And later on, I learned that nighttime grinding is a sign of an airway issue. It's a sign that your child may not be breathing well enough or efficiently enough at night. And to diagnose and treat an airway issue, it's a collaborative approach. What is actually causing the grinding is
The child is moving their lower jaw forward all night long and the teeth are sliding against each other. Because when the lower jaw comes forward, it pulls the tongue away from the throat and it opens up the airway. So we need to do a couple different things, but you want to start with a care team, look for a dentist that is aware and treats airway issues in children.
and then you'll want to work with, it could be chiropractors, physical therapists, craniosacral therapists, lactation consultants, specialists, myofunctional therapists. But where you want to start is find a provider that is going to work collaboratively. If they just want to snip the tongue and go, or just do in-office treatment and not refer, that's a sign you should find someone else. To address this issue, it does require a team of providers because
There's a lot of body work to do on top of what's down in the mouth. And if you do want to learn more about this, either for you or for your child, we did assemble these resources for you inside the functional dentistry roadmap in chapter four. That's all about airway health. All right, next question. Someone submitted how to protect my teeth when I'm throwing up during pregnancy. this is my story. This is Eliza's story. And this one is.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (06:56.298)
So painful. Yeah, so painful. And I see patients that have had erosion of their enamel due to vomiting from pregnancy. If you're there, I'm so sorry. Yeah. And goodness, it's so hard. So and I just want to throw out there, pregnancy, you've got to do whatever you can to survive. If that means you're eating whatever you would normally eat, like it doesn't matter. You need to take care of yourself. So give yourself some grace during those nine months.
But throwing up during pregnancy, number one best thing you can do is after you vomit to rinse your mouth with water and do not brush your teeth for 30 minutes. And so if you have that bad taste in your mouth, use something like a neutral mouth rinse like Elementa, which we love, that is great at rebalancing the mouth and is also going to taste good. You could also use some xylitol mince gum to help neutralize the mouth. And really if you can tolerate it,
because I say that because it's bad taste, chewing something like Tom's Roll Aids, swishing with sodium bicarbonate or baking soda, anything like that that's really basic or an antacid will help to get your mouth back to neutral a lot faster than just water or xyotl. And that's not something we would normally suggest, but in these extreme situations where you're dealing with stomach acid, that is a tool you can use, but not something.
You wouldn't use baking soda on a day-to-day basis for pH management. No, definitely not. Awesome. Okay, next question. Canker sores. What is the cause? What is the solution? Okay, so this is a little multifactorial, but canker sores at large are autoimmune response. And what's their cause? That's dependent on the person. Some people, it's trauma. They bite their lip, they bite their cheek, they bite their tongue, they get a canker sore.
Some people, you know, they eat something sour or spicy, they get a canker sore. It can be stress. You go through a really stressful time. Maybe you're planning for a wedding or you're a new parent or you have a new job. You have to observe what the cause is for you. And then the solution for some people, it's oral care products. They're using products with things like soaps, detergents in them. Sodium lauryl sulfate. Sodium lauryl sulfate and its derivatives.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (09:17.422)
that then create that hypersensitivity in those cold sores. Sometimes it's vitamin deficiency that is the problem. So it's multifactorial. First step, though, is recognizing when it happens and then work to manage those situations. If it's certain foods like citrus, you're to have to avoid citrus to control that. If it's stress, you're going to learn some breathing techniques, learn some stress management, get therapy counseling to help reduce that.
Can you give an example of someone you've seen who had a lot of canker sores and no longer struggles with them? Yeah, this one is kind of a classic, but it was someone that was using Sensodyne and that was their toothpaste of choice and they were getting canker sores. This patient always had a canker sore and sometimes these canker sores would join together and become a really big sore. Ouch. And she was also deficient in vitamin A and K and D, which can cause
the mouth to be a bit more responsive to allergens or just things in food that can cause an upset in the immune system in the mouth. I helped her to supplement with food to get more vitamins and told her to go off those oral care products and she said she's 99 % healed, her exact words, that she rarely gets a canker sore and if she gets one, it resolves really quickly. Yay! And she had been on an antiviral medication for over a year.
because her provider just thought it was cold source virus. it's like, don't know why she wasn't taking off that medication after a couple of weeks when it clearly wasn't working. That's great. You were able to help her. The next question is, why are we mineralizing toothpaste, not the standard in stores? All I see is crest and Colgate. It's a money issue. Money, money, money. It's another example of big pharma. They make a lot of money from these products. They can push a lot of marketing.
And so they set the standard of care of in the perception of the public of these are good products to use. I'm not going to have cavities with these, these fix gum disease. And until there's a financial incentive to move forward, unfortunately, don't see changes. These changes are motivated by money. And I've heard I don't I can't confirm this, but I've heard that some of these big manufacturers are now looking at things like hydroxyapatite because
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (11:48.142)
Money, money, money. Because there are more and more people, they're losing sales to other companies that are making these products. So now they're exploring like, hmm, I wonder if we should make our own hydroxyapatite fluoride-free toothpaste. So sell money. Okay, well on that note, can you tell them a little bit more about hydroxyapatite and your remineralizing agent of choice? Yeah. So the saliva is the best remineralizing agent. Boom. The saliva actually, has so much in it to
remineralize the teeth and keep them healthy. What's really interesting is that the saliva has calcium and phosphate in it, which together is hydroxyapatite, but the saliva has proteins that actually keep the calcium and phosphate separate from each other. These two ingredients love to combine. They'd love to make calcium phosphate or hydroxyapatite, but the body keeps them separate so that they can get to the enamel of the teeth.
independently and there is when they combine into the tooth structure. So that is my beef with hydroxyapatite toothpaste. Are they better than Crest or Colgate? Certainly, yes, they are. However, this claim that they are this magic remineralizing toothpaste, one, if that was the best system, then they would be making a toothpaste with calcium and phosphate separated just like the saliva.
And number two, it's really common for these products to not be tested. So while they have good intentions, they can't confirm that this remineralization is actually occurring. And the research shows these microscopic photos of the cavities becoming remineralized, I'm saying air quotes. But what in reality is it's these holes being filled in, but
Is the asphalt road being filled in with new asphalt or is it being filled in with sand? If it's being filled in with sand, it's not being repaired, it's being filled. So there's some nuance there. What's best is still the saliva. My product of choice for two reasons is the Elementa NanoSilver. One, and most importantly, is it's tested. It's tested to be safe, stable, effective.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (14:06.996)
and non-toxic. Number two is that it provides calcium that is bioavailable and actually helps provide more for remineralization. And we'll go ahead and link our free products guide in the show notes so that you can get access to our favorite products as well as discount codes if we have any for some of those.
So next question is, what is the deal with cavitation surgery? Does everyone who has had their wisdom teeth removed need this surgery? And if someone hasn't heard of it, can you briefly explain that? Okay, cavitation surgery is this idea that if we take a 3D x-ray and we see that there are areas where teeth have been extracted that appear less dense than other bone in the jaw, that those areas have chronic bone infections.
Okay, so let's set some things straight here. I try my best to present the research and the evidence and not give my opinion on whether you should or should not. And so now that you know what a cavitation surgery, let's talk about it. First, to say that you have a chronic bone infection is problematic. Chronic infections are serious and chronic bone infections called osteonecrosis are not necessarily something that just stays
stable and there forever. We can see this causing really serious damage as well as health concerns, of course. And so that is overdiagnosed and very misleading to call every single area where teeth have been extracted, wisdom teeth, for example, that are not as dense as the bone next door to call that necrotic infected bone. Second, so cavitation surgery has been studied
for resolving chronic nerve pain. That's how it's been studied, it hasn't been studied in other contexts per se. And so if a patient has no symptoms and is recommended cavitation surgery just based on visual appearance, that can be concerning because it is an invasive surgery. The gums have to be moved off the bone, the bone has to be cut into and opened up.
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (16:22.412)
All that bone is scooped out, new bone is put in or it's just allowed to form a blood clot and close back up. So it is surgery. You're drilling into and cleaning out bone. And so to consider or be recommended cavitation surgery when you don't have symptoms is problematic. If this is something that you're interested in exploring, I will give the recommendation of request a biopsy.
go to a surgeon, get a biopsy of an area and actually confirm whether it's an issue before you go through and put yourself at risk of having surgery in these locations. So does everyone who has had their wisdom teeth removed need cavitation surgery? The evidence says no. If you have chronic facial nerve pain in that area of the face, right, left side, both sides, then this is something to explore. That's what the research indicates.
But if you've never had an issue and you're just told one day, you've got these cavitations, you need surgery, tread lightly. Remember, this is an invasive surgery and surgery is surgery. And to do it just because is something that I would recommend really not considering lightly. All right, our last question today is, do fillings cure a cavity? Because I keep getting cavities around old fillings. So fillings,
pre cavities. So if you have a cavity that has created a hole in the tooth, a filling is used to replace that missing tooth structure. So you get a cavity, you have a hole in the tooth, that decay is removed from the tooth and a filling is placed to fill in that area. Now if you keep getting cavities around fillings, the most likely cause is that fillings are being placed and not getting a good bond. So
the teeth are getting wet during treatment, the filling doesn't stick to the teeth and it leaves these microscopic gaps for bacteria to get in and create new cavities. You can't just address this with brushing and flossing, you can't get to those spaces. action item you can do for that when you need fillings, whether they're new or replacements, ask for a rubber dam that properly isolates the teeth from the mouth so they
Dr. Craig Clayton | Restoration Dentistry (18:45.1)
don't get wet during treatment, which drastically increases the long-term success of these fillings. And I will say that if you're looking for more information on getting better quality dental work that's going to last longer, check out chapter three in our functional dentistry roadmap. And we have some real specific things that you can ask your dentist for to ensure better outcomes. Last thing, if you are still getting cavities around fillings, even if those fillings have failed,
this still means that you have active cavities disease and that needs to be treated because I do have patients that I see that have fillings that have gaps in them or have crowns that have gaps in them and they're not getting decay underneath those because they don't have active caries disease causing cavities. So if you're still getting cavities around fillings, it's two parts but one really important part is you need to treat the disease so you stop getting cavities in the first place.
We've got a lot of great content that we've created to help you learn what to do. Some really awesome freebies as well as some really comprehensive guides that get into these topics in great detail and will help you be successful in treating the disease and understanding what goes into it. Again, it's multifactorial. It's not something you just heal from brushing, flossing, not eating sugar, using the best products. There is more to it than just that.
and is a lot more than can be said in a podcast or a post. So that's why we created those awesome comprehensive resources. And that really is the essence of functional dentistry, right? Really looking at someone holistically, looking at the underlying causes and all the factors that go into it. And that's really what we are in the business of doing here on Restoration Dentistry is helping you find the root causes to your dental problems. So it's been great to have you here. I know this has been a rapid fire round, but
We want to get in habit of answering more questions more frequently. Education is really important to us. And we look forward to being in your ears again real soon.
