The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#131 The Next Generation of Disinfectant Products
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The CDC states that multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) are continuing to develop and spread in healthcare settings throughout the U.S. This can have a direct implication for your practice when it comes to the products you use to clean and disinfect patient appliances. Tune into this episode to see how the Armis Biopharma company is creating the next generation of disinfectant products to address MDROs.
- Armis Biopharma - ArmiGuard https://armigardusa.com/pages/armis-bio-info
- CDC Healthcare-Associated Infections https://www.cdc.gov/hai/mdro-guides/index.html
Welcome! I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_02I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Wan, and together we are the Compliance Divas.
SPEAKER_03Welcome to the Compliance Divas Podcast. This is Linda Harvey and I will be your moderator today. In this episode, the Divas are going to showcase a truly innovative and practice-changing product that checks all of our compliance boxes. The company is Armis Biopharma. Briefly, Armis Biopharma is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that's headquartered in Fort Collins, and it is devoted to developing and commercializing products that are effective in reducing the risk of all infectious diseases, decontamination from chemical warfare agents, and providing differentiated medical devices. It's really interesting when you come across a product like this that really has the opportunity to make a difference. And as our special guest here to talk to us about this is Debbie Z, known in our dental industry. Debbie has pioneered the most fabulous and diverse experiences in her illustrious 30-year journey in healthcare. Debbie's 30-year dental hygiene restoration, cancer prevention executive, award-winning educator, and she's just amazing. And we all know and love Debbie Z. So you couldn't be the more perfect person to help present with us today, Debbie. Welcome.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'm I'm a diva in training, I hear.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, absolutely. So I know you have a lot of great information to share with us. And let's go ahead and get things kicked off. And Miriam, can I ask you to open our conversation with Debbie, please, on this exciting product? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Debbie, thank you for taking the time to be with us. We're so excited. And you are not a diva in training, you are an honorary diva, my dear. Um, so let's get right down to it. There's a proliferation of resistant pathogens, new and emerging pathogens, and increased use of oral appliances like aligners. And in fact, I'm going through aligner therapy right now. So, can you tie the up the relationship for us between the three for our listeners? And does it create a gap in the quality of oral care and oral hygiene instruction?
SPEAKER_04Wow. So that's a loaded question with a simple answer. Yes and yes. So, you know, I think because we have been in the healthcare industry for so long, we kind of forget the why that people have disease and we go on automatic as to treating that, right? And we forget that there's different microorganisms. We, you know, the commercials call it plaque. Now the hot word is biofilm. But when we really think about the oral systemic connection to inflammation and an individual's response to that is just that individual. So you may have a patient that has a denture that is prediabetic or diabetic that's more prone to a yeast infection, Candida albicans. Well, Armist biopharma has a non-toxic solution to that. It's a three-minute spray. You spray to saturate, and in less than four minutes, actually, it's three minute kill time, it kills that bacteria. And so we seem to forget, and and and I just use this all in collaboration, anybody that's in the healthcare field, to go to the why the patient has it and find a simple non-toxic solution that gets to it and also engage the patient in the conversation to prevent it from coming back.
SPEAKER_01Such a great simple answer. And when I first got my aligners, I was concerned, but I already knew about your wonderful products. And so I knew I had that in my back pocket that I could do that. And I feel very good about when I do take my aligners out to eat, that I can disinfect them before I put them back in again. So yay.
SPEAKER_04Um and I think the hard, I think the one thing that we forget too is that we go to the solution, meaning you want straighter teeth. So you either go conventional ortho or you go to aligner therapy. But we forget that the materials that we put in and out of our mouth harbor bacteria, right? And so we take it out before we eat or drink because we don't want the coffee to harbor in there, so it makes our teeth dirty. But we forget that the bacteria that's in there causes periodontal disease, right? It causes caries, not cavities. Cavities, the byproduct of too much strep mutants. But why not educate not just the consumer about how wonderful we are on preventing diseases, but educate our team to empower them to have that conversation instead of just saying, here's your aligner, rinse it underwater, soak it in something, you know, brush it with your toothbrush? Why not complete the whole treatment plan in a more healthier, more proactive way than waiting for the patient to come back and say, Well, I wear this aligner or appliance and my gums are red or swallowing, or my partner tells me I have bad breath, right? That's the worst thing, you know. How many of us pull out our appliance before we have that morning kiss, right? So it's amazing. I mean, I've been using the product since uh for for a year now, and I'll be honest with you, I take it out in the morning and I kind of smell it, and it's like, wow, it doesn't smell. It doesn't smell.
SPEAKER_01Well, I've noticed with my aligners too that you could actually see plaque building up on the aligners. You can see that film, and I don't see that happening since I've been using the product. So I love it.
SPEAKER_03And speaking of the product, I'm gonna ask Olivia to delve into that next because I know our listeners, Debbie, are excited to hear what we've been talking about.
SPEAKER_02Debbie, so it's so good to have you on our show. And I was wondering from your perspective, what would be the ideal solution or what would that solution look like?
SPEAKER_04Well, it's interesting because when I was asked to help Armist Biopharma bring this product to the dental market, their perception was a product. My understanding of knowing the science behind it and the need for something like this was a solution. So it's really a play on words because it is a liquid, so it's a solution. But when we look at the science behind it, parasitic acid, hydrogen peroxide, stabilize, meaning no corrosion, no damage to the appliance, non-toxic, fast kill time. That's a solution that we didn't even know we needed until we started to look at biofilm, until we started to look at, let's say, MERSA, look, let's look at staff. Let's look at, oh, here comes influenza. Let's look at all the things that this is a solution in prevention for in a non-toxic way. It's a three-minute spray. Spray to saturate, leave it on for three minutes, rinse a few twos, and you're good to go. That to me is an ideal solution. Something that's easy to use, non-toxic, portable. You could put it in your in your travel bag, your gym bag, your purse, your briefcase, your pocket, you know, give it to your kids when they're going to soccer practice or football practice or ice skating or whatever it may be. It's a simple solution. It's something that it's really so simple, it's silly, but we do not utilize our expertise as healthcare providers and educators enough for our patients to understand we're not just procedural, we're preventive.
SPEAKER_02That's interesting, Debbie. And I was noticing on the product label about the sleep apnea devices. Just thinking, I don't know, it just dawned on me how in the dental field we're really in a good position to make those inquiries. Like, well, you have to clean your appliance. And if they're use, if they have sleep apnea, if they're using a machine, how nice that they could use both items in the same product line.
SPEAKER_04Right. But you know, Olivia, I listen to words, and it's in the change of words that we really make a difference in our expertise. So hygienist don't clean teeth, and Armagard or any of the Armist biopharma products don't clean. They actually kill biofilm. They actually kill the bacteria or biofoam or or germs that cause our patients' illness, right? So now we're going into the into the winter months. And so, you know, in Florida, we have this joke about the snowbird flu. But we have so many patients that have CPAP machines or sleep apnea devices that basically take it out, stick it on the countertop, tuck it in a drawer because they don't want their partners to see it, right? They're afraid to travel with it, they put it back on, but are they repopulating that contaminated bacteria that goes, you know, in their nose, down their throat, and into their lungs again? And so when we have an opportunity to not only disinfect, but engage the patient in understanding that they are empowered to prevent disease with a simple solution. It's so rewarding. I mean, I can tell you how many people that I've spoken to in the past couple months that are so that they they come back just like just like Mary said, they see the difference. They wake up in the morning, they're like, wow, I don't have like that that coat that, you know, I call it like you know, sweat socks on my teeth, right? They don't have that sensation. And so when they know they're using something that, again, you know, fast kill time, non-toxic, you know, very simple spray that does what it says, made in the USA, you know, supported by the part the Department of Defense. I mean, if it's good enough for our soldiers, gosh darn it's good enough for our patients.
SPEAKER_03I love your passion, Debbie. It's contagious, isn't it, Olivia? It's always contagious. So that's so perfect because it is a simple solution, Debbie. And I like your play on words. It just it's such, when I said in the very opening, it's a it's a life changer, it's a game changer because if we're talking about total body wellness now, we're not talking about just cleaning a device when you when we can all think of, you know, over-the-counter products that have been on the market for years for other um oral devices that patients have worn, you know, dentures and partials in particular. And that's what's typically recommended for people to use that have any appliance. And I don't know firsthand about sleep apnea devices, but I feel like they probably are not being clean like they should. And it's like wearing that same old mask all the time. We we unless we were in the crisis when we're allowed to optimize our PPE for a short period of time. We don't want to put on that same nasty mask or those same, we don't re-wear gloves. That's all below the standard of care. So now we've the our ARMIS has identified a standard of care that's going to impact total body health for everybody. I'm sure you've probably got statistics somewhere on how many people are wearing and using oral devices. Oh, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_04And, you know, I think we I, you know, my I mean, I can remember seeing patients. I used to go into nurse, I do nursing home care and I loved it. And I remember taking out people's dentures, and I, you know, I would swear they haven't taken it out since like the Christmas before. And they would be embarrassed, you know. I mean, my God bless my own grandmother was the same way. And and she was like, Don't don't look at me, don't look at me. And I was like, why, yeah, yeah, I have to help you. And once once we took care of it, and you put a fresh denture back in their mouth, and they could taste the difference and they could feel the difference, and they they could taste their food, they could smell differently, even though it was covering their palate, everything was different. You could tell that their confidence was there, and and they just felt better. And it didn't take any more time, right? You don't need to spend a lot of time or a lot of money to show people that you care. And when you have a simple solution like this, it's just an explanation. Just take the extra 30 seconds to go full circle with your with your patients in any treatment. It doesn't matter if it's sleep apnea, night guards, aligners. I mean, how many how many of us have seen patients that went through full ortho? They came out of brackets or they came out of, you know, um, you know, full bands and they had caries infections. You know, it was just a matter of time of preparing and engaging the patient and understanding how they could do better with something that's as simple as this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, amazing. That's so amazing. I know Leslie wanted to jump in and ask a couple more questions about Armist, though, Debbie, because we have some more information to share.
SPEAKER_04Okay, go, Leslie.
SPEAKER_00I can see how excited you are about the solution that is a solution. Can you share more with us about the Armist mission and any progress updates?
SPEAKER_04Oh my gosh. You know, in all honesty, I never thought I would be presented with such an opportunity outside of what my wheelhouse was, right? I was in the biofilm realm, which really helped me with this. I was in the HPV oral cancer realm, which I still am, which relates to this. You know, here's patients that have obturators, here's patients that have prosthesis, and they don't know how to take care of them, right? And so here I got goosebumps. I'm telling you, I have goosebumps. And so the ARMIS mission is really to provide is to help empower people with a non-toxic approach to infection control, right? And it's to engage them in understanding that the best of the best is right here in the USA. We're made in the USA. We've we just received a 20 point, I think it's three million dollars from the Department of Defense for our formulation, um, which isn't their first one, and it hopefully won't be the last one. But when we have an opportunity, just like you guys are, just like the compliance divas are sharing not only with your individual clients, but on these podcasts, and I've seen you lecture all over the country, when you share information that makes this much of a difference to one person, it makes you feel so good. And that's kind of what I bring to Armist. I mean, what you guys experience, they experience every day. Um, and it's really engaging them to keep fighting because we're a small company. Nobody knows us after today, after this podcast. A lot of people know a lot more of us. But you know, we're competing with the routine. And I think Olivia mentioned it before. You know, our profession is used to ordering the same old, same old, right? And they don't really have team members that say, hey, let's look at efficacy, let's look at kill time, let's look at toxicity, let's look at our PPE, let's look at our room turnover time, let's look at our disposables, let's see if we're echo-friendly, let's see if this is good for our patients. Let's see if it's good for our team members that are doing this for 10, 20, 30 years. Armis has that all under our umbrella. Because Armis, actually, Armis means, you know, you know, I'm Greek, so everything goes back to the Greek word. Armis means to protect and defend. And that's what we do. We protect and defend non-toxically.
SPEAKER_03And I think it's so beautiful because it comes back to that total body health for me that I keep talking about. But I think Mary had some follow-up questions to Leslie's information.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do. Well, first, I just want to say how excited I am that you keep emphasizing that this is non-toxic because we know we've been exposed over all the years to some toxicity in some of our disinfectants. And I've been an advocate of getting away from that. So I'm very excited. Um, but we always, as the compliance division recommend um to our listeners and to our clients to read manufacturer's instructions for use. So, what kind of little nuggets can you give us the little readers' digest version about um your instructions for use and some of the studies behind um Armagard? It's so it's so interesting.
SPEAKER_04Our IFU is so short, it's cute. It actually fits in our label. You spray it to saturate, leave it on for three minutes, rinse it off if you choose, because it evaporates into water, right? And then go ahead and put it back in your mouth. Now, the interesting thing about our our product line is we have one formulation that we can modify its concentration for faster kill time. And that will be our, which is coming up soon, our surface disinfectant. We're working on a line cleaner. Um, we also have some other stuff. Maybe I can't tell, so I'll hold off for that. But you have to you have to stay tuned, go to armus you armusarmiguard.com, armiguardusa.com to get the latest and the greatest. But as far as studies are concerned, there's over 23 efficacy studies and 19 safety studies. But it goes back to who has time to read them? But the issue is that we're responsible for educating our consumer, which is the dental practice owners, the infection control technicians, the ladies and gentlemen who place the orders, the people who are responsible for our health and well-being while we're turning over the chairs, you know, six or seven, twelve times a day, you know, that's important. And so with your guys' health or your gal's health, it's it's a lot easier for us to explain the differences because everybody knows when you walk in a dental office, if it smells like bleach, it smells like alcohol, it smells like orange agent, maybe that's not a place we want to be in for a long period of time. But if it smells like fresh air, that's an armour pharma office. It's clean, it's toxin-free, we're echo-friendly. We have a recycling program that's about to launch. We want to be, we want to be everything people never thought existed. Going back to what Linda said. We want to be the solution to what people never thought they could have.
SPEAKER_03Debbie, I would add to those chemicals glutaraldehyde. Glutaraldehyde. So when you think about all the smells that we've endured over the years, and we all know Harris DeVivis and many others, how um about the types of documentation OSHA has on the hazards of glutaraldehyde that we've known so um, I'll say reverently in the past, but maybe not so much now, um, as the cholesterol. Yes. And we put anything and everything in there, and then that goes right back into somebody's mouth, even though it's supposed to be rinsed properly, and I'm sure many times it is, but it gets absorbed into those plastics.
SPEAKER_04And so we're putting all those chemicals. It brings up a conversation that happens a lot, and I know it does with you guys as well. It's it really comes with training. How important is training? And it's not just do this, do that, or follow the flow chart. It's this is why we have to do it this way. I mean, I've been in enough offices in my career, not just as a clinician, um, not I because I never worked for anybody, I always worked with somebody. But even when I do consulting and I do office um um uh evaluations, and you see the person in a hurry to go to lunch, not put on gloves as they're using the wipes, you know, tearing down a surgical suite without their proper PP and just throwing instruments in the sink without cleansing them or soaking them or doing what they need to do, grabbing instruments from the ultrasonic, putting a denture in a beaker or in a sandwich bag with bloody surgical. I mean, I could just go on and get nauseated, but we won't do that tonight. But it's really, it's really in the opportunity to educate our consumer. And that's one of the things that uh Arnist brought me on for is to train offices and under, you know, raise the awareness in this opportunity to being non-toxic, but also about being compliant. Because you guys know when an office isn't compliant and they get shut down, that's big bucks. It's it's not only the financial loss, it's the reputation of the office that goes down and they lose clientele. So it's always great to enter an office that's well trained, and we have a training program that we've rolled out for our certified practices in order for them to understand the importance of their compliance, the importance of knowing their products, and how to keep those um those uh sheets in a in a journal, and God forbid anything happens.
SPEAKER_03Debbie, I want to circle back and make one other comment about the efficacy and the safety studies and the fact that they were conducted by outside third-party labs. I want to validate that because you've you've shared that with us off off uh camera here, so to speak, off the microphone. And I just want everybody to know these are not studies that were conducted in-house that could be viewed by many as being, you know, biased. So these are unbiased. Third-party studies, and you don't get the support of the National Institutes of Health for the first grant or the Defense Threat Reduction Agency with the US federal government to work on these projects without the right kind of research and paperwork and their compliance documentation boxes checked. Huge, huge.
SPEAKER_04I mean, what we have to follow just in our everyday work life because of our engagement and because of our relationship with the Department of Defense, it's quite tight. Very tight. Yes. Leslie?
SPEAKER_00I also wanted to thank Debbie for introducing me to Armist product called Army Vet. And a topical wound care for animals. So it's something to help not only make sure that uh that wounds are cleaned properly, but also maintain moist, which is really important for healing. And both Olivia and I have farm animals, but even domestic animals like my dog has a little wound, and I put this product on him, and he seems to be so much more comfortable, and I can actually see a difference in the healing. So thank you for not only taking care of the humanity part of uh infection control and and uh caring for oral appliances, skin, and and potentially soon to be for surface disinfectants, but also taking care of our furry friends.
SPEAKER_04Yes, you're welcome. It is it's a blessing to be part of this. It really is. I mean, it's a great, it's a great time to be in dental medicine, and it's a great time to bridge to finally cement that connection with the bridge in medical. And of course, now we're in veterinary and who knows where our miss will go next.
SPEAKER_03Well, the sky is the limit, so just speaking, right? And I think it's exciting that we started off talking about one product for oral appliances. So we talked about your hand care product, the surface disinfectant product that's coming in 2Q next year. So hold hold on to that for our listeners because more is to come. And then the the wound care. So um, before we get ready to wrap up, I want to see if the divas have any other questions, Debbie.
SPEAKER_02Once again, just telling you how much we appreciate you, Debbie.
SPEAKER_04Oh, well.
SPEAKER_02Your story is interesting, but as I mentioned before, the the passion you have for your topic and the product line, it's very contagious.
SPEAKER_04Oh, thank you. It's it is it's so nice to have an opportunity to to share something that it's so honest, right? There's nothing to hide behind. I mean, again, I'm I'm amazed at the company's name, Armis, to protect and defend, right? And and the platform that we have. And and I will say, because we did mention just a little itty little bit about the hand, Armicare, our hand. I tell you, when I take it out and I use it, people are like, what are you using? It smells like a spa. It's because it's got lavender in it. But I want I want us to not think of sanitizer. I want you to think, Leslie, if you think about it, you have a you have a patient that's anxious. How many of us ask our patients to wash their hands and say happy birthday twice before they sit down in our chair? Zippo, zip o zippo. But if you had this in your chair side and you know that your patient's a little nervous, but you also know they went to the bathroom, you're not quite sure if they washed their hands good. Give them a couple sprays of that. Have them, like, you know, do what they're supposed to do, you know, what they're and then just like you did, smell it and have them close their eyes, and that lavender just relaxes them. And then at the end of the appointment, they're like, wow, I really like that. And then you have an opportunity for an ROI. If you like it, because your hands aren't burning because the other stuff has a high amount, it dries your skin, it hurts the little owies and those paper cuts that you have. Then you can dispense it to them because they like it, and you have the confidence in knowing that you did a good thing for the patient. So it's really about empowering the patient to do better for themselves when they're not in your care and they're not in your chair.
SPEAKER_03I love that, Ron. When they're not in your care and not in your chair, that's perfect. Or when they are in your care and in your chair as well. So it comes both ways. But this has been one of the most exciting podcasts we've done in a while, Dave, because it's been so exciting to showcase to our listeners the brand new products that Armist is bringing to the market and how much difference you're going to impact with patients' total, their total body health, their lives, and your passion is contagious. We look forward to sharing it with our listeners and just can't wait. Is there any other thing you'd like to mention? Any other things we've not touched on yet before we wrap up?
SPEAKER_04I don't think so. It'd be great for, you know, because like I said earlier, we're new to this industry. I'm not. I mean, I've been around a long time. Don't let the Revlon fool you. But but if if we could go to our social media, we're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, um, what else is laughing? Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever the other ones are. Um but just go to Armist sorry, Armis Biofarm is our our our main uh website, but armagardusa.com, armagard arm i g-ar d Usa.com. Just sign up, get some information. I do offer live 30-minute in-office overviews. Get to know me, get to know how these products can help empower your team to do the right thing when you're proposing uh an aligner therapy treatment plan, or you have a patient that's going through seep apnea um uh manufacturing of their oral appliance, or you know, they're struggling because you see, you know, they have anterior inflammation of their gum tissue because they're aligners because they're so dirty and disease, you know, toxic full. So just give us a little call. You know, get to know us. We're a really great company. I wouldn't stand behind a product I really didn't believe in. And I know we're gonna do good in our industry. So watch out for us, Armist.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna watch out because we know your passion and we know your depth and we know your knowledge. And so we can't wait to get our clients lined up to take to have that 30-minute overview with you. So stay tuned. You're gonna be very busy, dear friends.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited to be busy. I got my espresso machine all geared up right next to my desk.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for joining us for this podcast, Debbie. It's been a pleasure hearing about Armist and keeping up with you.
SPEAKER_04Thanks for you.
SPEAKER_03You're welcome. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on course. We invite you to subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. All the resources that we mentioned today, including that link to the Armagured USA, will be in the show notes so all of our listeners can head right over there. And we invite you to submit any questions that you have to support at the compliancedevas.com. And in the meantime, be sure to check out the Armis Biopharma social media sites as well. And we look forward to the next episode. Thank you for joining us.