4. Minerals, Hormones, and the Missing Piece Behind Chronic Oral Disease with Amber White, RDH

🦷 Ready to reset your oral health in 6 minutes? 

Start here: www.mouthymatters.com/start-here

You do everything right. You come in on schedule, you floss, you brush, you use the right products. And still, your hygienist is charting the same findings every single visit. Still bleeding. Still building up. Still watching those incipient lesions. If that sounds familiar, this conversation is going to open some doors you didn't even know existed.

In this episode, Tosha sits down with Amber White, a dental hygienist who specializes in minerals, hormones, and the oral-systemic connection, to talk about what is actually happening beneath the surface when the mouth refuses to stabilize, and what you can do about it that nobody taught you in school.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why only 1% of your minerals show up in standard bloodwork, and why hair tissue mineral analysis gives you a far more accurate picture of what is actually happening at the cellular level.
• How hormones, specifically estrogen, directly regulate circulation to the gum tissue and collagen synthesis, and why perimenopause and menopause can trigger a cascade of changes in the mouth that most hygienists were never trained to address.
• Why chronic calculus buildup is not a hygiene problem but a mineral redirection problem, and how one client eliminated her eight-week recall cycle by bringing her calcium pattern back into balance.
• How nervous system dysregulation shuts down digestion and absorption, meaning the supplements you're spending money on every month may not be doing what you're hoping if your body is living in a chronic state of fight or flight.
• How common medications like statins are quietly depleting the minerals and nutrients your oral tissue depends on, and what you can actually do about it without telling your patient to stop their medication.

Key Insights:

When a patient keeps building heavy calculus despite good home care and frequent recalls, the conventional response is to see them more often. Amber reframes that entirely. She describes a client who was coming in every eight weeks, had extreme tooth sensitivity, and could not stabilize her buildup. When her hair test revealed a calcium shell pattern, with very low sodium and potassium and elevated calcium being stored in soft tissue rather than bone and teeth, they were able to use targeted mineral support to redirect that calcium. A few months later, her hygienist asked what she had changed. The calculus was gone. The sensitivity was gone. The recall frequency changed.

Connect With Amber White:

Instagram: @naturallyamberwhite 

Website: naturallyamberwhite.com 

Course for practitioners: Beyond the Mouth

Connect With Tosha on IG: @toshardh  

Dental Professionals: tosh.care 

🦷 Ready to reset your oral health in 6 minutes? 

Start here: www.mouthymatters.com/start-here

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only.  Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner.  Opinions from guests are their own.  This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Transcript

Meet The Hosts And The Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Mouthy Matters Podcast. I'm your host, Tasha Kozlowski. I've been a practicing dental hygienist for 20 years, turned coach, and I'm all about the mouth-body connection. And I am so excited because today I have the fabulous hygienist, Amber White, is with us, and she specializes in minerals and hormones and all things mouth-body connection. So great to have you, Amber. Thank you so much for having me, Tasha. I'm excited for the conversation. Awesome. Well, let's dive in. Okay, this is what is totally on my mind. So what how so you started off as a hygienist just like I did? And at some point, though, there had to have been, what was the moment that all of a sudden you thought, I'm missing something? Like my patients aren't getting better. I'm seeing, I'm seeing problems in their mouth, but they do such a good job. They come and see me all the time. So what made you go? I need to dig deeper. There must be more information out there.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I honestly think it just built up over time. I really only practice in a more traditional or conventional practice for about three years. And I really started to think more about nutrition. I was always very into nutrition. And so that was when I was doing continuum education. I started to kind of dive more into that. But then I just had patients that I just always think of writing the same exact chart note every visit, right? They had that generalized chronic inflammation, generalized bleeding response, right? They were building up calculus regularly. And I just always thought there had to be something more, but I didn't really even know what that was quite yet. I just knew that nutrition was something I knew a lot about. And I knew there had to be other things happening in the body that was making the mouth present this way. And another thing I think was always really something that was really prevalent for me is we were watching so many things, right? The doctor would say, we're gonna watch this tooth, we're gonna watch that area, we're gonna keep watching this. And some of my patients had watches on like six and seven different areas. And I was like, Well, what are what if we were proactive about this? What could we actually be guiding these patients to do rather than

Why “Watching” Disease Is Not Enough

SPEAKER_01 2:10

waiting for a disease process to take hold? So for me, that was really just so eye-opening and made me dive deeper and look at what else was out there in the field.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Oh, I love that so much. Now, what I always say is is I always think about, well, what are we watching? What are we waiting for? What are we hoping that incipient cavity will do? Are we going to just watch to see if it gets larger? So if somebody has watches, what are namely what are some of the watches that you were noticing that you started to think, could I do something to maybe reverse that watch? Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

It was watches, like you said, like those incipient lesions where decay had started but hasn't quite like broken through the enamel. We were watching gum disease until it progressed into periodontal disease because we're thinking about an insurance-based model where we're waiting until our patient actually qualifies for the treatment that they need. So we were watching things like that, watching root canals that possibly had a recurrent infection that the patient had symptoms on, but we're just kind of waiting until something actually shifts, right? Waiting until the patient actually has a problem and fixing the problem, but not actually understanding why those problems are showing up in the mouth in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Absolutely. So now with your different mindset about, let's say, an incipient lesion. So a baby cavity, if you will. It's in the enamel, it's not all the way through. So the dentist says, we don't need to do a filling yet. But so

Remineralising Early Cavities At The Root

SPEAKER_00 3:40

what would you now guide a patient to do if they had some of these? So thinking about what could the person do at home if they go, I know that the doc, the dentist told me that I have several areas and I've been brushing and flossing and my hygienist says I do a pretty good job. Like, what else can they do? Like, what should they look at?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, I think there's a lot of different things depending on what it is. Of course, we think about a decay pattern. We're thinking about how we can actually remineralize this area. Because really, what that cavity is is demineralization of that tissue in the body. And so, in order to remineralize, of course, we can think about products we could use that could remineralize the tooth structure. Things like hydroxyapetite, which are made of calcium and phosphate, which is what your enamel is actually made of. But I'm always thinking, even a little bit deeper than that, I want to know why the cavities are forming in the first place, right? And if it's not home care, if it's not their habits, what else is it? Is it their nutrition? Is it that they are depleted in the systemic minerals that the saliva needs to actually go through that natural remineralization process with like gum disease and chronic inflammation? Why is that happening, right? Yeah. Does it have to do with home care or does it have to do with certain bacteria that are present in the mouth? Does it have to do, is it localized? Does it have to do more with how our patients are breathing through their nose versus their mouth? So I always want to think deeper. Is it medication related? There's so many different things that it can be. And so it's always kind of looking more towards what is the root cause, what is their history, where are they at in their lifespan? Is it hormone related? So there's just so many different factors that I'm thinking about when I'm working with somebody.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So let's take the scenario. So my niece is in her teens and she has a lot of incipient decay, and she's doing working better to do a better job with her home care, get in there with the floss, do all the things that Auntie Tasha says that she should do. But what if she's a couple of years down the track and these areas just aren't changing? If anything, potentially the x-rays look like they might be getting worse to the point where she needs fillings all of a sudden. What could she do today to do more? So she's using hydroxyapetite toothpaste. She's doing all the things that she thinks that she knows to do and that I've told her to do. So from like a mineral standpoint and vitamins and supplementations and everything else. So thinking about our average teenager, we know that they're maybe drinking a lot of things that probably aren't so good for the saliva. But aside from that, what's the first thing that you would have somebody do? Like from like, would you get them mineral tested? Would you say, like, hey, I need go, go to your doctor, go to your, go to your pediatrician or go to

Hair Mineral Testing And What It Shows

SPEAKER_00 6:30

your physician. Like, what do you, what do you have the patient do next?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

I think the first thing I would have her do in this case is do mineral testing. And I like to use hair tissue mineral analysis. So we actually take a hair sample. So a lot of times people will test their minerals on their lab work and their blood serum levels. And really, only 1% of your minerals are present in your labs, in your blood. Wow. And so the other 99% of your minerals are present in your tissues. And that's why if we test here, we can actually see what that mineral profile looks like. And it gives us this three-month average of what's been happening systemically and cellularly in the body, as far as the mineral status goes. I'd also want to look at her nutrition. She may be eating well, but how frequently she's eating. But I'd also really want to look at what types of food she's eating because our mouth is really reliant on fat-soluble vitamins, protein sources, collagen, all these different variables. So I'd want to make sure that she was getting those food sources of those essential nutrients.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

What are your top five foods that you want everyone to be eating for their health, for these types of things? It's hard. If it has to be 10, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

No, just kind of pinpoint, especially we all have different dietary intakes. I do believe animal protein is really important for our oral health. And I do think if we're getting grass-fed beef, wild caught fish, bone broth is probably one of my favorite foods for oral health, leafy greens, green tea is great, berries, fiber, right? These different things can all be really beneficial. So I would really want to make sure that we're getting this really balanced diet where we're getting a good amount of protein, we're getting healthy fats, we're getting fat, slow digestible carbohydrates, and we're getting fiber because that also is going to help stabilize our blood sugar. And we know that blood sugar dysregulation can cause more inflammation, more decay risk in the mouth as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Awesome. So let's jump back to the hair test. I think you have a hair test that you recommend, right? Where can people find it? If somebody's listening there and they're thinking, well, maybe I should get it, maybe I should get this mineral test because I have had my blood work done and everything apparently was perfect, but I'm still getting a lot of cavities and my mouth is not stabilizing. So where would you send them?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, so I do work with clients and do mineral testing with them. I use Traits Elements is the company I usually use and go through. There's another company, ARL, that both offer mineral testing, that hair tissue testing. So you could find a practitioner to work with. There are some ways to order the testing on your own, but I do think that can be very complex to interpret it on your own because it's not just black and white where we don't have enough of something, we need more, or we have too much and we need less. There's really a lot of nuances in how those minerals present that give us insight into how the different systems of the body are functioning that I think might be a little more difficult for the average person to just interpret the whole picture.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah. That makes complete sense. And how great to have you or somebody just like you to walk them through, okay, let's make these steps. Because ultimately, like with the way that I look at it, if I have a bunch of baby cavities in my mouth, especially on those floss points, I'm not thinking when I'm seeing a patient that has a lot of cavities in the floss points, I'm not thinking, oh, you haven't been flossing enough. What I'm thinking about is, what about the saliva that's bathing those teeth day and night? Like what's in there? What, like that's that's where I always kind of go, like, where do I need to start? And if we can reverse all of those, my gosh, and especially in a teenager, a teenager that ends up with cavities between their teeth that ends up with a bunch of fillings between their teeth, are those fillings are not gonna last a lifetime. It's a it there's great products out there and there's great restorative dentists all over the place that can fix these beautifully, but that's not gonna last forever. It's not gonna be your natural tooth. So as soon as you carve into a tooth to put a filling, now hopefully you've given that tooth 10 to 20 years with a filling, if you're really, really lucky. But if you haven't treated the underlying cause, then that cavity is gonna get, or that filling is going to get a cavity around it too. And some of the other cavities are gonna progress. So now all of a sudden we have this teenager with baby cavities that then grow up to have a bunch of fillings in between their teeth, that then grow up to have larger fillings, that then now get crowns, and that financial aspect of that is huge. But not only that, there's so much breakdown, and you we can't get that back. So if we can reverse that, amazing. It's worth a little bit of homework, get a hair test, figure out what are some of the small tweaks and modifications you can do at home and potentially reverse all of it. I've seen x-rays that had a lot of baby incipient cavities that went away. The two were mineralized, or just never or they just never got worse. They just looked the same for years and years and years and years and years.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, which is so amazing that we have that ability. And that's why I just if we're waiting for it to happen, let's be proactive and actually bring in these other modalities and actually understand why they're forming in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

So I love that so much. I love that so much. I one time had a dentist tell me that in school he learned about extension to prevent for prevention. Have you heard of this? So basically, what that means is make the filling bigger so that you're preventing more surfaces from getting a cavity. I about fell on the floor. He didn't practice that way, but he said that's what some of the professors said in school. And I thought that was so tragic. Unbelievable. I don't think I've ever heard that. So yeah, hopefully that was only in his college. Uh who could say? So, in addition to like with somebody that that is gets a lot of cavities, at any age, truly, this could pertain to, I would imagine. There's not like a certain age where, oh, it's too late for you, Amber, you're too old. Like that doesn't happen, right? Like there's always hope. There's always hope.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

I think that's so important. I think so many people are feeling shame around their oral health, feel like things have gotten too bad. But the truth is, is when you have the knowledge, when you have the information and you can actually start to make these habit changes, like you can drastically transform your health. And we, right, as hygienists, we might see a patient every three, four, six months, whatever that looks like. But our patients have their health in their hands the rest of the time. And so if you can actually get the information, get the knowledge to make the shift, it is so powerful. And I'm just like, that's something I'm so passionate about is just being able to empower our patients to really take charge of their own health.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, is there any other items that are your initial go-tos when somebody is getting a lot of cavities, for example? And then we'll switch to bleeding gums.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah, definitely. With cavities, I'm always thinking, like you said, about saliva. What are these teeth being bathed in? So, like, what is the pH of that saliva? What is the bacterial profile of the oral microbiome? Um, of course, I'm thinking about mouth breathing, I'm thinking about the mineral deficiencies. Also, I think about medications because medications, so many people are on them. And of course, they have their place and their benefit. But we also know that medications also deplete the body of certain nutrients that we need for oral health. So, based on what they're taking, I'm always looking at that to see, okay, well, we do need this medication, but maybe we need to incorporate some of these nutrients that are being depleted by the use of this medication.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

So I love that. I love

Dry Mouth Starts With Stress

SPEAKER_00 14:10

that. So if somebody has a dry mouth, for example, what would you want to do first and foremost? So let's say we look at the breathing situation. And if somebody doesn't know that they're mouth breathing, I find so many people that have mouth breathing, they're just not even aware of it. When we're just focusing, I always say with parents, look at your kid when they're just like staring at the TV or just focused on something or playing, is their mouth open or closed? Like something super simple. Like what else would with that dry mouth piece? What else do you feel like people can do at home to evaluate? Am I mouth breathing? And if I do have dry mouth, is there any supplementation that I can do? Is there products that I can use to just help me feel more comfortable? I know so many people that suffer from dry mouth. And it is tough because I always think, well, if your mouth is that dry, what about the inside of your body?

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah. We're all connected. Exactly, exactly. Dry mouth is multifaceted too. I'd also be thinking when I'm thinking about dry mouth, I'm thinking about the nervous system. Because if our nervous system is in a state of chronic flight or flight, our salivary flow is decreased. And so until we can get into that parasympathetic, that rest and digest mode, that's what actually stimulates our salivary glands to produce and let saliva flow. So I always want to think about what our patient's nervous system look like? What does their stress look like? Back to minerals. I'm always thinking about sodium and potassium when it comes to dry mouth, because every cell in the body has a sodium potassium pump, which allows for that intracellular, extracellular fluid, that balance. And so if we're not getting enough of those minerals, we're gonna have drier tissues. A lot of times patients will actually not be sweating regularly. That's like a telltale sign that we're not getting that cellular hydration. And so I'm always thinking about that. If I see someone with dry mouth, are they also not sweating regularly, right? What else is connected there? Because that sodium potassium balance is going to play such a huge role in both of those things. So even just making sure that your water has minerals to it. A lot of us are filtering our water, and I know a lot of us are using like reverse osmosis, which depletes everything. So we always want to remineralize that water, whether we're adding a good quality sea salt or some trace minerals to that to make sure the hydration is getting into our cells.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Our water is dead, Amber. Yes. It's not really hydrating us. We're just peeing it out without without the benefit of drinking the water.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah, I know. And that's so many people are like, I can't drink more water because I am just going to the bathroom all the time. But that's happening because we're not actually absorbing the fluid into our cells, right? And so if we're actually adding minerals into our water, adding sea salt into our water, you're gonna notice, of course, your body has to adjust to upping your water intake, but you're gonna notice that you're not running to the bathroom every time you're drinking water because now the water is actually hydrating you at a cellular level.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

So something to think about there too. And are all these things items that you're looking on that looking at on the hair test? So the sodium, the potassium, all this, and obviously so so much more, so that you can really walk the patient through when they're adding those supplements, when they're adding trace minerals or sea salt to their water and they're making these pivots. I would imagine that after that initial hair test, there's the time to implement and incorporate. And then you would want to probably do another hair test within so many months to see like, are these new protocols and new lifestyle changes, are they working?

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I'm looking at those minerals on the hair test of I'm also looking at the other minerals on the hair test and how they work together because they all have either a synergistic or antagonistic effect on each other. And so we always want to make sure that we can actually bring them all into balance. So I do usually do the test and then I will retest anywhere from three months, four, six months, depending on where they were at initially. I always like to individualize it. I had a client recently that had dry mouth that also was seeing her hygienist every eight weeks because she had such heavy calculus buildup on her teeth and she had extreme tooth sensitivity. And so when we did her hair test, we found that she was in what's called like a calcium shell pattern. So very low sodium and potassium. So that cellular hydration was low. And then she also had elevated calcium, and not necessarily meaning it's too high, meaning it's being misdirected because we know calcium should be in the teeth and bones. And when it's not, it stores in tissues, right? And so we're seeing it stored other places. So where was that calcium? It was in her saliva, calcifying the plaque just even faster. So once we were able to actually bring those levels back into balance, she went back for her hygiene visit and they were like, What are you doing? Because they've been seeing her every eight weeks. Like that's a commitment, both on and the practitioners, to be able to get her in the schedule every eight weeks. And that calculus buildup had diminished, too sensitivity had diminished, all of these things. So when we actually can bring in those co-nutrients to redirect the calcium and all of that, we can make such a huge change. And that was over a few months span of working together.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

That's incredible. Oh my gosh. Plus, nobody wants a bunch of buildup on their teeth, right? It's embarrassing, it doesn't feel good. You people often feel so shameful about it, especially when they're doing everything right and it's not their fault. It's it that I love that thought of well, why am I secreting so much calcium into my saliva, into my mouth, and building up all this debris on my teeth? And when not everybody does. So yeah, I love that. It's it's not going to the right spot.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Exactly. Yeah, it's up, it's amazing. Like, yes, let's bring more frequent recalls when we need them, but also why is this happening in the fact that absolutely well?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

I doubt she's gonna need those eight-week recall visits.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, no, they they changed her recall when she went back. So I think she'll be uh doing good from now on. But it's so interesting that just looking at this test and looking at her history and all of the different things, we're able to shift that. I love

Bleeding Gums Mineral Gaps And Hormones

SPEAKER_01 20:40

that.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

So, how about how do all these minerals play into that patient that has chronic bleeding? Maybe they do a great job, they go see their hygienist every three, four, six months. Why is there not a five-month recall in there? I don't know about these arbitrary numbers, but with their recall, going to see their hygienist, and if they're always being told, like, ah, you've got some bleeding, Tasha, there's still some bleeding here. And the patient's thinking, I do everything, I come in here as often as you tell me to do to come in here, like what might be going on with their minerals in that situation?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yeah, saving gums is is such a prevalent one, right? We see it all the time when we kind of have accepted it as normal, but it's more, it's common, but right, nothing bleeding in the body is normal. There's certain minerals that we can see a lot of times. I actually think about hormones as well in this case, because as hormones shift, as hormones fluctuate, we can see more bleeding response in the mouth. So, of course, as we were trained in school, it's like, okay, we need to floss more, we need to brush better. But we can be depleted in certain nutrients, vitamin C, CoQ10, those are really big for our oral tissue integrity. But we also, when we think about hormones, estrogen regulates circulation to the gum tissue. So whether we see surges in estrogen or depletion. And estrogen, we're going to see more bleeding response in the mouth. And that can happen for women throughout their cycles, or it can happen later in life, perimenopause and menopause. So that's something we're always thinking about. There is a mineral ratio, copper, zinc on the hair test that lets us have some insight into their hormonal patterns. We hear a lot about estrogen dominance. And it's not necessarily too much estrogen in the body. Estrogen is one of those hormones that we're meant to use and clear. And most of that clearance happens through our liver. And so if we're not able to clear, that estrogen gets recirculated, forms these metabolites in the blood system. And we can see more inflammation when we have that. So we can kind of get insight into that. Maybe our patients need a little bit more liver support to bring down the inflammation and bleeding response in their mouth. So it really is kind of looking deeper and trying to connect the dots for them.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

So do you ever consult with like a functional medicine doctor or send a woman to go get her hormones tested to see where, where is your, what's what are your estrogen levels? Like what is going on with your hormonal cycle overall, especially in the, I feel like it there's like a whole new horizon now with menopause and perimenopause, which is so great because that's been a huge missing piece. I didn't learn anything about that in hygiene school. I graduated 20 years ago. And so when I clinically would see women that had bleeding gums when they normally didn't, that that would like eventually in my career, that became a question like, are you on your cycle? And lo and behold, but I didn't know what to do then. Or a menopausal woman, oh my gosh, I had no clue. I wouldn't even have considered that was in the equation. I just didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, it wasn't something I learned in school either. And it's just something that I've learned through coursework, through actual working with patients and clients on their health and really being able to see these patterns. But as far as do I refer out, absolutely. I think collaboration is one of the most important things in this field, um, dentistry and healthcare. And there's never going to be one person that's going to know everything about your health that's going to be able to really help you optimize your health. So I do refer out all the time for multiple different specialties.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

I love that. So if somebody listening is in perimenopause or menopause and has been told that their gums are bleeding, or maybe they notice it at home when they're brushing or when they're flossing or using their water pick, they're like, Yeah, I've got some pink in the sink. I do have some bleeding. My gums are tender. Should I be worried about this? Am I going to end up with gum recession? Am I going to end up with terrible tooth loss as I get older? Like, what should somebody be thinking about if they're in menopause or perimenopause? What can they do to be really proactive versus just, well, I'll just wait till my dentist or dental hygienist tells me there's a problem?

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah. I think it's so important to be proactive about your health. And there's so many different things that we can do to support our hormones naturally, right? Even just as simple as getting sunlight, getting morning sunlight in our eyes, right? Balancing our circadian rhythm. But there's so many different things that we can do. I do think it is a concern for women as they get into perimenopause and menopause that we can have more recession. We can have more bone loss and these things. And it really is being proactive. So when I'm thinking about that, I'm thinking about how can we actually support the tissue, right? What nutrients can we bring in to actually create a healthier tissue? We talk so much about collagen loss in our skin and our gum tissue is composed of high quantities of collagen as our teeth and our jawbone. And so I really want to make sure that we're getting the nutrients to support collagen production, right? So vitamin C is really important. Estrogen regulates collagen synthesis as well. So when we see that estrogen decline, we're going to have loss of collagen. And that's a lot of times where we see that tissue integrity change in the mouth, that more prevalent bone loss in the job. So that might be someone I do refer out for testing. And we might want to, they may want to discuss hormone replacement therapy or different things, especially if they're having dental work done, say implant placement or oral surgery, right? We want to think about how we can actually support the entire healing process.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

I love that. I love that. Gosh, I could go into any of these things like for so much longer. I just think that's so, that's so fascinating. So when you when you're working with somebody that is in this menopause, perimenopause, and you start collaborating with a physician and you're have having them help you with supplementation. Is there a point where you'll where you're like, okay, we're stable now? Or is this something that if somebody's in menopause or perimenopause, that they just need to go, you know what? I just need to keep an eye on this like forever. Like this is just something that I need to be testing my hormones on a regular basis. And then you're just constantly collaborating back and forth, maybe from a six month to a 12-month kind of recall frequency back and forth collaborating. Is that kind of how it goes?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Yeah, I think we're gonna be working on our health as long as we're here, right? As long as you're living. I think we're always gonna be working on our health. I think we can get to a point where things are very stable and then have check-ins. I do think we should have our labs done yearly. I think the mineral testing can be really important to have done, maybe once or twice a year, just to know where our body's at, how it's functioning at a cellular level, how it's responding to stress. I always want that data for myself, for my patients or my clients. I think it's so important to really take that into our own hands and have the information so we can make shifts as we need

Men Vs Women Oral Patterns

SPEAKER_01 27:50

to.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

I love that. What do you feel like are the biggest differences between a male and a female's mouth? And is that age related? Obviously it is. But so when it comes to treatment, so many, so many different treatments and healthcare in general, not just dentistry, is just based on we're all the same. So, how do you look at a male's mouth versus a female's mouth different throughout their life, somebody's life cycle?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

I think the big thing is that we know women's health is so different. And it really is where if a male patient were to come in and present with periodontal disease versus a woman, depending on their age, right? So we could treat the male patient with periodontal therapy, scaling and root planning, follow like those protocols, and we can have a really great result where their tissue heals, but that woman might come back at her recall and the tissue is still inflamed. We're still seeing like progressive bone loss. So we just have to really look at everything individualized, right? Then man might come back the same way. Male hormones affect the mouth as well. So it really is just being able to understand what the different patterns are in each person. I think that we always want to look at the patient as a whole, right? So male patients can have just as many complications as female patients, but we know that female patients are more predisposition to these changes as they go through these phases in their life and the changes in their hormones. Yeah. So it really is just who the patient is, what their history is. I think their intake form is one of the most insightful pieces of information that we can look at. I always want to know the timeline of when the disease process started. Was there some kind of stress in their life? What type of medications are they taking? What type of diagnoses they have?

Meds That Deplete Key Nutrients

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Because all of those factors are going to play a role in how their mouth presents.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

I have so this might be too tricky of a question, but are there any specific medications that when you see that on somebody's medical history, you go, ooh, that specific medication depletes said minerals just regularly, and it's not something talked about by like the medical community?

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, I think a medication that jumps out to me always is a statin, which are so common, right? And those are going to deplete the body of zinc, CoQ10. That's directly going to impact our immune system, our tissue integrity. That's one that always jumps out. I do have a resource that I'm always sharing, which is like which medications deplete certain medic uh minerals and nutrients in the mouth. Many medications deplete B vitamins, and we know B vitamins are really important for tissue integrity, all the tissue in our mouth, our tongue, we can notice these changes from B vitamin deficiencies. We can see things like angry colitis when we have B vitamin deficiencies. So that's one that a lot of medications deplete different B vitamins. So that's one that I'm always thinking about too. But I'm always happy to share resources for can people find that on your website, Amber. So I have it, I post on Instagram about it, but I also do have like a chair side guide that I have that in there as a resource. But I'm happy to share it with your audience as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Just so Yeah, maybe we can link it to the show notes to the Instagram post, even everyone follow Amber, naturally Amber White, on Instagram. But yeah, let's I will find like we'll find that and link it in the show notes because I'm sure people would love to look at their medications and go, hmm, should I be my monostatin? Am I deficient in zinc? Am I deficient in CoQ10? Is that something that I I need to check out my minerals and check out where my vitamins and levels are and consider supplementation and make sure that I have ample levels? Because of course we don't want people to go off medications when they're helping them. But if we need to counteract some of the side effects, then we should do that too. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

That's what I'm always thinking about. I'm never going to tell someone that they should come off a medication, but I am going to inform them of what could be happening in the body from the use of that medication. And so always thinking about exactly what minerals and nutrients we might want to supplement. I think a lot of us in this world, because there's so much information out there, there's a lot of blind supplementation where we're just taking things because someone said it it worked for them. Yeah, for an alcoholic.

unknown 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Right. And that doesn't work for everybody. So in order to actually know exactly what you need, we do need the data, but we could also be able to know, okay, if I am taking this up this medication, I probably should be supplementing with say Cookie 10 or something alongside of satin. So there's things that we can do, like we can look at to be able to know what our body probably needs versus just blindly taking something that we heard was the good option.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Yeah. Yeah. That makes so much sense. So you talked a

Nervous System Digestion And Absorption

SPEAKER_00 32:50

little bit earlier about the nervous system and nervous system regulation. And so I just think about myself, especially right after I had my daughter, and I was a mess. Like I was just burning the candle at both ends. I certainly probably did not have a regulated nervous system. And I feel like I've heard you talk about some things just don't absorb if you're living in a very anxious state. How does that work?

unknown 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Our nervous system, I will never create a plan for any client or patient without talking about their nervous system because it regulates everything. And if we have, if we're in that fight or flight, right, our body can't actually digest, right? Because we know parasympathetic is that rest and digest state. So even if we're eating in fight or flight, our body can't break down that food for us to absorb and assimilate. So that's something we need to think about, right? If we're eating on the go, we're eating while we're driving, we're standing up, we're doing all these things, we're not going to be able to digest that food properly. Even if we're eating the best quality food, right? We could have the grass-fed, grass-finish steak, and we could have all of the healthy fats, all of the things, but if our body can't break it down, we can't actually absorb the nutrients. So the nervous system plays such a role. Just the simplest thing anybody could do today is take three to five deep breaths before they eat their meal to actually get their body into parasympathetic mode. Most people aren't even thinking about breathing before they eat or thinking about being in the right place, sitting at us sitting at the table, right? We're always on the go.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

So that would be the easiest thing someone could do today. Is the same true for supplements? So let's say I'm just investing lots of money every single month in all these pills so that my body can do its thing really, really well. I would imagine that if I'm in fight or flight guzzling down my supplements, it's probably the same. It's probably not absorbing and doing what I'm hoping it's doing.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Exactly. And I would also look into what your digestion looks like as well. If your body is not regularly clearing the waste, right? If we're constipated, if you have inadequate digestion, we're not going to be absorbing those nutrients either. So nervous system, gut health, digestion, I'd be looking at both of those because if those aren't optimal, we're not going to be able to absorb everything that we're taking in. And so also I think about how much energy the body has, right? Because if we're just throwing a ton of supplements at a body that is depleted, and also the energy glands of the body are suboptimal, the thyroid and adrenal glands, right? Our body is not going to have enough energy to actually convert those minerals and vitamins if we need to absorb them. So it really is just this whole picture of what's going on in individual for everything to me, because everyone is unique. We all have our different scenarios. So how can we actually support the body in actually whether it's digesting, breaking down food and absorbing it, or optimizing our body so we can take in these supplements and actually utilize them?

SPEAKER_00 35:57

I love that. And I think that we're just in a culture that we just are constantly bombarded by take this, do that, do this. And you're just like, oh my gosh, I can't do any more things. But really, like first and foremost, is take care of self first. Like take a couple, it doesn't have to be 30 minutes a day of meditation. It can literally be something really short. Some of the research I've read is just taking five minutes to yourself to just sit there, not scroll your phone, but just sit there and just take a moment and be present in whatever it is that you're doing. And then before you eat, for like what you mentioned, before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, just sit there for a hot second before you take your first bite, acknowledge that you're eating, take three to five breaths, and then eat. And even just doing that could change everything else versus spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars of supplements that might not be able to

Where To Find Amber And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 36:50

do for you what you're hoping that they do. So if somebody wants your help, Amber, what's the next step that they can do? So, like if they're thinking, I know that my oral health is probably not optimal and I've been being told by my dental professional, or maybe they're just noticing it in themselves. Like they're just noticing, yeah, my gums are really tender. I know that I build up a lot of heavy buildup on my teeth. I probably don't get the dentist maybe as often as I should. Like, where can I start? And they're thinking, this hair test sounds like a great place to start and getting help with that. So where can we direct people?

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Yeah, so they could find me at Naturally Amber White on Instagram or my website is just naturallyamberwhite.com. So I do work with clients on this, on their oral health and how we can actually optimize the oral and overall health. I do have a course also called Beyond the Mouth where I train practitioners to bring this kind of testing into their practice. So if it's someone that wants to actually see someone in person or wants to find a practice, I do have a directory on my website too for other practitioners who are offering this as well. So whether it's me or I can refer you to someone else, I'm always happy to do that.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

I love that so much. Amber, this has been so fun. You are such a wealth of knowledge. I could talk to you all day because there's so much knowledge that you have that I just want to get into my brain as well. So I so thank you for your time. You're such a gem. Thank you so much.