EP #10: How A Thorough Dental Visit Can Change Your Life

A rushed checkup can miss the moments that matter most. We open the door to a different kind of first visit: a 90-minute new patient exam that protects your quality of life and health span by treating the mouth as a system connected to your brain, heart, sleep, and stress. With the Core Four—oral cancer screening, TMJ and bite balance, gum health, and the teeth themselves—we show how slowing down now can save you pain, money, and time later.

We start with a two-minute, noninvasive oral cancer screening that includes palpating tissues and lymph nodes and using fluorescence to spot suspicious changes beneath the surface. One American dies of oral cancer every hour, yet many patients have never been screened. Next, we unpack TMJ and bite mechanics: how stress-fueled clenching and grinding can trigger morning jaw pain and migraines, and how digital occlusal mapping, deprogrammer-style guards, Botox for bruxism-driven headaches, orthodontics, and selective adjustments can restore balance.

Gum health is our third pillar and the stealthiest threat to long-term wellness. Measuring periodontal pockets reveals early infection before it erodes bone. We connect bleeding gums to systemic inflammation and increased risk for heart disease, stroke, and cognitive decline—and outline how consistent flossing, water picking, and targeted cleanings can reverse trends and stabilize advanced cases. Finally, we evaluate teeth with visual exams, x-rays, 3D scans, and intraoral photos on a big screen, focusing on cracks, stress lines, and weak spots—not just cavities—so you can co-diagnose, prioritize care, and choose between comprehensive or phased plans.

Along the way, we talk anxiety and agency: how transparency, visual education, and small daily habits—1% better at a time—turn dentistry from dread into partnership. The aim isn’t more dentistry now; it’s less dentistry later. If you’ve ever left an appointment feeling rushed or confused, this is your roadmap to a clearer, calmer path forward.

If this resonated, subscribe, share it with someone who avoids the dentist, and leave a review to help others find a human-centered approach to oral health.

Transcript

Meet The Hosts And Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Semeday Dental Podcast. We're here to provide you expert insights on how dentistry can improve your quality of life and extend your health span. I'm Alex Semeday and I'm a practicing dentist, and I'll be your host, along with Jeremy Wolfe. Enjoy the show.

unknown 0:20

Mr.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Wolf, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Oh, brother, you know, I'm living the dream as per the usual arrangement. How about yourself?

Why The New Patient Exam Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Fantastic. Could not be better. I'll tell you, today's topic is something that is a real point of passion for me and for the entire team at the office. And it's the new patient exam. So that is oftentimes the first time that we get to meet face to face with our patients. Obviously, we've had a couple of interactions already on the phone, scheduling the appointment and all that. But really, this is this is our first date, so to speak. Right? The patient comes in, they get to see the office, meet the team, and kind of experience what Sunday Dental is all about. And it really sets the tone for the rest of our relationship.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Absolutely. And I can attest to this. I I've been through the new patient experience. Um, when did I come in for my first time? It was a year, maybe a year, a couple of years ago, a year a couple years ago now. And one thing I will say is that the experience was very thorough. I know that at your practice you like to treat the whole body, right? Not just the mouth. Um, it's this whole body holistic approach to to medicine that I appreciate about your office. And coming in, I felt right at home, right? We've talked about this before. Um, I I love the fact that you guys are rooted in the community, um, and you're really, really doing quality work out there. So I'm excited to share with with the rest of our community about your process and what you do and and and how you make often a dreaded experience at the dentist for most people, uh, a more pleasant experience.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah, we always say we try to take the suck out of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah.

Introducing The Core Four

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah. So our new patient, our new patient experience is is, you know, most folks go to the dentist and they feel like the checkup is is really just kind of looking for cavities. Hey, Mrs. Smith, you know, you have four cavities, you're gonna need, you know, a couple crowns and fillings and something, and you know, here's the bill, right? Schedule on your way out, sort of thing. But our new patient exam is really, really designed to not only protect your teeth, but protect your health span, right? It's something that we talk about a lot. It's it's the connection that the mouth has with the rest of the body and how these things work together, right? And we're not just you know looking to fill holes in teeth. We're we're we're looking to improve our patient's life and health for the long term. So we've broken down our our new patient experience, our new patient exam, um, into what we call the core four. And the core four to us are the four pillars of oral health. And those are checking all the tissues in the mouth. So it starts with a thorough oral cancer evaluation, screening, uh, checking the TMJ or the jaw joint along with the bite, uh, how the teeth come together, how the you know, upper and lower arches interact with each other. It's it's very important for the stability of the mouth.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Um, of course, we check the gums because gum health is really systemic health. And when we have inflammation in the gums, when we have swelling, redness, things like that, that's that's that's a big red flag, right? We need to be mindful of those things and we need to make sure that the foundation of our teeth, the gums and the bone, are healthy because we keep learning more and more about the relationship between healthy gums and healthy brain, a healthy heart, right? So we're looking to proactively identify these things and treat them so that they don't become a downstream effect on the person's overall health.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Ounces it's worth a pound of cure.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Uh 100%. And then, of course, we also look at teeth, right? We're not only looking for cavities, right? Areas where the tooth has broken down, but things like fractures and stress fractures on teeth, things that could indicate that potentially the tooth is going to break down and could cause an emergency or an urgent situation down the line. So, of course, we're looking at all the same things people expect, but I feel like we take a very comprehensive approach to the mouth and to how that relates to the overall health.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

So you mentioned these four pillars. Is that something that is standard in the dental industry when you go in for like a new patient on board? Because I'm trying to think back. I've been to many dentists throughout the year, and I can't remember a process that I went through that was quite as thorough as the one that you did. Is that something that you you do specific to your practice, or is that more common nowadays across the general practice dentistry?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Um, I feel like the core for branding, so to speak, is is ours, but a any thorough dentist is going to check all of these things, right? And whether they are communicating that with their patients in the same way that we are or not, I do feel like a good, comprehensive, thorough exam should involve all four of these areas.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

And the communication is key because I think so many people, when it comes to going to the dentist, it's almost like they're they're checking off a box, right? You just gotta go get your routine checkups and you gotta do and you want to get in and out of there as soon as possible. Um, but kind of you don't, right? Like you want to go and you want to be taken care of, you want somebody to be actually cognizant of of what's going on in your body and have conversations with you about how your lifestyle, how how things impact your overall health and not just there to to fix surface level problems. I like the fact that you're really digging in and uh uh digging into the root of the issue, pun intended.

Time Well Spent: 90-Minute Visit

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Right. I love it. Love me a good pun. And I'll I'll I'll say this. Um, thank you for the kind words. We we are very thorough, and honestly, it's not for everyone. There are people that have told me, wow, this this took too long. Now, our new patient exam is a 90-minute visit with like 60 minutes of dedicated time with with the doctor, right? Like we are getting to know you, we're getting to know what's important to you, and letting you see and hopefully understand what it is that we see when we look at your mouth, so that we can establish a baseline, right, and move forward from there. We are looking to kind of give you an understanding of how things are are, where things are at and what can be done moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, and I think the idea of trying to build a relationship on the front end and be really thorough, uh, and the fact that a lot of people are a little bit turned off by that, it speaks to this instant gratification mindset that so many folks have in our society, right? They don't want to do the work on the front end, but honestly, if you don't put the work in, you don't you don't build that relationship, you don't uh learn what it's gonna take to be healthy, you're gonna experience a lot of a lot more pain on the back end when you're in the chair getting root canals and getting all sorts of work done because you weren't like taking care of your mouth the way it needed to be taken care of. So there's really you know, putting in the effort up front, like with anything in life, right? It's not just this. It's everything. Absolutely on the front effort pays off dividends in the end, really does.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

And I will say, you know, 99% of patients come in and say, Wow, this was the best exam I've ever had, not only from my dentist, but any medical provider or any sort of service that I've you know encountered. And to us, that breathes life into what we do. We love hearing that. And you know, that's why the core four helps us sort of structure this this experience for the patient and get things moving forward.

Early Warning Signs And Prevention

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I like it. So so in instead of reacting to problems, right? You're you're trying to identify trajectories. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, this there are very definitive early warning signs, right, to the to the trained eye. And when we're looking for those things, we're able to you know identify problems before they become serious problems. So intervening early, right, we can change those trajectories, right? Identify those patterns and dramatically change someone's dental outlook in life and and health outlook, right? We can have extremely profound impact when we identify things early and intervene early.

Seeing Is Believing: Cameras And Scans

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Yeah. Now I want to make a side note here of the last cleaning I got done there, which I found incredibly useful. Uh, your your technician, I have a, as you know, I have this bridge, the these three teeth on the bottom are fake, and I always use the floss through the thing and whatnot. Um, but apparently I wasn't cleaning that area well enough. And she showed me, she took the little mirror and showed me what was going on back there, and it was pretty gnarly. And I don't know that anybody's ever shown that to me before and had a deep impact on me psychologically. I thought, look, this is going on inside my mouth, I got to take better care. So now every time I brush, I'm back there with the electric toothbrush, I'm getting in there with the floss. Um, so I really appreciate that. It was very, very helpful to see that because if they tell you, oh, that's looking pretty bad back there, it doesn't quite set in until you see it, you know. Yeah, my poor wife has to kiss me, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Picture those in a thousand words, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, yeah.

Pillar 1: Oral Cancer Screening

SPEAKER_00 10:26

So the intra-oral camera, something as simple as a mirror, right? Or a scan really lets people see what's going on. So, what do you say we get into the core for and break these down one by one? Let's do it. So, the first pillar, like I was mentioning before, is the oral cancer screening. Now, most people have never heard a very sobering statistic, and it's that one American dies every hour from oral cancer.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

What one every hour? One every you've told me this before, and it still seems crazy when you tell me again.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I say it and it still seems crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Because you don't hear you don't hear about oral cancer.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

You just not nearly enough. I can't tell you how many folks have their cancer screenings done, and they're like, no one's ever done that before, no one's ever mentioned oral cancer. And it is one of the most profound ways that we can, you know, impact and save someone's life. You know, we've diagnosed more than a couple cases in in the office, and um it is always a very stark reminder of wow, we do have to be very vigilant about this sort of thing, right? And we do need to educate people about it. And the funny thing is that it's it's an extremely non-invasive, it takes two minutes to do, right? We are basically feeling every single inch of your mouth, all of those tissues, all of the lymph nodes around your neck, everything that's associated with the mouth to make sure there's no lumps, bumps, or masses anywhere. We also use this really special light called fluorescence that basically helps me see underneath the the top layer of tissue in the mouth to differentiate between healthy and non-healthy cells. So it's not a diagnostic for cancer, it's a screening. And at in the like I said, in two minutes, it lets us rule out something that heaven forbid, right? Even if it doesn't kill you, it so profoundly affects your quality of life. Because everything that we do that is unpleasant involves your mouth, right? Talking with your friends, eating your favorite meal, kissing your wife, right? Like when this is affected, right? And when this is the treatment area, it is it's a it's a really, really tough thing to see people go through. So the sooner we're able to catch these things, right, the less invasive treatments become, and the better the outlook is.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

So why why do you think it is? You mentioned earlier that people you do this oral screening, and people are like, oh, I've never never had that done. Why do you think it is if it's such a simple process that it's just not common practice across all dentists? I mean, it's it seems like a no-brainer, like you're getting an exam. Why would you not do that? What do you think it is?

Why Screening Gets Missed Elsewhere

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Um I I I can't speak for for other offices, you know. Um, there are time constraints, right? This is part of the reason why our new patient exam is a 90-minute visit, right? It's because we need to slow down to really take a look at these things and establish that that baseline. And you know, I can tell you a 90-minute blockout for uh for a new patient exam is very rare because time's a luxury, right? And we're we're all busy and we're running ultimately, we're running a business. And for some people, I you know, I need to fit in a couple of fillings in those 90 minutes to whatever. Some may some folks may not know about it. That could be possible, but I'm proud to say that we do it and that we slow down and we take the time.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah, seems like a no-brainer, and I'm I'm I'm glad that uh I got I got the clean bill of health on that front. Yeah, same here. So, okay, so core four oral issues, screening for oral cancer. Now the Yeah, so that's our first stop, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

It's that oral cancer screen. Yeah, so our pillar number two is your bite and the TMJ. So most people hear TMJ and they think, oh, jaw problems, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Isn't that lockjaw? TMJ.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

So that's the common misconception, right? TMJ actually stands for temporomandibular joint, right? So it's the joint the name of the joint itself. We all have it. Okay. Now the umbrella term for things going wrong with the TMJ is TMJ dysfunction.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Okay. So we do a TMJ screening as part of our new patient exam, where we we we assess a couple of different things. Number one, we assess the joint itself, right? Is the joint functioning properly? Is there any evidence of any arthritis, any sort of imbalances with the bone of the joint? We also evaluate the muscles, right? We have many muscles that control the movement of the joint. And in today's stressed-out society, one of the main things that we see as a consequence of that cortisol buildup is TMJ dysfunction. And it's normally mediated by those muscles, right? So some people will bite their nails when they're nervous, some people will tap their feet, some people will clench and grind their teeth.

Pillar 2: TMJ And Bite Basics

SPEAKER_02 16:11

I can see that because when I get a little bit stressed out or I get a little bit uh like cloudy or whatever, I feel I feel pressure. Lately, I've been feeling pressure specifically around like the lower area of my face, and I could see how that pressure, like inadvertently, will cause you to tighten up and clench your jaw, and that could lead to the problem.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

And it's probably being caused because you're clenching and tightening your jaw.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Right. And we throw those muscles out of whack and they go into spasm. And for some people, it is, you know, my jaw is kind of achy in the morning. For some people, it's I feel that sort of pressure in the lower half of my face. For some people, it's migraines, chronic migraines, right, that are triggered by this TMJ dysfunction, which is very frequently tied to imbalances in your bite. And when your teeth don't have a stable place to kind of come together, that causes the musculature to act erratically.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Are there any exercises that we should be doing as we go through life, as we age, to strengthen and and and build the jaw muscle? Like I again, I've never even thought about this until now. It's like, should I be doing some like vocalists do vocal exercises? They go, ah, like, is there anything we should be doing that will like increase the longevity and create uh or less problems?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

It's a good question. Um, it depends on what the specific issue that we're facing is. Um, you know, for some people, lack of jaw development could be tied in with you know muscles that aren't working properly or aren't being exercised enough. So it's a it's a case-by-case thing. But as part of that new patient exam, analyzing the bite, seeing where the pressure points of the bite are, and we use this super fancy technology called an occlusogram, where after I scan the teeth, I have this 3D basically video of the mouth, and I get to see where the pressure points are when the teeth come together. So it really helps not only me but the patient see what the potential problem areas are and what could be done to solve it.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Interesting. And I'm I'm no, I'm I'm hung up on this idea of exercising. I'm thinking about like people that suffer from migraines or or jaw issues, like a protocol, right? To move the face, whatever it is. Like I see I see my wife doing things. I mean, this is not for pressure in her head, but like for her her skin and wrinkles. She'll do like little exercises with her, she'll pull her temples up and hold it up like this and like massage the skin and all that kind of stuff. I wonder if there's some wisdom in creating a series of shorts to uh exercise your jaw.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Dude, are you just outing your your wife's beauty routine?

Stress, Clenching, And Migraines

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Sure. Share it with the world, brother. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

It's been working. That's awesome. We do need we should do a podcast on that. Um, so when it comes to migraines and TMJ and bite imbalances, I haven't come across any exercises that we can do to help that. Um at that point, we're normally either having to modulate the muscle behavior via either special night guards like deprogrammers or Botox treatments, uh, which are incredibly effective for migraines when it's when it stems from uh bruxism or clenching and grinding. Um, or we're having to adjust the bite with either orthodontics or or dental treatment. So it really depends on the on the case. Uh, you know, we also have to factor in things like sleep apnea when it comes to clenching and grinding, because there's a very strong correlation there, and several other factors that can be associated with that aspect. But for us, all of those considerations fall under that pillar of the TMJ and the bite, and those are the things that we're looking at there. So that takes us to our second pillar, which are the gums.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

The second or third? Wait, we did oral, uh TMJ and now gums. Thank you. Let me just preface this because I remember going through this process and them doing the gum thing, and it was definitely not the most pleasant experience, but I as it was explained to me, it was it was very necessary to check. This is the one where they go and they prick the gums as they go around. Am I right?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Words, words matter, Jeremy. We don't prick them, we measure them.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Measure them, all right.

Treatments: Guards, Botox, Orthodontics

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Well, yeah, so so yeah, this is, and I tell folks this this part may not be the highlight of your day, right? But it is an indispensable part of a thorough oral evaluation, right? And what you were what you're referencing here is measuring the pockets, right? And anyone who has hopefully had a good either hygiene or a dental exam done, they'll recall they lean back, they use a tiny little ruler, you feel some pressure on your gums, and you hear three, two, three, three, two, three, five, three, two, and you hear all these numbers. So, what is all that mumbo jumbo? Right, and what we're doing there is we're measuring a tiny little space between the gums and the tooth called the pocket. Right? It's almost like the space underneath your fingernails. And depending how deep that pocket is, it's an indication of how healthy the gums are.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

So you'd want deeper pockets, I'd imagine, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Well, maybe when it comes to finances. Oh, you don't want deep pockets. You don't want deep pockets, right? You want a healthy range as Pockets that are up to about three millimeters, right? And we measure this in millimeters. Think of how tiny millimeters are. Those millimeters matter.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Those are the numbers you're calling out.

Pillar 3: Gum Health And Systemic Risk

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Those are the numbers we call out. And the deeper the pocket, the deeper infection is getting close to the bone. Right. And when it comes to when it comes to gum disease and gum health, really what we're looking for is evidence of chronic infection of the gums that we call gum disease. Once that infection has been around long enough, it literally starts to erode the bone around your teeth away. And about 50 to 60 percent of US adults have some degree of periodontal disease. Now, this one is a really concerning one because other than the oral cancer screening, this is where dentistry protects your health span and your life. Because we keep learning more and more about the oral systemic relationship, right? Or the relationship between our mouth health and our overall health. Because let's think about this a little bit. Everyone has had an instance where they've been brushing or flossing and they spit in the sink and there's a little bit of bleeding, right? You know, we don't make too too big a deal about it. Fine, everybody bleeds a little bit, that's normal. But let's think about what's what's going on. So if we're seeing some blood in the mouth, that means that somewhere, right, a little blood vessel burst open and is letting blood out. But if blood's getting out, the infection that's in the gums can get in. And once it gets into your bloodstream, now it gets, you know, it kind of hijacks the highway of your circulatory system, and it ends up in your heart, it ends up in your brain, right? It increases our risk for heart disease and stroke and things like Alzheimer's and dementia. So being aware of these things, catching those things early, lets us in many cases reverse the trend and get the gums perfectly healthy, and in some cases, at least stabilize the process so that it doesn't continue having a negative impact on the overall health.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Yeah, I've noticed for me, whenever I slack on flossing and then I floss again, the gums bleed. But when I floss consistently every day, the bleeding goes away.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Yeah, and it's huge, man. Yeah, it really is. It is it is such a predictable, easy way for us to decrease the overall inflammation in our body that hey, I get it. I don't like flossing either, right? I've I've met a handful of people that are like, Yes, I love the way it feels when I floss.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

It does feel great afterwards, though, when you do it regularly. Like it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

I can't even say that for myself.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Really? I feel I feel good when I after I floss when I'm doing it regularly. Um, it's definitely a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

You know, it feels good in the way that doing setups feels good, right? I'm glad I did it. I feel good about about myself.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

No, I was talking about like like my mouth feels better, like I feel fresher. I don't know.

Daily Habits, Bleeding, And Inflammation

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. I I agree on the freshness part. I'm a big advocate for water picking too, but that's a separate separate topic. So let's let's uh wrap this up with our with our fourth with our pearl with our pearly whites. With our pearly whites, right? So this is what everyone expects out of their out of their dental exam. Um, do I have any cavities? And of course that's part of what what we're evaluating. Um we take a a visual approach to to decay detection. Um, you know, it used to be for years and years that they would take that you know little hook thingy and press it into your tooth and and see if you had a cavity in there. Um now we know that that actually makes cavities worse. So a visual and x-ray type of approach in screening is preferred. And that's what we use. So we use our our 3D scanner, we use our intraoral pictures to project all the pictures so so folks can see things exactly the way we do. And you know, at that point, it becomes a collaborative effort of okay, we can clearly see all these issues, right? Let's come up with a way to fix it. What's the right pace? How much do we want to fix? Do we want to get things perfectly healthy and kind of bulletproof ourselves for the future? Or do we just want to put out the fires right now and take a little bit of a slower approach to things? So that is the the essence, right? Of the reason why we had that 90-minute visit. And it works. Indeed.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

So it really is the difference between just checking teeth and really uh understanding the whole picture, the whole mouth. Right? It speaks again, it speaks back to what I referenced at the top of the episode. This like whole holistic whole body approach to dentistry, right? Not just treating the symptom, right? You're trying to go into the root and fix the problems before they start.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, Jeremy, you're my patient, not your teeth. Right? Like, my concern is for for you. Like, how can I be of value to you? And you know, in my little corner of the world as a dentist, it it seems like a no-brainer that I should be looking at all these things, and I should continue to educate myself into how all these things work together so I can again just continue to add value.

Pillar 4: Teeth, Decay, And Fractures

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah, man, and I one of the things I I like about having that relationship with you and your practice is as you know from my prior history, I've had quite the interesting trajectory with dentists, and there's been an incredible amount of anxiety uh in going to the dentist, and I still still don't love going in. Um, but I'm a little bit more at ease than I have been in the past. And that really, I think that affects a lot of different things, like when it comes to your just mindset when you're going in. If you go in with a lot of fear and apprehension, you have a really bad experience, that could wreck your whole day, right? You could leave the dentist and just not want to do anything. Um, but if you go in with that right mindset and you know you're in good hands, right? And you have a good attitude about it, your recovery time for whatever procedure you get is gonna be quicker and it's just gonna be less less of an ordeal at its at its base.

Collaborative Plans And Priorities

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Absolutely. Absolutely. Our mindset going into things impacts the outcome. And um that is that is another beautiful thing about the way we approach this this initial visit with the patient is that it starts building that trust. And you know, I I can't say that 100% of the time people who are fearful of the dentist, they have our they go through our new patient exam and they're like, I'm cured. I can't wait to come back and have all this treatment done. That's not true, but you start chipping away at it, right? And now all of a sudden they see us not as they see us as an ally, right? They see us as a as a trusted medical professional that's holy smokes, like these people are really they're thorough and they're they care, right? They're they're really looking out for my best interest, yeah. And then you come in, and you know, sometimes we we take it slow, and the first couple of visits are just really minor things. If there's a lot of treatment to be done, and that can continue chipping away at that, right? And the defenses come down and they feel more comfortable, and we hear it a lot, and it's something that that I'm super proud of for the office and the team. People that say I used to hate going to the dentist, and I look some people they look forward to visits now, right? Like we got through the tough stretch, now they're in a stable place, they get to come in and have their cleaning done, and their checkups are great, and they feel good about the progress they've made, and it becomes a positive experience, yeah, right, instead of one that they're dreading for two weeks before. And you know, it doesn't have to be that way.

Whole-Body Dentistry Mindset

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Yep. Some of the things that really stand out that a lot of the work I've been doing in my own life is a lot of what aligned with a lot of what you do there, is centered around intention, right? Pattern recognition and really respecting the fact that the oral health connects to everything else, like the mind-body connection. Um, the mind is such a powerful thing. Uh, and I I really, really appreciate how you treat this approach to dentistry. It really is um top-notch, brother. Yeah. And I like it, and I like how you're not, it's like the goal is not to overwhelm patients, right? It's just just to help them better understand their own situation and develop these relationships and ultimately uh help them avoid issues in the future.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yep. As with most things in life, my favorite approach is 1% better every day. Right? We don't have to, we don't have to reinvent the wheel all at once. Let's just make steps so that we move towards the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Incremental, gradual improvement. And that could be scary for people that that do have a lot of issues, not just in dentistry and other in other areas, right? But you're right, like one step at a time, little tiny micro movements, micro actions over time lead up to incredibly large results of experience in my own life. Um, and and it's so true. So no matter where you're at, maybe maybe you're listening to this and and maybe you haven't been to the dentist in months, maybe even years, who knows? Right? Now's now's the chance. Get in there and get checked out and start making actions forward.

Easing Dental Anxiety With Trust

SPEAKER_00 32:32

I mean, if you've ever left the dentist feeling rushed or or confused or not really knowing what's what's going on, um, I invite you to, you know, if you're local, check us out, give us a call, we'd be happy to get you in. Or uh really, you know, ask around. Look for a dentist who's gonna look for at all these things and really help you gain a clear understanding of where you're at. So if there's one takeaway that I want to leave folks with, is that your your dental checkup should really look out for your health span, you know, not just your teeth. So when we slow down, when we look at the mouth as as a system, we're not trying to do more dentistry, we're trying to avoid it down the line.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yep. So if you've ever left a dental appointment feeling rushed or confused, let this episode be your reminder that it doesn't have to be that way. We appreciate you all spending time with us. If you found this content useful, don't forget to, you know, the drill, don't forget to like, subscribe. We always love to hear your feedback, and we will catch you all next time on our next episode of the Semaday Dental Podcast. Keep it, folks.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Semaday Dental Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow us on social media for the latest episodes. You can find us at Semaday Dental. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We're always happy to help. Until then, keep smiling and stay curious.