An Interview with a Holistic Pediatric Dentist

Ok the title is a bit of a click-bait, but I did have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Staci Whitman on the podcast. Dr. Whitman is a practicing pediatric dentist in Portland, Oregon. She is a "functional" pediatric dentist who practices in a demographic that caters to more natural and holistic modalities. Her practice is heavy in dietary guidance, vitamin supplementation, ozone therapy, tie/lip tie release, myofunctional therapy, hard tissue lasers, and also traditional SSCs and general anesthesia. I wanted to have this conversation to widen my horizons and provide me with more context to educate and converse with my own patients who have concerns about fluoride, toxins, and materials. I was surprised to find that I agreed with the majority of points that Dr. Whitman discussed. You can tell that she's passionate about educating her patients, promoting a healthy diet, and focusing on prevention rather than picking up a handpiece to fix the world's problems. I think this will be a great episode for stimulating some critical thinking skills about the way we discuss treatment options with our crunchier families that we all know and love!