Ep 332: The Interconnectedness of Oral and Systemic Health with Amber White RDH, HHP

Hi and welcome to episode 332 of the Untethered Podcast. Today we have Amber White joining us. Amber White is a biological, dental, hygienist, holistic health practitioner and the creator of Functional Oral Health Method with a unique focus on the mouth body connection. Amber helps women uncover the root causes of chronic health symptoms through mineral testing, oral microbiome support and functional wellness practices. Her work bridges the gap between dentistry and whole body healing, empowering her clients to optimize their hormones, nervous system and energy levels. By starting where it all begins, the mouth, Amber brings a refreshing, real talk approach to health that's grounded in science, deeply personal and full of practical tools you can use right away. Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Holly Vulcan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, airway, tethered oral tissue and pediatric. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide. If you've been around since June 2019, thanks for being a loyal listener. As we jump into today's episode, remember to listen with correct oral rest. Posture, tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart, breathe through your nose. Let's get started. Quick disclaimer all information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Amber, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

You're welcome. I'm excited to chat. I feel like this is going to be a really fun conversation because you are a biological dental hygienist and I just have a love for biological dentistry, even though I'm an slp. But then you're also a holistic health practitioner and I feel like these are two very cool, like it makes sense, but also like how, how did these come to be? How did you end up, you know, in both spaces and kind of marrying them together?

Yeah. So, you know, I obviously started in traditional dentistry getting out of school, but I always took a more holistic approach to my health. And I would say just after a few years into working as a hygienist, I kept seeing patterns with my patients that I just felt like there was something more I could be doing for them. So I just Started diving deep down rabbit holes of more holistic treatment. I found some organizations that really focus on biological dentistry. And then I happened to, as I was feeling this pull to a new way of practicing, practice opened in my area and I was able to start working there. It was a startup from the ground up. And so I really had a lot of amazing mentors and took a lot of amazing courses to really tie all the pieces together. Because when I first started there, I really hadn't gone deep down into this path until I really was immersed in it, you know, and that was a great experience for me.

So, yeah, I mean, it's so important. I feel like too, when you're in this space to be in like an environment that's supportive of it and that even like allows you to kind of figure out what it even looks like. So that's like, how cool that, like, that opportunity kind of presented itself.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. Because I, you know, the dentist that I was working for at the time, who was traditional minded and is still a very close friend of mine, had very different views than what I was possessing. And so it was nice to be in an environment where we were all on the same page. We're all looking to learn more, grow, treat our patients optimally. So it was really nice to be in that environment.

That's, that's amazing. I love this for you, but I love this for all the people you work with too, because, I mean, you obviously, you know, understand the whole, like, mouth, body connection. You know, I'm always talking about, like, we're connected from the tip of our tongue to the tip of our toes and through fascia and all of our systems and everything else. So will you like, talk to us a little bit about that? Like, what does that mean? Like, you know, I know that our mouth is like basically our window into our, into our health, like into our body. So I'll turn it over to you, but I'd love for you to explain a little bit about that.

Yeah, I feel like we hear terms like holistic dentistry, biological dentistry, functional dentistry, and they all kind of have their own nuances, but really it's how the mouth impacts the body and vice versa. Like you said, it's the window into the body. We also call it like the mirror to the body because we can actually see a lot of presentations or oral manifestations in the mouth that give us insight into what's happening inside the body. And so it really looks at how all of the systems of the body are connected. Right. You said we're Connected from the tip of our tongue to our toes. But all of the systems work together to create balance and homeostasis. And so it's really trying to bring balance back to the systems, support the body as well as the mouth in healing and really do it in the most safe, non toxic, you know, best way for optimal healing and health.

I love that. So I, I've talked about it a couple times on the podcast, but I don't know, people, if they haven't listened to all the podcasts, probably don't have any idea, but I was diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome not this summer, but summer prior. And I was working with like a functional nurse practitioner and you know, and I liked her a lot, but she was kind of like, well, this is a lifelong diagnosis. And I was like, I don't believe that. I don't believe anything is lifelong. I think we can heal anything. But thank you for the diagnosis. Like, I will do your protocol, but then I'm moving on, so. And I did, and it was, it was helpful. But I also saw the difference between like following a protocol that's basically like a life sentence and following a protocol that's like more holistically looking at all the systems of the body and like, how do we heal this and like, what is the root cause of this so that we can actually figure that piece out. And you know, so, yeah, so I mean, I do feel like the oral health component is huge, but it was a very interesting deep dive for me into like hormones and gut health and my immune system in general and all these things. And I feel like that's, you know, that's like the work that you're doing, right? You're kind of doing this, you're connecting all of these things for people. Right?

Exactly. Yes. And I agree with you that if we give our body the information and the tools, we have the ability to self regulate and heal ourselves. So anything that is inflammation driven, immune driven, there's so many things that we can do to support our health. So it's just really being able to, like you said, tie the pieces together, connect the dots. And I think you really have to want to be a detective and really look for these little clues to help people get to the root cause. Because nothing is a straightforward path when it comes to healing.

Yeah, no, absolutely. So, so just breaking it down, right? So like oral health, for example, and like hormones, what is, like, what's the connection there? People are like, well, how are these things related? And you know, what is like, are there symptoms that you would know that, that something is off kilter, like, or how do I get things back on track? Like, I know that was like a very heavy loaded question, but for someone who's just like totally brand new to this, like, what can you tell us?

Yeah, it's, yeah, it's hard for me sometimes to simplify it, but let's try.

You can simplify and then you can go a little deep if you want to.

So if we think about our gum tissue, we actually have hormone receptors in our gum tissue. So we have estrogen and progesterone receptors in our tissue. So if we have shifts in hormones, whether that be through our cycle, through moving through adulthood to pregnancy, to perimenopause, to menopause, like when hormones shift, our gum tissue is going to be activated in some fashion or another. And so we know things like you probably hear a lot about like estrogen decline or low progesterone and things like that. So when we see these patterns, when we see shifts in estrogen, we see shifts in progesterone, we see you're more prone to bleeding gums, inflammation, bone loss, periodontal disease. So all of these things come together when we have these shifts. You know, women, right, we go through our hormonal cycle throughout the course of 28 to 32 days and men go through their hormonal cycle in a 24 hour period. So their shifts are much different than ours. And I think a lot of times we're not really investigating that much more. I'm not treating women's per se differently in regards to their oral health when there's so many other things happening beneath the surface.

Yeah, no, it's, it's fascinating and I think those cycles are definitely not discussed enough. I always, like, whenever I find people I like. There's some people I follow online who talk about like the cycles in business around like when you should launch things and when you should take, you know. And I've really become like a little bit more in tune with it. I'm like when my cycle starts, like, I'm like I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow so I'm going to cancel that workout class before they charge me. Like I'm. Because I just know my body needs rest tomorrow and I'll be back at it the next day. And like I should just warn everybody that like I'm going to be off kilter because that's just an energy tank for me, right? It's like my hormones are shifting, I'm exhausted. But it was very interesting actually because I. I joined, like, this program. I was like, okay, I'm going to get fit. And so I joined this program and it was like, focus on your macronutrients, and we're going to prescribe you your specific exercises that you're going to do for your workouts. And we're going to have you do this hormonal testing. And so it was like a finger prick test. And I sent it off and the results came back and it was like my progesterone was like, the opposite in the. Of what it should be. And at night it was the opposite. It was kind of flipped. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And so they basically told me I was perimenopausal right now. At the same time, I gained, like, 15 pounds, which was also like, the catalyst to me being like, I need to do a program. And I was. And I had been doing, like, Pilates and playing tennis and apparently was killing my adrenals. I was like, exhausting everything because I was doing too much. So long story short, right? That's where I find functional medicine and work with this nurse practitioner. And I feel like she ran a ton of labs. We did like a GI map test, and we did blood work and we did all the things. And it did come back that, like, my hormones were off. But the really interesting thing was that, like, when I, you know, I was like, I don't want to change everything at once because I then I won't know what's working. And so. And I'm like, I know enough to know, like, change one thing at a time, see how you feel, then add the next thing in it. Like, so what's the first thing we do, right, Was kind of like, that's what she helped me figure out. And so doing all of this, working through it, like, totally being that investigator, like you were saying, like, I was willing to put in the time because I was like, I'm feeling all the things, like, I just want to feel back to normal, like, back to myself. And it was fascinating for me because I ended up, like, introducing some peptides and some other things, but all my hormones, like, went back to normal without any, like, hormone treatment, like direct hormone treatment. Which was fascinating because they all, like, everybody wanted to put me on, like, hormone replacement therapy, right? And they all. And I was not against it. I was like, if I need it, like, okay, I'm here for it. But before we started it, they were like, okay, well, now that we know this is kind of settled and you've got this Going, now it's time to do the hormone replacement therapy. And I was like, well, let's redo the blood work and see, like, what it says now. And what do I need now? Because, like, we know things could shift with all the work we've been doing. And they're like, oh, no, it's only, like, two months old. I'm like, no, I want to redo it. We redo the blood work. And all of my hormones are, like, back where they were, and they're like, oh, you're not in perimenopause. And I was like, oh, I'm not.

Okay.

So that was like, really? And I'm sharing this for a reason. I'm like, that was really eye opening. It's like, hi, I just turned 40 last week. Like, I was 39 when this was all going on. I know that's the window for perimenopause for a lot of women. And so I'm like, not. And maybe I am in perimenopause. Who knows? But I was just, like, the fact that my hormones shifted so quickly because I was focused on other things and, like, working on other things. I was like, this is fascinating. And also, I have zero education on these topics. So that's why when, like, I saw, like, what we were going to talk about, and I was like, oh, oh, this is. This is actually very interesting. And I also had, like, a cavity. And I've maybe had two cavities in my entire life. One is in a tooth where I've had to, like, have it, like, drilled down and, like, re. You know, redone or whatever, like, refilled. But also I feel like it was all around that hormone shifting, too. So is that also, like, something that can be related.

Absolutely, yes.

Wild.

To the bacteria that cause cavities when we have hormonal shifts. So prone to actually building up plaque on our teeth when we have shifts in our hormones. But that's amazing that you were able to advocate for yourself and to make such a shift so quickly. You know, we think about hormones. It's like, yes, I do think there is a place for hormone replacement therapy. I think, you know, a lot of women do benefit, and men, but there's so many other systems of the body to support. So, you know, we know that the majority of our hormone conversion and metabolism happens in our liver. So if we're supporting our detox pathways, we're also supporting our hormones.

Yes.

So that's a huge. A huge factor. Our gut is really responsible for a lot with our hormones as well, so if we're doing these other things, and that's why bringing it back, it's all about the systems of the body and how they work together. If you focus on one thing, you're going to impact something else. But also if you have dysregulation somewhere, we're going to see more dysregulation in other areas. So. Yeah, and specifically to the mouth, we see. This is where we see the majority of our chronic low grade inflammation that leads to systemic inflammation and can cause imbalances in these other systems. And so that's one of the big things that we always want to do, is regulate that inflammation. Because when it's chronic and low grade, that's when we see disease process begin.

Mm. Yeah. No, I mean, this is. I like, you're saying this. I'm like, yes, yes, yes. Like, we worked on detoxing and before we detox, she like, prepped me for it. She's like, you got to open the pathways before you actually do the detox a lot. So I feel like, I mean, the person I worked with was very knowledgeable and I give her like, a lot of credit because I feel like she really got me on track, like on my track back to health. Right. Like, I was on my way back to health, but couldn't quite get me over, like, the hump to like, heal all of this right now and not just like, make this a lifelong thing where I'm always going to be on a low. What is it? Oh, my goodness, I can't even think of the word. Histamine. Histamine, like a low histamine diet. I was like, I literally can't eat in a restaurant. It's like grilled chicken and a veggie. That's like, not, you know, most of them that have high histamines. So it was very, very challenging. I was like, this is not a way of life for me. Like, this is not sustainable. I also don't want to feel like crap all the time because I'm not eating low histamine. So I was like, super motivated to figure it out. And I ended up working with another practitioner who was like, very, very holistic and used like Nam braided pads. Allergy elimination, techni, like, very immune system approach, very energetic muscle testing, kinesiology. Like, all these things mixed together, right? And acupressure and. And I'm telling you, like, that healed me. Like, I took my kids to her and saw that she had MCAs, like, on her shelf. And I was like, can you help me and she was like, absolutely. And started to just like learn about like the immune system. Right. It just, it's going to react if it thinks something's not safe. And so we have to teach the body what is safe. We also, like, work on, like you said, bringing the body back to like a place of homeostasis where everything is working together. Because traditional medicine teaches everything functions in silos or like we treat it in silos. And that's not actually how we work as humans. And I just, like, I knew a lot of this, but I never really experienced it for myself in this way. And so like, when I went through this experience and I was like, oh, so all those like over the counter detox things or things that people promote online, probably not healthy or not actually going to work. Because if you kill off parasites or you're detoxing these things, but you haven't opened the detox pathways to actually rid them out of your body. They just then recirculate throughout your system. I was like, that's gross and crazy. But yeah, so I think that that definitely helped a lot. But it was, it was so eye opening, so very eye opening to see how like, again, how interconnected everything is.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's exactly. It's a lifestyle switch. There might be targeted supplementation, there's, yeah, nutrition, all of these factors. But if you start creating these small habits and these small changes, they can make such a huge, huge impact.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, she had me like testing like my, my ph, like with little like PH strips just to like see once in a while where I was at. And then, you know, I use like, I use rice wall toothpaste. I don't know how you feel about that, but I'll use that for like remineralization of the teeth and I'll like put it inside my little Invisalign retainers and stuff to, you know, because a friend of mine is a biological dentist and she's like, put that in your retainers at night. Like, I'm noticing this on your teeth. Like, you know, this will really help. I'm like, okay. So it's just all these like, little things, you know, Magnesium. I know you have like listed here. Like, magnesium is a big one. Where I started to introduce more magnesium and like I was putting it on my legs at night and my feet before I went to sleep. And it's like all these like little things. Like, I'm sure there's other supplements and things I use too, but it's like, it was a Lot. It was a lot of discovery and then a lot of, like, being really diligent about, like, implementing all these new additions.

Yes, yes. It can feel. It can feel overwhelming at first, right when you start having all of these new things that you're implementing in your day. But once you get into a routine of it and with some of the things, it's. It's short term. It's not always like we need to do this long term. It's targeted, it's personalized, and, you know, it's all about you and how your body shifts through the process. So.

Yeah, yeah, so talk to us a little bit more about, like, that connection between these minerals and, like, oral health.

Yeah. So this is. I mean, this is huge because our teeth are made of minerals, our saliva is heavy in minerals. So many people are so deficient. So I run the hair tissue mineral analysis, the HTMA test on my clients. And so it gives us, you know, it gives us specific single minerals where we might see or deficient in something, or we have an overabundance of something. But then it really shows us patterns as to are those minerals actually being directed in the right place. Are we actually absorbing, digesting, absorbing the nutrients from our food? So lots of different things. It also lets us know how our adrenals are functioning, how our thyroid is functioning, our nervous system, our estrogen metabolism. There's just so much we can get from this simple hair test. But one pattern in particular that I actually see a lot is calcium is one of these nutrients that we need for strong teeth and bones. We've heard that forever, but with calcium, it has to be directed where it needs to go in our teeth and our bones. But it needs co nutrients to direct it there. So if we just take a calcium supplement, it's not going into our teeth and bones. We need vitamin D3, we need K2, and we need magnesium to get it where it needs to be. So a lot of times I will see on a hair test, they call it a calcium shell pattern. We'll have very elevated calcium, which means it's not going where it needs to go. It's free calcium. It's obviously in our hair. It's also storing in our tissues, in our blood. We hear, like, calcified arteries and can go places, cause other damage to the body if we don't direct it where it needs to go. When that calcium rises, we lose magnesium. So even if we're taking the adequate amount of magnesium, we're not absorbing it because the calcium shell displaces Magnesium, so we're actually losing it. So this pattern is something that's really important. And like, when we think of calcium, magnesium, we also think of phosphorus. And those are really important to remineralize our teeth. So our saliva naturally remineralizes our teeth. We undergo this demineralization remineralization process every day, every time we eat. And so if we don't have the appropriate minerals in our body and our saliva, we're going to have impaired remineralization, leading to more risk of decay. So our minerals are so important for our oral health.

Yeah, no, it's. It. I keep hearing more and more about this. I feel like over the past couple years of like that vitamin D is like, you need the K2 with the D3. And then it's like also that helps other things to actually digest and absorb within your body in the proper ways. And. And I'm like, why is this, like, not more mainstream, right? Like, well, I mean, like everything we do, right? But it's like, why is this not more. You know, people are just spending a ton of money on vitamins. They don't really know what they're doing. They're taking things because it's like the next cool thing on Instagram or something or, or a doctor said, oh, you need vitamin D. Okay, they go home, they buy vitamin D, but they don't tell them, like, you need D3, K2 and what, you know, what potency to like be taking it in and all that fun, fun stuff. So it's fascinating, but it's, it's also very interesting, like how much it directly impacts our oral health.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, when we look at minerals, we also know that stress depletes our minerals. So we live, I mean, we live in a very stressful world, right? We're exposed to so much, not only, you know, those physical stressors, but also the toxins we're exposed to every day through our air, through our water, through our food, through our products, our clothing, right? And so our body's always processing everything, but when we overload it with toxins, it's causing a stressor on the body. So in that turn, we can also get deplete, very depleted of certain minerals that we need. You know, that stress, that emotional grief or trauma that so many of us have gone through that can raise that calcium just by having stressful life events. It doesn't have to be that we're over supplementing or we're over consuming calcium. A lot of times it is due to trauma, grief, all these different things that everyone experiences at some point, right?

Yeah.

But also how we're actually functioning at a cellular level. So our thyroid and adrenal glands, like these are energy glands of the body. So when we look at the mineral patterns that show, you know, how well they're functioning, it's not going to give us specifically a diagnosis, but it's going to let us know that you're not actually utilizing your thyroid hormone effectively. Or we have suppressed adrenals. And, you know, cortisol is a hot topic. And all we see is, you know, everyone has high cortisol and we need to lower it, and there's a magic drink or there's a magic pill that is going to lower your cortisol. But low cortisol and high cortisol have very similar patterns. And so many people that have really suppressed adrenal function, you know, they're really depleted, actually have low cortisol. So if we're giving something to suppress cortisol even further, we're just going to cause so much imbalance, so much fatigue, just like burn out all the things. And we really just need to support the adrenals into functioning optimally rather than trying to suppress this hormone that we naturally secrete every day.

Yeah, yeah. It's like I. I look at all these, like, what is it? Like that orange juice, pineapple, whatever the drink is. Everyone's like, drink this for your adrenal health. And I'm. I feel exhausted after I drink a ton of sugar in a glass. So I know that maybe we're putting other things in. And I tried it a couple times. This is not for me. I mean, wherever I was functioning at that point, it wasn't helpful. But, no, it's fascinating that you say that because it's like, I know my adrenals were off, but also when we started focusing on healing, it was not like, oh, we're going to treat the adrenals. It was like, we're going to do certain things that are supportive for the adrenals.

And.

And by nature of what we're doing, your adrenal function should improve. Right. So, like, wherever it needs to be to kind of regulate. And that's exactly what happened. Because I'm like, my adrenals were shot. They were like, you know, you can't go in 90 degree weather and play tennis and then run to Pilates afterwards or vice versa. You know, they're like, pick one. Do one workout a day, not two. And I was like, here. I was, like, trying to get in shape and lose weight and be healthy. So I was like. I thought I was doing myself a favor. And I was like, you're literally driving yourself into the ground. Your body can't handle this. And I was like, well, that's a. That's a flip on the story here. So, yeah, yeah, there's a. There's the overdoing it of it, too. Right? So.

Yeah, man.

So, okay, so I'm just, like, thinking about, like, oral infections, right? So I know you're also in the myo space, and we get a lot of, like, I don't. Do you work with children, too, or just adults or. Where do you.

I primarily work with adults, but, you know, I have worked with children.

But, yeah, I'm just thinking about, like, the kids that. Because I do a lot of pediatrics, but, like, the kids who are constantly sick, right? They're constantly. Their tonsils are enlarged, their adenoids are inflamed. They're. They've got inflammation. You can just see the inflammation on their face, their bodies, which I know can happen in adults, too, obviously. I'm just thinking of, like, the snotty little ones, but I'm like, they're. They're chronically sick, or they have this chronic cough or this chronic post nasal drip or just something going on. And obviously, like, that's. It's leading to this chronic, like, inflammation, right? Systemically throughout. But I'm just also thinking, like, that happened to me as an adult, right? And so I was like, I had this, like, I had nasal surgery a couple years ago for, like, it was like, with an ent. And so she fixed my septum, so I had a septoplasty, a nasal turbinate reduction, nasal swell body reduction. And then they also did a rhinoplasty. So I was like, well, if I'm under general, just like, get rid of that bump that developed when I had kids. So we did all the things, but. And I can breathe so much better. But I've had this post nasal drip, this chronic post nasal drip ever since. And it's typically like, when I'm in recycled air in. Either in a car or on an airplane or something like that, or if I'm, like, in a certain position, like, if I lay down or I'm, like, in a certain position, it triggers it, but I'm like, that can't be good, right? Like, that causes a lot of, like, internal inflammation. And so I'm constantly thinking about, like, well, what do we do to fix this and how do we, you know, correct it? And Anyways, but I feel like also when my hormones were off, it was a lot worse. So is there something like, you know, I'm just guessing here, but, like, is there something to be said about all of these, like, the connection between all of these things?

Yeah, definitely. You know, if we think about, say, estrogen, right? Estrogen regulates collagen synthesis. So if we have declining estrogen, we. I mean, we know, we know, right? We're in our early 40s and we know our skin's losing collagen by the day, right? Yes.

So fun.

But our gum tissue, our teeth and our jawbone all have large quantities of collagen. So not only do we lose skin elasticity and, you know, develop more fine lines and wrinkles, you know, we're losing some of that vertical, vertical dimension in our jaw if we're not actively trying to produce collagen. And so, you know, of course there's a lot of collagen supplements, but ideally we are, you know, increasing our vitamin C intake, which is a precursor for collagen. So it's going to stimulate your body to produce its own, but also just reducing inflammation overall is going to help with that. So that's something, right? Because we see so many women who do not look like the casebook sleep apnea patient, but they're dealing with all of these symptoms because they're. Their hormones are shifting. We're losing estrogen, we're losing progesterone, we're losing collagen production. So these things are going to collapse our airway more. We're going to lose some of that dimension. You know, with the post nasal drip, that can be a lot of different things. It can be hormonal. Do you notice it more like certain times of your cycle or can you pinpoint anything like that?

That's really interesting. And I'm gonna have to track that now because I'm like, I'm a tmi. I'm like, it just ended and today I'm totally fine. But, like, yesterday it was like full force. So very interesting, you know, to, like, see, like, and it's. It is most days, like, I have it at least at some point. Most days for the past three years. Like, it's. Yeah. Ever since the surgery. So I feel like something triggered it. It could also be the positioning of something in my nasal cat. I don't know, maybe something's just triggering something to be overproduced. I have no idea about to go into, like, more adult expansions. So we'll see. We'll see if that fixes things when I have a little bit more. A little bit of a wider palette. But yeah, no, it's. I don't know. I'm like, now I want to track.

Yeah, I would definitely just keep. Keep an eye on it and see if you notice it more prominent in certain phases of your cycle. Yeah. Because that would give us more insight into kind of what's happening there.

Yeah, no, it's so. It's so cool, but so crazy, like, how everything is, like, so interconnected and I'm like, right. I'm, like, taking notes of her. I'm like, vitamin C. I'm like, I was doing so good. I was taking it so frequently. I was also traveling a lot, so my brain, I was like, I need, like, to boost my vitamin C and, like, I just have been, like, less consistent with it as of late. I'm like, I know that would help me. So vitamin C needs to come back on board. But, yeah, no, it's really very interesting how, like, really. No issues with my teeth right now. No issues with my gums. Like, no issues with my gut. Like, I feel like my inflammation's down. I lost weight. Like, it's all these things. I'm like, everything seems to have fallen into place and people are like, wow, you look great.

Oh, wow.

Like, you know, everything's. I'm like, I'm. I feel healthy, but I'm like, I did a lot of work to get here. It was a. It was a process.

Absolutely. That's amazing, though. Yeah.

Yeah.

No, but great team with you because that's all about collaboration too. Right. It wasn't one person that gave you all the answers. It never really is going to be. I'm a huge, huge fan of collaborating with other practitioners. You can bring different pieces to the puzzle for your clients or patients health. Because. Right. Like I said, like, not one person has all the answers. You hold a lot of answers, too. So the fact that you were able to advocate and be like, no, I actually think my hormones are better now and I want to test them before we start doing anything more advanced.

I think that's amazing. Well, and honestly, it was like one company was telling me, like, from the fingerprints, like, you need this. And then the blood work was saying this. And I'm like, I trust the blood work more than, like, the finger prick test. But at the same. On the same token, I'm like, can we just, like, read you the blood work and, like, just. Just tell me. Like, maybe then we'll know, is it the estrogen? Is it the progesterone Is it the HCA that I need? Like, it was like all these different things being recommended and I was like, I just want to know. So anyways, and they came back and they're like, well, everything looks good. I was like, oh, not what I was expecting, but yeah, I'll take it. So, okay, so talk to us about like, because you obviously work with like, MYO patients too, right? Are you combining like MYO with like the holistic health, like, approach, like with all of your patients? Is that like your, your meat and potatoes? Is that what you're doing?

Yeah, so I work with people in different capacities, but no, I do have a program that really combines everything. Where we do mayo, we work on mineral and hormone balancing. We're looking at the whole oral systemic connection, also incorporating some saliva testing for a lot of people because so much that's going on in our gut is also happening in our mouth. And so really I'm always taking this completely whole body approach and just wanting to dive as deeply as I can because I think that's the way to really connect the dots and make a. Make a change.

Yeah, no, I love that because I know if we get into the whole conversation about like, mouth breathing and you were mentioning like, women who look fit and healthy and getting diagnosed with sleep apnea and. And I got a UARS diagnosis a number of years ago. That was part of why I was like, okay, it's time to find this surgeon who can help me with my airway, upper airway. And so, and I had done some expansion and everything and I gained some space and I felt like I had enough room for my tongue. And anyways, we're going to go into more expansion, but that's a whole other conversation for another day. But anywho. Yeah, I just feel like everything combined. Right. Like being a myotherapist and knowing how important it was to have the airway open and to have enough room for my tongue and the tongue resting on the palate and nasal breathing and lips closed and all the things. And like, that also definitely helped with my, my healing. Right. Like, it's hard to heal if you're mouth breathing.

Absolutely. I mean. Right. They say like mouth breathing is the breath of fight or flight. So we're activating our nervous system so we cannot heal if we're not in parasympathetic mode. And so if we're chronic mouth breathers, we're never going to have optimal healing. We're always going to have chronic low grade inflammation. We're going to have a more dry mouth, so we're more prone to cavities. You know, we're going to have more opportunistic bacteria populate because we're mouth breathing and have dry tissues and have this inflammation. So it's definitely all tied together, and it's just working with someone who can connect the dots and really support that.

Yeah. So. So give us a little, like, sneak peek into, like, if someone's coming to work with you. Right. Like, how do you even approach this? I have a feeling like, some myotherapists are going to be like, wait, I have clients that Amber needs to see. So, like, how do I even approach this with them? Because I don't know if they're ready to hear this yet. Like, how do you even approach this with the average patient?

Well, that's the thing, too, is I do work with some myotherapists where they'll do the myotherapy portion with their clients, and I'll kind of come in and do more of that mineral evaluation and more of the oral systemic connection. And I think that's a good collaboration, too. Like, I love doing myo, but there's a lot of amazing myofunctional therapists out there, and I feel like we know so much together that we can support each other. And I'm happy to kind of do that mineral testing and dive deeper into hormones. You know, I think we see a lot of children as myofunctional therapists. Like I said, I do work work with the majority of women who are kind of our age. Right. Or even a little bit older. So I always approach everything with meeting the client where they're at. I always want to make sure that they fully understand what we're getting into. But I would start with a myofunctional therapy evaluation. At the same time, I would run a mineral test, because so many of the things that are going on with clenching, grinding, low tongue, posture, all the different things have a lot to do with minerals, too, if we're deficient. So I always want to have both of those pieces of information together and then come up with a plan. So we're working on myofunctional therapy exercises, but we're also incorporating targeted nutrition, targeted supplements, you know, lifestyle changes, supporting the body in detoxing effectively and opening those drainage pathways like you were talking about. So I would say every person I work with is unique. I don't have, like, an approach where every. Sure. Everyone might get the same test. Or maybe I'll add an Additional test. But my plan is always different because we all have a different history. We all have a different terrain, a different constitution. So it's always very targeted. I always take a very detailed intake history, often to the point where some people go, I don't think I meant to fill out this form. And I'm like, no, you are. I want to know it all. Because it's all connected. So, yeah. So I kind of just approach it into, you know, asking. Asking the questions and figuring out what they have going on and then coming up with a plan for them.

I love that. That is so cool. I mean, it's like, I needed you five years ago, and I was like, you know, I knew the Mayo stuff myself, but I was like, kind of just like, like, okay, I'm done having kids. Like, I'm done breastfeeding. I'm like, that totally wrecked my hormones. It took me for a ride. But, like, okay, now. Now how do we move into regulating all of this? And I feel like it took me, like, probably three years or so before. I mean, I had the nasal surgery, like, three years ago, but three years, like, probably a year in after that surgery, where I was still like, okay, why? I felt good after the surgery because I feel like my body was finally like, oh, you can breathe. And that changes a whole host of things for us. And then it was like a year and a half after that or two years after that, where my body was like, oh, wait. But no, there's other things going on now. You know, I was like, so it's, like, constantly evolving. And it's very cool to hear you talk about all this, because I just feel like a lot of people talk about detoxing, but they don't talk about opening the detox pathways. And I'm like, if people, like, are listening and they're like, oh, I do that. I use these supplements. I detox. Like, if the person who's training you or like, that you're working with, not training you, but you're working with, has not actually talked about opening your detox pathways, and you don't actually know if you're doing that or you're buying something off, like wine, and you're not, like, opening the pathways before you do the detox. The rest of the detox program, like, that phase one part. Like, I've now heard from several people that how important that is, and I just feel like, again, it's not mainstream knowledge or conversation at all. And so I love that you brought that up.

Yeah, no, and it should be right if we're not able to sweat, go to the bathroom, breathe fully in and out of our lungs, have optimal kidney and liver function, move our lymphatic system, it's going to recirculate. And the same thing goes for. If we go back to hormones a little bit, you know, we. A lot of times we'll hear like, oh, we have high estrogen or things like that. But in reality, a lot of people actually aren't clearing estrogen. Like, we're supposed to use estrogen and clear it. But if that estrogen metabolism is slowed down, it recirculates in our body. And then we have these estrogen metabolites that cause more disease in the body, more imbalance. And so that's really important to support our liver function there. So, you know, it's not just giving a hormone or taking something away, adding something, it's supporting the other systems. Because if we have, you know, those excess estrogen metabolites, we are more prone to bleeding gums. We're more prone to accelerated periodontal disease. So we'll actually see, like, more significant bone loss more quickly in women. In that case, more gum and tooth sensitivity. You know, there's so many people walking around with gum and tooth sensitivity, and they don't really have a solution other than, you know, to brush with with sensodyne, which is not my favorite option. You know, there's different, more natural, holistic biological approaches with things like ozone and with hydroxyapatite. But why are the tea sensitive in the first place? Yes, probably because of mineral depletion or hormone imbalances. And so if we can target those, we're going to get to the root of the problem versus just using another product.

Right. Another crutch. Another. Yeah, Lifelong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's so fascinating. It makes so much sense, especially when you talk about it. I'm like, oh, yeah, like, I get it. It's okay. This is connected to that and that impacts that. And like. Like, yeah, I'm like, so deep in this rabbit hole of like, just, you know, based having on having my own experience the past couple years. And it's just been so eye opening, but I have to say I don't think anybody fully connected it. And I'm sure that, like, people maybe talk to me about. And I just. Maybe it just went over my head, but never really fully connected. Like the entire oral health connection to, like, I got. I knew about the minerals, but, like, the hormones, I didn't really know much about that. And the whole, like, detoxing and all that, that didn't really connect all the dots when it comes to like oral health.

So yeah, yeah, there's, there's a lot there. I would say it's not as readily, readily discussed as I feel like for me that was something that I just became so fascinated with. And yes, I've taken lots of courses, lots of different continuing education, lots of programs and things like that. But I feel like a lot of what I've learned and been able to share in regards to oral health and hormones has been my own deep dive a lot of times because, you know, of course I learn a lot in these programs, but I'm. There's not one place because people are like, is there one place to learn about this? And there really isn't. There's not one book, there's not one program. And so a lot of times it's like doing your own research and maybe it's a little dorky to like dive into the studies and like beyond PubMed and like connecting the dots. But for me, being able to do that allows me to help my clients and my patients heal. And so, and also it gives me so much information because I'm a 42 year old woman. I'm experiencing all the shifts as well. So I always formation for myself and for, you know, the people I work with.

Yeah, no, this is amazing. I love, I love that you've done this. I love that you pulled it all together. And so I know you have like your, your methodology, if we want to call it that. Right. So your functional oral health health method. So if people wanted to like work with you or even like whether they're in Maya already or not, like where would they find you? How do they, how do they get help?

Yeah, definitely. So they can find me on instagram @naturally amberwhite. Naturallyamberwhite.com is my website which gives a lot more information into different things I do. So yes, functional oral health method is where I work with, with clients on their overall health, really focused on these specific patterns that we're talking about. I also do work with practitioners who are making these shifts into more of a biological or functional approach to dentistry. So I do have a program coming up for practitioners to bring some of the pieces into their practice. And so that is called beyond the mouth. And that's something that you know will be coming out in July.

I love that. And I just went to your website, so I see that that's on here. So everybody can kind of like click through to learn more about the practitioner training so that is an all that you offer. So that's amazing. Your website is beautiful by the way we will link that so that everybody can connect with you and get the support they need. I mean I feel like the work you're doing is not super common like especially when combining like the biological like dentistry oral health side with all of this so the holistic health side of it so very, very cool. Love what you're doing. I feel like the world needs to know about this because everybody could probably benefit but yeah is there anything that like we didn't cover that you want to talk about or share with us?

Yeah I mean it's so tough to to pinpoint one thing. I mean I think everything is so interconnected and so in depth but I feel like just the takeaway is if you are the patient or the client listening to this. You said it in the very beginning how you were your own advocate and I think that.