Advancing Periodontal Care: Insight on Patient Healing with StellaLife Products by Dr. Scott H Froum DDS
Video Transcription
So I've been a periodontist now since 2007, practicing in private practice as well as teaching at the school. Stony Brook Dental School in the Department of Periodontics, and I have been drawn to this field for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons was my father was a periodontist and I grew up around the dental field with all his friends. So I've been immersed in this field since 1974. So I've been practicing, uh, you know, this field for a while, but then I've transitioned now to functional dentistry, uh, where I practice whole systems medicine along with some functional integrative medical clinics that I've opened up right next door along with my wife. And so we've been really concentrating now on not only periodontics, but functional dentistry and functional integrative medicine as a whole systems approach. In traditional periodontics. You know, nobody loves surgery, right? So nobody loves to get operated on. Nobody loves gum surgery. Nobody loves conventional flap surgery and debridement with stitches because, you know, there can be post-operative sequelae and pain.
So that's certainly something that we've had to deal with over the years. And convincing people to fix something that doesn't hurt traditionally, right. Periodontal disease typically doesn't hurt until it's too late. That's why the American Academy of Periodontology has a brochure that says don't hurt. Don't wait until it hurts. Um, which is very apropos. But, you know, fixing a disease process that people don't necessarily have pain over. Uh, they, you know, and afterwards, they may be in pain. They view it as, you know, nothing was wrong. And you hurt me so and you made it worse. So we've had to overcome that in the traditional periodontal game as well as healing. You know, sometimes healing can be slower because these patients have inflammatory processes and other diseases that make their immune systems a little bit deficient, and then their healing is affected by that. So in traditional periodontics, uh, we've we've have to overcome those, those barriers. The first time I heard Still Alive was about ten years ago.
And I ran into this gentleman named Gennady, and and Gennady was one of the gentlemen who, uh, who works at still life and was one of the founders of it. Um, and he ran into me at a meeting and he said, Doctor Frome, you know, we really want to work with you. Uh, he's read some of the articles that I wrote, and he came across as somebody who was really genuine about the passion he has for helping people, and specifically his backstory is that, you know, he had experiences with people that were, uh, you know, cancer survivors and people who had substance abuse disorder because of all the narcotics that they had to take. And he genuinely wanted to create a product line that was helpful for mucositis, lesions that that cancer patients typically have, as well as patients who have, you know, dependent uses because of all of the pathology and disease processes that they've been put through and they've been put on these narcotic medications. And that struck me as something that was really in line with my thinking.
And we're going to use it for healing. And it's, um, you know, properties of debridement or antibacterial properties. So everybody's comfortable with, with, you know, you know, herbal medicine and things of that nature as long as a big brand is stamped on it. Well, this has the same idea. You know, it uses antibacterial agents like neem and calendula and plantago and propolis, which are terrific for healing. Um, you know, those are typically antivirals and antifungals and antibacterial, and things that accelerate wound healing are like Plantago and arnica Montana and chamomile, which show anti-inflammatory properties. And, you know, in terms of the ability to take people off of substances and good for opioids, there's a lot of anti anxiolytics in there as well. So, you know, you have aconitum and gelsemium and ignatia or ignatia however you want to pronounce it. But those are all, you know, anti anti-allergic anti anti which help with you know, stress levels and things of that nature. So it's a mix of anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral as well as wound healing via anti-inflammatory inflammation and anti anxiolytic.
So those combinations are really powerful in terms of treating patients without the traditional um, you know, antiseptics which are alcohol and Chlorohexidine and hydrogen peroxidases things that could be a lot more caustic to the to the mouth. In my practice, I found, you know, patients in the in our periodontal practice, I should say I found patients that have mucositis, lesions, um, dry mouth, um, really, uh, severe inflammation, uh, or a combination of the two that I don't want to put on a chemical agent to, to create a more xerostomia environment. Um, that that has been really helpful after surgery. You know, some of these bacteria, you know, some of these antibacterial agents, such as, like chlorhexidine, for example, you know, they have a lot of a lot of properties that people don't like. The sequela is, uh, you know, the side effects, I should say are, you know, brown tongue, brown teeth, uh, tartar buildup, dyskinesia, which is altered taste sensations and metallic tastes and, um, you know, anti fibroblastic properties.
In other words, it doesn't create healing. It actually inhibits it. So those patients that I don't want to put on those medications, we use StellaLife. Um, and that seems to help with those concerns. And typically when I say those patients, it's pretty much all my patients. I've gotten away from the antiseptics tremendously. Um, now in our functional dentistry clinic, it's pretty much all our patients because we're concerned with oral microbiome. You know, oral microbiome is something that's going to be coming up of age, and it's going to be more important as time progresses. And we see how important the microbiome is. So when you have typical agents that Affect, um, you know, all of the bacteria, they get rid of all the bacteria, even the good ones. You're really affecting the harmony of the microbiome, and therefore you want to try to do away with those. So what sets StellaLife apart from traditional medicaments in both periodontal patients? And, you know, the, um, I would say patients who come in for natural approaches, uh, is that you're not using caustic agents to try and eliminate all the bacteria.
Uh, a nice study out of new Jersey, uh, was a study that showed that StellaLife was able to target, you know, pathogenic bacteria in the mouth but leave commensal bacteria intact. So what that means is it basically targets the bad bacteria and leaves the good bacteria or eubacteria alone so that, you know, you have you have a situation where your oral microbiome, like we talked about isn't affected, which is huge. Right? So the oral microbiome is really the next step of dentistry where we're going to be concerned with keeping a homeostatic balance in the mouth without destroying it. That's why some people, you know, are able to cope with certain diseases and others are not. It's because their microbiome keeps that in check. When you destroy a microbiome, you alter the the homeostasis in the mouth and you can create a situation where it's it's, you know, it's now more open to disease. In other words, we're all taught in dental school that a patient may be fine for a long time, and then all of a sudden they go on certain medications.
In other words, it doesn't create healing. It actually inhibits it. So those patients that I don't want to put on those medications, we use StellaLife. Um, and that seems to help with those concerns. And typically when I say those patients, it's pretty much all my patients. I've gotten away from the antiseptics tremendously. Um, now in our functional dentistry clinic, it's pretty much all our patients because we're concerned with oral microbiome. You know, oral microbiome is something that's going to be coming up of age, and it's going to be more important as time progresses. And we see how important the microbiome is. So when you have typical agents that Affect, um, you know, all of the bacteria, they get rid of all the bacteria, even the good ones. You're really affecting the harmony of the microbiome, and therefore you want to try to do away with those. So what sets StellaLiife apart from traditional medicaments in both periodontal patients? And, you know, the, um, I would say patients who come in for natural approaches, uh, is that you're not using caustic agents to try and eliminate all the bacteria.
Uh, a nice study out of new Jersey, uh, was a study that showed that StellaLiife was able to target, you know, pathogenic bacteria in the mouth but leave commensal bacteria intact. So what that means is it basically targets the bad bacteria and leaves the good bacteria or eubacteria alone so that, you know, you have you have a situation where your oral microbiome, like we talked about isn't affected, which is huge. Right? So the oral microbiome is really the next step of dentistry where we're going to be concerned with keeping a homeostatic balance in the mouth without destroying it. That's why some people, you know, are able to cope with certain diseases and others are not. It's because their microbiome keeps that in check. When you destroy a microbiome, you alter the the homeostasis in the mouth and you can create a situation where it's it's, you know, it's now more open to disease. In other words, we're all taught in dental school that a patient may be fine for a long time, and then all of a sudden they go on certain medications.
And those certain medications can cause cavities. They can cause periodontal disease, they can cause dry mouth, they can cause things like that. Well, that's because you're disrupting their oral microbiome, right? We all get those concepts, but we don't get the concept that we're introducing a drug or a antiseptic that alters the microbiome and can cause the same problems. You know, that's a little bit more foreign to us. So the thing that's still alive that sets still life apart is their ability to use these natural products that we talked about that are just as effective, but do not do the harmful things that or the chemical agents do. Do. Sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was a big user of chlorhexidine and some of these other antiseptics like hydrogen peroxide and things of that thing. Things like that. And, you know, patients typically, you know, they'll use it, but they don't love those. You know, they don't love the taste, they don't like the results. You know, they don't like the fact that they're coming in with brown teeth, you know.
Nobody likes that. So, um, patients typically accept the still life products. Then they read about them, and then they're very happy because everybody likes using natural products. Who doesn't like that? If you have a natural product versus a chemical product, I'm sure that 99% of us would choose the natural product as long as the outcomes were the same. And I see it, you know, in my in my patients that are compromised, you know, my patients that have the dry mouth. The patients that have poor wound healing, the patients that have mucositis reactions, the patients whose oral microbiome is already disturbed because they've been on a host of, you know, antibacterial medications already. This really seems to do a nice recuperation of what they used to have, um, you know, and the probiotic line that they've developed, the lozenges as well as the spore biotics, they're great. You know, they're great for gut resets. You know, we started a gut oral clinic. So an oral microbiome gut microbiome clinic.
And we've been having tremendous success with patients with poor dysbiotic guts that need help in their mouth. So, you know, we really have been using this on, on all those types of patients. Yeah, I mean, they all like it. They all ask where they can buy it. You know, the only the only sometimes the, the only negative is that they've looked on Amazon and they can't find it because it's a little bit on backorder. So that's always a good problem right. Um that they like it too much. Uh, but no, I mean, I haven't found anyone that has been, uh, a negative about the products. They've all been pretty positive. The only thing consideration that I would say is that patients that have ragweed allergies that are allergic to chamomile, they may be people that you don't want to put on these because there is a chamomile ingredient in it. So people with ragweed allergies, those um, you have to be a little bit careful of. But but for for everyone else, you know, they've, they've really enjoyed these these product lines.
And you know, I have them on these products indefinitely, you know. So just as any person would grab a mouth rinse, uh, you know, certainly I would tell them to use StellaLife instead of any alcohol based or even non-alcohol based, uh, products like Listerine has. I would tell them to use StellaLife first. That would be a first consideration for me. Yeah, I just did a study on patients, and this is this happens to be on the forefront of medicine and dentistry. They, you know, if you listen to Andrew Huberman, who's a big into the podcasting world, right? Andrew Huberman is a professor who, uh, is an anti I guess you would call him an anti-aging professor or an anti-aging medicine, but he he has a big following, same as Peter and some of all of these other health gurus on YouTube and the podcast. You know, he just addressed a big study that came out that showed that patients who use mouth rinses consistently had higher blood pressure. Now, you would think, what?
You know, that's crazy. But as it turns out, there's a there's a molecule in the mouth called nitric oxide. And nitric oxide is one of the is a vasodilator of the body. And it just so happens that it's stored in your saliva ducts or your saliva glands, I should say, um, in a concentrated form. And some of the commensal bacteria that we talked about, the good bacteria in your mouth and the dorsum of the tongue, actually break down your food products, uh, from nitrite into nitrates. And then it's, it's then reduced further in the stomach to nitric oxide. Well, if you use mouth rinses all the time, uh, and you're destroying those good bacteria, you're destroying your your mouth's ability to store nitric oxide or store nitrates that eventually become nitric oxide. So plasma nitric nitric oxide concentrations decrease as well as salivary nitric oxide concentrations decrease. So what does that mean? What that means is you're limiting your your body's ability to fight hypertension through vasodilation by decreasing these molecules through constant use of mouth rinses.
So they found that patients that consistently use mouth rinses have higher blood pressures. Well that's a problem right? Because we as dentists always prescribe mouth rinses. And in fact, probably for the majority of people, we shouldn't be. Whether you want to use warm salt water or, you know, some type of other stringent, maybe that's the way to go to. So I said, well, you know what, if there was this study down in in Rutgers in New Jersey that showed that StellaLife can target the pathogenic bacteria, but leave the commensal bacteria well, maybe cell life could be useful to use as a mouth rinse and not raise blood pressures and not, you know, lower the nitric oxide concentration. So I did a study on ten patients as a pilot. And I used these strips to measure these salivary concentrations of nitric oxide. And then I had them use StellaLife as well as another brand of patriotism that uses peroxides. And then as well as another brand that uses chlorhexidine. And I compared all three.
And sure enough, StellaLiife was the only, um, mouth rinse that didn't lower concentrations of nitric oxide or nitrates in the mouth. So, uh, that was a was a eureka moment for me in that I can now prescribe these mouth rinses and not worry about some of the systemic effects that that these mouth rinses and these other products may be having. So certainly for those populations with with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases and other things, that may be a big consideration in the future. Yeah, I wouldn't limit it to the scope of periodontics. I would say, how would these products affect dentistry in general, as well as some of the larger systemic problems that we've been talking about. So, you know, I view dentistry as going towards a regeneration and remineralization concept. Um, two for too long have we we've delved in the past, in the 1880s of drill and fill technologies as well as, you know, this, you know, massive flaps. I view dentistry going in the in towards, as we talked about, you know, more more awareness of the oral microbiome and the importance that plays.
You know, that's crazy. But as it turns out, there's a there's a molecule in the mouth called nitric oxide. And nitric oxide is one of the is a vasodilator of the body. And it just so happens that it's stored in your saliva ducts or your saliva glands, I should say, um, in a concentrated form. And some of the commensal bacteria that we talked about, the good bacteria in your mouth and the dorsum of the tongue, actually break down your food products, uh, from nitrite into nitrates. And then it's, it's then reduced further in the stomach to nitric oxide. Well, if you use mouth rinses all the time, uh, and you're destroying those good bacteria, you're destroying your your mouth's ability to store nitric oxide or store nitrates that eventually become nitric oxide. So plasma nitric nitric oxide concentrations decrease as well as salivary nitric oxide concentrations decrease. So what does that mean? What that means is you're limiting your your body's ability to fight hypertension through vasodilation by decreasing these molecules through constant use of mouth rinses.
So they found that patients that consistently use mouth rinses have higher blood pressures. Well that's a problem right? Because we as dentists always prescribe mouth rinses. And in fact, probably for the majority of people, we shouldn't be. Whether you want to use warm salt water or, you know, some type of other stringent, maybe that's the way to go to. So I said, well, you know what, if there was this study down in in Rutgers in New Jersey that showed that StellaLiife can target the pathogenic bacteria, but leave the commensal bacteria well, maybe cell life could be useful to use as a mouth rinse and not raise blood pressures and not, you know, lower the nitric oxide concentration. So I did a study on ten patients as a pilot. And I used these strips to measure these salivary concentrations of nitric oxide. And then I had them use StellaLiife as well as another brand of patriotism that uses peroxides. And then as well as another brand that uses chlorhexidine. And I compared all three.
And sure enough, StellaLiife was the only, um, mouth rinse that didn't lower concentrations of nitric oxide or nitrates in the mouth. So, uh, that was a was a eureka moment for me in that I can now prescribe these mouth rinses and not worry about some of the systemic effects that that these mouth rinses and these other products may be having. So certainly for those populations with with hypertension and cardiovascular diseases and other things, that may be a big consideration in the future. Yeah, I wouldn't limit it to the scope of periodontics. I would say, how would these products affect dentistry in general, as well as some of the larger systemic problems that we've been talking about. So, you know, I view dentistry as going towards a regeneration and remineralization concept. Um, two for too long have we we've delved in the past, in the 1880s of drill and fill technologies as well as, you know, this, you know, massive flaps. I view dentistry going in the in towards, as we talked about, you know, more more awareness of the oral microbiome and the importance that plays.
You know, certainly if you look at any Jama or journal of American Medical Association, they're talking about microbiomes all over the body. We should be talking more about that at the mouth because that's important. We should be talking about more strategies that can induce regeneration and increase the body's healing capacity, as well as remineralization of our teeth. I mean, our teeth have magic ways of remineralizing or rebuilding themselves if we promote the right the concepts and certainly, um, you know, whether you're using growth factors or whether you're using other technologies that promote regeneration, I view StellaLiife as one of those technologies that would help, you know, create an environment that helps the body rebuild itself or remineralize itself or regenerate itself. So I think that's the direction that that dentistry in general is going to go towards. It's really repair rather than just a mechanistic drill and fill or or clean out this or clean out that. It's, it's how do we help the body heal itself.