Ep 157 - Dr. Ryan Nolan - What You Thought You Knew About Adjunctive Therapy

We get to really nerd out this week as we invite on Ryan Nolan, DMD. Ryan is a practitioner, commentator and creator, being the host of fellow podcast The Biofilm Factor—where he discusses biofilm management and diet with other dental professionals—and also a co-founder of Elementa Silver, which specializes in nano silver-driven oral cleaning solutions. His work in dentistry and oral health care is guided by his previous education in chemical engineering, and he approaches the field with an eye for results-based research.

In this episode, Ryan discusses why he switched from chemical engineering to dentistry (and how the former has guided his work), lays out his case for nano silver as a dental cleaning product, and voices his concern at how many trendy dental products are not supported by science.


EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

Interview begins: 3:11

- How Ryan's product design work allows him to express his creativity within dental work.

- Pinpointing areas within the dental profession that could still be vastly improved through new technology and treatments.

- The "21st century gap" in dental care and treatment and how much catch-up the industry needs to do.

- What are "preventative products" and why it's important to make a push for them.

- The limitations of in vitro testing and some important factors that process can't account for.

- Why Ryan is a big fan of silver diamine fluoride.

- How silver, much like family trees, has several generations.

- Are there benefits to using silver in toothbrush bristles?

- How differing professional standards can result in improper dental care and preventative treatment across the board.

- Balancing treatment with price to do the absolute best by our patients.

- The skeletons in chlorhexidine's closet that make it an inadvisable treatment.

- Ryan dishes out the truth about Sensodyne and explains why he's skeptical of certain toothpaste trends.