Biting into Healthcare with Dr Miguel Stanley

Miguel Stanley, DDS

Sink your teeth, and let's hope they are healthy, into the world of modern dentistry, medicine and healthcare in general and join world renowned dental surgeon Dr Miguel Stanley as he shares his views on what's going on out there. He will be talking about all things that he is passionate about in dentistry, regenerative medicine and healthcare. Simply by himself or with colleagues, scientists, doctors and business leaders from around the world, Dr Miguel Stanley will be challenging traditional concepts as well as discussing what he believes needs changing, what’s trending, the latest cool technologies, materials and ideas out there. Dr Miguel Stanley has lectured in over 50 countries around the world on these topics and even hosted the first ever National Geographic documentary on dentistry. He founded and works daily in the world famous White Clinic in Lisbon, Portugal, where he practices advanced biological dentistry and he also founded the Slow Dentistry Global Network, a non profit focused on safety, quality and ethics in dentistry. He is well known for his positive energy and inspirational messages on all things close to his heart. This podcast will challenge the “status quo” of conventional thought. Are there other smarter, safer, healthier, better, and more affordable solutions out there that we don't know about? Lets find out together. Ps: most episodes recorded when the moment is right and not in a studio setting so please forgive sound issues. It’s the content that matters most. read less
Health & FitnessHealth & Fitness

Episodes

Root Canal!  Yes or No?
Jun 13 2023
Root Canal! Yes or No?
Root canals have been round for hundreds of years, and are incredibly effective way to remove pain and to salvage the tooth structure. However,  when poorly executed, can lead to some complications. The definition of poorly executed can vary a lot, but its not always possible to get the treatment 100% and this can lead to many health issues in the long run. One of the basic and many times overlooked and very important steps, is setting up a dental or rubber dam to isolate the tooth against saliva contamination. If this was not done, then the likelihood that things can go wrong is very high. Also, the use of sterilised instruments and making sure that all canals even the hidden ones have been properly treated  and cleaned, for if not, the possibility of inflammation and even the formation of a cyst around the tooth in the long run is quite high. This is not good for systemic heath.  The use of CBCT to make sure there is no ongoing inflammation is imperative and we must remember that no treatment last forever. If you have systemic illness, you might want to look into alternatives however, I believe that went well performed by a trained Endodontist using state of the art protocols and instruments, it can be a very effective treatment to help patients with tooth ache as opposed to extraction, but must always be done under optimal conditions. So, no! Not all root canals are bad, just the poorly executed ones. Always make informed decisions about your health.
Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: A good thing?
Dec 11 2022
Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: A good thing?
I have been following the evolution of Artificial intelligence in dentistry for quite some time, and I think that there are a lot of amazing companies out there doing incredible things. The foundation of all of these developments is to ensure better diagnostics, treatment planning and to help Dentists and dental teams around the world improve the quality of care. Or is it? Could it be that some companies will try and utilise artificial intelligence to enhance volume of sales and not quality of care? We have seen some examples in the industry where companies are incredibly focused on sales alone and not quality of care. As such, I think we need to ensure that different artificial intelligence organisations within healthcare do different things, and there should most certainly be organisations that focus on ethics and quality of care alone, ensuring that patients get exactly what they are paying for and what is sold to them.  I think with augmented reality and wearable cameras, it's going to be a very interesting time moving forward , is there will be a lot more information to monitor and control, and I trust that we can all work together ensuring that at the end of the day we can create healthy ecosystems where diagnostics are improved dramatically, treatment planning is the best possible, execution is gold standard and everyone can win and be profitable at the end of the day.Ive been saying in my lectures for quite some time, "it's a very good time to start practising ethical gold standard dentistry"
Could Your Dentistry Silently Be Killing You and is Immune Dentistry the answer?
Jan 6 2022
Could Your Dentistry Silently Be Killing You and is Immune Dentistry the answer?
The link between healthcare and your mouth is more complex than most people realise. There is mounting evidence that poorly executed dental treatments and natural occurring cysts  can lead to serious health issues. We can link the inflammation in the jawbone caused by these problems to a large array of systemic illnesses: Fibromyalgia, Breast Cancer (link), Depression, Chronic Fatigue , Rheumatoid Arthritis and many more. The way dentistry is being practiced in many clinics around the world has not evolved to be able to properly diagnose these issues, and 2D film Xray and clinical observation during check ups, that sometimes take 15 minutes,  is still the norm.  We need to disrupt this method of clinical evaluation in 2022 and ensure that dentists, or at least those that really care about connecting dots between oral issues and systemic issues, start asking more questions and using better technology to diagnose, such as 3D-CBCT (Cone Beam Computer Tomography) and also blood tests looking for RANTES\CCL5 cytokines produced when there is inflammation present in the jawbone.  We can objectively trace the source of the inflammation back to the origin during oral surgery through biopsies and with a proper clinical protocol dramatically reduce the inflammation with immediate health benefits to the patients.  We can no longer sit back and look at teeth as simple mechanical structures separate from our immune system and neurological network. Getting this right can save lives if not seriously improve them for millions of sick people desperate for answers but not getting them, as their dentists are telling them, "all is good", based on outdated diagnostic tools.  This is the foundation on Biological , Functional and Integrative Dentistry .  I like to call it Immune Dentistry .
Smoking Kills 8 Million people a year : Why is it still ok to smoke?
Aug 9 2021
Smoking Kills 8 Million people a year : Why is it still ok to smoke?
According to the Centre for Disease Control -CDC, in the USA,  and the World Health Organisation, more than 8 million people a year die from tobacco related diseases. According to the same sources Covid has killed 4.2 million since the beginning of the pandemic. These numbers need to be looked at and we need to be fair about this discussion. Smoking kills more than Covid yet no one is doing anything to stop it.  I think it's very important that everybody does the best they can to stop the transmission of the virus, and to help our healthcare services. We all accept this. We have been ordered to stay home, to wear masks and to vaccinate all in order to protect our hospitals and the weak, and its understandable, yet no one is talking about banning smoking during these challenging times. Why? The WHO clearly states that there is a 50% increase in mortality in smokers after contracting COVID-19. Why is it still okay to smoke during this pandemic? Smoking is not something that should be so overly protected. If civil liberties are being taken away to improve public safety and public health, then smoking is no longer a civil liberty that doesn't impact all of us. The same rational goes  for heavy drinking ( 3 million deaths a year according to WHO). Smoking directly contributes to the mortality rates and the comorbidity rates of COVID.  For decades smokers have overburdened our hospitals, created massive healthcare issues and no one talks about this. We all acknowledge it, yet nothing is done. Should we not take this opportunity to have this discussion?People get nervous if you don't wear a mask outdoors, but have no problem seeing parents smoke next to their infants. We need to have a serious discussion around smoking and the challenges that smokers present to our healthcare systems, to themselves and to this battle we are all fighting on a global scale. As a surgeon that operates patients every day for over 20 years, Dr Miguel Stanley has recently begun refusing treatment to moderate and heavy smokers, and works closely with them to help them find ways to quit and dramatically improve their systemic health in order to have a more healthier life and a longer lifespan. Should governments not be thinking the same?
Trust in Healthcare: Is it Eroding?
May 27 2021
Trust in Healthcare: Is it Eroding?
After more than one year of  pandemic and lockdowns , political turmoil around the globe, civil unrest, mistrust in the financial sector, concerns about vaccination, education and even in our religious leaders, it is evident that there is a lot more stress going on in people around the world, so is this a really scary time to be a doctor?  Trust is the foundation of any relationship between the patient and their physician or dentist. If we do not have it, the fabric of the relationship is corroded and will not work. We are living in a world where trust is becoming much harder to attain, and more importantly maintain. Everybody is very opinionated, and the access to an overwhelming amount of information and online data, some of it fake, some of it real, with so many "healthcare" specialists giving their opinions that are not based on science, are leading to a growing population that is willing to argue with their doctors on so many points as if they know better. In some cases, they actually might be right, but let's face it, doctors went to medical school and are highly trained to take care of you.  It's one thing is to ask for a second opinion or alternative treatment options, it's a completely different thing is to question why a doctor is going to do things the way that he was trained to do. In the private healthcare sector, doctors should not be confused with restaurant owners that might go out of their way to accommodate multiple alterations to their signature dish to keep you happy. A surgeon however, most definitely cannot accommodate these sorts of changes without scientific evidence and should not change his or hers protocols for no one if that might affect the outcome. For example a patient that refuses to take antibiotics because they're fearful it might cause them some harm, which is obviously true, but there is a greater risk of having a bone infection after a surgery. Them not taking that antibiotic could most definitely lead to severe complications that could affect the doctors livelihood and stress to manage the problem. And so, here we are in this new normal where there is a growing part of the population that despite needing care from their healthcare providers, have no problem in voicing their mistrust to treatment options, pharmacological prescriptions based on their recently gained online knowledge.  It's very difficult for us doctors to challenge core beliefs, and I personally don't think that is our job, and so we need to be very careful about how trustworthy our relationships are and sometimes it is simply best to not pursue care with patients that don't trust you. It has been this way since Hippocrates over 5000 years ago.