We were lucky to catch up with Shannon Thorsteinson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.

One of the major reasons I took the leap of faith to create my own practice was because there are some major shifts in the field that I wanted to make sure the way I handled those changes was in line with my values. It’s not easy to go against the grain, but I tried to set up this practice the way I think things should be done, not just what is the currently accepted standard of care. We are seeing a major paradigm shift in a few areas:
1. Orthodontics is a health service that improves breathing and sleeping, and has a major impact in young patients under age 7. This is a difference in how I grew up and even how I was trained, where orthodontics was mainly thought of as a cosmetic specialty.
2. Fluoride is not only not needed to prevent cavities, but it is actually a neurotoxin and endocrine disrupter.
3. Mercury is released when we remove silver fillings. If I were to buy amalgam from a dental supplier, my two options are to place it in someone’s mouth or to call hazmat to dispose of it. While we don’t see people placing these materials much anymore, we will still be encountering this material for decades and need to take proper safety precautions.
4. The oral microbiome is a major factor in our overall health status and our longevity. We know certain bacteria are implicated in our risk for alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and fertility issues. Just like a doctor uses bloodwork at your checkups, in our office, we analyze saliva. Not only do we test the saliva to know specifically which bacteria are present and in what concentration, but we also look at the saliva under a microscope.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a general and functional dentist. I practiced for many years as a traditional dentist until an experience treating my mom changed my whole mindset. There were several events that happened around the same time that opened my mind, then shifted my thinking. First, I had a patient ask me about PFOA’s or “forever chemicals” in floss after a scientific article had been published about the topic. I had no idea what was in the products I was recommending, so I tried to learn more. This led me to find the IAOMT, the International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. I realized there was a whole world of people and practitioners who knew a lot about minimizing toxicity and I should be better informed. Around that time we were dealing with speech issues with my son, which led me down the path to learn about tongue ties. The most impactful was my mom’s dental infection. After treating and retreating a root canal she had an advanced infection and I wanted to make sure she received the best care. I knew about holistic services but wasn’t providing them, so I wanted to make sure she received ozone and her body’s own platelets to help her clear the infection and heal. I found a provider for her, but I realized I shouldn’t have a separate standard of care for my mom than the rest of my patients. That led me on a path to study, learn, grow, and build to create a space where I could provide the level of care I wanted for my family to all my patients, and that is how Wellspring Dental and the Myogrow Airway Center was formed.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Transitioning to the holistic space is a journey that involves unlearning and making amends for how you used to do things. I have a lot of regret for how I handled things in the past, but I believe we have to give ourselves grace before we knew better. All we can do is learn and grow and do better tomorrow than we did today. There are so many times I recommended night guards for patients grinding their teeth, kept seeing patients every 6 months for cleanings who needed more support I didn’t know how to give, and so many children with grinding teeth who I didn’t know how to help. I know better now that these are signs of sleep disorders and we need to treat the root cause rather than masking the problem and I’m so grateful for that knowledge.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I find connecting with like-minded people has had the most impact. I try to just be my authentic self and be good and what I do and hope the rest works out. It’s a competitive field, and going against the grain can be tough, but I find the people who know me trust that I have good intentions. Even if we don’t always agree, I think my colleagues respect that I’m coming from a good place and will do a good job. I welcome healthy and respectful debate, because there’s a lot in our field that is actively changing. It takes courage to take a different path, but I hope I can be proud of the choices I’ve made when I look back at all this at the end of my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wellspringdentalatl.com
• Instagram: @wellspringdentalatl @myogrowairwaycenter
• Facebook: wellspringdentalatl, myogrowairwaycenter
• Youtube: Wellspring Dental, Myogrow Airway Center

Image Credits
Spencer Daniel