Access Health: Our Teeth and Bones

Being a dental hygienist doesn’t typically get you a behind the scenes look at the world of television. Yet, I was lucky enough to get invited to Access Health as a dental correspondent. This show airs on the Lifetime Network and explores cutting-edge developments and innovations in medicine, nutrition, and fitness.

During my segment with Access Health, I was honored to interview Dr. Jeb Jacobson from Renaissance Dental and the “grannies” who created Ice Chips Candy.  These two interviews provided a wealth of knowledge for me, even if I did my research prior to the interviews. Dr. “J” and I chatted about the increase in oral cancer and how it simply isn’t the old man’s disease that it once was considered.  Now we are seeing it in younger generations and in women. We also discussed the need for continued dental insurance as we age. So many are without dental insurance and as we live longer, Dr. J explains that there is a shelf life on our restorations and previous dental work. This will need to be replaced and because of the many medications people take, the incidence of dry mouth is increasing.  Dry mouth can increase your risk for dental diseases and the need to help counteract this issue is very important. 

The self-proclaimed “grannies”, Charlotte McClary and Beverly Vines-Hanes are an inspiration—just watch their episode on Shark Tank.  These two women have come up with a hard candy that uses a natural sweetener, xylitol, to help fight tooth decay.  Xylitol is a carbohydrate that comes from birch bark and tastes like sugar; however, it is a sugar alcohol that will actually kill the bacteria in your mouth. A sweet treat that will help fight cavities—sounds like a win-win for sure.  The “grannies” work very hard to only incorporate natural products in their Ice Chips Candy and are working to become Kosher certified. They are very specific about what ingredients are included so you will always know what you are putting into your body. I must admit, I was excited to meet these “grannies”.  I had just discovered their lemon flavored candies and was truly enjoying them. Then I found out there were 22 flavors—really good flavors too! 

I encourage you to watch the segments in the video above. The information that Dr. J offers is great for all to hear and who wouldn’t want to learn about a sweet treat that can help our patients fight tooth decay?