Lawrence Hier, DDS, MS, an orthodontist and Inventor of PlaqueHD talks about a new toothpaste that can helps prevent the risk of heart disease and stroke.
How did the idea of PlaqueHD come about?
HIER: So, I’m an orthodontist, and have been one for 24 years. Approximately 10 years ago, I had that aha moment or the light bulb went off whereby, after 13 to 14 years of practicing, patients would constantly come in with poor oral hygiene. Not a day went by without patients complaining that their parents are complaining or, if it’s an adult patient, they feel like they have bad breath. When we would see these patients, we’d go through how to properly clean their teeth. However, we don’t see them every day. We don’t go home with them, and parents would say, please yell at my child, the patient, yell at them to tell them to brush better. I would say, A, I’m not a yeller and B, I’m not going to see your child for eight weeks, I’m not going home with the child. So that moment came to me whereby I said, if I can create a product that I can actually give to the patient the parent, depending on the age of the patient and they can carry out good oral hygiene at home when I’m not there, when they come back eight weeks later they should have excellent oral hygiene.
Is this geared toward kids or adults? Or who would benefit most from this?
HIER: Anybody and everybody can benefit from it. However, it’s an excellent teaching tool. The fact that, when patients brush and the beauty of PlaqueHD is that it has target all technology in it, which is a technology whereby they brush the way they would normally brush their teeth. They go ahead and use a dry toothbrush to place a small amount of PlaqueHD on the toothbrush and then they go ahead, and they brush normally. So, the concept was I don’t want to add anything to people’s daily routine, the reason being we’re all so busy. We don’t have time; parents are always complaining about nagging their children. So as a teaching tool for children, as humble as I can be, I think that this is the absolute best product to teach a child how to brush. In fact, a very pertinent story is as follows It’s very uncommon for doctors to call our sales team and tell us about experiences they’ve had. They’ll call and they’ll ask technical questions, they’ll ask questions about pricing, et cetera. But we have had such an influx over the last five years of hygienists and assistants and doctors calling and telling the story. So, one story which really is a great example of explaining your question – we had a doctor call several years ago and he said, you know, this is the first time in my practice and career whereby I’m actually calling you to tell you and explain to you what happened in my office. May I share the story with you? So, our sales representative said, of course, absolutely and he said, you know, this toothpaste is unbelievable. I had a patient in the chair, he’s a nine-year-old child, his name is John, and he likes to go by Johnny and Johnny came in and his oral hygiene was atrocious, He had plaque everywhere. The doctor said, Johnny, we must do something about your oral hygiene we have to teach you how to brush your teeth. So, he explained to Johnny how plaque works whereby, when you brush your teeth and you go ahead and spit out, all the green that shows where you missed. So, Johnny goes up to the sink, goes up to what we call a brushing station, comes back. And the doctor says, Johnny did a great job. You still have a little bit of green there. You must concentrate between now and when you come back and see us next you need to use PlaqueHD twice a day and it will show you exactly where you’re missing. It will highlight the plaque so that you know that you’re doing a good job because, if there’s no green left on your teeth, it means he did a fantastic job. Johnny went home with a tube of toothpaste. He came back eight weeks later, and the doctor sits down, looks in Johnny’s mouth and says, Johnny, you have done an amazing job. Your gums are no longer red, inflamed looking, they’re pink and healthy, your teeth look great, there’s no plaque on them or very little, and I’m really proud of you. Johnny looks up and somewhat of a quizzical look and says, but doctor, the green magic in that toothpaste doesn’t seem to be working anymore and the doctor sort of smiles to himself, looks down and says, actually, Johnny, the toothpaste did exactly what it was supposed to do. It taught you how to brush. It showed the areas where you weren’t getting to. Typically, patients will go ahead and use PlaqueHD and continue to use it. So, it’s a training tool.
How long does it take from somebody’s brushing their teeth for the first time with the PlaqueHD, when they see the green spots on their teeth, how long do they have to do that? Do they have to do that? If somebody tries it for the first time, do they have to keep on brushing until they see all that green stuff is gone or does it take a while for it to all of it to disappear?
HIER: It really depends on the patient. So, expectations are very important when it comes to PlaqueHD. So, for example, if you’re a nine-year-old or a 10-year-old who really is not doing a good job brushing their teeth, you’ll see a lot of green, and plaque builds up in hours very quickly. So, if the patient is learning how to brush their teeth and they are removing the green spots the green highlighted areas it varies tremendously from patient to patient and in terms of age. Having said that, if you’re a hygienist, for example, or a doctor who has excellent manual dexterity and does a good job brushing, you’re not going to see an entire blanket of green all over your teeth because you’ve already removed the plaque because you’re a good brusher to start with. So, in that case, where PlaqueHD tends to be highlighted is in between the teeth – what we call the inter-proximal areas, where it’s hard to get your toothbrush in. Furthermore, you’ll tend to see the green or teal along the gum lines. That’s where people tend to miss. So even if it takes a week to actually start seeing a significant difference in the green, you want to keep on using it because nobody does the perfect job of brushing their teeth. You’ll still see slight areas of green, again, in between the teeth typically, as well as along the gum.
If somebody’s brushing their teeth and they have good hygiene, they’re flossing, would they necessarily still see the plaque on there or how would they learn to brush differently if they’re brushing all the time, twice a day, but they still have that plaque areas in hard-to-reach areas? How does the brushing change?
HIER: I really believe that the answer to that question is in the science. There have been numerous investigator-initiated trials that have shown that PlaqueHD is far superior in removing plaque as compared to a traditional white toothpaste. So, the idea here is you can still be a good brusher, but because plaque is colorless, you’re not going to know whether you did a good job or a perfect job or a great job. So, in that particular case, you’d want to keep using it and seeing it in those typical areas that I was referring to before, where even a good brusher will see green on their teeth.
How can this affect someone’s general health in terms of their heart, stroke risk?
HIER: Just going back to the science, numerous trials have been done in various academic institutions across the country. Not only have those clinical trials shown that PlaqueHD removes two to four times the amount of plaque of a traditional white toothpaste. What it also does is it reduces a very specific protein in the blood called CRP. CRP is C-reactive protein. C-reactive protein is a very sensitive indicator of heart disease and stroke. We all know that heart disease and stroke is extremely prevalent in the U.S. Three-hundred-and-seventy thousand people die from heart disease, according to the American Heart Association, every year. It is the number one killer in the U.S. One-hundred-and-fifty thousand people die from stroke every year. It is the fifth highest killer in the U.S. So now we’re talking about over a half a million people dying from heart disease and stroke. If PlaqueHD removes plaque in the mouth, which further reduces CRP, which is an indicator for heart disease and stroke – we all know that the mouth is the gateway to the rest of the body. So, if we can clean our mouths properly, we can certainly have a tremendous effect, not only in dentistry, but also in overall health – overall systemic health. So those studies I’m super proud of. I can tell you that, when I thought of this product back 10 years ago, quite frankly, I never imagined that we would be taking it into clinical trials talking about reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Are there any limitations?
HIER: No, there really are no specific limitations.
Would there be any particular patients that this would not be good for?
HIER: We always must worry about any product when it comes to allergies. However, it really has not been an issue at all in the six years that since we’ve launched the product. PlaqueHD is a toothpaste to replace your common toothpaste. PlaqueHD contains fluoride. It is an anti-cavity toothpaste. As a result, it’s not as if PlaqueHD is used once a day and then you use a regular toothpaste the second time you brush which we should all brush a minimum of twice a day, in the morning and the evening, if not an additional one or two times during the course of the day. PlaqueHD, when I invented the product, what I wanted to do was create a product for everybody. PlaqueHD is based on a colouring agent that is plant-based, which is extremely important to me. When I originally came up with the idea of PlaqueHD, I wanted to ensure that it was a healthy toothpaste. So not only is it an anti-cavity toothpaste with fluoride, it is a plant-based toothpaste which is also gluten-free and therefore can be used by the vast majority of the population.
What do you believe this would do with the health benefits, the overall getting people to brush your teeth better, training tool for kids, what do you believe this would provide for someone’s quality of life when it comes to their health and their dental health?
HIER: People are so busy in today’s society and parents are constantly telling us about how they daily have to nag their children to brush their teeth. If children are not brushing their teeth, their quality of health goes down. With PlaqueHD it takes all the guesswork out of it. Parents love the fact that they don’t have to monitor their children’s brushing because their children are actually forced to monitor it themselves. Nobody wants to walk out of the house with green teeth, so they are encouraged because of the toothpaste and the coloring agent to actually focus on the mirror, not look at an iPhone or not look at a tablet or not watch TV while they’re brushing their teeth. They’re looking in the mirror. As a result, in terms of the effect on dentistry and overall health, there’s no doubt and especially based on the clinical trials that have been done that PlaqueHD is removing far more plaque than any other standard toothpaste out there.
Does the green, once they brush your teeth, stay the whole entire time or when they rinse it out will it not staying green the whole time?
HIER: The idea of PlaqueHD was so that it would actually highlight the plaque, indicate where the patient is missing, and the minute they go ahead and brush that area, the green is gone as well as the plaque.
Where can patients get access to this?
HIER: Primarily through doctors. We have tens of thousands of doctors who carry PlaqueHD in their offices. It can be purchased directly from plaquehd.com. It can be purchased from amazon.com as well and several other digital distributors.
Does it require a prescription?
HIER: Correct. PlaqueHD does not require a prescription.
Someone whose mouth is full of plaque, when they brush for the first time, they see green spots, but those great spots won’t go away right away correct?
HIER: They will. As soon as they’re brushed. When I came up with the idea of PlaqueHD what was so important to me was that it would not change people’s daily routines. So, in that sense, they’re not taking three products and having to use product number one and then product number two to make sure they did a good job and then product number three to rinse. We incorporated all three into one. The beauty of PlaqueHD is that it’s now become a game amongst children. And we hear this all the time whereby children will have sleepovers one or two or three of the 10 children at the sleepover will have PlaqueHD and now it becomes the game who removed the most plaque. So not only are the parents not involved anymore, but the children are excited to brush and to show their friends the difference between their toothpaste – this magical green toothpaste as opposed to the traditional white toothpaste.
Is there anything that people should know before using this product?
HIER: What people should know before using this product is it does replace your other toothpaste. PlaqueHD is used daily, twice a day at a minimum. When PlaqueHD is used, it is important to use it on a very dry toothbrush. It’s important that people understand that they place PlaqueHD on a dry toothbrush, they go ahead, and they brush normally the way they would with any other toothpaste. Once they’ve brushed to the best of their ability, they then go ahead and spit out excess saliva or toothpaste, look in the mirror, do not rinse, look in the mirror and see where the green is. When you see where the green is, you then know where to go back and to brush off all the green. And once you brush off all the green, you’re good to go. You know you’ve done the best possible job you can do.
Is there any harm in somebody possibly brushing too hard?
HIER: There is no harm. We always advise patients to use soft toothbrushes. We always advise people to use soft toothbrushes, and that’s mainly because of gum tissue. We don’t want people to brush too hard and cause a recession of gum tissue. But regardless of whether you’re using a toothpaste that is PlaqueHD or any other standard toothpaste, that still holds the same.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News.
END OF INTERVIEW
This information is intended for additional research purposes only. It is not to be used as a prescription or advice from Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. or any medical professional interviewed. Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the depth or accuracy of physician statements. Procedures or medicines apply to different people and medical factors; always consult your physician on medical matters.
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