Austin Dental Wellness - Joan Sefcik, DDS

09/01/2026

Talking, what else? Biological dentistry! Including nutrition, fluoride, heavy metals, "cavitations," and much more!

Holistic Dental Health with Dr. Joan Sefcik DDS | Podcast #186 h...

08/28/2026

08/26/2026

Genuinely good news on the ingredient-transparency front: as of January 1, 2026, Colorado and Maine banned the sale of dental floss containing intentionally added PFAS, the "forever chemicals" that don't break down in the body and have been linked to immune and hormonal effects. (Minnesota banned it a year earlier, and Vermont's own floss ban is already signed into law but doesn't kick in until mid-2027.)
This follows a 2019 study that found women who used Oral-B Glide, a PTFE-based floss, had measurably higher PFAS levels in their blood; Glide has since been reformulated to remove PTFE, but other brands may still contain it. More states have similar bans phasing in over the next few years. It's a small product category in the grand scheme of PFAS exposure, but it's a real, concrete example of regulation catching up to a risk most people had no way of spotting on their own, since PFAS in floss typically isn't disclosed on the label at all.

More info here: https://tinyurl.com/y4f8yfn5

08/22/2026

Progress looks like this sometimes. One label at a time.

08/18/2026

On August 3, 2026, the EPA announced it's moving forward with a formal Fluoride Human Health Toxicity Assessment under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the next step in a review process that started earlier this year. This isn't a ban, and it isn't final. It's a federal agency actually taking a fresh look at the data, which is really the whole ask when it comes to something most people drink every day without thinking twice.

More information here: https://tinyurl.com/9ffeb9xa

08/13/2026

Ozone has been used in dentistry for years as a supportive therapy alongside standard periodontal care, and the research on it keeps growing. A 2025 systematic review looked at recent clinical trials and found that ozone therapy, used alongside standard scaling and root planing, led to meaningful improvements in periodontal measurements like probing depth and gum inflammation compared to standard treatment alone.

It's a good example of how biological dentistry blends the best of modern clinical care and technology with more traditional healing approaches, rather than treating them as separate lanes.

Read more here: https://dub.sh/LVbsTav

07/27/2026

There's real movement at the federal level on mercury fillings. The Department of Health and Human Services recently confirmed that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is urging every state Medicaid program to phase out coverage for mercury based dental fillings, pointing to the same health concerns we've been talking about here for years, particularly for pregnant women, young children, and anyone with existing neurological or kidney issues.
This follows the Indian Health Service's own commitment earlier this year to eliminate mercury amalgam in its facilities by 2027, and it lines up with a broader international agreement the US is already part of, which sets a 2034 deadline to phase out dental amalgam entirely.
Of course, none of this changes anything about how we practice here, as we have long been mercury-free and follow the IABDM’s PROTECT Protocol for safe amalgam removal, a standard Dr. Sefcik knows well as a past president of the organization.