Dr. Jacque Russo on the Dental Insiders Podcast

AAOSH board member Dr. Jacque Russo is on this week's edition of the Dental Insiders Podcast talking about dentistry's role in whole body health.

"Medicine has evolved to become more specialized. So you go to a cardiologist and he talks to you about your heart, your vessels. You go to a dentist, they talk about your teeth and your mouth. But we've kind of missed this connection that we're all one body. We can no longer compartmentalize medicine."

They also discussed the difficulty in making a living through prevention:

"One of AAOSH's main missions is to make profitable preventive healthcare the new norm by 2020—and boy, do we have our hands full. I just think that dentists can be a key major player in this paradigm shift towards prevention and health. We already have a preventive model in our practice, with hygiene appointments.

The consumer is getting more educated. They don't want to go to the doctor and get a prescription—they want to get well without medicine. And I think one of the biggest growth industries right now is the wellness industry. So for doctors, dentists, all healthcare professionals who are bemoaning the ever-shrinking dollar, loss of discretionary income by their patients—you know what, you need to get ahead of this wellness trend. If you don't want to be eaten up by corporate dentistry because you can't afford to pay your employees or yourself, get ahead of this trend people are willing to pay for."

And how this trend toward wellness might impact our future healthcare system:

"If your doctor had to get you well in order to get paid, or would get paid more if he got you well, then maybe we wouldn't just be managing disease. Maybe we would actually be trying to prevent disease and actually cure the root cause of the disease and not just put a Band-Aid on the symptoms."

The Dental Insiders Podcast, hosted by Matthew Petchel and Michael Dunn, is an interview series for dentists, dental team members and industry professionals. They share stories and lessons from clinicians and industry visionaries with the goal of providing an entertaining and informative look at the industry.

Watch the video below or get the audio podcast on iTunes.