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How To Use Your FSA, HSA, or HRA On Certain Supplements

You may be aware that daily multivitamins are not FSA/HSA eligible. So, how can you get Pharmaden’s supplements to be?

There are some types of vitamins that qualify, like prenatals, but in some cases doctors may prescribe a specific vitamin to treat a medical condition that falls outside of FSA regulations i.e. gingivitis. These other vitamins may only be eligible with proper documentation from a doctor.

Off the shelf vitamins have no studies. Pharmaden has the only double blind study showing it significantly reduces pocket depth, plaque, and bleeding. The FSA/HSA needs to know this. Our dental customers report that they usually can get them covered by patients FSA/HSA.

In this case, a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) may be required.

Give this form to your dentist to fill out so you can submit it to the person in charge of your FSA/HSA.

We left it in a Word document so the information can be edited by your dentist.

We hope this can be helpful!

Causes of Bad Breath and How to Get Rid of It

Causes of Bad Breath and How to Get Rid of It

Medically called halitosis or fetor oris, bad breath results from either poor dental habits or can be a sign of other health issues. Bad breath also results from the type of food you eat or an unhealthy lifestyle.

It’s known to affect almost one in every four people. Although the causes and treatments vary, regular brushing, flossing, and hydration are the best solutions.

Here are a few causes of bad breath:

  1. Food – Eating foods like onions, garlic, and spices can cause issues with your breath. When food particles get stuck in-between your teeth, it can lead to the growth of bacteria. This in turn causes a foul odor.
  2. Tobacco products – Smoking is one of the biggest causes of bad breath because of its unpleasant odor. Additionally, tobacco users and smokers are more likely to have gum diseases resulting in bad breath.
  3. Poor dental hygiene – Not brushing and flossing daily causes bad breath. Plaque is a colorless sticky bacteria film that forms on teeth. This can irritate gums and volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs). Brushing and flossing remove stuck food particles between teeth and reduces the plaque buildup.
  4. Dry mouth – Saliva washes away bacteria, thus acting as a natural deterrent to bad breath. When average saliva production is reduced due to internal or external factors, dry mouth condition occurs. A common occurrence of dry mouth happens during sleep that leads to bad morning breath. This is because of the decreased production of saliva that helps in cleaning your mouth. Increased consumption of alcohol or certain prescription drugs causes a drop in saliva formation, causing bad breath.
  5. Medical Conditions – Certain medical conditions like gum diseases, allergies, lactose intolerance, or diabetes can result in bad breath. Gastroesophageal reflux disease is also associated with bad breath.
  6. Sinus, Mouth, or Throat Conditions – Infection in the mouth or throat can easily lead to halitosis. Even the tonsils at the end of the throat can also cause bad breath as bacteria collects on the stones.
  7. Crash Diets – Low carb and keto diets are good for health and waistline but can be wrong on the breath. It’s because ketones are released as the body burns fat.

Diagnosis

If you experience bad breath for a significant period of time, you should see a dentist to determine the cause of your bad breath. Your dentist might use services like Halimeter, Gas chromatography, BANA test, or a Beta-galactosidase test.

How To Stop Bad Breath

Pharmaden provides a unique solution to bad breath problems. A double-blind study was done to see the results on Pharmaden’s PerioTherapy products for just 60 days, and the results showed a significant reduction of plaque, bleeding, and pocket depth.

Why We Do Marketing For Dentists

When someone learns that Pharmaden has expanded beyond just supplements to now offer dental marketing, one of their first questions is inevitably: How did a supplement company get into dental marketing? Well…the president of Pharmaden is a practicing dentist and here is what he has to say…

Pharmaden has grown over the years, but why branch out into dental marketing?

Dr. Schefdore, “When I owned 3 dental offices we did every sort of marketing imaginable. Some of it worked well but most of it was a flop. The school of hard knocks did teach me a lot about marketing though. When I purchased Pharmaden in 2004, I began speaking with dentists on a large scale. I realized the best offices were not corporate but fee for service, like mine. They put their patients first. Corporate dental offices don’t seem to care enough about their patients to look into a supplement option even if it is proven to reduce bleeding, plaque, and pocket depth. And the problem full fee practices face is attracting patients looking for quality, not the best price. I knew if I wanted Pharmaden to continue growing I needed to help quality minded, fee for service dentists succeed – like ones who use our supplements.

About the same time that I had this realization my daughter, Allie, graduated top of her class from Fisher College of Business at Ohio State. Since Allie’s interest is marketing she agreed to develop strategies to help dentists attract more patients to their office using proven techniques. While I help offices with scripts and a new protocol to improve oral and systemic health, Allie works on improving their bottom line.”

How can you specifically help independent dentists?

Dr. Schefdore, “Dentists know dentistry — not marketing. Between my experiences with dental marketing and Allie’s business knowledge we’ve developed marketing strategies to help independent offices attract the kind of patients they’d like to see. We use my office as a guinea pig for these strategies until they are proven to work – and then offer them to others.“

How are you able to continually get such good results?

Dr. Schefdore, “Constant education and changing with the times – for so long I dominated getting more patients with newspaper inserts but for the first time, the internet is bypassing those numbers. Just like a dentist takes CE courses, Allie is constantly educating herself and team on new strategies to help dental offices. She is a part of a mastermind group that works together, constantly testing out new strategies for dental marketing and sharing what works and doesn’t. The things she has learned and taught other marketers is beyond anything I could comprehend.

Because we’re selective about who we work with, we are able to customize our marketing campaigns to the needs of each individual office. We create campaigns that reflect what makes each practice unique — from the treatments offered to the office vibe. The only way for corporate marketing practices to handle such volume is to take shortcuts. They paint their clients with a broad brush, use templated content, and all but ignore online reputations. That’s not us. We chose this niche because we’re passionate about helping reputable dentists reach the right people — not just for the sake of growing their business, but also for improving the oral and overall health of their patients. When we’re all looking out for patients, not just a tooth, everybody wins.”

Welcome to The New Pharmaden

Welcome to The New Pharmaden

Thanks for checking out our new site. Please take a look around and let us know what you think. You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest new and information. We look forward to hearing from you, if you would like to know more about the products we offer you can go to our Pharmaden products page here.

April Is Oral Cancer Awareness Month

April Is Oral Cancer Awareness Month

Did you know that April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month? It is the 6th most common form of cancer. Close to 48,250 American are diagnosed each year with oral or pharyngeal cancer and more than 9,000 of those patients die each year. That means that there is about 1 death every hour of every day, each year.

If oral cancer is detected early then the survival rate increases to 80-90%. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation (www.oralcancerfoundation.org) the 5-year survival rate of those who are diagnosed is approximately 57%. You’ve probably heard of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, thyroid cancer, and cervical cancer. The death rate for oral cancer is higher than any of those types of cancer!

Here is a breakdown of which part of the mouth is involved in oral cancer according to Dentistry iQ: 20-25% involve the tongue, 15% the floor of the mouth, 10-15% involve lips, and 10-15% involve the minor salivary glands.

The most common oral cancer is squamous cell carcinoma with 90% of oral cancers being this form, which is malignant and typically spreads quickly.

The earlier cancer is detected, the less chance it has to spread. So, what are the stages of cancer?

Stage 1:

  • Lesion is less than 2 cm
  • No lymph nodes involved

Stage 2:

  • Lesion is between 2 & 4 cm
  • No lymph nodes involved

Stage 3:

  • Lesion is 4 or more cm; no lymph node involves
  • Lesion is any size; 1 lymph node involved on the same side

Stage 4:

  • Lesion has metastasized to surrounding tissues; lymph nodes may be involved
  • Lesion has metastasized to more lymph nodes to either 1 side or both sides of neck

Recurrent: Recurrence of cancer after treatment

 

Seeing your dentist could save your life. Because patients may not feel pain or recognize the symptoms as abnormal this makes it difficult to diagnose oral cancer until it is already in the later stages. Routinely visiting your dentist isn’t just for a routine cleaning but a way a dentist could save your life. Human papillomavirus (HPV), which spreads easily, is the fastest growing risk factor for oral cancer is. Anyone over 17 should be checked for oral cancer.

Surprisingly, It is not required for dentists to have an oral cancer screening program. There are screening techniques that can detect abnormalities in tissue to help determine if further testing is necessary – like a biopsy. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), these screenings should be performed on anyone over 17 because of how easily HPV spreads.

Oral & Heart Health Connection

Oral & Heart Health Connection

3 Deadly Truths Of Your Oral & Heart Health

1. Having high levels of the common periodontal pathogen P. Gingivalis gives a 13X higher risk of heart attack. This is taken in consideration after adjusting for age, gender, smoking, BMI, BP, plaque index, statins and TC/HDL.

2. High levels A. Actinomycetemcomitans, another periodontal bacteria, increases the risk of fatty plaques in the lining of arteries. Dentists can test for this with a saliva test.

3. Oral infections produce up to 50% of all heart attacks. A dentist can also test for this with a saliva test.