Episode notes · By Dr. Seth Gilson

A personal place to begin

When I first heard about biological dentistry in 2017, I started asking other dentists about it. The people I asked had not heard of it either. I remember wondering what I had stumbled into.

Griffin Cole was one of the first faces I came across as I started learning. To open Season 2, I wanted to hear his story. Not just what he does differently, but how he got there, what challenged him, and what he is still figuring out.

We talk about teeth, of course. But we keep coming back to people: the patients who teach us, the colleagues who challenge us, and the people at home who remind us there is a life outside the practice.

The first job that changed everything

After sending hundreds of letters to dentists in different cities, Griffin received an invitation to meet Dr. Dan Rosen in Austin. It was 1992, and the practice had one requirement for its new associate: no amalgam fillings.

Griffin remembers thinking that was strange. His wife saw it differently. He liked the dentist, liked the office, and they liked Austin. Why not take the opportunity?

That decision introduced him to a different way of practicing. It also brought uncertainty. He describes finding his own patients, giving talks to small groups, and returning to his dental school to discover that colleagues were making fun of an advertisement for his mercury-free practice.

He was excited about what he was learning. He was also nervous about whether he could make it work. Both were true.

A conversation, not just a medical history form

One of the things Griffin returns to is time. Time to ask questions. Time to understand someone’s daily habits. Time to be quiet long enough to hear what they are actually saying.

He describes an intake that goes beyond reviewing a form. What matters to this person? What have they noticed? What are they worried about? Sometimes, he explains, the first step was coordinating with another healthcare professional before beginning dental treatment.

For me, that is an important part of mindful care: not arriving at an answer before we have understood the person asking for help.

Looking beyond the tooth in front of us

Our conversation moves into nutrition, the oral microbiome, and how we think about the relationship between oral health and the rest of the body.

Griffin shares a pattern he noticed in practice: someone would rate their overall health highly, then give their oral health a much lower score. Asking both questions opened a conversation about why they saw the two so differently.

We also discuss his perspective on fluoride and his interest in alternatives such as hydroxyapatite. These are the speakers’ perspectives within a broader conversation, not a systematic review of the evidence or a personalized treatment recommendation.

Taking care of others does not mean we have it all figured out

When I ask Griffin which personal health practices he protects, he does not give a polished answer. He tells me he has been traveling almost every weekend and is not always following his own advice.

He talks openly about hurting his neck while practicing dentistry, wanting more time at home, and looking back on commitments he might have handled differently. He is proud of his work. He also wishes he had taken better care of himself along the way.

That part stayed with me. Knowing the value of rest does not mean we always make room for it.

Find a dentist you can actually talk to

Near the end, I ask Griffin for one piece of advice for patients. His answer is to do your own research and find a dentist with whom you can build a trusting relationship.

What I appreciate is that he does not make it about a label. He says that dentist could be a mainstream dentist. The willingness to listen, the quality of the work, and mutual respect matter.

That leads us into biomimetic dentistry and three priorities I describe in the episode: maintaining tooth vitality, preserving critical tooth structure, and restoring a tooth to function more like a natural tooth. For me, this is where biological and biomimetic thinking come together in daily practice.

Explore my approach to holistic, biological, and biomimetic dentistry →