About Dr. Staci Whitman
Dr. Staci Whitman is a global leader in Functional Dentistry and oral-systemic health. She is recognized for bringing dentistry into the broader conversations of human optimization and longevity.
She is the co-founder and Director of Outreach and Engagement for the Institute for Functional Dentistry (IFD), a global education platform that integrates functional medicine and systems biology into dental care. Doctor Staci is also the founder of Bloom + Brighten, the world’s first systems-based functional dental practice.
Doctor Staci began her career as a general dentist after earning her DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and completing a General Practice Residency. Although she excelled clinically in periodontal management, restorative dentistry, endodontics, oral surgery, and prosthodontics, one truth became impossible to ignore: dentistry was chronically reactive.
She saw patients who were inflamed, fatigued, hormonally imbalanced, sleep-deprived, metabolically strained, and microbiome-disrupted. Traditional dentistry had no model to explain the upstream physiology behind these patterns.
Determined to change this, Doctor Staci went upstream and returned to school to specialize in pediatrics. She knew that most dental diseases were preventable, but once damage occurs, it is difficult to reverse. By focusing on prevention in children, she believed she could make a meaningful impact on lifelong health.
Doctor Staci completed her pediatric dentistry training at Oregon Health & Science University and became a Board-Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. Her clinical focus includes:
- Early airway development
- Craniofacial growth
- Immune shaping
- Microbiome establishment
Still, prevention alone wasn’t enough. She wanted a framework explaining why the mouth reflects the state of the whole body.
Dr. Staci pursued advanced training with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), becoming one of a small number of dentists worldwide with formal functional medicine certification. This training expanded her approach to include oral microbiome science, nitric oxide physiology, metabolic signaling, mitochondrial function, endocrine transitions, airway-sleep architecture, neuroimmune pathways, and the oral-gut-brain axis. She applies all of these in a unified model focused on healthspan and lifespan optimization.
Doctor Staci has appeared on the Huberman Lab Podcast, where Dr. Andrew Huberman highlighted oral health as a central pillar of human wellness. She is now a sought-after educator, speaking internationally for educational institutions, such as IFM, A4M, and AAOSH, and at leading longevity, wellness, and performance summits like Eudemonia.
Her work reframes the mouth as a key biomarker system that influences metabolism, hormones, immunity, cognition, sleep quality, inflammation, and biological aging.
Doctor Staci holds certifications in laser proficiency, pediatric airway and sleep medicine, orofacial myology, craniosacral therapy, integrative wellness coaching, and functional nutrition and labs. She is a Breathe Institute Ambassador and active in professional organizations, including AAOSH, IAOMT, IABDM, the Holistic Dental Association, AAPMD, and the American Association of Ozonotherapy.
Her mission is bold and clear: evolve dentistry into a root-cause, biologically-based, preventive, longevity-driven discipline.
She teaches that the mouth is central to human biology and that targeted daily actions can improve metabolic health, cognitive function, hormonal balance, immune resilience, and long-term vitality.
If the future of medicine is systems-based, integrative, and optimization-focused, Dr. Staci Whitman is building the dental blueprint.