Building Lasting Patient Relationships and Navigating Complex Dental Cases

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welcome back to another episode of the Dentistry for Kidz podcast. I'm your host Tristan Trinh and today we have a fantastic guest with Dr. Karen Tran. She has committed her life to writing smiles and promoting oral health for young patients. After graduating from Baylor College of Dentistry in 1999. She practice dentistry at smiles Dental in Dallas, Texas before she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she and her husband, Dr. John Wong decided to set up their very own practice like any dental, from cosmetic and restorative dentistry to surgical treatments like implant placements. She's excelled in a wide range of dental procedures. So sit back, relax and enjoy it as we dive deeper into a fascinating experiences and wisdom in this exciting episode. A big thank you for being here today. How are you?

Hi, Tristan, how are you? Thank you so much for inviting me onto your podcast. It's an honor to be here, as well. So I appreciate your

for sure. On that note, let's get started. I understand that you have gone through many years of schooling to get where you are today. And I want to know out of all the professions you could have chosen, why dentistry? And what was the motivation behind this career choice.

For me, it started very young. I like I said, I was one of those kids that snuck candy into my bed. I think I've told us a story before but I was sneak candy to my bed. And just, you know, my teeth were really, really bad. And so I was at the dentist all the time. But I loved going to my dentist, she was the greatest the nicest. And growing up, I had a lot of trouble with my teeth. And as you know, kids can be close sometimes and going to school you get teased a lot. So, personally Dentistry has impacted my life. Just going through stainless steel crowns and going through the orthodontic work. It really changed my life. And I think I knew very young very early about what I wanted to do as my career choice.

For sure, I'm pretty sure we've all been there with sneaking the candy. Yeah. With this in mind as a dentist that any point whether it's a starlet and or the middle procedure, how do you call with a really super inches patient with a really sensitive teeth.

For me, I like I tried to connect with a patient prior to doing anything invasive. So for me, I want to get to know the patient, I want to get to know them as a person, understand what their fears are, what their goals are first and make sure they're comfortable with me before we actually start any procedure. So it always helps to explain to the patient what's going to happen. And if you have good rapport with them and a sense of trust, the procedures usually go a lot more smoothly. Because a lot of the fears this is a mental issue, right? Yeah. So if you have the patient just comfortable with you it that just is half the battle.

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, calming a patient down during procedures can I can see how it can really help you doing your job. Many kids these days have accidents. And some of these accidents can lead to a broken or chipped tooth. And for some even more severe cases, the whole tooth falls out. And so what should a parent or patient do in these types of situations?

First of all, they should remain calm. Last thing is to remain calm. Check on their child, you know, make sure that they're okay, first of all, there's nothing else broken. And then you know, just contact us. And then we can assess on how we can last treat the patient. If they can access the tooth or find the tooth and it comes completely out. Just come into the office as soon as they can. And then we can help assess the situation and see what we can do.

Yeah, that'd be more interesting. What kind of procedures would you mainly do in these really severe cases? And what would you what would you as a dentist do for the patient?

It really depends on the circumstance. Basically, to reassure them, you basically check for lacerations, you check for the condition of the tooth, and usually cases like this, let's say the patient can open you try to do the best you can to make it comfortable for them and sometimes there's multiple visits back. So it really depends on the extent and of the trauma is very case specific. And if some kids are so traumatized where they're crying, they're they're in tears. I, I generally don't try to force it. The beautiful part in dentistry is that you do have a team also, if I myself can't do it, and if it's a small child, and we have pediatric dentists that can can also assist us through these types of traumatic incidences. So sometimes it's a team effort, you try to do the best you can. But if you can't manage the patient yourself, you have colleagues in the field that can assist as well.

Yeah, yeah, I can, I can see that. Let's see, let's say once the procedure is over, what should a patient expect? Like? Will they be knee pain, whether they go on any medication, things like this?

Yeah, usually with dentistry. Again, it depends on what procedure you're having done. There could be discomfort, just depending on how much work is done. If you're having something simple, like a billing or or anything like that, it's usually you shouldn't have a lot of pain afterwards. But if you're having extractions, or sometimes I'll do full mouth rehabilitations, I mean, if there's going to be different types of soreness, I always try to prep the patient first, and kind of let them know just depending on the procedure, they're having done, what to expect, generally, my patients take a Tylenol or some Motrin, and that should be enough to Father pain. So again, it's procedures specific.

I see I see. And I know you mentioned a full mouth reconstruction, or rehabilitation. Um, if you can just quickly summarize of what are the most common procedures that would that you would do on a patient that requires one of these types of mutations.

A lot of times, these are actually fun and interesting cases, basically, you're reconstructing the bite. Sometimes you'll have patients who grind their teeth, or they have acid erosion where there's just so much wear and the bias closed down. So you have to collect a lot of data. And then you have to, it's like an architect building a house, you have to rebuild the bike. Of course, you have to discuss the goals with the patient, and then how to work with them on what their outcome we work together, almost like redesigning the mouth, we work together as a team, the patient tells me you know, what they're looking for, and I kind of design what the best outcome is for them. And then we take steps after that, these cases tend to go a little bit longer and but in the end, your end results, it's usually very rewarding. Because you're you're bringing them back to where they started, if not even better.

Yeah, I can see, I see. Yeah. Making those smiles, smiles you do want is really important for dentists. It's common knowledge that grownups and children react to dental procedures differently. And with this in mind, do you perform your procedures any differently? I understand that there's a pain factor. But is there anything psychologically that you also do, I

think, for kids and adults, I feel like, again, it's specific to that picture, I have kids that are some kids, two year olds that are just fearless, they'll just hop in a chair and very good and just, they'll they'll just do whatever you ask them to do. And then I have some adults who are very fearful. So again, it's individual based, based on their prior experiences. And that's part of first meeting your patients to get to know them, so that you can see where their fears lie and where their anticipations are, so that you can explain to them what options that they have. So I adjust not just by necessarily age, but just by patients, prior experiences. Anyone who is fearful, whether it's an adult or a child, you you do have to manage them a bit differently. And we do have the option of sedation as well, for I usually do sedation for adults, if they're, if they're really nervous. For Kids, if I cannot manage them emotionally or psychologically. Then again, I would refer those types of cases out to our pediatric dentists who can help manage the kids better.

Yeah, I can see how each case is now really patient specific, and how the patient is really important, you know with with being a dentist. One more question before we end the episode after graduating from dental school, was there any advanced training or experience that led you to be as successful as you are?

I think the beauty of there is straight for me is that you're constantly learning. There's continuing education, depending on what your field of interest is in dentistry, you can focus on it for some dentists, it's implants. And there's a lot of continuing education that you can take to hone in on your skills on what you like to practice. So, for me, I feel like this type of career choice, which keeps things very interesting. For me, it's a lifelong learning process, you know, and it's so multifaceted, because not only do you have to deal with like, you know, hand eye coordination, coordination, but you meet so many different types of people. And so many types of situations, you're basically problem solving all the time. So it's a great exercise for you. I don't know, it's just a great career choice for me. I can only speak for myself, but it's I'm always learning. I'm always learning from my patients, different cases, and new techniques that are coming out. You know, colleagues and other professors are teaching different techniques for different procedures. So it's always fun. It's a lot of fun. I've been in it for 20 years, and again, is learning stuff all the time.

Yeah, I can see how you know, each day you experience new people and with different needs, and you're gonna have to overcome those obstacles. Yeah, I can see how everyone's always learning something new every day. Yeah, thank you so much. And that's a wrap for this episode of the dentistry for kids podcast. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Tran for generously sharing her time and expertise with us today. It was an absolute pleasure listening to what you had to say.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, for sure, for sure.