Healthy Smiles for Life: Dr. Jeff’s Guide to Kids’ Periodontal Health and Hygiene

Welcome to the Dentistry for KidZ podcast. We are Angelina and Cameron and we love candy. Do you all love candy? We've learned how to enjoy all the candy we want without getting cavities or getting in trouble with our dentist wants to learn our magic. Join us discover how to enjoy sweets and have nice bright, clean, shiny white tea. Let's go.

Today we have a fantastic guest who's not only a brilliant periodontist, but also a super dad to five kids. Meet Dr. Jeffrey Wong, our favorite Dr. Jeff. Dr. Jeff is the chief periodontist at significant central specialists in Las Vegas, Nevada. He's dedicated to making sure your teeth are healthy and that your smile looks great. He attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate studies then went to the University of Pennsylvania for dental school. He received his specialty degree in periodontics at the University of California, San Francisco, where he became a expert in Periodontics, and dental implants. He's one of the few board certified periodontist in town and one of the best in his field and truly knows how to take care of your teeth. Welcome today.

Dr. Jeffery Wang: Thank you for having me, Cameron.

Yes. So for the first question, it's Can you tell us a little about your journey to becoming a periodontist? And just what inspired you to choose it?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: Oh, great question. I think there were mentors along the way. I think my it has to do with the my dad who's in the healthcare field as well. He's a OB GYN. And he was actually one that said, hey, you know what, healthcare is good. But you know, OB is a little bit tough, you know. So he actually introduced me to one of our family friend also had the same last name Dr. Wang, and I was able to shadow him for for a good number of months and kind of saw him in action and really liked it. So that's kind of how I got into dental school. But also, while there are also other mentors along the way, Dr. Alan claw, he was one that actually inspired me to go into perio. So that's, that's kind of how I came to that.

Great. And what are some common periodontal issues that children might face? And do you have anything? Any tips to prevent them?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: You know, typically, gum disease. Typically it manifests more in the adults. But I think there are some gum conditions that can also happen in children. There are some early onset ones depends on which paper you read, there are some, the old old name would be a juvenile periodontitis. So those can happen early on. There are also some genetic conditions that can also cause some periodontal disease that you see early on. So these are things that you can see. I would also say that depends on the bio type or the condition of the gums. For example, if you're going through braces, you could potentially see some gums receding. So these are all things that you may see in children.

And do you have any tips you can give to help maintain good oral hygiene?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: Yes, so oral hygiene is utmost important. I think a lot of the dental diseases are from lack of oral good oral hygiene. I would say that the probably the most important thing is that, you know, I think we're all aware of the brushing and flossing. But I think flossing is something that they just, you know, people just overlook that it just maybe has to do with the exterior issue. But just think of it this way, if you're just cleaning the front side and the backside but you also need to clean on the sides, you know, so I think probably take a little bit of time to kind of learn about flossing and you can talk to dentists and also just kind of maybe ask the adults how to do it properly. I find that flossing lot of times, you know, I mean even adults, a lot of times they don't really know how to floss and so I kind of take a lot of time to do that. I wish I had in fact the other day I went to my girls preschool and also kind of gave them a session on how to do proper oral hygiene including flossing. So I think flossing is definitely very, very important that's overlooked.

Yes. And are there any early signs of gum disease that can be recognized? Hmm,

Dr. Jeffery Wang: great question. Typically gum diseases very silent. A lot of times these are very, very chronic. And these you really don't find or don't recognize. Now, of course, there are some acute ones like abscesses that you can potentially recognize, or, but in general, it's pretty hard to recognize those early onset ones. But I would say that if, if you're going through braces, maybe just get them checked out so that these gum receding, don't get too bad. A lot of times, sometimes these repairs are much harder to do when, when it gets really bad.

And does diet play any role in maintaining healthy teeth? Or gum?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: I would say yes, and no, we are in America. I mean, we really don't have any nutritional deficiencies, like, you know, scurvy, or like, you know, lack of vitamin C type of deal. So in general, I will say not too much. I mean, depends on what type of gum disease we're talking about. I mean, of course, if you have like a lot of dietary, like, just a lot of like lime and stuff. I mean, you could potentially eat away the roots as well. But in general, not as much, not as much. And

what exactly is gum recession? And what causes it? Oh, gum

Dr. Jeffery Wang: recession is basically it's a loss of gum. So the periodontium has several parts to it, the part that you see is the gum. There are many reasons that can cause gum recession, the one of the most frequent reason would be some pretty hard brushing. That's, that's very, very common. Of course, if if there is bone loss as a result of inflammation, we call it periodontitis. If there's bone loss, and a lot of times the gum do comes with it as well. So you can see some gum receding there. But grinding of the teeth, you could potentially see some gum receding as well. But I would say that in some the thin gum, some thin biotypes, you see that a lot of times with braces, or even improper flossing, you can potentially see some gum receding

and different topic, what are the most common causes of bad breath? Bad

Dr. Jeffery Wang: breath? Yes. So a lot of times you do find bad breath with people who have periodontal disease where there is inflammation where improbable hygiene, or let's say there's a hereditary factor to it, there's bone loss in the area. And what happens is that there's bone loss, and the gum starts separating. When the gum starts separating out breath can come from there. However, you can find bad breath also within, let's say, the tongue area where there's improper cleaning. But it's also possible deeper in the area into the GI system. So, but, but it could also be as common as you know, your diet, right. I mean, that's, that's something that's possible as well. So many reasons for the, the proper term is called halitosis. And, you know, a lot of times you just kind of go over the questions. I mean, you can, I mean, if it's an art department and the GUM Department, of course, we're going to be probing looking at X rays, we can find out but once we rule out the intro oral, then we have to start looking down deeper into the GI system.

And for our last two questions, they're more on the personal stuff. So the first one is, how do you balance your professional life with being a father of five?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: Oh, yeah, that's, that's an interesting one. I would say that. You know, I think you do need to prioritize, and also you got to kind of, say, kind of, you got to know kind of which setting you're at when you're at work, you're at work. I mean, you got to kind of put the family aside. But when you're, you're when you're at home, a lot of times you want to kind of be careful not bringing the stuff at work back to home. I do make a point over the weekend. I mean, it's a nice thing that you know, I mean, since my dad told me, Hey, you know what, OB is just really hard. I mean, I go into dentistry, I see all the dentists on the golf course, you know, but anyways, what it is that you can actually kind of how should I say? Make a point that kind of before work and after work to really spend time with the kid and also kind of do that in a manner where, just make sure you don't bring stuff back to home or bring, bring, you know, just mix it up. I mean, if you do that I think it's possible to do and do do kind of put a quite a bit of time over the weekend to do so as well.

Very good point. And for our last question, it's what advice would you give to kids who are interested in pursuing a career in dentistry?

Dr. Jeffery Wang: I would say that, going back to my example, when my dad introduced to me as far as hey, you know, what, go into dentistry. Go and check it out. I had no idea what dentistry is all about. Now, that being said, Once I had the opportunity to shadow my family friend, way back, when I had the first opportunity to actually see what's going on, I was able to see kind of their, what they do the whole day, kind of like how their schedule went, I mean, what what exactly is going on? So once I see that I kind of have a better idea of kind of what to expect, then, you know, you kind of do more research, you know, ask around. I think my dad, like I said, I mean, he was I mean, these mentors. I mean, you know, I asked a lot of questions when I was there. Now I look back, I think they're probably like stupid questions, but that he really took the time. And really answered all my questions. And I was like, hey, you know what, I think I can do it, you know, so I can see myself doing so that's kind of how it came about. So I would make that suggestion to all I wouldn't just jump into it, you know? And just check it out. Great.

Thank you so much for coming today. You gave very good input.

Dr. Jeffery Wang: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I've seen also went on to your website checked out what you guys are doing. I'm so, so happy. You know, I've never heard of anything like this. I really appreciate the work that you guys do. Thank

you so much. Have a nice night.

Dr. Jeffery Wang: All right, have a good night.

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