Unlocking the Secrets of Dental Care: Cavity Development, fillings, Crowns, and More! | Dr. Ann Pham

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

Hi, everyone. My name is Brandon Trinh from the Dentistry for Kidz Podcast. Today we have a very special guest joining us someone who has devoted her life to creating beautiful and healthy smiles. Dr. Ann Pham, a general dentist and a dedicated community member is with us today. After graduating from UCLA dental school in 1999. Dr. Pham initially practiced in sunny California, before relocating to Las Vegas in 2003, where she's been brightening smiles ever since at her office, Miracle Dental. Dr. Pham, thank you for joining us today. How are you?

I am good. Thank you for asking. And thanks for having me on your channel. It's an honor to be here.

All right. Let's get started. So Dr. Pham, you have been working for over 24 years. That's a very long time. How did you discover your passion for dentistry? And what's been keeping you going for all these years?

Well, it started out with my mom, she used to work in a dental office. And she came home with so many interesting stories, some happy some sad ones, some heart touching stories, and I found it very intrigued. So I came in volunteer work for dental office for a period of time. And I find found myself growing more and more to like dentistry. So I pursue that career. And when I became a dentist, I found myself to be in those stories that I used to hear, I bring beautiful smile to people, make them smile, get them out of pain, and get them to be able to eat and chew again. That reward that I found very rewarding. And that satisfactory feeling is priceless. And that's what kept me going for the last 24 years. And who knows more.

Wow, that's so amazing to hear. I'm sure I'm gonna need some of that if I ever want to become a dentist. But moving on. As a general dentist, I'm sure you do so many different procedures. So can you go over the main ones that you typically do for your patients?

Yes, as a general dentists, we can do a lot of things in dentistry to help the patients but the most common ones that we do in office are generally fillings and crowns.

Yeah, let's talk more about fillings and crowns. So what are the main signs you look at to determine if we need a filling or a crown?

Well, the first thing is that we will see, we will see that you have cavities and your teeth. What are cavities, those are holes in your team. How are they formed? Well, there are bacteria in your mouth. But when you eat foods pacifically sugars, the bacteria would love to take the sugars on and produce acid to break down your teeth. And if you don't brush them, you don't floss them, you don't take care of them. While these carry get bigger and bigger. That's when you might start having pain. So when you come in the dentists will see that you have cavities. And then we will judge to see how big your cavities are. If they are smaller than 50%, then we know that fulfilling can take care of the problem. But if it's bigger than 50%, the whole entire tooth, then we know that the remaining part of the teeth will be very, very thin, very weak, it will not be able to hold a filling that is bigger than itself. That's when you need a crown, which is in a sense of jacket or a hat a cap that covers the tooth. So when you eat you bite down, they don't break. So that's the difference between a fillings and a crown.

All right, got it got it. So can you know break down that process of you know a feeling and a crown like what happens in the office and what do you do on these patients?

Well to start out with we will numb the patients and then we will remove the decay remove the cavity so there will be a hole in the teeth. And if you need a filling, then we just put the filling material on those seats. Well, in general, they're usually the silver fillings and the white fillings as you will recall amalgams and the white ones are called composite in my office for the longest time I have always been doing the the white filling a composite one exclusive lakes Island no doubt whatsoever for a long time. And nowadays that's one Most Likely to trend every patient comes in, they always also want to have the white fillings done as well. After the fillings have blazed, the dentists will smooth them, shape them and adjust the bite to make sure that you feel comfortable, you feel like nothing had happened to the teeth so we can put you back into your normal function. But in case you need a crown, similarly, we remove the cavities, and we will put a material called build up into the hole, then we'll shape the tooth a little smaller, so that it will receive a cap a structure like a cap. To cover it, we have a machine called a scanner in the office. So we can take the pictures, the image of the repair to to send to the lab, the lab will take two weeks to make the permanent crown. In the meantime, the patient will be having a temporary crown on top. So we ask the patient to go lightly on the chewing on top of these temporary crowns. After two weeks, the patient come back, we will take the temporary out and put the permanent crowns on there will be cement on cemented on permanently. You can start eating chewing, like you have had your teeth before without any problem. So that's basically the steps in doing fillings and crowns.

Wow, that's very good to know. So let's talk about the pain level. I'm sure most people really don't like having their teeth drilled. So how painful are these treatments? And how do you make sure your patients feel safe and less scared about these procedures?

Well, there are two parts to it. One is the emotional process. Like you said, people are scared. They don't even want to go in, they try to make excuse not to come in in the first place. And then the process of procedure. So to tackle the problem usually for me, I would like to get connected with patient, make them feel at ease, make them feel talk to them, make them feel that I'm on their side, I am there to take care of them, I explained the procedure, really well make sure they understand everything from A to Z guide them, let them know exactly what would happen next. So the anxiety level will go down, they don't put their guard up, then during procedure, I will give them a little topical to numb their gum to make them go a little tingly. So that when the the needle goes in, they don't even feel much. If not, I will guide them saying just a little break. So it goes really quick, I usually count or even sing a little song, tell them some story to get them to not worry, not the focus and get them distracted. And after that, they technically shouldn't be numb, there shouldn't be any more sensation. So the feeling and the procedure can just, you know, go on without any further warrior pain. So what am I doing and then afterward we give them instructions to what to do and what not to do. So we covered it before we covered during the procedure, and we cover after procedure. So there should be shouldn't be any concern or worry. So you should feel extremely safe when you in our hands.

Yeah, so I do definitely feel a lot better knowing what to expect and stuff but I'm sure most of us don't ever want to get our teeth drilled. So as kids, you know, what can we do to make sure we prevent you know, cavities and other problems so we don't ever have to get you know fillings or crowns like that

very good question. In fact, prevention is a bigger thing that we always push for. So guess what? First of all, cut down your sweet intact, eat less sweet candies deserve you can't but of course, you can't take candies away from kids, right? So if you have to eat, eat all your sweet at once. We don't want the sugary they want your tea to bathe in the sugar environment so that the bacteria don't have the whole big pool of sweet to party on. So that's the first step to make sure you brush your teeth frequently at least brush twice a day and make sure you floss, floss and floss and go in for the dentist to have a checkup regularly we recommend strongly recommend every six months. So if there's any problem we can catch it early. We can guide you coach you motivate you to take better care in case you have slacked off before it gets further down the road. So that's my advice.

Absolutely. I agree with you know brushing and flossing are so simple We'll, but very important to get down correctly. So can you explain you know what is the right way that kids should be brushing and flossing their teeth to prevent any cavities and other oral problems.

There are a few ways to do it and depend on your dexterity, but in general, you can brush first of all use a soft toothbrush, okay, then, when you put the brush against your gum, angle it in 45 degree, and then you can do a circle of motion. I found a circular motion sometime my patient liked to do that. The other way is to Chico Chico a little bit horizontal one two at a time. Very, very gentle, very soft. And make sure you brush for two minutes. Okay, in case you don't have a clock, guess what? sing the happy birthday song in your head two times. That's equal to two minutes. I think most kids have the common problem of not brushing well and not brushing long enough. So if you overcome these problems, you can rest assured that you can avoid a lot of cavities. And what about flossing? Okay, again, same thing depends on the next theory. But there there are some stick floss over the counter is just on any supermarket shelves. So in case people cannot grab their the floss around their fingers. Just use a stick floss, you can sly make sure you slide don't snap the floss and and don't hurt your gum. Slide a floss in between your teeth. Go against one tooth at a time. Make a little half circle, and then you go to the back to do another half c circle as well. But if you don't have the stick floss, you can definitely use a string floss. I like the wax floss better because it's smoother. Hit it less. There's less breakage with the wax floss so But guess what? As long as you floss, it doesn't matter. Whatever floss it is, it's through better than not flossing at all. So make sure you floss. Does that answer your question?

Absolutely. Brushing and flossing, very important for you guys. So how exactly can you tell if you're doing a good job, you know, keeping your teeth clean? Is there any signs or anything you should look out for

lots of time when I sit, see kids come in their teeth are yellow, they just finished eating Cheetos and they didn't even brush their teeth. They come in and swear up and down when I just brush my teeth. And I guess show them the mirror look. So the most common problem and then the sign that you asking me just look in the mirror. Very, very easily, you can find a collar ring of whatever the food that you eat, definitely showing your teeth you can't lie. So look. To open your mouth, look under your tongue. Look at the lower front teeth on the inside where the tongue rests against. That's the number one spot where you have a lot of tartar buildup from time to time. But if you don't ever look in the mirror, you will never see it. So make sure look, look, look and look. And if you mean or you want to find these tartar is very easy, but if you don't care for it, you will never see it. So ask yourself do you really want to know if you do plenty of sci fi to see?

Okay, that's very good to know. Well, we're about to wrap up this episode. Is there anything else you would like to add before you go? Maybe a final message fun facts or common misconceptions you would like to debunk?

Yes, seeing the dentist is not as bad as you think. Okay, so, number one, take care of yourself, eat less wheat, brush your teeth floss, then when you come to the dentist, I can rest assure that there won't be any problem. If not there is there won't be too too much. Therefore the Dentist Visit will be a lot more fun than you think it is. And also coming to the dentist after every six months we recommend. So if you follow that guideline, everyone will start loving to see the dentists much more than they do now.

Yeah, absolutely. Dentistry seems so fun and we can really change people's lives. Well, that's all I have for you, Dr. Pham. Thank you so so much. It was a pleasure talking to you. And I'm sure everyone learns something new here and we can't wait to have you back soon. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Brandon. Thank you again for having me. It's a pleasure speaking with you today and wish you the best of luck. Thank you.