Healthy Smiles for Life: Dr. Jeff’s Guide to Kids’ Periodontal Health and Hygiene
Join us in this exciting episode as we sit down with Dr. Jeffrey Wang, a brilliant board-certified periodontist and superdad of five, to discuss all things dental health for kids. Dr. Jeff shares his inspiring journey to becoming a periodontist and the rewarding aspects of his career. He offers valuable insights on how to make dental visits less intimidating for children and highlights common periodontal issues they might face, along with prevention tips.
We discussed the importance of good periodontal health and its impact on overall health, providing parents with practical advice on maintaining their kids' oral hygiene. Dr. Jeff explains how to recognize early signs of gum disease and the benefits of dental implants, including the appropriate age for consideration.
The episode also covers the role of diet in maintaining healthy teeth and gums, the causes and treatments of gum recession, and specific habits that contribute to this condition. We explore the common causes of bad breath in children and offer tips for parents to help their kids maintain fresh breath throughout the day.
About the Guest:
Dr. Jeffrey Wang, DMD, MS is committed to the maintenance and restoration of the form, function, health, and aesthetics of your mouth. He places his primary focus on meeting the individual needs of each patient. He spends much of his appointment time understanding his patient’s unique needs and helping them take control of their periodontal healing.
Dr. Wang attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate education. He completed his dental training in the University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine. He went on the pursue his post-doctoral training and certification in periodontics and implantology in the University of California, San Francisco, where he also received his master’s degree.
Dr. Wang is board certified: a diplomat of the American Board of Periodontology. This is one of the highest recognitions of achievement afforded by the specialty. Dr. Wang provides periodontal expertise in both surgical and nonsurgical modalities to combat periodontal infections, enhance esthetic desires and reconstruct missing dentition with dental implants.
When not practicing periodontics, Dr. Wang enjoys spending time with his family and friends, running, ping-pong, and studying real estate investment.
About the Hosts:
Angelina Huang, Founder
Angelia is a nationally top ranked junior golfer at her junior high year. Angelina is also ranked number one academically among seven hundred students at Clark High School, Nevada. Angelina hopes to play college golf and pursue a career in the medical field or dentistry. Her passion is Neuroscience and Statistics. Angelina has been travelling around the country competing against the best junior golfers in the world since age of seven. She is also the Amazon published author, “I Want to Play College Golf”. Since Year 2021, Angelina and Cameron have donated over $17,000 their book proceeds back to the community for the underserved family and patients who are in need of cancer treatment. Aside from daily golf practices and school, she enjoys listening to music and watching chilling crime shows.
Cameron Huang, Founder
Cameron is also a nationally top ranked junior golfer at her sophomore year. Cameron is ranked top 5% academically among eight hundred students at Clark High School, Nevada. Cameron also hopes to play college golf and pursue a career as an orthodontist in the future. Cameron is the coauthor of “I Want to Play College Golf” with Angelina, and they have donated over $17,000 their book proceeds back to the community for the underserved family and patients who are in need of cancer treatment. When Cameron isn't on the green or studying, she's enjoying her free time watching K-drama and studying makeup and skincare with her friends.
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Transcript
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.
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:Dr. Jeffery Wang: Thank you for having me, Cameron.
Cameron Huang: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?
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:Great. And what are some common periodontal issues that children might face? And do you have anything? Any tips to prevent them?
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:And do you have any tips you can give to help maintain good oral hygiene?
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:Yes. And are there any early signs of gum disease that can be recognized? Hmm,
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:And does diet play any role in maintaining healthy teeth? Or gum?
Cameron Huang: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
Cameron Huang:what exactly is gum recession? And what causes it? Oh, gum
Cameron Huang: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
Cameron Huang:and different topic, what are the most common causes of bad breath? Bad
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang: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?
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang: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?
Cameron Huang: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.
Cameron Huang:Thank you so much for coming today. You gave very good input.
Cameron Huang: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
Cameron Huang:you so much. Have a nice night.
Cameron Huang:Dr. Jeffery Wang: All right, have a good night.
Angelina Huang:Thank you for listening to the Dentistry for Kidz podcast. If you enjoy today's episode, please share with your family member or friend. Be sure to like and subscribe to our channel to help us complete our mission to see bright smiles from all around the world. Thank you
