How Did You Choose Your Dentist

Lyle Hurd: It’s great to have you back Dr. Stay. Flora Stay: Thank you. Lyle Hurd: Dr. Stay is the author of The Secret Gateway to Health, a book on oral health. It is a wonderful piece. Everyone should look into it. She educated us on a number of things. The one thing we haven’t talked about is how do we go about picking a dentist? Flora Stay: That is a very good question and what I am going to tell you really applies to physicians or any other health care practitioner. I really feel that a partnership should be formed between you and your dentist. And in order for that partnership to form, you need to look very carefully and pick the right one for you because the right dentist for you may not be the right dentist for someone else. There has to be, first of all, a relationship built where you feel comfortable with that dentist and why I say that especially for dental care, dental, oral medicine, is because so much fear and doubt and that type of thing is involved with treatment. If you’re not quite comfortable with that dentist, you can carry a lot of fear into the treatment. And when you do that, it just can turn you upside down, affecting you on all levels. You want to find a dentist that can also help you learn about preventive dentistry. Lyle Hurd: Okay. Flora Stay: So that you are able to take more responsibility. Unfortunately there is so little information as far as oral medicine. There are so many books out there on health; whether it’s alternative health, integrative health general health, I mean we’re bombarded every day with a new medical guru on, for everything. Lyle Hurd: Now you said something that is very important. You said the term oral medicine… Flora Stay: Yes. Lyle Hurd: I was about to mention to you that it seems to me that dentists that I know have a great deal of continuing education that’s going on, on a regular basis. How important is it for that dentist to be involved in that, but also with the dental assistants and the hygienists, with the way everything seems to be changing as fast as it is; particularly the fact that there’s a great connection, or scary connection between your teeth and heart disease? Flora Stay: Yes, absolutely. Especially now that we know, studies have reported there is an increase risk of heart disease, stroke, problem pregnancies, diabetes, all kinds of other disorders, respiratory disorders that are definitely connected to poor oral health. In fact in the year 2000, the Surgeon General made a statement about this. That oral health cannot be ignored because it definitely makes an impact on general health. So the dental community has been really involved in continuing education to help broaden our scope of how the whole body is connected. It would be fantastic if medical schools combined the whole thing. Lyle Hurd: Well, at one time though in our country, weren’t the dentists… total health practitioners as well? Flora Stay: I don’t think so. Lyle Hurd: Really? Flora Stay: I don’t think so. I’ve heard –— Lyle Hurd: Just the movies I watch, I guess. Flora Stay: Could be, or I could be wrong. But I know I had a dentist from England, and I didn’t check this, but she told me that in England, they all go to medical school, and then they branch off into dentistry as a specialty, which totally makes sense to me and I really wish we would do that here, because again, from the doctor’s, the physicians point of view, they really know very little as far as oral health. Now lately, because of these studies, the medical community is paying a little more attention to oral health because of the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer in the U.S. So… how to find a dentist, you want to make sure that you understand this is a partnership. First of all, you have to understand how important the mouth is and just even if you brush very thoroughly, if you floss, you do your thing at home, which is very important; you still should get a check-up every six months at least. Now if your dentist says you need to come in every two months or you need to come in once a year, then that’s fine. But you need to make that initial regular visit. You want to do some homework, you want to almost go through interviewing procedure and you can first ask your friends, your relatives for who they recommend and then go into that practice. My ideal practice is that when you walk in, you feel this peace; you feel this comfort from everyone in that practice, because that particular dentist truly looks at the whole approach to oral health as a complete package. From the minute you walk into that practice, you should feel relaxed. Then the staff should be very helpful. They should be knowledgeable in helping you answer questions or be able to direct you to someone who can help you. They should be able to give you –— answer your questions, give you –— the dentist should be able to give you options for conditions that exist in the mouth. They should even tell you, if you’re not sure, get second and third opinions. Lyle Hurd: Thank you very much. We look forward to talking with you later as well. Flora Stay: Thank you.