Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Airway First, the podcast from the Children's
Airway First Foundation.
I'm your host, Rebecca St. James.
My guests today are the dynamic team from Ashburn Children's Dentistry, Dr. Linda Dean
Daru, and Dr. Crystal Dean Daru.
Dentist Linda Daru has spent her life pursuing a career in dentistry and building a successful
dental practice that caters to the oral health needs and well-being of children and patients
with special needs.
In her more than 20 years of experience practicing integrative functional holistic pediatric
dentistry, Dr. Linda has developed a unique approach to treating patients that reflects
an impressive skill set fortified by extensive training in the most innovative therapies
and technologies.
Dr. Crystal specializes in providing empathetic care and personalized treatment plans to
address her pediatric patients' airway, sleep, breathing, and growth concerns, ensuring their
healthy smiles and brightest futures.
The entire team at Ashburn Children's Dentistry believes in treating the source of their patients'
issues instead of just the symptoms.
They focus on early prevention and in educating parents while assisting their blossoming children's
development into a healthy, resilient adult.
You can read the full biographies for both Dr. Linda and Dr. Crystal in our show notes,
and you can find out more about Ashburn Children's Dentistry at kidssmile.com.
And now let's jump into my interview with Dr. Linda Dean-Diroux and Dr. Crystal Dean-Diroux.
All right, good morning.
Thank you both for joining us on the show.
Great.
Thank you for having us.
It's truly, truly a pleasure.
So let's jump right in because I know when we first connected, I did a lot of work on
your website for my research purposes.
And I feel like I really know you now.
I love your website, by the way.
I'm excited.
Dr. Linda, if you would, I'd like to start with you and just share with our listeners
your journey and your story, where your passion for dentistry and airway has come from.
Oh, thank you so much.
That's a great question.
I always get goosebumps when I start this story because I knew when I was about nine
years old that this was a line of work I was going to be doing and happened because I'm
the first of nine children, eight surviving, and one of my younger brothers had a tooth
ache and whacked from originally, we didn't really worry about teeth.
It was malaria that was more endemic.
So every week you were worried if you got malaria.
And so he had this pain that wouldn't go away and his face was getting swollen.
The pediatrician said, you have to go to the dental office.
Meanwhile, he was now sleeping and the only one he would allow to take care of him was
me.
So I put him on my back and walked the balcony every night until we got to the dental office.
And then when we got there and he had the tooth down, it was like a different kid.
This was a young girl.
Right.
And I said to that dentist, what do you have to do to be this kind of doctor?
And she said, oh, it's hard.
It's this.
I don't care.
This is a kind of doctor I would want to be anyhow.
Fast forward many years later, I was just sick.
Couldn't recover from bronchitis.
I actually had to leave a party I'd gone to in Miami, but I didn't leave a party.
It's a problem.
So we had to come home because that just was not well.
And going from doctor to doctor, I was feeling fatigued and brain fog.
Couldn't concentrate.
I was getting really scared because doctor to doctor, no one knew what was wrong with
me.
And they started treating me for Lyme disease, but I knew I didn't have Lyme disease.
But if that's what was going to make me feel better, I was ready to try it.
But I wasn't getting better.
And so I had gone to my fifth doctor, which was an internist at the fifth doctor.
And she took one look in my mouth and she said, oh, I bet you have sleep apnea.
Of course, I rolled my eyes.
I'm like, what are you doing?
Just looking in my mouth and saying that.
But she was right.
I had a sleep test and I had moderate sleep apnea.
So I got on the CPAP and my life was different again.
And then it's like, oh, I could feel better.
I wasn't as tired anymore.
I could concentrate and do my work.
And then I worked for a while, about seven years or so.
And then the symptoms started coming back.
And my option at that point was to have my jaws broken so that they could get more room
for my tongue.
And I didn't want to do that.
So yeah, in looking for options for myself, I think it was 2017.
I had gone for one of the conferences where I heard Dr. Gilmino speak.
Like all the famous people about sleep and everything was pointing to your face.
Everything was pointing to your jaw.
And like, oh my God.
So that was a big aha.
And so I started on a journey for myself.
And so I'm off my CPAP now for about two years, going almost three years.
However, what it did for me was let me understand that one sleep apnea is preventable and extreable.
And even more importantly, I work with kids.
So we work with kids and we see them as early as two days old.
The signs are there because I saw pictures of me as a baby and the signs were there.
But no one knows.
You don't know that you can't do anything about it.
So that's what's caused us to be on this second mission of making sure that the kids
get their faces developed as well as they can so they can sleep better and breathe better
as early as possible.
So and I love that moment.
That's really where that has come from.
Love that.
And you mentioned something that you see them as early as two days old, which to me, I mean,
that's just kind of a moment.
It just that that gives me chills because that's one of the things we're preaching.
You got to see them early.
Don't wait.
How do you convince parents for two days old?
How did you pull that off?
That's a great question.
And most of the times when they come at two days old and having trouble nursing, they're
having trouble relaxing.
And so breastfeeding becomes an issue.
And now you got to understand breastfeeding should be a natural process.
It should not be.
It should just come easily for a baby.
So if a baby is having trouble, then you'd have to investigate why you'd have to think
about what could possibly make this baby not be able to do a natural process.
And so when they do come, we want to figure out some what's this child being through?
What's their birth story?
What happened during pregnancy?
And yeah, funny you should say, I asked that question because most of the moms, they're
not expecting a lot of what we're asking because they're going to have to do a T. However, it
is very important because the tongue is the second organ that's formed after the heart
when the baby is developing.
And not many people understand that the tongue is attached all the way down.
So when you say that, their eyes open up and their mouths go like, what do you mean?
And so anyhow, so if a baby is having trouble, action could be a number of things.
It's not necessarily most people's, oh, they have a tongue tie.
Maybe they do.
However, it's mostly what that baby has been through.
Maybe the neurology, the nerves are not functioning as well.
So maybe they got stuck in the canal.
Maybe they came out with a vacuum.
Maybe they were sunny side up.
Maybe they had cord wrapped around their neck.
So all of those will affect how their bodies function.
So before in our practice, before we actually go and say, oh, they have a tongue tie, you
have to cut, we go through a very comprehensive process of assessing what the baby is like,
what happened, where else could this be coming from?
Make sure there's no tension in the body.
Make sure there's communication between the brain and the rest of the body and especially
around the mouth and the tongue so that the body can function as it best.
And so some of the times like the time you go through this process, the baby is actually
nursing and nursing better.
However, if they're still not nursing as well, then if there is a structural tie, meaning
there's something there that is restricted in the motion of the tongue, then that's when
you now can do such cool reliefs.
Although in our practice, we do a dual wavelength release, meaning there's a laser that releases
the body fascia and laser that does the cutting.
So that laser that releases body fascia, we call it a baby lace.
And so that gets done many, many multiple times to make sure that the nerves are traveling
properly again, like I explained, make sure that fascia is flowing and free flowing and
gliding and that can help with function.
So after getting that functional exam and getting all their body tension got working properly,
of course, it's a village that does care of that.
It is a village.
Not just us.
We have the usurpatic position, lactation consultants, sometimes baby friendly chiropractors.
There's so many people.
So many people that come into that process.
But our goal is almost like to be a quarterback with triage and now understanding that their
function has been compromised.
We now know that the tongue which is supposed to rest on the roof of your mouth, it hasn't
been doing that properly.
So now it becomes important to guide that face as it grows.
I just, I'm having a moment at this point because this is exactly part of what our platform,
I mean, we are preaching and you guys are doing it.
It is.
It is a village.
And it is, it is from head to toe.
And that's the way all medical professionals should see children head to toe, not just this
is my area.
You guys just give me goosebumps.
That's all I'm saying.
So Dr. Crystal, one of the things that I know that you're connected with and I always say
this wrong, but Alph Interface Academy Foundation for Airway Health.
That is quite a mouthful.
Right.
It is a big mouthful.
And we've had Dr. Tasha on and she spoke briefly about Alph.
But for people that haven't heard that podcast, what is the ALF treatment and how is that
different from braces?
You know, especially for parents who might not know anything about this.
Well, that's an excellent question.
And it is something we get all the time as far as like what it is.
I learned more recently, Dr. Linda has has done many levels of the ALF training and the
level three up to level three with Dr. Bronson.
We've learned and worked with and with Dr. Derek Norsham, who is the inventor of ALF
and that's the alternative life, light wire functional appliance, which in and of itself
you want to think of it, we've talked about the importance of the tongue.
You want to think of it as a surrogate tongue.
You want to think of it as a light wire that sits on the roof of the mouth of a child or
even an adult and allows the tongue to or allows the body to think that the tongue is
always resting there.
And why that's important is that it allows bone to be formed and allows the structure
of the maxilla, which is one of the most important bones in our faces to actually start growing
outward forward on three dimensions.
And the reason why it's a bit different than braces is that braces is more of a fixed cosmetic
kind of structure or treatment, right?
It doesn't affect the soft tissue, the tongue.
It doesn't take into effect the foundation and it really is just looking at the teeth.
So oftentimes because it's kind of like a fixed way of creating a nice Hollywood smile,
it takes it and sometimes you have to use whatever real estate you have on the bone
structure or on your underfaith.
Oftentimes it may even restrict that process, what we're talking about, which is allowing
the body to grow forward and allowing the airway and the nose and everything to be at
a proper structure so there's more function.
So it's really, really technique sensitive.
It does rely on proper functioning of the tongue as well.
And it's an amazing and it's flexible and it's not painful, but it goes beyond, again,
just straightening the teeth.
It helps to balance out the force of the cranium and other cranial strains and things like that.
So for some people they call it an expansion device and it's actually far from just an
expansion device.
It's like a surrogate tongue.
It allows for bone to be made and even settling of the sympathetic nervous system as well.
So lots and lots of things as to why it's different from regular braces.
Regular braces or just braces in and of itself, I like to let parents know or tell them that
that's for the Hollywood smile.
So that can actually be attained through Invisalign.
It can be attained.
It's the reason why you can, what did they say?
Let's say this, braces do the mail now, right?
Yeah.
Teeth.
You can move teeth.
That's not what it's about because the teeth are connected to something.
And so if that foundation is not established properly, then you'll get straight teeth,
but then you start to get a whole host of other issues in the scenes.
And that's where you have the relapse, right?
That's why we have where retainers once again or for life or have braces done again.
It is an incredible device, the ALF appliance, but it's very technique sensitive.
It only takes a little bit of fine touch and fine movement or adjustment to really do its
magic, right?
Right.
And on the body.
Yeah.
So many comments too going through my head while you're talking.
So I think we're all coming to sea braces as we're fixing the symptom.
We're not going to the root.
I think we're finally getting there.
Slowly.
This has been a very hard process to get through for a lot of people.
But one of the things I like about listening to your explanation of the ALF is it's not
just going to give them room and reset because it's touching your systems.
Do you see kids?
Do you see their anxiety change?
Do you see them sleep better?
Do you?
Oh, whatever.
Oh, yeah.
Some time.
The answer is yes, and then the other surprising and because every child is different, this
is where you start to see how different everybody's anatomy and everybody's physiology is.
Once you take it out for some kids, they're like, if you bring me back my appliance, they
actually, they yearn for it back.
I had mine.
I had one as well.
I just, it needs to be adjusted again.
But I saw a lot of changes even in my TMJ that was clicking and popping.
I saw changes in my sleep.
Not only because now I'm more aware, obviously, but that's just what it started to do.
It's very unique for every child.
You can't just have an ALF that you just put it in.
You have to have an ALF that's made just for you.
You do start to see a lot of different.
Some kids stop bedwetting.
Some kids stop.
Just by having the ALF in.
It's an amazing thing just by putting it without doing anything, just putting what you made
for them.
Some of them don't even want to have it taken out.
They find it amazing to me.
No, no, that's actually true.
When I said I got off my seatbub, it was the way that I got off my seatbub.
I was being treated by Dr. Brunson over in my claim here in Virginia.
If you can see the adjustment on the ALF, you've done too much.
Sometimes it gets a bad rep because people are using it as an expansion of finance.
It is not an expander.
What it is is something that helps the body feel like it can do its job.
Making the brain think that the tongue is up allows the brain to actually function better.
It is you who is making that expansion because you're moving your tongue up.
Of course, there are many parts of it.
When I said it's a village, it's still a village trying to make your head way better.
You get the osteopath making sure that you don't have any compression and the nerves
of the skull, the bones are moving all in place so that the nerves can actually get
the messaging to that part of that body.
Then you get training the muscles.
In our practice, we are a lot more comprehensive.
We're not treating just this and this.
Once we get to the root cause for this patient, then we're going to look at it from a structure,
function, behavior, nutrition, and posture.
There's so much that is combined into the way we look at that.
Again, if the brain is not functioning properly, the nerves are not functioning properly.
I'm sorry.
You can do everything you want, but it's not going to be as easy or even the outcome is
not going to be as good as if the brain is now settled and you're in a good parasympathetic
mode like the line is not coming after you the whole time.
It's much easier for you to be able to function to your fullest potential.
It's amazing.
You mentioned you opened up the topic of neurology.
Let's just go there.
I'll put a link to this in our show notes for people because you have this great article
from University of Chicago Medicine that talks about this.
We've mentioned this a few times before and it doesn't really go over well with parents.
As a parent, I get it because you hear it and you go, you're just in a tailspin.
Lack of oxygen, sleep apnea, it can have an impact on a child's IQ than the gray matter
of the brain, but up to 10 IQ points, which is big.
If your kid came out with a 160, yay, they're only going down to 150, not that big of a deal,
but for the rest of us, 10 points is a big deal.
How do you, in your practice, how do y'all address this with that?
With parents?
How do you, because I know if you told me as a parent, I said, I'm in a tailspin.
I'm checked out.
I'm panicked at this point.
I'm not going to hear you.
How do you address this with parents and what kind of treatments do you offer?
Hey, your child has had sleep apnea for six years.
Here's what we're going to do.
That's a great question.
I think maybe you just answered an important question because we're constantly trying to
tell all the parents and so now you're saying, I'll check out.
I go, yeah, a lot of them are checked out because we do educate.
We educate a lot.
Sometimes maybe a little too much, but we have the burden of knowledge.
So we feel like you have to know for me, it's even more personal because I have been through
it, sleep apnea and stage.
There's a lot that happens before you get there.
I was having reflux.
I was having migraines.
I was like, from a very young age, I didn't know what.
I'm an anxious kid.
Many people don't know that, but I have a lot of anxiety, but I managed to mask it well.
You're first of age.
You get compensated.
You get a like, like you know.
But anyhow, so we're really into a lot of education for our parents.
We each give them articles.
We give visuals.
It's not uncommon to see me.
I go like, there are the skulls, 22 bones, 14 of them are in your face.
And the max, everything is connected.
The top jaw, which you call the maxilla, it's a bone almost like this.
This part of it is a side of your nose.
So when that baby or when the child comes in and their palate is high-volted, it doesn't
just walk like this.
It falls up and sideways like that.
That sideways is the sides of their nose.
So their noses get smaller.
They have a smaller space to breathe.
And so if you're waiting to do braces, okay, fine.
You can get the teeth straight, but you haven't done anything throughout that bone or that
nose so they can breathe well and sleep well.
Breathing should be invisible.
Breathing should be, you should not hear your child breathing.
Their lips should be closed.
We're born obligated nose breathers, meaning you come out, your mouth will be sealed.
You should be able to breathe through your nose properly.
So when that's not happening, then it's important to figure out why.
So most parents don't know.
And even when you say your child is not breathing, no, no, no, my child doesn't breathe.
And mouth breathing doesn't always mean like your mouth is hanging open like that.
It could just be.
Yeah, I could be just that.
I'm constantly leaning like this.
Yeah, your jaw are constantly yawning or biting on stuff.
So typically to answer your question as well, it doesn't just take one visit.
It does take a couple years sometimes for parents to know.
And so how we, we like to be that kind of safe space because they've come and they've
seen other practitioners, they've gone to their pediatricians who have said nothing's
wrong and they don't grow out of it.
And so we find at first we said, oh my God, because of course with the bourbon of knowledge,
you're just like, we've met and spoken to a lot of top, top, not only just dentists
who are in this space, but physicians, psychologists and everything and knowing how everything
connects.
But then we also know that parents themselves have to kind of get through layers of their
own anxiety before they reach a point.
So what we like to do is just we keep setting the seeds, we hold space for them.
We understand that time is going, but it's also never too late, right?
And to meet parents where they are.
And that's really what we've learned ourselves.
We had to learn to meet ourselves where we were.
You know, we're huge nerds, we're also huge healers and wanting to take care and then
putting all the information together and now knowing what we do, which is, you know, start
with laser therapy, we've been using laser since 2006, 2005.
So we know that we've kind of been the fruit loops in the boxatarios for a long time.
People have to kind of catch up.
And now everything that's happening, including, you know, platforms like this, people are
starting to catch up.
Parents are getting even more educated and our huge thing now is health is education,
right?
So the more you are, the more you actually going to get healthier.
It's just going to, you may have to face yourself in the mirror as a parent and say, okay, well,
I know I went through this as a child.
I know I turned out okay, maybe, but I know I want better.
And a lot of parents that start to see, they say, okay, you were saying this a couple years
ago.
This is what's happened now.
Or this is what's, I see it.
Okay, so what do we do?
That's where we meet them.
We meet them at what do we do?
And the actual dentist, we're seeing them grow.
And we've, you know, our practice has been around for 22 years.
So it's, you've seen kids, they don't, they don't leave actually.
They're here till age 25, 26, because, you know, we keep taking good care of them.
And so to, how do we explain it?
We don't necessarily say your child's going to be the dumbest one in the thing where we're
going to say, we're going to say, hey, they're going to have some, there's going to be some
difficulties.
And also they're already going to see parents.
No, like mom intelligence as well.
Right.
Yeah.
Once you know, I mean, that's one of the biggest things too.
We tell parents is first of all, don't knock yourself down.
You didn't know.
So let's just start there.
Right.
Exactly.
And then you don't knock other providers as well.
Right.
Because no, because you don't know, you didn't learn it in medical.
It wasn't there.
No, it wasn't connected.
We, because I'm some of this stuff and I was like, I remember learning an anatomy, but
I didn't realize how important it was.
Yeah.
It's all connected.
Right.
And I like to, one of the things you guys talk about is parents know their kids.
So watch them.
And we tell parents all the time, go watch and sleep.
It's creepy, but don't watch them.
Yeah.
Right.
Three to five nights a week, maybe for a week or two, just go in there for about 15 minutes,
watch them.
You're going to see the snoring.
You're going to hear the grinding.
If you hear it and see it, there it is.
Yes.
The nightmares, the, you know, walking.
The bed, wedding, late.
Yeah.
Sleep, walking.
Yeah.
It's all there.
So I know, I know you guys do it as early as two days, which I still can't get over.
I love that so much.
Well, but I know the ADA says by your first birthday.
So let's just start with that one.
So if a child comes in, Dashburn, what does that first visit look like?
That's a great question.
And so before they even come in, we usually will have a phone call and go over what we
do for the kind of practice that we are.
Because really we want to have people who appreciate the education and the technology and the effort
we're putting to growing, helping them grow their child to their best potential.
The paperwork, they're asking questions about the birth story.
And you know, so some of the parents just, they don't understand.
No, like why are you asking?
I wouldn't know.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Anyhow, but of course it's a very friendly place that you can tell from our website.
So in any case, so there's a lot of gathering information.
What has this child been through?
Do they have teeth now?
What do they take to look like?
So the teeth, if they're coming properly, they should be like picket fences.
Like you could fit a nickel between each of the teeth.
But if they're already like two teeth are coming and they're already crowded like that, light
bulb should be going.
The office should be starting to worry.
And we want to find out like what they're doing at home in terms of feeding and posture.
And you know, like so many things as we're very proactive, preventive oriented because
especially with what we know.
And so like we know that by five months of age, your brain is ready for the input for
chewing and that reflex, it's waiting for it.
And so we want to make sure that the child is getting whole foods and that chewing input
is what helps that neurology part about the chin, the jaw, the bottom jaw growing and
coming forward.
And so it's really important that parents introduce chewing whole foods.
And because if you miss that window of five months of age, five to six months of age, the
brain might start to feel like, okay, they don't need this anymore.
So it gets delayed that process of growing a lot of jaw.
So it's really important.
That's why we say two days of ocean when we see them at two days, we're asking them to
come back every three months so we can follow up properly.
But the ones we made at age one, we figure out where are they on, how are things going,
are they meeting milestones, are they on track for the growth of their jaws?
Obviously, we check to make sure they don't have cavities who teach the parents how to
care of them.
Stay out of the fire range.
So they don't have to deal with like that.
Like that.
Or let's grow the face.
Yeah.
Lots of questions, you know, to get back to what we're doing to that, for them at age
one, lots of asking, lots of questions, lots of educating, and then also getting the kid
and the child much just like a custom and acquainted with the practice and acquainted
with things in their mouths or acquainted with just like being in the chair and all
of that and just having a good time so they equate good memories to coming to the dentist.
I love that.
That's brilliant.
And I've heard you mention, I've heard you mentioned a couple of times now growing the
face.
Yes.
And Susan Maples mentions that as well as Dr. Tasha.
I mean, that's such an amazing, such an easy statement, but it is such a dramatic and amazing
shift.
It's perfect.
It's actually.
Yeah.
How do you explain this to parents to get them?
I mean, because that's, I know as a parent, if I walked into a dentist back, you know,
my children are old now.
I say, well, they're not that old, but and somebody had said, you know, growing the face,
I would have been, you know, wait, wouldn't be growing because it sounds kind of mutant
fast.
But, you know, now with all the knowledge of two years with calf, you know, I get it.
We're talking, you know, baby, we need things like this, but how do you explain this to
parents?
I think I'll start now, let Dr. Linda start too.
But I think because we actually call our program growing healthy faces.
And so just being able to let them know that this is such an important part of, and they
know it already, as far as like cosmetics, right?
Because the dentist really just like, make it pretty.
So, you know, it doesn't become, it's not too difficult to kind of explain and say,
okay, to make everything nice and healthy, good job on good, you know, eye level, things
like that.
These are the things that it requires, right?
And this is why it's important.
And then maybe kind of add in, did you know the sleep is important?
Did you know, you know, this kind of putting, especially when they come in very early, this
putting in those nuggets.
And then also, typically we have like a screening form and we have like different videos, QR
codes, different things where we're like, hey, we're going to be seeing you for a while.
So this is our first time we're giving you lots of homework.
Next time you come, we're going to talk about I want you to bring lots of questions, even
if you have questions beforehand.
So we're very open to having sometimes parents leave and they're like, what is this, then
they want to have a meeting.
Right.
So we're open to having meetings and just being open to being their resource for these
weird questions or weird topics that seem to that come up for them.
You're always there for it.
So explaining it is, you know, giving them some of the things that we see, but then also
how it relates to the whole body and things like that, maybe relating to their history
of as well.
And then answering a ton of questions.
Yeah, which is great.
And that's a lot of visuals to it as well.
So, you know, how I bet.
So when we do ask that question about nursing and so we tell them why it was important and
why and if that hasn't happened, why it's important for it to happen so that the child
can continue to grow properly.
And then you're right, as a parent, you know, even me, when my doctor looked in my mouth
and say they had sleep apnea, I rolled my eyes.
So and with everything I know, everything I knew at that time.
So it's usually difficult for parents to make the connection between your teeth and the
rest of the body.
But ultimately, that's our goal.
And that's one of the reasons we were actually very happy to do this podcast because we want
as many parents as possible to ask questions.
So when the provider tells you, oh, it's just a tongue, it's just a mild tongue.
You know, see that tongue tie or not, because you can't, you're not mildly pregnant.
Exactly.
It's mild sleep apnea.
Okay.
Mild sleep apnea.
How many, what is mild?
My child is not breathing or subspeeding four times every hour that they sleep.
And mind you, four times is the 10 seconds or more that is recorded.
So if it went 9.99 seconds, that's not recorded.
But is that good enough for your child?
Right.
You are listening to Airway First with today's guests, Dr. Linda Dean-Diru and Dr. Crystal
Dean-Diru.
You can find out more about the Children's Airway First Foundation and our mission to
fix before six on our website at childrensairwayfirst.org.
The CAF website offers tons of great resources for parents and medical professionals, including
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Parents are encouraged to join the Airway Huddle, our Facebook support group, which was created
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And now let's jump back into my interview with today's guests, Dr. Linda Dean-Diru
and Dr. Crystal Dean-Diru.
So, yeah.
Right.
And I was thinking about this when you mentioned it earlier, because just, you know, I'm thinking
about some of the other podcasts like with Dr. Leal, for example, and you brought in some
visuals.
This really can impact children in such profound ways, you know, things that I never even thought
about, like when they turned sideways, their heads were forward or we fixed their airway
and suddenly this, you know, dip in their neck is gone.
We're straight.
Yes.
You just don't think about that as a parent.
Exactly.
Right.
The dentist tricks my child's posture.
And that's just, that's insane.
Yeah.
But then when you really unpack it, it makes sense.
It makes sense.
And the other part too, even just teaching, and this is what we feel good about when we're
working with our four or five year olds, teaching them how to know about their own health and
be aware.
Beyond just our airway or our growing healthy basis program, every child that comes in or
their dental health visit, they're in a learning lab brought to you by Susan Naples.
We're in a learning lab.
We, you know, we love that concept and being able to educate children on their own health,
right?
And they become their own advocates.
Yeah.
They may not.
They start telling their parents, you know, I don't want that fruit.
That's for my life.
There's one they have, there's like food works good for you.
Like it's, it's a little, and the mom comes back and they say, I take him, when I come
to the grocery store, he tells me, I don't want this food.
I don't want that food.
I want this one.
So I love that.
Oh, that's fantastic.
That is fantastic.
That's a fun part.
I bet.
And then, and then also, you know, that's impacting their health span.
That's not just right now.
I mean, you're setting them up for life and that's, that is priceless.
So Dr. Linda, I have heard you mention, I want to get this correct here.
Exactly.
Oral health affects the child's self-esteem and how they interact with other people more
than you realize.
Absolutely.
And that's a part that I get quite emotional about because most kids, they don't say how
they're feeling.
They don't know how they're feeling.
And all the years I have practiced, there have been very few times when a child comes
in and they say, oh, this hurts.
That hurts.
You know, besides, of course, if they fell and they broke something.
And so, but sometimes you open their mouth and they're a mouthful of cavities and the
parents have no clue.
And they never said anything to the parents, obviously.
But I can imagine as an adult, it would be, you would want someone cut your head off if
you had half of what that child was going through.
And sure.
And the story that comes to mind recently, I have an 11-year-old who's a new patient
to us.
And, you know, we're trying to get her to kind of open up and stuff.
And I should say, no, I don't smile.
I said, oh, I don't hear that.
What do you mean by that?
She said, I just don't want to smile.
I said, is that because you don't find things to smile about?
Or is there something that's bothersome with your smile?
Because I never want to say, you're okay.
Or, you know, don't look good.
Right.
Don't look good.
And so she said, I just don't like how my teeth look.
And so when I smiled, I feel like my teeth are just the way they are.
It makes me look like a beaver.
Oh, my heart sank.
And my heart sank.
So do you imagine being an 11-year-old?
No, going into junior high, which is already.
Exactly.
And so it just broke my heart from the inside.
And so you have to find a way to say, you know, I hear you.
I see you.
And this is easy fix, you know?
So we got to make her feel good about that.
By the time she left that appointment, she said, okay, when do I come back?
And so, you know that that's going to be a change in her life.
So, but kids don't know how to say that things hurt.
Sometimes they have headaches, but they don't know when we ask the question.
We can just see from their faces.
The clenching.
The dark circles under their eyes, the touch to the jaws is so tight.
And then you say, how often do you get headaches?
And they say all the time.
And the parents go like, no, you don't, because they don't know.
They've never told their parents.
So as a fact, I wouldn't know to ask my child, you're having a headache, unless of course
you're sick, you know?
So the kids are very resilient, but they keep on a lot of things.
And sometimes they keep on because they're looking at us as parents and they don't want
to bother us, or they just don't understand what it means anyhow.
That's why it's important as a provider, if you're working with children, it goes beyond
just what you're seeing because you have to help them for their whole body and their whole
psyche.
For me, that's the most important.
Their psyche, because once their psyche feels good, everything else is easier.
It falls in line.
Absolutely, for sure.
And kind of along this line, you have a passion.
And not just for this, I will tell parents, please go read your website.
I'll put the link in there.
It is phenomenal.
But it comes through on your website, this passion you have for special needs children
as well.
So where does that come from?
And how does your philosophy of whole body care support them in a way that other dentists
don't?
Now, I'm not begging on other dentists, I'm just talking in general, the way you approach
it.
Yeah, well, you don't know what you don't know.
Exactly.
But I'm originally from Nigeria, when we trained, we trained like you were going to be the physician,
the only doctor in a 50 mile radius.
So having a concept of whole health has always been the way my mind works and the way that
I choose to practice.
And so when a child has special health care needs, it's not only that child who is affected,
it's also the parents and the caregivers who are also affected.
But you got to understand first of all, what you're dealing with in terms of their medical
issues.
But at the same time, you're looking at this child, there's someone else, there's somebody
inside of them looking to express themselves.
And so as a practice, we're looking, what can we do to help that person inside of them
show up more?
They're not going to be perfect, but they're going to be perfect for who they are.
And so that's what we help parents with.
We do a lot of guided programs for them.
Sometimes we have to see that they come just to visit, walk around, we show every process,
what's going to happen.
We see to all our patients, and especially them.
Some of them, they just know, I have the one that just texts me before his appointment,
he said, I'm coming.
I'm coming to see you, when is my appointment?
But anyhow, you've looked for them.
And a couple of them are also in a very healthy-faces program.
Because what we understand with the body and neurology and some of the tools that we use,
especially that non-surgical laser, we know that if we can get their bodies working better,
if we can get the nerves strabling, if we can get the fascia flowing, they can access
more of who they are.
And so, yeah, a little bit more than what they would have otherwise been.
So we, you know, so many parts of our program, so many things that we've seen a lot of kids
get healthier, and some of the ones who didn't really have access to language being able
to be more expressive.
It's not just what we do, like I said, it's a whole village.
But what they do will help some of the other parts, all of it come together.
So like sometimes after that, laser therapy, they go for their OT appointment, the OT appointment
is easier.
Oh, they see the cranial osteoporosis, the cranial osteoporosis feels like your work is
easier.
So again, when you're looking in this powerhouse of our face and getting it to be the best
it can be, your whole body settles a lot easier.
Absolutely makes sense.
So I want to completely just shift gears.
And I want to talk about sealants before we run out of time.
This is something we do get a lot of questions about, not our wheelhouse.
So how do we advise parents?
You know, I know there's a lot of discussion around whether or not it's safe, we're the
long term effects.
So how do you advise parents when it comes to sealants on tea?
That's another great question that you have.
And again, being proactive, preventive, we're really, we're big on sealants.
And for practice, actually, I opened the practice in 2000.
And from that, at that point even without knowing so much about what the BPA, the plastic
stuff that is in sealants that most people are concerned about, the sealant that I chose
at that time had no BPA, it was BPA free.
So I've always had, okay, I'm going to get it as healthy as I can.
And so the thing with sealants and the way I explain it to a lot of the parents is that
naturally our grooves are very deep.
It's a place where the toothbrushes can only get to.
You can get beyond it to clean it.
And over time, the bacteria and food will settle into those grooves.
What sealants do is to make that surface a little flatter and easier to clean.
And so that way it will help you prevent getting cavities on them.
But that's a good sealant.
And that's a monitor sealant, as a matter of fact, we're so passionate about making
sure that good sealants that we have what we call sealants for life program.
Because every time they come for their checkup, when looking at those sealants, not just looking,
we take a super photo, what we call a super photo, which is just not a camera that takes
photos of a tea.
It actually has light that can penetrate that deeper like two millimeters beyond our own
eyes.
So if that sealant is starting to break or crack, you have to have it replaced.
And so that's the part that helps you to keep it preventing cavities.
Obviously, depending on what some kids are chewing ice, they're grinding their tea and
they're chewing on toys and things like that, their sealants are going to break more often
than others.
But the biggest part, which was one of the parents that taught me and helped me to explain
to parents, when eventually she didn't want to get sealants, and then the child got a
cavity.
And so I had to fix the cavity and I explained to her what we were going to do and what we
needed.
We needed to remove the cavity and put a filling in there.
Yes, we use lasers to remove cavity so you don't have to get numb.
So it's comfortable that lasers can use or have an affinity to water.
And cavities have more water than teeth itself.
So it selectively takes up the cavity.
So you still have most of your tooth structure intact.
Wow.
Okay.
Then I said, then I got to put this plastic filling in there.
She said, you got to put a plastic filling?
I said, mm-hmm.
So that's a resin.
And so I said, she said, I didn't know that.
I would have done the sealant instead.
And I said, okay, you just taught me something.
So whenever I'm explaining it to parents, I would say you can prevent.
Yes, it is plastic.
It's BPA free.
Yes, the resin.
But when you get a cavity, now I got to remove the tooth structure.
It's a living thing.
I've got to take some of it out and let this compromise for life because every time you
got to redo it, you got to take out a little bit more tooth structure and stuff like that.
So this is just putting a sealant.
Yeah.
And sending everything.
And then keeping to maintain it as well.
So yeah, I'm not going to lie.
I'm sitting here with my tongue, messing with my tooth because I have a sealant and I'm
thinking, hmm, should I do that?
Has anyone checked that?
I should have told you.
Yeah.
How long has that been there?
Yeah.
Now always have them check them.
And if you have to replace them, just say go ahead and replace my sealant because it's
infinitely cheaper, is infinitely better for you than having to get a fill.
I'm going full cavity.
Yeah.
Gross.
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit about nutrition before we go because you did give a nod to
Dr. Maples and her program.
So because nutrition, as we're finding out, it's going to impact everything if you eat
crud.
Guess what your sleep is going to be?
It's going to be crud.
And if your sleep is bad, it's mental health.
It's all connected.
So when you talk to parents, what kind of foods are you telling them?
This is what, you know, let's push your kid towards these kinds of foods.
That's a great question.
I didn't know.
Yeah.
But a lot of times we are letting parents know that healthiest foods are whole foods
as if we were, you know, back in the Stone Age and things like that.
As whole as possible that doesn't interfere with obviously allergies and whatnot.
It's definitely things where they're chewing, especially when they're younger.
Whole apples, whole fruits, not the processed foods.
Nothing that's from a packet, nothing, even the fruits.
No pouches.
Exactly.
No pouches.
So anything that doesn't allow the child to really work the food, if they can have meats,
have them eating on meats, have them eating the chicken bone or thigh bone or whole drum
stick, even as young as one year old, you know, just the younger the better, it's fine.
And being able to have nutritious food does definitely help, even help to prevent cavities,
obviously, because of feeding the bones and the teeth of the mouth, but then also for,
like we said, for sleep and reducing inflammation, right?
So lots of whole foods as much as possible.
Yeah.
We're telling that.
And even when they're younger, like when they start feeding the first time they started,
which is usually five to six months of age, I will tell them, give them that whole carrot,
give them that whole cucumber and let them struggle with it because they could get frustrated
and that's okay.
But they're developing a hand-eye coordination as well.
So that's also part of what the importance of having them have whole foods are.
Let's not be messy.
Yeah.
Just let them do it.
Just let them be.
Just let them do it.
Yeah.
And I would like to publicly apologize to my daughters now, the little juice box and juice
pouch daughters.
You did what you can, you know?
Mama didn't know.
Make sure you know.
Out pouch, yeah.
I know.
Hey, you know.
We don't shame.
Because life is what we didn't know.
We didn't know.
And even if you're going on trips and things like that, we don't want to be like, you know,
we don't want the child not to be at school and be different per se or be at a birthday
party.
Different.
So, but just don't buy it at home.
Right.
Have a treat when you're out and then when you're home, you have a carrot.
Right.
As much as possible.
Do the best you can with it.
This is difficult.
Making choices, making healthy choices are difficult.
And today's world is hard.
And you know, you don't have the time that is required to just stay and go grind your
food and start to make it come scratch and all that.
So, we recognize that.
However, it's just that there's some parents who really, really are into it and the others
will slowly walk themselves to it.
And even if it's just one item that you replace with the whole food.
Step forward.
That's a step forward.
Absolutely.
Yeah, we're all in that same parenting struggle, both, aren't we?
It's just, it is.
Right.
It really is.
At the end of every episode, I always want to hand it back to our guests because y'all
are the experts and your work parents are here to hear about.
So, what message or is there something we didn't cover?
What would you like to leave parents with today?
Let's see.
Well, it's, this is great.
Being a paying attention to your child.
If you're noticing any problems, like if you're hearing them breathing or they're moving and
tossing around, if you feel like their sleep is not restored or they have tantrums, like
you just can't explain and don't let anyone tell you that is in your head or that is a
fad or that it's what you've observed is not true.
So just follow your gut and ask more questions.
If you go to the first provider and they say that, check up on yourself, you know, read
up on yourself or read up by yourself, get information for yourself.
And for the parents whose kids are a little bit older, the sooner the better, but it's
never too late.
I'm still in treatment myself and, you know, it's working.
It's about increasing the lifespan.
That's right.
It's increasing how you are living on earth and things like that.
And definitely my takeaway is breathing through the nose.
It is absolutely tantrum paramount.
And so if you're not able to do that, that's when you start asking a lot of questions and
see, definitely have to find somebody to help you breathe through your nose.
And it may seem simple, but it's not.
And it's not.
Yeah.
And it's not.
And I would like to leave you both with, because this has been for me, just an overwhelming,
wonderful, beautiful podcast.
And I appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
From reading your website and now having the opportunity to spend time with you, one of
the things you mentioned, I'd like to add to it.
You said when you work with children, you want them to feel like, I see you, I hear
you, but I would add, I love you because clearly you guys do very much.
We practice from the heart.
So it is very, very clear, but you know, that's just, I tell them when they walk in that door,
they're mine.
It is incredible.
I know.
It's really amazing.
They are.
I say it all the time, wherever you see me talk, I say, they teach you.
And so because of that, I'm privileged and honored to be able to learn from them and
be able to help them because they become the voice, their voiceless sometimes.
So being able to help there and lay their anxieties and anything that comes to making
them healthy, that's our goal, their teaching and they're going to be out in this world
teaching other.
That's true.
That's the goal.
Yes.
Thank you both so much.
It's our pleasure.
Thank you for having us.
We're really enjoying it.
We've had a good time.
Yes.
We could talk forever.
We're out.
Well, that's it.
Thanks again to Dates Guest, Dr. Linda Dean Daru and Crystal Dean Daru for sharing their
amazing insight and each of you for listening to today's episode.
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Take care, stay safe and happy breathing everyone.