I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Helen Jones, a dentist from the UK who spent the early part of her career managing extraction cases until she became discouraged by the treatment results. It started her on a journey to find a better way to manage deficient jaw size and airway problems in younger children. It is now her mission to raise awareness regarding the benefits of beginning orthodontic treatment at a younger age than we are conventionally taught.
Helen and I discuss:
· What a paradigm is and why/how the paradigm in orthodontics is shifting from taking a reactive approach to treatment to taking a more proactive approach.
· How Helen became so dismayed by the traditional reactive approach to orthodontic treatment and how this led her to become so passionate about exploring a more proactive approach.
· How her time practicing in South Africa helped shape her approach to both dentistry and authority.
· The way the National Health Service in the UK controls what dental and orthodontic procedures that can be performed.
· The time she spent with John Mew and her thoughts on his approach to treatment, as well as why John was vilified and deemed “unfit to practice” by the General Dental Council.
· How she broke free from the dogmas imposed by the NHS and started treating preadolescent patients.
· The impact that a lecture by Dr. Brendan Stack had on her life and career.
· The role that working with osteopaths played in Helen’s understanding of the fascia and how it connects the mouth to the rest of the body.
· The importance of looking at the entire child, not just the mouth and teeth.
· The need to move away from looking at the teeth and mouth as a separate entity.
· Whether or not you can get some degree of sutural change throughout life.
· If orthodontists are resistant to a more proactive approach to treatment out of fear.
· The mission of the new interdisciplinary group of medical and dental professionals called The Society for Dentofacial Growth & Function that Helen is putting together.
· How the General Dental Council is targeting people in the UK who promote early orthodontic treatment.
· The politics and siloing of care in the British health system.
· Helen’s advice to parents and clinicians when it comes to early orthodontic treatment.
LINKS:
What is The DOC Podcast?
The DOC Podcast brings you unique educational content taught by Dr. Mike DeLuke, a Board Certified Orthodontist with over 20 years of clinical and academic experience. Dr. DeLuke built his orthodontic practice from scratch in the early 2000s and grew it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise in less than 10 years. He was able to retire from private practice at the age of 46 years old, and now devotes his energy to teaching his colleagues how to succeed both personally and professionally.
Dr. DeLuke has served as a faculty member at numerous hospitals and orthodontic residency programs around the country, including as the cleft craniofacial orthodontist at Albany Medical Center in New York, and as a clinical professor at The University of Connecticut in the Department of Orthodontics. He is presently an adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University in the Department of Orthodontics.
The DOC Podcast will bring you in-depth discussions and interviews with industry leaders and experts on a variety of topics including clinical excellence, practice management, finance and wealth creation, health and wellness, taxes and accounting, fitness, and much more!