Dr Ken features on Blacktown Radio Station SWR Triple 9 FM
How do I save money with my teeth and dentist? That’s one of many questions, Dr Ken covered in his interview with Mitch and Steve on The Community Show.
On November 16 of this year, Dr Ken Chan went out to Blacktown Showground to chat with Mitch and Steve at the radio station SWR Triple 9 FM about dentistry and oral hygiene. SWR Triple 9 FM is a popular local radio station of Blacktown in Western Sydney.
SWR Triple 9 broadcasts Loud, Live and Local 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All our programming is produced in our studios in Blacktown, and delivered to your nearest radio on 99.9 FM by our transmitter at Horsley Park. Our broadcast can be received across most of the Sydney metropolitan area. The diverse community of Blacktown, Seven Hills, Baulkham Hills, Fairfield and Cumberland is represented by our wide variety of programming and regular outside broadcasts. There's something for everyone on SWR Triple 9, check out the on-air guide and see for yourself.
If you wanted honest, genuine answers about oral hygiene and dental care from your dentist, watch the interview below.
FULL SCRIPT
We say a dentist is one of the most feared people, because of the pain associated with high pitch machines, and misunderstood, because the pain associated with dentists, can be avoided.
We’ve got some questions for Doctor Ken, which will help us put a sparkle with our smiles!
How do we avoid having a Dental Emergency?
It comes down to the following:
Dental Habits - Brushing your teeth twice a day, Flossing regularly - and having the right technique with brushing and flossing
Diet - snacks and sugary drinks - it's not that you can't have them, but limiting them and not snacking on them throughout the day. Make it a habit to drink water at the end of snacking and meals - it helps to wash away sugars, it helps to wash away plaque and food and it helps to minimize staining from tea, coffee, wine, colouringsHow early should we teach children to brush their teeth
As early as they start teething which is 6-8 month old babies - it's all about habit. Get into a habit of brushing their gums and first baby teeth - there are finger brushes or even using a paper towel
How do we encourage children or anyone brush their teeth - whether kids or adults, they need to see the importance?
My friends kid is 4 years old and was asking dad why he needed to brush his teeth. His dad asked his 4 year old if he liked eating and his 4 year old obviously said yes. Then my friend told his 4 year old that if he doesn't brush his teeth, then there will be bad bugs that damage his teeth and he won't be able to enjoy eating yummy food. The point is that we all have our motivations and priorities - and wanting to brush is really dependent on whether we can relate brushing our teeth to our motivations and priorities. For my friend's little boy - its being able to eat yummy food, for some it may be avoiding coming to the dentist in pain, for many, its actually because no one's ever told them the importance of brushing and flossing.
In regards to having good habits - something I'm REALLY passionate about is for children to breathe and sleep well. What does this have to do with dentists? It has heaps to do with dentists?
In terms of the health care system, we are the gatekeepers to the mouth. How a child breathes heavily influences how they jaws grow and develop and as a result how straight their teeth come out
You will rarely get a mouth breather to have straight teeth. And you will rarely have a person who's breathed through their nose all the time for their whole life to have crooked teeth.
I can talk and talk about this topic because its really really importantHow the homeless and financially disadvantaged people and their families could keep their teeth healthy?
Back to basics - having good habits
Brushing twice daily and flossing regularly - Toothbrushes - ideally change them every 3-4 months because they get frayed, but keeping an old toothbrush is better than having NO toothbrush, use small rice sized amount of tooth paste to help your toothpaste last longer, floss - not ideal - but rinse and wash your floss until it's broken and tooth shredded, I used to work in the public system and I actually had a patient who didn't buy floss - she cut her plastic bags into small thing strips and used them to floss her teeth.
Avoid constantly eating sugary foods and drinks -What types of food is teeth and gum-friendly?
Anything that doesn't have artificial sugar is already very beneficial for your teeth
Cheese - helps with calcium and protein to help strengthen teeth but also reduces acidity in mouth which make it more susceptible to tooth decay
Hard fruit and vegetables like Apples, Carrots, Celery sticks provide fibre, but also stimulate saliva and help with stimulating the gums and because of their firm texture, can actually help to clean your teeth better than a lot of soft foods
WATER WATER WATER - its healthy, washes teeth, helps wash plaque/food away, rinses really acidic/sugary foods and drinksWhat happens to our teeth and gums as we age - wear and tear?
Our teeth are designed and made to last us our whole life
Over time, they WILL go through wear and tear - they will chip, they will stain, they will wear down with acidic foods and drinks but they are meant to last us our whole life
50 years ago, our grandparents would have assumed that when they were old, they'd have teeth falling out and that they'd need to have dentures and false teeth
But we know that if we look after our teeth and gums properly, they can last us our whole lives
But because of everyone's diet and lifestyle choices, our teeth end up looking quite different as we age
That's where regular maintenance is important. I often say that coming to the dentist every 6 months for regular dental check up and cleans are like taking your car for a 10,000km service. Regular maintenance avoids a major breakdown. If it comes down to it, if our car is too worn down and broken, we can change our cars. But we only have one set of teeth. So we have to look after them wellThe importance of visiting a dentist?
Reality is that tooth decay is the most common disease in the community - it's the most common chronic disease in children aged between 6 to 11 and in adolescents from 12 to 19. It's 4 times more common than asthma in kids aged between 14-17.
In adults 20 years and older, 9 out of 10 adults would have had some form of tooth decay and a study by the World Health Organisation in 2016 estimated that 3.6 billion people (half the world's population) is affected by some form of oral disease
Yet, not everyone visits the dentist on a regular basis. Only 79% of children under 15 visit the dentist within a 12 month period and less than 56% of adults do the same.
Our bottom line is - Regular maintenance avoids the major breakdown
In the long term, it will save money, save time, save severe pain
Thank you Doctor Ken, for sharing teeth and gum care ideas. I hope you don’t get into trouble, especially the bit about only using a rice grain size toothpaste, and making your own dental floss. Some companies sales might be affected.
Big smile for everyone from Steve, Mitch and Doctor Kenneth Chan, this is the Community Show on SWR Triple 9. Ears to you next week, same time!
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