Charting the Future: Dr. Preston Brown's Vision for Prosthodontics and Children’ Dental Care

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Welcome to our podcast and tissue for kids. This is Cameron Wong and today we're thrilled to introduce our guest speaker, Dr. Preston Brown. Dr. Brown is an accomplished dentist that is currently pursuing a specialty training in the prosthodontic, or program at the University of North Carolina. His commitment to service extends to coaching high school basketball, a high school and his alma mater and providing dental care to the homeless at the John Wellesley Community Health Clinic and to the children in underserved areas of Carolina through the mobile that clinic, and you're also a great golfer so woke up

Dr. Preston Brown: today. debatable, but not as good as you.

Oh my god. Okay, so for our question today, can you share your journey in dentistry? And what inspired you to go back to school to specialize in prosthodontic?

Dr. Preston Brown: Sure, so how far back do you want me to go?

As far back as you would like.

Dr. Preston Brown: So I kind of have a unique chat, I didn't have anywhere, any dentists, my family growing up, or none that were too close, I should say, my motivation and going into dentistry kind of stems from my my father. So he has a lot of dental, he had a lot of dental needs kind of growing up. So I got to see the good, the bad and the ugly, the other side of dentistry. And thankfully, when I was in high school, I had a a one of my good friends, his dad was a dentist, so they kind of got exposed to kind of see what like as a dentist was. So I kind of thought that would be a good way to take help my dad out. And then so I was in the army. So I was in the army after dental school. So I served for three years. So I didn't think about specializing in the army at all. And then I was in private practice for like four or five years. And I just kind of never felt like fulfilled, I always felt like there was a little more than I wanted to accomplish with my professional career. And I kicked around the idea of going back to residency at some point, and I just kind of figured it was now or never. And again, my dad's case is kind of a prosthodontic case. And I knew I wanted to take care of him and take care of patients like him. And the best way to do it would just go get go get the detailed training that you know what grad press offer. So that's kind of my, my path in a nutshell. So yeah, hope that answers your question. Yep.

That was wonderful. So what are the most common dental issues that you see in children? Any ages? And how can they be prevented?

Dr. Preston Brown: Who are children? Hmm, I mean, the the biggest one it carries, unfortunately, I think I think childhood caries is the most most occurring disease for children. So I guess just patient education is the best thing to try and prevent Terry's, you know, going to the dentist very early. Unfortunately, I don't work with too many children, which is probably best for me. You know, even in grad props, we do come across somewhat congenital disorders. So I haven't worked on these patients yet. But we saw, we reviewed a case the other day about ectodermal dysplasia. So there is a 12 and 14 year old twins who are congenitally missing basically most their teeth. So we are going to try and intervene to give them just some, like improve some quality of life for them until they can get to like the early adult age. So we can get them something a little more permanent than but so as far as grad process goes, that's kind of the like a case that we would get. But typical children, we don't come across children too often unless it's kind of like a pretty gnarly, like, generally a congenital disorder or something like that. So yeah, and those cases are pretty tough. They're very rewarding, because those patients need a lot a lot of work and they probably they've been struggling for a while. So it's it's nice to kind of kind of help when you can

and what are your what do you think are the most important and tips for effective oral hygiene routines?

Dr. Preston Brown: Ooh, effective oral hygiene routine. I think you probably kind of touched on it in the question is just having a routine, you know, brushing every morning and every night You know, I do write before I go to bed and right when I wake up. So I think that the best, I think sometimes you know, it's easy to forget if it's not a habit, but just developing habits is a good thing. Unfortunately, just about everything in dentistry is preventative. And it stems from hygiene. So if we can move on and build good good pound foundation with good hygiene, grow up good oral hygiene, see, the dentist regularly hopefully won't prevent some of these things. That before it gets too, too severe, and stuff like that. So yeah.

And are there any challenging aspects of working with patients in need of passing that on to care?

Dr. Preston Brown: Yeah, absolutely. So most of the time, when we see our patients, they either seen the dentist a lot, or they haven't seen them enough. And by the time they see, like we work on like, real mouth cases, almost all the time, we're working on either full mouth dentures or implants, full mouth crowns and restorations like the really big stuff. So the patient's themselves, they'd kind of, they've been in the dental chair quite a bit. So that's can be a blessing or curse. Most of the times, they're there because they want, they want help. But unfortunately, in our situation, because the cases are so severe, there is a pretty large patient management component to like, kind of just explaining, like, what they need, why they need it. Like what, what quality of life we think they can get. And that is the other thing is, there's a lot of limitations. So what are we gonna do so like, if we're doing a denture, we can only make a denture as good as like, the bone that they have. So a lot of the times we have to explain to them like, hey, like your lower denture may not, may not be very retentive, like, you're gonna need some implants. And unfortunately, some patients just like, they're expecting new teeth, which is not not always what we can offer them with a denture. So just kind of patient management, you know, being very communicative with with your patients and kind of letting them understand what what's possible. So, yeah.

Do you have any advice to give to dental students that are interested in specializing in your field?

Dr. Preston Brown: Um, yeah, I mean, I think the best thing would just be go and get some exposure to not just my specialty, and I love brass and prosthodontics. But just all specialties. One of my kind of things I kind of regret in dental school was I knew I was joining the army. So I didn't have any motivation to specialize, because I knew my lot was already made up for me. And because of that, I didn't go hang out and grad period and Red Cross, you know, grad Endo, I didn't really find out what process was until I was in the army. So my my best advice for just all kinds of future dental students is just be curious, kind of get a lot get lost in the clinics, don't be afraid to like ask questions and hang out. And, you know, you may, I thought I wanted to be an oral surgeon when I first went to dental school, because that's kind of all I knew. And then when I got exposed to grad profs, I was like, there. You know, in the army, I was like, this is this is pretty awesome. This is kind of the best of both worlds. Because I really enjoyed the patient aspect. I like building rapport in my patients, building a relationship with my patients. And I kind of feel like grad profs is allows me to do that as well as treating them like as best as I possibly can. So

and I know, you said that you don't work much with children, but we direct most of our stuff to children and parents. Can you explain the impact of diet on okay, I guess dental health in general?

Dr. Preston Brown: Sure. No, I mean, I really, I really starts from being a kid. You know, this is definitely a you know, the pediatric dentists alley, but having a poor, everything starts from that, you know, bacteria that causes cavities, they need something to eat, and that's sugars. So the more sugars you put in your mouth, unfortunately, the more likely you're going to be you're going to have to have it so staying away from like, you know, the sticky candies, you know, any sugary drinks, like those are all kind of really bad for your teeth, especially when your child so like a lot of people don't know like, I think even like Gatorade is is kind of terrible for your teeth. So even me personally, like I get unsweetened Gatorade, or you know, sugar free Gatorade, just because I know that's a little better for me. And then kind of what we touched on earlier if you are going to eat have a have any sugar at all, like it's best. It's great to have good oral hygiene to kind of help combat some of those some of the possibility of having some cavities. But unfortunately, we can limit her. If we can limit our sugar intake. We can hopefully prevent some cavities but it's Do something that I know I'm the biggest I mean, I like my sweets to show.

And is there a lot of new technology or developments? And how do you stay up with them? Oh,

Dr. Preston Brown: that is like that is the best part about I think in like our it's been dentists, the technology is just like exponentially growing every day. It's hard to keep up, quite frankly, like So right now we've got two computer program, software's that I'm like trying to learn, they're kind of tough, but the University of YouTube was one of them, where I keep up and a lot of the time, it just kind of just practicing, you know, being willing to fail a little bit, kind of learn from that. But we're at a great part, group point. And like the dental history where I think technologies, it's, it's so awesome that you're working with and we can provide like a lot, a lot of care that we probably weren't, weren't able to do where, whether or not it's placing the implant or milling the crown. I mean, with the advent of 3d printing, you know, AI, digital technology, digital scanning, I mean, and prosthodontics. In particular, we're doing some pretty crazy things with some really cool technology, you know, 3d face scannings. So we're scanning people's faces, designing teeth to match, you know, to fit in their face. And then planning implants from there. Like it's the especially in grad processing, we do a lot of these big cases, everything starts from the teeth, like if we're going to place an implant, it all stems for where our final product is going to be. So we have to have a plan. And having awesome technology really helps us develop the proper plan so we can be as successful as possible.

And to wrap up everything. Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently in your career?

Dr. Preston Brown: Oh, good question. I think, though, one thing I probably would have done is I want to try to specialize sooner. So I do wish I would have specialized sooner, that's kind of that's probably it. So I was actually out eight years before I decided to go back to residency and I get that look a lot. So especially for my family. So it not that it couldn't be not that it can't be done. I am happy with my decision made things a little tougher, because it was quite a big change in life. But I kind of wish I would have gone back to specialty school soon sooner. I do think everyone should look into specializing I'm not saying it's right for everyone. But it is something to I think to consider or at least hear in some light GPRS or ag EDS. But it's Yeah, I don't know, my kind of philosophy that we're gonna begin to go through all this. The dental school and all this training, you know, why not go the extra step? Especially when you're young. Don't do it when you're older, like

me. Well, that's all I have for you today. Thanks so much for joining us today. Sure.

Dr. Preston Brown: Hope I helped. If you have any questions, let me know.

Thank you so much, and I hope you have a nice day. You got it.

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