I had an amazing conversation with Dr. Scott Province, a general dentist practicing in midtown Manhattan since 1998.  Until three years ago, Scott didn’t see any children in his practice, let alone perform interceptive orthodontic treatment on them.  That all changed when an orthodontic colleague explained that Scott’s 9yo son with narrow arches and 10mm OJ wasn’t ready for orthodontic treatment.  He tells the story of his journey since that time, and describes his quest to address malocclusion at an earlier age.  We discuss:

• Why Scott transitioned from an adults-only practice to one that provides early orthodontic treatment to kids.
• How to begin treating younger patients when you don’t have experience doing so, whether you’re an orthodontist, general dentist, or pediatric dentist.
• The occlusal breakdown and TMD issues that Scott so often sees in his adult patients, even if they had orthodontic treatment as a child.
• What most patients who had 4-bicuspids extracted as children look like decades later.
• How Scott has taken his practice from a “dental crisis office” to a “dental healthcare office.”
• How Scott’s personal story with his son motivated him to look differently at the way orthodontists traditionally approach treatment.
• The fact that patients can have disrupted and non-restorative sleep even if they don’t have OSA.
• That undiagnosed and untreated craniofacial growth and development is the root cause of so many dental problems later in life.
• How Scott educates his patients on the role that airway and sleep play in their malocclusion and occlusal breakdown.
• Scott’s process for diagnosing and treating planning pediatric patients who need early growth and development.
• The best type of splint to make for bruxers to prevent the mandible from falling back and occluding the airway.
• The courses Scott took to learn how to provide this amazing service to his patients.
• Scott’s experiences using braces and wires instead of using fixed expanders to develop the arches of young patients.
• Scott’s message to orthodontists who feel that primary care dentists shouldn’t be performing interceptive orthodontic treatment.

Scott also reviews some of the cases he’s been treating and how he has changed patient lives now that he has a greater understanding of what’s possible with early orthodontic treatment!

LINKS:

-DOC Community on YouTube (to view Scott's cases): https://www.youtube.com/@delukeorthodonticcoaching