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Dr. Vu Tran - Smiles Start Early: How Dental Care in Childhood Shapes Adult Health
What if the dental issues you're facing as an adult could have been prevented in childhood? Dr. Vu Tran, a passionate general dentist with 18 years of experience, reveals why primary teeth are far more than temporary placeholders—they're the foundation for proper facial development, nutrition, speech, and lifelong oral health.
Following in his mother's footsteps as one of the first Vietnamese dentists in their community, Dr. Tran has witnessed the full circle of dental care. Children he treated early in his career are now adults with their own children, allowing him to identify patterns that could have been addressed sooner. This unique perspective fuels his mission to educate parents about proactive dental care.
Dr. Tran challenges common misconceptions, particularly the dangerous "wait and see" approach many parents take with their children's dental development. He explains how modern soft, processed foods prevent proper jaw muscle development, leading to underdeveloped lower jaws and potential breathing issues. Even habits like thumb sucking can create negative pressure inside the mouth that prevents proper palate expansion, affecting everything from dental alignment to breathing capacity.
Perhaps most surprising is Dr. Tran's strong stance against extracting teeth for orthodontic treatment—a practice he calls "the biggest misconception" in his field. Instead, he advocates for early intervention that focuses on proper expansion and development of the dental arches, potentially preventing TMJ disorders and grinding issues later in life.
Beyond the technical aspects of dentistry, Dr. Tran reveals how balanced facial development directly impacts a child's confidence and social wellbeing. His holistic approach combines cutting-edge digital technology with compassionate care that educates both children and parents about the importance of proper dental health.
Whether you're a parent wondering about your child's dental development or an adult dealing with issues that might have roots in childhood, this conversation offers invaluable insights into how early intervention can shape not just a beautiful smile, but overall health and wellbeing. Listen and discover why dental care isn't just about fixing problems—it's about creating foundations for lifelong health.
My name is Vu Tran. My practice in Fairfax is Pristine Smiles, so I'm a general dentist in Fairfax City.
Speaker 2:Yes, Very cool, all right. Well, the first thing I want to know is just kind of an overview of your journey. Take me back.
Speaker 1:I grew up in Fairfax and so I went to Fairfax Robinson High School in Fairfax and then after high school I went to George Mason and then, after I finished my education at George Mason, I did my dental education at University of Pittsburgh, and so coming this August would be 18 years I've been practicing in this field, so it's been a while.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, that's awesome. I read it in your bio that you grew up helping your mom in her dental practice. How did that experience shape how you connect with your patients and your team today?
Speaker 1:Oh, it helped a lot. My mom was one of the first Vietnamese dentists for the Vietnamese community, and so I got to watch her grow her practice and then work with her when I was in high school and in college, and then just seeing how she helped and treated patients, I found that very rewarding, and so I decided to pursue dental school and then come back and work with her and help her manage her practice for the last 17 years. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I'm sure she's very proud of you.
Speaker 1:She's happy and she's retired now, so she's just taking it easy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. What inspired you to really focus on cosmetic and restorative dentistry, and what do you find the most rewarding about helping patients improve their smiles?
Speaker 1:Cosmetic and restorative dentistry is just a little nicer term for a general dentist, because that's what we focus on. We want to make sure that we give patients aesthetics, but I found that when, as the years went on, you're able to find issues or problems with patients and able to fix and correct them and actually redevelop a proper smile, it's very rewarding and exciting too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. I also wanted to ask you kind of regarding like misconceptions or different like issues with someone's smile. A lot of parents think that baby teeth will fall out anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And what do you wish every parent understood about why primary teeth are so important?
Speaker 1:Okay. So this is where I'm very passionate about Children's teeth. Primary teeth is the foundation for everything Foundation for facial development, nutrition, oral health. It's also a foundation for proper speech development, proper facial development, proper facial muscle movement and usages, and so I try to encourage parents, young parents and parents-to-be to always be proactive in the children's teeth.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of things that we can catch early on that can prevent a lot of the majority of issues that are seen in young adults and into adulthood. So I always tell parents to make sure that bring your kids in around five or six so that the dentist can see how their teeth are developing, what to look for and how to prevent problems as they grow and get older. Yeah, so it's very important. I think primary teeth, or children's teeth, is the foundation for everything. So a lot of issues that we have as adults can be traced back to children, as they um, as we were children, and if we can intervene and prevent those from becoming an issue, we can actually give our kids a better starting point, uh, with development and not having to deal with dental problems as they get older.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that's really amazing I feel like that wasn't the mindset. Um, when I kind of started going to the dentist. Is that a relatively like new way of thinking?
Speaker 1:no, I think it's still a lot, because a lot of dentists, uh, they're not specialists. I'm not a specialist, yeah, but after 18 years I've got to see kids grow into young adulthood, into parenthood. So children that I saw when I first came out, around 9, 10, 12 years old, are now in their late 20s and 30s. And now they have children and issues that I'm seeing now with them that I have to fix and treat. I can remember back when they were still kids and realize that if I would intervene earlier I would have been able to help prevent this issue, and realized that if I would have intervened earlier I would have been able to help prevent this issue. And so it's almost like working backwards through experience, because if we haven't seen something yet, we don't know what to expect. But after almost two decades I'm starting to realize there are a lot of things that we can see that develop in children, and if we are proactive in correcting those, we actually can alleviate a lot of dental issues that we see that a lot of adults have when they get into their 30s and 40s. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the whole concept of let's just wait and see until they're 12 or 13, because their teeth are changing anyways is a very bad misconception, because, let's say, a child comes in and they have a very deep bite like an overbite, and you can't see the bottom teeth. What happens then is that you begin to have an underdeveloped lower jaw. It could also cause the child to begin having TMJ grinding issues, because what happens is that your jaw is so deep that it's pushed into the base of the skull that there's not a lot of movement. And by not correcting that and allowing the jaw to move forward, what happens is that as they grow and develop, everything develops properly, but you have an underdeveloped lower jaw and a lot of times you might need jaw surgery if it's too severe, or you have to go through a very lengthy orthodontic treatment for four or five years to kind of allow the jaw to regrow or reposition itself into a proper bite. So yeah, children's teeth are very important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's great that you're able to recognize that when you maybe started out that you didn't address some of these things and now you do better for the next kids and the kids of the people that you used to treat. I think that's incredible Kind of sticking to the same theme. What are some early warning signs that parents should look for in their child's oral development?
Speaker 1:One of the biggest signs is what I've noticed lately over the years is underdeveloped lower jaws, meaning an excessive overbite. It's because of our nutrition. The food we eat nowadays is processed food, soft. They're not organic foods like, like you know, that we grew up eating in the 70s and 80s. What happens is that, because the food is so soft, they're not using their skeletal muscles and what happens is that a lot of the food are mushy, so it was just kind of kind of grinding and not really functioning.
Speaker 1:What happens in is that, since you're not using the muscle, the jaw doesn't really push forward, there's's not a lot of functioning, and that could be a setup for health issues later on too for children.
Speaker 1:Another thing too is if their teeth are coming out misaligned and they're not having proper overlap. So Our bottom teeth are supposed to sit inside of our top teeth in an overlap, because the top teeth is what supports the lower jaw and its foundation and stability. And if you have teeth that are erupting too early or too late, it can unbalance the bite and then a lot of times it can cause malformation of the face or abnormal development. And so we want to catch that at a young age where, if the teeth are not properly aligned, we can jump in at an early age and correct those. The one thing I want young parents and parents who have children right now to see in their kids is when they bite down and smile, you want to be able to see the bottom teeth a little bit, and then, when they open up, you want to make sure that they have what we call a picket fence, meaning spaces between the teeth, because that's going to allow their adult teeth to grow into those spaces to support their bite okay yeah, it's fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, um, can you share an example maybe of how addressing an oral habit early, like thumb sucking, mouth breathing, help to prevent more serious issues later?
Speaker 1:Yes. So children who have binkies or they love lollipops or thumb sucking well past beyond five or six years old. What happens is that when you go into this suckling procedure, it creates a negative vacuum inside the mouth. So what happens is that the arch doesn't expand because we're creating a vacuum space inside the mouth. So as children are growing, their facial bones are still soft, and especially a palate, which is the top bone. Right here there is a suture line that runs down the middle and when you're young, as children, it's two pieces of bones that are growing and as we become adults, this line actually fuses into one solid bone right.
Speaker 1:So with children, if they're doing thumb sucking or any type of um suckling, what happens is that as that arch tries to grow, it can't, it actually bends in. So what happens you get a lot of children have have like spaces in the front or like an open bite where the teeth doesn't touch. That's just because, like the thumb sucking, you create this pressure and the bone actually folds in and it creates that opening. And another problem with that too is that, as children, the roof of our mouth it sits up very high, so it's the floor of our sinus high, so it's the floor of our sinus.
Speaker 1:So when you're, when you're having those bad habits and you create that malformation of the uh, of the of the bone, what happens is that that floor of the sinus doesn't drop because the arch can't expand. So what happens is that you have limited breathing spaces so children tend to be more underdeveloped. Children don't have enough oxygen coming in and they tend to be more frail and smaller. But that can be corrected by putting them on an expander or some type of treatment where we can actually force the bone to grow and as the palate expands the sinus actually drops down and creates a better airway space. And I've had cases where I've done this and you actually see within a year uh absolute growth spurt, four or five inches. It's amazing because now they've got oxygen flow, blood can be more oxygenated and it can actually help with proper development.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's interesting. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people know that. I think it's really important that you're on the show talking about this right now, because this is stuff that I feel should be common knowledge, and I certainly wasn't educated on this.
Speaker 1:Well, the problem too is that this is what I also want parents to understand is that never agree to have your children's teeth extracted to do braces? I think that's the biggest, for my opinion. For the last 18 years I've only had it done one case because it was that the child was already in their teenage years. The child was already in their teenage years, the bone was already developed. So because of relation wise, I had to do it once. But when you catch this stuff early on at a young age, there's no need to do extractions or anything for children Because, let's say, in a situation where they have a narrow arch, the teeth are crowded, but you go to an orthodontist or dentist and they extract teeth.
Speaker 1:They'll straighten the teeth, but what happens is that you didn't correct the bone structure, so the teeth is pushed back into a traumatic development and as they get older they start to have a lot of issues with not only breathing but also with their bite. And then a lot of times what happens is when you have extractions, you set them up for TMJ and grinding, and those are things that I want parents to really be aware of, to like always get a second opinion and you know, unless your child has a skeletal or a skeletal malformation and extraction is is really needed, then you know, then that's the treatment of choice. But most of the time you don't have to. A lot of times it's just early intervention, expand and then allow for proper development. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thank you for sharing that Kind of sticking with the same thing as well. How does balanced facial development impact a child's confidence and overall well-being as they grow, or how have you seen that?
Speaker 1:Well, children, smiling is the biggest thing and children are very unforgiving sometimes. And then if you're smiling and sometimes they don't mean to, you know children laugh or make fun of and it's not on purpose, it's just because it's something different. And I see a lot of kids who are afraid to smile. It impacts their self-confidence, it impacts their, their, their mentality a little bit too, you know, because now they're socially awkward, they don't want to smile. And so when I see children like that and we're able to help recorrect a bite, realign balance and give them a smile, it um, it totally changes their personality and totally changes how they they approach. And you know, work, um, work in social settings, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I bet that's so beautiful to be able to witness and take part in At first it was, uh, um, a career where you're just trying to fix dental problems.
Speaker 1:But then you start seeing, like the uh, the joy that people get from being able to smile, and over the years you realize it's like oh, this is a great thing, thing, great feeling to be able to give someone a smile.
Speaker 2:So it's pretty pretty, pretty awesome well, thank you for the work that you do sure thank you thank you very much. Thank you to dentists everywhere, especially you, because you're on this show, um kind of switching gears to like technology. You emphasize using the latest technologies and multidisciplinary treatments. What does that look like in your practice day to day?
Speaker 1:So before, in order to do a crown or to do any type of work, we would take impressions, we would make models. Now we can actually just take a scanner and scan the entire mouth, send it to a lab and they can digitally mock up what you would look like and send everything back. And because everything is referenced in 3D, you can actually get a digital animation of how your before and after smile can look, how before your after treatment would look, and so it's a whole new world now where we don't use any physical products anymore and it's all digital, which is pretty amazing because they're able to capture all little fine details that we might miss doing impressions or doing other type of physical work. And so, yeah, technology has really changed the face of dentistry.
Speaker 2:It's pretty amazing, yeah and it feels like maybe that isn't pretty recent, some of those technologies, just because I feel like I'm, I had impressions and everyone was talking about how bad impressions were. You know just a few, not a few years ago but you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I understand it feels very new.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's been around for a while, but it's just the adaption of dentists, because you have a lot of older dentists that are retiring now and then my generation. We are in between the technology phase of dentistry and also the old physical world dentistry, and I have a lot of young dentists that are coming out now and they're all digital-based. But I like being in between because sometimes technology is not always available and so you have to have some of the dental skills like making impressions, pouring up stone or making casts, but it is more time consuming. But I rarely do those impressions anymore. Everything is just scanned out, sitting into a lab and um and working that way, because it's more efficient, it's, the time of flow is a lot easier and it's easier on the patients not wasting their time at the office.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yep, all right. Well, how do you create an environment in your office where kids and adults feel comfortable and safe during their dental visits? Because I know that can be an issue with people Dental anxiety always kind of being a topic of conversation.
Speaker 1:Well, how I like to approach it is just talking to the patients, talking to the kids. We never try to force anything, especially with children who come in that are scared. The most important thing that I've found is having a conversation with a child, trying to explain to them every little step that you're doing so that they're aware of what you're doing and you're kind of taking a journey with them. And if you start them young and early and have them more comfortable, they're more adaptive to come into the office. But with, like adults and children who do have anxiety, I just found best just having conversations and understanding where their anxiety is coming from so that we can prepare for those issues and address it when it does come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. How do you help parents kind of understand that, while you did say you don't force anything on kids? How do you help parents understand that, like that wait-and-see mentality, though, can sometimes mean missing that critical intervention window?
Speaker 1:Oh, I would love to basically talk to the parents and then actually show cases cases that I've done over the years and show the before and after and the results so that they can actually see what treatment is necessary. Because I know a lot of times parents come in and they're like wait, my kid needs this and my child needs that. I don't understand. And they have to try to put the faith in the dentist understand. The dentist knows what they're doing.
Speaker 1:What I've found is that by showing patients real cases, real results, and letting them understand, and I always tell them that let's not wait too long. I know it takes time to think about to digest and I always tell them that let's not wait too long. I know it takes time to think about to digest and I always tell patients, whatever I give as a treatment, I'm more than happy to refer you to maybe two or three different dentists to get a second opinion. It's always good to get multiple opinions so that you can actually make the right choice and decisions for your kids. So it's always about making them comfortable and educating them as much as possible so that they can control the decisions they make in getting treatment for their kids or for themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really I love when I hear dentists and doctors medical professionals answer this way in terms of like empowering their patients with knowledge, because that's just so important.
Speaker 1:It's so important for patient experience experience but also just for patients to feel in control of their treatment and of their bodies so that's, definitely I think that's great yeah, there's wonderful because a lot of patients that come in and every single person dreads the dentist and so when they have to have work done, it's fear, loathing and pain and how much does it cost?
Speaker 1:Right. But if you can educate the science behind dentistry and allow the patient to understand why this treatment is necessary, then they have the control of like understanding why they need it rather than, oh, this is gonna cost me so much money do I want to do it? The problem is is that we don't see your teeth, so no one really pays attention to it. But I try to educate my patients that it's just not about your teeth. It's connected to your facial muscle, your function and your joint, so it's all three. If one thing goes, it's going to be a problem for one or the other, and so I always try to tell patients that it's more than just, you know, fixing or correcting your teeth. It's about rebalancing you and readjusting you so that you're as balanced as possible without any future problems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of playing off the word balance, you hit on kind of like more of a balanced diet and then organic foods and kind of chewing foods more. I wanted to ask, like, what role does diet play in early childhood health, like, besides what you've told me, and what are like some simple tips that you like to share with families?
Speaker 1:Well, I try to tell parents, try to feed them more organic food as they get older, you know, after five, six, introduce a little bit of protein rice, because the thing is that if you look back at our ancestors in history, when they get to the age where they're able to function, they start eating food right away, and what happens is that you allow development of the facial muscles, you allow development of the joint, you allow proper development of the teeth and the nutrition that they're eating, and so I think it's so important to introduce physical food, not like processed snacks and all the chips, because those type of food they're not the best type of food for children. And so I always try to reinforce young parents that, you know, every now and then you got to really feed them more organic food. Let them use the facial muscles to chew and function, because that's the only way that's going to help them develop properly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you get pushback with that? I feel like kids love those. I mean, it's not kids' fault, because they put so much sugar and they make it so hyperpalatable. But do you get a lot of pushback on that from the kiddos?
Speaker 1:Sometimes we get the kiddos. But what I've learned is that when you talk to the kids they're so smart and they're so adaptive. And then when you actually show them how their teeth look and how their smile should be and you know, just engaging with the children more so they, they really find the importance of taking care of their teeth and like how to protect it and brush and do all those things that a lot of times it goes out the window when they leave the dental office yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:I mean it goes back to the knowledge is power and really empowering these kids with you know agency over their teeth and their smiles and their dental health.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'm also like you know, at our office we also try to re-educate parents adults, but as children as well how to eat and function, Because there's this misconception that when you eat we're supposed to bite down and chew. But honestly, when we eat, our teeth are supposed to be lightly contacting, they're not supposed to be heavy grinding, and so we have to also train how we eat properly so that we're not destroying our teeth in the same sense, Switching gears a little bit.
Speaker 2:how do you balance demands of running a busy practice with being a dad of four?
Speaker 1:instead of connecting Three, three, okay, sorry, I must have read wrong.
Speaker 2:Oh, do you have a fourth on the way? Being a dad of four and staying connected to your community.
Speaker 1:It's kind of tough. It's almost like we both take turns taking care of the kids so that I can focus on the practice and you just find a way. I really don't know how. When I was younger I thought I would never have time to be a dad and run a business. But as long as you have a strong staff, a good office manager, an operatory manager that can run the office for you and help you out when you're not there, I think that's the best thing, Because I have my two staff that helps run the practice and I probably couldn't do it without them.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, it's great that you have that team. What do you love most about serving patients in Annandale and Northern Virginia? Because you grew up here.
Speaker 1:I love to see the end results because a lot of times when you correct patient's teeth or the bite, you know you can also improve their phonetic, their speech, you improve their aesthetics, their smile, and at the end of every major case or treatment that's done there's always a glow because they're actually happy with their smile. And a lot of times, too, I always like to train people how to smile. A lot of people who smile are not aware how to use the facial muscles, so I like to. Every now and then patients come in and we're always smiling together. It kind of gives them both those muscles up so that they're always used to smiling and you know having a relationship with patients that way, that's great.
Speaker 2:I hear a lot of guys say that specifically Be like I don't know how to smile.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, say that specifically Be like I don't know how to smile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you know guys are always trying to be tough.
Speaker 1:Yes, always trying to be off. You know he's got the mean mugged face, but yeah it's. You know, if you ask a guy to smile, the funny thing is that tell a guy to laugh. All guys can laugh really well. Yeah, know how to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I understand you've brought the smiles back to the men of northern all right last few um when you're not in the office. What are some of your favorite ways to recharge and stay inspired?
Speaker 1:uh well, I like going to the gym, um, but I also, you know, like to hang out with the kids and do activities with them. I have a teenager son, a daughter who's about to start middle school, and I have a young son who's six years old. So I'm always busy between all three of them because they all three have different interests and things that they're doing. So I stay busy doing that, either between hanging out with the kids or, you know, working at the office are any of them interested in dentistry?
Speaker 1:I'm trying to, but uh, I'm not sure yet. Hopefully, when they get to college, maybe I can convince them to uh just give them a nudge.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, you're very inspiring. So thank you, that's I'm sure they're. They're lucky to learn from you yeah, learn how to smile.
Speaker 1:I mean like with every kids you know, no matter how much your parents know they, you try to teach them. They're like oh, I don't want to hear it right, it's always like that, so so maybe the patients are a little bit easier yeah, they are that's great.
Speaker 2:Well, is there anything else that you wanted to touch on or add that I didn't ask you?
Speaker 1:oh no, I think it was. Everything was wonderful. I was happy to share a little bit of dentistry and I always want to remind parents and patients that be proactive. Don't just wait and see. If you see something that's like out of the ordinary or you're not quite sure, always ask questions. Ask as many questions as you can, and if a dentist is unable to answer this question, either they can send you to someone who can help or just seek out a second or third opinion. I think that's the best way, yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. That's it Well. Thank you so much for speaking with me today, dr Tran.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much for having me. I'm very excited and hopefully, if you know, we get viewers who like the show or like the episode. There's a lot more stuff about dentistry that I can get into and educate and teach as well, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fascinating, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2:All right.