In this podcast episode, the host introduces the open forum in the Villages Florida podcast and encourages listeners to support the show. They discuss the improvements in season five, including a new logo and recording equipment. They also mention the use of AI voices in the show. The host then interviews Stephanie Steckle, an orthodontist, who talks about her background and how she got into orthodontic work. Stephanie shares her passion for helping patients and discusses her book, "Crooked to Straight," which serves as a guidebook for orthodontic treatment. She explains that a good doctor-patient relationship is crucial for successful outcomes. Stephanie also shares her personal experience with her dog's skin condition and how it inspired her to write the book. She discusses the frequency of orthodontic appointments and the benefits of orthodontic treatment for adults. Stephanie emphasizes the importance of oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment.
Welcome to the open forum in the Villages Florida podcast. In this show we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the villages to get perspectives of what is happening here in the Villages Florida. We hope to add a new episode most Fridays at 9 a.m. We are a listener supported podcast. You can become a supporter for as little as three dollars per month or you can choose to pay more.
To become a supporter go to openforuminthevillagesflorida.com and click on support in the black box. There will be shout outs for supporters and episodes. As a supporter you will get a direct email link to Mike. In season five we are making significant improvements and changes on an ongoing basis. First is our new and better logo upgrades and recording equipment to allow easy access for remote guests. Second is a continuing effort increase in the use of AI in the creation of each episode.
In fact all the show's announcers are now all AI voices including me, Emily. If you have a book that you would like to turn into an audiobook let us know via email to mikeatrothvoice.com. Hope you enjoy today's show. This is Mike Roth on open forum in the Villages Florida. I'm here today with Stephanie Steckle. Today we're going to be talking about your teeth for orthodontics. Stephanie why don't you tell our audience a little bit about your background.
How did you get into orthodontic work? Well thanks for having me today Mike. I really love doing orthodontic treatment. I did that for 23 years. Before I became an orthodontist I grew up like everybody else. I grew up in the time of Charlie's Angels and Chips in the Los Angeles area and looking good was important and having a nice smile was also very important. When I went to school I really enjoyed studying two areas. I liked art and I liked science and I thought dentistry going to dental school would help me combine the two interests.
So I decided to go to dental school. I went to a wonderful dental school. I went to UCLA. When I finished there I came out to Philadelphia and got to become a general dentist for about five years and I enjoyed doing general dentistry. I was lucky to work with a group of dentists who also did other specialties. So for five years I worked with other specialists in the general dentistry but I really started to gravitate towards orthodontics.
It was fun and it was meaningful. So then I decided I'm going to go back to school. I went back to school in orthodontics down in Georgia and I enjoyed the Medical College of Georgia and all I learned the faculty was wonderful and then I set up my practice in Delaware and practiced for 23 years as an orthodontist. Was it a solo practice in orthodontics? I was a solo doc, yes. I understand you also wrote a book.
Tell our audience a little bit about your book. I really enjoyed writing the book. It was a new creative process for me. My book is called Crooked to Straight. It's a guidebook for patients, parents, kids, anybody that wants to get orthodontic treatment. I'm your guide to tell you about what to do before, what to do during, and what to do after. I'm not treating you but I am your guide. I'm your in the book whether e-book or paperback.
You can look me up and find information throughout the process of your treatment. I want you to succeed and I want you to have a good experience with the staff and the doctors. So my passion for writing the book was there because I truly think that a good doctor-patient relationship is the basis for successful outcomes. Was that the reason that you wrote the book? The reason I wrote the book, I was inspired by my dog. I have a wonderful dog.
He's a Kelpie. It's like a farm dog. About a year ago, he had this really tough skin condition that the local vets, we couldn't get resolution with. So my husband and I started looking up online what can we do to help his skin heal. We couldn't find or get resolution either. Last year, I was in Gainesville visiting a Rotary Club and I met a veterinarian that teaches at University of Florida Gainesville. He recommended we take a look there.
We found out that there is a dermatology clinic at the school. So we made an appointment for our dog. After the appointment, they sent us eight pages to fill in. Eight pages? Of documentation of history on our dog. We filled it in, brought it to the appointment. I was so impressed with them because you had veterinary students, you had first-year residents, and you had attending doctors. All three of them read the information and they asked a lot of questions.
They asked us about his history and they wanted to confirm they understood what we had done and what is going on. Sure. Then they did the testing and they ordered tests. We got a diagnosis. They explained what we needed to do. Of course, in a sense, I'm the patient along with my dog because I have to render the care for him after we leave. But it was very successful and I truly believe it was successful because we had a really good doctor-patient relationship.
Now my dog, wherever we go, walking around the villages, he gets compliments on his coat. He has a beautiful coat. His skin is healed beautifully. Because of the experience with your dog, you decided to write a book for people who needed orthodontic work. Well, I really got to know my patients as an orthodontist. I really loved spending time with them. I'd see them on average retreated 21 months, national average, for orthodontic treatment. So I see them a lot.
We become, I wouldn't say family, but we become really trusted friends for each other. So I want them to trust me and I want them, of course, to like me. That would be great too. But I certainly want them to trust me that I'm going to take good care of them. So I really believe in that relationship and it just hit home with my dog's experience. So that's where the genesis of the book came from. So when someone was in your practice for orthodontic work, how often did you see them? When I first started in 1995, the typical adjustment frequency was every four weeks.
And then we started to include or change the wires that I used for the adjustments. And these wires had a longer activation period. So we actually stretched out their appointments to six weeks. And then over time, we went to eight weeks. Okay. Activation period means? How active the wire is once it's attached to your braces. Before it loses its tension. Right. Okay. Sure. Did you have any interesting experiences while you were writing a book? The experience of writing the book was very creative and very different than any other writing I did before.
It was fun, but it was hard. And I found that my experience writing the book was really one of the four reasons people write books. Usually they write a book from a shared experience, or they may write a book because, hey, I've got a business, I want to promote my business, so I'll write a book about it. Or they have a passion for a certain topic, and they want to put it in a book. My reasons for writing the book was really a shared experience, but not really.
I was a dentist, then I was an orthodontic patient, and then I was an orthodontist. So I felt like I had seen both sides of the chair a lot. You went through orthodontic work as an adult? Yes. Okay. I did too. And for me, it was a different kind of experience. It's very different as an adult compared to kids. Yeah. I always was a little bit angry at my dad for not putting me through orthodontic treatment when he put my younger brother through.
They said, well, you didn't need it. And for me, my dentist said to me, the pain you have in your lower teeth is not because they need a root canal, not because you have a cavity, but because the teeth are pushing on each other. Go see an orthodontist. And it was kind of hard to accept, but I went to see the orthodontist and got the braces and it worked out very well. Yeah. There's usually some soreness with orthodontics too.
You may or may not remember that. It was actually a wonderful weight loss treatment. Really? For me, I probably lost 20 pounds in orthodontic treatment because I didn't want to brush my teeth after any time I ate anything. So I stopped eating completely in between meals, which is a habit that stuck with me. And the amount of time it took to brush your teeth, but then have time to do other things. So I was encouraged not to eat as frequently and better food.
So I guess it worked out pretty well. Well, you had cleaner teeth for longer periods, it sounds like. Well, yeah. That's good. Yeah. And that's been a continuing habit. But if we want to lose a couple of pounds, I'll definitely recommend braces. Well, I will tell you two things about adults. I'm glad that you'd recommend braces. I've had multiple adults say that, that they would lose. I expect to lose weight doing this because my teeth are going to hurt.
And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. So I'm glad it worked out for you in your case. The second thing I learned is that adults, when I designed my office, I was told by the office designer, you want to have a room just for adults because adults don't want to be with the kids. And what's funny is that room ended up being empty for adults. Adults want to be with the kids. They don't want to be by themselves in a room away from kids.
The kids are fun. The kids want to interact. And so it was fun to see how that changed. The expectation was this, but it was fun to treat all the different ages together. Yeah. I didn't even notice the age of the other patients at the office. It didn't make a difference to me. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about the specialty of orthodontics? Sure. Orthodontics is a treatment that over 2 million people in the United States choose every year to get done, probably closer to 3 million.
And if you're going to do that, I strongly recommend that you consider that there's a time commitment. And you were just discussing an oral hygiene commitment that goes along with it that's greater than what you're experiencing now. So over 2 million people decide to do this, adults, mostly kids, but maybe about 30 percent adults. And when you go in to get treatment, it's a change to your lifestyle, but you'll get to see changes in your teeth.
Probably give it about a month, you'll start to see your teeth starting to look better. So it's worth some of the discomfort you'll go through. And there is some discomfort. You just have to expect that. In the profession, there's definitely a trend towards mass customization of orthodontic treatment, meaning like the braces are customized for that particular patient, or the aligners, the clear aligners are customized. And there's also a trend towards as much delegation as possible that's legally allowed for the staff.
So you see the doctor, and then you also see the staff while you're in treatment. So is that Invisalign braces that you were talking about? Yes, that's one of the brands that are out there, yeah. And that's better than the traditional stuff which was wired on? I'm going to give an engineer or economist answer on that, which is it depends. Okay, tell us both. If you're somebody who doesn't mind having the fixed braces on your teeth, and of course you don't know until you know, I think the braces may serve you just as well as aligners.
And now if your orthodontist gives you a choice, then it makes it a little tricky for you to choose. You may want to choose and work with what your orthodontist recommends for your particular treatment. I find that there's pros and cons with each. You described having hygiene, keeping them very clean takes time, and that's true. If you take the aligners out, you can brush and floss normally. But you also have to clean the aligners, make sure you put them back in.
If you lose time during the day, forget to put them back in, it could delay your treatment. Treatment, the course of treatment will take longer. The treatment, treatment time doesn't really differ between the two. Really? In my experience, I think they both work about the schedule that you can forecast them to work. Which one is more expensive? Over time, what I've learned is that you make the fee the same for either one, either modality. There's actually, you save time on the setup for one modality and the other, you have a greater setup, but then it's less expensive up front.
So it kind of evens out. That's the market at work. In round numbers, what is a cost of orthodontic work cost today? Round numbers, depending on how long you're going to be treated and where you live in the country, I'd say an estimate anywhere between $4,000 and $7,000 is a good estimate. If you have another specialist that you see during the treatment, it might add some cost. Let's take a quick break here and listen to a Alzheimer's tip from Dr.
Craig Curtis. Dr. Curtis, can you tell our listeners something they can do to improve the nourishment that they give to their brains? Absolutely. Our brain only weighs about 2% of our overall body weight, yet it receives about 20% of our blood supply. So it's very important that we essentially nourish our blood vessels. As we nourish our blood vessels, we'll essentially then nourish our brain. So lowering the amounts of sugars, red meat that's high in cholesterol can go a long way to nourishing our brain by making our blood vessels more compliant.
With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis' goal is to educate the Village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd.com or call 352-500-5252 to attend a free seminar. Here in the Villages, we have a lot of people way over 60 years of age. Does it pay for someone over 60 years of age to get braces? If that person's looking in the mirror and isn't happy with their smile, braces may be a nice option for that person.
It's conservative. You're not, you know, let's say they have crooked teeth they don't like, or they don't like the color of their teeth. The color of their teeth issue, braces probably aren't an option for somebody like that. Maybe getting some whitening or veneers might be a better option. I do recommend whoever you see for consultation, ask them what your options are, even if it's an orthodontist. I mean, I was a general dentist for a while. So somebody said, am I a veneering candidate? I'd say, yeah, you probably can get veneers done instead of ortho.
You could do that. So I'd say that's somebody over 60, if you're looking in the mirror and you say, hey, I don't like what I see, what is it you don't like? Write that down specifically and talk to your dentist. If you're thinking about orthodontics, your dentist is somebody who knows you, your hygienist knows you. Talk to them about the experience and what would be involved. But be really, what I recommend is you're really specific about what you want to change.
If you just want straight teeth or a perfect smile, that's fine. But you're going to be better prepared if you're a little more specific on what you want to change. And this is a question I asked before you went on the air. Will someone who has orthodontic work to straighten out their teeth have a lower risk of needing implants? People who go through orthodontic treatment, whether you're a child or an adult, you're undoubtedly spending more time taking care of your teeth.
You're improving, removing the plaque. You're taking care of your gums. And if you're doing that, you're maintaining the status, the health status of your teeth very nicely. So tissue health, gum health is important for maintaining your existing teeth. And if you've had orthodontics, you're probably a little better at taking care of your teeth. I don't know if there's a strong correlation between that and needing implants later. I'd say it's, that really hasn't been studied for me to definitively answer that.
What's the most common questions that people ask, would ask you as an orthodontist at the first exam? A 12-year-old in the chair will ask me different questions than an adult in the chair understands. The 12-year-old will ask me, is this going to hurt? And I will tell them, well, if your teeth are going to straighten, expect them to be sore some days, not every day, because you're going to have them on two years. Your teeth aren't going to hurt every day, but they'll hurt a little after each adjustment.
And then it gets better as the days go on. And then you don't feel them anymore. An adult, my experience that they're going to feel the discomfort a little longer than a 12-year-old. Another common question is, how much does it cost? And I think we answered that there. And then how long will it take? It really depends, is the third question, is how long will it take? And it really depends on what you're getting corrected. I've had patients in treatment for three years.
I've had patients in treatment for six months. It really depends on what we're correcting. What would be a six-month treatment? Most typical six-month treatment is somebody who had orthodontics before and they had some shifting that they didn't wear their retainers. So one tooth moved out, another one twisted back, and they want to get them back in alignment. So it's not all the teeth are being treated. Okay. So specific cases. Is there anything unique about the practice of orthodontic dentistry? Compared to general dentistry, orthodontics, in terms of the doctor-patient relationship, it's a much closer relationship for a shorter period of time.
You know, for example, patients that have a dentist and see their hygienist, let's say, every four to six months. Right. Orthodontists, you're going to see the dentist only once a year. There you go. So when you see an orthodontist, you'd see me every six weeks. And I'd be interacting with you. I'd be checking your hygiene. I'd be checking, how are you wearing your rubber bands? We talk about what you're doing at school. How's the new job working out? Oh, you're in that sport now.
So we develop a really close relationship for a short, for, let's say, a two-year period of time. Maybe that's why a lot of people who apply to dental school, and I've sat on interview boards, people almost always say, I want to be a dentist because I love my orthodontist. Maybe that strong relationship developed there and it never really ended. They really viewed that very favorably. Yeah. It makes a big difference. You only see the real dentist once a year when you're looking at x-rays.
Right. But an orthodontist, you'd see them every time you had an appointment. Right. Right. Is there anything else that you think you need to share with our listeners about orthodontist dentistry? I think orthodontics has a wonderful history of helping people develop strength in their personal appearance and feel better about themselves. Most adults who, actually, an AEO survey showed most adults, 75% that they surveyed, were, felt better in their personal relationships and even professional work after having orthodontic treatment.
And 92% of those same people said, yes, I would recommend treatment for others who haven't had it done yet. I think that's a strong statement about the benefits, personal benefits you can have from treatment. And if our listeners wanted to actually read your book, how would they do that? My book is available on Amazon and you can log on and get either a ebook copy of it or a paperback copy. And the name that they should look for on Amazon is? It's called Crooked to Straight and it's your guidebook to your best smile.
And it's also available, I have a website, crookedtostraightbook.com. You can order it from there. You can find out more about me and the book and a few highlights and some testimonials about the book there if you go to my website. And when did the book come out? August 29th last year. So new enough for you to remember the exact date. Exactly. Is it fair to ask you how many copies approximately have been sold so far? I don't really know how many have been sold so far.
How could that be? I don't. You don't keep track of that? I don't. Okay. It seems like that's a book that you have written should be in every orthodontist's office in the country and they should be giving it to every prospective new patient. I agree with you on that. Now there are orthodontists who are kind of persnickety. I'll include myself in it. I have a certain way of approaching things. I understand. I may not want someone else's perspective, even though I feel it's a very acceptable perspective and very helpful.
I will say also that school nurses who have children in school who are interested, hygienists who work for general dentists, the one you see once a year, those are the same people who will get questions about how do I straighten my teeth? How do I fix this? That book can be a great resource to answer questions, maybe save them a little time talking to them. Great. Let me throw one other question at you, a marketing question about your book.
How many free copies of your book have you given out? Free copies of my book? This is a guess. Okay. I'm going to say about 12. I'll just share an experience that my daughter's had. She wrote a book about psychologically taking care of yourself. What's it called? The name of my daughter's book is Show Up for Yourself. As you can see, it's kind of a heavyweight book with about 300 pages. Yes. She followed some good advice.
Every week or every other week, she would have a free giveaway of the Kindle copy of the book. Okay. What happened was as the Kindle copies were being taken for free, the number of paid copies on paper went up. It continues to be a best-selling book in her category. Terrific. Okay. Thank you for that tip. For our other authors out there, yes, if you have a Kindle copy of your book, you should be giving away some copies of it or giving it away at a reduced price.
You can have a sale on the Kindle version for a week. But then she did promote the book. She took individual pages of the book. She's still doing this. She randomly opened the page, read it, and turned it into a Facebook post, which was a very nice marketing idea. Well, I did do something like that for people who I knew. Thank you for letting me take a look. I shared the first chapter with them so they can give me some feedback.
On their review, they can provide a little more informed review there. That worked out very well. I got some nice reviews from them. Yes. One of the ways that we grow the podcast is every podcast, I create a soundbite, which is a 30 to 60-second piece of the podcast that I put out there and post on social media so people can find it. That's why this podcast is now heard in 18 different countries. Wow. That's impressive.
That's quite a reach. Well, you never know. Right, right. Search engines in China might find you even if you're in English. Stephanie, I want to thank you for being on the show. Anything else you want to add for our listeners? Well, I thank you, Mike, for having me on the show. I wish everyone well in whatever their choices are in improving their smile. Having a healthy smile is very beneficial to your overall health. Great. There's a lot of club in the village.
The Healthy Smile Club. Sounds good. Okay. Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you, Mike. Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 a.m. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mikeatrothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Twe Coleman, Dan Cappellan, Ed Williams, and major supporter Dr. Craig Curtis at K2 in the Villages. We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week.
If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mikeatrothvoice.com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2024. All rights reserved.
