Bill Klaproth: This is OMS Voices, an AAOMS Podcast. I’m Bill Klaproth, and today we’re discussing an exciting new public service campaign that’s all about ensuring your child’s oral health is on the right track. It’s called Milestones Met Healthy Teeth Set. Visit specialists at age 1, 7 and 15. As parents, of course, we want to give our children the best start in life, and that includes good oral health, and this campaign is designed to help parents understand when and why it’s important for their children to see oral health specialists at key stages of development. And joining me today are two distinguished guests. First, we have Dr. David Morrison, the president of AAOMS, who will share insights on how this campaign aligns with AAOMS’s mission and the impact it’s expected to have.

And we also have Dr. Jas Dillon, the chair of the committee that developed the idea and messaging for this campaign. Dr. Morrison and Dr. Dillon, welcome.

Jas Dillon (Guest): Thank you, Bill, for having us here again. We’re so excited.

David Morrison (Guest):It’s a pleasure to be here.

Bill Klaproth: Absolutely. I love talking to both of you. So, Dr. Dillon, let me start with you. Can you explain the inspiration behind the Milestones Met Healthy Teeth Set campaign and why the specific ages of 1, 7 and 15 were chosen for specialist visits? And how did you involve two other dental associations in this?

Jas Dillon (Guest): Well, sort of, coming back and stepping back and thinking about our committee where our committee really looks at outreach to the community and our profession. One of the things we all see in our services as oral and maxillofacial surgeons is the pediatric population who comes in with decay or crowding and the parents then say, “Hey, we didn’t know.” And oftentimes, patients will have unnecessary extractions too early for things that potentially could have been preventable. And so, part of this campaign was, hey, we need to educate our public. And that’s where this started.

Bill: It is my understanding these ages are based on recommendations from the respective healthcare associations. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a child’s first dental visit take place either when their first tooth appears to about their first birthday to establish a “home base” and can include checking growth and development.  

And the American Association of Orthodontists recommends all children be screened at around age 7 to evaluate if a problem exists or is developing. Some issues may be obvious – misaligned teeth, an overbite, an underbite, or a crossbite – but others can remain undetectable by the untrained eye.

What about AAOMS?

David Morrison (Guest):Well, yeah, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, we typically recommend evaluating for third molar wisdom teeth at around the age of 15. And why do we do that? At this age, you can kind of assess the development. Do they need the eruption sequence? Are they ectopic? Is there a pathology there? And that allows us to accurately assess when they need to come out and if they need to come out. And it’s an appropriate age and it’s something that pretty much every oral and maxillofacial surgeon does on a daily routine basis. And it just made logical sense to be able to educate parents on the proper sequencing. And once again, if and when they need to come out. AAOMS decided basically to work with the Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Association of Orthodontists because we all have a vested interest in oral health.

Bill Klaproth: Absolutely. I love the milestones end of this because it’s easy to remember. So, with my kids, it’s like, oh, at this age, we have to do this. At this age, we have to do this. And quite frankly, I don’t remember any oral campaign like this where I would remember to check on my children’s teeth. So, this is a great way to give parents a head start on giving their children great oral health. And the milestones is an easy way to remember it. So, I think this is really great what you’ve come up with, and I’m sure it will be helpful for parents, so you don’t have the parent walking in, Dr. Dillon, saying, “I didn’t know.” So, this is a great way to really educate them. And Dr. Morrison, from a broader perspective then, how does this public service message align with AAOMS’s overall mission to improve public health, particularly for children? 

David Morrison (Guest):Well, the mission of AAOMS is to ensure patient access to safe and effective care. We do that through advancing and promoting and we preserve the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery and basically the skill and professionalism of our members. Most people learn of our profession initially when they are teenagers and they do go get evaluated for third molars, once again, wisdom teeth as they’re collectively known. The opportunity to take care of patients before problems arise is very critical, and that hints to where the age around 15 comes from, and our association believes very strongly in this mission. And we commend Dr. Dillon and her committee for bringing this forward and collaborating. It goes right hand in hand with our mission of our association to collaborate with other associations.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, these milestones again are great. So, Dr. Dillon, let me ask you this. Let’s talk about the messaging and spreading the awareness. Could you walk us through the process of developing the storyboards for these public service messages? And what were the key considerations in making the videos relatable and impactful for parents?

Jas Dillon (Guest): Yeah, so first of all, I really want to give a shout out to our committee members because we spend a lot of time sitting there and discussing, and it’s hours and hours of work, including our immediate past president, everyone, our president right now, you know, they are on this committee as well, and they roll through it and we sort of round table ideas. This is one of the latest of many that we’ve done. We’ve talked about tooth injury, mouth guards, cancer, HPV, things that the community needs to know as a whole, and they’ve been very successful and very important for outreach to our society.

Well, this latest one, was again round tabling and thinking about our pediatric population. As I said before, we have kids come in and we want to tackle them before as Dr. Johnson saying that there’s a problem. So, in this campaign, we decided that this was a perfect segue into our next level. We’ve done a bunch of PSAs on adults. Why don’t we now focus on our pediatric population? And a lot of time was spent in the 1, 7, 15 and milestones met. And it, as you’ve just said, it’s very catchy. We spent so much time just designing the logos and the details and the font and having a lot of experts weigh in. And then as we moved forward and we want to have quick videos that the public engages in. So, at the age of one, what’s a important milestone? Taking your first steps as a baby. And then at seven, you know, we could have had them on a bike and then segued it with, we don’t want to fall off the bike, but parties are a big deal, the cake and blowing a cake. And then 15, irrespective of where you are in the country. I mean, my own son. My son had a temporary driving license at the age of 15. It was a big deal. And so, you know, your first ride in the car with your parents sitting next to you, and all parents can engage with those ages. And certainly people will say, “Well, I see them at 16. I see them at 14.” This was a sort of very roundabout ages that I think that the whole society can relate to. And that’s where it sort of evolved. It takes months of hard work, but we’re very proud of the logo and the campaign moving forward.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, and as far as the videos go, for parents today, I can see where video would be appealing to them, is that right?

Jas Dillon (Guest): Very much so. And it’s quick, it’s easy very engaging.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, I love it. I think that’s a great idea. And Dr. Morrison, so then why is it so important for children to visit oral health specialists at these specific life stages, and what potential issues can be addressed by early intervention? We’ve been talking about, hey, we need a campaign, and this is great way to do it. Through this campaign, what can we help solve? What can be addressed if parents follow this campaign, 1, 7, 15?

David Morrison (Guest):Well, as oral and maxillofacial surgeons, we often see pediatric patients, unfortunately, who have been lacking in care. And by the time we see them, it’s too late. Now we’re doing something more advanced and more invasive. Ideally, we would have gotten to them at an earlier age. I can’t tell how many practitioners probably have the same encounter that I have. I see a patient and I said, I wish I could have reached out and caught this two years ago, would be much less invasive to your child. For pediatric dentists, the issue of early detection, issues of, caries, of poor home care, of anxiety. You know, that younger population, by the time they reach us are often terrified because they’ve been tortured, so to speak. And it’s from their perspective that they perceive that, but by reaching out to them when they’re one and being able to introduce them into the oral care.

Bill Klaproth: It’s not so big, bad and scary.

David Morrison (Guest):It’s not so big, bad and scary. You don’t have, the somebody over top of you that’s going to hurt you. And then you have the other side of that. Not only were you able to foster a relationship with the child, you also have parental education. This is what you need to do to optimize your child’s oral health.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that’s a great point. Kids don’t come with manuals, so, parent education is important as well. This is a benefit for them, too.

Jas Dillon (Guest): And then the next segue is obviously the orthodontist in this. And you know, when you think about orthodontics, it’s not just teeth are straight. There are so many portions of teeth are straight when you’re a 7-year-old. A 7-year-old, or around that, what we call mixed dentition phase, where the adult teeth are starting to come in, there’s still some baby teeth. And the introduction to orthodontics there is that the orthodontist can pick up early on, “Hey, maybe this child has a growth-related issue. Maybe they’re going to get what we call an underbite, an overbite. Is there something going on with the joint? So, they’re going to have a facial asymmetry. Is there something we can do to prevent more, say, costly or invasive treatment as this child grows? And what if they have a habit?” Parents, is it a soother, sucking their thumb or they have some other habit that’s causing destruction to the teeth or causing a maladaptation of the jaws. These can be picked up very early on and actually can be for parents who are worried about costs, can also help costs in the future because it can eliminate some very early problems that haven’t been picked up and including, snoring, mouth breathing because the dentition is in the wrong position, or the bite is off. So, now your child is vulnerable to falling down and fracturing a tooth because they’re in what we call the bucky teeth class two occlusion where the teeth are more vulnerable because maybe they were sucking their thumb. So, this is where the orthodontics comes in at that critical mixed dentition phase. I’ve talked too much in passing over to our president.

David Morrison (Guest):She makes a great point. By intervening and catching these issues early, you can do much less invasive procedures on these children and make it a better experience, less costly experience. It just makes, honestly, perfectly logical sense to proceed in that manner.

Bill Klaproth: Well, this follows the prevention is the best medicine, right? And it certainly holds true with oral health as well. So, that’s why I think this campaign is really going to be a winner. And Dr. Morrison, so then, speaking of this campaign, how do you think this is going to influence the public’s perception of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in children’s healthcare? We don’t think of the OMS early on in a child’s life, per se. But this really could change that as well, especially in contrast to general dental care. Is that right?

David Morrison (Guest):That is correct. The campaign really does emphasize that OMSs are specialists with advanced training in complex dental and facial issues. Really beyond what the routine dental care is, we have the capability of assessing early detection of problems. Let’s just talk about wisdom teeth. Typically starting developing in the teenage years. And an OMS can use X-rays and a clinical exam and assess whether they’re really likely to be impacted or cause problems in the future, or you have some evidence of pathology. And by doing that, we really do a great job of preventing future problems and future complications.

Jas Dillon (Guest): I was going to step in and let’s not forget that even if they’re asymptomatic, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have pathology and all our white papers have shown that, right?

David Morrison (Guest):Correct. Correct. Then that is an emphasis that and that’s the problem you see is without parental education and awareness that just because it’s not symptomatic at this point doesn’t mean there’s pathology or reason to intervene. And that is really a major, major, major issue. But the campaign for us is we’ve had a continued campaign from our informational campaign to educate the public about what we do, why we do it and what separates us from the rest of dentistry, basically. We’re one of the specialists that basically is somewhere between the medical and dental field. We don’t really fit either niche, but we fit both, if that makes sense. And I think this is once again, one more avenue that we kind of separate ourselves to make the public aware of how we do it. And basically, this campaign showcases our collaboration that we have with other associations, our ability to basically include other practitioners for the total well-being and healthcare of our individual patients. And that’s where it really comes down to and, you know, the theme of The Patients We Serve which will be the theme for AAOMS this  year. And it really is about the patients we serve and AAOMS really takes that charge very, very seriously.

Jas Dillon (Guest): Yeah, well, we’re with the best of both worlds, right? We have medicine, dentistry, and this is a great campaign where we’re bringing organizations in medicine together. And, as we move forward, for all we know, the organizations in dentistry and we’ll bring the medicine group together as well.So, this campaign is bigger than what we have right now as we evolve it.

David Morrison (Guest):Yeah, I really do see that our three organizations actually reaching out to the American Academy of Pediatrics and getting them engaged and getting their members to help engage their patients and their parents to educate them on what really is a very important milestones in their patients’ lives.

Bill Klaproth: That would be a win-win-win. For sure. It’s interesting you talk about the perceptions. I think most people think, “Oh, OMS, those are the wisdom teeth people. That’s who I go see when that happens.” But a campaign like this really can help build that awareness early on in a child’s life that the OMS should be a part of a child’s life, especially when it comes to oral care. So, I think that’s really good. And then bringing it, involving the other organizations too, think is really good move.

Jas Dillon (Guest): Yeah, and for us, this is important that we want our society to understand that we’re not here preaching for the fact that we’re here for wisdom teeth. And this  president’s message is about patients and, you know, our society and what can we do to serve our community. And this is what this PSA is about. The pediatric population sometimes gets forgotten in our message where everyone’s thinking about wisdom teeth. That’s one important message, but we want to think about all these other things with pediatric oral health.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that’s a great point. So, Dr. Dillon, then, you’re at the ground floor of this, what do you hope parents take away from these messages, and how are you hoping this is going to make a difference in ensuring better oral health outcomes for children as they grow? How do you hope to see this flourish?

Jas Dillon (Guest): That’s a great question. Thank you for asking that, Bill. Well, in my mind, your child is your biggest investment. You know, your child is your future. Your child is your legacy. And whatever we can do to invest in your child’s future is critical. You know, you don’t want your child to lose those front, beautiful teeth. You want them to be nice and healthy and lined up. You also don’t want to have diseases and pathology. So, we want to have that outreach early on and make a difference. So, as a parent that you feel proud that you’ve done the right thing, not that, “Hey, I never knew.” That’s what I hope this campaign will give to our society and improve the oral health of our pediatric population.

Bill Klaproth: That makes a lot of sense for sure. Any thoughts on that, Dr. Morrison?

David Morrison (Guest):I think she’s absolutely correct. We really want our patients from all levels to understand that by seeing these specialists, it’s going to make a difference in your child’s life. First off, the pediatric dentist really sets the table and starts disease prevention and puts basically messages for the parents to how to monitor and how to take care of their child. And then the orthodontist can get that early intervention and look for growth and ectopic, eruption sequences that could be a very simple intervention and they’ll involve the surgeon at that point if necessary. And then we can then evaluate at that age, a critical age with the wisdom teeth and third molars. It’s once again, it’s the next level. So, we’re all three together taking care of that patient and educating that parent and once again, I totally agree. I think about my own children and grandchildren and how critical it would be to me or how devastating it would be to me if I let something, and I ignored it, typically because I didn’t know, all I had to do was a simple check, and it could have been a simple intervention, and I let it go to something that ended up being something much more.

Bill Klaproth: Right.

Jas Dillon (Guest): Yeah, we want to have families feel empowered to answer the questions that they may have and know when to see a dental specialist and find the information on our website, MilestonesMet.org.

Bill Klaproth: That is great. I love it. MilestonesMet.org. Those are such great thoughts. I mean, you don’t want a parent feeling guilty, like, “Oh my God, look at my child’s teeth. I blew it.” So, I mean, that’s really important. Dr. Morrison, I know you have a lot of irons in the fire being the president. You have a lot going on, a lot of campaigns. But this one has to make you especially proud, I would think. 

David Morrison (Guest):Yes, it does. Actually and the good thing is, Dr. Dillon mentioned, I actually rotated through, and I was the liaison to this committee, and I was there when this was being discussed. And I’m just very pleased that the committee has worked to the point to bring this forward and that we have three professional associations that are going to make a commitment to a public service for all our patients in the community and it makes me very proud to be a small part of this.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that is very well said. Okay, before we wrap up, I want to thank both of you for your time. But I just want to get final thoughts or anything else you want to add at all. Dr. Dillon, let’s start with you.

Jas Dillon (Guest): I don’t know. I think I feel like I summed it up well. I think that I would encourage everybody, look at the videos. I’d encourage you to go to the website. 

Bill Klaproth: Absolutely. MilestonesMet.org. And Dr. Morrison, wrap it up for us. Final thoughts from you.

David Morrison (Guest):Our children, as Dr. Dillon said, are our most vulnerable. And to be able to intervene and intercede before something bad happens. To me, if that doesn’t tug on your heartstrings, nothing does. And this is what AAOMS is all about. And once again, I think it’s somewhat about my, what my theme is for this year, The Patients We Serve, and Bill, we appreciate the time you’ve spent discussing with us this very important topic. 

Bill Klaproth: Thank you. You’re both delightful. Thank you so much, Dr. Dillon, Dr. Morrison. Thank you so much for your time. And for more information, once again, visit MilestonesMet.org, MilestonesMet.org. Go there, check it out. It’ll help you out. And for the full podcast library with great topics just like this one, please visit MyOMS.org. And if you found this podcast helpful and quite frankly, how could you not? Please share it on your social media and don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks for listening.