Reclaim Your Authentic Smile: Navigating Dental Health with Dr. Valerie Mukanga
Have you ever been diagnosed with a cavity and then realized your egg retrieval was only a week away? Or perhaps you were in the two week wait, and your dentist told you that you needed antibiotics for a dental infection. Were their recommendations compatible with a possible pregnancy? Is it worse to treat or not to treat in these circumstances?
These questions can cause so much stress unless they are handled with expert-level care and concern.
Dr. Valerie Mukanga elucidates these scenarios and many others as we discuss the importance of dental health while on the fertility journey.
We discuss the following:
how dental health is important for overall health
addressing dental phobia
preventative strategies for optimal oral health
how to approach treatment when trying to get pregnant or when finally pregnant
regaining your confidence as you restore your smile
belief in yourself and the process
Guest Details:
Dr. Valerie Mukanga is the founder and CEO of Healing Wings Dental located in Arlington, Texas. She helps patients maintain and attain optimal dental health and smiles. At the heart of Dr. Mukanga's practice is her desire to not only relieve the physical pain of her patients, but to also help them in regaining their confidence with the impact restoring beautiful smiles can bring. For Dr. Mukanga, dentistry is not an option- it is a mission.
Dr. Mukanga has been recognized as one of the TOP Doctors by Marquis Who’s Who. She has also been recognized as a Top General Dentist by Find a Top Doc. Further, she figures as a member of the Nationwide Registries Woman of Distinction Honors Edition.
As always, please keep in mind that this is my perspective and nothing in this podcast is medical advice.
If you found this conversation valuable, book a consult call with me using this link:
https://calendly.com/loveandsciencefertility/discovery-call
Also, be sure to check out our website: loveandsciencefertility.com
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Please don’t let infertility have the final word. We are here to take the burden from you so that you can achieve your goal of building your family with confidence and compassion. I’m rooting for you always.
In Gratitude,
Dr. Erica Bove
Transcript:
Hello, my loves, and welcome back to the Love and Science Podcast.
I'm so excited to have a friend and a colleague on this podcast.
This is the first time we've ever had a dentist to give us her expertise, her expert advice, wisdom, knowledge, all the things about how we can navigate dental care in the fertility journey.
I'm so excited. Let me introduce her.
This is Dr. Valerie Mukanga.
She is the founder and CEO of Healing Wings Dental, which is in Arlington, Texas.
She was actually born in Brussels, Belgium, raised in Africa, and she's lived more than half of her life in the US.
She's well-equipped to provide dental care to people of all backgrounds.
She helps patients maintain and attain optimal dental health and smiles.
I love that to talk about the smiles.
At the heart of Dr. Mukanga's practice is her desire to not only relieve the physical pain of her patients, but also to help them in regaining their confidence with the impact restoring beautiful smiles can bring.
For Dr. Mukanga, dentistry is not an option, it's a mission.
I hope we can get into that, that restoring confidence, because I think it crosses so many lines.
But I just wanted to say a warm, warm welcome to you, Dr. Valerie, because I am just so excited that we get to be in each other's lives and that we can share what we know about what we love.
Thank you for being here.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
It's such a pleasure. I feel so honored.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So, you know, it's interesting.
I think as physicians, we do not get a ton of dental training.
It's like, oh, yeah, your patients should brush their teeth in a floss.
And by the way, don't let them get endocarditis, you know?
So I, you know, when I met you and learned about your path to dentistry, I was just so captivated because I mean, truly, this is a calling for you.
And you know so much that, you know, most of my listeners, and again, I do have some dentists, that's a disclaimer.
So there are some dentists in my listening group.
I have dental clients as well.
But I would say the majority of my listeners are physicians who, like me, have relatively little knowledge in the dental realm.
So tell me a little bit about your path to becoming a dentist.
Oh, that's such a good question.
And I love talking about it.
So really, when I grew up, I grew up in a family where a lot of my family members had dental problems varying, right?
A lot of them had cavities.
A lot of them had, you know, gum disease and so, and I distinctively remember one of my aunts, you know, who had allitosis or bad breath.
So, you know, many times, you know, when she would smile, she was so self-conscious.
And even, you know, she really didn't really like the shape of her teeth.
So she'd always cover her mouth when she would speak.
And you see how, you know, lack of proper oral health actually affects, you know, the person's self-esteem.
So I grew up around that where, especially in my country, in Congo, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, since there are two of them, two Congos.
But anyway, people do go see physicians, you know, in general, whenever they are hurting or when they have issues.
But as far as, like, the dentist is concerned, going to visit the dentist is even, you know, not really thought about unless something really, really truly hurts.
And that's kind of like the case worldwide.
In fact, even in the U.S., many of my patients only come when something is starting to hurt.
But anyway, myself, I myself had also suffered from cavities when I was growing up.
And on my front tooth, I had caries.
And so I ended up, unfortunately, losing a front tooth.
And it's only shortly before I came to the U.S. to continue my studies, my bachelor degree, that actually I ended up having it restored and ended up having a bridge.
And that kind of like made me desire, because what happened is whenever the treatment was done, I finished high school and 10 days later, I was out of the country coming to the U.S.
And so I had such a short window of time to actually get my restoration done.
That being said, the restoration of the bridge that I ended up having was slightly lighter than my teeth.
And one more thing is that, you know, it could have been close.
But over time, you know, teeth tend to change colors, but your prosthesis don't.
So it became a little to me anyway, maybe not most people.
Obvious that the bridge was slightly lighter in color than my own teeth.
So I remember one day wishing, oh, gosh, I wish I could have been a dentist.
That way I would have fixed my smile.
But yeah, I always end up saying that's such a wishful thinking, because I'm not going to sit myself on the chair and work on a bridge.
There's a few things I can do, but that's definitely not one of them.
Dentists heal by itself.
So I am one day walking on campus at Tulane University, where I was pursuing my bachelor degree.
And my mom, my mom calls me, I think it was my mom anyway, a family member of mine calls me and lets me know that one of my uncle passes away.
And what happened is he ended up having a stroke that was caused by an infection in his mouth.
So he had cavities.
And then it's actually the day that he went to see the doctor that he actually ended up having a stroke.
And initially I thought, yeah, right.
You know, they just didn't really want to tell me what happened.
But it's only when I went to dental school that I now come to understand the relationship between oral health and systemic health.
And I'm like, oh yeah.
So so it was true.
I didn't believe it for so many years.
But yeah, so those are some of the reasons that caused me to definitely want to start working in this field.
Yeah.
Beside the fact that I just felt it strongly in my heart.
There's so many things.
Like, for example, I used to read lips, especially when I read, when I listened to people speaking in English, I would heavily read lips to understand to the point that if I didn't have my glasses, I couldn't understand what they were saying.
It's no longer the case, but you know, it's just so many things that actually made me realize that was actually built for it, you know, to actually work in this field.
That's so beautiful.
And I've heard your story before you've shared with me, but some of the parts I had and appreciated.
I don't think you told me new stories today.
And so I love hearing about your journey.
I have to know.
So what could you have such a beautiful smile and we're going to blow this up all over social media so people can actually see your smile.
Thank you so much.
But what was the end of that story?
Did you live with the discoloration or did you get it like redone eventually?
I have to know.
Oh, God, I had I had so much happening to my smile.
So no, I had it redone.
I was on campus when I now had Dr. Todd Smith.
I am such a good doctor.
He actually worked on my he removed the old bridge and then we ended up over time.
I ended up having orthodontic treatment.
So we realigned my teeth.
Then after that, I had an implant and that was restored.
That ended up failing.
Had another implant.
So like, like I went, you know, I was a part of so many of the branches of dentistry.
But yeah, so I had actually orthodontic treatment twice.
Because after the first time, my teeth shifted again for not really wearing the retainer per the advice of my student doctor who later on denies it.
But that's a long story.
And so I had it a second time.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Well, I think we talk about this notion of the wounded healer and somebody, I mean, I think about my own experiences with reproductive medicine and some of my greatest heartbreaks, I think have made me a more compassionate physician when I'm sitting with patients and can even today, gosh, it makes me tear up.
I diagnosed a miscarriage.
It was so sad, but I could, I could really be there with her in that moment of my own, you know, first miscarriage and just how raw that was.
And I think, you know, when, when you think back to the impact that that had on you and the impact that you can have today in the world, when you're there, I mean, I just think that these experiences that we have with our own health and our own journeys, they, you know, not that we'd ever choose them, but they really do make us more compassionate healers.
They really do shape us.
I remember one of the things that caused me to be compassionate is when it comes to dentures.
So as I said, you know, while I was having my, my, my braces for the second time, you know, at some point I had like a little flipper.
It was like, it's kind of like a denture.
And when I had it on, I would eat and he would like, I would eat some fries, for example, and you had no taste.
And I'm like, that's what they mean.
That, you know, patient may not be able to, you know, test their food.
I'm like, so I'll just take it off and I'll just eat like that.
When I was not in front of people, because I was like, I can't taste my food.
So now, you know, I can appreciate, you know, what they're actually talking about.
And yes, you know, that's something that's good because I mean, while you and I are part of the doctors who actually do, you know, reach back to our experience and actually, you know, appreciate or like care about our patient better.
Some other people don't really do that.
And they just like forget and we can't forget because it helps us, you know, be better caregivers.
Yeah, I think so too.
So, so can you, before we get into the stuff about fertility and in dental health, which I think is also super important.
I really need more context because, you know, I adore my dentist.
I actually go see him every four months instead of every six months, just because my family has gum disease.
And I really like my dental hygienist, you know, but I feel like only recently have I started to appreciate how important dental health, I mean, it's even on all these social predictors.
I mean, it's just, it's so, so crucial.
So can you break down a little bit how important and why dental health is so important to overall health?
Now, it's so important, right?
From, from the example that I gave you about my uncle, for example, it doesn't often happen that you see somebody ending up with like a stroke or, you know, I'm having a heart attack because, you know, of their oral health, but it can happen.
And so what happens is that once you have infection in your mouth, whether it being on your gum or, you know, in your teeth, understand, we understand that those tissues are, you know, they, there's blood that flow through those tissues.
And so we are just one body, right?
Whatever blood flows in your mouth is also what ends up being in your brain is also what ends up being in your heart.
I have a good friend of mine, Dr. Okehe, which who you know, she's like, you know, your mouth sits right so close to your brain, you know, and it can affect your brain.
And I have another friend, Dr. Caroline Claresman, she says, you know, your mouth, it sits right between your brain and your heart.
So basically that blood, the same blood that would be infected because of some bacteria floating in your mouth can affect the rest of your body.
Right.
And so that's the reason why it's so important, you know, to actually take care of your mouth because situations are not just going to be secluded or just stay lingering in your mouth is going to travel in the rest of your body.
So that being said, sometimes you can see where somebody that has maybe periodontitis, which is inflammation of the bone, your gums, and especially the bone that's, you know, supporting your teeth.
Once that's infected, it can affect so many other areas of your of your body.
It can exacerbate diabetes.
It can cause even talking about, you know, infertility or pregnancy.
It can cause or lead to a low birth rate babies.
It can cause you to end up having maybe like endocarditis.
There's so much that can, you know, end up being or affecting your body because you're not taking care of your teeth.
And beyond that, it can cause you pain.
It can cause you stress, you know, there's so many children, for example, cavities is one of the reasons, one of the main reasons why children miss school in school, school, because they, they have pain and now they have to leave to go and take, go see a doctor, a dentist, you know, to address that pain.
So that being said too, you know, say for example, you end up losing your teeth, right?
It can cause you your self-esteem.
It can cause you, you know, you don't feel confident about yourself.
Today, I had a patient that came in and it's because the way something was restored in his mouth, he ends up having one of his tools shorter than the other.
And he's like, I am a businessman.
I have to, you know, close out deals and I don't want them to judge me based on the aspect of my smile.
Right?
And you have all of those kinds of things that makes you want to actually take care, you know, of your teeth, of your mouth.
And I, you know, I think about when I think about somebody with poor dentition, maybe it's somebody who's homeless or somebody who doesn't have access to a dentist, you know, but I don't think it's that extreme all the time.
I think that so many of us female physicians put ourselves last.
And if I asked five of my friends, when's the last time you saw the dentist?
Probably at least three of them would say that they're overdue.
I mean, don't you think?
I mean, it's like, you know, there's this movement of say, okay, when there's, when is your next mammogram scheduled or when, when is your next pap smear due?
So to make sure we're all on each other in terms of, or accountable really, you know, for our healthcare maintenance.
And I think that this preventative aspect of dental health, I think is something, I mean, especially in training, but even as attendings that I think so many people neglect.
I remember being a fellow and going to the dentist and realizing that I had significant gum disease that I had been ignoring, not because I wasn't, you know, it wasn't because I was being lazy or whatever.
It was because I was so focused, but we really do need to find a way to make dental health a part of our regular health.
And like you said, I mean, all the blood, it bathes the uterus.
I have so many patients and clients doing this easy, extreme diets to really say, Oh, I can't have any extra inflammation in my body because inflammation is that cutting out dairy, cutting out gluten, all these things.
But if we think about how much inflammation is present from, you know, these different dental conditions that are actually preventable, you know, I think we need to think about reducing inflammation in the body and, and dental health as being one of the very important things that we do in that effort.
You're right.
You're so right.
It's true, especially, you know, um, us ladies, we tend to put ourselves last married women tend to put, you know, their husbands first, their children first, and they always, you know, take the last seat.
And it's like, think about yourself too, just like how you're taking a plane.
So put your oxygen on yourself first so that you can take good care of everybody else.
And it's not just the fact that we think about ourselves last, but it's also that a lot of people have serious dental phobia.
They have anxiety for so many reasons.
One of the reason could be that they may have had like bad experience in life when there were children or even, you know, hearing that someone else had a bad experience.
And the thing is, it's not even just ladies, even male, you would see like a big man with a whole lot of tattoos, but they're like, but a leader in my mouth, though.
And like, but you have all these tattoos on your body, but it's in my mouth and you're like, okay.
That is so funny.
You know, we deal with that all the times.
You also have it like even on, it's only as of recent that we have, you know, positivity as far as like cartoons are concerned before it was always like this crazy dentist, maybe like on the chair, like drilling.
Oh yeah.
Finding Nemo.
That scene from Finding Nemo.
That's my visual.
You're so right.
Like we do not do well as a society and there is a lot of fear.
So how do you help people overcome that fear of like getting in there, doing the things?
Yeah.
So I kind of like take a, I go step by step.
Okay.
In fact, I have a patient that I commented today because the first day that she came, she was frightened.
So we started just by the exam, the x-rays exam, and then telling them, you know, the diagnosis and delivering the treatment plan.
So then that particular patient was okay to do the cleaning that day with some people.
The phobia is so extreme that we like, you can come back and we'll do it.
Right?
If they have a lot of treatment to be done, then we can break it up in pieces.
You know, we can say, okay, today we're going to take care of this.
We like the most pertinent issues first.
And then, you know, we go step by step.
That was her case.
So we started by, I can't remember which quadrant.
We did the feelings there.
That time she had nitrous oxide.
That's one thing that we also recommend because it's going to decrease your anxiety level.
And so we can do that.
In her case, we did that.
The second time she was okay.
We numbed her.
She didn't want the nitrous anymore.
And today she came down here and we had to actually fix something.
And I was about to numb her and she was ready.
And I'm sad.
Look at you being ready.
She's like, yes, it's all you.
I said, no, you did.
It's also you.
You know, you, you are brave and I'm so proud of you.
So it's also, you know, commanding the patient, reassuring them, listening to them.
Many times when they are super anxious, I want to hear what was the reason because part of healing, I believe, is to be heard when you start, you know, talking and the doctor has empathy.
You know, it's part of the issue.
And with some people that just want to do everything at once, if possible, provided that, you know, we can safely deliver enough anesthesia, we'll do that.
But if we can't, we're not going to put you in danger just because.
Right.
And if it's somebody that's really, really even more anxious than that, say, for example, you need an extraction, you need to be sedated because we don't see that in this office, we send you to a specialist to get that done because it's best that the patient is at ease, you know, then trying to do all of this to make a buck.
You know, it's not worth it.
We want the patient to actually regain their confidence.
And we've noticed that a lot of them do here.
I think it's, you know, it does happen.
So we, we're happy about that.
That's so interesting.
And I hear so many parallels to the fertility journey, right?
So breaking it up into small parts because the whole picture sometimes can be very overwhelming.
So just focusing on the task at hand, breaking it into these manageable parts.
And then also just thinking about, you know, just like thinking about belief.
So when I think about how I approach my patients, I believe in them.
I find reasons I don't just like search randomly, but I find authentic scientific reasons to believe in my patients.
And then they start to believe in themselves.
And so that is what I hear you say when you tell this beautiful story that you believe that this woman could do it.
So you found a way to dip the toe in the water.
And then the next time she was a little bit more ready, she believed in herself a little bit more.
And then today when she came, she fully believed that she could do it.
But that started from that seed of belief that you implanted to be able to work as a team to get it done.
Right.
And so I just, I love to think about the ways in which there's these similar energies in delivering the best patient care.
Yes.
And it's definitely listening to them.
Like I can't stress that enough, you know, many times, you know, people and even I've gone to some physician where it's like, I didn't feel like I was heard.
I felt like I was another number.
Like, you know, okay, this is what you need to do.
And it's like, I don't really have time to.
So we kind of slowed down a little bit so that we can listen to them.
But sometimes, you know, they can describe something and even if it doesn't really make sense all the time, just listen to them.
You know, even if they went to do their research on Google, listen to them first and then you can, you know, correct and do it gently, you know, so that you're not like ruffling feathers.
Right.
So yeah, that makes so much sense.
Thank you for sharing that.
It's gonna make me think a little differently about how I approach my days as well.
I wanted to get a little more nuanced and specific about fertility itself.
And so I cannot tell you the number of portal messages and emails and frantic texts I've gotten from a patient like my embryo transfers in five days and I have this dental abscess or I need a cavity filled and I'm going to be in the two week wait.
What should I do?
You know, meaning after the embryo has been, you know, placed, but we don't know if it's taken yet.
So what guidelines do you have for people who are undergoing fertility treatments?
Obviously, you know, these need to be tailored to the individual, but in general, what are some good rules of thumb for people on the fertility journey as they're also trying to because this journey, I mean, Dr. Valerie, you mean, you know, this like, it's not just like a few weeks of a process.
This process for so many people spans months to years, years for most people.
And so you can't just ignore your teeth during that time.
But how should people be navigating both?
Yes, that's an excellent question.
And to believe me, I did a lot of research actually into like if there's correlation between oral health and infertility.
And there's there is definitely some things, you know, that have been researched from what I read, you know, it's still ongoing.
There's a lot of may affect versus definitely does affect.
But I read a study and it says that somebody who has periodontitis can be delayed as far as, you know, conception by about two months.
And so it's because of the infection that can actually affect, you know, your the lining of your uterus.
So it's very important not to ignore it.
And I was, ah, that was really insightful, interesting.
They even found doubt in amniotic fluid for pregnant ladies, that somebody with periodontitis, when they extract the fluid, they saw some bacteria that was oral related in the amniotic fluid.
And that's what could possibly explain or does explain the fact that somebody can end up having a low birth, you know, child.
So there's a lot of correlation.
And that's why we're going to have to say, heavily talk heavily on prevention.
Right.
And when I look when I read and I came to my mind that we should actually ask ladies, you know, if they are undergoing IVF treatment, for example, because, you know, with that, we need to be in good communication with the OB-GYN doctor, with the infertility doctor to see how to best treat that patient.
Because we may give, you know, some medication, for example, that could interfere with the treatment that people are receiving on that end.
So that being said, it's very important for people who are trying to conceive and prepare for these who are pregnant, women who are pregnant, to actually take good care of their oral health, because it can affect themselves, it can affect them, and it can also affect the beautiful baby that they are fighting so hard to conceive.
That's right.
And I'm thinking about it, like, if somebody works for a year and a half to generate one good embryo, and they put that into an environment with this periodontitis, you know, or there's something, like, that could make a difference between the success of that transfer or not.
And so I agree with you, prevention is important.
So I want to talk about prevention, I want to talk about treatment.
That's okay.
So let's talk about, you know, what is the best way, like, what should we be doing to have the best oral health?
Okay.
So, there's a lot of things to be done, but we're going to begin with, you know, oral hygiene.
Okay. It's very important to make sure that you do brush your teeth at least twice a day, you know, morning and night.
It's very important to floss, because flossing will assure that you're removing bacteria stuck and plaque stuck between your teeth, that the bristles of the toothbrush cannot reach because the areas are too narrow and the bristles are too thick, even though they look so thin.
When you do brush your teeth, you want to make sure that you aim the bristles of the toothbrush at your gum line, because that's where bacteria hide, that's where your plaque get, you know, formed.
So you want to make sure you really remove the plaque around those areas.
Besides that, you can also use, you know, mouthwashes that can also help a lot, as far as, you know, also dislodging debris.
You can use also like a water pick, because that can also help, right?
So all of those things are very important.
Besides that, you do want to make sure that when you brush, you brush all surfaces of your teeth and that you don't get tired on one side versus the other.
I have a patient, for example, but to her, but her, in her case, it's an autistic patient.
So you know, the attention span is not always there, but we also do see it on patients who don't necessarily have those kind of medical issues.
But for that particular patient, there was so much plaque and hot plaque on the right side versus the left side.
So the left side was pretty clean, the right side was not.
There was like an accumulation of severe plaque.
And so I asked mom, is she right handed?
And she said, yes, because what happens is we tend to start on the opposite side, brushing, conducting oral care, then the hand that we actually use the right.
So that being said, maybe you can switch things up and maybe you can, you know, force yourself to start on the same side so that you give more attention to that side.
Because we tend to put a lot of attention on the opposite side.
And then when we get to the same side, we're like, okay, okay, I'm done.
Right?
And I know that you brush all the sides.
Besides doing that, it's very important to be mindful of what you're eating.
I like the fact that, you know, you talked about diet that would actually reduce inflammation.
Whatever reduces the inflammation, as far as the baby is concerned, as far as the IVS process is concerned, is also going to help with, you know, oral health.
So you'd be, you want to be mindful.
And I mean, as far as we're concerned, we always tell people to try to decrease the sugar content.
You know, that's very obvious, but it's also acidic content because that can also, you know, aggravate your enamel and actually cause erosion and all of those kinds of things.
So you want to also be mindful of that.
So that being said, you want to say, for example, you're drinking or you're eating citric fruits, you want to make sure that you drink lots of water.
You're drinking coffee.
You want to make sure that you actually drink a lot of water afterwards, wash out, you know, all that acid.
And that comes in handy as well for pregnant women, because especially with morning sickness, right?
They tend to vomit a lot and that can also affect your teeth.
So you want to make sure that you drink lots and lots of water.
And a good point or two is that you can actually rinse your mouth with a solution of baking soda and water because that's going to neutralize the acidity after, you know, vomiting.
It doesn't taste wonderful, but it can help.
Okay.
Or even saltwater.
So be mindful of how you clean your teeth, be mindful of what you're eating.
Make sure you drink lots of water.
Use some of the things that I can actually give as recommendations.
So helpful.
I mean, cause if somebody tells me to give up my coffee, I'm going to be loath to do that because I love my coffee and so many of us do.
But if you say, you know, have your coffee, drink some water, maybe brush your teeth, I can do that.
You know, so all these things get together, morning routine, nighttime routine.
How much time does it really take to do right by our teeth on the daily basis?
So how much time in the morning, how much time in the evening, just to give, to quantify it a little bit.
Okay.
So the recommendation is to actually brush your teeth for at least two minutes.
Okay.
So you have about 30 seconds for quadrant.
If you're going to divide your mouth, 30 seconds up here, up here, and over here.
And that would be like the outside surface, the side that's facing the cheek, the top or the chewing surface or bottom, depending on the teeth in question.
And then also the inside so that you actually attain, you know, to all those things.
So about two minutes and when we talk to parents, when it comes to helping their children, we say you can sing the happy birthday song twice.
And that would be about two minutes.
Talking about myself, myself, I could sing it since I had a birthday last week.
I'll just decide that I'm happy related birthday.
And then when we spoke about coffee, it came back to my mind that even when you are for people who want to drink juice and such, you want to make use of a straw because that you're going to swallow it is going to linger less on your teeth.
So definitely try to drink with a straw.
That would help you as well.
That makes sense.
So all things considered, if I do the brushing and the flossing and the mouthwash and you know that in the morning and that in the evening, we're probably talking no more than five minutes in each of those segments.
And then intermittently throughout the day, just making the choices that promote good dental health.
Is that a fair statement?
Well, maybe a little longer than that, because you also want to take into account the fact that you are flossing your teeth, right?
And you really want to do that.
So let's say maybe no more than 10 minutes.
No more than 10 minutes.
Okay.
I think that's helpful.
And then seeing the dentist, how often is it?
I mean, I know I'm a little different.
I see mine every four months, but is it truly every six months for most people?
Yes, for most people, well, for most people, if you don't have any gum disease, you're going to be seeing your dentist at least twice every year for your routine checkup.
But obviously, you're going to see the dentist more if you have some issues to actually take care of until your cavity is free.
And if you now have gum disease, it will be at the discretion of your dentist.
Sometimes you recommend three months, sometimes four months.
It really just depends on what the dentist will find and recommend.
Okay.
That's really helpful.
So prevention we know is really important.
What happens when we get the cavity?
Okay.
So I'm about to start an IVF cycle in two weeks and my dentist drops the bomb on me that I have, say, two cavities, right?
And so what do I do?
If I can't be seen that day and the only time they offer me is during my IVF cycle, how do I navigate that decision?
So I think that it would be very important for the dentist to communicate with the rest of the team, the IVF team, right?
But if you have an infection, it depends on the trimester.
Usually it's recommended to actually do, I mean, it's safer to do the treatment during the second trimester.
But if it's something that's keeping you up at night and it's going to cause you stress, we do know that for a lady undergoing IVF, we have to keep stress in check.
And so dental pain will increase your anxiety or your stress level.
So we need to attend to those teeth as soon as possible in those cases so that we don't have or we don't postpone those treatments.
But we have to see though, if it's something that can wait, for example, you have a cavity that is still maybe like in the animal, maybe not causing pain, we can wait.
But if it's something that's causing you a lot of pain, it's very debilitating, then we need to really address that.
If there's an infection, we can't ignore infection because it's not going to do anything good as far as even the person when it comes to their oral health, but also their reproductive health.
So we need to attend to that.
That makes so much sense.
So probably because the progression is IVF and then first trimester, ideally, if it works, sometimes it doesn't work, but hopefully it works.
And so better to get the dental treatment before the pregnancy.
People ask me in a two week wait, they're like, can I see my dentist?
Can I get this cavity filled?
I always tell people if this is a positive test, great, we move on forward.
But if this is a negative test and you saw your dentist four days prior, you're going to say, oh, it's because I had XYZ done.
So I always tell my patients, no new tattoos, no bungee jumping, nothing that, of course, if you have an emergency, a dental emergency, that cannot be prevented.
You have to take care of that.
But in that two week wait, or as you're newly pregnant, all those things, it really seems like the recommendation is really to have that space.
So take care of your dental stuff first, or as you're gearing up to do stuff, we know in IVF, it's all hurry up and wait.
So in those hurry up and wait periods of time, get your dental stuff taken care of, do the IVF and then move on forward.
That sounds to be the best way to think about it.
I agree with you.
And that being said now, if we know that while we're doing the evaluation or while we are talking about IVF, we should probably include, have you seen your dentist?
Let's try to take care of that even before we start.
I was just thinking this.
We talk about the initial visit, Pap smear, mammogram, colon cancer screening if that's relevant.
I need to be adding, when was the last time you saw your dentist?
I tell people, here's what I think, get these tests done.
I'll see you in four to six weeks once your testing is done.
What if they saw their dentist during that four to six weeks before their first and second appointment?
That would be a brilliant thing to do.
So thank you for that.
Again, this conversation practice changing, I'm going to add that to what I do because I think that'll really help everybody.
Yes.
Also, as far as treatment is concerned, I wanted to talk about the type of antibiotic I'm given.
We do not recommend tetracycline because tetracycline can actually affect the developing teeth.
I have even family members that have these teeth that are really dark in color.
It was due to tetracycline.
For women, we want to avoid that too.
That makes a lot of sense.
What are some other antibiotics that you can use instead?
I mean, obviously it depends on the situation, but penicillin, zymoxacillin, are those yours?
Yes, cillins are safe.
I've seen many times, because whenever somebody is pregnant, we always ask for medical clearance from their doctor, and almost all of them come back with, "If you need treatment, it's okay.
You can use lidocaine, which is the anesthesia rider." As far as the antibiotics, it's usually recommended to do amoxicillin or penicillin.
And then as far as pain medication, we now just safely can give Tylenol.
It's better recommended.
That's what I've seen overall recommended.
Those are safe.
But usually, when someone is pregnant, we actually require to have medical clearance by the doctor who is overseeing their care.
And also on our end, because some people, maybe they don't know, but some people may not understand the effect.
We usually recommend, and when we have to do dental x-ray, we cover, we do a double shield so that they are more protected.
They are protected, and the babies are protected as well.
And there are some ladies that we see who are pregnant.
And when we tell them, "I'm so sorry, we can't see you," it's because we don't know when we're actually making the appointment that they're pregnant, but now when you ask them and you can't see them, they kind of have a fit, but it's for their safety.
The moral of the story is best to get it done on the sooner side.
Yes.
Makes sense.
That's so useful.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I think it gives our listeners really an actionable list of things and also a framework from which to think about these things.
I really wanted to ask you about confidence, because I noticed in your bio, you mentioned that part of why you do what you do is to help restore confidence for people.
Yes.
Of course, there's so many different ways to answer this question, but what do you think are the ingredients in confidence?
Obviously, we have our inner child, and at some point we lose the confidence somewhere, whether it's shame or- Unfortunately.
... adult, what'd you say?
I said unfortunately.
Right.
I mean, I think so many people are kind of trying to regain their confidence.
And so what do you think the root of the confidence is and how do you and your work help to restore that?
I think that one has to believe in oneself.
So you have to believe in yourself.
You have to lean heavily on the positive side of how you view yourself.
And sometimes if you don't have that confidence inside, listen to what other people are telling you.
The beautiful thing that is that people are telling you about yourself.
Because many times people are like, "You're so awesome." Like, "No, I'm not." You have to choose to believe that you are great.
There's no one, I believe that we're created and I believe that we all have a purpose.
Nobody came with the purpose of being a nobody, of being one that doesn't matter.
We are all called to be impactful.
But as you said, we lose that inner child, that inner sense of, "I can do everything." So how to regain that is just to start...
You can talk to yourself and be like, "Nope, when some negative thoughts come, I'm still so stupid." Nope, I'm smart.
I'm actually not stupid.
And as I said, if you don't believe in yourself, believe in what other people are saying about you.
Because if 10 people are telling you the same thing, that you're amazing, that you're really intelligent, that you have such a great heart, I don't think that...
And many times it's not people who know each other.
I don't think they're just lying or making up stories.
You can start to believe in what they're saying.
That's what I would say about confidence.
When it comes to a confident smile though, it starts by having good or care, good or hygiene.
Many people, we see that they may lack confidence because their teeth may not be well aligned.
They have crooked teeth.
That can be resolved.
You can get autodontic treatment.
You can get braces.
And if you don't want that brace face look, you can still have clear aligners.
Those that you can place and nobody will know that you have something going on, that you have treatment going on.
If you have missing teeth, it's not the end of your life.
Those can be restored.
You can have teeth replaced.
If you have cavities and it can be seen, you can have different treatments so that you can fix your smile.
As I said, I had misaligned teeth.
I had a missing tooth.
But now when I'm smiling, you have no idea.
You don't even know which one it was.
I just told you that it was my front tooth.
So now you're like, it's one of those.
I mean, truly, you have such a gorgeous smile.
I would never know.
But you found your path to restore that.
And that's so hopeful for other people.
I can't tell you how many people I see never show their teeth when they smile because they're embarrassed or ashamed even.
And they just don't feel good in their own bodies.
And so the fact that you can help people with that, I think it's both.
It's that inner belief.
And we can use other people's outer belief to bridge us to our own inner belief.
But also some of those externals do help as we think about how we're received by the world and how we feel in our own skin.
And it's all important.
It really is.
Yes.
Yes.
It's a beautiful confidence.
I just love.
I love thinking about that.
Is there anything else you want our listeners to know before we wrap up our conversation?
I just want to stress upon the importance of oral health again.
Right.
It is, once again, I know we talked about it, but understanding that it is one body.
Your hand is connected to your torso.
Your mouth is in your head.
And on your head.
So it's very important to take care of your entire body while you are taking care of maybe your diabetes, go ahead and also take care of your teeth.
While you're taking care of your brain, also take care of your eyes, of your, all of that.
It's very interconnected.
And so I'm here to encourage you because I don't want anyone to end up losing a loved one over an infection that could have been easily saved like it was the case for my uncle.
I use that, you know, it's an extreme example, but it did happen.
And when I talk about it, I hear a few people here and there saying, Oh yes, it happened to one of my family member too.
And nobody should suffer that.
Right.
So it's better to prevent things than to try to treat things.
But if we are at the level where we need to treat them, it's better to treat them than never to treat them.
And if you are this person who is anxious, try, try, try, try to overcome your fear because, you know, if you are a mother or a mother or a father, taking care of your teeth is also taking care of your children.
Right.
Because your future children and our, and our, you know, cause most of my people, maybe they have secondary infertility, but most of the people I help don't even have kids that they hope to have kids.
So it's like, how do we get you in this shape now so that you can be the best parent, positive possible?
Exactly.
And while you're doing that, it's also taking care of your children at the same time, taking care of you is taking care of your family.
So you know, that's what I wanted to add.
Thank you so much.
That's so powerful.
So here's the homework assignment for anybody who's listening today, before you do anything else, text your best friend and say, when is your next dental appointment?
Right.
We need to hold each other accountable because it's, if it was something like getting a massage, I don't think there would be so much, but I think you're right.
There's fear, there's stigma.
There's what are they going to find?
I have so much else to think about right now in this moment, text your best friend and say, when is your next dental appointment?
This is when mine is.
And this is how we start the movement of making sure that we, we have the best oral health possible.
So thank you, Dr. Valerie.
Where can people find you?
Like if I were in Texas, you would totally be my dentist, even though I love my dentist.
I think I'd even switch for you.
I feel special and I feel honored.
So I am the CEO and owner of Healing Wings Dental and we are located in Arlington, Texas, which is in the big Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The address is 4101 West Green Oaks Boulevard, suite number 317 in Arlington, as I said, as zip code is 76016.
You can also give us a call, 972-213-0202.
On social media, you can find us on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok as well, on YouTube.
And by typing Dr. Valerie Mukanga, you'll be able to find us there.
Beautiful.
And we'll put all your stuff in the show notes as well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Valerie.
It's such a pleasure to have you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate being here.
I had a lot of fun.
Me too.
Until the next time.
Bye.
