Chapters
What special care dentistry is and who it helps
[00:00:04 – 00:03:02]
Special care dentistry is less a specialty and more a way of working. It suits anyone who can’t cope with dentistry as it is usually delivered, including people with autism, severe ADHD, sensory processing differences, intellectual disabilities, severe anxiety, physical disability, dementia or a past traumatic experience.
Some adults arrive after 15 years away from a dentist. For them, every past visit felt like an assault on the senses, and the gap says nothing about how much they care.
Early care also costs far less. The real expense comes years later, when an emergency extraction under general anaesthetic becomes the only option.
Easing sensory overload in the dental chair
[00:03:02 – 00:06:10]
Bright lights and sudden noises can flood a sensitive nervous system, and that overload is easy to mistake for bad behaviour. The fix is to remove triggers. Overhead lights can be dimmed or switched off, and sunglasses or very dark glasses help patients who are sensitive to light.
Anything that beeps without need gets switched off, including the bag sealer near the sterilisation area. Instruments stay out of sight, off to the side, and never get waved in front of the face.
A quiet voice explaining each step helps, using tell-show-do: describe it, show it on the hand, then do it exactly as described. Many patients bring their own over-ear headphones and music and settle into their own world.
Preparing for the first visit and building trust slowly
[00:06:11 – 00:09:29]
Preparation starts at home, with photos of the practice and the chair, and pictures of the team at work so nobody looks scary on the day. Book the first appointment of the morning or a quieter slot such as Friday afternoon. Bring headphones, and pack a heavy blanket against the cool air conditioning.
A long wait in a crowded waiting room can undo good preparation, which is why OptiSmile brings patients through within minutes. A video consultation with a parent or caregiver beforehand can pin down whether the trigger is touch, noise, smell or waiting.
Desensitisation takes dentistry in small steps at the patient’s pace, stopping before it becomes too much. A first visit might be sitting in the chair and going home. Seeing the same person in the same room each time builds the predictability that makes someone feel safe, and that trust replaces a lifetime of crisis dentistry.
Managing a strong gag reflex
[00:09:29 – 00:12:48]
Fear sits behind many strong gag reflexes, sometimes after a choking or near-drowning experience. Sitting more upright helps, and so does keeping instruments well away from the back of the tongue. A 3D scanner replaces traditional moulds, and a mirror lets patients watch where an X-ray is going.
Raising a hand means the dentist stops, with no argument. Practising that signal several times turns it into a game, and patients soon learn they are in control. Salt or a numbing gel on the tongue is sometimes suggested, and for special needs patients it is more likely to work against you.
Many patients have had surprise injections at the doctor and expect a jab at every visit. Promising no needles at a first visit, and keeping that promise, builds the trust that reduces gagging. Breathing through the nose and wiggling the toes help too.
Brushing someone else’s teeth
[00:12:49 – 00:15:25]
Caregivers, paid or family, carry a heavy load, and a lecture about poor hygiene helps nobody. Practical advice on positioning works far better.
Brushing face to face is close to impossible. Stand behind a seated adult and support their head against the chair, so it feels like brushing your own teeth. A young child can lie with their head on your lap.
An electric toothbrush often helps, and 20 seconds is better than nothing when two minutes isn’t tolerated. For people brushing themselves, a chunky handle or a strap makes the brush easier to hold. Special sprays and mouthwashes can help too.
Stopping decay without a drill, and when sedation is kinder
[00:15:26 – 00:18:42]
Silver diamine fluoride is a long-established treatment making a comeback. Painted onto decay in seconds without pain, it can stop a cavity in its tracks, which makes it valuable for anyone who can’t tolerate a drill. The trade-off is that the treated area turns black, so it is less suited to front teeth.
The arrested decay can be drilled out and filled later if needed. Sedation dentistry or a general anaesthetic becomes the kinder option once adaptations have run their course and cavities keep appearing despite good hygiene and diet. Pain also tips the balance.
In-chair sedation still uses local anaesthetic, and a general anaesthetic needs no numbing at all. Plan all the treatment, cleaning included, for one session to avoid repeated anaesthetics. OptiSmile doesn’t do theatre cases, which usually go to a paediatric dentist who also treats adults with complex needs, or to an oral surgeon.
Dementia and protecting the mouth early
[00:18:42 – 00:21:11]
One early sign of dementia is a patient arriving late or lost on the way to a familiar practice, followed months later by visits with a carer. Brushing slips as the person forgets how to brush or whether they have. A dry mouth can then let cavities take hold quickly, especially around crowns and implants that need meticulous cleaning.
After an early diagnosis, act while the person is still in fairly good shape. Use restorative dentistry to deal with any teeth likely to cause trouble in the next year or two, and get the gums healthy, because the dementia won’t reverse.
Leave it too long and the mouth can become the main site of infection in someone who is otherwise healthy. Poor oral hygiene is also linked to pneumonia, and these risks are all interrelated in frail older people.
Choosing a practice that fits the patient
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Google listings often say whether a practice is wheelchair accessible, but they aren’t always right. An old house with a few steps and no ramp or lift can end the visit at the door, so phone ahead and ask when the practice last treated someone in a wheelchair.
With assistance, most patients can transfer into the dental chair once its arm folds away. For short visits, some chairs turn sideways so the patient can stay in the wheelchair and use the dental chair’s headrest. OptiSmile has wide doorways and lifts, and its shopping centre provides wheelchair-accessible restrooms.
Look for a practice that sets aside extra time and regularly sees patients with additional needs, and avoid a rushed 15-minute slot in a busy practice. Tell the team in advance what’s hard, from the lights and noise to the waiting room and chair. Adapt the visit to the person, and most people can be cared for far more gently than their families expect.
Transcript
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:00:04 – 00:01:13]
Welcome back to Save Your Money, Save Your Teeth, the podcast that looks at what genuinely protects your teeth and your wallet. Now last time we looked at stress and how the mouth shows it before we admit it to ourselves. Today we’re talking about people for whom a normal dental visit isn’t just stressful, it can be genuinely impossible.
We’re talking special care dentistry: autism, sensory sensitivities, severe anxiety, physical disabilities or dementia. People whose teeth don’t fail because they don’t care, but because the dental chair was never designed with them in mind. So today: what actually helps with bright lights and loud noises, how to prepare someone for a first visit, how caregivers can brush a mouth that isn’t their own, a painless liquid that can stop decay without a drill, and when sedation is genuinely the kindest choice.
This is going to be very interesting. Joining me as always is Dr Clifford Yudelman from OptiSmile in Sea Point, Cape Town. Dr Yudelman, welcome back.
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:01:14 – 00:01:26]
Thanks for having me back, great to speak to you again. It seems like just yesterday that we were talking. And yes, we’re heading for number 150 in the next few months, I guess by the end of the year.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:01:26 – 00:01:29]
Yes, do you think we’ll reach it before the end of the year?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:01:30 – 00:01:31]
Amazing.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:01:31 – 00:01:46]
That’s awesome. So, Dr Yudelman, it sounds amazing how you accommodate people with all these different special care demands and needs. What exactly is special care dentistry, and who is it actually for?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:01:47 – 00:03:02]
It’s actually less of a specialty and more of a way of working. It’s for anyone who can’t cope with dentistry the way it’s usually delivered. So when you speak about special care dentistry, you’re talking about autism, severe ADHD, especially in younger children, sensory processing differences, intellectual disabilities.
We’ve spoken a lot about anxiety, and especially severe anxiety, physical disability, dementia, or someone who had a very traumatic experience previously. And sometimes we meet adults who haven’t seen a dentist in 15 years, and that’s not because they didn’t care, it’s because they just couldn’t handle it. It was like a total assault on their senses.
Their teeth didn’t fail them. The system generally failed them. And from a money point of view, getting proper care early is a lot cheaper.
It’s when someone ends up needing an emergency extraction and a general anaesthetic ten years later that it starts getting expensive.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:03:02 – 00:03:29]
Now, Dr Yudelman, for those of us who don’t have autism or sensory processing issues, it’s already so hectic to go to the dentist, and the drill and all those sounds and sights can be extremely overwhelming. So can you imagine what it’s like for someone with autism or with sensory processing issues? The lights, the drill and the suction.
That must be incredibly overwhelming. So what genuinely helps?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:03:30 – 00:06:10]
You even scared me the way you got into that question, didn’t you? Yes, you sure did. I need a Xanor before my next cleaning.
So look, we’ve got to understand that sensory overload isn’t bad behaviour. It’s a nervous system that’s being flooded. So we’ll take things away rather than add them.
We sometimes dim the overhead light or turn off the main lights. The bright light that shines in your mouth is specially designed so it doesn’t shine in your eyes, so we’re very careful with that. And I have had patients who do better if we turn off the very bright fluorescent-type LED lights that we have.
We give patients who are very sensitive to light sunglasses, or very dark grey glasses. We switch off anything that beeps unnecessarily. For instance, if the patient’s in a room near the sterilisation area, when the team is sealing the bags with the instruments for the steriliser, that can be a very annoying beep.
And it’s quite random as they seal the bags. So we’re careful not to run that machine if we do have someone with sensory or autism-type problems. And we keep instruments out of sight.
We won’t put the instruments right in front of their face. We keep them off to the side, and we don’t wave instruments around in front of people’s faces. And we talk quietly to the patient, telling them what’s coming next.
In many cases, it’s similar to seeing a four-year-old for their first visit, with what’s called tell-show-do. You tell the person what you’re going to do, then you show them, maybe on their hand, and then you do it exactly the way you told them, so there are no surprises.
And some of those patients will bring their own headphones and put on their own music, and they’re off in their own world and don’t worry about what we do, as long as they’ve got their headphones on. Usually it’s the over-the-head headphones when patients bring their own. Look, you just have to adapt to the particular situation.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:06:11 – 00:06:17]
OK, and what can a parent or a caregiver do before that first visit to make it go better?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:06:18 – 00:08:20]
Preparing a patient like that for the visit, preparation is half the battle. We start at home, not in the waiting room. Maybe show them photos of the practice and the chair, especially if they’ve never been before.
A picture of the dentist or the hygienist. We’ve got pictures on our website of people doing things in the practice, not just portraits. We try to put a lot of pictures on our website of what we all look like, so we don’t look so scary and nothing is a surprise on the day.
It’s always a good idea to book the first appointment of the morning, or, for instance, a Friday afternoon, which is always a bit quieter here at OptiSmile. If it’s a dentist with a very busy or crowded waiting room, that wouldn’t be a good place for a patient who sits 20 or 30 minutes in a crowded waiting room before the appointment. I think you’re going to have a hard time getting anywhere in that situation.
So we keep our waiting room very quiet. We actually don’t keep people waiting. We try to see all patients within a few minutes.
In fact, my ideal is that their bum doesn’t even touch the chair. We’re literally waiting to bring them straight through. So that helps anybody.
We like to know ahead of time what any triggers are. Sometimes we’ll have done a video consultation with a parent or a caregiver, so we know whether the trigger is touch, noise, smell or waiting.
And like I said, bring headphones. Some patients, if they’re younger, bring their favourite teddy bear, and a nice heavy blanket works for a lot of patients, because we keep the air con quite cool. So being warm and comfortable is good.
And if you can get that first visit to go well, that usually sets things up for future visits.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:08:21 – 00:08:28]
Okay. And you talk about desensitisation. What does it actually look like in the dental chair?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:08:28 – 00:09:29]
That’s simply taking dentistry in small steps at the patient’s pace, and stopping before it becomes too much. The first visit might just be sitting in the chair and then going home, or putting the chair back and then sitting up. Then maybe on visit number two, you try to show them the light.
It could be three or four very short visits just to ease them into the situation. And each time they learn that nothing bad happened. That’s how trust gets built.
And routine also matters. They come, they see the same person, the same room. Everything’s done the same way, because predictability is what makes a person feel safe.
It can take longer at the start, but once trust is built, it replaces a lifetime of crisis dentistry, and you’ve got genuine cooperation.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:09:29 – 00:09:41]
Let’s talk about gagging. Some people gag the moment anything goes near the back of the mouth. So how do you manage a strong gag reflex, doctor?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:09:41 – 00:12:48]
So a strong gag reflex, we’ve spoken about that in a few podcasts before, especially the ones to do with anxiety, or someone who’s had a choking experience or a near drowning. Even a person without special needs who’s had one of those experiences can have a severe gag reflex, and it’s a fear-related thing. So generally, for gagging, we keep the patient more upright.
We go slower. We don’t touch the back of the tongue. If we need to take a mould for some reason, we don’t use impressions.
We’ve got a 3D scanner that doesn’t touch anything. You’re just waving a wand around in the mouth. If I need to take X-rays, even in a non-gagger, I always give the patient a mirror, I make sure they watch where the X-ray is going, and I explain things carefully to everybody.
Because even someone who doesn’t have a gag reflex can feel gaggy with those X-rays in the mouth. We tell all patients that if they raise their hand, we stop, no argument. We show them, and I get them to test it out.
It’s similar, as I say, to treating a younger child and building trust. I say, OK, pretend you want me to stop now. Put your left hand up. They put their hand up, and I pretend my hands are in their mouth.
As soon as the hand goes up, I take my hands away and say, OK, we’ve stopped. What’s going on? And they say, just testing.
You do that three or four times. Then maybe you say, OK, we’re going to do it now, so make sure you stop me if you want me to stop.
And you can be sure they will test you, and you’ve got to stop. So they might let you look around with a mirror, and then randomly they’ll put their hand up, and you say, what’s going on? And they say, no, just testing.
It becomes like a game. Eventually they trust you and realise that they’re actually in control. Some of these patients have had bad experiences at the doctor when they needed vaccinations and weren’t told they were going to get an injection.
So if they associate the dentist with a doctor, and every time they go to the doctor they get another jab in the bum or the arm, they’re just waiting for that surprise. They’re waiting for that jab. So you’ve got to actually say, no needles today, unless you are going to give them a needle.
But that would never be at the first visit. There’s a lot you have to do to build up that trust, and that reduces gagging. Of course, breathing through the nose helps a lot.
And sometimes you get them to wiggle their toes or twiddle their thumbs. When’s the last time you twiddled your thumbs? That’s an old expression.
It’s a funny thing. Some people say you can put salt on the back of the tongue, or a topical numbing anaesthetic, but I think for a special needs patient that would definitely work against you.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:12:49 – 00:13:03]
And for caregivers, doctor, brushing someone else’s teeth every day, whether it’s a child with autism or an adult with limited mobility, what makes it easier? And are there special toothbrushes that can help?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:13:04 – 00:15:25]
Look, you’ve got to give a shout-out to those caregivers. What a job, in many cases: people caring for elderly people who may have dementia, or people who make it a full-time job to look after someone with special needs who really needs an extra caregiver, especially when it’s a paid caregiver and not a family member. And the last thing any caregiver needs is a lecture.
If we get a patient in and the oral hygiene is terrible, you certainly don’t want to start saying, especially in front of the patient, what are you doing? Why aren’t you brushing their teeth properly? You’re not going to see that patient or the caregiver again.
So you want to give nice advice. You want to show them: change your position, brush from behind them rather than trying to stand face to face. That’s almost impossible.
If it’s an elderly patient sitting down and you stand behind them, it’s as if you’re brushing your own teeth, and you can support their head against the headrest or the chair. If it’s a young child, they can sit on the floor with their head on your lap, and you can brush their teeth from behind. Some of these things are very similar to looking after a younger child.
And there are special toothbrushes. Sometimes an electric toothbrush might be better. Also, sometimes they can’t tolerate two minutes.
In fact, most of the time even 20 seconds is better than nothing, especially with an electric toothbrush. If they’re trying to brush themselves, a chunky handle helps, or an electric toothbrush, even if it isn’t turned on, because they have nice big handles, or a strap to help hold the toothbrush. There are special aids for people who have dexterity problems.
Look, every little bit helps. There are also special sprays and mouthwashes. I think that’s enough for the purposes of the podcast, because we want to keep it under 30 minutes.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:15:26 – 00:15:34]
Doctor, I want to ask you if it’s true that there’s a liquid that can stop decay without any drilling. Is it true?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:15:34 – 00:16:51]
Yes. It’s actually been around a long time, and it’s making a big comeback. It’s called silver, like the word silver, then diamine, D-I-A-M-I-N-E, fluoride.
It’s one of the most useful tools for people who can’t tolerate a drill. It’s painted onto the decay. It takes seconds.
It doesn’t hurt, and it can stop a cavity in its tracks. But the trade-off is that the decayed area turns black.
So it’s not ideal on a front tooth, where appearance matters. Even with a special needs person, everybody worries about their appearance. But take a child or an adult who can’t cope with a drill, with decay that would progress if you didn’t do something.
If you can get some of this in there and just paint it on, your job is done. It kills the decay and stops it in its tracks. In the future, you could drill away that arrested decay and fill it.
There are some newer versions that use two lots of liquid, but they’re more caustic and toxic. You need to use them under special circumstances, and they wouldn’t work in a case like this.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:16:51 – 00:16:58]
And when is sedation or a general anaesthetic genuinely the kindest option?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:16:59 – 00:18:42]
It doesn’t mean it’s a failure. If we’ve tried all the adaptations, and the patient keeps getting more cavities, or the cavities are getting worse despite proper oral hygiene and diet, things we’ve discussed many times before, or if they’re in pain, then everything is planned ahead of time. That might be sedation in the chair, where you still need local anaesthetic, or in some cases a general anaesthetic, because then you don’t need any numbing.
The patient is completely out, like for an operation. If they need two extractions and five fillings and they’re asleep, it can be done safely and quickly, they won’t have any recollection, and it can be done well.
It needs to be planned so that you don’t have multiple general anaesthetics. If they need a cleaning, that should be done at the same time. We don’t specialise in this type of treatment at OptiSmile.
We don’t do theatre cases. It would more likely be a paediatric dentist, who will also treat adult patients with severe Down syndrome or autism, because it falls in the same realm, and they will treat adults even though they’re a paediatric dentist, or an oral surgeon.
If somebody needs wisdom teeth out and maybe two or three other teeth, you would see an oral surgeon, and they would put you to sleep and do everything. It’s much safer and cheaper long term than a whole lot of emergency visits.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:18:42 – 00:18:49]
And what about older patients with dementia who can no longer look after their own mouths?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:18:50 – 00:21:11]
Yes, that’s very sad. When I was in California in the 80s, we didn’t really talk about Alzheimer’s; we used to call it senile dementia. You’d get patients who’d had really good care, with crowns and bridges and implants, where the daily cleaning needs to be meticulous, otherwise they can give trouble.
The first thing that would happen is that some of these patients would get lost. They’d been seeing my predecessor, and I purchased the practice in 1989. They’d been coming to the same practice for 20 years and then seeing me for three or four years.
Then one day they’d come in late with a bit of a vacant stare, still driving, but it’s as if they’d forgotten how to get there. And six months later they’d come in with a carer or a family member.
It’s very sad. And the oral hygiene, you can imagine, just goes downhill. The person slowly forgets how to brush, or forgets that they haven’t.
And sometimes the mouth is very dry, and the teeth can fail very quickly with cavities. So if a family member has an early diagnosis, that’s one of the things you don’t want to ignore. If you know someone has early dementia or early Alzheimer’s, while they’re still in fairly decent shape, that’s a good time to make sure their mouth is in very good condition.
If there are any teeth that could give trouble in the next year or two, or if their gums are not in good shape, do this early on. Don’t wait. The dementia, sadly, is not going to go away.
Look after their teeth quickly, because a lot of those patients have a good heart, they don’t have cancer, they’re in really good shape, and then they get dementia.
And next thing you know, the mouth is the big emergency or infection site. Poor oral hygiene is also linked to pneumonia. When people get older and more frail and get dementia, they can get pneumonia and die, or they have a stroke.
It’s all interrelated.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:21:12 – 00:21:24]
That’s very sad. And doctor, just finally, for someone using a wheelchair or with limited mobility, what should a family look for in a dental practice?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:21:24 – 00:23:33]
A lot of the time, the Google listing says whether a practice is wheelchair accessible or disabled friendly. I would always check, because sometimes those listings are not correct. We have very wide doorways.
There are lifts in the building, and we don’t need any ramps, but not every dentist is like that. If a dentist is in an old house, you may arrive and there are three steps, or one step, and no lift or ramp or anything.
So check before you go. With most dental chairs, a patient can transfer from the wheelchair into the chair with some assistance, and the arm on the chair folds out of the way. If it’s a short visit, with chairs like ours you can actually turn the chair sideways.
The patient can stay in the wheelchair, and the dental chair’s headrest can be used while they’re still sitting in their wheelchair. You also want to go to a clinic that knows it takes extra time, has the time set aside, has a caring culture and ethos, and is used to seeing these patients. You don’t want to be booked in for a 15-minute quick exam in a high-volume practice, with five patients in the waiting room, and then the wheelchair doesn’t fit through the door.
That sounds like an absolute nightmare. You’ve got to pick up the phone and check: are you set up for this? When’s the last time you treated someone in a wheelchair?
Our restrooms are wheelchair accessible, because the shopping centre we’re in, like all shopping centres, has to have a disabled toilet. So if someone needs to use the bathroom, there are all the rails and pulleys, extra access and more space for a wheelchair. That’s very important.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:23:34 – 00:24:03]
Doctor, I think if there’s one idea to take from today, it’s that a difficult patient is almost never the problem. A dental visit that doesn’t fit the person is. So adapt the visit, and most people can be cared for far more gently than their families expect.
And also communicate with the practice. Call ahead and tell them what’s hard. Tell them about the lights, the noise, the waiting room, the chair. I think it’s so important.
What do you say?
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:24:04 – 00:24:45]
Yes, very much so. Hopefully today’s episode will help a lot of people who find it on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, on E-Radio, on your Facebook, or on our website. The word’s getting out, and I have people telling me they’ve been listening to the podcast and enjoying it.
Fame at last. Hopefully people gain a lot of benefit. This podcast will still be valid in three years and five years.
We didn’t talk about anything new.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:24:46 – 00:24:50]
That’s the beauty of it, eh? How it will just live on for years and years.
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:24:50 – 00:24:51]
Years.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:24:51 – 00:24:54]
You never think of it that way, actually. So nice.
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:24:54 – 00:25:23]
And the type of information we shared today is very hard to find on a dentist’s website, unless maybe you find a magazine article where a journalist writing for a special care journal or magazine decided to write one about going to the dentist. I haven’t tried looking it up that way, but I’m sure you won’t necessarily find this information on a dentist’s website.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:25:23 – 00:25:31]
I’ve never seen it before. I think it’s so nice of you to talk about this today, and also reassuring for a lot of people.
Dr Clifford Yudelman, OptiSmile [00:25:31 – 00:25:39]
Yes, thank you, and I’ll speak to you next week about robots and AI and all the stuff that gets me excited.
Eon Engelbrecht, E-Radio-SA [00:25:40 – 00:26:01]
The robots are coming. That’s why I always say thank you to ChatGPT when I ask it to do something for me. I always say thank you, just in case it comes alive and says I was rude or something.
Yes, don’t kick the robots. Well, thank you, Dr Clifford Yudelman from OptiSmile, and we’ll chat again next week.
OptiSmile Announcer [00:26:38 – 00:27:05]
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Disclaimer: The content provided in this podcast, “Save Your Money Save Your Teeth” on Medical Mondays, is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as dental or medical advice. The insights and opinions expressed by Dr. Clifford Yudelman and any guests are designed to foster a better understanding of dental health, preventive measures, and general well-being, but should not be interpreted as professional dental or medical recommendations.Dr. Clifford Yudelman does not diagnose, treat, or offer prevention strategies for any health conditions directly through this podcast. This platform is not a substitute for the personalized care and advice provided by a licensed dental or healthcare professional. We strongly encourage our listeners to consult with their own dental care providers to address individual dental health needs and concerns.The information shared here aims to empower listeners with knowledge about dental health but must not be used as a basis for making health-related decisions without professional guidance. Your dental care provider is the best source of advice about your dental and overall health. Please always seek the advice of your dentist or other qualified health professionals regarding any questions or concerns about your dental health.
