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The Oral-Systemic Link: Monsters in Your Mouth

November 10, 2016 By Tracy Lamb

Jamie Toop, DDS, with Rebecca Sorci

After presenting about the link between oral and systemic health at a recent meeting in Chicago, a woman thanked me for my presentation. She told me that her husband died 2 years prior from infective endocarditis following a root canal. He was a healthy football player in his 20s. When he was sick, everyone said infective endocarditis was not possible in someone like him. She thanked me for spreading the word on how oral bacteria can lead to systemic disease and bodily harm.

Educating our patients and other health care professionals about the systemic effects of oral bacteria can help lead to greater overall wellness in others, decreased medical bills, and extended years of life. To assist in the mission of educating others, this article explores available data on the oral-systemic link. These studies provide evidence to support the correlation between diseases of the oral cavity and chronic systemic diseases. While this correlation does not necessarily imply causation, it is hard to dispute the oral-systemic connection.

The Leading Causes of Death

According to the most recent data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In 2010, the United States spent $108.9 billion on coronary disease alone,1 which is higher than any other condition. The second highest total US health care spend in 2010 was on oral health conditions ($102 billion), which demonstrates the impact of both heart and oral health on the health care system.

Following heart disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stoke, accidents, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes are the leading causes of death in the United States.2 With the exception of accidents, each of these causes of death can be linked to proteins, enzymes, and bacteria in the oral cavity in some way. Thus, six of the seven leading causes of death in the United States represent chronic diseases that have been associated with conditions in the oral cavity. The CDC also reported that chronic diseases account for $3 of every $4 spent on US health care. If improvements in oral health can have any benefit in reducing chronic disease, there would be a major impact in both the financial and human costs of these conditions.

Heart Disease

Inflammation in the mouth may be correlated to inflammation in the body. Studies have shown that patients with periodontal disease are up to 35% more likely to develop coronary artery disease than patients with healthy gums.3

In 2010, the British Medical Journal reported that patients who brush less than twice a day are at a higher risk of suffering a cardiac episode than those who brush more than twice a day.4 Poor oral hygiene is associated with higher levels of cardiovascular disease risk and low-grade inflammation, which is measured by increased levels of C-reactive protein (a protein found in the blood that rises in response to inflammation).

A recent study in mice was able to show that chronic oral infection directly accelerates atherosclerotic vascular disease.5 The results of this study provide evidence of a causal relationship between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease. Periodontal treatment can also reduce systemic inflammation. A recent study in a random population-based sample of men and women demonstrated that improvement in periodontal health is associated with less progression in atherosclerotic vascular disease.6Studies have also shown a reduction of C-reactive protein and improvement of heart and blood vesicle function following periodontal treatment with the dentist.7

Cancer

Correlations have also been shown between pancreatic cancer and the condition of the oral cavity. In 2014, researchers at San Diego State University found that patients with pancreatic cancer have significantly higher levels of leptotrichia and campylobacter bacteria in their saliva.8 They believe this is because both the pancreas and saliva produce amylase. A test currently in development may be able to detect early changes in saliva. This test is easily conducted in the dental office and would provide the ability to detect pancreatic cancer sooner than any other method to date.

According to the American Cancer Society, the overall 5-year survival rate for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined is only 6% because it is difficult to detect, and the disease is typically already in the untreatable late stages when diagnosed.9 It’s also notable that men are at higher risk of the associations between periodontal disease and cancer than women. Men with periodontal disease are 30% more likely to develop cancers of the blood.10 They also have an increased risk for prostate cancer. Recent data has shown that men with both periodontal disease and prostate cancer have higher levels of prostate-specific antigen secretion, an enzyme that is only normally secreted in very small amounts in healthy men.10

Lower Respiratory Disease

The third leading cause of death in America is chronic lower respiratory disease. Bacteria originating in the oral cavity can cause lung infections.11 Bacteria, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, can be aspirated into the lower airways and cause pneumonia, which can present in chronic forms.12

Although smoking is believed to be the leading cause of lower respiratory infections such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, periodontal disease may be a contributing factor that can worsen the condition. Since individuals with respiratory infections are known to have compromised immune systems, it is easier for the bacteria and inflammation to spread from the oral cavity to the lungs.

The greater the periodontal disease, the greater loss of lung function is observed.13 This happens by way of aspiration. As oral bacteria are inhaled into the respiratory epithelium, an infection occurs when the bacteria multiply and begin to destroy tissue if the host is unable to clear them.14

Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack

The incidence of cerebral ischemia, or the condition where blood flow through the brain is insufficient, is typically greater in patients with periodontal disease. Those with severe periodontal disease are 4.5 times more likely to suffer an ischemic stroke than those with healthy gums.15 The greater the periodontal disease, the greater the risk is for cerebral ischemia.

Some of these leading causes of death are interrelated systemic diseases. Stroke and heart disease have many of the same risk factors, including high blood pressure and high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, and obesity. Those with coronary heart disease have more than twice the risk of stroke than those who do not.16 Periodontal disease may be another contributing risk factor.

Alzheimer’s Disease

A case study of Alzheimer’s disease in Japan found that the loss of more than half of adult teeth by age 50 to 60 years may correlate with a 2.6-fold increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.17 For participants in this study, the most common cause of tooth loss was periodontal disease occurring 20 to 30 years prior to the onset of dementia. Another study of 144 participants having few or no teeth showed that the risk of dementia increased 4.3-fold.18

Alzheimer’s is a non-reversible condition with no cure. People with dementia and Alzheimer’s tend to decline in their oral hygiene.19 This creates a vicious cycle of periodontal disease, which leads to dementia, declines in oral hygiene, and worsened periodontal disease.20

Diabetes

The seventh leading cause of death in America is diabetes. Studies have shown that diabetic patients with severe periodontal disease are at a 3.2-fold increased risk of diabetic nephropathy and ischemic heart disease.20 Studies also demonstrated improvements in glycemic control resulting from the use of non-surgical periodontal treatment. Advanced periodontal treatment can also reduce health complications for patients with type II diabetes, which can reduce annual health care costs by approximately 40%.21 The integration of advanced periodontal treatment into diabetes management can reduce the costs and complications of individuals with elevated A1C.

Evidence of a Correlative Relationship

Researchers at the University of Indiana are studying the oral-systemic link in a different way. Instead of determining the systemic impact of periodontal disease, their focus is to “harness a controlled model of oral infection,” which they call the “Experimental Gingivitis Model.” This model permits investigator control of induced infection and resolution of gingivitis, and determines a range of systemic microbial and host outcomes. These researchers are the first to demonstrate that a systemic inflammatory response under the conditions of a 21-day model and the accumulation of dental plaque in systemically healthy young adults results in endotoxemia, a known driver of atherogenesis.

In a groundbreaking study by United Concordia, 1.7 million insurance records were reviewed from 2005 to 2009.21 Members who completed treatment for gum disease plus follow-up visits were compared to those who did not. The annual medical cost savings per patient was $5,681 for members with cerebral vascular disease (stroke), $1,090 for members with coronary artery disease, $2,840 for members with diabetes ($1,477 for diabetes outpatient drug costs alone), and $2,433 for women who were pregnant (decrease in preterm birth rate). Those who had persistent oral inflammation and systemic disease, and did not treat their periodontal disease had a greater amount of medical costs. Those who did treat their gum disease saw a decrease in health care costs.

This study also found a correlation with the reduction in hospitalizations. There was a significant savings in annual medical costs and a significant reduction in annual hospitalizations in those who underwent treatment for periodontal disease versus those who did not. The annual hospitalizations were reduced by 21.2% for members with strokes, 28.6% for members with heart diseases, and 39.4% for members with diabetes. The researchers present oral health as the “key missing piece to overall health.” Periodontal therapies, including scaling and root planing, regular visits to the dentist, and impeccable oral hygiene instruction should be strongly encouraged, and are necessary to provide more complete care and overall wellness for our patients.19

Filed Under: blog

Through Nature and Evolution

December 8, 2015 By Tracy Lamb

Through Nature and Evolution, your teeth have endured the test of time. In fact, teeth are designed so well that they have remained unchanged for over 400,000 years. Your teeth are naturally designed to last a lifetime, and with proper care and attention this can be a reality. When your teeth become damaged or decayed, it is logical for restorations to mimic the function, strength, and beauty of natural teeth.
Dr Wilson practices Biomimetic Dentistry – the art and science of restoring damaged teeth with restorations that mimic natural teeth in appearance, function, and strength. Biomimetic dentistry is conservative- by only replacing what is damaged, and strong- by replicating nature’s original design.

WHAT IS BIOMIMETIC DENTISTRY?

Translated literally, biomimetic dentistry means to copy what is life-like. Nature has provided the most successful and ideal properties to our natural teeth. When restoring damaged, broken, and decayed teeth, the goal is to return the tooth to its original strength, function, and esthetics. Biomimetic dentistry accomplishes all of this in a conservative, strong, and attractive approach.

bio-mimetic

BIOMIMETIC DENTISTRY IS BASED ON ADVANCED ADHESIVE DENTISTRY

All too frequently, fillings are treated as a temporary solution because of the belief that the fillings will eventually fail and need to be replaced with crowns or onlay restorations to be a more permanent restoration. As adhesive dentistry has evolved, our materials and techniques have been refined allowing us to achieve a predictable long lasting adhesive bond. These advanced techniques are the cornerstone of Biomimetic Dentistry.
With the Biomimetic approach, a filling is a final restoration when it is indicated (small or medium amount of damaged tooth structure). The restoration is carefully placed in increments to maximize the adhesive bond to your tooth. This prevents excessive shrinkage and gaps from causing premature failures. Techniques such as this, along with a sound understanding of advanced adhesive methods is what separates Biomimetic Dentistry from the traditional approach to dentistry.

BIOMIMETIC DENTISTRY IS TOOTH CONSERVING DENTISTRY

Once significant damage has been done to a tooth, a crown is the restoration of choice in traditional dentistry. Teeth become structurally compromised when a large amount of the tooth is missing or damaged. Traditionally, crowns were indicated to restore strength to these structurally compromised teeth. However, crowns result in over 70% reduction of your original tooth structure. The problem is a majority of structurally compromised teeth will require even more reduction of healthy tooth structure in order to fit the crown which is supposed to strengthen the tooth.
This approach is fraught with problems. Crown preparations can lead to sensitivity, root canals, and fractures. A tooth with a crown behaves differently than a natural tooth and the stresses on the crown are more damaging to the remaining tooth structure. With Biomimetic dentistry, only the damage and decay is removed, and your final restoration is bonded to the healthy natural tooth structure. The final restoration is often referred to as an inlay or onlay restoration. There is no extra removal of healthy structures to fit a crown and the result is a conservative and strong final restoration.

BIOMIMETIC DENTISTRY PREVENTS UNNECESSARY ROOT CANALS

In many instances, root canals can be completely avoided with these principles. Most Biomimetic Dentists report over 90% reduction in the number of root canals their patients receive. Removing excessive amounts of healthy tooth structure for a crown can inevitably result in sensitivity and irritation to the vital tooth which will require root canal treatment. By limiting removal of healthy tooth structure, Biomimetic Dentistry significantly reduces the necessity for root canal treatments. This is paramount to long term success and retention of your natural teeth.

Filed Under: blog

What Does Your Smile Say About You?

May 21, 2014 By Tracy Lamb

Want to succeed in business, fill up your social calendar, and get more romance into your life? One secret may be in your smile. Your smile — simple, straightforward, and most important, sincere — can attract more than admiring looks. A smiling face tells people that you’re an outgoing and intelligent person worth getting to know.

When someone has a big smile, it shows they’re willing to open up to others. Smiling can benefit your health, perception at work, social life, and romantic status. With that much at stake, it’s worthwhile to discover what your smile is saying about you — and how to interpret the smiles flashed your way.

Smiling Eyes Aren’t Just for the Irish

Many of us look at the mouth to judge a person’s mood, but people smile for all sorts of reasons: anger, fear, embarrassment, confusion, to deceive. It’s really your eyes that give you away.

The muscles around the eyes can’t be forced to look happy. When people smile for real, their cheeks rise and the skin around their eyes bunches up. In fact, in certain countries where suppressing emotion is a cultural norm, people look more at each other’s eyes to gauge emotion.

A Smile Makes You Look Successful

People who project a positive outlook are generally more open and flexible. They tend to cope better with challenges than people who are withdrawn and unsmiling. A smile conveys confidence and professionalism.

A study that followed a group of women for 30 years shows the lifetime benefits of smiling. The women who displayed genuinely happy smiles in their college yearbook photos went on to have happier marriages and greater wellbeing.

In the same study, a group of strangers looked at the college photos and reported their assumptions about the women’s personalities. The women who smiled were judged to be more positive and competent than those who didn’t.

Turn that Frown Upside Down

Want to be happy? Just smile. Believe it or not, forcing yourself to smile can actually make you happier.

Paul Ekman, PhD, a psychologist who is an expert in facial expressions, taught himself to arrange the muscles in his face to make certain expressions. To his surprise, he found himself feeling the emotions that he was mimicking. When he raised his cheeks, parted his lips, and turned the corners of his mouth up, he felt happier.

Ekman and his research partner went on to do a study of college students to see if they, too, would feel happier by making themselves smile. The researchers measured the students’ brain activity while the students followed instructions to smile using the muscles in their cheeks and around their mouths.

Whether the students smiled spontaneously or on purpose, the activity in their brains was virtually the same. They felt happy.

Smile Anxiety

Chipped or missing teeth, fillings, or discolored teeth are unveiled when your lips part to smile – so some people simply avoid it.

If you find yourself wanting to cover up your smile, you could be holding yourself back in more ways than you realize. Life is much more challenging for people who are so self-conscious about their teeth they don’t want to. Make an appointment with your dentist to talk about your concerns and potential corrections. You’ll be happy you did and wonder why you hadn’t sooner!

 

Filed Under: blog

Sports Dentistry Facts

January 29, 2014 By Tracy Lamb

Facts from the National Youth Sports Foundation for Safety

  • Dental injuries are the most common type of orofacial injury sustained during participation in sports; the majority of these dental injuries are preventable.
  • An athlete is 60 times more likely to sustain damage to the teeth when not wearing a protective mouthguard.
  • The cost of a fractured tooth is many times greater than the cost of a dentist diagnosed and designed professionally made mouthguard.
  • Every athlete involved in contact sport has about a 10% chance per season of an orofacial injury, or a 33-56% chance during an athletic career.
  • The cost to replant a tooth and the follow-up dental treatment is about $5000.
  • Victims of knocked out teeth who do not have a tooth properly preserved or replanted may face lifetime dental costs of $15,000-$20,000/tooth, hours in the dental chair, and the possible development of other dental problems such as periodontal disease.
  • It is estimated that faceguards and mouthguards prevent approximately 200,000 injuries each year in high school and college football.
  • The stock mouthguard which is bought at sports stores without any individual fitting, provide only a low level of protection, if any. If the wearer is rendered unconscious, there is a risk the mouthguard may lodge in the throat potentially causing an airway obstruction.

http://www.sportsdentistry.com/

Filed Under: articles

Treating Gum Disease Helps Rheumatoid Arthritis Sufferers

October 31, 2013 By Tracy Lamb

Here’s one more reason to keep your teeth healthy. People, who suffer from gum disease and also have a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis, reduced their arthritic pain, number of swollen joints and the degree of morning stiffness when they cured their dental problems. Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland reported on this new intervention for arthritis in the Journal of Periodontology. “It was exciting to find that if we eliminated the infection and inflammation in the gums, then patients with a severe kind of active rheumatoid arthritis reported improvement on the signs and symptoms of that disease,” said Nabil Bissada, D.D.S., chair of the department of periodontics at the dental school. “It gives us a new intervention,” adds Bissada. This is not the first time that gum disease and rheumatoid arthritis have been linked. According to another researcher in the study, Ali Askari, M.D., chair of the department of rheumatology at University Hospitals, “From way back, rheumatologists and other clinicians have been perplexed by the myth that gum disease may have a big role in causing systematic disease.” He added that historically teeth were pulled or antibiotics given for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, which actually treated the periodontitis. The patients got better. Askari and Bissada are part of a team of researchers that studied 40 patients with moderate to severe periodontal disease and a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis. The study results should prompt rheumatologists to encourage their patients to be aware of the link between periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis, says Askari. Bissada notes that gum disease tends to be prevalent in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Both inflammatory diseases share similarities in the progression of the disease over time. In both diseases, the soft and hard tissues are destroyed from inflammation caused by toxins from bacterial infection. “I’m optimistic that someday the biologic agents that we use successfully in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis will lead to improvement of periodontitis and would be available for use and treatment of this perplexing problem,” says Askari. “Again we are seeing another link where good oral health improves the overall health of an individual,” says Bissada, who adds that studies have linked gum disease to premature births, heart disease and diabetes.

Science Daily (May 29, 2009)

Filed Under: blog

Stop the Pop

October 31, 2013 By Tracy Lamb

stop the pop!

VIEW THE BROCHURE

Soft drinks, juices and sports drinks provide huge amounts of sugars to many diets, and drinking too much can cause tooth decay and harm your health. Learn how these beverages can cause tooth decay and what you can do to prevent it and improve your health.

Each day, soda consumption alone provides the average teenage boy about 15 teaspoons of refined sugars, the average girl about 10 teaspoons. These amounts roughly equal the recommended daily limits for teens’ sugar consumption from all foods.

Sugar and acid in soft drinks, juices and sports drinks can set up the perfect environment for tooth decay. Drinking too much of these beverage can contribute to other health problems, such as osteoporosis, kidney stones, and especially overweight and obesity, which are prime risk factors for type 2 diabetes in teens and adults.

Soft drinks are a problem not only for what they contain, but for what they push out of the diet, including vitamins, minerals and fiber. Less than 50% of adolescent girls consume enough calcium daily, which can lead to early development of osteoporosis. Girls who drink carbonated beverages are 5 times more likely to have bone fractures than those who don’t drink soda.

~ Missouri Dental Association

Filed Under: articles

Headache Prevention

October 31, 2013 By Tracy Lamb

Seems like a silly question, doesn’t it? If I had to boil it down to one concept that has made NTI therapy successful, it’s the acknowledgement that most chronic migraine and headache sufferers don’t (or won’t) admit that upon waking in the morning, having some degree of discomfort above their shoulders in completely “normal” for them. Not just headache or even full blow migraine. It could be the facial/forehead and back-of-the-neck combination pain, sore and stiff jaw, or “sinus” headache.

In comparison to the migraine episodes they experience, their morning headaches are somehow “manageable”, and therefore in their mind, not worthy of including in their complaints to their health care provider.

They’ve seen plenty of doctors for their headaches. They’re asked specific questions regarding the degree of pain that alters their normal function like, “When you get your worst headaches…”, and “What makes your headache worse?”, or “How many times per week/month do you have a migraine?”. Rarely, if ever, is a chronic migraine or headache sufferer asked, “Exactly when DON’T you have any degree of headache, even the slightest?”.

There are two simple questions to ask in a interview of a headache patient.

Question 1: On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the worst discomfort above the shoulders that you could imagine (includes neck, jaw, sinus, headache or migraine pain), and 0 being no pain at all, how many mornings per week do you wake with a ZERO, that is, you feel fabulous?

That last part needs to be emphasized. To anyone else, not having pain upon waking is normal. Sure, you can still feel tired, but a lack of pain isn’t remarkable to the normal person. For the chronic headache and migraine pain sufferer, a degree of pain IS normal. For them, having no discomfort at all would be, well, fabulous. Perhaps unintentionally, the chronic headache and migraine pain sufferer avoids that acknowledgement.

Most chronic headache sufferers will hesitate with their reply, and then begin to rationalize their their answer before they provide it. They’ll begin by stating, “Well, when I get my really bad headaches…”, or, “Nobody ever really feels fabulous”, or some justification as to why it’s “within normal limits” for them to have discomfort upon waking. The practitioner must press on, and confirm how many mornings per week that the patient wakes with ZERO pain.

Experienced practitioners will soon find that being pain free is quite rare for the chronic headache sufferer, especially upon waking. The practitioner can remind the sufferer that waking daily with, say, liver pain, or kidney pain, is certainly not normal, and so it is with chronic headache pain. They can’t be helped to the fullest extent if their entire presentation is not understood.

Question 2: On those days that you don’t wake with a ZERO (that is, you have “a number”), what’s the average “number” that you have?

Now the practitioner will have a clearer picture of the patient’s condition and likelihood of the presence of nocturnal jaw clenching. Waking 5 days per week with a level 4 headache, to some chronic sufferers, is not worthy of reporting. They have learned that they must deal with the discomfort and reserve their complaints for the degree of migraine pain alters their daily lives. They are wary of being labeled “drug overuse” patients, because in some practitioners minds, constant headache, especially upon waking, could only be due to medication overuse.

The chronic sufferer figures that their worst headaches and migraine attacks are far more important to try and manage than their chronic “normal discomfort” existence. Besides, no one has been able to diagnose and alleviate their normal discomfort, anyway. However, to the practitioner, this information is critical in the assessment of the cause and/or perpetuation of their patient’s condition.

This is not to suggest that chronic nocturnal masticatory parafunction (ie, intense jaw clenching) is the lone cause of chronic headache or migraine pain. On the contrary, it is better considered as being a primary complicating factor and/or perpetuating influence on chronic headache and migraine pain. Better stated, habitual nocturnal jaw clenching cannot, by itself, cause chronic headache or migraine pain, but chronic headache and migraine pain cannot be completely managed in the presence of un diagnosed and uncontrolled nocturnal jaw clenching. In fact, without controlling nocturnal jaw clenching, traditional medical management of chronic headache and migraine pain typically less that satisfactory of falis altogether. As Andrew Blumenfeld, MD, likes to say, “Controlling chronic jaw clenching doesn’t cure migraine, but it can help reduce the frequency of migraine attacks…sometimes to zero”.

Following the first month of NTI therapy, the practitioner can re-ask the two question above. Although the patient might first proclaim, “I’m still having headaches” (as if no improvement had occurred), the practitioner may discover that the patient is now waking less frequently “with a number” and that the level of that number is reduced.. Continually using the two questions above is a handy tool to follow a patient’s progress.

-James P. Boyd, DDS, Developer of the NTI therapeutic protocol.

Filed Under: articles

Dr. John Wilson and Dr. Jannah Wilson Father–Daughter Dynamic Duo

February 8, 2013 By Tracy Lamb

When listening to Dr. John Wilson, you are startled by the humble and self-effacing nature of this popular Vancouver Island dentist. With his patients he uses a “you’re the doctor, i’m the technician” approach to his dental practice. He doesn’t consider himself ‘special’ or ‘above anyone else’; as a consequence, he has developed sincere compassion for his many loyal patients. He believes that this philosophy is sometimes lacking in a small number of the younger dentists of today who see their dental career more from an investment perspective.

Dr. Wilson’s advice to young dentists is “become the best dentist in the world” and all else will follow. He urges them to spend the time necessary to master their dental craft, take the courses to improve delivery and learn how to communicate effectively with staff and patients. He encourages dentists to practice in small town environments where he feels the rewards are greater, both professionally and personally. However, he qualifies this belief in saying that the small town should be close enough to a ‘big city’ to allow for the benefits a large cosmopolitan centre can offer.

John possesses a ‘green’ side that is prevalent in many west coast Canadians. He is currently planning to build a cob house to improve his lifestyle and lessen his impact on his natural surroundings. Modern cob houses still use ancient building techniques and materials like bricks made of mud, sand and straw and harnessing natural energy sources such as passive solar heating. To these older wisdoms are added the latest in today’s technological thinking; the result is an environmentally friendly accommodation and living style. While these homes might not appeal to all, they are highly efficient, cost effective, sustainable and low maintenance ‘green’.

Growing up in Gananoque, Ontario, the son of steel worker, he had two choices: work in the steel mill or go to university. He is thankful he was born and raised in Canada and praises his parents for a ‘normal’ upbringing that allowed him freedom and choice. He has tried, with his wife Sylvia, to provide a similar upbringing for his own children.

One of John’s children, Jannah, is a surgical resident entering her final year of residency. Like her father, she works hard – very hard at her chosen profession. A typical week at the Ottawa Hospital involves a minimum of sixty hours and sometimes, the hours served are twice that amount. Jannah loves the pace of hospital life. She enjoys thinking on her feet, calling on her manual and mental skills to solve the never-ending problems of providing quality medical care for her patients.

Prior to medical school, Jannah worked in Methadone clinics on the east side of Vancouver. She taught a Youth at Risk programme for troubled teens.  She considered and explored careers in both sociology and law enforcement. She thought about a career in physiotherapy and worked as a fitness trainer at a rehab hospital. What drives this energetic young professional? She freely admits she is an adrenalin junky looking for a challenge and the high she gets from her work on a day-to-day basis. She learned perseverance (a word she uses often) from both her sister and her father. Her sister overcame a hearing disorder from birth through sheer determination and hard work. Jannah grew up looking up to and out for her older sister. Her father asked his children to strive harder at whatever they did and he himself lived the credo he encouraged in his children.

father-daughter

The possibility of following in her father’s pathway as a dentist was never rejected. While her father never encouraged any one career, including dentistry, he did ask Jannah to think hard and long before becoming a doctor. The endless, demanding hours that a career in medicine entails were his central concern. Ten years down the road, Jannah hopes to have worked as a locum in hospital settings in at least three provinces. Educated in French Immersion classes, she wants to perfect her fluency in French and become truly bi-lingual. She loves the natural setting and lifestyle of British Columbia and hopes to practice in the northern regions of that picturesque province. As a child growing up in Timmins, Ontario, she acquired a soft spot for Ontario, especially its cottage country. For now, Jannah looks forward to another year of perfecting her surgical skills and procedures. Her perseverance and patience coupled with her desire to problem-solve and volunteer as an international aid worker keeps her humble and balanced.

Dr. John Wilson credits his wife and family for his being grounded, open and caring. Jannah concurs with her father. The unconditional love provided by her mother, her interactions with her siblings and the respect for others that her parents instilled, usually derived from dinner table discussions, was crucial to her development. Her sister’s early hearing struggles taught her about human vulnerability. She laughingly related that her ‘brat’ brother taught her that patience was indeed a virtue. Both John and Jannah fondly recall family dinner chats, when everyone related the events of their day. It became a time of sharing feelings, debating ideas and reflecting on everyday issues both big and small. John and Jannah understand the need for a personal life and vacation time. They are active and physically fit, enjoying skiing, sailing and hiking. Jannah loves sports, travel and is happy riding her motorcycle whenever possible. John, in his spare time, is content to be busy planning and building a cob house. Both live life to the fullest.

Bottom Line: This article relates the lifestyle and interests of two health care professionals who just happen to be father and daughter.

Article originally published in Profitable Practice Magazine – Dental Edition – Fall 2012

Follow-up article Profitable Practice – WestCoastLifestyle

Filed Under: articles

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Most Recent Posts

The Oral-Systemic Link: Monsters in Your Mouth

Jamie Toop, DDS, with Rebecca Sorci After presenting about the link between oral and systemic health at a recent meeting in Chicago, a woman thanked me for my presentation. She told me that her husband died 2 years prior from infective endocarditis following a root canal. He was a healthy football player in his 20s. […]

Through Nature and Evolution

The art and science of restoring damaged teeth with restorations that mimic natural teeth in appearance, function, and strength. Biomimetic dentistry is conservative- by only replacing what is damaged, and strong- by replicating nature’s original design.

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