Made For This: Unlocking the Secrets to a Perfect Smile Dr Megan's Orthodontic Insights [VIDEO]

Welcome to the SCV Connected podcast! In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Megan LeCornu, a leading expert in the field of orthodontics. Dr. Megan's journey began at the prestigious Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where her passion for dentistry was ignited.

Following her dental training, she pursued specialized orthodontic training at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry. Dr. Megan's commitment to excellence is evident through her numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, showcasing her dedication to advancing the field.

But Dr. Megan's impact doesn't stop there. She is a sought-after lecturer, sharing her expertise with orthodontists across the country. Her focus on specialized techniques involving digital systems sets her apart as an innovator in the field.

As the owner of Embrace Your Smile Orthodontics, with locations in Newhall and Valencia, Dr. Megan brings her passion for orthodontics to the Santa Clarita community. Her commitment to local ties is further exemplified by her love for spending time with friends and family in the area, as well as her enjoyment of outdoor activities.

Join us as we dive deep into Dr. Megan's inspiring journey, her insights into orthodontics, and her dedication to creating beautiful smiles. To learn more about her work, visit her website at www.embraceyoursmile.com, and be sure to follow her on Instagram @embrace_your_smile for the latest updates. Get ready for an enlightening conversation with a true orthodontic expert!

Transcript

Embrace Your Smile

[00:00:00] Listening to the SCV Connected podcast with my mom 

Kelly: She's the owner of Embrace Your Smile Orthodontics with two locations. One location is in Newhall and the other is in Valencia. She lives here locally in Santa Clarita and enjoy spending time with her friends, her family, and doing outdoor activities in her spare time. She Attended Harvard School of Dental Medicine and went on to do orthodontic specialty training at the University of North Carolina . She has multiple publications in peer reviewed journals. She also lectures other orthodontists across the country on specialized techniques on how to put braces on using digital systems.

Dr. Megan: Welcome, 

Kelly: Dr. Megan LeCourieux. 

Dr. Megan: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Kelly: Yeah, so we'll just jump right into it. What's one, like, common myth that people might have about orthodontics when it comes 

Dr. Megan: to children? You know, it's really interesting because I have a lot of patients who [00:01:00] come in and they seem to be kind of confused about the concept of early treatment. Back in our generation, like, and by my generation I mean kind of the what I like to call the elder millennials, if you will.

Basically, 60 percent of patients were treated with extractions, and extractions were very common because we didn't do as much development of the arches or modification of growth. Instead, what we did is we kind of waited for all the permanent teeth to come in, and then we reacted to the crowding by taking out teeth to make space, or correcting, let's say, an overbite using things like headgear.

The thing was, yeah, I remember headgear. Yeah, like 16 candles. Who doesn't love 16 candles? Right. But the thing is, is for a lot of people, for example, with like an overbite, the problem is, is an 80 percent of patients and overbite is actually caused by a deficient lower jaw. And so when we were using things like headgear, we were actually retracting our upper jaw to a deficient lower jaw.

[00:02:00] And that's not ideal. That's not ideal for our tongue space, which then impacts airway. Or if we had severe crowding, instead of developing the arches, we basically extracted teeth and we retracted. And again, that also had an impact on our basically the space for our tongue, which then impacts airway.

And then the aesthetic side effect of that was we flattened. Profiles, which actually ages our smile. So, our generation, yeah, from our generation, we, we learned all of this very interesting information, and there was a lot of research that was done. And because of that, we started changing our philosophy.

And now our philosophy is instead of like, taking out teeth and retracting and constricting. We should really look at how we can develop the jaws to try to fit or keep as many permanent teeth as possible. So people come in and they say, Oh my goodness, I see all these young kids and in braces and I don't believe in that.

And it's true that the true reality is only about 20 to 30 percent of the [00:03:00] population needs early intervention. But there are four reasons, four specific reasons in particular where we need to modify the growth of the jaws before the age of 10 and a half, ideally, to either, let's say, fix a crossbite, to increase space for permanent teeth, to change how teeth are erupting or correct an underbite.

Underbite correction is really important. We address that before the age of 10 and a half. And that's because our, our upper jaw, the sutures of our upper jaw, they actually fuse around 10 and a half. So it's really hard for us to modify the growth after the age of 10 and a half. So yeah, so early intervention, it's not, it's not like, We see a child and they're going through that transitional dentition and we're like, Oh, this doesn't look good.

We should just put braces on them. That's not the point. Or 

Kelly: it's not like my orthodontist is trying to like make more money and put them in two phases. 

Dr. Megan: Okay. And it is interesting because I was trained on the East Coast. So as you mentioned, you know, I would, my [00:04:00] dental school training was at Harvard and we're a very research based program.

And then I got my, my specialty training at the University of North Carolina, which, you know, is one of the top orthodontic programs in the country, which is also heavily research based. So on the East Coast, we did, I do notice that there is a little bit less phase one on the East Coast, on the West Coast.

Coast, I do feel like people kind of like, Oh, my kids teeth are crooked and, and I think I should be in braces. And I do feel like maybe there are some offices that are maybe a little bit more aggressive and just kind of putting braces on people. But in our practice, it really is, it's more of a need based treatment if we're treating before the age of 10 and a half, because we know that all the permanent teeth are not going to be in that child's.

mouth, usually until 12 or 13. And so then we're going to have to finish the bite correction, but interceptive treatment is needed for some people. So that's why the American association of orthodontics recommends that all children be evaluated by an [00:05:00] orthodontist by the age of seven or eight, so that we can make sure things are growing and okay.

And if we have to intervene, we can but for a lot of kids, they don't need early, you know, interceptive treatment if they don't need it. So Dr. 

Kelly: Megan, have you always wanted to be an orthodontist? Like, I picture you young, playing, instead most kids would play doctor or teacher. Were you into dentistry?

Like, or is this like something that was in your family? Like, how did you get... Yeah. 

Dr. Megan: So I was a very strange child. Were you? Okay. So my, I went to, my mom worked in a veterinary clinic, and at the age of whatever it was, like six or seven, I went to my very first take your daughter to work day.

And so I got to like, I got to go to my mom's work and I got to look in the microscope at like, you know, like samples from the animals and then there was one dog that they were doing teeth cleaning and my mom let me help clean this dog's teeth. And I was like, I don't know, maybe seven years old and I looked at her and I was like, I'm going to be a dentist.

And she was like. Okay. That's [00:06:00] interesting. We'll have to figure it out. So at eight years old, I was in third grade and I interviewed my pediatric dentist about their career. And I presented my pediatric dentist career to my class for show and tell. So I clearly wasn't the most popular child. Other kids were bringing like toys.

I was like interviewing about my dentist career. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. I love that though. Yeah. And then yeah, as I was going through school, I I was kind of deciding between medicine and dentistry. So I did a pre med route and I basically shadowed a bunch of different physicians specifically female physicians and female dentists and kind of got a feel for like lifestyle and work life balance and also like the ability to really feel like you're making a difference.

And dentistry is very, very artistic. It's, very heavily reliant on basically your hand skills. And I loved art. So for me instead of just kind of diagnosing things and prescribing medication, I really loved the [00:07:00] idea of being able to use my hands and being very artistic in my career. I 

Kelly: have never heard of dentistry as an artistic endeavor.

Like there's that element. I'm like, Oh, I could just tell you're a true professional. Like you love this. And. Just the way you're explaining it and to hear your passion. 

Dr. Megan: Oh my gosh. It's an amazing career. I mean, I like to tell people, you know, I really spend my life making people smile and, and it's, it's pretty cool because, you know, there are studies that show the impact of a beautiful smile.

So one of my favorite studies was from the Kelton Institute. And what they, what they looked at is they looked at They basically did a HR study and they basically showed people who hire like high level professionals and they took like your face and they took your face with beautiful straight teeth.

And then a year later, they would show your same face, same outfit. But they had crooked teeth, and they just photoshopped crooked teeth for straight teeth. Same resume, and they showed them like hundreds of these different [00:08:00] applications. And they rated okay, how would you rate this person on how hireable are they?

How intelligent do you think they are? How smart do you think they are? How friendly do you think they are? And they found that just based on your straight teeth. There's my oh, it's okay. So just on your straight teeth, you were perceived to be, you know, You're 146 percent more likely to be hired if you had straight teeth versus crooked teeth.

Wow. You were perceived to be smarter. You were perceived to be nicer. So there are so many interesting things that our smile does for us that we don't even realize. And, you know, sometimes with my teenage patients, they don't fully understand, like, the gift that, you know, having a beautiful smile is. I try to tell them, I'm like, look, this is one of the best gifts you're going to have in your whole life, because you're going to wear your smile every day.

Your shoes. You're gonna, you're gonna get holes in them. You're not going to be able to like fit in your shirt one day or it's going to get ruined, but you're always going to have your smile. That's so true. 

Kelly: Oh my gosh. I'm so, I can't, I'm just like, I'll edit this out, but I'm so sad. It's taken us [00:09:00] this long to interview just because what you're saying, I just love everything about your heart behind this.

And that is so true. You're instantly making positive change for people and their smile is so important. Like you said, with the Study right now. 

Dr. Megan: This is crazy. Seeing it in real life is so amazing. Like I'll have a kiddo who comes in, they'll smile to, they'll like, oh, like I'll be like, hi, I'm Dr.

Megan. And they'll like, they'll be like, hi. And I'll be like, oh, okay. And then I'll ask 'em to smile like at the exam, and they'll do this. And I'm like, no, no, no, with your teeth and you can just tell they're like, and they're very quiet. They're very like, you know, shy. And then suddenly you change that, right?

And suddenly dad comes to me and he's like, well, now she's talking to boys and like, I'm not sure I'm ready for this and like, she's like very social now and, and they come in like, Hey, Dr. Megan. And then I get like a card and they'll be like, you know, thank you for what you've done. And for me. Right.

That's, that's why, like, I don't know, it's [00:10:00] cool because I do get to, like, have that impact in people's lives, and I have it on children, I get to have that impact on adults, and it's, I always tell people too, it's never too late, my oldest patient is 92 right now. Really? And she always wanted it, she could never do it, and she's like, you know what, like, What she said to me, she goes, I was always just so frugal with my money.

She goes, then I realized I'm not taking it with me when I leave this. She's like, always wanted these two teeth straight. And I was like, oh, let me, let's do it. And so she's just in a little six month treatment just to straighten a couple of teeth, but she wanted it her whole life. You know, and she comes into the office and she's like, I'm so excited to be here.

And it's just like, it's very fun. You know, that's awesome. Oh 

Kelly: my gosh. What would you say to people that might be interested in having a career in orthodontics? 

Dr. Megan: So I I actually have people who I have high school kiddos that will come and shadow me all the time because they're very interested in it.

And what I always tell them is like when you're pursuing a career in medicine or [00:11:00] in dentistry, the biggest thing is you have to know you have to have really good grades. You're going to be in. I like to tell people you're going to be a professional student for a while. So it's about getting good grades.

It's about working hard in school, getting involved in your community. Doing research is really important and honestly following what you love because then when you go off and you're in premed, you might say, wow, I really wanted to do medicine, but I really love working with my hands. And then you start to gravitate towards maybe more of a dental type career.

And then you go to dental school and you may go into dental school. When I went into dental school, I thought I wanted to be an oral surgeon and I was a hundred percent certain I was going to be an oral surgeon. I love the idea of surgery. And then I was in I, I went to a few OR surgeries and I realized the personality of the surgeons.

They were like, one surgeon was like, I don't really care what their favorite color is. I don't really care where they're going to prom. I just put them to sleep, take out the teeth. And I was like, Oh, but I kind of want to see the prom [00:12:00] pictures. I don't like those things. And then I'm sitting in the clinics, the, the dental facial clinics where we work up surgical cases and I started realizing the orthodontists were like the engineers of the treatment plan.

We set up the teeth to design how far like let's say a surgical lower jaw advancement would be, and the surgeons do the advancement, but we are the ones who dictate how big that advancement would be and what the final aesthetic look would be. And I was like, Oh. I want to be in control of what that is going to be.

I want to design the facial like outcome. So I had no idea I was going to go into a field of orthodontics, but in dental school, I just started gravitating towards it because I started loving that. And and so, yeah, so just follow what you love and if you follow what you love, you know, always. You know, our career, there will be days where it feels like work, but if you follow what you love and it becomes a passion, it's really not work, it's your career.

And yeah, there's rough days, [00:13:00] but honestly, if you love it, most of the days are going to be amazing. That's 

Kelly: so true. And anything that you do, like if you love it. 

Dr. Megan: It won't feel like work as much. Yep, exactly. 

Kelly: So what do you do for work life balance? I would imagine like this could consume you as not just like you own two offices, so you wear the specialty hat of being the doctor, but then also like the business owner.

What's that 

Dr. Megan: like? How do you, yeah. Work life balance is something I really had to learn. A lot of doctors when they graduate dental school and residency or even med school, we are not given any business training. So we go out into the world and some doctors work for a group and some doctors end up in private practice and own their own practices.

I found out that I really love owning a practice. And the reason I love owning a practice is because I get to make the choices on what what type of appliances I use. I get to choose on how I treat my [00:14:00] patients. I get to make the choice on the culture. And what I really found is I love empowering my team.

I have an amazing team. I love watching them grow. I love, you know, helping them achieve their goals. I have one assistant, for example, who always had a dream of becoming a hygienist. So really like supported her on like getting into dental school and going and pursuing a career in hygiene. I have another assistant who really always wanted to have his own business and doing like lab work.

He's got amazing hand skills. So working with him right now to create his own business for his own dental lab. So it's very like, I really found that like, for me that has been a passion and. You know, finding that work life balance in the beginning is very hard, but so important. I am a very big outdoorsy person.

I love my family. I have two dogs I adore. And so I am someone who I like to say, I work hard and I play hard. So I have my time at office and I do everything I love. And then I go into my life and I'll go on backpacking trips. I hike 14, 000 foot mountains. [00:15:00] I go snowboarding. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. I love like high energy sports.

And so so work hard, play hard is like kind of my mantra. And that's also how I de stress. So, 

Kelly: wow. That's awesome. Yeah. I could tell from your Instagram. I was like, it looks like you're just really active. And I think you were snowboarding. 

Dr. Megan: That's great. Yeah, that's so 

Kelly: good. Let's see. What's one important lesson that you've learned just about your career 

Dr. Megan: in general?

So I think I think one of the big things is It can be very hard as a health care provider and as a practice owner to make everyone happy Really? 

Kelly: I feel like you definitely make everyone happy But maybe like the insurance side too I guess you have like That kind of, the nitty gritty, like finances, 

Dr. Megan: insurance, like, Insurances are challenging.

Insurance has changed dramatically even during my time in practice. And you know, it's [00:16:00] hard because sometimes insurance, you have someone sitting in a cubicle with no medical background and they're actually dictating treatment. I had a patient with cleft lip, cleft palate who was denied a treatment and, because the insurance was like, you know, this is aesthetic.

And it's very heart wrenching, so, We have to work really hard to try to balance that. And then another good example is schedules, right? So every, it's hard because we have some procedures that are long and it takes a lot of doctor time. And we try to schedule those in the morning. But as you know, it's very hard to get your child out of school.

And so, We really try to accommodate everyone and try to make, make it so that most of our patients can have after school appointments, but we can't do everything after school because some of our long appointments we have to do kind of during the morning to, to try to help make it so that we can optimize after school appointments and more people can have after school appointments and some people can get really frustrated.

They're like, my kid can't miss school. And unfortunately the school is here. They're [00:17:00] actually funded by attendance. It's actually not okay. It's against the law actually for them to say that to punish a child for missing school for a medical appointment. So we give, we give doctors notes, but I know that can be very frustrating for families because they don't want their kid to miss school.

And so we try really hard to please everyone. But it's it's not easy and you know we can't always do it. Another thing is like, let's say I have a kiddo this happened actually yesterday at a kiddo come in with a really big emergency, you know, like a trauma. And when that happens, you You have to see that emergency patient, but it can back your schedule up.

And so now people are, we're running a little bit late and people are waiting for their, their appointment. And we try really hard to see everyone on time. But if something like that happens, we can't always, you know, be perfect because we do have to tend to like an emergency situation. And so. For me, it's kind of, I'm a people pleaser, and it's really stressful when I can't always please [00:18:00] everyone, or I'm running a little behind, so I think learning how to manage that has been a really big learning curve for me, yeah.

Kelly: Well, I'm so glad that you're just so honest and spoke to those two things, because first off, I forgot that orthodontic treatment really is, And I know it used to be considered more cosmetic based and so I forgot that that has to be stressful when people come in for consultations and then, you know, insurance might kick back and say that it's not needed necessarily or like you said in the waiting room.

Sometimes we're so focused on ourselves and our schedule as parents and where we have to get the kids to that we forget like if it's taking a long time, it's not just because the practice runs like that. It could be like there's a trauma that came in. And yeah, I think sometimes we need to take that beat that step back as 

Dr. Megan: parents to.

Yeah, I always try to notify two people like if we, because it's, we really do try to, we, we honestly like pride ourselves because I'm someone when I go to the doctor, if I'm waiting 45 [00:19:00] minutes for my like 30 minute doctor appointment, I'm very frustrated. So like, I'm someone who really prides herself on trying to be Like very cognizant of people's time and trying to run our schedule on time.

And, and, and that's something we pride ourselves on, but sometimes things happen. And I always try to tell families, I'm like, I'm sorry. I had an emergency come in, or I'm so sorry. You know, another good example is let's say, especially like during COVID you have a staff member who's sick. And you're, oh my gosh.

Yeah. So now you're running shorthanded and you don't have enough staff to like, so, so that can be very stressful. And we're trying to still run on time, but we're short a person, right? 

Kelly: Yeah. I'm so glad, but okay. So my experience, I've never had an appointment run, like sit in the office late for one of the appointments.

So while we're talking about these things, they happen very rarely. I love your like reward system. My daughter's always like, hurry, we got to get in on time. So speak to that. Has that been something that? [00:20:00] implemented or do you 

Dr. Megan: fin well to that? Yeah. So we that and I love it because One of the biggest things right?

So if they come in their teeth, great. We al a grade a b c d f. And if they get points for coming on time, they get points for wearing their rubber bands really well. And so we try to reward them for doing the things that we need to give them a beautiful result. And I think it's been received so well, and if they get enough points, then they get to get a gift card, you know, from wherever they choose.

I think a lot of kiddos choose Amazon. That's so funny. I get a lot of Best Buy requests. But that's been good because we're trying to make it a fun experience for them. You know, I feel like sometimes too it's hard because especially with braces on, it's hard to brush your teeth. And so it's always like, you know, negative, negative, negative.

Like, oh, you're not brushing good enough. You're not brushing enough. But what if we flipped it and we said, if you're doing great, you get this. And so then they're inspired and motivated to [00:21:00] do really well. You know, that's so true. 

Kelly: Yeah, let's switch gears a little bit. Let's go back to business. What's, like, one of your productivity hacks?

Like, do you have a time of day that you work best under? Like,

Dr. Megan: I learned my favorite thing is seeing patients like I like to see patients that is my favorite, but when I'm running a business, I also have to have time to do the business things, for example you know, administrative stuff, right? Or letters. Or meetings with referring doctors. So what I've learned is I have to set time aside.

And so I usually, I ended up setting a whole day for administrative work. So my Mondays, for example, is my admin day. And my admin day is actually my busiest day. I'll have like eight to 10 hours of work on my admin day. But I, I, and I also have to time block. So sometimes I say, okay, I need to block this time on this day to just focus on these emails or and I need to block this time on this day to focus on [00:22:00] these things.

So time blocking has been a really good thing for me as well. I feel like one of the blessings we have as women is we're really good multitaskers. Yes. And so I feel like being a woman in a in a field where you're a healthcare provider and a business owner is actually an amazing advantage because, you know, females, it's like, I don't know.

I think we're just. We're, we had to be created and we're genetically programmed to be, we have to watch this kid run this way and cook dinner and do this and do that. So I feel like we're programmed to be multitaskers, which has been honestly a blessing for me. And as I'm kind of going through my career, yeah.

Kelly: If you could choose any other career, 

Dr. Megan: what would it be? Oh my goodness. Someone asked me this the other day and I was like, huh? I mean, it's kind of fascinating. I think, you know, I, I, I do love I love medicine. So I think if I wasn't in dentistry, I'd probably still be in medicine and [00:23:00] I would probably be in Like, like a plastic surgeon or yeah, I do love surgery actually.

So, you know, even in our office, like one of the procedures we do is called a gingivectomy and we do it with a laser. Yeah, it's one of my most favorite things to do. It's so rewarding. So you use a laser and you kind of shape the gums and it's kind of like when you do a case. For me, it's like the icing on the cake.

Cause like, let's say someone has a gummy smile just a little reshaping of the gums, it makes the teeth look bigger, it makes the smile look bigger. And I honestly love some of those aesthetic things. Again, I love art, so I, I do oil painting as a hobby. Oh my gosh! Really? Wow! Yeah, so I love, I love like, I love that.

So I think I'd probably do like be a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist doing a lot of aesthetic work, just because for me, it's very rewarding to like see someone honestly feel great about something you do. But that's why honestly, orthodontics is so amazing. Cause you're doing something that.

[00:24:00] Functionally has a benefit. I mean, when you change a bite I have patients who come in with TMJ problems and it's just because their bite is constricted. So we do a little bit of change in how the bites coming together. And then I always do aesthetics, like even if they're just coming in for a functional problem, I'm like, I'm going to bring your teeth down, make your smile look bigger and do these things, but we're really doing this for your jaw.

But if we're doing it, we might as well make these aesthetic changes as well. And. That's why I think my career is great for me because I get to do both. I get, I was a I was a molecular biology biochemistry double major and a physics and psychology minor. Oh my gosh. Of like orthodontics is so fun.

There's a lot of biomechanics. Yeah. Oh my gosh. 

Kelly: You can just tell your heart is in the right place. Like you were meant to do this. 

Dr. Megan: Yeah, I think so. And you know, it's funny too, because people say to me, like one of the things oh, like for example, right now, I literally this week have two patients moving to Tennessee, both of them.

They don't know each other. [00:25:00] Everyone's living in California right now. Yeah, I know they are. But they say to me, like, how do I find an orthodontist where I'm going? And I'm like, You know, it's one of those things where I would talk to your dentist, I would ask them like, who, you know, who did you send your children to?

Oh, good one. Your family too. And then another thing is, there's a website, it's called American Board of Orthodontics. You can get on that website and you can see which orthodontists are actually board certified. You think that all orthodontists are board certified, but board certification is very challenging.

And so not all of us are. As of a couple years ago, only 25 percent of orthodontists were actually board certified. But what board certification means is it means we have gone through a rigorous, like basically testing process to make sure we can treat cases out to the highest level of standards that the board recognizes.

So I always really encourage people to just go on there, try to find an orthodontist who's board certified. [00:26:00] If they're board certified, you know they have high quality results. And And then, you know. Go on, obviously look at their reviews and then talk to the dentist and then go in and meet them.

And I'm actually someone who is a huge, huge, like, supporter and proponent of getting multiple opinions. I'm 

Kelly: so glad you're mentioning this. Cause as a mom, you're like, where do 

Dr. Megan: you start with this? You know, get multiple opinions. You know, if it was me, like I want at least two or three opinions. And the reason is this, it's because we're artists.

So like, it's not just the, the, the clinical care that we do. It's the artistic side of how we treat out a case, right? Some doctors really just focus on the function and and they're not really doing what's called a face forward approach There's an orthodontist that was actually at the University of North Carolina.

His name is dr. David starver, and he kind of Invented this concept of, hey, start with the face and work backwards. And so me and Dr. Weber one, [00:27:00] the other doctor in our practice, we were heavily influenced by Dr. David Sarver and also Dr. Profit. And we really treat everyone by using the face forward approach.

And because of that, that's why I worked with 3M and I helped develop a process called Digital Indirect Bonding. So what we do is when I started my practice, there's a technique for putting braces on, it's called indirect bonding. But the old way of doing it was very challenging, very technique sensitive.

Yeah, I 

Kelly: remember like the light would have to like free, like you'd have to put the light on so the cement like would harden. on the rings. And when I took my daughter in there, there's like a whole digital scan. I was like, Oh wow, it's come so far. Yeah. I was like a headgear 

Dr. Megan: kid. Oh, were you? Oh yes. You were, you were 

Kelly: tortured.

I know. Looking back, I'm like, how do I even sleep with this wire? Like sticking out of your 

Dr. Megan: face? Yeah. So, so what we do now is we reverse engineer our [00:28:00] results. So what I mean by that is I look at like, A face, like your face, let's say, and I basically will have a computer screen and I have your x ray on one monitor, I have your smile, like on the other, and then I have a digital setup, a mold, if you will, digital model that I can turn around of your teeth, and I basically determine based on your smile where I want your teeth and the smile first.

Then I work backwards to get the bite where I need it to be, and I position the braces, or if we're doing like an aligner setup, I determine the, the, the programming of how the aligners are going to move the teeth based on where I want your smile. So what we do is we're reverse engineering it. That's what digital indirect bonding does.

So that's why I've been working with 3M and I actually do lecture around the country to other orthodontists on how to do this technique because it's more precise, it's more accurate. The results are just gorgeous. And it's easier for the kids back in the old day, when you and I were going through this, it was like, have your mouth open for like an hour to two [00:29:00] hours.

And. You're just sitting there and the doctor is positioning the bracket one by one. If you imagine it, that's very hard clinically because the child's moving around the places, if they get any saliva on them, it's contaminated. So they're wiggling around. You're trying not to let any saliva get on it. And you don't have a picture of the patient's smile there.

So you don't, you're just putting the braces on where our standard. positioning should be. And then you're reacting to that position as the patient's going through treatment. So like you're making bends in the wire and you're reacting instead of being proactive, instead of reverse engineering it and knowing that everything is set up to where you want it to be with the end in mind.

And so now when someone comes to our office, getting a full set of braces on, it's done under an hour. Our fastest time ever was actually 14 minutes because Oh, my God. Because the technology is just so amazing. And so they don't have to have their mouth open forever. Their jaw is not getting tired.

They're not wiggling around. My patients [00:30:00] who have like are on the spectrum, if they have autism or they have special needs, we can treat them the same as we can any other kiddo because the process is so easy. Oh my gosh. And do 

Kelly: you, so you'll take patients, you mentioned that you had an older patient, like what, 98 years old and you do all these kids.

Oh my gosh, that's great. And then even if kids have like a special need involved, like autistic or just high energy. Oh my gosh. Like if my kid is... 

Dr. Megan: We have a lot of ADHD kiddos. I'll see them. I'll see him squirming around in the in the chair. And I'm just like, I'm like, okay, like we are very excited about indirect bonding with this child.

Kelly: Or just like anxious adults. I'm sure to like for dental care. Okay, great. Well, I want to respect your time as well. Is there anything that maybe we didn't mention, 

Dr. Megan: or? No, I think, I mean, I just think as, you know, busy moms, like, here's the thing. Nowadays, my opinion of like, the way our life is, we are busier than ever [00:31:00] before.

You know, our kids are so involved. They're in multiple sports. They're in multiple activities. We're running around trying to get them to where they need to be. So, when you're about to, if your child needs orthodontic treatment, I think the biggest thing is realizing, okay, you need to find you, you have to realize this is a process.

It's not just a two visit situation. It's going to be usually a year or two years or maybe two and a half years of, of visits. And so you need to find an office where you're like, okay, I'm going to be involved with this office for two and a half years. And then you're going to follow them in retainers.

So that's another two years of retention follow up. And you have to find a home that. feels right because there's so many different like cultures in the office, there's so many different doctor personalities. And there's so many different like ways that offices run is you need to find an office that fits you and that you're confident that you're going to be able to get the result that you want for you or for your child and that you're also going to have like an [00:32:00] enjoyable experience for that time.

So that's so 

Kelly: true. I'm so glad you mentioned that. That's very

Dr. Megan: Welcome,

Kelly: dr. Megan LeCourieux. 

Dr. Megan: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

 They don't have to have their mouth open forever. Their jaw is not getting tired.

They're not wiggling around. My patients who are on the spectrum, if they have autism or they have special needs, we can treat them the same as we can any other kiddo because the process is so easy. 

Kelly: So you'll take patients, you mentioned that you had an older patient, like what, 98 years old and you do all these kids.

That's great. And then even if kids have like a special need involved, like autistic or just high energy. Oh my gosh. Like if my kid is... 

Dr. Megan: We have a lot of ADHD kiddos. I'll see them. I'll see him squirming around in the in the chair. And I'm just like, I'm like, okay, like we are very excited about indirect bonding with this child.

Kelly: Or just like anxious adults. I'm sure to like for dental care. Okay, great. Well, I want to respect your time as well. , Is there [00:33:00] anything that maybe we didn't mention, 

Dr. Megan: I just think nowadays, my opinion of like, the way our life is, we are busier than ever before.

 Our kids are so involved. They're in multiple sports. They're in multiple activities. We're running around trying to get them to where they need to be. So, when you're about to, if your child needs orthodontic treatment, I think the biggest thing is you have to realize this is a process.