All right. Dr Morrow, how are you sir? I’m doing great on this cloudy day. How are you Clay? Well, I’m excited to talk about midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. I, you know, this is such an exciting subject. There’s so much ground to cover. Let’s start off with this. Let’s start off by talking about the history of Morrow, Lai and Kitterman, Midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa. Tell me about the history. Well, there’s been a midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa in the 31st and Harvard area for about the last 60 years. Really? Yes. Dr. Edward Smith established the first midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa practice. Got It. I think in 1951 or 1952 after getting out of the navy, Dr. Smith worked in the two story ranch acres medical building, which is conveniently located in midtown Tulsa and had the first midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. For probably 40 years. He retired and as he retired I bought the practice from him in 1988.
Do you remember what a midtown Tulsa looked like at that time in terms of what buildings were in the area? Did you have houses and I know obviously know a lot of those houses are historic homes, but I mean were there a lot of trees everywhere? Tell me about the development or lack there off of the midtown Tulsa area. I was actually born in Midtown Tulsa shortly after Dr. Smith established the first midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. I lived near the 21st and Yale area. Right south of the old Sears store at 21st and Yale. And at that time we were almost out of the city limits in 1958? And a midtown Tulsa was filled in pretty well, but still it didn’t go much further south of Skelly drive. So now the population of Tulsa extends far, far south is Skelly drive. Yes. And at that time downtown Tulsa was established long before the first midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa started. Yes. But Skelly drive was as far south as it went. Yes. And so in midtown Tulsa’s mentality, Skelly drive is about as far south as people will go. Really? Yes. I did not know that. Well, okay. So now tell me with your practice, I mean there are a lot of great practices out there, but I think one of the things that makes your midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa a special midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa is the special dentists that work with you in Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. There are three dentists, You, Dr. April Lai and Dr. Kerry Kitterman. I’d like to talk about the triumvirate of the big three midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. And what makes you guys so strong as a team? Well, I started the practice, as I said in 1988 and I practiced alone for about ten to twelve years. Really. I went to a seminar with my wife in the late 1990’s and I knew I was kinda unhappy being the only midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. And it was becoming obvious that I was getting a little bit burned out. So the practice transition seminar that I went to was on the different methods that an established dentist goes about looking for and hiring a new dentist as an employee or how to go about the search for a person that could become a partner in the future. I have to ask you this. Well, what part of it, if you can remember what part of it was burning out, working solo? What was the main reason that you, as a well-established midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa, could tell that you needed to find a new way to practice midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa?
The biggest part that probably was pulling me down was not having anybody, any other professional in the office to talk to or discuss things over. You are alone on an island and cannot discuss different practice items with someone else without having to retell the whole story to that person. Some within the same midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa would already know what is happening with the other patients in the office and will already be up to speed with what problem you are having.
Did you find yourself going nuts? I mean, what was the feeling like? It was getting to the point where I was getting short with parents and I did not like that. Okay. And so now talk about the breath of fresh air, that Doctor Lai has brought into your practice. I mean, do you doconverse over cases together? Do you pick each other’s brains? Does it help? Does it help to have a sounding board or what’s that relationship look like?
It’s amazing what we talk about. We, the three of us – Dr. Morrow, Dr. Lai and Dr. Kitterman are probably best friends, we’re colleagues, we’re partners, we’re all in a professional three sided marriage. It is very good for the three of us to have each other because even though Dr. Lai and Dr. Kitterman are a little bit younger than I am, or a lot of it younger than I am, we think virtually alike.
So let’s, let’s, let’s talk about your patients you see over there at Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentistry. Tulsa, I mean, how old is the average patient you see? Pediatric dentists by law are restricted to only having infants, children, and adolescents within their practices. We are also licensed to work with the mentally and physically handicapped people of all ages. So the big question is, where does adolescence end? You know, if you look at the federal or the health insurance definition of where does adolescence end and now that age has been bumped up to age26 with advent of Obamacare.
Are you serious? Yes. Well that’s at the age of 26 is when you are still on your parents’ health insurance. Really? Yes. Okay. 26 is when it has to end. Yes. So you’re with 27, you say, buddy, I can’t see ya. Well, we, we cut it off a little bit before that. It’s usually towards the end of college. We’ll suggest that they need to go out and find a general dentist to take care of your dental needs. Do you, do you still have any kids that are in your family that could qualify for your midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa practice, specifically falling into the infant, children or adolescent age groups? Well, thanks for asking that Clay, but no, I really I have two grandchildren that will qualify as patients. We do have, however, between Dr. Lai’s and Dr. Kitterman’s family, 8 children that will still be legal to see in the midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa practice at 2930 South Pittsburg, Tulsa. With so many children now, so let’s talk about your group midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa practice. Because there are a lot of great practices in Tulsa. A lot of great midtown pediatric dentists Tulsa had histories that Tulsa has to offer. Tell me what, what makes your location and your practice unique from the other top providers in town?
As I, as I explained earlier about midtown Tulsa’s mentality of not wanting to go south of Skelly using that we capture midtown pediatric dentistry Tulsa pretty easily just by the fact that we’re located in that area. The 31st and Harvard area of Tulsa is also very close to being the geographic center of the city of Tulsa. But we also get a large number of our patients outside a Skelly Drive area and from all of the surrounding communities around our midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa, so our market is pretty big.
Now let’s, let’s talk about this a little bit. Let’s talk about all the services that you offer there at Doctors Morrow, Lai and Kitterman, midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa.
Yes. It would be preferable to keep our children decay free, but that is not possible because of all of the outside influences that cause the dental decay on children. Well, the Diet is not where it should be, you know, basically all decay in my mind is caused by a combination of too much sugar in the Diet and not enough oral hygiene. Is the Diet worse than it used to be? I think so. And really, and where it’s worse, it’s, it’s the beverages that causes our problems.
Where, where did it, when did it, when did you start to see the decline of the,
The Diet is probably in the last 15 years. 15 years. Yes. It’s more often that parents are looking more for convenience. Got It. And one of the convenient things to do is keep your child happy no matter what. And often times food is a good pacifier.
So talk to me about the beverages that we should be feeding our kids and the beverages we should not be feeding our kids if we want to prevent tooth decay and have health kits.
Well it’s not so much what you should be feeding. It’s how often you should be feeding a child. The decay process is dependent on sugar. Every single dose of sugar that goes in the mouth is 30 minutes worth of possible decay IF other conditions allow for decay formation. So if you have a tippy cup full of apple juice, Gatorade or mountain dew, which we hear about all the time, every sip of that is like pouring 30 minutes worth of gasoline on a fire. Come on. So if the child who is two or three year old will, it is, they’ll take a drink, they’ll go play, come back in 26 minutes, take another drink, apply, come back and 14 minutes, take another drink. And so for that whole period of time plus 30 minutes, they’re having active decay. Well, the mom or dad or daycare keeper gives them another tippy cup of Gatorade or apple juice or mountain dew in the afternoon and they gave it tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon and next week and all month. And sooner or later these children end up with a lot of decay.
Do you drink a lot of mountain dew? No. what, what are your, what are your thoughts on Gatorade? Is Gatorade in any way? A hell, a healthy?
It is unhealthy because it’s a sugar source. It’s as easily available.
So if I’m listening right now and I’m going, okay, I’m listening, I’m taking notes here. We got Dr. Morrow, the founder of Marilynne line, Kinnaman midtown pediatric dentistry. Tell us on the show today, if I’m listening right now and I’m saying how I want to get my kids in the best shape they can possibly be, I want to be a good parent. What can I be allowing my kids to drink as if I have kids that you know, should be seeing a pediatric dentist from time to time? Well before
We have problems. It’s just establishing a good quality diet pattern with the child. Meaning I tell parents to structure the diet similar to how the child would be exposed to a diet if the child was in kindercare or a highly structured daycare setting all day at those facilities, the child goes after eating breakfast at nine 30 or so. They give them snack at noon. They give them lunch at one 30. They give them another snack and then you feed them dinner and in between those meals and snack times, they point them to the water fountain. OK that’s the move that some of you guys, the move, you give them food at five, you know, five times a day. Give them anything they want five times a day. You take it away in 10 or 15 minutes.
No. Do you, as far as the services that you guys offer, do you offer any type of orthodontics over there at Marilynne? Kinnaman, midtown pediatric dentistry?
Well. Yeah, we do very, very, very, very little. Our practice’s thought is that orthodontics is another two year specialty, which we did not go to school to do. But fortunately there are very good orthodontists in town. We happen to know a very good orthodontists. Oh yeah. And the practices name is Doctors Kirkpatrick and lai – Kirkpatrick and Lai Tulsa Orthodontists.
So if you remember our intricate triumvirate of our practice, Dr. April Lai is my business partner and is married to Dr. Joe Lai, a partner with the orthodontic practice of Kirkpatrick and Lai.
Okay. So you refer your orthodontic cases out to Kirkpatrick in life
There and, and if they live in broken Arrow, we’ve got an orthodontist and very south Tulsa. We’ve gotten a different one. So we refer out our orthodontic cases due to the location.
What about laser dentistry? Do you guys offer laser dentistry?
We, we have not invested in that because for children we haven’t seen the true need to utilize a laser. The, the cost is extremely high. Entry is extremely high to get into and, and you still need anesthesia. So it, it’s, it’s not something that has proven its worth to us
As a, as a mogul of midtown pediatric dentistry. Tulsa, don’t you think it’d be fun to just have a laser? I mean, even if it doesn’t make sense, financial, even if it might drive up costs, wouldn’t it just be fun to have a laser?
It would be fun to have a laser and I don’t know if there will be a time in the future of Morrow Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tuls where we feel that we need to have a dental laser.
Now tell me, don’t have any cats in our office, so, okay. Okay. We’ll talk to you about sedation dentistry. If you ever thought about having some sedation dentistry, do you offer that there you’re at your practice or tell me about midtown pediatric dentists. Tulsa.
Well, to be a good midtown pediatric dentists, Tulsa sedation has to be in your pocket. You have to know how to sedate a child and which children to sedate. I categorize children to sedate is in the two groups. One where we sedate for comfort to where we need to sedate them to help them get in the chair and maintain it. So and so for those, we use a little bit different dosages on, on our, our sedation regimens. Okay. The other alternative on the child who will not work with sedation and we bring in a dental anesthesiologist into the office to provide general anesthesia services where the child’s cooperation is negative and, and we can get the work done without, you know, mentally harming the child in the longterm.
The yeah, I, I sedated myself right before we did today shows I’m heavily, heavily sedated on dayquil today. I thought it was the barbecue sauce. Dayquil is where I’m at right now on the dayquil with allergy season upon us. I sedate myself before each and every recording of a Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa podcasts. Now I want to ask you about dental tips for your child’s first year. Some great dental tips for your child’s first year. I mean I’m a lot of people talk about, okay, you’ve got your child’s first year, we want to write down some notes, some specific things maybe we should do or shouldn’t do. Just give me some keys to great oral health in those first six to 12 months on the planet for my baby. We first like to help the newborn’s parents with establishing a diet pattern with their child that will not contribute to dental decay. Initially,you have to feed the infant when the infant wants to eat. But once the infant turns into a toddler, you start establishing the Diet pattern that is more conducive to better dental care. We at Morrow Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa have a, a unique trademarked program called free until three.
Yeah, you do. This is a program that we’re real proud of and we feel it is already really successful in lowering the dental decay that we were seeing when children waited until after three years of age for their first dental visit in a midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. The of the new younger children that we see in our office with our free until three offer at Morrow Lai and Kitterman, Midtown Tulsa pediatric dentist. Any child under the age of three can come in, meet with the doctor. The doctor provides a free examination and applies a fluoride treatment and then consults with the parent if x rays are needed or subsequent work is determined to be needed to fight the dental decay that it is at our normal fee schedule. But the examination and the consultations are at no charge. We don’t even mess with charging the insurance companies.
You know what I’m going to do? Since you’re a hot shot here in the midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa Realm and since there are many qualified midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa, I am going out on a limb to say you must be the very best midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. I mean, there’s a lot of dentists out there, but you guys at Morrow, Lai and Kitterman, midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa tell us that the three doctors in Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa really know what you’re talking about. So I’m going to ask you some of the most frequently we ask frequently asked questions that the midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa patients are, are asking us all the time. So I’m gonna ask you questions and I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna paint you into a corner and see if you can get your way out of it here. So here we go. Okay. Why do if I have, I have a kid? Why, why do my kids teeth? Why? What does my baby’s teeth have gaps between her teeth or her, his teeth. What’s going on there?
Believe it or not. Spacing is good. And an in an infant to a six year old’s teeth because the permanent teeth are bigger. If there’s space in between the the primary teeth, then that child will have room to get the permanent teeth in without crowding.
What if my kid only has like two teeth and then the other kid, you know, their kids the same age have five teeth or 16 you know, all I’m looking around all the kids the same age as my kid have six teeth, five teeth. My baby only has two teeth. What’s going on?
The child’s teeth grow in on their schedule versus your schedule. There are children that get teeth slowly or quickly. I also tell parents that the average eruption dates are just that – average eruption dates.
[Inaudible] Okay. Okay. So, so what do I need to do in order for the you know, big teeth, the adult teeth of the permanent teeth to actually come in? Do I need to do kind of a little Jig? Do I need to do a dance? So I need to do a rain dance? Do I need to learn to play the harmonica when I put the baby down, I need to hold the baby upside down and shake the baby. What do I need to do to help my baby’s teeth grow in at the pace that I want?
Nothing other than placing the child on growth hormone, which we as professional, midtown Tulsa pediatric dentists, do not do because that is not a medical indication that you place a child on hormones for. You don’t do that. Now other people do that nod. They will put children on growth hormone. People do this for other reasons. Are you serious not to help people do put kids on growth hormone? Yes, like for heights or something or
If they’re, they’re a statures. How common is this? We’ll see probably a dozen a year on growth.
What would happen if you were going to get on some growth hormone right now as a, as a mature of Pediatric Midtown Tulsa dentist? I mean, if you were to take some right now what happens? Not much. I think some, I think some fat goes away, but that’s about it. Oh, okay. Okay. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer the tough questions. You may have to go talk to some of the meat heads at the weight lifting club. Okay, now my children’s front teeth are coming in behind, believe it or not, behind, not in front of, but behind the baby teeth. And I’m saying what in the wild world of midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa is going on my friend, break it down.
I personally call that an abnormal normal. We see it so often it doesn’t really bother us that much as the parent. They don’t see it that often. It really bothers the parent. It is probably due to lower spacing issues, not having enough space and it’s how the permanent teeth have found room enough to, to erupt in the situation that they are presented with.
If I’m trying to decrease the amount of cavities that my child is experiencing, okay, I’m going to decrease the risk of cavities to cavities a and I’m out there, I’m looking for great feedback from a midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa. Tell me if these are, if these are good changes that I can make. All right, so yes, change number one. Ah, maybe this more time looking at labels and reading and making sure I’m not consuming too much sugar. Is that a good place to start? Yes, that is very good because sugar is the driving force behind dental decay. What about making sure that I limit the amount of super processed baby and processed foods. Is that, is that going to help with the preventing cavities? Yes, that will help.
But if it is anything with sugar in it, that food item has the chance to cause dental decay, which includes green beans, kale, gatorade and BBQ sauce.
Green beans have sugar, t-bone steak, whatever. Green beans have sugar. Yes they do. Come on. Really?
Huh. Really? And it doesn’t take much for the bacteria. Even if it’s a complex sugar, it doesn’t take much for the bacteria to utilize it as a food source. I’m tired of hammering you for dental facts. You’re pretty negative of these facts. Now what about about cutting back on now fruit juices, the juices of the fruit. Is that a good recommendation there? Do you for you from you guys at Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist, Tulsa.
We at Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentists. Tulsa, fortunately are seen fewer parents utilize fruit juice as a food source, pacifier or whatever they want to call it,
Which is good. That’s good. Yes, we are seeing a little bit less of it now. Okay. What about what, what are your thoughts about keeping the cupboards, you know, the refrigerator, the drawers and shelves just, you know, stocked and loaded up with low sugar choices. Is that, is that a good idea? It helps ops,
But it’s more just helping the child learn how often he really needs to eat. There is eating for nourishment and there’s eating for emotional gain. The eating for nourishment is essential and the snacking for nourishment is essential, but eating and snacking for emotional game is not recommended for dental decay reasons.
One would, I’m only doing this podcast for emotional gain and to wrap up the term midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa so that other midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa will show up lower in any Google search that potential patients may perform. We are doing this to gain a stranglehold on midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa. So I’m going to ask you this here. Let’s talk about the breakfast cereals. There’s, there’s a lot of these sweetened cereals out there. It’s kind of like almost having cake. I mean, you’ve seen some of these things. I mean, you’ve got cinnamon toast crunch. It’s a lot like cake. You’ve seen a lot, a lot of these cereals out there, the lucky charms, a lot like cake. You got the golden grahams, a lot like cake. Am I wrong here and saying that a lot of these cereals are really a lot more like a dessert item? Yes. It’s junk. All right. Now they can be good in moderation and they can be good if you or your child do not have them each and every day. I have to admit that when they’re available, I’ll go for a box of fruit, fruit loops. Have you ever had just the whole box, that one setting. No. Really? No, no. That’s something, that’s something that, that’s goal setting right there. I went from, another good one is cheerios
Brown sugar mixed together, but I don’t do that often. Yeah.
You’ve never sat down and had a whole box of the cinnamon toast crunch. I’ve been known to snack on that occasionally when my children ate that.
Really? Yes. Oh Man. I remember in college we used to just get a box, the entire box in one setting. That’s impressive. Now. Okay. I’ve got a couple more questions here for ya. Our ours in college was a Nacho Cheese Doritos, M & M’s and Coors Light beer. Hey, did you ever go in college? Did you ever go to, you said Nacho cheese and him and hymns? Yeah. Not two cheese, Doritos and, and Eminem’s. Yes. Is that actually good? No. Oh, did you, did you ever go to Cici’s pizza? What’s the point? Is the Cici’s pizza does unlimited pizza.
I’ve never been to CCS, but I have been to all you can eat a pizza bars. Yes.
When you’re in college, did you ever go in there and hurt those things?
Yes, we used to have a the predecessor to Mazzios used to have all you could eat every now and then. Pizza did too, so we would go in and punish it. But for college and during college, I swam, which you’re a bottomless pit anyway, on eating.
I just remember at Oral Roberts University we would have it, it was a Christian school and a lot of people would, would fast and not eat for a religious perspective. And a lot of times guys would go and get a group of guys who have also been fasting and all go to Cici’s Pizza and tear that place up by eating all of the pizzas in the buffet. We just want to make sure that we are aligned in the right way possible to make sure it’s not a poor spiritual flow when we get there. Get your three dollars and 99 cents worth of foodby going after a three day fast where we would pay seriously three 99 or four 99. And I felt so bad for the women and men that worked there because they would see 20 guys coming in and all of us weren’t going to stop eating our cheap pizza until we were all full and almost needing to purge the food we had just wolfed down. We were going to eat until we were beyond full. Like we were like an anaconda eating and eating that kind of large animal or something.
It was crazy, man. We, I mean, I’m not kidding. We crushed that place. Now that’s not a move. That’s not a good idea. But there’s, we have listeners out there that are seriously looking to make the best choice when it comes to finding the best midtown pediatric dentist. Tulsa possible. And so I’d like for you in, in closing here to share about the numbers of reviews you have and the amount of experience you have. So that we can, you know, take that all in as we’re looking to find the best place to take our children for their pediatric Tulsa needs.
Well, we, the three dentists at Doctors Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa pediatric dentistry Tulsa. I’ll add that in. Yeah. The three doctors have a combined professional work experience of over 70 years, the most of any midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa or of any pediatric dentist Tulsa. We’re real proud of that. And we feel that in our 70 years of combined experience, we’ve pretty much seen a lot of different things. So, we’ve pretty much seen it all.
And I’m on Google right now looking for midtown pediatric dentists. Tulsa. So I typed in yes. And I see you guys top of the map with 1196 reviews. Yes. I also see you guys right now. I mean, you guys are ranking high in Google right there. I’m showing you’ve got two of the first 10 listings in Google. I mean, apparently you guys know what you’re talking about when it comes to midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa.
Yes. We’d like to brag to that. We do have the 5.0 rating.
Oh, you do? Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that cause some people don’t have a 5.0. And the other thing that we think we are the highest rated midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa and we feel that we are the pediatric dentist tulsa that has the highest number of Google ratings of any pediatric dentist in the United States.
Yeah. You guys are, and I appreciate you taking the time to join us here on the Morrow, Lai and Kitterman midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa podcast, and I look forward to harassing you in the very, very short midtown pediatric dentist Tulsa Future. It’s fun doing a, a blog, a video or audio blog on the midtown pediatric dentists Tulsa.
That’s it.