Today on the Book More Show, we're talking with Karim ElMofty, dentist with Southdown Dental in Mississauga, Ontario and coauthor of How Do I Take Care of My Children's Teeth, a book that helps parents make confident dental choices for their children from newborns through teens.
Karim and his partners at Southdown are passionate about dispelling dental myths and providing great information and have established KnowDental.ca as an educational resource to help improve people understanding of good dental hygiene. Their latest book builds on this work with parents as the audience.
It's a great conversation looking at ways this book supports their educational goals, as well as all the ways they can use it as a referral tool with the families they've been supporting for generations.
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TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Stuart: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Bookmore show. It's Stuart Bell here, and today we've got another great interview with one of our authors. We've got Karima Almofty, who's a dentist based out of actually, I don't know where you are geographically, Karim, where are you based?
Dr. Karim: I'm currently practicing in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Stuart: Ah, fantastic. So Karim's on the fly, joining us on the move. So if you're watching the video, don't be surprised that it says thumbnail and you don't see him talking. But we really wanted to grab the moment and get this recorded. So I guess the best place to start is Karim, if you share with people what the business is, and then who it is that you're serving at the moment, and then we can jump off from there.
Dr. Karim: Okay, perfect. Hi Stuart, how are you? Thank you for hosting me here and having this conversation. I am very happy to be telling my story. I'm very excited about this book. So my name is Karim Almofty, I'm a dentist. I work in Mississauga, Ontario. I have advanced training in children dentistry, pediatric dentistry. I'm a general practitioner but I'm looking into this area more and I'm looking also into the dental public health, specifically the oral health education, where I finished my master's degree in Egypt almost what? Seven, eight years ago almost and yeah, now the business is dentistry. We're doing dental service in South Down Dental Mississauga. I work with my partners, slash mentors, Dr Khaled Khaled, Dr Bob Vavaruzos, who both co-authored the book. I work with them, I learn from them. It's a great team we have here. I'm focused towards oral health education as well, so this also triggered the book to try to provide answers and to tell the story of how to take care of your children's teeth.
Stuart: Basically, it's such a great niche because there is something, there is an education piece that's missing. I think I remember being so. I'm 46, 47. So I remember back when I was in school there were dental hygienists in the school, would come around every so often, but here in parents' talk now I'm not sure whether that's the case and again, that was in the UK, so maybe that's never been the case in North America. But the opportunity to share information with people in a pretty accessible way. I'll make sure we link to the cover of the book in the show notes. So it's such a great and engaging cover. And this idea of talking to parents about how they can make better choices, did you find that was a problem? People were coming in and really not knowing what the best choices were to make and looking for that information.
Dr. Karim: Unfortunately. Yes, and of course to varying degrees. So you mentioned being located in the UK. Now I'm working out of Mississauga, Canada. I used to live in Egypt before where I did most of my education. I had some training in the States, had some training, brief training in China. So everywhere you go, the information is out there, but I Don't know you know the saying that we live in a world today of where information is abundant, but the actual answers to questions scares right. So, of course, you can Google anything, you can look for anything on Bing, you can use any search engine you can think of, but now chat GPT, it seems, but where is the actual answer to the question that I have?
Stuart: so.
Dr. Karim: I can't really call it a problem, because Everywhere you go, there is an ongoing system that makes sure that people get the answers to the question and understand how to take care of their health, how to take care of their teeth. Everyone who goes to a doctor the doctor would will tell him a little bit about how to go ahead, how to do that. But we can always benefit from more simplification, more Facilitation of the science, of the current science, because science is always changing methods that used to work 10 years ago. Maybe we have better methods today, maybe. So this is what I'm talking about. It's not a problem, but we can definitely benefit from more information About the topic, except, especially when it's directed to the parents, who are they just really do what they're best. They just really do want to do what's best for their children.
Stuart: So, yeah, it's in a moment in their life when they're kind of desperate for information and really trying to be as helpful as possible. It's. This isn't a situation where there's a pressing need that they need to resolve the problem and a Desire to make the right choices, because they're kind of very tuned into the long-term consequences.
Dr. Karim: Yes, yes and also yes.
Stuart: I was just gonna say I liked what you were saying as well about. There isn't a shortage of information out there these days. Two minutes of googling for something and you'll find a wealth of information, but that doesn't necessarily help in the final decision of what the instruction is or what the practical advice is. There's a lot of theoretical advice and a lot of conflicting advice. So your approach of writing something that's kind of comprehensive on this one subject that's helpful. Did you find it difficult narrowing down what to include and what to exclude? Or, based on your general practice, is it easy to know which of the top five or six things to address?
Dr. Karim: So that's a very good question because actually you pointed at exactly the technique I used to Arrange the subject and subjects in the book and to narrow down the different topics I'm talking about. This is not a scientific book Like. If you're looking for the science and the evidence and there is no shortage of that you will know how to find it in different types of books. And, at the same time, this is not a book that's talking about recent trends and all of this Direction. Also, there is another book for that but this is actually a book that was put together from you can call it the frequently asked questions that all the time we are trying to answer in different ways.
So the challenge was actually not to look at different topics to talk about. The challenge was how to simplify the information, try to put it down in a practical way and, at the same time, make people understand that every case will always be different. Every person is different, everybody is different. So of course, you have to seek medical advice, but the general advice as to how to take care of your health it will remain general right. So that was the challenge how to narrow it down but at the same time, it's impossible to target health advice to every person in the world in one book. It doesn't work this way, yeah.
Stuart: Those three or four things that you hit on there. As some of the conversations we have day in, day out with people, I'm trying to help them overcome whatever barrier or block they've got to get and started. So oftentimes we'll have people who are it's the two ends of the spectrum. Sometimes people will be doubtful that they know enough information and other times people will have too much information or too advanced information and they're trying to jump too far down the track. So when we think of the job of work is to engage those people at the top of the funnel to provide help in the early stages of the conversation, then if you've been in business for more than a year, you probably know enough of those frequently asked questions that you mentioned to pull something together that's really helping people. And if you've been in business for 10 years, then it's valuable to remember that all of the basic stuff that you take for granted, other people really find it valuable because they're earlier in the journey. So I really like again that you were trying to pull together something that's focused on helping those people but not getting bogged down in the fact that every case is actually unique. But we need to sell some somewhere.
Dr. Karim: Absolutely, and there is an added layer of complexity to this, Stuart. It's this part is directed to every new parents out there. When you're a new parent, the amount of work that you have to put into your everyday life, the lack of sleep, the motivation to do everything in the perfect way to your child all of this adds a lot to the pressure to new parents, and how to integrate this health message, this oral health message, into their everyday life has to be practical. We have to know that we always target to the 100%, but if you get to the 60%, if you get to the 70%, you're still doing your best. Your best is different than my best, is different than everyone else's. So this individual advice also it's very important to know that Of course, we wanna do the 100%. Everyone wants to do the best for their children, but I don't know. We have to also give ourselves a break. You know, yeah.
Stuart: It's the exactly it's that element of giving yourself a break and understanding that all of the effort that you do ink is targeted in the right way and not allow the fear of the hundred percent or the fear of missing the market a little bit to cause much much mental baggage or stress in a time that's very stressful anyway.
Dr. Karim: I don't know if I don't know if this last part gave away that I am a new parent myself or not.
Stuart: yet you can hear the passion and the sympathy.
Dr. Karim: There you go, there you go.
Stuart: Well that I mean you're getting the that exact experience out of dentistry, which obviously is your field of expertise. You must notice it in all of these other ways. I always kind of I think it was a TV show or movie, or I've heard in some marketing speak the example of someone going in and buying baby carriage or baby stroller, baby chair thing and the salesman saying, well, we've got this model in this model, but for people who really love their children, then there's this model which is more expensive. So that whole industry of adding extra pressure. You must, as a new parent, feel that in non dentistry related things to a certain degree.
Dr. Karim: Oh, of course, Of course, of course.
Stuart: I think the accessibility of the book. So, as you started, the book itself is called how do I take care of my children's teeth. So it's very non judgmental. It's not adding any additional pressure, it's just providing an answer in the title kind of question magnet book types we talk about sometimes, or how to book types.
Dr. Karim: Yeah.
Stuart: Well as people. I know this is a relatively recently finished project, but have you got any feedback yet from real people receiving this and how it's being received by parents?
Dr. Karim: I'm really looking forward to hear this feedback and I'm expecting it very soon.
Stuart: Yeah, it's. We're always excited to see podcasts with people, so we tend to jump in a little bit early and before examples, but it does give us the opportunity to say, hey, we have to come back in a few months and check in, so let's jump then. So it's not, we've just finished. It. It's not in the hands of parents. We're going to pivot and we'll get a lot of information coming back from them as they're receiving it. When you started the project, did you have a feel or an idea of how you were getting it to those people? You talked about the education piece, but then you've got all of your clients and people coming into the practice. Did you have an idea for the distribution element?
Dr. Karim: Yes, the book is going to be available on Amazon. You can buy it through Amazon, which is the most accessible way, it seems, nowadays. At the same time, we will actually be. We will have the book available for dental office in the South Down Dental here in Mississauga Every oral health education project that South Down Dental sponsors.
So, south Down Dental, we really believe in community engagement, we really believe in the spread of the oral health message, so we go sometimes they sponsor sessions to go to schools around, to go to all different groups of people to teach them about oral health. Through through a company called no Dental that I started, we use educational games and tools and what we make the oral health message fun and reachable and accessible. So, anyways, any in any way that South Down Dental is reaching out to people, most probably this book is going to be distributed out and given to our audience, together with two other books actually that were previously published by Dr Khaled Khaled, who are available right now at the office as we speak. So we really believe in spreading the information out. That's really the bottom line.
Stuart: And what great opportunity. I mean, you can imagine the scenario where kids are coming home after a dentist has been into school and they come home with a little cheap toothbrushes and a couple of flyers. But as the parents are going through the bag at the end of the day and then pull out the book, how do I take home my children's teeth? Accessible formats, it's easy to consume. There's some clear next steps and some options that people can take towards their end.
So much more engaging and start in the relationship, particularly in an area I mean the practice is in, mrs Argo. It has a geographic location to it, so being known as the people who are helping within that 50 mile radius, that's, 100% of your clients live in that area. So to be able to deliver something of value, we talk sometimes in the Beyond the Book module of how to get it out there, of this idea of complementary, non-competing businesses. So, for example, we're sometimes talking about doctors working with camera practice or accountants working with printers, because they're in the same kind of industry but not the exact same services. This opportunity to share more of your information in the educational space, because, on the flip side, the government organizations or the non-government organizations who are trying to do that charity work are desperate for providers to help do that sponsorship. So it's such a great opportunity.
Dr. Karim: That's a beautiful way of putting it. That's, I think this is exactly how we see it. It's really complementing each other's effort. Everyone is doing his best as the community, as our, as different efforts, provided by different people, by different specialists, by different people in their own organizations. They all want to do their best, they all want to realize their goals and to make sure that they did everything the right way. But the overlapping of the efforts, in a very positive way, can only benefit the recipients of these services, you see. So I think this is how we see it. I'm dreaming one day that this book and this kind of oral health promotion and education, it could be used by every dental office. Right?
Stuart: There's a couple of things that spring to mind. So we did a podcast not so long ago with a financial advisor called Bill Bloom. I'll link to it in the show notes. But he wrote a couple of books with us. One of them was called Retire as you Desire, which was a very short book relatively speaking, but it just hit on a couple of key points and talked about a framework that they then elaborated into other things. So now the whole onboarding process from this particular channel is around this retire as you desire framework. So you were talking about the educational games and the opportunities to talk to different groups. You can really see this whole world coming together where the how do I take care of my children's teeth? There's the book and the game and flashcards and pointers and just the whole world. Oh yeah.
Dr. Karim: The ecosystem. Absolutely. We want the information provided to us in a very nice, pleasant, non-time-consuming way for everything in our life. I think this is where we are heading. It's a personal opinion, so why not deliver this information with a huge science background to people in the way that they are going to do it? Two people in the way that they like?
Stuart: So yeah, you can imagine and again my mind starts running a little bit with these ideas you can imagine a website supporting the book and then for the eight or so chapters that are in here, I'll just quickly run through them for the people listening. So there's talking about babies' teeth, getting children to brush their teeth, milk teeth, and then going through to adolescents and sports injuries, helping teens with their progress. But you can imagine a website supporting each chapter because there's additional information and elaborations and maybe the walk-along videos and the video technique, called where you Like, the video that the describer type video is where you've got, like the animations that go along with the different bullet points.
Dr. Karim: Right.
Stuart: So helping people as they come into the office and they're talking about one particular problem, or they're talking about a friend or family member with one particular problem, Giving them a copy of the book highlighting that particular chapter, pointing them to the website where there's more resources, all of that leading back to okay, this is the general information, but at some point you need the specific information for your case. Being able to provide that to other providers, it really is the jumping off point for a much bigger, accessible education piece.
Dr. Karim: Absolutely. And, Stuart, allow me to add something here. This is, you can think I like how you're running really towards the important points here. And you're talking about the digital world, of course, because this is where everything is heading, if we're not even there yet. But let me remind you that everything we interact with in the digital world until now, in most cases, of course, is just using our visual experience or you hear something, or but the classic ways of engaging as many senses as possible and use games to transfer the information and to show people how something happens on big teeth models.
Let me invite you to the website of NoDental knowdentalca and actually the social media accounts so you can, if you have access to a screen now, the at NoDental knowdental on Facebook, on Instagram, on LinkedIn. So this is actually the game, the company that does the gamification of every message there. So we have this Fantastic. We show children how the cavity actually happens with a chemical reaction on a teeth model, on teeth model. We show them how to brush their teeth in competing games. Of course, One of the options is going to be digital games and virtual reality we're looking into this now but old school games where you actually experience the fun of playing with something outdoors. This will always be the gold standard, so yeah.
Stuart: My wife is a kindergarten teacher at a Waldorf school. Oh there you go. Excuse me, they're very experiential and kind of all through. They've got I think they're three through six. They've got a mixed stage kindergarten. So all of their day to day stuff is very experiential and physically connecting things with any kind of learning opportunities rather than academic first approach. I can see I just Googled there at no dental, I just threw that into the search engine and there's a big picture of I think it's you with some huge teeth.
Dr. Karim: Yes, there it is.
Stuart: That example of being able to share because I think it is. Not only is the you touched upon the pressure and the uncertainty and the the concerned that parents have, but also there's the things that the kids are bringing to and they're being in an unusual environment and being disturbed about the process and potentially being in pain in the first place anyway. So being able to bridge that gap and make it just less of a daunting experience really does tie together so well.
Dr. Karim: Yeah, of course, as much as possible. If you, if you move now we're talking about prevention and how to take care of your teeth, but then if you move further in the chapters of the book, we eventually reach the treatment. We eventually reach the types of treatment, not as an advice, of course, to what treatment to get this is, of course, is decided by the dentist but the parents. They want to know. Today we have, we want to know what's going on, how are we getting the treatment? Whenever we can do, of course, regular dentistry, we do it. The other options of sedation and sleep dentistry Dr Khaled Khaled is actually a dental anesthesiologist, so at South down dental we have the option of putting patients to sleep. We get all the dental work needed to be done while they're asleep. Dr Bob Vavaruzos he provides all the orthodontic and braces service services and treatments needed, along with the general dentistry that he provides. So we there is the treatment part that we are also explaining and trying to simplify as a general idea, of course, alongside how to prevent the disease, of course, which is what everyone wants.
Stuart: And that, as the reader of the book, not only are you trying to find the immediate information, but to know what the path ahead looks like and what the options are. You start off the conversation by saying there's no shortage of information out there. You can Google as many things as you want and go as deep as you want, but what you're really doing is building the relationship with people so that you're their go to person throughout their whole journey, whether they're just in with what can I best do for my baby today, through to teen dentistry and then adult dentistry as well. So once you've built that relationship, but building it in this instance, through one particular channel. I know we've done other books for other people in the past talking about kind of pain free dentistry and sedation alternatives, because they've picked that particular channel as the starting point, the jump and off point, but picking this one. As you mentioned, you have other books as well, but picking this one as a jumping off point for the building a foundation for the rest of someone's life.
Dr. Karim: No for sure it really establishes. One of the most amazing things that we see at the office is a patient, for example, who used to need sedation dentistry when he was younger. It was very difficult for a reason or another, and then he's growing and he's getting used to, or she's getting used to, having regular dental treatment whenever needed without sedation dentistry. So this is exactly when we feel that this is one of the purposes. It was Pain free experience, it was a trouble free experience whenever needed. That could just help the patient reach a point where he is okay to get regular dental service done. And you're talking about building the relationship. It's even more beautiful to see the cross generational relationship. This dental office was In its same location, working there for 30 years, 30 something years. I joined a few years ago, but they've been there for forever, so actually they treated patients and then now they're seeing their children and their grandchildren. There's nothing more fulfilling than seeing good patient relationship evolve and the seeing people's lives moving forward and you're adding something positive to it. You know right.
Stuart: Yeah, that relationship. You get to know them and it's seeing their kids come through of patients that you would have seen, like you personally, but the practice would have seen as small kids themselves. Yeah, we're in a world that you were saying earlier. How much you've moved around, obviously now in the US from the UK, but surprising how many people are in an area and don't leave the area, or when they find Someone that they know and trust, a willing to travel two or three hours just to keep that connection. So it really does establish the groundwork. The other thing that springs to mind as well, talking about that, really established footprints, the list of patients and people who never became patients. I guess that you must have access to To be able to share an email with those people and just say, hey, we've written this resource. It's really valuable. It takes a lot of pressure off new parents. If a family members just hasn't you born, your friend hasn't you born, just let us know and we'll get them a copy of this book. Such a great way of spreading the message. Three people who know, like and trust you already, and it's not like.
Dr. Karim: You're not a great idea, of course.
Stuart: And it's not like you say to them hey, we do a good job, you like us, so refer all your friends. You're starting by giving value. You're saying, hey, if you know people who are struggling and don't know what choices to make, then we've got this resource that can help them out and it's really leading with that, giving hands such a great opportunity to build on those relationships that are there already. Yeah, yeah, I'm conscious of your time. We've got a thing that I just want to say thanks again for dialing, and I know you're busy getting from one place to another, so just really appreciate the time. Is there anything, as we've jumped around a little bit here, is there anything that we've missed that you think it's useful for people to know about this book or about just the idea of writing a book in the first place?
Dr. Karim: I think we covered most of the important points that you actually directed me to cover most of the important points. Thank you for that, and thank you for inviting me and for allowing me to use this platform to spread the information about what we're doing, our vision to the future. Everything I think is covered here. It's the passion of spreading information, the passion of spreading the value of what you're doing and what you wish To be more of out there in the world and just yeah, I know writing a book is one of the very first ways people did this and will always be the gold standard of doing this.
So no, thank you so much. It was a wonderful conversation.
Stuart: My pleasure and that's really what we're passionate, as well as helping people kind of break down that barrier. The traditional publishing world is difficult and expensive and time consuming and it stops people from sharing a message in a format that people receive is very valuable and very, very accessible. So the more people we can help, the better. So I'm just thanks to you for coming on and share your story. Hopefully encourages a few other people to Take the plunge and know it's that they can kind of take from your passion and understand the importance of sharing the message. I'll make sure that we include all of the links to no dental and south down the practice, just so people can follow along with the journey, and we'll make sure we get you a copy of the podcast as well so you can feel free to use that in any way that you help. And, yeah, just really excited to check back in in a few months with you and see how things have gone and give everyone an update.
Wonderful looking forward fantastic, okay, well, thanks everyone for listening. As always, we've got the video up on the website and all of the links to touch creams information will be there as well, so check out the show notes and we'll catch you all in the next one.