Ep. 8: Patient Interview - Caesi (The Florida Snake Lady)

Part 10:00

This is Podpopuli, podcast for the people. Hello and welcome to another episode of Beyond the Arches. I'm your host, Dr. Daniel Noorthoek. Today is exciting. I have Erica with me and we've also got Casey. Casey is a patient of ours. This will be our first of our patient interview, hangout session, however you want to talk about it, however you want to say it. More than just kind of putting Casey in a room, we wanted to start kind of exposing patients to these type of interviews and these kind of talks and get to know them and their experience and just how they came to find us and who they are and what kind of stuff they do.

About 85 or 90% of our patients in Boca come from out of state and so we have a very unique patient base. We have a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds and wild stories and different reasons for needing to come, et cetera. And Casey is one of the more interesting ones, but you are not alone. There are many, many of them. And so we're going to probably just pepper through in the weeks to come or months to come, years to come, whatever it ends up being.

We're going to do content with how this whole thing works and how a hybrid dentistry works and why people need their teeth replaced, et cetera. We're going to pepper in sort of these, we're going to call them hangout sessions and we're just going to more or less get to know the patient and how you ended up being our patient and how your experience was. But more than that, who you are and what makes you tick. You can call me weird.

It's fine. You're not weird. So why don't we start with the most unique part about you? Tell us the most unique. So the most unique part everybody thinks is I save snakes. I moved to Florida, September, 2019, Northwest Florida, the Pensacola, Destin, Destin area. And I saw a guy on the community pages and he was saving these snakes, these cottonmouths and rattlesnakes and all these venomous snakes. And I was like, just amazed.

He would put, you know, a snippet of why and the education and why we need them, why they're important. Well, he was in the air force and he was getting stationed in Japan in six months. We became friends. He is the one who told me about the dive shop where I was 36 at the time that I went and got my scuba license at, tore my ACL on the day of certification. I did get my scuba certification, but I also tore my ACL.

So I had to wait. I had to wait to that nine months to get back in the water. So during that time, he was leaving to go to Japan in January, 2021. And I just took over. I said, who's going to save the snakes now that you're gone? And he said, I don't have anybody. ▶So I took over and started. I went to Jacksonville twice to the Rattlesnake Conservancy, which is also a wonderful organization. They're a nonprofit and their, their tick is save the buzz tails.

And I went twice, did their level one and level two. My own personal one is run from the buzz tails, avoid the buzz tails. We are going to save the buzz tails and I'll give you a little bit of a snippet why. Real quick though. First, how much snake handling had you done prior to all this? Was it, were you always a snake person or? No. It sounds like this is like the beginning and then you just took it over.

Yes. And I just, I took it over. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So the, they make you take a six hour class, eight hour class and a test on the first day. Second day is snake handling day. ▶And when I tell you I had more anxiety than getting my teeth done when I heard that rattle and that of the rattlesnake in that box and it was just a go in, but they were all so awesome. And the rattlesnake's name was Cupcake, by the way.

Part 24:16

The cotton mouth, they had just relocated two weeks prior that I worked with off of a construction site. So these were wild snakes. They weren't captive snakes that had been tamed or anything like that. They were wild. And so then I went back three months later, got the level two. And then I came back, that was in May of 2021. And in June, I just started doing it and saving snakes. And the cotton mouths are the ones that have the biggest myths that they'll chase you and they'll climb in your boat and fall out of trees.

Just to bite you. And you know, they're all myths. And the cotton mouths are doofy. And when they try to get away, watching them squirm to slither is hilarious. But the first eastern diamondback rattlesnake that I ever relocated, that one, it was about four foot long and about as thick as the end of a baseball bat or bigger. And once I got it out of the bushes, got it in the bush, struck at me twice. I had my snake.

I had my snake boots and my hooks. But when I put it in the bucket, I was very calm with the homeowners. They had a dog barking at the door and they were snapping pictures. And once I got that snake in my car and I sat behind my steering wheel, my hands were shaking like the adrenaline, I guess, had just kicked in and or was wearing off. I don't know. But so that's how I started saving snakes.

And then I would post on all the Facebook groups and they with education on why we need them. Because one full grown adult eastern diamondback rattlesnake can eat up to 200 rodents, rabbits, things that carry ticks. Rodents carry disease, mice, rats, and they all have ticks, you know, on them that we if we didn't have them, our line, our line is 200 rodents. In what timeline? A year. A year. And then that's anywhere between twenty five hundred to forty five hundred ticks that they are also consuming by eating those 200 rodents.

So we would be overrun by Lyme disease. I have two friends with it. One friend with alpha gal from a tick and it is not a fun disease, neither of them to have at all. Cognitive memory loss. Sometimes they can't get out of bed. Can't go to their kids school functions. Alpha gal, you cannot eat mammal. It's really it's really weird. So if we didn't have they all play a part in the ecosystem, even the venomous ones.

And the question. The question that I get asked the most is if we have rat snakes, why do we need the venomous snakes to compensate? Because the rat snakes can't eat up to 200 rodents per year. They're very slender and skinny where these, you know, timber rattlesnakes and Eastern Diamondbacks can eat a rabbit, you know, and so so anyway, so I started a page called Florida Snake Lady and we have 15 or 16 admins and moderators now.

And. We have about almost 14,000 members. Wow. And so it has been crazy. And then. Wow. Yeah. And so then I met Alan and that was May of 2021. And we were friends on Facebook because he was a snake guy. Alan was a snake guy. My friend Ryan had already went to Japan in January, May, I think Alan and I became friends on Facebook. I had been divorced for almost five years. I was told after my daughter who I had.

At 18 that I could not have any more kids. And I met Alan in October of 2021. And two weeks later, I was pregnant. Wow. At 30. At 37. That's awesome. At 37 years old. So I had him at 38. So I have a three year old and a daughter who will be 23 in September. So 20. There's a there's a few years there. 20 years apart. Yeah. And that's where my teeth really started deteriorating was with was with the the carrying.

Of the second before before we get on the teeth. Yeah. ▶I've been a dentist now for a while and have always sat in a profession where people show up and they go, Look, I respect what you do. I don't get it. I don't know how you do it. That's disgusting. That's turns me out is just awful. I get that you're doing it, but I don't understand why anyone would do it. I don't get you. Right. I'm sitting here listening to the story and I'm thinking the same thing and like, wow, this is probably the first time I've ever sat and had a conversation with someone where I have no idea.

I respect I can appreciate the eliminating of the rodents and the ticks and the necessity of it. We also use what I'm sitting here thinking, like, I respect it, but like, I don't understand you.

Part 39:11

We also use our dusky pig, our native dusky pygmy rattlesnake. The tiny ones. The tiny ones that don't get over 20 inches long, maybe 22 at their biggest. We use their venom in our medications, blood pressure, heart rates, Parkinson's, diabetes. So they they're working with copperhead venom for a treatment for breast cancer. And so there there's a lot of benefits to venomous snakes. And there are a lot more things in the ocean and other things that are venomous that can kill you.

You get killed going and get in your car and walking. Absolutely. So the average OK, this is a big, important thing. Average deaths in the U.S. by snake bite per year is three point four. The reason two of those is because they didn't seek medical attention. One had an anaphylactic reaction to the antivenom and the other was drunk and out in the woods and didn't didn't care. What? What? What does the population of venomous snakes? I mean, I know that there's quite a few water moccasins, but let's just say playing golf or going to a local park here.

What does the population look like? I imagine that they're mostly kind of hiding away and there's not there's not a lot of like visibility. But like, what is the population? What's the do you know what the estimated population of venomous snakes in Florida is? Or like, what's the odds that if you go through a random forest? That you'll have passed a couple or one? Like what's the? Oh, there's, there's, there's always. Are they everywhere? There's always. Like spiders?

Yes. We went to a nature trail. I forget when last time we came when Alan had his done and there was a black racer that he spotted in a tree harmless, but there's always going to be a snake somewhere. They don't want to see you. Yeah. They don't want you to see them. They don't want to see you. They're going to hide. Yeah. And the only time that you're really going to see them is if you are playing with your kids, your dog in the backyard in the evenings.

So it all starts with a food chain. You leave your porch lights on what comes for the bugs, frogs and lizards, what comes for the frogs and lizards, the snakes. And so it all starts with that food chain. And then if you have, um, tarps, like the whole water that lizards get in, if you have metal wood, wood piles. In your backyard. So the cleanest you can get your yard, weedy, uh, that there don't give them shelter.

Don't give them food. ▶Cotton mouse will eat dog food. I've seen a rat snake eat dog food. Don't put your pet food outside. Don't put your human food outside that attracts the rats. We have a huge black bear population in Navarre and Gulf breeze. Do not put out bird feeders, bird, bird seed attracts the rodents, it tracks the bears and it attracts snakes. So.

Part 412:11

So let's talk a little bit about, uh, where you're from and where you live and, and how far you travel. What was the travel like? What was your experience down here? Like what to walk us from sort of the beginning, like where are you from? Maybe a little bit about at what point did you decide to come find us and take the leap of faith? Did you know somebody? Did you just have a good feeling on the console?

Tell us a little bit about dentistry. I don't, I don't want to make this all about dentistry. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. So this is funny. Uh, so I had, um, I am a big believer and you being a dentist can, can, can correct me if I'm wrong, that unless you have, and it may not even be genetics, but unless you have some great genetics and you are taking care of your teeth, um, flossing, you know, after every meal, my dad had bad teeth.

My mom, uh, she has great teeth. She has crowns, root canals, everything. It all has to be redone at some point and you are spending thousands and thousands. So I am from Northwest Florida, the Pensacola Navarre Gulf breeze area. I got pregnant with gray, um, October of 2020 to 2021. Um, during the pregnancy, my teeth, which were straight, I had braces for three years. Um, they just, he depleted everything and I don't know if it was because I was having him older in life.

Um, but my teeth started breaking. I already had a bridge right here. It was a three teeth bridge. I had a two tooth bridge over here. This one had cracked. I could not get polydent. I couldn't get super glue, gorilla glue. No, I didn't really use gorilla glue. Nothing. Okay. So if I talked and I said, and I was a waitress at the time and I knew I wanted to get my real estate license and I was like, there is no way because the caps, they were the temporary, this was $7,500 worth of work that I had done and didn't even have crowns yet because I couldn't afford them, you know?

▶And so the temporary bridge cracked. And when I would say something with an S or an F, like one would fly. Oh my gosh. And so I told my manager at work, I'm like, I need a break. I'm going to call my fiance and we are going to book a consultation because I had been on all of these dental implant discussion pages and I saw the horror stories that people were having when they go out of the United States.

I really didn't want to go out of the United States. If you have a problem or an issue, you have to go back because the chances are of somebody here working on something. That was done, you know, out of the States is slim to none. And Alicia, I can't, I can't say her last name, but Alicia actually posted a picture of herself on one of the dental implant discussion pages. ▶She posted the done in one link. And when I saw that it was in Florida, I got on y'all's page and I was just like, oh my gosh, they are so much cheaper than everywhere I've been quoted.

And they have three financing options. You know, so it was just, we had paid off our cars. We worked really hard and you know, my car is 10 years old, Alan's is seven and we paid off our cars and I said, well, this, you know, we'll finance it. This can be my car payment. And then we sold our house and made some real estate investments and now mine are paid off and hopefully his will be paid off.

Part 516:00

So, um, but just, I tell everybody because I had a lot of root canals. I had a lot of root canals. I had a lot of, I think you only had to pull 23 of my teeth. And so out of 32, I don't remember, um, out of 32, I think it was 23 teeth, four titanium rods. Oh, we placed four implants. Yes. Um, four in the bottom, four in the top. ▶That was what I was most scared of because I just knew that when you started drilling for those rods, I was going to fill it.

I was so anxious, anxious. I had to have the second. I was sedative. Um, I was awake the whole time and I felt nothing. two hours and everything was done. Like. I was amazed. Amazed. Smooth, slow, smooth and smooth is fast. Yes. And you were talking the whole time, you know, and that just puts you at ease because a lot of people, a lot of people will fall asleep. I wasn't one of them. The, the myth is that everyone should be asleep for this and I feel very strongly the opposite way.

When you're on my team. and i'm on yours the ability for me to get the job done correctly it doesn't even compare so so this morning i had a patient who was way too sedated for what i want and um still safe but she was totally out of it well with me having to physically command everything out of her you know her her surgery compared to yours 12 times different experience now will she remember it and and will it change anything not really but in terms of my psyche and my lifestyle and my satisfaction with the results i'm much happier when that patient is present enough to be a participant because we work better with you yeah participant and people hear that and they go oh my goodness i'm so scared i get that it's a scary thing it's participant not victim right we're not putting you through anything i tell everybody in the very beginning of the surgery i'm here on your behalf and i'm here on your behalf and i'm here on your behalf and i'm here on your your team. If you need anything, that's the reason why I don't have you totally knocked out. I want you to tell me so we can fix it and we're through it together. And with you assisting me, I can get it done less traumatically, much smoother, much easier and get better results in that two hours.

And, and what's great is as, as the cases have built up in terms of numbers, luckily we're sort of changing the tides that you don't have to be put fully to sleep and not that we have a problem convincing people. And if you are totally IV sedation heavy and you can't even imagine that, that's fine. I probably don't want you as a patient. Um, but we're kind of changing the tides. It's okay. Right? Like nobody comes out of the surgery and goes, well, look, because of all the dental horror that I had been through, the abscesses, the pain, I was anxiety ridden, probably more than, more than anyone.

And I wanted to be asleep. After I took the second sedative, I thought that I was going to, but I think I was just so like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Um, and I do have a question for you. And this is a lot, uh, this is a question that I get asked a lot when I'm asked about my answer. Well, you do, you do. Okay. So, cause I've asked you and I just couldn't remember your answer. I have a friend in Auburn who went and had his dental implants done in Auburn.

A lot of these other places are doing temporaries for six months. And I tell them I'm so grateful that I did not have to wear a plastic pair of temporary teeth for six months because they weren't comfortable. They weren't that, not, not like these. When you get your final zirconia on that, you know, fifth day, sixth day, ninth day, whatever, they're totally different than your temporaries. Why? People are asking me, how come you do it all in one and you leave with your teeth on that last day instead of doing the temporaries for six months? Why do we go to a final? So that's a, that's a pretty deep question, but we'll, we'll digest it real quick. There's, there's several big reasons. Number one, number one, in terms of the timeline of how we ended up getting into it, kind of in that order. Number one was, is before when we would do it the old way, one, you're spending a lot of money on making the temporaries for a subpar result that could potentially break apart or fall apart because it's just plastic and glued together. And that puts the implants at extreme risk. When you lose, even if you have six and you lose, uh, and you break your temporary, I have a lot of money into it and a lot of time personally, personally making it. And you don't even like it that much.

But then, when you break it, if, if, and when, I mean, it's like probably 30% of the time we'd have to go back in and kind of clean them up and glue the chance of that implant failings very high. Okay. And so not only that, when you get to the end, if your implants have healed well, you then have that set of visits to make the finished product, right? Doing the old way that set of visits comes with a lot of, you're now bringing your baggage of the trauma of all the time. And then you're like, well, I'm going to do it again. And then you're like, well, I'm going to do it again. And then you're like, well, I'm going to do it again. And then you're like, and the breakage and the not loving your teeth yet. So now you go, all right, it's my time. I'm going to get exactly what you want. And that's, that's a time where you and the dentist are sort of a little bit butting heads, you know, you could like them to the end of the earth, but you're kind of at odds. You want this perfect in this person's kind of worn out. Right. And so it adds a lot of trauma. And I always describe it as the dark cloud in the office. So you've got this dark cloud in the office. And you're like, well, I'm going to do it again. And then you're like, you have the happy people that are your patients that are getting worked on. And then you have a full waiting room of people that are kind of getting, uh, going through their, they're getting their temporary six and they're kind of okay. And then you have a whole nother group of people that are trying to get finished. And you have this, basically it's just a, a big line of people waiting and waiting and waiting. And that's stressful on the dentist, et cetera. So that was a initial motivation to going to a finished product. That was my business partner's initial motivation.

And I will never forget. It was in mid April of, um, 2016, 2015, somewhere in there. We did our first case. I thought, Oh my God, I, I am going to get shoved out of dentistry. This is the last case I'm going to end up getting touched. People are going to find out I did this and I approved it. And I'm, this is my last time in dentistry, like so long farewell, right? This is crazy. And where I got sold, it was not when we first did it. Cause I didn't really see the patient other than for post-op the next week when I came in for post-op, the healing that I saw, I didn't realize that this patient, cause I was getting bounced between rooms and Nadia, did you ever work with Nadia?

Oh yeah. So Nadia was my original, original surgical assistant. Nadia pulls me in a room. I give this lady all kinds of instructions like, great, you can eat whatever you want now and all of this. And she follows me down the hall and she goes, doc, do you use like a special implant in there or something? And I said, no, what are you talking about? She said, that was your surgery patient from last week. You just told her she can eat whatever she wants, et cetera. So I had her call him back. Like we had to pull her out of the parking lot, brought her back in. I think it was a, she brought this patient back in and I was, I just have to look at this. And the healing was so good underneath the final product that I had been bamboozled that I didn't, I didn't even think I did surgery last week.

That's how good the healing is because the finish on the real finish set is so amenable to reducing the amount of bacteria that can get stuck there, reducing the inflammation, improving our own contours, right? This, this could be a three hour podcast on its own, but you know, I always liken it to, if you're doing the underside, if you look at the underside of a, of a denture, that's a temporary and you look at ours, it's a lot like the difference between duct taping and two by four to your broken arm versus, uh, putting a cast on it, right? The chance that you're going to need surgery on a two by four, he wouldn't be shocked in three months when his surgery, when his guy said, well, your arm's still messed up. We need to do surgery, right? That's why people that do temporary say, well, you can't do that. The gum tissue changes too much because all they're doing is duct taping and two by four to the arm. Right. And then no surprise, you have to fix it.

If you put a cast in the very beginning, does it happen where you need surgery afterwards? Sure. In random cases, but the majority have been treated correctly and we were the ones that put the rules and regulations. So that's the sort of gum tissue part on it. The other part is that when the reason why temporaries are still a big thing is because regardless of expensive or cheap or what, however you're going to do the temporary, the final teeth are still pretty big expense.

They still require a lot of work to get to the end, even if you have all the equipment, right? Right. And so if you're not doing this at volume, if you're not doing this full time, if this isn't your means and you're living in your, if this isn't your passion for life, this isn't all you do then. And you have an implant that goes bad during that healing phase. When you just paid for that all expense, since you don't own the process and you don't own the stuff, it's more than just the cost. It's more than just the cost. It's more than just the cost.

The cost of the teeth to do. And so now you're looking at your margins are getting screwed up because you had one fail underneath a final. So once you get to volume, let's call it 30 arches in a month. Now I have efficient costs where the chances of your implant going bad are low enough that they are better. My results are going to be better. My everything's going to be better. And so the chance that you have one that fails and I have to replace it and put a new final on comes out, I still come out miles ahead because I have efficiency in volume and I have efficiency in that material. So your healing is going to be better. Your experience is going to be better.

Your gum tissue is going to be better, but I also don't have to hold anything against you. I don't have to hold any grudges. If you have one go bad and I have to replace it. Right. So it's like, it's kind of all of that wrapped together. I know that was like way more than, no, I just wanted to ask the question and you give the answer because when, people talk to me about this, I've referred, I think four or five people and, you know, three or four of them have come and got their teeth done. And so people really want this. And a lot of the times I get the question, why did they do it? How can he do it in such a short time when other people are having to wait? So that answers that. It really comes down to, it truly comes down to cost and efficiency. So like we've kind of constantly said on this podcast, it works the old way. It's fine.

The chance that I'm going to get that type of patient in that type of operation to sit and hang out with me, which, you know, we now have thousands of patients that would very similar to you, right? And they come from all different walks, right? The chance that we would come out of this like this, I won't say zero, but it's a lot less, right? And that is the most rewarding part about what we've brought to the table in terms of refining this process is we can all feel good.

About what we're offering to you. We can all feel good about the price, but on top of it, the chance that we're going to come out also feeling good with a warm, fuzzy friend, reliable, you know, you're referring people. That's the most rewarding part. That's why we sit here today. You know what? I don't have to do this podcast. I could be not, I could be at home messing around in my garage, doing woodworking or something with your dogs, but it's rewarding to me to feel like you, we can offer, you to come on here and we can talk about snakes and all that stuff. But it's, it's awesome to have the relationships that we do with the patients. And that really only comes from sort of just putting all these pieces together. It's not done in one only that can do that. It's just, I have never, we've kind of assembled it better medical care from your staff, Lilia, Erica, Carly, Nadia, Val. I don't have a Dr. Laks. There's not one complaint of any of them. They, everybody makes you feel so welcome, you know, and it's just, it's just great. And that's why we are sitting here. And I was willing to do this because I want to refer as many people as possible.

Having bad teeth is so embarrassing to some people and they don't want to smile with their mouth open. I had perfect teeth before. And when they just started falling apart, the cavities started coming and then the abscess and then the pain. And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and you know, it is so embarrassing to have been able to smile. And people tell me all through my high school years, you've got such a beautiful smile. And then for them, just, you know, from the age of 28 to 30, you know, six, just start deteriorating. And so it's, a lot of people are quiet and they won't speak up. And, you know, I'll post anonymously on a lot of groups or not anonymously and say, Hey, you can do this. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

reach out to me and I will never ever but I have someone that you need to talk to and just his one hour consultation he looked at me and was like I don't even need to do x-rays I can tell you right now you know he of course he did x-rays but I'm just saying he was just made me feel so comfortable that's the other cheat of being a full arch hybrid dentist is at first at first glance if you're a dentist listening to this you're gonna go oh well you know you have to do a full comprehensive exam and the truth is that when you become part of this niche I'm not saying I can do the case I didn't say I could do the case on you regardless of how many teeth were really bad or not right we all have eyes and for the most part the the patient self-selects you knew that you were in a scenario where you had taken out right and even if I was to convince you that you had two that were worth saving I wasn't going to convince you because you had already made up your mind by the time you get to me you kind of already know where you stand and I can see just visually on zoom whether or not I'm going to have enough bone I know that sounds crazy but I've done 6,000 arches I can see it right and so it's this what I get out of that is one you feel the confidence but two you didn't have to feel judged at all that one of the biggest things that has been fun to sort of eliminate is when we do a consult we do our serious stuff just before surgery and and in that little work up there before right but I don't have to poke you I don't have to make you sit and feel exposed and vulnerable and scared at that particular time when we're talking about something so personal right right I don't I don't look at you and think about uh you as a person without teeth you have teeth you paid for them right like yeah people yeah some patients they always say uh I have a lot of people that ask me if those are my own teeth and they're like yeah they're my own teeth I paid for them that's exactly what I tell people especially when I worked in the restaurant they're like they'll just be looking and then I'll go back and I would take their food and now I do real estate full-time so I'll do that and they're like ▶you just got the most beautiful teeth and I'm like thanks they're not mine well yeah they are I paid for them but that's that's the cheat of what we do in full arch is you kind of already came to us with a pretty well diagnosed situation and so I never had to put you into a scenario where you felt I was judging you or the staff felt you were judging you or smack you with a price that you didn't expect you know maybe you some people go into an office that does kind of everything and they may come in thinking that they need a cleaning and then they leave with like a seventy thousand dollar treatment plan that's a that's a hard sell and I mean just the I had spent twenty thousand dollars right and those teeth were always gonna have to have work done eventually they were never gonna stay either they pulled it and I didn't have a tooth or a crown's gonna crack later on and that's another two thousand twenty five hundred or one implant is four thousand dollars for one tooth no I mean this is just it's just beyond next level and the ability to lose to create the ability to create a judgment-free zone I don't care how many teeth you come in with and what the story is behind them honestly we get a lot of people that come in and they want to tell well this root canal was done in 94 and then this one I know you probably want to know this and no no no they're all bad they need to come out I don't give these things out I really don't care I care but I don't care from like I'm not judging you I'm not looking I don't I don't care once we get these teeth and you're a person that has teeth I don't it's not a huge thing and being able to operate from that judgment-free zone is very very freeing it's one of the one of the coolest part about this little niche of dentistry is we never have to put a patient into this I mean do we ever have anybody in the consults once every six months or so you have somebody that cries out of like shame or feeling bad but it's always on them it's it's we never feel like we have to push that on them more vulnerability than shame I think too or embarrassment it's a very vulnerable position to be in it really is and I and that's why I always tell people they see this every day I promise you they have seen somebody that has a worse mouth than you do trust me and we don't we don't rank it like that we don't I literally do not care right so Erica you know Casey a little bit better than I do so so do you have any like questions or anything that you wanted to go through or anything that you find unique about her that you want to bring out in this conversation like what's your favorite candy what's your favorite food now that you have teeth well I could eat french fries I could eat french fries I could eat french fries without teeth so now now what's your favorite french fry what's your favorite fast food french fry fooders curly fries okay all right you like the skin I like the like the it doesn't have the um the the it doesn't have the skin on it the curly fries um the no I'm thinking of Arby's yo yeah I like those too um french fries has always been a favorite food of mine but do you like chick-fil-a hot wings I do love chick-fil-a um hot wings uh big things I do love chick-fil-a hot wings I do love chick-fil-a hot wings I do love chick-fil-a and a I was always a potato lover so when you said soft food diet for 90 days I was like I got so I have a I have a potato story real quick so I I like to cook I cook a good amount but most of it's kind of like barbecue and I do thanksgiving pretty much every year so I'll get into sides and whatever so in on memorial day my wife was bugging me like what's your favorite food and I was like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't what are we going to bring what are we going to bring so don't worry about it you go she rides horses like you go ride I'll figure it out and then I'll we'll just bring whatever I figure out so I go to the grocery store and I'm passing by the potatoes and I go I've never made potato wedges I can figure that out so I bought all the stuff and like how hard can it be I'm pretty good at cooking so I didn't look up anything okay and I struggle with those things like you've never seen somebody struggle with cooking instructions I didn't look up any instructions so I show up and I'm making this huge deal to like the family that we hang out with all the time like they're from Pensacola actually nice and so you know just kind of very similar to you but they just they're they cook and they bake and so I'm sitting there like just complaining to them like man they're so hard and they're like really the potato skins are pretty easy like you're decent at cooking like what's wrong with you dude I didn't look up any instructions I boil the potatoes like a moron and I'm like what's wrong with you dude I didn't look up any instructions literally I boil the potatoes it was trying to peel the inside out of the boiled skin successfully I might add I did it but it took me forever so I do mine yeah you put them in microwave or bake them you do not boil I have never had an oven that can do like they're in there forever so I just put them in the microwave my grandmother does twice baked potatoes when she was alive oh my gosh put them things in the microwave get them soft cut them in half long ways scrape it all out into a bowl and then mix it with the cheese butter sour cream chives bacon put them in there and then put you some more chives and bacon on top once done oh my gosh just so good but potatoes yeah potatoes is

Part 637:47

probably my favorite yeah that's what it sounds like that I need to lay off of and bread did you have anything that you used reliably what was your like go-to kind of like let's break it into three phases did you have a go-to in the first month second month third month or was there was it just sort of the same thing or you varied it up quite a bit hamburger hamburger meat um anything so I probably did a soft food diet for six months because I was so I didn't have any pain um I mean I was back at work the second week and I was here for you were hunting for snakes like the second day yes we were something like that yeah oh yeah the day I got the first um so you go back the first night with nothing so that the blood can clot and everything can heal yep the second day you get your first set of temps message received yes second day you get your first set of temps we went on a nature hike and I caught a night and all Alan did Alan caught it and he was like I was like is it gonna bite because they're beautiful and he was like well I mean it will but it's not gonna hurt it hurt worse than the teeth being put in oh my gosh and he wouldn't let it hurt and he wouldn't let it hurt and he wouldn't let it hurt go I have a picture yes and it's just hanging on this was like the first first day of my temp Alan I know he's crazy he really needs to be on the pie he one day he will he will be on the podcast maybe after we've done like 15 patients because he's so crazy we might have to do like an on location oh I'll stay in the car go down to the everglades yeah Alan actually had his procedure done after you he came about what two years after you yes mom had his surgery done and you guys definitely went snake hunting that night I know that yes and we were also so Alan is one of those he is not going to go to the doctor unless he'll be shoving some garlic wait time out I'm I've been missing out on the timeline I my memory is not amazing when it comes to this I got my teeth done August of 2023 okay in my head you and Alan are like the same week he got his done back in November 2020 running the stories together okay and so and then that's when that first night he went home with no teeth and there was this big mirror in our Airbnb and he did a face I said do not tag me in that Facebook post I will kill you and because he has no teeth and he says this is what happens when you do mask it is I remember that he's so crazy yeah and but his teeth look great and he's the one that had the big infection right here and so you had to do the bone graft or whatever and he's his teeth have been wonderful and he loves them you're always gonna feel like there's something I don't remember what my old teeth felt like I really don't these yeah I think let's let's talk about that for a second so tell us like the because you do develop a feedback correct I I don't have them so I don't really know other than what people tell me so like what was your experience like it it's not the same it'll never be the same it's not your teeth right but do you get a sensation back did you get a sensation back because I get some people that come back the week after and they're like oh they feel like my normal teeth yeah and then some people two years later they go well these still feel foreign I get it but they're still foreign like where do you sounds like you follow somewhere in the middle I'm in the middle because I definitely know that they're I keep forgetting to talk close to this thing I definitely know that they're that they're not my real teeth but I also can't remember what my real teeth felt like because I had so much pain all the time too so I'm glad I mean I probably gained 20 pounds because of these but whatever um yeah but it's the healing process it is such an invasive surgery and you think oh my gosh it is going to take weeks and weeks like second week I was back at work we were on a nature trail the next day and that's Alan and Gray right there they're going into that studio um but uh anyway I um I think ice ice ice my soft food diet I went for six months and I did a lot of stuff I don't normally eat um I did dessert I did a lot of food I did a lot of food I did a lot of food I did a lot of food I did a lot of desserts there's a lot of desserts that fall in the soft category potatoes which I always eat I ate a lot of potatoes absolutely um so this is how I got around chicken tenders y'all if you do fried chicken tenders okay they're a little hard to cut with a plastic fork but if you get your favorite teriyaki sauce or at peg legs we have what's called tiger sauce peg legs I've been there yeah I have a shirt I worked there for two years uh mudslide right uh while what's up bushwhacker that's what it is sorry so it's been a few years it's probably been three years since I've been to I was there for two years my last year in real estate or this past year in real ▶estate I just left there in March actually but um but anyway what was I saying before the um your soft food diet yeah so I would get them to make me chicken tenders and we have what's called tiger sauce and it's like a it's sweet and spicy and I would put the tenders in the box and get like a big five ounce and pour the tiger sauce and I would shake the box up let them sit for a little bit so that the crust gets soft and then I would just cut them and dip them in ranch and eat them very slowly yeah like people a lot of people they hear like the soft diet and they think just like baby food it's not there's pretty much anything you can eat it's just it's just the responsibility of like are you using a offers are you going a lot of side to side if you're not fine people cook in different ways pulling on bread bread I avoided I love salads but I did avoid salads that's one of the biggest ones yes I did avoid salads but that was the first thing that I had after about four months I did have a salad um but the breads especially like we're big Jersey Mike lovers because the bread is so thick and the pulling you know they soak it in so much I'm sure it's, I'm sure it's kind of okay.

Well, I love their sauce. I don't. You don't? I'm not. There's, there's one, there's two kinds of people in life. People that are Jersey Mike's and people that are not right. People that save snakes and people that run from snakes. Exactly. There you go. Tell us about, um, how long did it take for you to get used to your speech? F's, S's, T's. Did you ever have a problem? I know. I think maybe. I don't think so.

I really think after the first, um, I did hit my teeth with a fork a couple of times trying to put food in my mouth. Yeah, that's kind of. Because you didn't know where they were. Yeah, it takes a little bit. But I, and I'm not a singer, I have a horrible voice, so a lot of people say sing, get in the car, get in the shower, sing, sing, sing. And I'm like, I don't even want to hear myself sing.

But no, I didn't have any, any, there are people that have, but lisp, lisp problems. I didn't have any, maybe, maybe my Southern Alabama accent already. That would more or less bring it a little bit out. Really? What's weird is that used to be a big thing that you would head off in the, in the consults. It was a big thing that you would get, I'll say, I used to get anxious about it. Um, mostly the, when we were doing it more the old way.

Right. And if you looked at sort of the old design versus like now. I did have more trouble with the plastic teeth. Talking than I did. Yeah. There's, there's something there that I don't know scientifically what it is, but once we've kind of, it kind of just disappeared, you know, you'd think like it is very rarely ever an issue anymore. Used to be every single case that you would have to fight it. You would, you get it back.

But now with like the advent of the digital and the, and the zirconia, not intentional. Most of everything we do is like intentional. And we have a reason that's just something that kind of has disappeared so that I always try to like ask that question because it's weird for me to not have that as an issue and it always has, it's kind of like I have to pinch myself, like it's gone, but it's the weirdest thing. It just kind of disappeared overnight with once you kind of switched to digital and for zirconia, like over time, it's not anything reasonably, if you think through it, it shouldn't have gone away, should still be there.

Cause you're trying to relearn. And where those things are, but for whatever reason, just in the, in the process that is used now, I don't think a lot of people think that this layer here is going to cover the whole roof of your mouth because more of the temporaries that you're trying on that first week do, but then when you get those zirconia finals, they in the like upper palate area, it's so much smaller. And so it's really no big deal.

So that could be one of the issues with the talking. And just the teeth, you can feel that they're, that they're not, that's the, the, the palette and the design of the teeth and the way that they feel against your tongue is, uh, another little weird shocker. We used to think when we started with digital, we said, you know what? We can design fully anatomic, get the tooth back. So the person doesn't even know that they're missing their tooth, right?

We design them. We put them in constant problems. This. It hurts this, this, this, this, this doesn't feel natural. As soon as we started smoothing it over and making it look, feel less natural logically is when all those things change. It's almost like for whatever reason, when you lose the teeth and when you get that in, it's almost like the smoother, the better on the backside, no anatomy, just kind of almost denture feeling of what, in a way, which is what you feel like you're trying to get away from.

But that's another one of those like intangibles. That was not what we expected it to be. And that's why I tell people when they ask me about dentures, why, why wouldn't I do dentures instead of these? ▶I was like, firstly, I'm 39 years old and I have a friend and she has dentures and every couple of years she has to go back and get them resized and they're cutting into her gums and she's just bleeding and in pain all the time.

And I'm like, why wouldn't you do? A permanent solution with a lifetime warranty that is going to, like, I'm never going to have tooth pain again. And if I do, he's got me. Like, it's okay. We got you. Fix it up. And no other cavities. You know, the cavities was the biggest things because they'll turn to abscesses like that. And if you don't take care of them and get them, because like if you have them in the back and you can't see them, you know, and that's what was happening with mine.

And then they finally started coming through. But, but yeah, so I am a Dun & One fan for life. So as a frequent flyer of Boca visits now. Oh, we're moving to Boca. We'll be here in two years. So a real fan of Boca. What was your favorite, what's your favorite, like, home away from home spot now being that you've been here for a while? Like what's your, if somebody is going to travel here and they're going to be there, they're coming up on their, their visit and they kind of want something to do.

Let's say it's the week of their surgery or their significant other surgery. Like what was your favorite thing to do out? If anything, maybe it was just rest in the hotel, but what's your favorite shining part of Boca? Like what's your tourist guide? Do you really want to know? Okay. Of course. I did ask the question. When we were here in August, getting my teeth done, that's the hottest month in Northwest Florida. Okay. I know there's humidity here.

And I know that. It doesn't get as cool at night here. But because you're on the peninsula and you're getting the breezes both ways, it was 10 degrees cooler here every single day in August than it was. Sure. They're not as landlocked and you get the breeze. Exactly. 98 up there, 88 down here every day. And then the nature trails, the parks, the strangler figs, the flamboyant, the poinciana trees with the big red blooms. Mm-hmm. It's the jungly feeling down here.

It feels like you're in the jungle. Tropical. Yes. So tropical. And we still get hard freezes up where we're at because it gets into the 30s and 20s and we just had 10 inches of snow. Crazy. It was nuts. Yeah. We have like the, a lot of people think of Boca and they think somewhere between West Palm and Fort Lauderdale. A lot of traffic, a lot of like uppity people, a lot of just concrete jungle. But we actually have.

No way. We're still next to the Everglades. We still have a lot of, we have the Japanese gardens off of Yamato. Oh, there's plenty of nature trails. We've got, yeah, we've got the turtle refuge. We've got a bunch of parks. Like there's, there's stuff to do outside. Yeah, I know. And there was, we stayed actually this time in Lake Worth Beach and it was really cute too. And there are all kinds of places that down here that will take you snorkeling with sea turtles and, you know, you still get to do everything.

You may not have the white sand beaches. And the Emerald Coast waters, but like. But we got waves and depth and fishing and. Scott Carister. Yes, the fishing. Y'all have the best charter fishing. Yeah. Quebec captain in the world. Don't know if y'all saw that or not. No. Oh my gosh. Yeah, he got in big trouble. But, but I know, I just love it. I love the, Alan is a big, big plant guy. And we have mangoes and avocados and starfruit and guava, blood orange, everything there that you can't put in the ground.

So we have these huge trees and pots that he has to bring in the shed every single winter. So the thing about it here is it's not that it's any hotter. It's actually cooler during the day. It's just during the winter, it doesn't get as cold at night. And so you have the mangoes and, you know, this is just his. I don't know.

Part 752:51

I don't know if it's still true, but I took a class for bite, like how the bite comes together. There's like an institute that, that works with that in Key Biscayne down in Miami and their claim to fame. Again, I don't know how true it is and I don't know if it's still true, but their claim was that the, that Key Biscayne has never gotten north of 98 degrees ever. That has never broken over 98 degrees because of the wind and where it is.

And so. So it's a little bit, um, not what you would expect. And over here, cause we drove over in November when we came for Allen's to Naples. Yeah, it, it, it was, wasn't what I thought it was going to be. And also Naples, Sarasota, Cape Coral, they get the hurricanes over here. You're a little bit more safer from the hurricanes. Not that you're not going to ever get, you know, hit or tornadoes coming off or whatever, but you are safer over here on the west side than you are.

Or the east side than you are on the west side, as far as that goes. Um, now you get a 500 square foot concrete block house for $500,000, but that's okay. We're going to do it. Don't knock on our real estate. There's only so much of it. I have to knock on it. No, I, no, I love it. I love it. It's just, um, finding a lot that is at least like 0.3. Yeah. Um, that's, that's a lot down for down.

Yeah. Yeah. And we have a half acre lot where we're at and we just moved from 2.75 acres and a lake. So that's going to be a little bit different. Um, people will honk at you. If you stay at a red light, what was 0.0001 seconds longer than when it turns green. And it offended me the first time that I ever came down here. And Alan's like, baby, it's, you got to go like it's crowded down here, but they get places, they get places.

And, and so now I just laugh when people honk. And yeah, yeah. Um, Erica, Casey, any, any like final thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, like subscribes, you want to plug any. So snake, the snake lady. Oh, well, Florida snake lady page. So you can look it up on Facebook and it's just Florida snake lady. Now I do have a Casey Williamson, Florida snake lady realtor page that people get confused about. So I think I'm going to go try to change the name of that one.

But if you have to take a snake out of a home, you get the listing automatically and you get a 10% discount if you want to acquire it. Right. That's right. That's right. Um, Florida snake lady, Florida snake lady. Awesome. Done in one. He's in Tampa, uh, Boca. Now Jacksonville. We'll see. We're going to try to get them to, which I don't really care if you go to Destin now or not, cause we're moving down here. Well, we'll be there at some point.

Some point. Yeah. That's who are you going to get to sell your real estate? Down there. Well, you'll be here.

Part 855:53

Well, that's, you'll know. That's okay. I'll fly. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so we have, we really appreciate you taking out the time and coming to, to, um, kind of tell us about who you are and what your experience was like. And, you know, it's always pretty easy to get little fun details out rather than just kind of. Yes. And when you feel so good about a place and people, I just like my mom, she's wanting to get it done.

She's 67. Yeah. She's so scared. And I'm like, I would never, ever tell you or refer you to anybody. And they have given me out of any healthcare facility, dental facility, anywhere, the best care, you know, ever. But, uh, yeah. So, um, thank you guys for listening. Like subscribe. Thanks Erica for coming on with us and, uh, we'll see you guys next time.