The Clear Perspective Podcast with Loren King

Had so much fun talking to Loren King in this episode!
Find out what our role as dental professionals is in the prevention of human trafficking from the amazing Loren King!

Get in touch with Loren!

Instagram: @lorentheactivist

Allison: Happy Thursday, everyone. This is Allison from clear coaching on the very first clear perspective episode of 2022. And I have a beautiful talented amazing Loren King here with me today, which I am just, honestly, we had a hard time even starting the podcast because we were so excited about catching up and like chatting because Loren is a dear, dear friend of mine and somebody that I got the privilege of meeting last April.

Um, at the dental festival and the girl is changing the industry. So I'm so excited that you're here too. Loren, thank you so much for coming.

Loren: Of course, thank you for having me. And yes, just like you said, I, I made this late because I was like, I haven't actually gotten to talk to her. She's busy, I'm busy.

We're all. We're trying to do all of these things. And so I was like, wait, wait, wait, we have to take like, at least the first 10 minutes and like, I need to talk to you!

Allison: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I'm just so excited that we get to talk about like your zone of genius today, because the moment I met you, the very first moment I heard you speak, I was like, I need to know you.

And my personal belief is that everyone else needs to know you as well. It's the, let me give you a formal introduction for those that have never met you. Um, and tell them a little bit about you and what the amazing things you're doing in the industry. So Loren is an international speaker bringing awareness to topics like human trafficking, human motivation, and inspiration, as well as dental sleep medicine.

She's a registered dental hygienist, a woman lecture, mentor, coach, and an inspiring author. Loren is also a licensed sky diver who has jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. Solo 34 times, which speaks to her resilient to conquer hard thing. And so I'm so excited to welcome you here today and really excited to dig into the conversation.

Loren: Absolutely. I'd still, every time I hear that, it's like, you're like, you're, you're it's I don't know. It's it's, you know how it's like, when you hear something about yourself, you're like, God, like, you know, I really am working hard, but at the same time, I want to stay in that mindset so that I'm, I'm always doing that.

But it's just, I know like your intro. I it's one of my favorites. I just love everything that you're doing. And you've worked your butt off the last year. Um, I know you were, I think you lived on an airplane basically, right? Yeah.

Allison: Yeah. I did this last year. People were asking me like, so where do you live?

I'm like, it took me a moment to think about it. I'm like, I live. With American airlines. They are my family and my home.

Loren: I, um, I travel, I travel a lot lately, so I I've been taking Archie with me cause he, he does well, you know, I've moved around a lot. So he's used to being on an airplane and I just, I like having him with me.

I'm not married, I don't have children. So Archie has kind of like he's my child. He's,

he's who I'm married to. Um,

 so I take him everywhere and now, um, we've been flying with spirit so much because my dad's a pilot for them. So we fly for free with them. And some of the flight attendants, this last flight happened to be the same from a previous flight.

And they were like, Archie. I was like, oh dear God. I was like, I'm on a plane way, way, way, way too much. But I know you and I both would say, no, we, we love it. Let's be, I live on an airplane. That's fine. But it does wear you out and you do have to give yourself rest too.

Allison: So, absolutely, absolutely. This I've been in Calgary for the last month and this is the longest I've been in one place, um, for over a year.

Loren: Always feels weird. I'm home at first. I'm like, I feel like I'm not doing something I'm supposed to do.

Allison: Yeah. It's been, it feels really good right now, but I'm like pretty excited to get back on the road. And I think it's like, Both of us. I think we can agree that we are so excited and passionate about what we do that it's, you know, it's so worth the travel and the, you know, the heartache and the headache of being in, living in an airplane and living in a hotel.

And so I, this is why I'm just so excited to talk about this day because something that I really realized is that in dentistry, we have so much, uh, we have so much ability to impact people's lives and not in the way of keeping them healthy, but in the way of being that healthcare provider that gets to see people consistency consistently and regularly, we become like their advocates.

We become their friends. And when we're talking about human trafficking, this, I think the dental industry has such an opportunity to make a difference without awareness. So my first question for you is what has inspired you to start to drive that awareness in our industry? And tell us that story.

Loren: Yes. Then I know that you've heard it.

Um, and I noticed some people watching have heard it, but there's, there's always going to be new people. It's it's personal for me and it, I wasn't trafficked, but if you, um, know kind of my, my course and how I give it, I do start by talking and showing signs of abuse because I believe that that's where it starts.

And even when you're trafficked, whether that sex trafficking, any type of exploitation, it doesn't have to be sexual. There is usually abuse involved. And that's not sexual abuse. That's just like getting hit in the face or like malnutrition. Um, and so I tell my story because I was sexually assaulted for the first time when I was seven years old by an extended family member.

And then it happened again when I was 21 by a different extended family member. And I, you know, I wasn't raped. Um, I, you know, it wasn't anything that is on the magnitude of trafficking, but it is a form of abuse. And the reason that I get vulnerable when I get on stage. And I tell that story is because I want them to see how close it is in front of them.

I present myself on stage as someone that probably hasn't gone through something like that. But now that I've been honest with you, you're like, oh my God. You know, like just, just put it into perspective for someone. Um, and since I've been doing that, actually I will say. A lot of women, um, not any men yet.

Um, and I do hope that, you know, this does happen, that they feel that they can talk about it eventually, but I've had women come up to me and they want me to tell their story. And even just telling me was a really big step for them. So I'm going to keep getting on that stage and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and being vulnerable so that all the other women, and hopefully men, men go through trauma too, feel like they're not alone in this, because I didn't tell anyone until around 2019.

So, and I'm 30 years old. So. Um, for me, I totally understand how hard it is to talk about it. Um, and then what got me into, um, human trafficking awareness and teaching it, spreading the word, everything I can do. Um, it was actually around 2019. So when I started, you know, getting comfortable talking about my story, I came across a story on the news.

Um, it was talking about a young girl. She was around 12 years old. She had been raped by 56 different men and 12 hours. And her trafficker actually made $12,000 off of her in that 12 hour period. Um, now since she was around 12 years old, this is the age where it starts getting dicey of if you're still profitable or not.

Usually the profitable age is 14 or younger around, you know, like it's, it's very young. Um, and so your trafficker typically will either, honestly, they'll either kill you because they can't make money off of you anymore. Or they're not, you know, that stone cold. So they'll, they'll abandon you. And in her story, her trafficker abandoned her and she got back to her parents when she got back to her parents, she said, you know, We got her back foot, we got her back damaged and unfortunately, a few weeks later she committed suicide.

And her reasoning for that. And you know what her parents say, her reasoning for that was, she felt like if her trafficker, who she thought, you know, at least loved her, abandoned her, then no one else is going to ever love her. After what's been done to her body. And I know how you are and I know your heart, and that's why I love you.

And I know that you would probably react the same way that I did. It's like, you just want it to do something like you just wanted to like, hold her or like, just tell her that, like, I love you, you know, even though it wouldn't have meant anything. And, um, there might've been nothing that I could have done, but all I could think about was I just can't sit here and let this happen again and again, and again and again, I do know that.

So I just, I really want to spread awareness. Um, I, I do think that that's the big part of the fight because no one wants that is happening right under our nose. Right. And so I'm going to do what you can to, to educate. Um, but I will say in my courses, I'm very visual. Um, I do video and picture and audio of trafficking, um, because.

One, I, I think that it it's ingrained in your memory more. And if you don't know what it looks like, you don't know how to spot it. I want to bring awareness, but I also want to give you something you can do to help, even if it's just knowing what to look for and then calling the number and, you know, tipping it off.

But I always say that I want you to assess, I don't want you to assume assuming can get someone so.

Allison: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. I just, the whole time we were talking, I had goosebumps. Um, you know, I just want to acknowledge you, like for opening up and being vulnerable, it's not easy and it's not easy to get on a stage and be vulnerable.

And the fact that you're willing to share your story and, you know, be that advocate for people out there that are too afraid to share their story is like, this is why I just have so much respect and love for you. Um, because you're making such a big difference in the world and our industry and the fact that you also, like, we, we hear about things all the time, or we like share stories.

Often we're just like, oh my gosh, that's terrible. And then we continue on with our lives, but for you to hear a story and to be impacted by it to the point where you're like, I'm know I'm going to do something about this, I'm going to put energy and life and time into making sure this doesn't happen for somebody else.

I have to acknowledge you for that as well, because you know, we all have a choice of how we spend our time in our life and you're spending it in a way that's going to help change so many people's lives and we do, we have such a power to with this. I think it's so important to talk about. And so what do you feel like as, you know, as dental professionals, if like dental, hygienists, I don't know if it's anybody, you know, anybody let's just say anybody is watching this.

Like, what do we need to know? Like to start, or even just like, start to have that awareness.

Loren: So in dentistry specifically, it's it is something that in a term of where they're advocates, where they're, I call them heroes. In my course, my courses, I call us heroes and each hero has a role and it's the front desk

has a role and the dental assistant role that dental hygienists has a role and the dentist has a role. Um, and they can each look out for different things in those specific roles. But the reason for that is because actually the statistics show that 50% of injuries are to the head and the neck and where especially.

Of the head and the neck, but on top of that, we spend more time with our patients than any other medical field, any other D like we spend the most time throughout the year, even when there's nothing wrong with them and alone, usually. And so the actual damage to the head is the one that's most caused of death.

So there's things in my PowerPoint that I go through that show what certain signs of abuse can only happen in children. If it's forced oral sex in a three-year-old. If they have X, Y, and Z. This is what it is that cannot get there anywhere else or any way else. I also show what burn marks look like, what, um, abuse marks look like, like if you're hit with a belt buckle or if you're hit with, you know, fingers on the face or, um, and then also knowing that small children, four or younger children that don't crawl, basically, if they have bruising and signs of abuse, A big red flag, or it should be a big red flag in your head because children that are young, like that are always being held or they're in a crib.

So they don't bruise. They don't usually have opportunities to bruise. So just different visual red flags, but then there's also the non visual red flags, like for the front desk, I'll just go through really quick and get like one for each role, um, in this would be more so in like a, um, a teenagers. Um, where they, they come in and you can see that they're, they're probably old enough to do everything for themselves.

Um, and some do some just don't care. I mean, they're teenagers. Um, but one thing is they're, they're suspicious, um, like the, the holding of their documents and not being able to answer for themselves. On their medical history or no medical history, um, or when they come in the door, they're submitting behind whoever is walking in or, you know, if they like motion towards them, you know, they're, they're skiddish.

If it's cold outside and they're not wearing a coat. You know, like that's, that's neglect, neglect is the first thing that starts abuse if it's, you know, things like that. So those would be more visual and the non-visual would be paying attention to their medical history. And if there's anything suspicious looking on there, but the biggest suspicious thing is it's just incomplete.

So assess, don't assume maybe mom's having a bad day and she doesn't want to fill out your paperwork. Do not assume assess call mom up there. I would encourage you to maybe call the child up there as well. If they're not, you know, running all over. Ask a question about their dental, medical history and I go you know, like I just, I really need to know this for our records.

It's going to alter their treatment plan. Can you elaborate on this? And then just, you know, keep assessing, you're not going to catch it the first time, more than likely. That's just, that's just how it is right now. Um, the awareness is not there. Victims are still very, very scared to do anything or say anything.

Cause they don't know that help is there yet. Um, so don't get discouraged. If you feel like something is really wrong and they walk out the door. You're going to notate it and you're going to keep assessing every time they come in and if they disappear and you had an inkling that something was really, really wrong.

Try and call and check on that patient. Just do some research, um, for the dental assistant more, uh, Visual. So one really good example for a dental assistant, because you know, in the role, usually they're the one that takes the x-rays, especially in a really busy office. So for a young child, if it's really difficult for them to open their mouth for an extended period of time, if there's any cuts or bruises around their lips, if it's hard for them to sit for a long time, Start paying more attention.

And all this has meant to do is just give you little light bulbs of this is, this is off for me. And I know that this is something that, okay, this means I need to keep paying attention in this way. Um, And then for the dental hygienist, honestly, it's not, I'm not going to say it's the most important role because all of the roles are important, but it is the role where we usually, and typically spend the most time in the direct source of where it could be happening in a child.

So with the hygienist, you're, you know, you're obviously going to go through the medical history, same thing. So the dental hygienist kind of has the biggest role meaning the one with the most tasks, because it's a whole kind of thing. And then as well as the dentist, it's a big ask for the dentist as well.

Um, so you want to go through their medical history again, if you are the one taking the xrays. Pay attention to that. If they're walking in your room, pay attention to their gate, is it hard for them to walk? Are they walking, you know, funny and the way you assess in this way is you, you just simply ask, they may not tell you anything, but just say, I noticed you were, you know, kind of limping when you walk, are you okay?

Like, do you need me to get you something? Um, always talk in a very supportive and non-threatening tone. Nonjudgmental is the most important part about someone's tone because this is the victim. So this is someone that's already going through enough. If you approach it in a judgemental way, they're not gonna tell you anything and you may make it worse.

Yeah. So, yeah. Um, but then we go into the intro oral and for anyone that's not in dental, that means inside the mouth, um, inside the mouth, there's something called Petechiae and essentially for people that don't know what that is, that aren't in the dental industry, it, it looks like bruising on or near around the soft palate.

And it actually is in the form in, in oral sexual abuse. It is going to be in a round shape. This will present on the soft palate. If it's in a child, Something you really need to start asking questions that does not appear in that form or in that place without blunt repeated force and an adult.

Worry about yourself. None Of your business. Child, you need to start asking questions. Yeah. Um, the other thing that can be a visual sign, um, and then I'll move on to Dentists so that we use our time. But for, um, a hygienist is the commissures the corners of the mouth can be ripped or extremely chapped with other things like bruising.

Um, and then the frenums. So if a frenum is ripped by blunt force and I have pictures of it, and in my presentation, it looks, there's a specific look to it and it doesn't heal. Right. And it usually gets infected. Um, now when you do a frenectomy it heals usually very nicely. If you're using a laser, you know, and everything looks great and it's healing well, so things like that with the dentist.

The dentist is, is the authority in the office. It's the he's he or she is the hero of, of all the other heroes in the office, because they're the ones that are going to be the decision makers. So being educated for a dental hygienist and a dentist are paramount. And it's honestly, in my opinion, your responsibility to get educated about human trafficking and signs of abuse, because I know already, and, um, I think four or five states, one hour of human trafficking, CE is now required to renew your renew, your license.

Um, but with the dentist, you've, you've got to make that hard decision sometimes for some people, am I going to report. Now on your license. Yes. You're required to report it. You can get in trouble for not reporting it. Um, but you have to also make a personal decision for yourself and make sure that it's educated and well evaluated and not emotional and emotional response is going to get an emotional consequence.

The last thing that we want to do.

Allison: Wow. Thank you for that. And thank you for sharing. I think it's so good to hear from like every single role in the practice, like what your job is and looking out for this. And I am excited for more offices to be able to go through that training. Um, and where. As an entrepreneur professional, it's like, this is something that you've had suspicions of or like you, like, where do you report it?

Loren: Yes. So there's two things. There's the national human trafficking hotline. It's 24 7. There's a number. So I'll give you a second if you want to, um, write that down. Um, and then I'm also going to give you. One second, you froze just a little bit. Um, I'm also going to give you the, the text number as well.

So for the, the actual phone number, it's going to be 1 8 8 8 3 7 3 7 8 8 8. And then for "free", I heard they changed it. So I just wanna make sure,

I think they made it like more user. Yeah, they did. Okay. So it's you text be free to 2, 3, 3 7 3 3. And then there's also a website that they've added now. So it's www dot human trafficking, hotline.org.

Allison: I love it. Thank you so much. Okay, perfect. So I put all of that into the comments. So you guys can actually, like my recommendation would be just to take this information and make a protocol in your office. Like immediately share this with everyone on your team, like ever have everyone watch this video on your team as a starter, because learning, you did such a good job, like walking through the roles.

And what everyone's role is. And then tell me, like you have this course, um, that is required. It's required to have human trafficking education in three states. You've said, but if a team member or like a practice wanted to just take this education, where would they find that information for you?

Loren: So I am actually, um, uh, new to the catapult education team.

And that's with Lou Graham, Dr. Lou Graham. And, um, I will be speaking for them for primarily our human trafficking course that we're generating right now. It is ready. Um, if you do need it, it's an hour and you only need one CE in most of the states now that are requiring it. Um, and then also if you want to reach out to me personally as well, um, you can usually Instagram is the easiest and the fastest way.

So my handle for Instagram is. @ it's just the at sign, not at it's that sign. And then L O R E N the activist. So Loren the activist, you can message me on there. My phone number is on there, um, and I will reach out to you immediately. Um, but. We are going to be offering it virtually online and we are also going to be offering it in person.

So I would fly to you or your practice or your conference and give the CE, um, and as we all know in dentistry, if a few states start requiring something, especially in a CE capacity, Every other state starts following soon and something like human trafficking. I don't see them taking very long to do that.

So when we're ready for it and we're here for you and I'm super excited about it.

Allison: Yes. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for that. This is like, this is such an informative interview and I think like everyone's gonna be able to take this away. And I think like for me, I know the more we're talking about something. The more it's going to be in our mind and the more we're going to do.

And so, um, I really hope that this has inspired practices to take this education into their office, to have a protocol around this, to know what happened when, you know, somebody started to suspect something, because I know as a team member, sometimes you just don't know what to do. And so I think you are just like an amazing human being to be there, to kind of help practices and team members and doctors just know the steps

and, you know, that's, I just want to thank you so much for this. And so I know we're getting to the, kind of the top of our time here, and I just have one last question for you. If you and I were sitting here a year from today, it's 2023 and, you know, Asking you, you know, the change that you were able to see or the greatest success that you are able to have this year within the human trafficking awareness, like what would that look like?

What, what would you love to see, um, as success in this year?

Loren: It would be at the dental industry, taking stance and becoming the heroes that I know that everyone is and getting those courses done, I will travel day and night. If I need to, to come there and teach this and Archie will come with me in my talk, but for me, that would be success.

I would be so busy giving this course. That I would have to find out a way to relax because so many people are wanting to become advocates and get themselves educated and make a difference. That will make a difference. You don't know what you don't know once you do know is what is going to become important.

Once you do know this information, it's okay. If it scares you too much, or if it's too heavy, but at least you can pass on the information to someone. That isn't afraid to ask those hard questions. You can still be an advocate that way from behind the scenes, if it makes you uncomfortable. But for me, it would 100% be that my, my lifetime goal is to eventually get a nonprofit off the ground for the recovery part of being trafficked.

Or the little girl's story, you know, that I tell it would be somewhere almost like a safe Haven where these kids could come and go through how to get integrated back into the real world. Trafficking itself is, is the hardest part that they have to go through. The second hardest part is they have to recover if they get the chance.

So just creating something. That can teach them whatever they need to be taught, whatever therapy they need, whatever resources that they need. If they need a home, some kids, parents won't even take them back. They didn't want them in the first place. And it's kind of like they got something taken off their hands.

When they're giving back, they don't have anywhere to go. They're 14, 15, 16 years old. What would you do? You know, like they need somewhere to go. That would be my ultimate lifetime goal in terms of human trafficking.

Allison: Amazing. I'm excited to support you in that and be a part of it and, you know, be here to cheer you on and like find ways to help it because this mission is so important and we are all, we all have this amazing opportunity to.

You know, educate our patients, see these things happening and prevent it from happening more in the future. And so I want to honor you for being such a hero yourself. You are so brave, you are so wise you're so, you know, you take a topic that I think people can be really scared of and you are gentle in the way that you, you know, share this information.

That you do it in a way that's like, just so important. If so, educational, and then also just shows like with such clarity, what we can do as individuals to prevent this from happening in the future. So thank you for coming on today and for sharing your story and please everyone just reach out to Loren.

Um, if you felt this video was helpful for you share it, like dentistry is not the only industry that needs this awareness of if you're in another industry or if you feel like your community needs to see this, share it, please, and reach out to Loren to book your training because we all need to have this training.

Loren: So absolutely I'm here for everyone.

Allison: Thank you so much for being on here today and we will see you guys soon.

Loren: Yay.