A local magazine has asked me to contribute so I have taken up interviewing fascinating people near home. This blog is about one such individual.
Dr. Damien Delio : Orthodontist
Brace yourself… here’s an orthodontist that likes kids! Really! His affinity for the youth of Palos Verdes is even evident on his website (http://www.delioortho.com/default.asp) where one can find multiple computer games including “Why Did the Chicken cross the road?” and “Tomato Bounce” for his youngest patients. Teenagers will appreciate the (Rubber) Band Color Chooser to add some fashion to their metal braces. (It’s fun to play with the Color widget even if you don’t have braces!) Links to Nickelodeon and news for youngsters will keep Middle School students occupied.
Why is Dr. Damien Delio so good with children? It might have something to do with being the ninth of ten kids.
Damien was one of the lucky ones; hanging around his
father’s office as a child he realized early on what he wanted to do for the rest of his life - when he was just six years old! He wanted to make people smile and to do that he would follow in his father’s footsteps – those of Orthodontics. If we think there may be spinach between our teeth, we hide our smile. If our teeth are crooked, we tend to always hide it. Damien wanted to address that and make a difference.
To that end, like all doctors, he paid his dues in higher education, starting with Palos Verdes High School on Cloyden Road. The next ten years were spent at USC studying Dentistry, then on to special training in Orthodontics. He is a member of the Damon Study Club and the American Association of Orthodontists so he can stay in touch with the newest developments in his chosen field. If he needs additional consultation, he can always ask his dad, Charles Delio, who has been in the business for over forty years. In fact, he worked with his father for seven years before taking over Delio Orthodontics at 827 Deep Valley Drive, Suite 302, in Rolling Hills Estates. Two years later he opened another office in Manhattan Beach, California. That was fourteen years ago and both offices still emulate a family-community business model.
Damien Delio grew up in Malaga Cove surfing, hiking, and interested in teeth. In 1997 he married Renna Philipopoulos, a history student at USC when they met. They moved to Via Solano in the Valmonte area and have two children of their own - eleven year old Natalie and eight year old Noah. Currently he is involved with his kid’s school activities and coaches his children’s sports teams. He says the family tradition of hanging around the dental office is being continued by his own.
But Dr. Damien is not all fun and games. He is serious about his craft. One of his main goals is to educate his community about the importance of dental hygiene. He has been known to lecture at schools about it and has a section on his website encouraging visitors to take up the cause – get into Orthodontics! Try your hand at it by going to the ‘Be an Orthodontist’ tab in the “Fun Stuff” section of his website. It might become a family tradition for you, too.
Damien has two brother-in-laws that are in Orthodontics, two of his sisters are Dental Hygienists and another sister, Connie Taylor, manages the Deep Valley office for both her brother, Damien and father, Charles who still sees patients every other week and enjoys the Indio desert alternate weeks. Damien says he finds himself treating children who are kids of his dad’s patients.
For the Delio family, healthy teeth and gums is a way of life and for Damien, dentistry is… well, it’s child’s play.
