2011 in review

Thank You for visiting our blog!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Halloween Candy Buy Back Day: Thursday November 3, 2011

SmilePlus Dentistry participated in Halloween Candy Buy Back Program this year to support Operation Gratitude. The event took place at our office last Thursday November 3, 2011 from 3-7pm. We paid $1.00 per pound (up to 5 pound) to whoever brought their leftover unopened Halloween candies. We collected little over 70 pounds of candies! Candies were packed and shipped to OPERATION GRATITUDE in Van Nuys, CA. They will include candies into individual holiday care packages along with other necessary and fun items for our troops & ship them overseas to our soldiers stationed in war zones. We are thankful to everyone who was generous to share and donate their candies for this cause!

Don’t forget to check out Time magazine’s recent coverage regarding the program.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/31/why-halloweens-not-as-sweet-as-it-used-to-be-how-kids-are-getting-tricked-out-of-their-treats/

Enjoy some photos for the event.  

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Going Swimming? Shield Your Teeth!

Summer isn’t much fun if you can’t take a few plunges into a swimming pool, but, as we all know, pool water can dry out our skin and hair. What most people don’t know is that it can also permanently stain and erode our teeth.

 One study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology back in 1986, concluded   that, out of 747 competitive swimmers surveyed, 39 percent suffered from enamel erosion of their teeth.

 http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/123/4/641.abstract

 In a more recent paper, in May 2011, dentists from the New York University College of Dentistry reported the case of a 52-year-old man who had complained of his teeth’s sensitivity, staining, and enamel loss—all symptoms that had come on quickly, in about five months. The only sudden change in the man’s routine was his newly adopted, 90-minutes-per-day swimming routine. Upon further inquiry, the researchers learned that the patient did not have professional pool maintenance, and he didn’t know the pH of his pool water. Their conclusion was that the pool water’s pH was to blame for the man’s dental problems.

http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2011/05/23/is-your-swimming-pool-safe-for-your-teeth.html

So, if you are lucky enough to have a swimming pool in your back yard, it is a good idea to have it maintained professionally. If you do choose to maintain it yourself, use pool pH strips to check the pH level of the water. If you keep the pH number at about 7.2-7.8, you should avoid spoiling your teeth!

Can a baby really be born with teeth?

Last month, here in Fremont, the newborn son of a family friend surprised his parents by coming into the world with two perfectly normal front teeth in his lower jaw.

If the child had been born several hundred years ago, he might have had something to worry about, because there were old wives’ tales regarding natal teeth, such as that a baby born with teeth would be selfish, or that such a baby was a vampire. Fortunately, we are enlightened enough not to to worry about the baby’s emotional predilections or go about strewing the house with garlic, as people once did to ward off vampires. Instead, doctors simply advise the parents to monitor the teeth.

Such teeth are called “natal teeth,” and natal teeth are extremely rare, with an incident rate at about one in 2000–3000 births. Natal teeth differ from neonatal teeth, which grow after baby’s birth, usually within the first thirty days. Natal teeth are usually the lower-front two teeth, and they may or may not be fully formed. Babies can also have more than two teeth, and, in rare incidents, even molars.

What is the reason for natal teeth, and will the child then have three sets of teeth over his lifetime, instead of the normal two? Not usually. Most of the time, natal teeth have simply erupted earlier then the usual schedule, and are not extra teeth, but normal baby teeth.

Although there is no known cause for the condition, several studies suggest that there are hereditary links, while others suggest natal teeth might be associated with certain medical syndromes. For this reason, babies born with natal or neonatal teeth should be carefully evaluated to rule out such a possibility.

What is the recommendation regarding natal teeth? Current thinking indicates that, unless the teeth are not fully developed, are loose, or are causing some other problem, they should not be pulled. Some of the reasons for pulling them might be that:

• If they are loose, natal teeth can increase the chance of a baby’s choking;
• Since natal teeth are usually very sharp, they can cause a lot of discomfort, especially in the early stages, to the nursing mother;
• If they create ulcers on the baby’s tongue, that can cause pain to the baby;
• If their enamel has not yet fully formed, they might be yellowed or unsightly.

Most of the time, however, there are no associated problems with natal teeth, and it is a condition that should simply be monitored.

Bryce Canyon, Utah

Last summer, when my friends and I visited Zion National Park, we heard about the trails of another park in Utah, and so, this year, when the children had spring break, we decided to go back to Utah, this time to visit Bryce Canyon.

The Canyon has no shortage of fantastic scenery. Viewing the peculiar formations of rock shapes from the canyon rim is a remarkable experience, but to really enjoy this fantasyland, you need to hike down below the rim. Queen’s Garden Trail from Sunrise Point is where your imagination can run wild. You hike alongside bizarre rock shapes known as “hoodoos,” which have been eroded from a thick layer of soft, sedimentary rock deposited over 60 million years ago. From Sunset Point, you can look down to Bryce Amphitheater, where the highest concentrations of hoodoos are found.

 

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For photographers, Bryce Canyon has some of the most beautiful scenes to be found anywhere in the world. The brilliant afternoon sunlight bounces off the rocks’ deep reds, oranges, yellows and browns, and the pure white of the snow, contrasts with the green of the pine trees and the blue of the sky, creating a treat for the eyes. But no photo can do such beauty justice.   

While in Bryce, we also had about a two and a half mile hike down to two spectacular slot canyons, Spooky and Peek-a-boo Gulch, about twenty-six miles along on a dirt road called “Hole-in-the-Rock Road,” south of the town of Escalante. Both our kids had the best time hiking in the deep and constantly twisting and turning slots, and the eerie and haunting experience is captured in the canyons’ names. We had to squeeze our way through in some places that were so tight that we had to hold our backpacks and cameras over our heads as we walked through sideways. When we came to some pools, we had to use our hands and feet to get across, all the while surrounded by spectacular lights, shadows, and colors.

After four days in wilderness, we returned to civilization, and came back home to beautiful California. In four weeks, we will go back to Arizona’s Grand Canyon to finish our dream hike: “Rim to River to Rim,” in a single day.

Snowbound

 

On Dec. 26, 2010, a post-Christmas blizzard struck the East Coast and gave New York its sixth-largest snowfall ever. The storm, accompanied by winds gusting over 65 miles an hour, centered its force on the New York metropolitan area, where—according to the New York Times—it stopped commuter and subway lines, leaving large numbers of passengers to spend the night on trains. The roads were no better an option: Countless abandoned cars, cabs, and buses clogged the roads, and many Manhattanites had no choice but to stay put for several days. Unfortunately, I experienced the blizzard first-hand.

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But it wasn’t only the ground transportation that was brought to a halt; the storm also shut down the three major airports. Four thousand flights were canceled, including mine and my family’s, extending our vacation in New York by four days.

I apologize for the inconvenience to our scheduled patients at our Fremont office this week, and I appreciate your patience and understanding. We have a rescheduled flight on the first of January. We can’t wait to get home to sunny—and snowless—California.