Laughter is an Instant Vacation

Today I want to share someone else's words.

Mac Anderson is the founder of Simple Truths. His mission is to bring inspiration to others.

I want to share something he sent me. He wrote this:

Dear Steve,

Laughter is an Instant Vacation

You know, sometimes life just gets too serious...too busy...and too complicated. We don't mean for it to happen, but we wake up one morning to discover the fun has slipped away.

A few years ago a health study determined there are 3 main reasons people can't cope in life:

1. They live in the past.

2. They have a low self-esteem.

3. They can't laugh at themselves.

In fact, the study indicated that we need approximately 12 laughs a day to stay healthy!

I heard a story not long ago about a guy who sent flowers to his friend who was opening a new restaurant. When he arrived at the grand opening, he looked for his flowers. Well, when he found them, he saw that he had sent a white wreath that said, "May you rest in peace." He panicked, of course, and called the florist who said, "Bob, I'm not worried about you because as we speak, there's a guy being buried who got a dozen roses that said, "Good luck in your new location!"

Ah yes...life throws us curve balls when we least expect it! And sometimes, just to stay sane, we need to sit back and laugh!

Live with Passion,

Mac Anderson

Thanks, Mac. I'm going to share this with my patients and all the others who are reading my blogs. In our office we try to laugh as much as possible. We take our work very seriously because dentistry does have a real impact on people, but we try very hard to not take ourselves that seriously.

Hey, fun is a good thing, no matter what you're doing, right? Of course, right!

Steve

Who Says You Can't Contour Teeth?

I just finished improving the bite of a patient whose upper and lower front teeth were hitting a little too hard on one another. All we did was contour (reshape) the teeth a little to make the bite even.

When Mary sat down in the chair she told us that her friends - and even her husband - told her that teeth can't be contoured like that and that even if they could it would be painful.

Ha! They were so wrong. And Mary is gonna tell them all about how her teeth fit perfectly now and that the contouring was absolutely painless. No shots, no problems.

Cosmetic contouring and contouring for bite adjustment purposes is a common care technique in the toolkit of excellent 21st century dentists. Of course the dentist has to have an artistic eye to create the cosmetic result. And if the contouring is being done to correct a bite problem, the dentist has to understand the intricacies of fitting teeth together properly.

So if you are someone who didn't know that teeth can be comfortably reshaped to create a better smile or a better bite, well, now you know. They sure can.

Sometimes the simpler way is the better way. Not all smiles have to be created out of porcelain caps and veneers.

Contouring is a great way that good dentists can help.

Let us know if you are wondering if you could be a candidate for tooth contouring. We will be happy to talk with you about it and take a look and advise you.

Tooth Whitening – Some Things You Should Know

Many of our patients have been asking about whitening their teeth. Well, here are the facts about getting your teeth their whitest.

Some people have naturally discolored teeth and some people's teeth have become stained over time. These problems can be treated with a whitening agent. Whitening is the most conservative treatment option for the esthetic improvement of discolored or stained teeth.

Tooth whitening gel works best on stains that occur on the surface of the tooth. Smoking and highly colored foods and drinks cause most stains. Some of these stains can be reduced by brushing, but they will be much more effectively removed with whitening agents.

There are many different types of whitening agents on the market, but not all of them work.

Many patients ask me about over-the-counter whitening agents. My patients have tried many of those products and very few of them said they got the results they wanted. Sorry, but that's true.

The best way to whiten is to use the whitening materials that are dispensed and supervised by a dental office. Our take-home procedure is really simple. At your first appointment we will make impressions of your teeth. This is a easy thing for you to have done. Then we will create custom whitening trays that fit perfectly on your teeth. The accurate fit of these professionally made trays is one of the reasons why professional whitening works so much better the over-the-counter products. The professional level whitening gels dentists use is the other reason.

On your second appointment we will show you how to place the whitening gel in the trays and how to use the trays and the gel at home. Whitening at home is simple and doesn't take much time.

The average whitening time is a couple of weeks, but this varies according the individual teeth and stains. Every two or three months you will use the trays and gel for a day or two to touch up the result and keep it from relapsing, because staining happens if you keep eating.

Tooth whitening has become one of the most popular and most requested esthetic dental procedures. Whitening is safe under professional supervision.

By the way, we have been seeing the opening of whitening kiosks in shopping malls and occasionally in beauty salons. In my state (New York), and an increasing number of other places, these places are absolutely illegal and the New York State Dental Board is issuing warnings about them. There is no professional supervision, no professional control over sterilization and the results are very short lived. Do not use these places. Don't try to save a little money at the expense of the safety of your teeth.

If you have questions about getting a brighter smile, give us a call at 845-297-6206. Or send us e-mail at DrSteveRoss@aol.com. We'll be glad to help you understand the best way for you to have the smile you want.

After all, a bright smile is the most convincing form of communication!

About My Invisalign Post. No Need To Worry!

Wow! Some of my patients got nervous when they read my blog on Invisalign's new policy.

I want everyone to know that we can take care of all our Clear Aligner patients. No one is without full service. We can replace retainers and do anything you need. We still do Invisalign and we are also Certified in ClearCorrect (a wonderful Clear Aligner method).

No problem at all and no worries.

Sorry for getting anyone upset. You know we always take great care of you.

If you have a question or want to talk with us about Clear Aligners for straighter teeth the easy way, just call us at 845-297-6206 or send e-mail to DrSteveRoss@aol.com.

Outrageous New Policy - Quotas by Invisalign

There are some new developments in the clear aligner world of orthodontics that I want to let you all know about.

As you may know, teeth can be straightened by using clear aligners instead of metal wires and braces.

One of the main companies that produce these aligners is called Align Technologies. You may have heard of their system, called Invisalign. They have just announced a new policy.

Align now says that they will no longer work with a dentist (even if he is Certified in the Invisalign System, as I am) if he does not do a certain minimum number of cases a year with them.

Wow! Imagine if the manufacturer of a pain-killing drug told doctors that unless they wrote a certain minimum number of prescriptions a year, they would not allow him to prescribe their drug. Do you think there would be a danger that some doctors would decide to write a prescription for that drug so they could fill their quota?

What if your dentist did implants and one of the big implant companies said that unless he bought a certain minimum number of their implants to insert in his patients' jaws every year, they would not sell him the implants? Do you think that there would be a danger that a dentist might choose that brand of implant, even if it might not be the very best one for that patient, so he could fill his quota?

This is bad policy, although it might be good business for the company making the product.

Doctors must choose the best technique and products and not be pressured by manufacturers to choose based on a quota.

OK. Thankfully, Align is not the only manufacturer of clear aligners and aligner systems. There are several others.

I am also Certified in the ClearCorrect system of clear aligner orthodontics and in fact, I have begun to believe, over the last few months - even before Align announced this new policy - that it is actually a better system in several ways that are good for my patients.

So the heck with Invisalign.

If you have questions about this, or about getting your teeth straightened the easy way with clear aligners, please just call me at 845-297-6206 or send e-mail to DrSteveRoss@aol.com.

And you can check out my web site at DrSteveRoss.com.

What is the difference between crowns, inlays and fillings?

This is one of the most asked questions I get at the chair. So here’s a summary answer.

Crowns. People usually call crowns “caps”. Think of a crown as a kind of perfectly formed tooth-shaped thimble that fits over the whole tooth and covers it completely. It’s the strongest restoration we have, and it can repair teeth when nothing else will work. It can be gold, porcelain, plastic, or any combination. It can be made to look, feel, and function naturally. It can be attached to other restorations to form bridges and stabilizing splints. We need to shape your tooth to fit under the crown.

Inlays (and onlays). Think of inlays as very strong fillings for teeth that are too badly damaged for an ordinary filling but not so badly damaged so they need a crown. Inlays are made outside the mouth on an exact replica of your tooth and then placed into your tooth and bonded there. Inlays come in two basic forms: inlays and onlays. Inlays fit completely into a prepared tooth, while onlays fit into the tooth but roll over the top and cover one or more cusps to protect them from fracture. A big advantage of inlays and onlays is that they can be fashioned with near perfect form, because they are made outside the mouth. And because of the way they are made, they are very resistant to breakage. They are the best way to restore form and function to any tooth while preserving as much natural tooth structure as possible.

Inlays and onlays can be gold, porcelain, or composite resin.

Since they are made in the laboratory on a model of your teeth made from impressions, like crowns they need two visits to complete.

Composite resin onlays can sometimes be made right in the natural tooth instead of on a model. This restoration, which we call an “direct resin onlay”, is a one visit procedure, and is becoming more and more popular as the resin manufacturers give us increasingly great resin materials. I am liking doing these more and more. They save you some time and they save you some money.

Fillings. This is what dentists usually are talking about when they mean a restoration fashioned right in your tooth using soft materials that harden in the tooth, while you sit with your mouth open. In our office they are made of composite resin (hardened by the high-intensity blue light you’ve seen us use so often). We do not use silver amalgam for fillings. We gave amalgam up in 1982 (yup, 1982).

Fillings are one-visit procedures, and are an excellent choice for small to moderate repairs to teeth that are still strong. Modern composite resins are amazingly good materials, and getting better and better all the time. If the damage to your tooth is too extensive for a good resin filling, the tooth should be restored with an inlay, onlay, or crown.

The choice of restorative technique depends on many factors, and is made with you at the time. As one patient said while we were making this choice with him, “You got to fit the punishment to the crime.”

Not the way I would have said it, but it does express the idea pretty well.

Send me e-mail at DrSteveRoss@aol.com if you have a question and you want a personal answer.