As a hygienist, I don’t prep teeth. I pop caps all the time, though, when the cement is dangling out of a margin and I’m working it hard with a cavitron tip. Wooo, those are smelly enough to inspire me to write some lyrics using this song as a framework.

In the meantime, enjoy this dental school video.
 

Hal Mayforth must really like dental floss. Therefore I like Hal Mayforth, and as much as I used to be an evangelical hygienist who preached that there was only ONE WAY to dental health, and that was through flossing, I have since become a little more ecumenical in my approach: there are many paths to righteousness. WaterPiks, Stimudents, Superfloss, Sonicares, Soft-Picks, angled flossing gizmos, they’re all okay in my book of holiness as long as patients aren’t looking all stagnant between their teeth when they visit our office.

In your office, you should still promote flossing as well, since it’s the gold standard of interdental cleaning, patients understand its necessity, and they’re expecting the lecture from you, but they still won’t do it, maybe.

Or maybe if you let something else do the talking, they might floss? That’s where Hal Mayforth comes in. He’s an illustrator whose style may already feel familiar to you. It should; he’s been doing this sort of thing for over 35 years. His keen humor might look really good in your operatories, in your reception area, along the walls, and it just so happens that he’s got a few prints for sale about dental health if you’re looking for a way to lift up the level of levity in your practice.

When he’s not tending to his teeth, Hal Mayforth is busy getting his work published in national magazines like Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes and many others. You know, the ones who still actually print on paper. And his sketchbook is fun, too. I borrowed a couple of sketches from it to display below for you to enjoy, and mostly, for you to get a sense of his focus.

 
It would make me happy for you to Visit Hal’s website and take a look at his creativity. If for nothing else, you need a smile today.

And isn’t that what dentistry is really about?

Do you know how sometimes, when you get a new piece of equipment, it’s so Shifta La Paradigma that you can’t even THINK about working without it? You get a little anxious about the possibility of it failing and having to go back to the old way of doing things. What do you do?

You get yourself a backup, right? hoping that your original will keep going until FedEx arrives with your precious cardboard salvation. But then you realize that the backup is so Next Generation, your OLD one ends up becoming the backup. And that’s where I am with my Lumadent headlight. I have the old, the new, and opinions about them both, which are the real reasons you’re here. So let’s get to those, shall we?

Opinion #1: It’s Bright, Baby.

Not only is the Lumadent headlight well-focused and a good color, its shadowless light means that more photons are hitting your retinas, therefore the mouth that you’re looking at may be ACTUALLY MORE GROUNDED in reality. If you can’t see something, it’s not there.

Since I haven’t used any other lights except the Lumadent consider this a broad endorsement for headlights over any other sort of overhead illumination. Just about all of them have some sort of knob that will allow you to adjust the intensity, and I find that I rarely turn the Lumadent’s control any more or less than to the halfway position. I’ve learned how to control my head so that the light doesn’t shine in my patient’s eyes (unless I’m gesticulating wildly, then they might see a few blinding streaks) and the super bright just isn’t necessary most of the time. Also included is a flip-up composite filter to keep your accidental light curing to a minimum. I’ve heard some concerns about LEDs damaging user’s eyes over time which is one reason I tend to keep the power down, but don’t seem to have any problems with eyestrain in the two years I’ve been using one. The new model seems to be just as bright and as clear as the older one, so no change in this most important feature.

Opinion #2: Cords are better. And worse.

But mostly better. I’ll explain. The cord replacement is much easier now that the light detaches completely from it. They’ve also switched to a longer initial cord which means that I don’t have to keep a too-long extension hanging around or knotted up in a tie wrap. You’ll notice that the plug-in at the battery has changed to a right-angle which should keep the tension off the cord. I was KILLING my extensions contacts and the light would flicker and just short out and be a huge pain.

What I’m less than thrilled with is the way that the right-angle attaches to the light itself. If you end up with a short in the new cord now, all you do is detach it right there, loupside, leave the light on the loupe, and plug in a new cord. But the cord sticks up at a weird angle and I’m forced to use yet another tiny tie-wrap to keep those wires from getting tangled in my hair and attached close to the frames. The other thing I do like is that the lens is easier to access and clean now that it’s not recessed. It’s the one on the left in this image.

Opinion #3: This battery pack is serious.

My original battery pack served me well and would stay charged for a whole day, but its slick case in a sassy leather pouch clip probably caused the short outs due to occasional detachment problems. Not the clip, just the battery itself would skittle across the floor when I had a “way to go, Grace” moment.

Now that I have two batteries I forget to charge the new silver one, but I have yet to have it clunk out on me and switching back to the black one for backup. Once you go silver….

So this pack is so serious, it’s like Chuck Norris, it has it’s OWN clip built in. A very tough clip. One so tough that if you wear those cute scrubs with the flared legs and the knit waistline you can forget trying to spread the clip enough to get it to attach to your pants. But I adapted by figuring out how to wear it on a waist-level pocket. Now my biggest issue is leaning close to patients and inadvertently turning the light off at the black side switch. I really think it was better on the top when it was red and adjacent to the intensity knob.

Opinion #4: There’s no excuse for not using a headlight.

I’m just going to think I’m better than you if you don’t have one. That’s my throwdown. If you use the excuse that headlights cost too much? Compare the Lumadent with its “better” competitors, it’s so much less expensive, you can buy one for you AND your assistant. And for your higher power loupes, for that matter. What about the problem with wires and bulk? The Lumadent is so lightweight that once you adjust your behavior a little (all I did was to begin wearing a strap on my loupes instead of taking them on and off so that they hang around my neck when I’m not using them) they will become a much easier part of you than having to reach up and adjust a mounted light somewhere over your right shoulder, in space. And patients stop anticipating the bright light and never squint anymore when it’s time to open their mouths. PATIENT ACCEPTANCE IS AMAZING, and in my opinion, the BEST reason why you should get a Lumadent.

This is my parting shot for you, a side view of the Lumadent attached to a pair of Through-The-Lens shielded SandyGrendel loupes with the custom mount that came with the light. See how it sticks up a little too high, and there are two tie-wraps, and a cord management doohickey making this all such a mess?
 
No? I don’t see it either, actually.

For earlier insights about Lumadent and the company, click here to go to the DentalBuzz original review.

It looks like wisdom teeth can be preventable.

Now that you’ve found yourself a little incensed at the inflammatory title of this blog post (sometimes it takes alarm words to grab people’s eyeballs these days!) you’ll realize that the word ABORT actually does apply in this case.

Last month Tufts University School of Dental Medicine announced that there was a correlation between the injection of local anesthesia given to children between the ages of two and six and evidence of missing lower wisdom teeth. In other words, if a child had an IAN block at this age, they were over 4 times more likely to have missing third molar buds when radiographs were taken at least three years later.

At this young age, the cells that will become the third molar are not much larger than the anesthetic needle itself, and the developing tooth bud is quite vulnerable to injury. Dr. Anthony Silvestri, a clinical professor at Tufts University and an author of this study, has also published research to support the trauma theory of wisdom tooth prevention, showing that both diode lasers and electrosurgical energy can stop third molars from developing in rats.

Interestingly enough, I might have been affected by this phenomenon. As a kid I had my share of mandibular blocks as soon as my permanent molars started popping in with occlusal decay, and never developed my lower wisdom teeth. Thank you, Dr. Big-Scary-Hands-But-Really-Nice-Dentist Tom Watson DDS! Thank you for excusing my future visit to the oral surgeon.

You know, if the science behind this prophylactic de-nucleation of third molars gains any momentum, think about the consequences. In the next thirty years out-of-work oral surgeons will be lining up in protest of the loss of their bread and butter business. They’ll be picketing general dentists who perform these euphemisms and call them names like wizzie abortionists or bud killers.

Don’t take a side just yet. At this point the ethics of new research itself are even in question, but if there is a way to inoculate kids against the inconvenience of such minor diseases as chicken pox and shingles, why shouldn’t we at least explore the idea of making third molar extraction an option instead of an inevitability for most people?

And as a hygienist trying to hit production goals, I say, well, there goes my fourth qualifying tooth for quadrant scaling and root planing.

Thanks to these articles for all their information:

TuftsNow: Dental Anesthesia May Interrupt Development of Wisdom Teeth in Children
Nerve Blocks in Children May Destroy Future Molars
Dimensions of Dental Hygiene: Local Anesthesia and Wisdom Teeth Development

You know how they say whatever you give to the universe, it will come back to you double? I shoulda been more careful….

This all started about a month ago, and it wasn’t even supposed to be a poem; more like silly prose set to music, but one thing led to another and the darn thing practically wrote itself. Not that it’s art in the sense of revealing the true nature of the human condition, but I thought it was pretty funny and so I shared my little ditty, “The Ballet of the Stray Hair” with a friend, who posted it over here at DentalEggs. You should go there, read it, and then continue on with this story.

Back already? Well, then.

A few weeks later, unsolicited, a little limerick popped up in my inbox from a professor at the college where I took my STATE BOARD EXAM! What do I do? I HAVE to publish it, right? Because if I don’t I’ll keep having those nightmares where my instructors find about a bajillion clicks of subgingival calculus and make me repeat my senior year over and over until finally I get to take my board exam and lo and behold the patient’s teeth are caked with green marijuana stain…. Wait, no, actually, that last part really did happen.

In the middle of all this, I was invited to the Townie Meeting, and something that didn’t happen in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. It came home as a bug in the back of my brain (it could have been in a worse place, admit it, you thought it!). One of DentalTown’s original masters of meter told me that there were thousands! yes thousands of dental haiku written years ago, almost forgotten behind the cobwebbed threads of the message boards. And I received permission to repost a few of them here.

Hey Universe… thank you?

On to the poetry now.

 (be sure to click the link to see why this limerick’s subject is appropriate)

There practiced a dentist in Maine,
Who worked hard, hard as a train,
Esthetics was his love,
But he forgot to glove,
The Boards took his license again.

Dr. Raghu Puttaiah

These haiku are posted in the order of their original appearance. Think movie credits, but with only one actor. It’s kind of a soliloquy, actually.

OSHA training tape
must review for staff to watch
thrice I fall asleep

patient excited
will fix rotten teeth tuesday
oops forgot check book

open wide I say
the assistant turns to retch
oh god it’s anug

brown nubs, baked bean teeth
patient rinses with pepsi
between cigarettes

Lortab seven please
Ultracet is what you’ll get
no? then there’s the door

a long day for me
tears, red-faced child wants father
refer to pedo

“just so you know Doc,
I don’t like things in my mouth!”
Not even your brush?

your teeth are rotting
hurting, stinking, and all loose
“Can I get them bleached?”

two rough sedations
why did he eat that breakfast?
vomit in the sink

other doc’s patient
MFLI composite
should I steal him? No.

I hate most endo
boring snoring tedious
oh crap! broke a file.

started root canal
paid in full but won’t come back
on mom’s credit card

can you get it out?
well, there’s nothing left but root…
do I need a shot?

why do I do them?
the tooth is buried in bone
sadomasochist

zoom day white excel
left it in my trays too long
teeth are white, but ouch!

silver point canal
retreatment necessary
ultrasonic? yes.

perio abcess
white purulent exudate
debride and Trimox

smoke? get dry socket
I pack some gelfoam in there
maybe it helps some

appointments not kept
what is wrong with these people?
next time I’ll not show

what’s that dark shadow?
it’s peri-implantitis
periodontist

DENTURE PATIENT

This plate doesn’t fit!
he looks at the wall photo
I want ‘em like that!

Immediate teeth
he wanted them yesterday
expects perfection

I don’t understand!
why is this taking so long?
this stuff makes me gag!

my old teeth were fine!
except that they were rotten…
“You should have brushed them”

EXTRACTIONS

cold steel and sunshine
former captive relinquished
clink clank shiny bowl

cotton gauze poultice
damming the flow of red life
platelets, activate

By no means is this collection complete! These were my favorite dental-themed haiku, and even though I didn’t check them carefully they all seem to follow the traditional 5-7-5 syllable rule. If you adored these like I do and want more from those who haven’t given me permission to share, go on over to this DentalTown thread, become a member if you haven’t already, enjoy the sometimes poignant ramblings of a bygone time, maybe even hold a revival and start a new poetry post if you’re inspired thusly.

And I promise, no more poems about hair from me!

It looks like virtual reality may actually be almost Matrix-quality in a few short years, and our patients will be able to immerse themselves fully in another world while they’re getting their dental work done. But because there’s a lot more money to be made in gaming (and there’s a MUCH wider customer base) don’t expect that this technology will have a dental application any time soon. Here’s a decent introduction to the concept featuring Palmer Luckey, the originator of the Oculus Rift headset:

These sorts of glasses have been intriguing to me for years, but all the previous versions mentioned here on DentalBuzz basically make it seem like you’re watching a TV screen from a distance. Oculus Rift is different. Users have described the feeling as being totally disconnected from reality. And isn’t that what recreational drugs do? Isn’t that what dental sedatives do?

Imagine a dental appointment where a fearful patient is allowed to slip into a virtual playground where they don’t even need to move their head much in order to initiate the immersive feeling of being elsewhere while they hold their totally oblivious mouths open. Patients’ ears will hear the sounds of their “other world,” letting them slip away from their bodies for a little while so that you can manage all the dental unpleasantries for them.

Here’s another preview of Oculus Rift:

There are many software developers in dentistry that are in search of the next big thing. The 3-D milling technology is pretty awesome these days, but indirect dental software such as patient education, practice management and the like are also looking for the leg-up. Oculus Rift is looking for developers right now, and my guess is that they haven’t even imagined its application in dentistry.

But that’s because you haven’t yet picked up their development kit to make it happen.

Here ya go, and good luck:

“Just this once; it’s okay.”

Does that sound like your practice? You know, you have a gaggy, bouncy kid who’s just about to tongue-thrust their way out of having those radiographs taken, but here comes Amazing Assistant to help you get a diagnostically acceptable image. SCORE!

The problem is that this never happens “just once.” I’ve seen the same person holding sensors in patients’ mouths dozens of times, and that’s when it becomes a problem. Yes, radiation is safer now that we’ve dialed it down and collimators make sure that there’s nothing scattering beyond the focused beam, but that doesn’t mean that we should be flippant about limiting exposure to our patients and most importantly, ourselves.

My best friend from high school could tell you not to hold those films in people’s mouths, too. She was a dental technician in the Navy and also worked for years in pediatric dental offices and orthodontics as an assistant, calming nervous children, helping them to have good dental experiences, and when she was exposing radiographs, sometimes she admits that she would make it easier on everyone if she would stay with the child while the x-rays were beaming through her hand.

She doesn’t have to tell you not to hold the films, though. She can just show you why you shouldn’t:

This is her right hand. Several years ago when she was doing laundry her finger caught on the dryer and “snapped.” This is important, sort of like when your patient tells you exactly what they were eating when their tooth broke – don’t you pay that the most attention of all? Because it was the darn dryer that was the problem….(!) Let’s be serious, though. Like you, her doctor really didn’t care what broke her finger, he wanted to know why it broke.

Turns out that she had developed a giant cell tumor in the first (proximal) phalange of her ring finger that had eaten everything except a small sliver of bone and that was what had snapped. These are very, very rare in small bones like those found in our fingers; most osteoclastomas happen in the larger bones like femurs and such. Hmmm.

Even though the tumor was benign, because of the damage done, the possibility of regrowth and other factors, the decision was made for my friend to have her ring finger amputated. I would have had her flip you the bird for effect but she no longer has a middle finger either…! (think about it…!)

So she was fortunate enough to stay in dentistry as a patient care coordinator for a few more years as she recovered but is now working towards her master’s degree for speech pathology. While she doesn’t seem totally convinced that excessive radiation exposure caused her to lose her finger, she doesn’t count it out for even a second.

And neither do I.

Losing a finger may be anecdotal evidence about the dangers of radiation, but it’s enough for me to feel like enforcing what we already know to be true.

Please share this story with those you care about, even if it makes you feel like the Radiation Nazi.

Don’t you think that this is the WORST part of orthodontia? You take off the brackets and voila! Straight teeth… with fugly white squares where acid beat the $#!† out your patients’ anteriors. And NOW you have to go drill on their teeth, destroying what you so carefully tried to perfect.

Once you’re here there’s no use in blaming the patient; it’s not like they’re going to get the brackets put back on to cover the white spots and then get more decalcification there. Yes, you should help them with their lifestyle choices (less energy drinks and voluntary mouth breathing, please) but at this point you have to do something to make them look better.

As a hygienist I’ve been totally itching for about the last four years to get the go-ahead to use a relatively new product called an infiltrant. There’s only one, it’s made by DMG and it’s called Icon. This infiltrant is placed on the tooth where it seeps into smooth-surface lesions that haven’t fully cavitated (although if you ask me the ones in the “Before” picture above look way gnarled out) and pretty much does a little remineralization voodoo.

I’d hoped that it would be classified as a sealant because Yay! I can do sealants. There’s no drilling done, right? There’s nothing taken away, right? There is, however, some irreversible improvement made to the tooth though and that (plus a significant etch time) means that when the CDT recognized that an infiltrant needed a code, where did that boom fall? Smack dab into Composite Land as a D2990. I know. The wording says “placement of an infiltrating resin restoration for strengthening, stabilizing and/or limiting progression of the lesion” and that SCREAMS prevention. Alas there’s the other word. Restoration.

Dangit.

Another problem is that this stuff is very expensive. See what it costs here for the mini kit for a maximum of six lesions?

That’s at best, $27 per tooth just for the kit (not including your other overhead or minusing the limited-time Amex card!). The suggested cost to a patient should be somewhere between your one surface composite fee and a sealant fee, and conservatively it takes at least 20 minutes of intense doctor time to place an infiltrant on a single tooth. Composites don’t cost that much or take that long to place so you know what that means, right? THE FEASIBILITY OF ICON SUCKS.

I really hope I’m wrong, but to most doctors, what’s a few millimeters of drilled-away tooth structure? Minimally invasive dentistry is for anal retentive freak dentists anyway. And every hygienist who has ever had a passion for preserving tooth structure, including me.

So yeah, this is bad news for Icon and for DMG, really. Sure, they got a CDT code this year but it’s not like anyone is going to use it. There’s like one dentist in a 5o mile radius that’s even ordered it around here. I know this because you can look on the DMG patient portal here and find a dentist that offers Icon in your area.

I have a challenge then. Actually two challenges – one for dentists, and the other for those who want to see this service added to the hygienist’s scope of practice in every state.

•If you’re a dentist and you love saving teeth, JUST DO THIS. Charge what you must, you’re not going to get rich, but you will have the warm fuzzy feeling that you’re doing the right thing by preserving tooth structure. We all know composites and amalgams eventually fail around their margins. There are no margins with an infiltration, just a lovely, arrested half-moon where an incipient lesion never progressed if you follow up with radiographs two decades from now (I may be exaggerating, but maybe not!). Go here, learn more, buy some.

•Those of you who are frustrated with dental hygienists wanting to become these mid-level providers that are supposed to help in low-access areas but will probably just come take your job away from you (I keed! I keed!) please support the use of infiltrants by hygienists. You will still need to diagnose that the treatment is needed but the service should be able to be delegated because of the very nature of the care being provided and the labor intensity needed for this smaller ROI.

As a realist, I don’t see squat happening as a result of this challenge. What can one blogger do? I have these silly dream glasses, when I put them on and see the future, well, there are no more cavities, on anyone, except arrested ones, and all the dentists are happy because all they have to do is play on the computer and nod their head every so often while their hygienists prevent all dental infirmities for ever and ever. Then I take them off again, and I see white spot lesions on teeth.

And I say…..dangit.

Our local ABC affiliate ran an investigative story on TV today that made me think I was in the middle of a big CE lecture with blown-up pink on the edges and all white and brown in the centers. Dental closeups! Yeah, I should probably put a porn-type filter on my email box when those “identify this lesion” photos pop up because they are just so gross to look at when I’m not in my Dental Frame Of Mind.

I saw three severely decayed mouths in super-close detail on local television, and felt sorry for everyone eating lunch during their noon hour that caught the show, too.

The gist is that these men were serving in Iraq almost ten years ago and now all their teeth are rotting and breaking and hurting and the VA won’t pay to get them fixed up.

As much as you want to feel bad for these guys, and I do, there’s a big part of me wondering what questions aren’t being asked. They’ve never done meth, they don’t complain about severe dry mouth. That’s about all the evidence I heard. What about medications that may be causing an acid imbalance in their saliva? What are their soda habits? How well did they keep up with their dental care the first five years since Iraq?

Watch this video, or if you just want to get through this quickly and avoid an orthodontic commercial, go read the transcript here.

The station will be airing another segment tonight so I may post it online tomorrow that may answer some of these questions and get to the bottom of this Medical Mystery and our pathetic excuse of a government that lets this happen to innocent people (not necessarily my view, but possibly the witch that this investigative report is trying to hunt down).

I’d love to know your theories too, post them here, maybe we can all figure this out together with our Holmesian powers of deduction and ultimately solve this conundrum for these unfortunate men.

Update:

Here’s the second segment of this story (Go Dr. Beadle!) where stress is cited as a major factor in causing tooth loss. I guess it could, in a roundabout way. You’ll find the transcript of this story here, for those of you who aren’t in the mood for a movie.

Bad Hollywood Teeth have been one of the things that REALLY GET UNDER MY SKIN and because I have a place to express it like the swollen fistula that it is.(!)… Well, here we are.

No, I’m not talking about the ones that are NATURALLY bad. This time we’re going to admonish the actors that couldn’t overcome their dentition additions. Watch the videos below to see what I mean.
Do you remember Steven Spielberg’s “Hook?” I do, for the wrong reasons, and while Dustin Hoffman received positive reviews in this role, the way he would press his lower lip on his false teeth made me cringe every time the camera closed in on him.

Emma Thompson’s Nanny McPhee has the same problem, only it’s with a single tooth this time. I know, I know, she’s supposed to look ugly! But does she have to slide her lip under her snaggle so intentionally?

And then there’s the ever-creepy Mad Hatter, endowed with a careless lisp by Johnny Depp.

I actually love that Austin Powers pokes fun at his OWN teeth in this clip, while also emphasizing the need to carry floss and toothpaste into dire situations. Even so, the prosthetics never seem to quite fit in Mike Myers’ mouth.

Not only will you get to see a green (as in young, not as in tree-hugging) Ed Begley Jr. sucking on his fake braces, you to hear one of his best-delivered lines ever. Real Genius is classic 80′s cheese in a yummy Val Kilmer sandwich and this is one of the funniest scenes of the movie.

Next time you see a film where an actor is doing naughty things with his teeth, remember the catharsis you felt when you came here and realized that you weren’t alone with your annoyance, because it reminded you of the reluctant denture patients that really, really need new ones but they let the old ones schlep around in their mouths anyway. And when you feel that feeling again at the movies, be sure to come back here and share it so that it can be featured in a future article.

Don’t know about you, but I feel like someone should prescribe me an antibiotic after all this squeezing.

by Robert Milton

Who says dentistry isn’t exciting? Our noble profession has captured the hearts and imaginations of some pretty interesting people over the years. Granted, eventually these folks turned to other less fascinating professions—like acting, gun fighting, inventing, painting and saving the country—but still, they all had their “roots” (pardon the pun) in the enviable art of dentistry. Just check out this list of people you didn’t know were dentists:

· Edgar Buchanan: This popular character actor started out as a successful dentist before moving to California in 1939. Although he co-starred in countless movies over the years, Buchanan was probably best known for his memorable roles in 1960s sitcoms like “Petticoat Junction,” “Green Acres” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Once he was bitten by the acting bug, he left dentistry. But, interestingly enough, his wife actually took over his successful practice after he retired.

• John Henry “Doc” Holliday: You may remember Doc Holliday for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and their famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but Holliday was actually a dentist who was trained in Pennsylvania and developed a booming little practice in Atlanta. After a short time, Holliday contracted tuberculosis and he was forced to leave his practice and move out West, where the rest is, well…history.

• Mark Spitz: Many of us know Mark Spitz from his record-breaking  7 gold medals won during the 1972 Olympic Games. What you may not know is that Spitz was actually accepted into dental school earlier on, but he decided to pursue his Olympic swimming career instead.

• Zane Grey: If you’re a fan of Western novels, then you’re no stranger to the name Zane Grey. Before writing over 80 books, Pearl Zane Grey was a practicing dentist in New York. Unfortunately, his love for dentistry decayed and he quickly abandoned the field when he became a published author. The lackluster Pearl went on to be one of history’s first millionaire authors. We can only hope none of his patients ever felt pangs while at the dental clinic as he did.

• Thomas Welch: While it may seem ironic that the creator of a company specializing in sugar-laden fruit juices was also a dentist, that’s exactly what happened with Thomas Welch. The founder of Welch’s was a dentist before he retired and gained some notoriety for inventing a pasteurization process for grape juice that kept it from fermenting. Welch’s intention was to create a non-alcoholic wine that could be used at the sacrament in churches.

• Miles Henry Davis: The father of Miles Davis, who is arguably one of the most famous and influential musicians of the last hundred years, was actually a dentist. While we’re not sure whether Miles Jr. was ever tempted to go into his dad’s profession, we’re glad he didn’t. Miles Sr. bought his son his first trumpet when he was a small boy.

• Paul Revere: This famous Revolutionary War hero made a midnight ride just before the battles of Concord and Lexington to warn people that, “The British are coming! The British are coming!” If he were advertising his day job, he might just as easily called out, “The dentist is coming! The dentist is coming!” Revere was a skilled silversmith who also advertised his services as a dentist and was known for making false teeth for his patients.

Keep this list of famous dentists handy for the next time someone hints that dentistry isn’t the most exciting profession. After all, if we were successful in attracting this list of characters in the past, you never know who’ll be among our ranks in the future!

Robert Milton blogs for Austin Dental Center, PC, and will also write compelling content for your practice website if you’d like to benefit from his extensive knowledge base, enthusiasm for dentistry, and killer smile.

Trish adds: thanks to Robert for researching this article – I always had a warm mushy place in my heart for Doc Holliday, and was drawn to visit his gravesite in Glenwood Springs a summer ago. Here’s the pic with me and his…(wait for it….) TOMBSTONE! ahHAHAHAHAHAha!

Bendy fake joints may not be susceptible to the bacteria introduced during dental procedures after all.

According to a systematic review of the research involving prosthetic knees and hips conducted collaboratively by the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, it was announced yesterday that there was no increase in the odds of developing a prosthetic joint infection as a result of invasive dental procedures.

This means that the Antibiotic Prophylaxis Guidelines have been updated with some sort of vague blurburbmush gabble guhg that essentially states what I’ve been saying for YEARS! When patients ask why they have to choke down those four huge amoxicillin capsules an hour before their dental visit, my answer has been something along the lines of “because it protects the dentist against liability.” This has taken some tact, of course, with explanations of how open sores in the mouth allow bacteremias every time that a toothbrush pops open a pocket and causes untold blood-squirtage- these aren’t necessarily negotiated with daily doses of doxycycline. We’ve all realized it’s good homecare, not an antibiotic, that is the key to preventing oral bacteria from getting into the bloodstream and infecting artificial joints.

Thank you, ADA, for affirming the overkill of antibiotic prophylaxis.
 

For the rest of the story, here’s the link:

http://www.ada.org/news/8061.aspx

This holiday season, don’t you know someone who would appreciate the Photoshopped finesse that can only be found in a printed new year calendar? Especially if they are aficionados of the lip-less look of their favorite Dexter, typodont, or other practice mannequin.

It’s bad enough that we all had to hover over these our first semester of dental school. Now they’ll be entering your dreams in an Inception-like takeover of your subconscious fears. NO! YOU NEVER GRADUATED AND YOU MUST SAY THANK YOU FOR THE UGLY WALLET FROM THE FAKE EVIL WOMAN YOU MARRIED!

Please tell me that you don’t really want one of these calendars. If you insist, it is available at this link here at Practicon, for pretty cheap, for a gag, for someone you pretend to like but just want to oog out really really bad.

Or you can just browse the rest of the calendar here. Do it quickly. Don’t linger. Because the longer you look, the more you’ll begin to question reality.

And if the nightmare above actually does describe your current marital situation, sorry, wasn’t trying to dis on your spouse. But you may want to consider this a wake-up call.

Good news, colleagues!

Our chances of pee-pee and va-jay-jay injuries is greater than that of accidental dental injuries!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/11/09/genital-harm-more-common-than-dental-injuries-study-shows/

So, before you start laughing to yourself about that ten-year-old pedo patient that got his central incisor horrifically knocked out during a friendly game of blindfolded dodge ball please think about the apparently, chronic-happening alternative– your kid’s foot that emphatically missed the soccer ball during the big game and made a B-line straight into the pecker of another player.

Let’s be careful out there.

This is both a proud and pathetic confession: Plants vs. Zombies is the only video game I’ve ever finished, even all of the bonus levels. PVZ and the original iPad proved to be a time-zapping combination that rendered me oblivious to all other attention-getting devices until I’d completed all the Endless modes and bought all the extra stuff from Crazy Dave.

So because it is November 1st and I am a dental hygienist, it is with great pleasure that I share with you the code that will allow you to go to the StopZombieMouth.com website, sponsored by the American Dental Association and hosted by all of the zombies and plants (except the Michael Jackson one) and download your free copy. This code is good until November 10th and can be played on your PC or Mac computer.

The code is PEAH8R