Trish Walraven – Page 25

Keeping it clean

June 14, 2008 By Trish Walraven Leave a Comment

Throw away all your battery-powered unmentionables and welcome a familiar friend to your bedside drawer!

The Oral-B Pulsar disposable electric toothbrush is the discreet answer to better pleasure, vitality, and all-around good vibes.

Once found only in the oral care department of superstores, the Oral-B Pulsar has now been endorsed by a pioneering gynecologist and may soon be the first product on the market to simultaneously receive the ADA Seal of Acceptance and the ABOG Standard of Therapy Seal. “Never before have we realized that a single product can fulfill two needs – perhaps even at the same time if the spouse is an enthusiastic brusher,” said one dental hygienist who wishes to remain anonymous.

Furthermore, the low cost of the Oral-B Pulsar opens the door to many more users who could not otherwise afford a vibrating device or who would stoop so low as to think of handling a toothbrush in this manner.

Readers of this blog who want to be further humored are highly encouraged to first read this actual news article from the Palm Beach Post, then to go play with the Pulsar Flash Video on Oral-B’s website. It will definitely change the way you look at power toothbrushes forever.

The real reason for the mask

June 9, 2008 By Trish Walraven 1 Comment

It is about time that periodontists, oral surgeons, and all dental professionals hear a public apology like this.

Today NPR aired a Fresh Air segment featuring writer David Sedaris. The morbidly fascinating sense of personal maladies that he brings to his humor dwells in a special place in our hearts. Or at least in our noses.

Here’s an excerpt of the 25-minute interview:

Terry Gross:

“You talked about the boil [on your backside], and you wrote how horrible the stuff that came out of it was; that it smelled like evil that had been trapped in your body. I would like you to reflect on that, feeling like you’d been the host to this stuff.”

David Sedaris:

“Well, it was my second time when I realized that I was a host to really what had to be the foulest liquid on earth, and it was more horrible than anything, smell-wise. But a couple years ago, when Hugh did lead me to the dentist, who led me to a periodontist, the periodontist cut my gums from top to bottom, and then he lifted them up, and he scraped that very same thing from the roots of my teeth. It smelled just like that.

“And I couldn’t feel a thing because he’d shot me full of Novocaine, so it was this odd sensation and I saw him, you know, sticking a knife into my mouth, and I saw his hand going back and forth, and I knew it, that I could taste blood, and I knew that there was stuff going on in there.

“But it wasn’t until I smelled it, and then, I just said “ Ahh sohhhay,” and what I was saying was “I’m sorry.” I was so sorry that i subjected anybody, it must have cleared the building. And to know that that was just there, hidden, hidden beneath my gumline.”

You can listen to the entire interview at NPR.org.

Patients won’t even notice it

June 6, 2008 By Trish Walraven 3 Comments

Internal Memo, Bright Happy Smile Dental Associates

From: Dr. Stan Freebie

To: All office personnel at Bright Happy Smile Dental

My dear team:

It is with great joy that I share this news with you! Starting next month, we will begin offering all of our patient services free of charge. This in no way affects your paycheck because our funding will come from generous sponsors instead of from the patients themselves.

Our insurance coordinator, Kathy, will be changing positions in the practice to take over the duty of implementing this new and exciting program. In order to qualify for this sponsorship, we will all need to modify our office routines in the following ways to allow for maximum product placement:

When answering the phone or greeting a patient, business personnel will mention the name of the building sponsor. As an example: “Thank you for calling the Bright Happy Smile Dental Associates, brought to you by Comcast. How may I help you?”

Any items that are given to the patient for use while in the practice (pens, cups, tissues) should be called by the name that is printed on them. Be sure to use the logo name and not the customary name; for instance, a patient napkin will now be called the Red Lobster bib.

The liquids dispensed in any form, whether from an air-water syringe or a high-speed handpiece, should be referred to as Coca-Cola coolant.

All crowns, fillings, and inlays/onlays will be described to the patient as dental restorations by Kay Jewelry. The exception to this are veneers; they will still be called Lumineers.

Patients who come in for preventive maintenance will need to be informed that their dental prophylaxis appointment is now called a Jiffy Lube.

To reduce no-shows and to improve communications with everyone who visits our practice, Kathy will be collecting the cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of each patient so that we can send them periodic newsletters, text messages, and appointment reminder emails. Our sponsor’s logos will be included on all correspondence.*

I hope that this new series of changes inspires all of you to continue to strive towards dental excellence and office harmony. If you have any concerns about this please speak with Kathy about the policies. I’ll be taking the next two weeks off as I recover from my LA-Inked full-body Google tattoo.

Sincerely,

Dr Freebie

*This part of the memo is for real. DentalSenders currently offers the unlimited service for free to all dental practices, as long as you don’t mind the extra product placement on emails sent from your office. There are no contracts, no software to purchase, plus you’ll be able to ramp up your office efficiency by reducing the amount of time spent on the phone confirming patients. Dental Senders integrates with most practice management software programs, and it’s definitely worth a try.

inTerra – better than stumps

June 1, 2008 By Trish Walraven Leave a Comment

In our last episode, we left as the two camps bickered over what they were going to do once they had actually tracked down the elusive Maxillus mandibularis. The leader of Camp NeuroMuscular had leaned toward the fire, cradling the bowl of his pipe in his fingers and clenching its stem in his teeth like an NTI device. Removing the pipe, he suggested that the solution was to deprogram this infernal beast.

“Nonsense!” replied Sir Centric Relation from under his handlebar moustache. “Everyone knows that you must guide the cuspid. It is the only way to stop the nightly rampage.”

As we return to the scene, Sir Centric stands up and peers into the encroaching darkness.

“But ho, what is this?” Out of the shadows steps a keen-eyed gentleman in a light blue seersucker suit and an obvious combover.

The man approaches the fire and begins his spiel. “You know what is the real problem, right? You just want to keep the Maxillus mandibularis from crashing in here and destroying everything. Do you think all those villagers care about why? They want this problem fixed, and they want it fixed today.”

The gentleman swiftly rolls out a sheet of something, squishes it around the beast’s water-hole, and waits for it to harden.

“There ya go. Problem solved. And it’ll cost you less than having those timberlogs dragged in from the forest. Besides, who has two weeks?”

“Certainly that shouldn’t be a problem. The villagers have been living with this for years.” says the leader of Camp Neuromuscular.

“Yes, but they came to you today for an immediate solution.”

“It’s only a stopgap. It doesn’t correct the underlying problem. And eventually the barrier will fail,” chime in the leaders of both camps.

The gentleman brings his fist up to his chin in thought. “Well, even if you can kill the beast, you do realize that it’s a protected species.”

“But no way is it in danger of going extinct. It must be laid to rest!”

“Yet, still so hard to kill quickly. Goodnight gentlemen. If you change your mind, just ask around. Everyone in these parts knows where to find me.”

The man in the suit slinks back off into the darkness, leaving the two leaders alone in silence, once again glaring at each other from across the campfire.

*********

When it comes to parafunction that eventually will whittle your patients’ teeth down to stumps at night, it only makes sense to fabricate some sort of cushion to soften the blow. Dentsply-Caulk has recently been advertising the i nTerra iNoffice Nightguard. This product appears to break down some of the obstacles that come up as the dental profession seeks to eradicate bruxing from the planet.

The iNterra Nightguard’s VLC (visible light cure) material is packaged in three arch sizes. This soft tray is formed directly on the patient’s teeth while in the chair, tack cured in the mouth for a few minutes, and then completed in the lab in another 20 minutes, which makes same-day delivery a snap.

With an existing light-curing oven in your lab, the cost to begin fabricating nightguards in-office makes the iNterra system a decent value, cutting the usual lab fees for nightguards at least in half. Otherwise, be prepared to spend a few thousand dollars on a curing unit before you insert your first case.

Look at the iNterra Nightguard from an efficiency standpoint. Single appointment, no lab transportation issues, minimal doctor chairtime. You may also be able to improve case acceptance when passing on the reduced overhead costs to patients.

Is it the best way to prevent occlusal wear? Who’s to say? But the inTerra Nightguard is much better than doing nothing about parafunction.

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