The history of the tooth fairy can be traced back as early as the 18th century France. As the story goes, a fairy changed into a mouse to help a queen defeat an evil king. This tooth mouse hid under the sleeping king’s pillow only to remove all the king’s teeth. Later, in the 1900’s a kinder tooth fairy came about. This time when a child loses a tooth and places it under the pillow at night,the tooth fairy exchanges the baby tooth for a present usually money and sometimes candy.
Rarely is the tooth fairy described as upsetting to children and has become a delightful part of our modern family culture. Stay tuned for more on this charming part of childhood innocence.

Recently, it was announced in the August 2012  issue of Virginia Living Magazine that I was awarded the 2012 Top Dentist Award as voted by my peers. this is quite an award since my fellow collegues have thought enough of my dentistry to nominate me for this honor. Daily, I try to treat patientswith respect and empathy, to the best of my professional ability. My work may potentially be  seen by other specialist and maybe other future dentist,so I strive to produce the best care that all my patients deserve. In addition, I have always been blessed to have a great staff who are the backbone of my practice. I have five employees who show up every day and are dedicated to helping me be successful…so a big thanks go out to them too.

How great is it to know that I am finished paying for my college education….However, my own kids will be in college in the next 2-7 years. The price of college has increased steadily over the years. Right now we are estimating that my kids will need at least $20K each year. If however, they get some kind of tuition assistance that would be sweet, but certainly we are planning for the wost case scenario. I can remember wanting to apply for dental school in Boston where the tuition was $25K per year times 4 years and I was strongly persuaded to stay away from such a price tag. My tuition in dental school was $4000.00 and that was high in the late eighties. Seems pretty reasonable when you compare the cost of school today. Often I think how expensive school is , but I must always remember that education is an investment for more opportunities in life. I try to teach my kids that while they are in school, they have one job in life right now and that is to pay attention in school, study and to work hard. Hopefully, they will be eligible to go to college , but if not these same values will make them better people in life. At least, that is what we hope for our next generation who we know must take care of us as we get old. Best of luck and study hard !!!

This past weekend, (friday and saturday) my two hygienist and I  took a trip back into time nearly 400 years  into  Colonial  Williamsburg. Even though our surroundings appeared old our continuing education classes were straight up 21st century. We attended the Annual Virginia Dental Association Meeting in Williamsburg,Virginia at the beautiful Williamsburg Lodge. I took classes on the latest techniques to make false teeth in- a- day. We took classes that reviewed pathology of the mouth and the latest drugs to fix those problems. Also, we learned about some of the newest preventative homecare products.  Once our classes broke for lunch, it was nice to stroll thru the colonial city. We enjoy the fife and drum corps while eating sandwiches in Merchants Square’s famous Cheese Shop run by the famous Executive Chef Tom Powers.  He never lets us down!   The VDA meeting was an easy get away from Richmond and great continuing education information for the practice.

It seems that certain days one of these Ten Principles  to Live By are more appropriate than the others, BUT I will bet as you read the remaining five from the list that each can add value to our lives.

• When You Make a Promise Keep It
• Ride for the Brand
• Talk Less and Say More
• Remember That Some Things Aren’t For Sale
•  Know Where to Draw the Line

The one principle that seems to speak the loudest to me from this list is the first. It is a reminder to always keep my word so that I can be trusted, that I will follow-up on my promises and so that others can depend on me that it will be done! Which one is your favorite?

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Thursday afternoon, all 6 of us at the office practiced our CPR skills at Health Educators. Thanks to Virginia M for teaching us all the new changes in CPR. It was fun to learn, but we hope not to ever need these skills at work or at home. It is still hard to believe compressions 30-2 is more of the priority now than the breathing!!!

Seems to me our preventative dental care options have improved tremendously over the last few generations.We have reversed our focus of reactive treatmenment of dental cavities to proactive treatment. Prevention has been the focus my entire career…

Does anyone remember brushing with Arm and Hammer baking soda? We now can buy our toothpaste with fluoride in any flavor of our choice. Of course dental floss now comes in a dozen different varieties: waxed, unwaxed, thin, thick, flavored and some with handles.  Soon there will be a whole new market for” beer- flavored” floss! We have gone from fluoride foam, to rinse and now fluoride varnish.

 Drinking water from the tap has been fluoridated  for years and some bottled water is fluoridated too.. Dental sealants are popular for preventing cavities in the deep grooves of you childern’s 12 year and 6-year molars. But for me bottled fluoride rinse such as ACT or Listerine Plus can really change the outcome of some cavity prone patients. The liquid can get around the fillings and crowns  of our teeth and protect the nooks and cranies from getting cavities. With all these preventative tools it will certainly protect your checkbook too..

The first American toothpaste sold in a tube was packaged in 1892 by Dr Washington Sheffeld.  He was a dentist practicing in New England, Connecticut.  The collapsable tube; however, was made of lead. During WWII, the emptycontainers were placed on the street for collection so the lead could be recycled to make bullets for the war effort. After the 1950’s the lead- lined toothpaste tube was discontinued for a newfangled synthetic product  called plastic. This is currently how most toothpaste is packaged.

Sure, there is a tree nicknamed the toothache tree…Zanthoxylum americanum. The tree is 10-20 feet tall and some consider it a tall shrub because of its multiple trunks. It is also called prickly ash for its leaves, which are similar to ash tree. The bark is quite spiney too. But, it is closely related to orange, lemon and grapefruit trees rather than the ash tree. The tree is native to eastern North America. Native Americans used to bite into the berry or chew on the bark. This would release  a volatile oil,which contained an alkaloid believed to be berberine. The oil and the alkaloid creates a numbing sensation in the mouth which would ease the pain from a toothache. Later in the 19th century herbal doctors would continue to use it. It actually does numb the mouth if you dare. Nature  can be fascinating!!