Come visit us at www.rondentist.com

Come visit us at www.rondentist.com

Monday, May 30, 2011

We had a visit from the Ticats last week

Hi everyone,
We had a visit from the Ticats last week.
What do you think?
Well we had some fun as you can tell.
See everyone at Ivor Wynne.

click on this link to watch the Ticats at our office

http://www.ticats.ca/video/index/id/17463

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Teeth don't start moving after having your teeth cleaned

A little while back a patient came in whom we had been treating his kids for sometime.  He had a loose tooth that was giving him some trouble.  We took the tooth out and brought this gentleman back for a new patient exam to check all of his teeth.  He had a number of loose teeth which we would have to remove and some teeth that we could save.  The patient then said to me, "Dr., whatever you do I don't want you to clean my teeth.  My teeth were fine but from the moment they started to be cleaned by a hygenist they started to move!"
Well where do I start.  Of course this is nonsense.  Teeth move because there is a loss of underlying support structure which is the bone and gums.  The underlying bone is destroyed by toxins that come from bacteria sitting in pockets around the teeth.  These pockets can be cleaned with the resultant loss of these toxins and the preservation of the tooth but if this cleaning is not done then there will be continual destruction of the tooth support with the tooth eventually starting to move and then falling out.  This patient may have associated the movement of his teeth with his first cleaning but it is most likely that this cleaning was the first time he had really noticed what was going on in his mouth.
I can't drive it home any more clearly than the next example.  This past week a gentleman, 65 years old came to the office.  Believe it or not, this was the first time in his life he had been to a dental office.  I didn't believe it so I asked him how he had lost four teeth on the bottom, assuming they had been extracted by a dentist.  He told me that they started to move and then just fell out.  I checked out the rest of his mouth and sure enough he had a lot of calculus (hard buildup on the teeth) and plaque everywhere.  His upper front six teeth were extremely mobile and would have to be extracted. (If he would leave them a little longer they would fall out on their own.)  I bring this example ( and I could bring many more) to show that this man never had his teeth cleaned by a dentist or hygenist and this is the result.  Teeth do not move because of dental cleaning, they move because of the lack of professional cleaning.  In other words when the build up and plaque is left on the teeth the underlying support structures will be destroyed, the teeth will start to move and eventually fall out.
I have to ad that the first gentleman did have all his upper teeth out and a complete upper denture made.  The question is how long will the remaining lower teeth last without professional cleaning?  The answer, not that long.

http://www.rondentist.com/

Monday, May 16, 2011

Spent the day with Dr. McIsaac, Pediatric Dentist

I had a lot of fun today at Dr. McIsaac's pediatric dental office. 

We refer children to Dr. McIsaac that I feel we can not treat in our office.  I wanted to go to their office to see what a day in a pediatric dental office looks like.  Hopefully I would pick up some pointers and some new perspectives as I love working with kids.

Dr. McIsaac is a pedodontist who has been around for some time and has a wealth of experience.  It was a pleasure to speak to him and to see him in action.  Remember, he gets the toughest cases.  From the youngest to the loudest (screamers that is) not to mention the special needs patients.  He and his staff remain calm throughout, just going about their normal day.  I give Dr. McIsaac a lot of credit because he truly has a tough job and yet does a great job and enjoys doing it.

I was very satisfied at the end of the day as on a day like this you always pick up pointers that you can bring home to your practise and do an even better job for your patients.  Does this mean I will no longer refer to a pedodontist.  No it does not.  We as professionals always try to improve what we do but as professionals we must always respect our boundaries.  I am lucky that I have many great dental specialists in the city of Hamilton to refer to if the need arises.

Thank you to Dr. McIsaac and staff for a great day.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Don't you just hate it when the dentist is late? The Dentist hates being late even more!!!

     I remember as a kid waiting in my dentist's office at least 45 minutes to an hour before I would be seen.  BOY DID I HATE IT!!!  I always assumed that maybe because I was a kid they thought it was OK.  I got a little older and they were still just as late.  Then I realized that they were just late for everyone.
     When I became a dentist, the one thing I promised myself that I would do better, was to be on time for my patients appointments.  It is my feeling that everyone tries to plan their day based on the appointments and commitments that they have made with others.  If people are making the effort to be ontime for me, it is not fair for me to make them late to their appointments with others.  Taking into account the nature of what we do I feel that my track record has been pretty good. I am usually but not always ontime.  If I am late I have my staff notify my patients so they will at least know where we stand.
    This past Tuesday I have to admit, I think I was behind for just about every patient.  A number of emergencies (my staff know that emergencies must be seen the same day) and one scheduling error and boom the whole day we were playing catch up.  At the end of the day we sat down at our end of the day meeting (which was now half an hour late).  We were all pretty tired and we just talked about the day.  We had gotten everything done  but it just didn't get done the way we wanted to do it.  We looked at our day and we realized that so many unforseen factors had taken place.  We all sat there and immediately the ideas started to pour out on how to do our best that this should not happen in the future.  We are making changes to try and improve, but does this mean that we will never be late again?  No, because as they say "stuff happens!"  What I can tell you is that we are always trying to do better and learn from the "stuff".
I will always believe that being on time matters.

Just another fun day doing Dentistry in Hamilton for a Hamilton Dentist.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Good times at the Ontario Dental Association annual convention

This past Thursday and Friday, my staff and I spent 2 full days at the Ontario Dental Association (ODA) Annual Convention.

The line up of international lecturers was truly excellent.  The exhibit floor was really quite large with dental suppliers  bring to us the latest in innovations.  It is really quite an impressive affair and I really enjoy going every year.  By the end of the day Friday I was exhausted.  There was another full day of speakers on Saturday (my brother among them) but a previous commitment did not allow me to attend.
At the end of these convention days I am usually more tired than a hard day at the office.  We are on our feet going from booth to booth on the convention floor trying not to miss anything that might be important. (not to mention any convention specials)  The speaker lectures are intense. On Thursday I spent time listening to lectures on paedatric dentistry.  On Friday I spent the day listening to Dr. Joe Massad speak on complete dentures.( joemassad.com )  In December I spent a full day in Tulsa Oaklahoma with Dr. Massad at his teaching facility there and it was a pleasure seeing him again.
All in all it was a great meeting for myself and my staff.  It is at these meetings that we charge our batteries, find out what is new, find out how to do things better and get excited about the innovations that we anticipate taking to our practise.