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Tooth Whitening for Charity

May 10, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — S. John salivonchik @ 3:55 pm

We are proud to announce our 10 year anniversary of our tooth whitening program to help cure childhood cancer. For the last ten years we have been donating our entire fee of $195.00 to the Children’s Cancer Research Fund at the University of Minnesota or in some cases to local families who have been affected by children’s cancer. In that time we have raised over $100,000.00. I want to thank my incredible team for their commitment to this program. In addition, we have had several manufacturers donate whitening kits to make this program possible. Most important, I want to thank Ultradent the maker of Opalescence whitening gel. No other company has even come close to matching their generosity. They have never refused a request for whitening gel and they have always given freely without any strings attached. They are an outstanding company who has no equal in my experience. It is also interesting to note that they have always been committed to the take home whitening process, which is agreed by most to be the best and most cost effective approach to tooth whitening. This is in contrast to companies who have heavily marketed their in office whitening agents, lights and lasers. Most research has shown that the lights and lasers do not improve the whitening result, and after paying for this service many patients follow up with take home whitening anyway. Again, I applaud Ultradent and sincerely thank them for their support.

Flossing

April 30, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — S. John salivonchik @ 4:05 pm

I have been a dental hygienist for 24 yrs now. When I first started out I really thought that all I had to do was tell people to brush and floss and they would. I was going to make all of my patients healthy. Change the dental world I was!! Wow what a rude awakening I had!!!
I then decided that I needed to educate my patients better. So I would explain that dental plaque (one of the main causes of periodontal (gum) disease) is a soft, sticky layer of bacteria that forms every 24 hrs. on your teeth. If you don’t brush and floss it away it would harden and become calculus (tartar), which then can be only removed by your hygienist. If it is not removed you can lose your teeth. That bacteria in the plaque, which has hardened and turned into tartar is now growing in numbers and these bacterial toxins and the body’s enzymes fighting the infection actually start to break down the bone and connective tissue that hold your teeth in place. REALLY, was my patient’s response. Still I had no luck with getting my patients to floss daily.
As the years have gone by studies are showing that dental plaque can affect the entire body. We know it is linked to;
Heart disease
Respiratory Disease
Preterm, low birth weight babies
Strokes
Osteoporosis
Diabetes
Okay now I have the ammunition I need to get patients to floss. Nope, not so much as one of my good friends says. According to the AAP (American Academy of Periodontology) only about 13.5 % of Americans floss daily. What is a hygienist to do?
The other day a patient and I were talking and she said do you know what? What, I said. She said, “Do you know that Dr Oz says that you should floss everyday, because it can affect your whole body if you don’t? “REALLY”, I said. Turns out all these years all I needed was Dr. Oz. So now I am not going to explain everything anymore. I’m simply going to say, “Did you know that Dr. Oz says you should floss everyday or it could affect your entire body?” Crazy isn’t it?? Dr. Oz where were you 24 yrs. ago? I could have saved myself a lot of headaches.
Amy Linsell, RDH

Not Necessarily Porcelain Veneers

April 8, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — S. John salivonchik @ 9:04 pm


Porcelain Veneers can correct a variety of esthetic issues. They have revolutionized how we practice dentistry, but they are not always the best way to correct certain problems. I recently saw a young man who was convinced that veneers were his only option. Unfortunately, most of his information came from advertisements which he had seen. In this case he wanted the space closed between his two front teeth. This could have been done with veneers but that would have required the removal of healthy tooth structure. It was much less costly and less invasive to bond the teeth without the removal of healthy tooth. We have incredible new materials with allow for a more conservative approach. In this case veneers were not the treatment of choice.

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