Blog masonry 3 columns

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Pellentesque varius augue et libero interdum dapibus. Curabitur euismod sem vel velit blan Aenean molestie faucibus fringilla.

In in velit quis lectus viverra aliquet sit amet ut ante. Etiam porttitor sem nec neque facilisis nec adipiscing felis porttitor. Donec nisi nunc, luctus.

In the month of October 2011, a colleague and I visited the American Dental Association Convention in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. It never ceases to amaze me as to how may dentists and auxiliary staff attend these annual sessions. Every year the ADA rotates the site for this convention – and this year it happens to land in Las Vegas. The typical set up of these large annual meetings are the first floor containing exhibits on new dental technology and materials and on the floors above, classes are held for dental related continuing education. This year there must have been over forty thousand attendees … perhaps many of them here because they wanted to gamble afterwards? In total I spent 2 days at this convention – which I felt was not enough. Visiting the many booths help me upgrade all my necessary dental materials such as my dental composite materials and prepared me with a list of many other dental upgrades to come in our new office that was currently under construction. The classes I took up on the 2^nd and 3^rd floor, as always, were helpful in broadening and improving my knowledge on my dental surgery skills and education. Posted by Dr. Brien Hsu at 9:13 PM

It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable.

A patient came in about a month or so ago, having sensitivity to cold on several upper and lower teeth.  The symptoms started roughly about one year ago. One dentist had recommended doing fillings on several teeth, while another even recommended a root canal and replacing several fillings. Looking for a third and final opinion the patient sought out my services. After x-rays and several tests, I determined that no fillings or root canals were necessary. I advised the patient to stop using any form of whitening toothpaste and prescribed a medicated paste to apply daily for a few weeks. On their follow-up appointment, the patient no longer had any more symptoms of sensitivity. They were thankful that I had saved them a lot of money by not doing any fillings. My response was, “Money you can always replace, but tooth structure cannot be replaced once they have been drilled on. While I’m happy you saved some money, I feel even better that you were able to save your tooth structure.” So how was I able to determine that there was no need for fillings or even a root canal? The tests and x-rays did not show decay or faulty fillings and after conversing with the patient, I discovered that they had been using a new whitening toothpaste for about one and a half years. I could not be certain that this was the main cause of the patient’s problems, but from my past experience with many other patients having similar symptoms, I decided to proceed with stopping the usage of all whitening products and to prescribe the medicated paste. And just like many of my other patients the problem was solved. I find that, with the on-going trend of desiring whiter teeth, a craze for whitening products is developing – everything from over the counter take home kits to special whitening toothpastes. Many patients have been experiencing sensitivity to cold after using these products. Most of these patients have less dense or thinner enamel and the chemicals that manufacturers use to whiten teeth are in essence damaging the tooth structure. These same chemicals have been modified by various companies and are now being used in all whitening toothpastes. Luckily if caught in time, these symptoms are reversible by following some simple protocols. It makes me wonder sometimes, what will happen in the future as more and more of these cases become more prevalent? Slowly I am seeing the number of whitening toothpastes increase in the market, while the number of regular toothpastes diminish.

On August 14^th, 2011, I spent my Sunday morning and afternoon donating my dental services at an outreach clinic for underprivileged families in San Bernardino. In total I saw 18 patients. As a dentist, I always try and salvage a patient’s teeth. So it pains me to see that the majority of my patients seen on that day, needed extractions. Some of these teeth were so badly damaged and infested with infection that there was no chance of saving them. There was one patient in particular that I remember. She had an upper left wisdom tooth that was fractured and abscessed. The tooth was diagnosed for a surgical extraction -preferable by an oral surgeon specialist. None of the other doctors at the free clinic felt they had the experience or the tools to perform the surgery. I could see that the patient was in terrible pain and was afraid she would not be seen. I did not want to see the patient go home in discomfort, so I stepped in to perform the surgery. The majority of the patients who need surgical wisdom teeth extractions in my practice are referred to our oral surgeon in order to facilitate treatment. However because of my extensive past experience in oral surgery, I was still able to extract the tooth in less than 20 minutes, even though the free clinic was not properly equipped to manage these types of surgeries. I wonder sometimes, what would happen to these patients were I not present at these clinics. It seems that at every free clinic that I volunteer for, not only am I always the youngest doctor there, but I’m always taking on the more complicated cases and taking care of the most number of patients. However, I am still very thankful that there are other doctors who volunteer their time. Without the extra help, it would not be possible for these free clinics to exist. I regret that I have not been able to donate my services as often this past year. My baby girl, Hanna was born with a severe heart defect last year and twice she would not have made it, if it were not for the modern day advances in infant heart surgery. Needless to say, I have spent many days and nights at the hospital and at home cherishing every moment I have with her. However, I feel that my sick daughter is still not an excuse for not focusing some of my time towards charity. In summary, the condition of the mouths that I saw that day at the San Bernardino Outreach Clinic were a lot worse than the previous times that I have volunteered. In addition it was odd that the number of adult patients far exceeded the number of children patients. And this is comparing patients seen over the 12 years that I have volunteered my dental services. I suspect, that the deteriorating economy played a large factor in this phenomenon. Regardless, it always warms my heart, when I can see the thanks in the smiles and eyes of the many patients that I helped that day. Giving back to the community always feels right especially during these times of economic instability. It is also during these times that I truly feel fortunate to have a thriving practice with patients who take pride in maintaining their oral health.