4-2-15

I am adding a new page to my Blog because I think this is a very important topic. Most of us know that a healthy mouth, good teeth and excellent periodontal health usually indicate overall good health of the individual. However, this must often be confirmed by regular visits to your dentist and physician.

Our mouths are a gateway to the person's interior and proper health must be maintained. There are both good and bacteria which inhabit a person's digestive system and these must be kept in the proper balance.

I constantly encourage my patients to brush and floss properly and eat a balanced diet. Excess sugar or alcohol or some other items can lead to an imbalance of food intake. Your oral health can be affected by a variety of physical conditions, ailments and diseases. The reverse is also true. Your physical health can be affected by the condition of your mouth and your dental health.

There is some linkage between poor periodontal health and heart disease. Severe gum problems can lead to bacteria from your mouth causing cardiac problems. Diabetes is a disease which affects small blood vessels. Focus must be placed on your eyes, feet, hands and teeth. Loss of bone support for the teeth can lead to tooth loss and many other dental problems.

The best solution for overall good dental health is to follow the advice of your dentist.

1) Proper tooth brushing and flossing are vitally important. Replace your toothbrush every few months.

2) Make sure you get regular dental checkups at the usually recommended intervals of at least every six months.

3) Eat a balanced diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

4) Be alert to any changes to what is going on in your mouth.

5) Contact my office immediately if you have any pain or see any signs of oral disease manifestatioins.

Keeping a healthy smile and maintaining a healthy lifestyle go hand in hand. Working together can help achieve those results.

GENERAL DENTISTRY IN PARK SLOPE

6-17-19

Dentists Should Always Do Their Best to Do What is Right

This article is a reply to an article titled "The Truth about Dentistry," which was published in the May 2019 issue of The Atlantic. I will try to elucidate the gist of this article in nthe next few paragraphs.

There seems to be a fairly regular genre of literature that attacks dentistry as a profession and dentists as health care professionals. It usually goes somewhat as an attack on our professionalism and our status as equivalents of any health care professional with the title of doctor preceding our names.

No person is totally pure and no profession has no bad apples in its midst. You can always find miscreants who give an entire institution or profession a bad name. One of the more glaring are those involved in the child sex scandals of the priests of the Roman Catholic Church. These men - all priests are male - have been accused of egregious crimes. They are not representative of the priesthood of the church, yet many people will stereotype.

The first publicly-oriented attack on dentistry came in an article in a February 2007 issue of Reader's Digest. In this article, an individual who was supposedly sent to a multitude of dentists came back with different proposed treatment plans from over 30 dentists. A more recent iteration of this genre cn be found in an article titled "Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off?" which was published in Mother Jones in October 2014. The implication here was that the dentist in question was recommending cosmetic procedures in the form of anterior laminates to improve the woman's appearance It was also suggested to the writer's husband that he have a "deep cleaning," which the writer intuited was an unnecessary procedure. The implication here and in my first mention is that the dentist was doing unnecessary work to enhance their income.

The Atlantic article included a rather extreme expose of a dentist who performed an exorbitant number of endodontic procedures on many of his patients and then manipulated his patient's dental insurance to maximize his income. The dentist who purchased this retired dentist's practice proceeded to do a massive audit of the first dentist's treatment records to come up with this evidence. Ensuing mentions go on to discuss the process of lawsuits against the retired dentist.

Assuming the reportage is accepted at face value, what is to be made of this errant behavior by a few dentists? The ADA Code of Ethics and the Hippocratic Oath basically state that we, as dentists, should do no harm to out patients.The conclusion that I take from this series of :hatchet jobs" on our profession is that we should be as open as possible with all our patients. Welcome any second opinion requests and encourage patients to ask questions. When we make referrals let us tell the specialists with whom we work what issues are to be dealt with for that specific patient. We all get difficult patients at times and must also realize that we are the professionals - we can never accede to requests for poor dentistry or do what the patient wants done if it is injurious to the patient.

A more recent iteration of this problem is acceding to the request of patients for prescriptions for narcotics when it is clearly not warranted. We have all seen the news reports of physicians and dentists who have been criminally convicted of using their professional licenses to sell narcotics prescriptions. The main conclusion I want to draw from the exposes mentioned here is that we should all do what is right. No one is perfect and mistakes are always made. Just try your very best to be above reproach.

I have been a general dentist for almost forty six years.  It has been my life's ambition to help people maintain and enhance their dental health as part of their overall general health.  Care and upkeep of the patient's dentition and well-being of the individual in general is my goal for everyone who allows me to help them.  There are numerous modalities available to help every individual patient surpass their wildest dreams in pursuit of a wonderful smile.  Some people just want to be able to enjoy their meals.  And some people want to have their teeth shine and glisten to the highest degree.

I am here to try to help every person who comes through my door to the utmost possible.  Call us or e-mail us here at my office and let me show you what can be done to provide exceptional dental care at reasonable prices.  Do not feel afraid to ask us any questions.

As I said at the start of this blog, I am here to help you.

Call Us: 718-768-8372

8-14-17

What is the meaning of our dental health? We can tell much about our overall health by seeing how our dental health is. Our teeth can give an indication about wealth, poverty, beauty and American healthcare. Try finding a job when you are missing front teeth or doing a good job or performing well in school when you head is in severe pain.

By the same token, people in the United States treat dental care as a kind of luxury. Only about half of the population has some form of dental insurance. A third of Americans can hardly get access to dental care due to cost and acceptance of a particular dental coverage.

As a note from a radio show on NPR entitled The Story in Our Smiles elucidates the state of dental health in the United States today. Eileen is a dentist in Nashville, Tennessee in a public health setting. “It is so much worse than Haiti. Then teeth when I see patients in Haiti, I see maybe a couple of teeth that need to come out and these patients in rural Tennessee, they all need full extractions and dentures.”

I am a general dentist here in Brooklyn. Thankfully I do not see many patients as were described above. But I see many patients who need some dental treatments and they are either afraid to do the necessary dental work or they feel they cannot afford the needed treatments. Let me help you with financing plans for cost concerns. I can also help you with modalities to make you relax and allow you to do the needed work.

Call my office at 718-768-8372 to set up an appointment for a consultation.
What is the meaning of our dental health? We can tell much about our overall health by seeing how our dental health is. Our teeth can give an indication about wealth, poverty, beauty and American healthcare. Try finding a job when you are missing front teeth or doing a good job or performing well in school when you head is in severe pain.