Painless fillings are a reality with Dental Lasers!

Are you afraid of needles?  Hate getting shots?  Or maybe you just don't like the lingering sensation of "numbness" after your dental visit is over with.  With dental lasers such as the amazing Powerlase AT...shots are rarely necessary.  It removes tooth decay, old resin fillings, and numbs the tooth....ALL AT THE SAME TIME!  There's no shot, then waiting for 5-10 minutes for it to take effect before beginning.  As soon as the patient sits in the chair we can begin right away!  Here are some observations from patients after having had their fillings done the "high tech" way...Let's start with Alfredo...

Now let's hear from Marilyn...

Sweetwater Smiles

Migraine relief at Sweetwater Smiles

Are you suffering from migraine headaches?  Tired of taking a lot of strong medications to alleviate the pain?  Were you aware that almost 3/4 of all migraine headaches are due to clenching your teeth during sleep?  Here's an interview I did for Fox35 news in Orlando about the NTI-tss splint for the prevention of migraines.  More information can be found on my website, Sweetwater Smiles.

Private Care Dentistry

Healthcare in America has undergone quite a change in the past few years.  It may surprise you to learn that more than 50% of all physicians in the U.S. are now employees, either of an insurance company, hospital group, or other physicians, instead of being in independent private practice.  An alphabet soup of letters have become recognizable by everyone; HMO’s, PPO’s, IPA’s, DMO’s, to name a few.  When the Clinton’s failed in their plan to let government take over our healthcare system, big business and the insurance companies stepped in and took over medicine.  Since physicians and hospitals depend on insurance reimbursement for a large majority of their income, they had no choice but to agree to the dictates of the insurance industry.  Whether or not these changes have been beneficial or not is debatable.  Every day we hear a new horror story involving someone having their health placed in jeopardy by an HMO more interested in saving a dollar than in their well being. 

Now the same forces that have taken over medicine have turned their sights on dentistry.  Since only half of the population has dental insurance, it has not been quite so easy to get this process going, but begun it has.  Every week I receive a new offer in the mail to join a different dental plan.  There are two basic types being offered as an alternative to traditional insurance.  The most common type is the PPO (Preferred Provider Organization), which asks the dentist to accept anywhere from 25-50% less than their usual fee in exchange for access to a pool of patients that are encouraged to choose a dentist “off the list.”  The patient can still see whomever they choose, as long as they’re willing to pay the difference between what the PPO’s fee schedule allows, and what their dentist’s normal fee is.  PPO systems create an environment that puts pressure on the dentist to do as much as possible, seeing more patients during the day, and sometimes working longer hours, to make up the loss.  It’s difficult to provide personalized attention and do quality work in a rushed fashion.  In addition, it’s impossible to employ the quality labs we use, keep up with the latest technologies, and hire the finest employees for our team at 25-50% less than our usual fees.

The other type is called capitation, and is not insurance, but a dental “plan.”  No claim forms are needed, since the dentist can not file a claim for reimbursement.  Dentist’s who participate in these plans have agreed to accept roughly $7.00 per month for one person ($15.00 per month for an entire family), in exchange for a pool of patients that have chosen them from a list of participating dentists.  The patient pays nothing for preventative visits, and a small co-payment for restorative services.  $10.00 for a filling, on up to about $240.00 for a crown, are close estimates.  Other than the $7.00 per month, this is all these dentists receive.  These type of plans encourage just the opposite of a PPO plan, which is to see as few of the patients on your list as possible.  Obviously, $7.00 per month doesn’t buy much in the way of quality, care, concern, cleanliness, and attention to detail.  Employers choosing this plan for their employees can only be interested in cost containment, not quality.  Capitation plans are sometimes offered “free” to employers by the insurance companies as a “loss leader” to entice them to purchase their more profitable medical coverage.  One of the things both of these plans have in common is that virtually any dentist with a license and adequate liability insurance qualifies.  The end result with both is a system that manipulates not only the healthcare provider, but the patient as well.   Most patients don’t want to be involved in a system that encourages either overtreatment, or undertreatment of their needs.   

In 1995, I was privileged to join many dentists from all over the country in the founding meeting of the Foundation for Private Care. We are dentists who have become concerned over the fact that patients in our country are becoming the victims of the abuses and inequities as mentioned before.  I'd like to share with you a couple of points from this exciting session.

To begin with, we took a long look at the definition of a professional.  A professional IS a professional for these reasons:

·        We pursue the common good of individuals first, not our own personal good.

·        We are committed to respecting the inherent worth, value, and dignity of each person.

·        A profession is a vocation, a commitment to a way of life, not just a way to make a living.

·        It is the professional who is the patient’s advocate.

·        We organize, not to protect our own self‑interests, as do labor unions and trade associations, but rather to promote the public good.

In a nutshell, we believe that there is a disturbing trend today which is actually disease-care, masquerading as health-care!  Most emphasis is placed on treating symptoms of disease, not dealing with causes (i.e. no true prevention). Patients are being treated passively, and not being allowed to participate in their own prevention of disease.

We believe this is not only unhealthy for people in the long run, but is also unjust and possibly immoral treatment, based on today's health knowledge! 


Label: Sweetwater Smiles  

Dental Wellness

The most important service any dentist or physician can offer is a thorough examination, diagnosis of the existing conditions, and a treatment plan that serves the short-range and long-range needs of the patient. It is my philosophy that dental health is something that YOU, the patient, give yourself. Unfortunately, health care as practiced in this country is frequently, in effect, “disease care.” That is, services are rendered and paid for only when the patient is in pain or has a problem that he is aware of. The patient assumes a passive role with little or no control while the doctor treats the effect of the disease process with little regard to the cause. The net result of this is “patchwork treatment”; the patient never gets better--he gets worse more slowly.
The health care that we promote in our office is based on a “wellness” concept. That is, all treatment beyond emergency care is aimed at stopping the disease process. In an alliance of shared responsibility, we are able to restore dental structures to maximum comfort, function and appearance in a manner that is consistent with the patient’s goals and values and, most importantly, the prevention of future disease. In this model, the patient assumes a very active role for he/she ultimately must be responsible for his own health.
Our responsibility is to help you understand the causes of your dental disease, to help you understand the value of “optimal care,” and to help you set goals that will allow you to attain optimal dental health. Quality should be the constant....time the variable.


Label: Dental Wellness, Sweetwater Smiles

Periodontal Disease...The Secret Killer?

So…What does Periodontal disease or a splinter in a finger have to do with your risk of developing diabetes, having a stroke, or suffering a heart attack? More than you might think. As scientists delve deeper into the fundamental causes of those and other illnesses, they are starting to see links to an age-old immunological defense mechanism called inflammation--the same biological process that turns the tissue around a splinter red and causes swelling in infected gums.

The instant potentially dangerous microbes slip into the body, inflammation marshals a defensive attack that lays waste to both invader and any tissue it may have infected. Then just as quickly, if everything works properly, the process subsides and healing begins.

Every once in a while, however, this whole process doesn't shut down on cue….and when this happens, inflammation becomes chronic rather than transitory. In effect, the body turns on itself--with after effects that seem to underlie a wide variety of diseases.

It can destabilize cholesterol deposits in the coronary arteries, leading to heart attacks and potentially even strokes. It can cause diabetes, osteopenia, respiratory diseases, and many other problems. In other words, chronic inflammation may be the engine that drives many of the most feared illnesses of middle and old age.

Inflammation causes the tissues to swell and become red. (No wonder the ancient Romans likened inflammation to being on fire.)

Our immunological defenses fight pitched battles until all the invading germs are annihilated. In a final flurry of activity, a last wave of cytokines is released, the inflammatory process recedes, and healing begins.

Problems begin when our immunological defenses can’t destroy all the bacteria. This is the case with Periodontal disease since the bacteria are shielded from our bodily defenses by hiding within the tartar.

Another good hiding place is within sticky protective barriers known as BIOFILM. This inability to completely kill all the infection causes the inflammatory process to persist and become chronic, which causes the body to release the inflammatory proteins that are the point of this discussion.

Further compounding the problem is this sad statistic: there are over 140 million American adults with moderate to severe Periodontal disease, and only 3% seek & receive treatment of their disease. The vast majority of the country is walking around with a potentially deadly disease process that is going untreated.

Among the first to recognize the broader implications of this were heart doctors who noticed that inflammation seems to play a key role in cardiovascular disease.

IS YOUR HEART ON FIRE?

Not long ago, most doctors thought of heart attacks as primarily a plumbing problem. Over the years, fatty deposits would slowly build up on the insides of major coronary arteries until they grew so big that they cut off the supply of blood to a vital part of the heart. A complex molecule called LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, provided the raw material for these deposits. Clearly anyone with high LDL levels was at greater risk of developing heart disease.

There's just one problem with that explanation: sometimes it's dead wrong. Indeed, half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels. Not only that, as imaging techniques improved, doctors found, much to their surprise, that the most dangerous plaques weren't necessarily all that large. Something that hadn't yet been identified was causing those fatty deposits to burst, triggering massive clots that cut off the coronary blood supply. In the 1990s, Ridker became convinced that some sort of inflammatory reaction was responsible for the bursting plaques, and he set about trying to prove it.

To test his hunch, Ridker needed a simple blood test that could serve as a marker for chronic inflammation. He settled on C reactive protein (CRP), a molecule produced by the liver in response to an inflammatory signal.  By 1997, Ridker and his colleagues at Brigham and Women's had shown that healthy middle-aged men with the highest CRP levels were three times as likely to suffer a heart attack in the next six years as were those with the lowest CRP levels.  What they have discovered is a complex interplay between inflammation, insulin and fat--either in the diet or in large folds under the skin. (Indeed, fat cells behave a lot like immune cells, spewing out inflammatory proteins (cytokines), particularly as you gain weight.)

In the meantime, there are things we all can do to dampen our inflammatory fires. Some of the advice may sound terribly familiar, but we have fresh reasons to follow through. Short of living on anti-inflammatory medications like aspirin or ibuprofen for the rest of our lives….what can we do?

Losing weight induces those fat cells--remember them?--to produce fewer inflammatory proteins. (cytokines) So does regular exercise, 30 minutes a day most days of the week.

Regular check-ups combined with GOOD home care (Flossing your teeth) combats gum disease. Without Good Periodontal Health, you can’t have good general health. Call Sweetwater Smiles for an appointment today! (407)786-2552.

Proper diet. Fruits and vegetables are full of substances that disable free radicals. If you can’t get the proper amount (or variety) of several different types of fruits and vegetables each day, a Whole Food based supplement such as Juice Plus is a great alternative.

Diseases associated with Periodontal disease:

Respiratory infections—from inhaling bacteria from the mouth. This can cause pneumonia and other lung infections.

Severe Osteopenia—which is a reduction in bone mass. This is especially a problem with post menopausal women

PreTerm or low birth weight babies—Pregnant women who have periodontal disease may be seven times more likely to have a baby that is born too early and too small. Oral microbes can cross the placental barrier, exposing the fetus to infection.

Stroke & Heart disease—We’ve already been talking about how inflammatory proteins caused by chronic infections/inflammation like periodontal disease increase your risk for both Strokes and heart attacks. In fact, the New England Journal of Medicine reports that elevated CRP levels are a better indicator of your chances for stroke or heart disease than your cholesterol levels.

Diabetes—Research has emerged that suggests that the relationship between periodontal disease and diabetes goes both ways - periodontal disease may make it more difficult for people who have diabetes to control their blood sugar.

Severe periodontal disease can increase blood sugar, contributing to increased periods of time when the body functions with a high blood sugar. This puts diabetics at increased risk for diabetic complications. Thus, diabetics who have periodontal disease should be treated to eliminate the periodontal infection.

In my opinion, there is no better means to bring the inflammatory & infectious processes of Periodontal disease under control than Laser Periodontal Therapy using the amazing Periolase MVP-7.

Portions of this post were taken from the Feb. 2004 issue of Time magazine entitled "The Secret Killer." More information can be found at Sweetwater Smiles.

Label: Gum disease, Laser Periodontal Therapy, Periolase MVP-7, LANAP, Inflammation