January 14, 2007 Newsletter
Why would we Spend
$2400 on Equipment and
Over $3000 in Staff Training for a Procedure
We Hope Never to Use on ANY OF OUR PATIENTS?
We now
have an AED in the office. What's an AED, you ask? It's an
Automated Emergency Defibrillator. You know the devices you see
on ER and other medical TV shows where they put the paddles on
the chest and try to shock the heart into
restarting.
  
- Well,
the AED is an automated version. If a person collapses due
to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) or Ventricular Fibrillation,
the machine reads the electro-cardiogram (EKG or more
properly ECG) for a treatable arrhythmia. If it recognizes
a treatable pattern, the voice instructions from the AED
tell us to stand clear of the patient and press the Yellow
button and the AED delivers a shock, reads the result and
either advises additional shocks or advises that normal
heart beating has resumed.
While we
have only needed to use Emergency Medicals protocols
2 times in 17 years in our office and none was a serious
life-threatening problem with our care, we train in emergency
skills and review these procedures with our staff and with
outside teachers, either at a Continuing Education course
outside the office, or by bringing an expert in to review
procedures in our office. By the way, both emergencies were
unrelated to our dental care -- two different patients who fell
at different times outside of the office. One patient fell down
the block from us and our hygienist Nadine brought her in to
the office to get emergency evaluation by me and to call an
ambulance, The other emergency was for a homeless woman who
knocked on our door for help after breaking a leg following
being hit by a car.)
Sudden
Cardiac Arrest is unpredictable and occurs at any age. The
worse place to be if you or someone you know has a SCA is New
York, Chicago or Los Angeles. This is due to the delay that is
inherent in an Ambulance getting to the scene with all of the
traffic and street congestion. FOR EVERY MINUTE DELAY, the
chance to recover goes down by 10%. Patients shocked after 5
minutes have only a 50% chance of surviving to leave the
hospital care that must be given after a SCA. After 9 minutes,
there is less than a 10% chance of survival, even with CPR. SO
TIME IS THE CRITICAL FACTOR and the life-saving shock must be
given as soon after SCA as possible. That is why I have
invested in this equipment and training for me and my staff. We
still hope to never have to use, but it is available and we are
trained in what to do.
There are
studies to show hundreds of people who were saved by AED's in
airports, on planes while in flight and used by untrained
people who witnessed a SCA occur in public buildings with AED's
available.
So we have
bought the top of the line Phillips FR2+ AED. To learn more
about it, click on this link for a demo:
http://www.medical.philips.com/main/products/resuscitation/products/fr2plus/fr2plus_demo.asp
Are You a Candidate for Cosmetic
Dentistry?
If you have been thinking about improving your smile, take a
few moments and ask yourself the following questions to see if
cosmetic dentistry is right for you.
- Are you embarrassed about
smiling in front of people?
- Do you ever put your hand up
to cover your smile?
- Do you dislike your smile in
photographs?
- When you look through
magazines, do you envy the models’ smiles?
- Do you wish your teeth were
whiter?
- Do you think you show too much
or too little of your teeth when you smile?
- Would you like to change the
way your teeth or gums are shaped?
- Do you have gaps or spaces
between your teeth?
- Are you considering braces for
that perfect smile?
- Do you have crooked or
misaligned teeth?
If the answer is "yes" to any of these
questions, you may be a good candidate for cosmetic dentistry.
Call our office today to schedule a personal consultation.
The Health of Your Mouth Mirrors Your
Overall Health
Your mouth is a mirror that reflects your overall health and
well-being, according to Donna E. Shalala in the Surgeon
General's Report on Oral Health. It's also a key determinant of
your nutritional status and your self-esteem. "Oral health
means more than sound teeth. Oral health is integral to overall
health," she said.
The report, which was the first that the U.S. Surgeon
General has undertaken to assess the nation's oral health, is
intended to "alert Americans to the full meaning of oral health
and its importance to general health and well-being."
But what is oral health?
First of all, the word "oral" refers to the mouth, which
includes not only the teeth and gums and their supportive
tissues, but also the roof and the floor of the mouth (the hard
and soft palate), the tongue, the lining of the mouth and the
throat (called the mucosa), the lips, the salivary glands, the
upper and lower jaws, and the chewing muscles. Oral health also
involves the branches of the nervous system, the immune system
and the vascular system (blood vessels) that serve this part of
your body.
So consequently, oral health means more than just being free
from cavities and gum disease. Oral health, the report states,
means overall health in the tissues that "allow us to speak and
smile; sigh and kiss; smell, taste, touch, chew and swallow;
cry out in pain; and convey a world of feelings and emotions
through facial expressions."
Oral health and overall health -- an intricate
interrelationship
The health of the oral tissues is indicative of the health
of organs and systems throughout your body. Your dentist and
other healthcare providers can gather an enormous amount of
information about your overall health simply by examining these
tissues.
- A thorough oral exam can uncover nutritional
deficiencies, microbial infections, immune disorders and
some forms of cancer.
- Clues to a disease can be discovered by analyzing
saliva under a microscope.
- Facial nerves have counterparts elsewhere in the
body.
- The jaw bones and jaw joint function like other
musculoskeletal regions of the body.
Conversely, research is showing us that disease within the
mouth (especially periodontal (gum) disease's connected to
ailments throughout the body. Infections in the mouth are a
gateway for disease-causing bacteria to enter the bloodstream
and provoke a number of diseases, including:
The answer?
Decay (also called caries or cavities) and
periodontal disease are the most common,
widespread dental diseases. They're also the most preventable.
Community prevention programs, such as fluoridated drinking
water, dental hygiene instruction in schools, nutrition
education, and tobacco cessation programs, save billions of
dollars per year in public health costs, according to the
report. And best of all, they help most people keep their
natural teeth for a lifetime.
Source - "Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon
General"
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