Big value Chinese breakfast buffet

Red Bowl Noodle Shop at the corner of Main St and 41^st ST at the heart of Flushing offers a great menu on their breakfast buffet.  This is a place for non-Chinese background Americans to start to get a taste of authentic Chinese food.  It is not a big restaurant but they manage to put out a lot of dishes on their buffet line.  They have dim sum like shumai, fried dumplings, rice cakes, like small tapas in a sense.  Chinese porridge, soups and different kinds of soybean milk.  I can go on and on.  But the selection is great for brunch menu and it only costs about 8 dollars.  It is great location to look out the busiest street on Flushing.  I do think they can do better with their coffee and orange juice.  I need to go back and see if they improved the taste of their drinks.  They have 6 drink options: coffee, orange juice, apple juice, Chinese cold sweet tea and hot tea, and don’t forget the blessing of plain water.  Yup, you can tell I have tasted all 6.  They also have fruit and salad section. 

 

I am pretty sure most of people will feel like they ate a good meal.  The restaurant offers a lot of Chinese dish that you don’t see in Chinese fast food restaurant yet you can find fried eggs, fried rice, Chinese chicken and beef dish that we all are very familiar from a Chinese restaurant in any state of U.S.A.  Yet, because this is Flushing with so many Chinese immigrants, you are bound to find more authentic Chinese dish, not Americanized Chinese dish.

 The beauty of this restaurant for me is that I don’t have to speak or read a single Chinese word.  You walk in, you tell them it is for buffet.  They show you where to sit.  You can start to enjoy food.  Simple and easy.  The servers take away the plates pretty quick.  Your table stays neat most of the time.  If you drop a chopstick, you can easily access their utensil section to start eating again.  It is all self-serve, except getting a bill.  The server will bring you out a bill to your table.   I am sure that most Americans and tourist who are adventurous will enjoy this inexpensive Chinese buffet in Flushing, NY. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flushing Community Mural Project

Tomorrow will be an exciting day for Flushing LIRR station.  Please come out and help us to paint a new mural on the 40th Road entrance way to Flushing LIRR station between 12-5 on Saturday and Sunday (September 21 and September 22, 2013).

Flushing China town, Main Street

Main Street, Flushing, the final stop on Subway 7 line looks, feels and smells like a small city in Asia.  I am familiar with Asian countries since I grew up in Korea and finished my junior high school there.  When I was an Army dentist, I traveled to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan.  The cultures of Asia feel familiar to me.  The moment I set foot on Main Street, I am in China even if my phone GPS service shows me that I am in New York, USA. There are so many Asian faces, signs with Chinese character on buildings And chatter in various dialects fills the air.

Flushing, NY has a lot of Asian charms.  Maybe that is why I opened up an office in Flushing, Queens. Outside of dentistry, my hobby is dancing and a sporadic visits to gym.  My fiancé and I have tight work schedules and we spend our free time together finding hidden gems to visit in New York.

Over the next few weeks, I'll post my favorite places in Flushing for dim sum and cheap breakfast,  which jewelry stores I go to look at beautiful jades, recommendations on beauty salons and spas, and where to find custom-made clothing-All the things that I find make Flushing unique. I hope people make their way to Flushing and find their own favorites.

Referred pain after dental treatments

I sometimes make phone calls to patients after I work on them.  Once in a while, I would hear "I had a headache on the day of treatment and got better next day."  I am not an expert on oral facial pain.  However, I experience referred pain through my patients.  As I listen, I experience, sinus pain and ear pain can feel like tooth pain.  Some patient feel a pain on an upper tooth, yet the pain might come from the lower tooth.  Some wisdom tooth pain might spread to lower jaw and below jaw.  Some told me that "I have headache", yet, they had bad gum inflammation.  Some has headache that comes from bad jaw/teeth alignment (TMJ problem).    I also experience lowering of threshold for pain as patients often tell me: "this tooth started to ache and all the other teeth and gum aches, I can not tell you where I have pain, they all hurt!"  When I hear that, I say to myself, "oh, Lord help me figure this one out."  Pain is real entity and everyone feels differently.  Yet, I see how much fear of pain cause unnecessary anxiety and loss of energy.  Dentist do construction work in mouth.   The mouth has to be reconstructed to get better just like an old house has to be torn down to make a better house.  Some soreness in the mouth is expected but one cannot expect to be better without any transition period like fixing a house. 

Reduced sensitivity with Zoom Whitespeed

My office received new whitening machine, Zoom Whitespeed, from Philips Zoom.  I had to try this upgrade since the company told me that it greatly reduces sensitivity during Zoom whitening.  I had two 15 minutes of Zoom sessions and I didn’t feel much sensitivity.  When I received Zoom treatment with my old Zoom machine, I did have more sensitivity.  With this new upgrade, the zings were so minimal; I could almost say it was no sensitivity at all.  I was just watching my favorite shows on YouTube while I was getting whitening.  My assistant is well trained to cover up the gums to prevent sensitivity.  My assistant was happy that she got a compliment from me.  After my treatment, we tried the new Zoom on one of patients who has cold sensitivity due to gum recessions.  The whitening result on her was very good.  She was even happier that the Zoom treatment didn’t give her any pain.  For a long time, she was afraid to get the treatment due to sensitivity issues.  She really liked her whiter smile after the zoom whitening.  I could say Philips Zoom Company did improve their machine to better service patients who wish to brighten their smiles.  Kudos to Philips Zoom!

Upcoming wedding show at NYC

A wedding day is a special day for brides and groom.  You are here to greet all your friends and family and announce your commitment to this special person.  It is an exciting date!  My wedding date is coming up and I would be going to the bridal show in New York City on July 17^th, 2013.  I know that the Philips Zoom company will be there to promote their whitening treatment.   This is a good opportunity to find more about whitening if any wedding party member is interested in brightening his or her smile. Check out the website below for wedding shows.

https://www.weddingsalon.com/luxury-wedding-and-bridal-events-and-shows

Dentists are not miracle performers.

Patients come into my dental office in Flushing, NY, because they have an issue in their mouth.  The most common issues might be sensitive teeth, broken teeth, swollen gum, or swollen face.  I look at the x-ray and tell them either you have a big cavity or severe gum problem.  I don’t usually tell them that you have these problems because you don’t take care of your teeth.  I don’t want to offend anybody.  After letting them know, I prescribe antibiotics, do cleaning for the offended gum or do a root canal or take out the bad tooth.  We, dentists, try to get the patient out of pain and help them feel better for the moment.  I know I am not addressing the real problem.  I do what a mechanic would do for a flat tire.  The tire is flat, I fix the hole in the tire and the car can drive again.  But the owner of the car will drive on an unpaved road, the driver doesn’t watch over a pothole.  The driver is a maniac on the road, on a small road, on a high way, even on a construction site.  The tire will get another flat tire.  I am trying to say that the patient will get another broken tooth or another gum abscess. 

It never fails to surprise me when most people don’t ask what they can do to prevent this painful event recurring.  I know that I am not perfect.  And other people are not perfect.  However, even mundane task of brushing and flossing gets in the way of people’s lives.  We spend so much time selecting clothes, shoes, hair style, and what kind of perfume to wear every day.  Yet, we don’t spend enough time with brushing and flossing.  We eat and drink and sleep and eat again.  I wonder why it is so easy to neglect taking care of teeth.  World is full of wonders…  Yet, I am not a miracle performer.  Take care of your teeth, don’t snack on sugary drinks so often, and don’t be constantly chewing hard candies or hard nuts when you know that your teeth are weakened with large fillings.  If a patient doesn’t change their habit of eating and habit of oral hygiene, I can only do patch works but not a real cure for a long term oral health.

My own website for dental office in Flushing!

I finally have a website published on Internet for my Flushing dental office.  I asked my sister to help me out since she studied web designing.  She finally came around and finished the task.  Thank you, Sis.  I appreciate your help. 

You can find my office information on www.maindental-flushing.com or http://daniellesimdmd.com/  I currently provide 5% discounts for patients who book through Zocdoc.com. I provide Fastbraces, Invisalign, Zoom, Take-home whitening trays, Flexi dentures, all porcelain crowns and veneers, implants, Snap-on-Smiles.

Please check out the promotion page on my website.

Everyone drop by and let me know how it looks.  :) --Dr Sim

Bleaching before wedding

Hello,  Brides and Groom,

Please try not to bleach your teeth a day before your wedding or your photo shoot session.  At least give a good one week of time from bleaching to the important day.

There can be several problems when you use a professional strength whitening material right before a wedding day. 

1.  Your gum can become white right next to your tooth.  It would look rather terrible when the gum is white on your photos.  It takes about 5-7 days to come to normal.

2.  The teeth can appear spotty.  After bleaching, the teeth can have whiter spots and streaks.  Giving less than perfect smooth pearly whites!

3.  Teeth can be sensitive for a couple days.  Your wedding day should be filled with happiness, not with zings and ouches from delicious, yet acidic, Champaign or ice-cold lemonade.

These short term annoyances will go away but it may not go away in time for wedding.  In-office whitening is a quicker way to brighten your smile but make sure you don't do it last minute.

 --From a bride-to-be.  Yes, I am engaged, (Ye!)  and I will get married sometime this upcoming fall.

When one lose a tooth..

When someone decides to take teeth out for one reason or another, it is very easy not to do anything about it.  The painful tooth is gone and one feels better.  However, the remaining teeth start shifting to the empty space.  After a couple years taking teeth out, I see that one's bite gets bad and the gums get bad because it is hard to clean crooked teeth.  The misaligned or crooked teeth get worn down much faster than the straight teeth. 

I understand that it is not easy to come to dental office because of emotional fear or financial burden.  But the best thing to do is to replace missing teeth. 

For missing teeth, one can use a removable denture or place a bridge or an implant.  Teeth are strongest when they are not shaved down extensively.  If patient has very healthy teeth with no fillings, implant would be a much better option than a bridge.

If young, healthy patient has lost a tooth in the back, I am happy to help them to replace the missing tooth.  If you want to place an implant,  please e-mail me I would like to provide a quality service with reasonable price for the patients who care for their teeth and want to keep the remaining teeth healthy.  However, an implant can be placed when there is enough bone and space for a crown.  Treatment gets complicated, when a person lost a tooth a long time ago.  My ideal patient is a healthy patient  who lost their teeth rather recently with good bone in that missing tooth area.  The patient should know how to keep their teeth clean.  (Implants fail more when patient's oral hygiene is bad.)  Please if you are in this category, e-mail me at maindentalgroup@hotmail.com. 

The x-ray is an example of what happened to adjacent teeth after losing first molars.