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.

Brushing once a day is not good enough!

Today, I had to keep telling my patients that brushing once a day is not good enough.  Please, people brush your teeth at least twice a day and spend at least 2 minutes per brushing.  Even after using an electric toothbrush, the most expensive kind, and flossing,  I still find plaque on my teeth.  That means that it is very very hard to get rid of plaque, communities of lots, lots of bacteria.  It is more than the number of all human kind on the earth!  It is not possible to get rid of all bacteria in our mouth, but please do put some control mechanism to get rid of some, especially if you wish to continue to enjoy food.

Autism Special Talents and Rehabilitation

Since my head is a bit clearer today than last two weeks, I would like to talk about a new company which I have encountered in Korea.  I traveled back to my country and came back in one week.  Change in sleep pattern and a head cold, had made me more tired than before I left New York.

The company name is Autistar.  It is a shortened name for "autism special talents and rehabilitation".  This company tries to discover and cultivate artistic talents of autistic children.  The creations of these new designers become everyday products and gets introduced to public for sale. 

America has been talking about autism spectrum for a while but I wonder how many companies tried to use their talents with purpose.  These high functioning children might be a source of a life changing discovery for all man kind.  We should value and help their special talents to shine just like what the company, Autistar, is doing.  www.autistar.co.kr