Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Community College

My dental assistant is taking classes at the local community college. She is working towards becoming a hygienist. It is the end of the semester and she had a performance for her tap class on Monday night.

I never had the pleasure of attending community college. I went straight from high school to UCLA. While at UCLA I was totally focused on the technical- math and science- classes. The only "fun" classes I took were Women's Studies and English literature. Also, I was so focused on my studies that I rarely carved time out for any exciting social experiences. I do regret not having more diversity in my undergraduate coursework!

It was so much fun watching the different classes (ballroom, jazz, ballet, impressionist) perform. Community college is a great way to get general education credits out of the way and to try out new things, all for minimal cost. I noticed there were some much older students in a couple of the classes...

Kari Ann Hong, DDS
1000 Newbury Road, Suite 190
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
www.dentist4smiles.com

Monday, May 12, 2008

Baby Dental Care

My son is nearing his one year birthday now and has four teeth. I take Wednesdays off from work and use that opportunity to take my son to a Park District Baby 'N Me class. The babies in his class range in age from 9 to 15 months. Recently, some of the other moms have asked me if I see children and at what age they should start seeing the dentist.

Yes, I do see children in my dental practice. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, babies should start seeing the dentist at 1 year of age. Dental care for babies is all about prevention and informing parents about how to care for their children's teeth. The most important thing to know for babies, in regards to teeth, is that putting a baby to bed with a bottle or breast milk can cause serious tooth decay. So once a baby has teeth, on demand middle of the night feedings and falling asleep with a bottle should be eliminated.

The funny thing is that even though I know middle of the night feedings should be eliminated, it has only been in the last two weeks that I have stopped nursing my son in the middle of the night. So for about two months of my son having teeth, I didn't follow my own dental advice. Fortunately, he isn't showing any signs of tooth decay!

Kari Ann Hong, DDS
1000 Newbury Road, Suite 190
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
www.dentist4smiles.com

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Disneyland and the California Dental Association

Every spring the California Dental Association holds a dental vendor show at the Anaheim Convention center. This year the convention is this first weekend in May. The dental association offers discounted Disneyland tickets as part of the convention. I took Friday off so that I could take my family to Disneyland and California Adventure. We then stayed at the Disneyland California Grand Hotel so I could go to the convention today.

Both the amusement park and the hotel offer quite a lesson in consumerism. First of all, I was suprised at the large number of families with young children that visit the park and stay at the hotel. Even with my convention discount for the Disneyland tickets and hotel, it was a costly two days. In addition to the tickets and hotel cost, there is the eating out and Disneyland merchandise expense. For a family of four it probably costs nearly $1000 to spend one weekend at Disneyland and California Adventure.


Kari Ann Hong, DDS
1000 Newbury Road, Suite 190
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
www.dentist4smiles.com