New Website

We are launching our new website design this week for Thousand Oaks Family Dentistry. The new site will feature patient reviews, commonly asked questions, services we provide, online appointment requests, and a video of our practice. I am excited about our latest improvements to our internet presence. I think the website gives a great snapshot of my office.

My goal in patient care is to provide personalized, individual care to each of my patients. Also, I believe in respecting people's time, so I don't double book and I do my best to run on time all day. I make treatment recommendations based on a comprehensive approach to patient care. I want all of my patients to be able to achieve optimal dental health.

Take a look at my new website and let me know what you think!

drhong@thousandoaksfamilydentistry.com

Kari Ann Hong, DDS
1000 Newbury Rd. #190
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
www.thousandoaksfamilydentistry.com

Baby Teeth

With two young kids, I have baby teeth on my mind. Children usually get twenty teeth by the age of two, ten on top and ten on bottom. The first baby teeth a child gets are the lower two central incisors. The first adult teeth a child gets are the lower first molars and they come in behind the baby teeth. The first teeth a child looses are the lower incisors and that usually happens after adult molars erupt.

As a mom I worry that my kids will end up with poor skeletal/tooth/facial development and that they will get cavities. Prevention is always the best medicine in dentistry. It is always easier to stop something from happening then to fix it once it has happened. When it comes to facial development, the biggest problems are bottles, pacifiers, and thumb sucking. Any of these things by themselves can cause a significant overjet of the upper teeth over the lower teeth. I recommend stopping bottle and pacifier use by age one. Thumb sucking is the most difficult thing to prevent because as a parent you can't take that away. If a child hasn't stopped sucking their thumb by age 4 or 5, then there is a dental appliance that can be placed to prevent the thumb from sitting comfortably in the mouth.

The easiest way to prevent cavities in children is to watch what they are eating and drinking. It is important to limit milk and juice consumption to meal times. I recommend never purchasing soda for daily consumption. Foods that are sticky in consistency like gummy fruits or candies should be avoided at snack time, because chances are that sugar will stay adhered to the teeth until they are brushed next.

Kids are difficult and frequently have minds of their own where they don't want to do what we want. Fortunately, I have made it past the bottle/pacifier/thumb sucking stage with my own children. It is a constant struggle to make sure they are well fed and that I am keeping their teeth clean.

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

Safe Amalgam Removal

I remove amalgams from teeth on a daily basis as a dentist. The reasons why I remove amalgams vary from new decay around an existing amalgam; a patient doesn't like the way the amalgam looks and would like something tooth colored; the amalgam or the tooth with the amalgam broke and the tooth needs a crown; the tooth has an existing crown with decay and the old buildup in the tooth was amalgam.

Recently I was asked the following questions by a potential new patient and I thought others might be interested in the questions and my responses.

Here are the questions:

How long have you been doing safe amalgam removal? Did you have to have special training in this procedure? Do you do any kind of health assessment on the patient before starting? Do you recommend any supplements before and after removal? Do you check the electrical potential of the fillings to determine where to start? I understand you use a rubber dam. Do you have a special vacuum or vapor control system? Do you use an electric drill or an air turbine drill? How much time do you recommend between extractions?

Here was my answer:

I have been doing safe amalgam removal since completing dental school at UCLA in 2003. I use an electric handpiece with sufficient water spray to minimize the mercury vapors when removing amalgams. I do all amalgam removals with a rubber dam and high speed evacuation. When removing amalgam fillings I do so by quadrants of the mouth and I start in the quadrant that has fillings with underlying decay or breakdown of the existing amalgam. I recommend waiting at least a week between quadrants. Sometimes a tooth can be sensitive after an amalgam is removed and a new tooth colored filling is placed. It is important to make sure the teeth have fully recovered and are feeling good before any further work is done. I leave it up to the patient to decide how they want to spread out the treatment. I recommend to all my patients that they take a multi-vitamin, but nothing in particular for amalgam removal.

I have a patient that is currently being treated for high levels of mercury and lead in her system. She only has three fillings in her adult teeth and none of them are amalgams. The patient doesn't know how she ended up with such high levels of mercury or lead in her system. The patient is seeing an internal medicine doctor that has been placing her on a drug called Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA). Also, the doctor recommends taking mineral supplements, specifically Vitamin C. Prior to this treatment, the doctor recommends her patients have any amalgams in the mouths removed so as not to counteract her treatment protocol. The treatment with the DMSA is closely monitored with urine tests to see if the levels of mercury decrease.

I can be reached via the contact page on my website familycaredentists.com with any further questions.

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

Sleep Training My 11 Month Old

I know it is wrong to compare your kids, but my two and a half year old started sleeping through the night at 10 months of age. My 11 month old will be 12 months in 20 days and he is still waking up every 3 hours during the night. I decided last night that enough was enough and I was going to sleep train my child.

The problem with my baby is that he throws up when he gets really upset. He does it on 45 minute commutes, he does it when a stranger holds him, and he does it when you try to get him to sleep on his own. I decided last night to let him throw up and I decided to let him sleep in his throw up. I put him to bed at 8pm and by 8:10pm he had thrown up and by 8:30pm he had fallen sleep with his head upright, leaning against the wall of his bed. He then proceeded to wake up at 11:30pm and 3pm. At 11:30pm I tried to feed him and helped him go back to sleep. At 3pm I let him cry himself back to sleep, which took about 10 minutes. This morning he woke up at 6am and he was a perfectly happy child all day. Overall I think the night went quite well. The only problem was that my two and half year old woke up at all the times the baby woke up and he was very concerned that I was letting his brother cry.

So tonight I left the older one with his grandparents and I am on night two of my sleep training. I put the baby to bed at 8:10 and he cried until only 8:20 and he didn't throw up! The sleep training appears to be working.


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

Mouthguards and the Olympics

I was watching the Olympics last night and was pleasantly surprised to see the male ski jumpers wearing mouthguards. The sport looks inherently dangerous. The athletes speed down a ramp, jump high in the air, do ariel flips, and then must quickly look for the ground to land on their skis. According to an article in the California Dental Association journal, mouthguards are recommended for the following Olympic events: ice hockey, slalom skiing, aerials, skeleton, basketball, field hockey, boxing, martial arts, volleyball, cylcing, water polo and soccer. The type of mouthguard recommended is a dentist made pressure-laminated mouthguard.

In my dental practice I make the pressure-laminated type mouthguard for high school students participating in football, wrestling, soccer, field hockey, and water polo. It is a shame that mouthguards are not mandated in more sports. Sports like ski jumping and football have noticeable dangers that athletes are trying to protect against. The wearing of mouthguards in such sports is expected and accepted by the athletes. It is the sports like soccer and basketball where athletes don't see the need to wear a mouthguard.

I have seen the damage from two soccer related injuries, inflicted by another player. One was a nineteen year old girl that was playing soccer on the weekend with an adult league team. She had one of her front central teeth knocked out. The other one was my fifteen year old cousin. He had his two front teeth knocked inwards during a high school soccer game. An oral surgeon was able to reposition the bone around the teeth, but the teeth themselves died and had to have root canals. Both of these injuries were totally preventable.

Pressure-laminated mouthguards save teeth, prevent broken jaw bones and reduce the risk of injury to the jaw joint. If you play a sport where there is any physical contact with another person or potential contact with a moving object, then you should be wearing a mouthguard!

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

Happy New Year Dental Resolutions

I am back at work today after a week and a half long vacation. So far it has been a slow morning at the office. In the couple of weeks prior to the holidays the phone was ringing constantly and it seemed like everyone had a dental emergency. Today it is quiet, like the calm after the storm.

New Years is all about resolutions. I have some dental new year resolution suggestions for 2010.

1. Buy an electric tooth brush. Electric tooth brushes are the best at removing plaque and keeping gums healthy. They prevent tartar build up and give teeth a smooth polished feeling. Patients that I see six months after they have started using an electric tooth brush always have cleaner mouths. Costco has the best deals on electric brushes- they sell the Oral B and the Sonicare brands.

2. Floss once a day. I am sure you have heard the old saying that you only need to floss the ones you want to keep. Flossing helps removed plaque between the teeth and around the gum line. Daily flossing prevents cavities between the teeth and makes the gums and bone that hold the teeth in the mouth much healthier.

3. Bleach your teeth. There are so many affordable ways to have a whiter brighter smile. My favorite is ZOOM! Whitening. After about an hour of in office ZOOM! Whitening you will have whiter teeth. Current price for this procedure is $200!

4. Stop bad habits. Smoking and drinking soda are the two biggest culprits of dental problems. Smoking can lead to severe gum disease, as well as cancers of the mouth and throat. Drinking soda throughout the day can cause lots of cavities. By the way, diet soda is just as bad as regular soda. The carbonation is just as big of a problem as the sugar in the beverage.

5. Visit the dentist twice a year. It is important to have your teeth professional cleaned and evaluated. Gum surgery, root canals, and crowns can be prevented if your teeth are consistently maintained and checked for disease.

Happy New Year!

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