Are you looking for gift ideas for the health conscious friend or athletic family member on your list? We put together a list of some of our favorite healthy gift ideas.

 
Gifts for Healthy Teeth
Obviously, as a dentist, the first couple items I am recommending help maintain healthy teeth.

Philips Sonicare Toothbrush

Waterpik Ultra Water Flosser

 

Cyclist Gift Ideas
As an avid cyclist, I also want to include a couple gift ideas for the cyclist on your list.

Bar Mitts – These help break the wind and chill when riding outdoors in the winter.

Bicycle Computer – Measures speed, distance and other variables.

Bicycle Light – Keep the cyclist in your life safer when riding at night.

 

Gift Ideas for Runners/Walkers

Garmin GPS Sports Watch – Keeps track of distance, calories burned, heart rate and pace.

Apple iPod Shuffle or Nano

Our O’Fallon, MO dental office is excited to offer a new membership plan to patients who do not have dental insurance benefits.

Membership Benefits:

• Initial comprehensive exam, x-rays and routine cleaning
• Six Month check up with exam and routine cleaning
• All dental treatment completed within 12 months of enrollment will be discounted by 20% if paid in full at time of service. This includes elective cosmetic procedures like teeth whitening and veneers.

Cost: Individual Plan: $295

Each additional family member: $199

Please take note of the following:

• All payments are due AT TIME OF SERVICE to receive the discount. Any services received that are not paid for at the time of service will be billed at the usual, higher fee.

• If you choose to extend your payment for treatment by paying through Care Credit, the restorative treatment discount is reduced to 10% due to merchant fees.

• This offer cannot be combined with any other offers.

• This is not a dental insurance plan.

• Plan fees are valid only when paid at time of enrollment.

Call 636-561-5445 for more information.

Dr. Edward Logan & Associates

9016 Phoenix Pkwy

O’Fallon, MO 63368

636-561-5445

www.DocLogan.com

www.Facebook.com/ofallondentist

photo credit: apple_pathways

Looks like O’Fallon, MO has some fun October events planned. Check out details below.

O’Fallon Fall Fest & Craft Bazaar, 5K Fun Run

Friday, October 7, 4:00 – 10:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 8th, 9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m.

Civic Park, O’Fallon, MO

The O’Fallon Fall Fest 5K Fun Run is on Saturday morning beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Spooky Tales

Historic Heald Home, 1001 Jessup Drive in Fort Zumwalt Park, O’Fallon

Friday, October 14, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Cost is $18.  Advanced registration required by calling 636-379-5502. For more information, you can email mseymour@ofallon.mo.us.

O’Fallon Haunted Park Hunt

Friday, October 21st, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Dames Park, O’Fallon, MO

Cost is $15 for residents and $18 for non-residents.  Advanced registration is required and there will be no registration at the gate.  Adults only.

Pumpkin Picnic
Saturday, October 22nd from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Cost is $10 for residents and $12 for non-residents

Fort Zumwalt Lake at Fort Zumwalt Park, O’Fallon, MO

Registration is required so follow the link above to register.

Our O’Fallon, MO dental office is active in social media. We find it a great way to share resources on dental health, positive news stories and local events. If your local business or favorite charity has an event that you would like us to share about, please let us know.

You can connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ofallondentist
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ofallondentist

My wife discovered the Justin Bieber singing toothbrush last week. The toothbrush plays a Justin Bieber song for two minutes which is the amount of time that is typically recommended for brushing your teeth. Each brush has two buttons, one for the morning brushing and one for a bedtime brushing. The Justin Beiber toothbrush can be purchased at Walgreens or online.

I like the idea of having a two minute timer to remind children to keep brushing their teeth. Often, children will brush for just a few seconds which isn’t enough to hit every surface of every tooth. If your child is not a fan of the Biebs, or if you don’t want to buy a singing toothbrush, a simple watch or oven timer set to two minutes could help remind your child to keep brushing long enough.

photo credit: flash.pro
Parents frequently ask me when their young child should first see the dentist. The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends that children be seen shortly after their first tooth erupts and no later than their first birthday. As any parent knows, many babies and toddlers are not ready to cooperate with a full dental exam at this young age.

Our O’Fallon dental office may perform visual exams on children who are very young while the child sits comfortably in the parent’s lap. In the first couple years, the mouth is so small and the teeth are so few that a quick visual exam may be able to tell us what we need to know without having to perform a full exam with tools. At this age, we find it most helpful to have a discussion with the parents on proper dental care for young teeth and how to avoid any major problems, like baby bottle tooth decay.

In our office we try to keep these first few dental appointments calm and fun so that the child can associate the dentist with a positive experience. We don’t force young children to cooperate in ways that make them fearful because dentistry is often associated with anxiety anyway. I have treated many adult patients who still have dental anxiety due to unpleasant childhood experiences at the dentist.

As a team, parents and the dental office can work together to make going to the dentist an enjoyable and fear free experience for their children.

Video of O’Fallon, MO dentist Dr. Edward Logan answering the question, “When is it too early to lose a baby tooth?” This video was taken at a MOPS meeting with some active children in the background. If you have difficulty hearing Dr. Logan on the video, a summary of his answer appears below.

Many parents wonder when is too early for their children to lose a baby tooth and whether it even matters since it is going to be replaced by a permanent tooth eventually. While there are general time frames in which baby tooth loss and permanent tooth eruption typically occur, there remains quite a bit of variance in timing of eruption for each individual child. Premature tooth loss due to trauma typically occurs in the front teeth since that part of the mouth and face are more likely to be involved in accidents. Back teeth (also known as posterior teeth) are sometimes lost early due to decay. Due to the small size of baby teeth, decay can spread rapidly resulting in the loss of the tooth.

Whether the tooth loss occurs in the front or the back teeth makes a big difference as to treatment. Front teeth typically maintain adequate space for the eruption of permanent teeth, even when they are lost prematurely. Also, front teeth erupt years earlier than back teeth (often as early as age 6) so there is less time to be concerned about crowding development.

When a posterior tooth is lost, it is important for a dentist to closely monitor when eruption may occur by examining x-rays. Depending on when the permanent teeth will be erupting, a temporary space maintainer may be necessary to preserve spacing and give room for the permanent tooth to erupt.

Due to the variability of tooth eruption times, it is difficult to give an exact age at which it is too early to lose a baby tooth, but close monitoring by a dentist can lead to the best results for your child.

Our patient Missy describes her family’s positive pain-free experience in our dental office.

If you are interested in helping local St. Louis and St. Charles County residents whose homes were impacted by Friday’s tornado, check out the resources listed below.

Bridgeton clean up efforts are being coordinated by the City of Bridgeton and Service International.  Volunteers can report to Grace Church located at 2695 Creve Coeur Mill Road this week.  Volunteers will be helping from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day through Saturday this week. For more information, visit http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/256232/3/Bridgeton-tornado-clean-up-help-needed.

Many of the hardest hit residents are within the Pattonville School District. Pattonville’s website outlines ways that you can help donate time or energy.  http://psdr3.org/cms?/News/District/I05CE6A12

I have not been able to find information on organized efforts to help in New Melle or the Metro East area.  If you have any further information to share, please comment below.

Brand new to our office is a state-of-the-art digital x-ray system which provides multiple patient benefits.  Although our office has used digital x-rays for over six years, I recently decided to upgrade the system in all our patient rooms.  While all digital radiographs in the dental setting emit next to negligible radiation, this new system is so precise that it allows us to reduce the exposure time even more.  Radiation from digital x-rays is said to be similar to that emitted from natural sunlight.  In addition, the cone beam technology that we use in our office focuses the x-ray directly on the teeth and thereby controls any scatter.  In the past, I have had my system tested by radiation examiners and it was found to emit “almost no radiation.”  Now, therefore, it would be only marginally inaccurate for us to presume our new system to produce radiation on the order of “less than zero!”

While the reduced exposure time is notably important to my patients, even more important to me as a dentist is the increased diagnostic ability these new x-rays afford me.  Though my former system seemed more than acceptable to me in terms of clinical precision, the enhanced clarity of the new x-rays has surprised and delighted me.  We are thus able to detect decay at an earlier stage, and thereby treat cavities more conservatively when they are smaller.  This in turn leads to less drilling, less time in the dental chair and less money out of pocket for the patient.  We are also able to “watch” cavities which we call “incipient” and perhaps decide never to fill them if they do not progress.  This phenomenon only pertains to cavities in between teeth, where the decay can sometimes be arrested by regular dental flossing and fluoride rinse application.

Along with the new x-ray sensors has come a software upgrade loaded with doctor and patient benefits.  This intriguing new technology allows the dentist to enhance images and magnify areas of concern for the patient to see clearly what the doctor is prescribing and why.  It even permits me to outline decay using a colored circle on the image.  It is important for me that my patients understand the need for treatment and the ways in which we propose to improve their dental condition.  I am excited and proud to offer this new technology in my dental practice and hope that my patients will continue to realize my commitment to quality care in the most conservative manner possible!