BHO

October! National Orthodontic Month

2011-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's national October month! Send your friends and we'll send you something cool! Check out our new swag. We're giving away prizes every month to contest winners! This month, guess how many spiders we've caught! Most of you know about our BHO Bucks program but we've ordered new and exciting prizes! And our annual Halowwen costume contest is on! Make sure you send us a picture of you in your costume and we'll have everyone vote in November!

What's Fun this Month

2010-04-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

* Pottery Barn Sing-Along at the Grove
* Music with Parker Bent at Giggles and Hugs
* Parent and Child Yoga-Sherman Oaks
* Making Faces: Playful Portraits of People you Know-Skirball

Thanks from Patients

2009-05-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

"Thank you so much for the iPod shuffle! I'm so excited to finally have an iPod and it being purple makes it extra special. Thank you most of all for your skill and care in fixing my teeth. I was blessed to find you. Best, Samantha

Fun Facts About Braces

2009-05-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

Braces Trivia

* An orthodontist needs four years of college, four years of dental school, and two years of postgraduate study in orthodontics before they can practice orthodontics.
* All orthodontists are also board certified dentists
* Dr Charles Tweed was the first certified orthodontist in the US.
* The first "braces" were constructed by Pierre Fauchard in 1728. Fauchard's "braces" consisted of a flat strip of metal, which was connected to teeth by pieces of thread.
* Bands were invented by Schange in 1841. The first bands consisted of an strip of metal, with a screw to adjust their size.
* Orthodontic Brackets were invented by Edward Angle in 1915. The brackets consisted of little hooks of metal, which were attached to bands which went around your teeth.
* Dr Angle modified his design, producing the edgewise bracket in 1928. If you or your parents got braces before 1970, they probably got braces similar to those invented by Dr Angle

Dental Trivia

* If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.
* If one identical twin grows up without a given tooth coming in, the second identical twin will usually also grow up without the tooth
* If the roof of your mouth is narrow, you are more prone to snore since you are not getting enough oxygen through your nose.
* If your jaw is broken, they put it together with special screws.
* You will get fewer cavities if you eat a bag of candy in one sitting and then brush your teeth than if you slowly eat the candy a piece at a time all day.

-bracesinfo.com

Our 1 Year Anniversary

2009-05-07T00:45:00.000-07:00

We are so pleased to announce our first anniversary at this location. We absolutely love our patients and cherish each one of you. We hope you've enjoyed the experience so far and we are so excited about the time to come!

Why Healthy Teeth Are Important

2009-04-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

Why Healthy Teeth Are Important

How does taking care of your teeth help with all those things? Taking care of your teeth helps prevent plaque (say: plak), which is a clear film that sticks to your teeth. The film itself might not sound so bad, but it's very sticky, and it acts like a magnet for bacteria (say: bak-teer-ee-uh) and sugar.

Like ants at a picnic, bacteria go crazy over the sugar on your teeth, breaking it down into acids that eat away tooth enamel, causing holes called cavities. Plaque also causes gingivitis (say: jin-juh-vi-tis), which is gum disease that can make your gums red, swollen, and sore. Your gums are those soft pink tissues in your mouth that hold your teeth in place.

If you don't take care of your teeth, it won't be long before cavities and unhealthy gums make your mouth very, very sore। Eating meals will be difficult. And you won't feel like smiling so much.

Updated and reviewed by: Lisa Goss, RDH, BS and Garrett B. Lyons, Jr., DDS

2009-04-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Tooth decay putting 30,000 children in hospital every year, study finds
David Rose

Children are being admitted to hospital with serious tooth decay in growing numbers as a result of sugary diets, the failure to brush properly and poor care from dentists.

Hospitals in England are treating more than 30,000 children for dental problems every year, and the number of teeth being pulled out under general anaesthetic has risen by two thirds in less than a decade, a study reveals today. The most common age for a child having a rotten tooth out in hospital is five.

Hospitalisation for dental problems is now a serious health issue, even though decay — or dental caries — could easily be prevented through regular brushing and check-ups, the researchers conclude.

Previous reports suggested that rates of tooth decay had increased only slightly among children in recent years. But the latest study, to be published in the British Dental Journal, indicates that some toddlers and children have such poor oral hygiene that they are ending up in hospital as emergency cases, or having their teeth pulled when preventive treatment with fluoride treatments or fillings would have been more appropriate.
Related Links

* ANALYSIS: widespread fluoridation is the answer

* Medical chief backs Wii for obesity fight

* The best way to avoid decay?

The dangers of severe or delayed dental treatment were illustrated recently by the case of Sophie Waller, an eight-year-old with a fear of dentists who starved herself to death because she refused to open her mouth after having eight milk teeth removed by a paediatric hospital consultant.

The researchers from Peninsula Dental School, Plymouth, and University College London, examined data from Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) to identify a “disturbing trend” of increasing hospital admissions for children up to the age of 17 with caries and other dental conditions between 1997 and 2006. The number of teeth being pulled because of tooth decay among the under-18s increased from about 20,000 in March 1997 to 33,500 in April 2006, they found.

The study period predates the introduction of new contracts for NHS dentists in 2006, but analysis of the most recent HES data, for 2007-08, shows that the trend for hospital referrals is continuing, with 36,000 admissions for caries among those aged 14 and under.

The findings may support calls, from Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, and others, for fluoride to be added routinely to water supplies as a key means of tackling tooth decay. This already happens in some areas of England, but has been opposed as “forced medication” in others.

Overall, 470,113 children were treated in hospital for dental problems during the study period. More than half involved a primary diagnosis of dental caries and 80 per cent involved extractions. More than 5 per cent of those required two or more teeth to be removed - one teenager was admitted to hospital to have teeth taken out seven times in nine years.

The use of general anaesthesia in dentistry was moved from dental practices to hospitals as a safety measure in 2001, but the researchers said that this would not explain the year-on-year increase in the numbers.David Moles, Professor of Oral Health Services Research at Peninsula Dental School, who led the study, said that several factors may have contributed to the rise in hospital admissions, including dentists choosing to refer children to hospital to be sedated if they did not feel able to manage them in their own surgery. “But if children are ending up in hospital having their teeth pulled, it suggests they are not receiving the appropriate care and treatment at an earlier stage,” he said.

Young children given a general anaesthetic could be exposed to an unnecessary risk of complications or even death, he said. One child in ten experiences minor side-effects after an anaesthetic but about one in 20,000 develops a serious allergic reaction. Poorer children were twice as likely to need treatment as those from more affluent areas, he added.

* Have your say

Fluoride in water prevents tooth decay. NZ added fluoride to its water 40+ years ago & had to close most of the dental clinics provided for children as this was so successful. Most of my contemporaries had no fillings

Sam, London, England

There should be more NHS dentists and schools could issue fluoride tablets to children with neglected teeth who probably do not drink water but have fizzy drinks . It is not right to fluoridate the water as fluoride is a poison. Read the Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson

D.J.Hutson, Ascot, England

It's the parents of these children who set bad examples. They need to have parents and children education on oral health.

Welcome

2009-03-11T11:59:00.001-07:00

Thank you Lulu for starting our blog!!!!