Art Opening at CSUCI Exhibitions Art Gallery @ Camarillo Smiles

I just got home from the opening of the ceramics show in the art gallery within my dental office. If you haven't seen it, right inside the office to the left is the CSUCI Exhibitions Art Gallery. A space that has been home to hundreds of student, faculty and professional artists over the past 6 years.

Tonight it featured the works of student artists who have created incredibly inspired pieces of art. Lovely vases with glazes as beautiful as a porcelain crown (you might have to be a dentist to appreciate that). Clay figurines ironically embracing technology, pottery rooted in a student's familial roots and a depiction of the journey of an immigrant family make up a wonderfully put together show.

I am especially proud that this is the second show in a row that features works from art students that are also Camarillo Smiles patients! Great to see our patients' contributions.

Does it seem strange to have an art gallery inside of a dental office? Some may think so, but I love it. I have been asked many times how it came about to have Camarillo Smiles dental office be the home of California State University Channel Islands Exhibitions Art Gallery, the university's first art gallery. Well here it is.

For years I had dreamt of having an art gallery in the northwest part of my dental office building in a space that I wasn't using. The light streams into the area creating a wonderful space to display art. The problem was that as much as I loved art, I had no business running an art gallery. So, on a whim, I called up Jack Reilly, the former head of the art department at CSUCI to see if were interested in using the space. He couldn't get over here to see the space quick enough, he was so excited since at the time they did not have any gallery space available to them. I happily invited him to utilize the space and there began CSUCI Exhibitions.

Students study the running of an art gallery and put on shows and openings to the delight of the university and the community (and, of course, our patients). Come by some time and check it out, you'll be impressed by these budding artists.

6'2”, 218 lb Football Player Defeated... by a Jolly Rancher

Dallas Cowboys safety, Barry Church, was surprisingly sidelined by a classic hard candy. Last week, Church succumbing to his sweet tooth cravings, began to enjoy a Cherry Jolly-Rancher, and unfortunately bit down and broke his tooth. Not thinking much of it, Church continued with his day. That is, until Monday morning. He woke up to unbearable pain, rushed to the dentist and had an emergency root canal, causing him to miss practice!

But, isn't tooth enamel the hardest thing in our body? It sure is, so how does a tooth, so strong and resilient, break with a simple candy? Well, breaking a tooth is actually more common than people think, especially when it comes to teeth with existing large fillings, superficial cracks or cavities. These compromised teeth are much more susceptible to fracturing.

What should you do if this happens to you? Definitely see your dentist ASAP. Depending on the extent of the break, your dentist will decide on the appropriate treatment needed. Small chips can be remedied by a simple filling. A larger break, will warrant a crown. And if the break has reached the nerve canals of your tooth, as what happened to Church, a root canal will be needed. But not to worry, your dentist is there to help you through it!

So what can be done to avoid this? Well for one thing, not chewing on hard candy. But also, prevention is key! Very few teeth break as a result of a one time event like biting on something hard. Instead, they usually break as a result of tiny microscopic cracks that happen over many years. Large fillings, strong chewing muscles, clenching and grinding can be the cause of them. They build up over the years and then...oh no!- part of the tooth breaks off. Here at Camarillo Smiles, the most common "last straw" is a muffin or tuna fish sandwich, something soft. So, we want to prevent these cracks from building up. To do this, we want to get to cavities early before they need a huge filling. We want to avoid habits like chewing on very hard foods (my favorite is one of our patient's snacking on frozen M&Ms). We want to minimized destructively strong bites that can severely weaken a tooth. The use of a nightguard, worn at night is very effective for that.

Don't let any of your teeth tackle you for a loss. Come in regularly to avoid troubles and if you feel a sharp pain when biting on a particular tooth, we need to see you. 

Wedding Day Smile Makeovers

The big day approaches and you, of course, want to look your best. You’ve found the perfect dress, You’ve ordered the perfect flowers. You’ve booked your hairstylist. You’ve done everything to ensure every aspect of your big day is exactly what you’ve envisioned it to be. But then you then take a good long look at your smile and decide you need to go see a dentist. Whether you’re less than happy with those stains on your teeth, or you feel that your teeth are too crooked, you do know that you want your wedding pictures to look perfect. But you think you may have run out of time to do anything about it. But don’t worry, there is a lot that we can do. At Camarillo Smiles, we have helped many bride-to-bes get their most gorgeous smiles very quickly.

Even if you have only a day to go before your wedding, we have a number of options to improve the appearance of your smile in time for the big day.

Tooth Whitening
If your pearly whites just aren’t as white as you would like, our in office teeth whitening is a great option. Our fantastic one hour teeth whitening is able to brighten your teeth by at least 7 shades in just one visit. Just sit back and relax, as our trained dental expert administers the whitening gel and uses the activation light to brighten your smile, in plenty of time for your wedding day pictures.

Cosmetic Recontouring
Do you have little chips and worn down edges on your teeth? Are your edges uneven? Do your eye teeth look like something out of the Twilight Saga? If so, cosmetic recontouring may just be what you are looking for. What this involves is taking fine little discs and creating nice feminine contours that help remove years of wear and tear giving your smile a more youthful appearance. And yes, there are masculine and feminine contours to teeth.

Cosmetic Bonding
If you have spaces or gaps in between your teeth, Drs. Czubiak, Shapiro and Pezeshki are experts at disguising them. Using an advanced composite resin material, they are able to fill in those spaces invisibly and also fill in individual chips in your teeth. The results are remarkable and the procedure is done in just one session. No more spaces ruining your beautiful pictures. This procedure is also very useful if you have visible spaces between the teeth at the gum line. We call them black triangles. They can attract the eye to the dark space, but with bonding...poof!...they are gone.

If you have a little bit more time before your wedding and are looking to address the straightness of your teeth, then we have a few options.

Invisalign
We offer removable, clear aligners, including Invisalign and Essix MTM. The average treatment is about 6-9 months but don’t worry, we can straighten your teeth up to the big date and then they can be removed for your wedding day festivities.

Porcelain Veneers
If you have problems with crooked or gapped teeth, but don’t have the time for braces, the best choice for you may be porcelain veneers. Veneers are thin sheet of tooth colored porcelain that are firmly attached to the front of your teeth to completely change your appearance. This is usually done in only two visits.

Planning your wedding day smile makeover well in advance of your date will always give us the most flexibility but in case it slipped your wedding planning mind, don’t fret, we will work with you to make sure that you are confident and comfortable enough to show your nice bright smile to the camera and the world. Call our office today at 805-388-5700 to schedule your wedding smile makeover consultation.

Camarillo Smiles Dentists and Team on Continuing Education

Tomorrow Dr. Shapiro, our team and I (Dr. Czubiak) are heading down to Anaheim for the annual California Dental Association Scientific Session. Every spring, our dental association puts on a fantastic event with some of the best minds in dentistry presenting to their peers. The information presented is nothing less than cutting edge. People come from all over the country to hear these wonderful lecturers. The classes are on Cosmetic Dentistry, Implants, Preventive Dentistry, Oral Surgery and more.

    

There are 100's of hours of lectures presented over three days. Being that there are so many classes, it is impossible for us to attend every class. No problem, we purchase the complete recordings of the sessions on cd so that we can listen to them in the car during our commute to home and work.

  

Besides the valuable information, they also display the latest equipment and materials in the convention center. It is our chance to talk with the manufacturers, test out their stuff and learn about their advances in dentistry. Yeah, for dental geeks like us, we are like kids in a candy store (minus the candy of course).

As informative as our convention is, our commitment to education goes far beyond this. We are constantly improving out knowledge by attending continuing education classes. We believe that our patients deserve to have the most educated dentists caring for them. We love to learn and that is a good thing for all of our patients. 

Dr. Czubiak lecturing in Sundance, Utah

Besides learning, we also spend quite a bit of time teaching. Dr. Shapiro and I just got back from teaching in Utah where we put on a retreat for other dentists. We love teaching because we can help others and at the same time, to teach, we really need to know our stuff. The challenge of teaching keeps us sharp and is incredibly satisfying.

Being in dentistry means we will alway be students and also teachers.

If ever you want to discuss the latest advances in dentistry, we will be happy to entertain your questions. We love to talk dentistry! Dr. C :)

Our Most Popular Webpage Ever!

At Camarillo Smiles, we keep track of what is of interest to our patients and friends when it comes to information on our website. Last year I wrote an article for our website, and let me tell you, nobody is more surprised than I am that it has become by far the most popular article on our website. So what page is it?

It is our page on Breastfeeding. Who would have thought? We do see so many young mothers at our practice and questions come up all of the time about the safety of dental medications and procedures while nursing. So I guess I should have figured.

We get several people a day going to our website to read our article on breastfeeding and dentistry. They google: “Is Novocaine safe while breastfeeding”, “nursing and Novocaine”, “what can I take for pain while I am nursing”, “what antibiotics are OK while breastfeeding”, etc. I knew that there was not a lot of information out there so I thought it would be helpful to write an article myself. Knowledge is often said to be power, but in this case Knowledge is safety.

Here at Camarillo Smiles, we love knowledge and also love safety. We follow the recommendations of trusted, science-based organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which give us these guidelines. They put a lot of effort into research and making sure that the science makes sense so that their recommendations are based on the best information available.
Here is a link to the article on the Camarillo Smiles website it is called, “Breast Feeding and Dental Care, a Guide for Nursing Mothers”.

About Breastfeeding

The Journal of the American Dental Association which just came out this month included an article about breastfeeding. The authors examined the literature regarding general health protections that breastfeeding confers to infants and mothers and explored associations between breastfeeding, bite and arrangement of the baby teeth and early childhood cavities.

What they found was that when compared with health outcomes among formula-fed children, the health advantages associated with breastfeeding include a lower risk of ear infections,  diarrhea, severe lower respiratory infections, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, obesity and other childhood diseases and conditions. Evidence also suggests that breastfed children may develop a more favorable tooth arrangement in their baby teeth.

We, just as the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, suggests that parents gently clean infants' gums and teeth after breastfeeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breastfeeding should be exclusive for about the first six months of life and should continue, with the introduction of appropriate complementary foods, to at least age 12 months or beyond, as desired by mother and child.  We follow the surgeon general's recommendations to promote and support optimal breastfeeding and oral health practices among our patients and their newborns.

Here’s to happy, healthy babies. Dr. C:)

Also look in the Woman’s Issues section of the website for articles that may be of related interest to you. We are always looking to add good, informative and relevant content to our website. If you have any suggestions for any future articles or discussions, let us know by emailing us at info@camarillosmiles.com.

Raising the bar in 2013

Wow, another year passes. Where did 2012 go. Time sure does seem to fly by. Well, since we didn't see the end of the world this month we can get back to our actuary tables. According to the CDC, life expectancy in the United States is 78.5 years. In areas like Camarillo and Ventura County, the life expectancy is even higher due to our good clean living. That poses a problem for dentists like me.

Your smile at 90?

In the old days, people were OK with losing their teeth and wearing dentures. These days that isn't the case. Most people want to avoid that. I used to have patients ask me, "so when do you think I am going to lose my teeth?" as if it were unavoidable.

Just to be clear, gum disease (not cavities) is the cause of losing all of your teeth almost every time. The bone that hold your teeth in is only there to do that if it is happy (healthy). Inflammation and infection around the neck of the teeth from plaque is what causes the bone to not want to be there. It will slowly recede away from the tooth until the tooth gets loose and falls out.

It used to be that only people with great teeth and great habits kept their teeth into their golden years. Now, even mediocre teeth can go the distance with the right care. As we all live longer, we have to raise the bar on oral hygiene. It is a team effort between you and your friendly dental team at Camarillo Smiles. What we do is to help you become better and more efficient so that you won't need us as much. We love to be needed, but we also love seeing our coaching pay off for you. That makes us smile!

Have a great 2013. -Dr. C:)

In Defense of Candy

    I have a confession. This is the time of year that I, as a Camarillo dentist, am supposed to go on and on about the horrors of candy, but, I can’t. Even though most people believe that candy is the number one threat to teeth and the top cause of cavities, research does not support this wholesale vilification of sweets.

    Any food that has any kind of sugar or carbohydrates that can be broken down by the bacteria in your mouth cause cavities. The longer the food sits on the teeth, the more breakdown of enamel we will see.

    Surprisingly, research shows that candy, like caramels and jellybeans, dissolve more rapidly than starch-based products like potato chips, bread and rice. Candy is made with soluble sugars that wash away more rapidly than the sticky starches.

    But be sensible, occasional eating of candy is not aproblem, especially if you brush and floss afterwards. The problem comes when we eat is all day long.

    Maybe you should move that holiday candy bowl to someone else’s desk. - Dr. C:)