Dental Awards

On Friday we (myself and dental nurses Michelle and Emma) will be attending the Dentistry 2008 awards in Leicester.

We're really proud to have have been nominated for Best Practice for the North East and Yorkshire. It should be a fantastic night, a proper glossy awards ceremony with a banquet and awards presentation followed by dancing, and hopefully celebrating! We seem to have the most nominations in our category, but we will keep our fingers crossed for the win. If you want to see who we are up against the title is linked to the shortlist.

I will update next week with some photos and news of how we did.

This week I will be mostly...

...preparing for 2009.

I have a few spare hours this week, the practice is often quieter in December because with Christmas coming up most people don't want braces fitted, or even have the time to get here. So I have been making use of the time to prepare for next year, including planning our marketing strategy.

Mainly I have been looking at the fees which usually change on 1st January. The good news is that the consultation fees will not change, and some simple treatments may even be better value than 2008. The rest will be increasing by about 4% to cover changes in overheads, staffing, marketing etc.

The other good news is that knowing that people's purses are under pressure at the moment I have decided to put the fee-increase on hold until 1st February. So if you are not sure whether to book a consultation, now is the time to pick up the phone and give us a call, as if you are seen in January you will be guaranteed 2008 fees (or the new prices if lower) even if your treatment does not start for three months.

I look forward to seeing you soon...!

10 ways to look after your teeth

(Click the title) 10 important tips on looking after your teeth, whether you have braces or not!

How to make your dental nurse happy...

...fit her with braces! Or rather, remove the braces having made her teeth straighter.

This is Charlotte, who is a dental nurse with our sister practice Ashby Dental. She didn't like the lower teeth because one tooth seemed to stick up above the rest. It wasn't a severe problem, but Charlotte didn't like it especially as being in the profession you want to have great teeth, it doesn't make a very good advert for your practice otherwise. So I fitted her with a lower fixed brace for just long enough to straighten the offending tooth. She's really happy with the result and this now takes the total of staff I have treated to four! I wonder who could be next...?

Do wisdom teeth make your front teeth crooked?

This is a question which a patient asked yesterday and I hear fairly frequently. Your wisdom teeth usually come through in your late teens or your twenties. As you get older your teeth move and shuffle about, so often in your late teens or your twenties they will get more crooked. So the natural assumption is that the wisdom teeth have pushed from the back and therefore the front ones have crowded up.

Over the years there has been quite a bit of research on this problem. It shows that even if you have no wisdom teeth, or you have them removed, the front teeth can still change position. Crowding of the teeth (especially the lower front ones) can be considered a natural change as you get older, and it is just a coincidence it happens at the time when wisdom teeth erupt. I should point out the amount your teeth move is not predictable, it's down to individual variation.

So the answer is no, your wisdom teeth do NOT affect your front teeth. Current advice is to leave wisdom teeth alone, and only remove them if they are causing ongoing problems like repeated infection. Which is all ultimately good news for you! Of course, if your teeth are crooked then we can help with that.

Fee Review

This morning I had a request from a patient to delay the start of treatment due to uncertain job security. This is a reflection of the current financial climate of which we are all aware. Of course, I am happy to agree with my patients the best timing for them, whether this is due to financial or personal commitments. For example, many people prefer not to start treatment just before Christmas due to social engagements.

I am in the process of reviewing my treatment fees, which will come into effect on 1st January. This is a twice-yearly process to take account of changes in the market, overheads and so on. Inevitably this will lead to a rise in fees, but it is my aim to keep increases as small as practical. For this reason we rarely give discounts or "free" consultations, as the losses would have to be recouped elsewhere, perhaps by an increase in treatment cost. However, we do offer monthly payment plans so you can spread your investment over 12-36 months.

However, I will stress that any adult or child seen for consultation in November or December 2008 who agrees to a course of treatment and secures it with a deposit will be guaranteed 2008 fees for a period of three months from consultation. So if you were thinking about treatment but planning to get Christmas over with first, I would encourage you to call us now for a consultation so you can take advantage of our current fees (published on the website and confirmed after consultation).

Technology

At the weekend I had the misfortune to arrive at Stranraer (with family) for a ferry to Northern Ireland to be told that all the fast ferries had been cancelled, and whilst we could wait 5 hours for the next ordinary ferry it was likely to be delayed due to weather. We decided not to wait and turned around and came home, a good decision as the ferry was further delayed.

Aside from the obvious disappointment of a cancelled weekend away, we were annoyed to have woken up early and travelled a long distance, when had we known the ferry was cancelled most or all of our 8+ hours in the car would have been avoided.

Technology these days is amazing. In the last six months at the practice we introduced text reminders for appointments. Just tell us your mobile number (or landline if you prefer) and you will automatically receive a text the day before your appointment. We can do email reminders if you prefer. (We promise never to pass on your contact information.) The ferry company sent us an email and a text to confirm our booking. I wonder why they did not send us a text when the crossing was cancelled. Next time we are flying.

Lucious Lips?

Trinny and Susannah were on the TV last week promoting their latest programme or book or something. The reason I can't remember is that I was mesmerised by Trinny's lips. Looking at photos (she's the one on the right) she does seem to have a naturally large lower lip, but both upper and lower lips looked abnormally large, the natural assumption being she has had them "done". Perhaps she just had the wrong shade of lippy on?

It got me thinking about how important the lips are to your look. When planning how to straighten teeth I take into account the shape, size and position of the lips and how they relate to the face and teeth. If I move the teeth the lips could change as a side effect, although it is difficult to predict precisely. This can have good or bad effects, such as subtly thickening the lips, or making the top lip "sink" into the face. It means that what is right for one person might not be for another. It means that I take each case separately, taking into account perhaps more than the reason treatment is sought in the first place. It means that each person gets an individual plan which is designed just for them.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog. I intend to update this regularly to bring you news, updates, photos and information from Wetherby Orthodontics. I will also be sharing my thoughts on current dental issues and anything else dental or orthodontic related.