Winter Blah's in like a Lion!

I am not sure I want to blame climate change for our current situation but I do want to blame some annoying snow!! This weather is enough to drive someone crazy. Here in Louisville at least twice now we've gone from 70-80 to freezing in 24-48 hours. Hopefully spring is around the corner. Spring is a time of the year I like to re-evaluate my health and dietary habits in a spring cleaning of the body. Our overall health is of utmost importance from what fuel we put in our bodies to how we maintain it.

This couldn't be more true of our dental health. Each year more items are reflected to be linked to unhealthy teeth and gums. I personally have begun to look at my diet and particularly the amount of fats and proteins derived from animals.

Each person may have a different area they which to focus on but spring is a time for renewal, Lent, Easter, dog woods blooming and Derby right around the corner, its a great time to be in Louisville and alive for that matter. In our practices we have been focusing on cleaning as well, cleaning out any old treatment ideas and making sure our focus on positive patient care and forward thinking dental treatment in Louisville continues.

In music I have been continuing to expand my scope of music to include more indie-rock and electronic music. This includes a band I was turned onto by a friend. They are called The War on Drugs and in the past included a Philadelphia artist I saw at Forecastle named Kurt Vile. Their new album is available to preview on NPR music and is as if 70's era Tom Petty were channeling Dire Straights and Brian Eno with a bit of Fleetwood Mac guitars.

As always Annie clark aka St. Vincent keeps me excited with her new album, her approach to take organic music and completely disguise it as electronica continues to amaze me. Sounds that should be horns or keyboards may in fact be synths or processed guitars. After her collaboration with David Byrne in 2012 the workaholic Dallas native brings to mind a very powerful woman with art and music sensibilities as well as a great background in design that few can claim. Annie get your gun or Axe in this case because she is a killer guitarist.

In the office we have been listening to more country, reggae and classic jam bands like The Grateful dead based upon patient and team requests. You can always expect to hear something new, fun, or interesting in one of our locations.

What is cosmetic Dentistry?

I am reflecting on cosmetic dentistry today. We seated a denture last week and as I have mentioned before this was indeed cosmetic dentistry. But above all it was just good solid dental care. The individual needed their remaining teeth removed and we did that and placed a very beautiful full complete denture in place. The patient is very pleased and his smile looks better than it has for years.

This is a point I often make when I can to our team and patients. Cosmetic dentistry is not a specialty of dentistry, it is not a group, or test or a badge, it is an attitude and that attitude is reflected in everything from the shade of a composite filling to the all of the many other items we do in our offices. Whitening, Invisalign, and even dentures are cosmetic procedures.

Many people think of dentistry as a want based purchase in parts of the areas we draw our patients from here in Louisville. Others view it as a need based purchase because they understand that the health of their mouth and surrounding oral soft tissues affects their entire body. Educating patients to these facts is part of our job every day. Our work isn't just in the procedures we do to care for our patients, it is in educating them and passing along our decades of experience to them on a daily basis.

The Whole Body Connection

There is new information every day on how much our bodies speak with our environment and within separate parts with each other. I recently read a study and keeping in mind it was only one study, that showed a connection between depression and the degradation of DNA within the cell.

This particular study normalized for other factors such as alcohol, diabetes or other systemic diseases. This is also only one study, but I believe that many many years from now we will know just how important everything from mental health to diet to sun exposure and family time is directly important to health. In this case the scientists studied the decay rate of a particular protein called a telomere. I have always been interested in DNA and cellular biology, even as a child, In this case telomeres are proteins that actually help hold together our double stranded DNA within our cells.

DNA is the instructional code that tells every cell in our body how to build proteins and eventually organs and then the entire body. In this case it was found that people with depression had a faster decay rate and thus less inability to hold the DNA together.

More study will be necessary but this does not surprise me. We know that Oral Health or lack there of has an effect on diseases such as Heart Disease, Diabetes, and now we now that unhealthy gums are linked to Alzheimer's Disease.

It is basketball season her in the state of Kentucky and things will soon be heating up between the Cardinal and Cats Fans. Our offices gladly support both teams, even though both of our Doctors attended the University of Kentucky, we live here in the land of the cards so we show them the respect they deserve as last years National Champion.