Check it out!

A few days ago, a short video film was added to our website. It shows interviews of four of 'my' patients. They talk about their experiences and do so in their own environment.

I always like to think that I am free of prejudices, but, of course, I'm not. When talking to someone on the phone, immediately, an image is created. This video film proves me from about right to absolutely wrong!

Anyway, it is very nice to see them 'in person'. If you have not seen it yet, just go to www.dentaprime.co.uk; it starts automatically and will show you what to expect when travelling to Bulgaria.

Talking about Varna... This whole week, it will be sunny and approx. 26 degrees in Varna.

Also, last month, Mall Varna was opened:
70 000 sq. m total built-up area
33 000 sq. m total shopping area
2, 000 sq. m Supermarket Piccadilly Gourmet
2 floors fashion shops
8 cinema halls with 1300 seats Cinema Complex Arena
10 bowling lanes, 3D Cinema and Sega Games, restaurants, coffee shops
800 sq. m Children entertainment center Capella Play
Skating rink

Another good reason to combine your dental treatment with a holiday in Bulgaria!

Acupuncture

Some people show a strong gagging reaction when they are at the dentist's. Ear acupuncture could solve this problem.

The technique had a 100% success rate when tested on a group of ten volunteers. Accupuncture needles were inserted into anti-gagging points and then manipulated. The volunteers were treated successfully. Probably this type of accupunture works because it causes the release of certain chemicals.

Unless one suffers from needle phobia, this sounds like a great solution to me.

However, when treated by a dentist who puts you at ease, takes his/her time, explains the how and why of the treatment etc., you may not even need to feel like a pin-cushion. In our clinic, we don't use pins, - we just use our experience and social skills...

"...So I went to see this acupuncturist."
"Really? What for?"
"To help with my diet."
"Did it work?"
"Absolutely -- she stuck needles in the cakes so I couldn't eat them."

Finger gestures

In the early morning, when I wake up before I go-go, I sometimes reset the alarm. There are many, many excuses for that. but the main reason is that I went to bed late and I'm still too tired.

A ten minutes delay can lead to small wonders! Sometimes, however, when I am at the office, colleagues tell me that I am wearing my sweater wrong side out. Other times my socks don't match or my hair is uncombed.

What I also do when I have slept 'late': I save time (???) by putting some toothpaste on my finger instead of the toothbrush. Probably I'm not the only one, because Oral-B has invented the Brush-Up! It's like a disposable pre-impregnated toothbrush. You don't even need water!

Why does a vampire clean his teeth three times a day?
To prevent bat breath.


What happened when the dentist put his head into a lions mouth to count how many teeth he had ?
The lion closed its mouth to see how many heads the dentist had !

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war

After the Battle of Waterloo, soldiers were robbed for money and .... teeth. The first false teeth were developed and after experiments with bone and ivory, natural teeth showed to be the best choice. Wealthy people paid a lot of money, especially for teeth that came from battlefields.

50,000 men fell at Waterloo and most were young and healthy. Their teeth were pulled and became parts of dentures that were worn by the British rich and famous of the 1800s.
My my, at Waterloo.....

In 2008, selling stolen teeth could be a problem:

Tooth Fairy Form Letter

Dear ____________:

Thank you for leaving [01] tooth under your pillow last night.

While we make every attempt to leave a monetary reward in the case of lost or stolen children's teeth, we were unable to process your request for the following reason(s) indicated below:

( ) the tooth could not be found
( ) it was not a human tooth
( ) we do not think that pieces of chicken bone are very funny
( ) we were unable to approach the tooth due to excessive odor
( ) the tooth has previously been redeemed for cash
( ) the tooth did not originally belong to you
( ) you were overheard to state that you do not believe in the tooth fairy
( ) you were age 12 or older at the time your request was received
( ) the tooth is still in your mouth
( ) the tooth was guarded by a vicious fairy-eating dog at the time of our visit
( ) no nightlight was on at the time of our visit
( ) the snacks provided for the tooth fairy were not satisfactory, or were missing
( ) we discovered evidence of unsafe tooth extraction as follows:
[ ] string
[ ] pliers
[ ] gunpowder
[ ] hammer marks
[ ] chisel
[ ] part of skull attached to tooth
[ ] no dental care

( ) other:
Instead of the usual cash redemption, we have provided the following certificate which you may attempt to exchange at a retail store near you.

Thank you for your request, and we look forward to serving you in the future.

Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy

Help!

"When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way."
The first time I heard this Beatles song I must have been 10 years old and thought I could do it all by myself. (I know better now...)

If you need information on teeth, jawbone, gums and sinuses, the Dentaprime Service Centre is the place to be! Of course a proper treatment proposal depends on the results of a consultation, but we can assist you in many ways.

The Internet offers so much information that it is almost impossible to filter. One website tells you that smokers can have dental implants, another that they cannot. (We tell you that they can but that we advise against it because they will be excluded from our guarantee...)

Just send us an e-mail and we'll help!

Tech support: How may I help you?
Customer: I'm writing my first e-mail.
Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get the circle around it?

Of course, you can also give us a call...

Young gifted and blonde

This is our oral surgeon/implantologist Regina Schindjalova.
She studied dentistry and oral surgery in Russia.
As of June 2006 she is head of dentistry of the Dentaprime dental clinic. Recently she changed her hair colour from brown to blonde. No jokes please...

Writer Faye Kellerman received her Doctorate of Dental Surgery degree in 1978, but never practiced dentistry. She is married to writer Jonathan Kellerman and three of their four children have published as well, so I guess they live in a house with many rooms and the only sound is that of fingers touching computer keyboards.

Londoner Andrew Bain was working as a NHS dentist for 10 years when he sent in a demo tape to Sony. They offered him a 1 million record deal. Bain mixes opera with pop music. Sony finds him 'a refreshingly different talent.' Another NHS dentist less, which -in 2008- means even more patients on waiting lists for affordable dental treatment.

Dr Schindjalova may not write a top ten book or appear in Later... with Jools Holland, but by now she can insert dental implants with her eyes closed and that also is a great talent!

Cool clean water

"Hi! This is your flying reporter Kim!


Did you know that dental drills need water? In this Dentaprime clinic in Bulgaria, the water is fine. In other parts of the world, however, safe drinking water may be hard or even impossible to find.

Did you know that water that is unsafe to drink, is also unsafe for dental treatment? Dentists can use boiled water, but bottled sterile water would be better.

Did you know about this magician who was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean? The audience would be different each week, so the magician allowed himself to do the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the magician did every trick. Once he understood he started shouting in the middle of the show: "Look, it's not the same hat" "Look, he is hiding the flowers under the table" "Hey, why are all the cards the Ace of Spades ?" The magician was furious but couldn't do anything; it was, after all, the captain's parrot. One day the ship had an accident and sank. The magician found himself on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean with the parrot, of course. They stared at each other with hatred, but did not utter a word. This went on for a day and then another and another. After a week the parrot said: "OK, I give up. Where's the boat?"

Did you know that, in 2005, Coca Cola bought Bankia, a leading Bulgarian mineral water company?

I would never ever wash my feathers in Coke.
Rusty? Rusty you say? MY FEATHERS RUSTY????"

(Kim is my colleague's parrot.)

Marblelous

As a child I used to play with marbles and I used to be pretty good at it, so I hardly ever had to buy them.
I especially loved the big ones. In Dutch we called them 'bouncers', which is a very strange name for something that slivers every time it hits the ground...

After some time the marbles would get nontransparant because of all the damage, but that didn't spoil the fun. On the contrary, very old -and so very damaged- marbles were even more valuable than the ones that were still brandnew.

Damaged teeth, however, are no fun at all!

First of all, because you cannot play with them. Maybe your tongue strongly disagrees, but then you should call it to order!

In a vast majority of cases, the damage is caused by an accident or fall.

If the damage is done to the inner parts, you must see a dentist immediately. If not treated, the tooth can become infected, and you could lose it.

If there is no injury to the enamel, no immediate dental treatment is necessary, but you should make an appointment.

A mildly displaced tooth usually returns to its normal position within a few weeks. Just stick to soft foods for a few weeks.

In case of doubt, go see the dentist!

Mary, Mary where are you going to? (Monkees)

Funny how thoughts can travel far...

Within seconds, thinking of Great Britain leads to Scotland leads to The Trossachs leads to Rob Roy leads to one of my favourite French & Saunders parodies....

Hero or villain, I think Jennifer Saunders is a fair laddy!

The last time I was in Scotland must have been in 1980-something. I used to take the ferry to Hull and then drive for 7 hours or so until I saw the sign that told me I was in Crieff, Perthshire.

My next visits to Great Britain were restricted to the city of London. There I had some trouble pronouncing a word that had my name in it:

MARY LEBONE

By the way, that's where our partner-dentist is. If you want to make an appointment, just give us a call. If you visit him for a consultation, he will inform us of his findings and we send you a pricing example of what the treatment would cost in Bulgaria.

CSIV (Crime Scene Investigation Varna)

53 Years ago, I was born -and after that raised- in the city of The Hague where 474.000 people live. In 30 odd years, I only heard of 1 murder in my neighbourhood. It was a burglary that escalated because someone came home too soon.

For the next 15 years, I roamed the adjacent province.

I lived near Schiphol Airport and then I managed to find housing in Amsterdam. I found a nice family house in the city where people have to wait for a lifetime for just a one-room appartment. When the debt collection agency wrote their 20th letter (to my landlady) and threatened to come and sell everything that was in the house, I moved on. After that I hired a house for 2.200 Euros per month from someone who 'forgot' to pay his mortgage.

Then I really took a risk: I moved to a small town (just 29.599 inhabitants) in the most southern part of the country, near the German border. Finally I found some peace!

First year: two people were murdered. One of them was only wearing one slipper when they found him, so that is called 'the slipper murder'.

Next year: a young guy was shot in front of a pool centre.

Third year: a wealthy drugs dealer was shot in front of his house, wife and children.

Last week: two people were stabbed to death because of relational problems.

I just heard that William Petersen will leave the extremely succesful series CSI. Maybe he can come over to my district....

Many Bulgarian taxi drivers try to exploit tourists by charging them twice or even three times the actual fare. You don't need 'Grissom' for that. Just ask our receptionists and they will make sure that your driver is trustworthy.

May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it (Irish blessing)

"Let's talk about fish.

As we all know, we should eat fish at least once a week, preferably on Fridays. No risk of getting bored here. You can bake, fry, cook or -like me- eat it raw.


There are goldfish, white flat fish, clownfish (Did they ever find that guy Nemo?), angelfish, piranhas, sharks, even catfish!

And then there is......

Blimey!
Does he eat cats on Fridays?"

If you have not been to a dentist for years, you may be afraid of what we may say or do to you. We won't eat you, of course, but we wouldn't make nasty comments either. We know that many people had bad experiences with dentists in their home country, and we don't judge them by the condition of their teeth. We just fix it, one way or another.

(Photo fish by Dani Simonds, www.morguefile.com)

You've stuck your webs into my business for the last time! (Doc Ock in Spiderman 2)

There is no reason to have a spider phobia. They're quite harmless!

I have a friend who thinks of a Ferrari F430 or an Alfa Romeo when he hears the word 'spider'...

His wife, a vet, probably thinks of two body segments and eight legs...

I myself -a thriller freak- think of Along Came The Spider by James Patterson.

However, most people think of SPIDERS!!!!!! and are scared to death of them.


It's a fear that is commonly accepted, just like fear of dentists.

Once you are in a dentist's web, you're stuck, aren't you?

In our clinic, you're not. We are very experienced in treating anxious patients. Every time we think we have heard it all, another patient tells us what he/she went through and we have to admit it is even worse.

Phobia is one (big) step beyond fear and anxiety. It usually develops in late childhood, adolescence, or early adult life in response to a frightening situation. Dental phobia often comes from an earlier experience or it simply runs in the family, because children learn to fear.

We have proved to handle these things very well, but if you are looking for some information or support, please visit

http://www.beyondfear.org/

'Men...' (pronounced in a way only women can)

There are horses that love to be near the sea....

Horses that love to be in the sea....

And horses that love to stay in bed 24/7...

Unlike their mainland namesakes, male sea'horses' gladly undergo pregnancy. Females can also give birth, but males have the potential to produce more offspring in a shorter period of time.

Now we all know that men are from Mars and women from Venus, but in our clinic they are all treated equal. Cosmetic dentistry is not just a woman's thing. Men also want their teeth to be white and straight and their gaps to be covered.

Roughly 60% of all cosmetic dentistry patients are women, which means 40% are men...

If male seahorses do not hesitate about getting pregnant, why would you about getting a wonderful smile?

Why grandma, what nice teeth you have!

Good 'old' Tina Turner is touring again!

Well, she may no longer be ' simply the best', but I do think many other grandmas still envy her in silence. Going river deep and mountain high on these heels at the age of 68 deserves a lot of respect! I'm sure that her teeth are also in perfect shape, but if not, would she be too old for dental implants?

Many times, older patients are concerned that their age may stop them from getting dental implants. Health, not age, is a key factor in this. Generally, if you're healthy enough to have a tooth extracted, you're healthy enough to receive dental implants. Certain chronic diseases, however, can contraindicate the treatment, so please mention these when contacting us.

Younger patients are more likely to be disappointed. They have to wait until they have stopped growing...

Lost

In Turkey, children’s teeth are buried in a location that might benefit the child’s future. If the parents want their child to grow up to be a famous dentist, they will bury the tooth on Dentaprime grounds. If they want him/her to become a fabulous dental technician, they will bury the tooth...eh... next to the other tooth.



I wonder where this baby's parents buried the tooth he is so desperately seeking....




If it was extracted at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital, there is a chance he will find it there. More than 14,000 teeth that were extracted there have been catalogued. There is information on the age and sex of the patient, the date of extraction and condition of the tooth.

Because it is seldom economical for people to have their teeth extracted abroad, we hardly ever perform this extract teeth. Our core business is aesthetic dentistry.

Therefore, if you want to contribute to science, please donate your teeth to the Prince Philip Dental Hospital in Hong Kong and then visit the Dentaprime clinic to fill the holes!

Nuts

Meet Kim, the parrot nutcracker.....

Some nuts are so difficult to open that people would need a hammer. A parrot’s beak, however, is just as powerful as that hammer. The parrot first uses the sharp point of his beak on the outside of the nut. Then he cracks it open with his jaws. Unlike human beings, he doesn't need teeth to eat.

People can live without teeth, but have always been looking for better options. About 2 years ago, in Mexico, the oldest false teeth yet were discovered on a 4500 years old man. They did not actually find any dentures, but the man's front teeth were filed down, most probably to make room for fake teeth.

Nowadays, you don't have to mess around with teeth from animals, dead people or 'volunteers' who have their teeth extracted for money. Our clinic offers a wide range of tooth replacements for very reasonable prices.

If you have a complaint about our work, we won't treat you like the shop owner in the world famous Monty Python sketch....

"I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique. "
"Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?"
"I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!"
"No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting."
(etc. etc. etc.)

Fight or flight

When we experience excessive stress, the "fight or flight" response -discovered by physiologist Walter Cannon- gets activated.

The very famous adrenaline flows into our bloodstream. Our breathing and heart pumping changes (gets faster), our sight sharpens (dilated pupils) and our impulses quicken. Prepared for fight (or flight), we start looking for the enemy....

That enemy could be everyone and everywhere, because we see things through an extreme kind of fear.

Dental treatment can be such an enemy and lead to this 'prehistoric' and 'animal like' response. However, every time your body triggers it for situations that are not truly life-threatening, you are having a false alarm. Too many false alarms can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure and other stress disorders.

We can help you to fight (and conquer) instead of flee.

Latex can kill

Last Thursday, our best friends got married. Instead of going on a vacation after marriage, they left for a one-day visit to Gent, Belgium for the bride to pick up the proof of her veterinary degree. When they returned on Friday, this meant the end of six years of travelling to and fro Holland and studying very hard on sick dogs, dead horses, castrations and sterilisations and the anatomy of the pig.

Friday night we had a wonderful dinner, followed by 'some' alcohol.

One of the problems our friend encountered at the university was the use of latex. She has a serious latex allergy and that stuff was all over the place. If not properly taken care of, at a certain stage, she can get into a anaphylactic shock, which can be very dangerous.

There are many different allergies and a dentist should know about some. Latex-allergy definitely is one!

What you can do:
- talk about your fears, also during treatments
- ask for latex-free versions of materials
- ask for an appointment early in the day
- take someone with you to give you some extra support

Last but not least:
If your dentist does not make time for a problem as serious as this, please go elsewhere!

It's like L'Oréal make-up: you're worth it!

Mockingbird

Years ago I heard this great song by Carly Simon and James Taylor:

Mock (yeah)
ing (yeah)
bird (yeah)
yeah (yeah)
Mockin'bird

Now everybody have you heard
He's gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird don't sing
He's gonna buy me a diamond ring

I thought: Why not buy her that diamond ring anyway? Why wait if the bird's gonna sing or not? Will the ring get cheaper in the meantime? Isn't the ring in stock and does the guy need to buy some time? Why not try another store then? Finally, I got tired of all these useless questions, so I picked up a book and started reading.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the greatest novels of all time. The book is about race and justice in the American Deep South during the 1930s. One of the characters in the book is called Boo Radley. He lives in the Radley House and is a phantom. He's over six feet tall and has rotten yellow teeth. When bad things happen, Boo is usually blamed. By description only, this guy gives me the creeps. I might offer him a mouthful of dental implants and bridges (worth approx. 7000 Euros per jaw) if he promises to go away and stay away!

Curing by pulling

Around 1910, some people believed that extracting teeth could cure mental disorders.

Dr. Henry Cotton (Trenton, New Jersey hospital for the insane) thought that bacterial infections could cause brain damage and that he would emerge proof of that from practice.

When he did not get any results from making his patients toothless, he extracted their tonsils, and when this also proved ineffectual, he started taking away more vital organs.

Cotton claimed a cure rate of 85 percent. A thorough investigation, however, resulted in a death rate of nearly 43 percent! The medical authorities covered it up, and Cotton continued extracting teeth for many years! He clearly was obsessed and even had some of his own teeth extracted to cure his heart failure. His wife and two sons also lost teeth because of his strong convictions.

It didn't bring any good; they both committed suicide when they were still quite young.....