I learned the way a monkey learns-by watching its parents (Prince Charles)

Many children and adults bite their nails. Very often, these parents and children live(d) in the same house.


Its original cause probably is stress, but very often nail-biting has grown into a habit. It can do a lot of damage to the front teeth. They can be chipped or simply wear out, because front teeth are not meant for chewing. The gums can also be damaged and infections can be spread. Both the nails and teeth look neglected and people hate to see or hear (....) someone else biting his or her nails.

Some doctors prescribe anti-depressants to stop the habit. I think that is a 'kill or cure remedy' - why on earth should someone who is not depressed take anti-depressants? There are better solutions:

Two golden-agers were discussing their husbands over tea: "I do wish that my Elmer would stop biting his nails. He makes me terribly nervous." "My William used to do the same thing," the other woman replied. "But I broke him of the habit." "How?" "I hid his teeth."

The lion sleeps tonight

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


For now, these lions are harmless, but when they wake up, even on a safe distance, 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.

True colours

One of my favourite songs is 'True Colours'. You will probably know it, because Cyndi Lauper made it into the charts: "I see your true colors shining through."

The first time ever I heard Cyndi perform this song, I immediately liked it. I bought it on LP, recorded it on tape and, quite recently, I downloaded it from the Internet and bought a DVD.

As much as I like Cyndi's version, it was not until I heard the Dutch singer/comedian Lenette van Dongen that I fell in love with the song. Cyndi's voice is pure gold, but for me Lenette's equals the rarer and more valuable platinum. Also, even more important, Lenette gives me the feeling that she is the kind of person who can see people's true colors shining through. I am not saying that every singer should have experienced the things he/she sings about, but it sure makes a difference if they give me that feeling. I have always found it very unnatural for a 12-year-old child star to sing about the love of his or her life....

The true, natural color white is not the Tom Cruise white. Veneers are great, but can look very artificial if the color, shade or translucency is not right. Just think of an under- or overexposed photograph.



Our dental lab specialises in cosmetic dentistry and daily processes veneers. By the way, when comparing prices, please make sure that it is about porcelain veneers. Porcelain may be more expensive than composite, it also last much longer. Being too cost-conscious can lead to big disappointments. Veneers can chip, fall off, discolor, break or simply do not meet your expectations.

You know what they say:

A bad bargain is dear at a farthing...

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better

About 3 1/2 years ago, on my 50th birthday, my in-laws and partner collected some straw, a balloon (for the face) and some of my personal belongings and made a 'Sarah'. They left her in front of our house while I was still sleeping.

I am not sure if this is a Dutch tradition only, but I am sure that no 50-year-old likes it. (By the way, for men, they make an Abraham.) They (the horrible people who make the look-a-like) do their utmost to turn some embarising personal information into common knowledge. My Sarah had an empty Bacardi bottle and a Bingo card...



I am always the first to tell people that they are as old as they feel, but on that particular 3rd of July I felt old... very old...

Around 560 years B.C., Odessos was built. By the ninth century AD, the name had changed into Varna. Now a days, Varna is Bulgaria's third largest city, following Sofia and Plovdiv. In 1972, near the port of Varna, the oldest gold treasure in the world (4,500 BC) was found. It was an ancient necropolis with almost 300 tombs and over 3,000 golden objects.

4,500 BC... wow! Makes me feel like a young girl again!

I'm dreaming of a white Easter

Two days ago, I left my coat in the car, took a long walk and almost got home with a tan.

Yesterday, it snowed.



Patients often ask me about the weather in Bulgaria. It tends to Mediterranean, is changeable in Spring, hot but not oppressive in Summer and colf but not bitter in Winter.

Although a bit more unpredictable now a days (like all over the world), average temperatures are:

May, 22 degrees Celsius
June, 26
July and August, 29
September, 24

No matter which season, in our clinic, our staff always give you a warm welcome!

On guard!

Our poodle Remi guards us with his life. Even behind a closed door, he will try to bite every thief, postman or neighbour in the ankles.



Many times we are a bit ashamed of our little black guardian angel. His bark frightens little children and annoys the rest.

Grinding your teeth can also be annoying. In December 1995, the American magazine Newsweek reported an epidemic of teeth-gnashing. Over 1 Billion Dollars were spent on so-called mouth guards and much more on renovative dentistry!

No news in the media yet, but no doubt the mouth guards will be flying out of the shops again. The economic crisis leads to a lot of stress and stress may lead to teeth grinding. Sometimes little stumps is all that is left of front teeth and molars, because of the excessive pressure the grinding puts on the teeth.

A mouth guard is a bite plate, which protects the teeth from the impact of teeth grinding. At Dentaprime, we make them for about 170 Euros.

GrizaBelle

"My name is Belle. That's French for Beautiful.


It's a matter of opinion and taste, I know. It's the same with teeth. Some people want their teeth to be whiter than white, others prefer gold. There are famous singers and actors who think the gap between their front teeth is sexy. Others, like Madonna, mind that gap and want it to be closed.

I myself always smile with a closed mouth. If I don't, people run like hell... I guess that is why Andrew Lloyd Webber has not asked me for a leading part in Cats yet. Maybe it's time to visit that clinic in Bulgaria. I know that Garfield had his teeth done and starred in two films after that."

I know it's very tempting, but whatever you do, please don't compare yourself with Hollywood actors, award winning singers and famous writers. You are you and in more than one way, your teeth need to fit you. We can help you to improve your smile without making you look like a second (hand) Barbra Streisand.

Fearless Frank

My brother Frank (Down) is terrified of dogs. He always walks an extra mile or two when one is nearby, no matter whether it is a Jack Russell or a Dane.



Yet he loves our poodle and always volunteers to watch over him when we go to the store to get his (my brother's, not the poodle's) Coca Cola, tiramisu, light beer, heavy bag of candy etc. etc. and etc.

Our anxious and phobic patients respond to our dentists as my brother to my dog. They depart from Gatwick taking pills and they arrive at Gatwick with a big smile. Very often they have requested full anaesthesia but never used it.

I do not think my brother thinks a lot about disasters and consequences. He follows his 'gut feeling', which tells him that our dog is OK. Sometimes je even finds Remi fun to play with!

I do not think our dentists will run after a rubber ball, but I do think they will help you in the best and most relaxing way.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. (Andy Warhol)

In 1901, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen received the Nobel Prize for inventing x-rays.

78 Years later, Sir Godfrey N. Hounsfield invented the CT-scan. It made him another Nobel Prize winner.

After that, several inventors took it another step further.


We have a digital volume tomograph . It gives a 3-dimensional image of the teeth and jaw. One look at that image and we see whether your jawbone allows implantation and exactly where to insert them.

I always think it looks like a time machine. Every time I see this photo, I start fantasizing about being shoved into that thing and then floating to a moment back in time.

I hope that moment will be the early 17th Century when Rubens was painting his perfectly shaped women.

Returning into the 21st Century, I would land at the National Gallery in front of my own painting....

Teeth can kill

During a wonderful short vacation, I visited an impressive theme park about the North Sea Flood of 1953. There was quite a lot of water there and some of it contained well-trained seals....
At 'home' (which was a caravan), I read a short story by Stephen King. It was called 'Chattered Teeth'.

A man notices an unusual pair of large metal 'chattery teeth' (a children's wind up toy) in a store. He is told that they have been damaged and no longer work. He takes them home anyway.
When the man gives a ride to a hitchhiker, the guy tries to kill him. During the struggle, the teeth come to life to do some killing themselves... They disappear (with the body of the hitchhiker), but nine months later, the salesman and the teeth are reunited....

This was all made up by the King of Horror, Mr Stephen King, but....

In 2004, a 16-year-old boy in Bradford unexpectedly died.
In 2005, a middle-aged, healthy man in Florida suddenly passed away.
In 2007, in Maryland, a 12-year-old homeless boy lost and never regained consciousness.
They all died from an infection that started with an abscessed tooth. The infection had spread to their brains.

You do not have to be afraid of chattery teeth, but please go see your dentist when there is an abscess!

When a thief kisses you, count your teeth (Jewish proverb)

On the 14th January 1980, 50-year-old Sophie Barrera walked to her car outside a medical building in St. Louis. She had a lot on her mind. Most pressing was her civil suit against Glenn Engleman, a dentist who owed her dental lab over $14,000. As Sophie started the ignition to her car, a bundle of dynamite attached to the underside of the car detonated, killing her instantly. Sophie's son accused Glenn Engleman.

The authorities were perplexed; Glennon Engleman was a hard-working neighbourhood dentist who only charged customers what they could afford to pay. He hardly seemed like the kind of man who would kill people for money. But Ruth Engleman, the suspect's ex-wife, painted a very different picture of the kindly dentist. She told the FBI that Dr. Engleman was responsible for seven murders and that she was afraid she would be next.

Ruth explained that her ex-husband had told her he had killed a man he called "Bullock". Further research revealed that a James Bullock was shot to death in St. Louis two decades earlier. Bullock was one of Engleman's patients. Stranger still, Bullock was married to Engleman's ex-wife Edna at the time of his murder. Edna collected $64,000 in life insurance money and promptly invested $20,000 of it in a drag strip Engleman was building.

Further investigation revealed that a number of people connected to Engleman met with tragedy, and in each instance, Engleman and his partners in the drag strip somehow profited.
According to Ruth, Engleman murdered a wealthy elderly couple and then murdered their son, Ron Gusewelle, for his inheritance. But someone had already confessed to the Gusewelle murder. Either Ruth Engleman or her ex-husband was lying. Since the couple were battling over the custody of their son, the FBI wondered if Ruth was just trying to smear Dr. Engleman's name.

Ruth agreed to have her home wired with microphones. he FBI listened from a van outside, while she tried to get Engleman to talk about the murders. The ruse is nearly ruined when Ruth's cat scratched at a microphone planted under the sofa. Ruth couldn't get Engleman to talk about the murders. She wore a wire the next night over dinner, but still got the same result. She resorted to having sex with him so that he would open up. The FBI finally had enough to arrest Engleman and co-conspirators Nick Miranda, Carmen Miranda and Robert Handy.

Nick Miranda made a deal that if he and his sister Carmen were granted immunity, they would both talk. According to the Mirandas, Engleman routinely coerced the women around him into marrying men and then took out insurance policies on their lives. Englemen would then kill their husbands in exchange for a percentage of the life insurance payout. At trial, a jury deliberated for just 12 hours before sentencing Engleman to life in prison. He avoided the death penalty by confessing to the murder of the Gusewelle family.


Engleman was a sociopath; as he stated, his talent was to kill without remorse and he enjoyed planning and carrying out killings and disposing of the remains, in order that it would net him financial rewards (he loved the idea of getting away with his crimes, slipping through the cops' fingers every time).
















Some people are more afraid of the dentist than of a serial killer. When they come to Dentaprime, Dr Regina Schindjalova -our head of dentistry/implantologist- and her staff take away the dental fear. You can trust them with your teeth and life!

It is useless dressing up as a Bouquet if you are a Bucket...

People are often impressed by our clinic. They are used to visit avarage dental practices, where many dentists (still) do not aim at making their patients feel comfortable and equal. There are too many patients, there is too little time, and modern equipment and housing is very expensive, therefore the invoices are sky-high.

Of course, we like to impress you, but not with good looks and big words only! Our computers, the 3D-scan and all the other machines really perform magic, but a machine cannot make you feel at ease and even such a great piece of architecture can feel chilly. It is human work to take care of other humans.

At Dentaprime


What You See Is What You Get!

Dental treatment abroad

Some time ago, I talked to an Irish patient who asked me for an extra extended guarantee. Not for the dental implants and veneers, but for the treatment environment.




He had heard about dental clinics in Eastern Europe, advertising with beautiful photos and stunning treatment results. Patients were picked up from the airport in a Hollywood-style limousine and then brought to..... a poorly equiped backroom, only accesible through a butcher's shop.

I had to repeat several times that our treatment rooms would really, really look much better. Finally, still with some resistance, he booked his dental holidays in Bulgaria.

The day after his arrival in Varna, he had his first appointment in the clinic. I called the reception. His head was in our '3D digital volume tomograph NewTom 3G' so he could not talk to me, but the dental assistant told me that he had said that everything was above expectation...

The seven year itch

"Life is simple! When there's an itch, you scratch."

Apart from this bird, who ever said that life would be simple? Sometimes scratching could cause a major problem, like an infection or a new wound.

Poking is a bit like scratching. When something in your mouth is missing, you just have to explore the area with your tongue, don't you?

Please don't....

After an extraction, a clot forms on the wound. Playing with that clot can make it break off and delay the healing process. It can also cause infections. 600 bacteria or more can be spotted in your mouth and many of them could be living on your tongue. They would love to go on an excursion to 'The Hole' and some may never want to return home again.

Getting used to a 'new tooth' also takes a while. Perhaps it does not feel safe to bite, or maybe you hear yourself talk in a very 'funny' way. Perhaps the veneer feels and looks a bit 'bulky'.

Just take your time and in most cases, the uncomfortable feeling will pass. If not, you better get in touch with the treating dentist. Most things can be fixed.

However, if you desperately want an extracted tooth back because you cannot live without it, we can only put it in a small jewelry box for you. Modern dentistry can perform small miracles, but in this case you really will have to accept the gap, denture, bridge or implant...

God sends meat, and the devil sends cooks (John Taylor)

Quite a few of the rich and famous suffer(ed) or have died from an eating disorder. The most famous are Karen Carpenter who died from anorexia at the age of 32 and TV-host Ophrah Winfrey, who always seems to struggle with the jo-jo effect.

Others are three of the Spice Girls (including, of course,Victoria Beckham), actress Jane Fonda and Princess Diana. Although there is a large female majority, men also suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Elton John is one of them.

An eating disorder not only destroys (a part of) someone's life, but also his or her teeth. Acid erosion, caused by sport and energy drinks and juices but mainly by vomiting, can lead to toothache, loss of enamel and discolouration. Brushing after vomiting only makes things worse and, unfortunately, once enamel is damaged it does not grow back. A dry mouth (another side-effect) can lead to a gum infection.

Crowns and bridges can help damaged teeth to survive, but the eating disorder must be under control. This is extremely difficult, but can be done. It requires patience, guts, a good and specialized therapist and supportive spouses, relatives and friends. I think http://www.b-eat.co.uk/ is a very good website.

Do not worry about what our dentist will say. Many of our patients did not visit a dentist for years. Having an eating disorder is just one of numerous reasons.

Pain

As of last Thursday, I have a tattoo.
The artist's name is Paul God. That is probably why I trusted him with my arm...

Why a snake (or is it a worm?)
And why the crown?

Trust me, you don't want to know! It is an inside joke between my partner and I. Which reminds me of a 70's or 80's song:

They're coming to take me away haha. They're coming to take me away hoho. To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time.
And I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats.
And they're coming to take me away.... HAHA!

Did it hurt? Well.... no. Just for half a minute or so, before my body started to make antibodies. But we are not talking about toothache-like ache here, - it just felt like being stung by a bunch of baby bees.

People often ask me about the afterpain of an implantation. I have not experienced it myself, but what I do know is that we give our patients two painkillers and the very vast majority only uses none at all or just one.

'No pain, no gain' is what they say. We are always willing to take up that challenge!

Down by the riverside

Last year, on a tourist vessel on the Oosterschelde, I met Cindy. It was a very special encounter. Cindy was a friendly, funny and intelligent woman.

I must admit that having a brother with Down probably was the only reason for starting a conversation with her. However, just like my brother, Cindy comfortably brought me 'back to basics', back to the things that really matter.

In the 19th Century, John Langdon Down classified what we now know as 'his syndrome' as 'the Mongolian type of Idiot'.

Now I know Mongolians who have behaved stranger than Cindy and my brother:
Genghis Khan's empire ranged from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea, yet he never thought of building a dental clinic in Varna...
Kublai Khan defeated his uncle Nyan. Because royal blood should not be spilled, he ordered that Nyan's body be rolled in a carpet and thrown about until he died....

Non-Mongolians can also act very strange:
Queen Elizabeth II spends several sessions every month sitting to have her portrait painted. "Now then", she has been known to say as she enters the room, "with or without teeth?"

Mary will chop a little lamb...

Whenever I tell British patients my first name, they start asking me about my little lamb.
My poodle feels insulted. He admits that -sometimes- his ears get trimmed like those of a lamb, but that's where every resemblance stops.

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.

People also ask me if I am always that contrary.
Then I feel insulted. I am a very flexible, easy-going person!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

Nursery rhymes are OK, but not when they still haunt you when you are 53!

There are some about teeth too. I like this one:

Once I had a wobble tooth
That wobbled to and fro
Every time I ate my toast
I thought the tooth would go.

But then I ate a candy,
A sticky toffee roll,
Now where my wobble tooth was
There's nothing but a hole!

A fair tree tale

Once upon a time there was a tree. It was not very special. It was just an average tree in an average landscape. Its name was Tree.

One day some men came. They drove pick-up trucks and carried axes and electric saws. They examined every single tree and then decided to chop Tree down. Through their horror, the other trees also felt relief, and while the men were loading Tree onto one of the trucks, they made their plan. They would just start growing crooked, and in Spring, when they were full of life again, they would simply fill the empty space.

Meanwhile, Tree had been sawn into manageable pieces and all of them were undividedly happy. Eventually, most of them would end up in a fire, but for now, uninformed about that, they were lying on top of a big pile, enjoying the sun.

One piece was sold to a woodcarver. At first, Tree strongly disagreed with the man's choice. The chosen piece was not exactly the finest. However, surely a wizard or fairy would be able to change all that in a blink. (Tree knew he was in a fairytale.)

But, of course, it was the woodcarver who did the magic.....

Some small chunks, formerly known as Tree, looked at his work and were extremely satisfied. "A priest", they sighed, "now who would have thought of that?"

Tree was stationed at a beautiful church. Sometimes -usually when the human priest delivered a dull sermon- he thought back to the days when he was still a tree. He felt far more special and happy now. People would look at him and admire his carver's skills. There was only one aching point. People said he had a nice smile but it would be even nicer if he could show some teeth...

400 Years ago in Japan, the wooden denture was invented. Cheaper than porcelain, but I would not go for it if I were you. Saliva breaks down cellulose - wood's main ingredient...

That is why Dentaprime offers porcelain fused to metal and full porcelain.

Teamwork pays off!

Lynley and Havers, Daziel and Pascoe, Morse and Lewis, French and Saunders, Little and Britain.... They al know that working as a team can be frustrating. It's about negotiation and compromises.

Colleagues are not really a team before they have found out how to combine their individual strengths. In the case of Lynley and Havers, Tommy is an aristocrat, which can come in handy when interviewing a witness or suspect at a university, while Barbara comes from another social class and therefore has a very different approach.

In our clinic, we have a very effective team. Dentists, receptionists, dental technicians and all the others work extremely well together. The team's morale and professionalism are excellent. Each member of the staff has his/her special skills. When there is a problem, they will look at it from many perspectives and they are all working under the same roof, so -unless they are having a day off- they are always there when you need them.