Dentist Report

My new best friendI am normally a Crest girl, Crest toothpaste, Crest white strips, etc.  The other day my mom gave me Listerine whitening strips to try.  At first I was like, no thank you, I still have some Crest White strips that I am using, but then she insisted. Read more

This is the story of how I met Anita Fok, DDS.

I was young, I was in Malaysia getting a Visa for Thailand and I needed a dentist. My first mistake? Taking a recommendation from an aging (to put it nicely), more than slightly inebriated British ex-pat I happened upon in the Reggae Club of Penang.

"You need a dentist?", he said, leering at me in the way that only drunk older men tend to do. 'I've got a tip."

I told him that I heard all about the dental hospital in town and how friendly, nice, and clean it was. Just like America?

He gave me the tip that sent me on a different course for a very long time.

"Go to the Australian Consulate."

I told him that as I was an American citizen, thank you very much, and though not quite proud of my government at the time, there would be no way I was going to the Aussie Consulate for advice on a very personal problem, my teeth!

"He's a dentist, too. And he's cheap." Read more

If you have ever been to my dentist’s office than you would already know that they do everything in their power of minimize the amount of pain that you feel during any dental procedure. But my dentist uses a few other tricks that I had never heard of before my first appointment at his office. Not knowing that my dentist wrote a best-selling book on pain management, I learned a thing or two when at his office on that fateful day. He used the art of distraction to make me not think about the series of shots that he was about to administer into my tender gums. By distracting me mentally I thought about it less.

Then he swabbed a cotton tip with anesthetic and numbed the local area prior to giving me the injections of Novocain. Then, when he did give me the injections he used a vibrating massage ball in one hand, which distracted my nerves and made me feel only vibrations on my face. I never felt the shots in my mouth, and before I knew it he had already finished. Read more

Many people, myself included, dread any sort of trip to the dentist. When it comes to wisdom tooth extraction surgeries, it can be really easy to put the entire experience on hold. But when it needs to finally be done, the more that you are in the know about the surgery the better prepared you can be. Here is what you should expect when getting a wisdom tooth extraction surgery, and how you can be best prepared for it and know what to expect.

What you Should Know About Wisdom Tooth Extraction
There are some things that you want to be in the know about when it comes to your wisdom teeth and you. Most often they are hard to clean and they can get infected and sometimes rot away – in most cases they also grow in crooked and they can greatly affect how your other teeth stay straight. Read more

Are you still brushing your teeth using an old fashioned and obsolete toothbrush? If so, let me enlighten you to the next great thing in oral hygiene: the supersonic toothbrush. In a nutshell, this is an electronic toothbrush that has a powerful motor contained within. It is able to rotate the brush bristles and near supersonic speeds, which makes for a super clean mouth every time. The best part, perhaps, is that these newer sonic toothbrushes have been proven to be way more effective than the older, hand operated toothbrushes. And, they are going down in price—making them an affordable necessity for all of those out there who want to stave off costly and time consuming, and quite often painful, trips to the dentist.

Why Brushing Your Teeth the Old Way is Ineffective
For years, a few centuries at least, man has used hand operated toothbrushes to clean their teeth. But these are only so effective at removing plaque and preventing decay. Read more

We are all instructed by our dentists that in order to practice proper oral hygiene that we must floss all of our teeth once per day, generally at night before we lay down to sleep. If you can find me one person who is actually fond of this habit, please let me know. Because a community consensus generally is partial to the latter: that notion being, that everybody dislikes this necessary routine.

Top Five Reasons We All Can’t Stand Flossing Our Teeth

It’s time consuming: The last thing anybody wants to have to do is get their hands full of dental floss just before they go to sleep. For myself, I am always tired. Having to do the routine is something that I put off until the last minute. And to be honest, many of us will forego flossing and just brush our teeth, making mental promises to do it the following evening.

Your Gums can bleed: This is perhaps the most annoying part of flossing your teeth; it can make your gums bleed. Read more

I am most certain that we have all had our fair share of dental nightmares that we can easily share with others, and here is the low down on one of mine. I was about fifteen years old at the time and had been saving up my money from a part time job that I was working so I could go on a Mexican Coastal vacation and learning tour with my classmates – a two week excursion to some amazing places in Mexico, including three serene days in Cancun. Of course, little did I realize that a molar in the back of my mouth would entirely ruin my experience and send me home on an emergency flight, leaving me hospitalized for several weeks. So without ado, here is what happened.

How I Fared During my Root Canal Experiences
I had a root in my molar on the right side of my mouth that had become infected and had died. The infection had nowhere to escape so over time it built up in the root, underneath the tooth. When on the plane over to Mexico City, once we hit about thirty thousand feet, the tooth became abscessed and the root ruptured. Read more

All parents know that at some point in time they will have to go and see the orthodontist regarding making sure that their children have straight teeth growing in. And for many parents, this is a dreadful task for a few important reasons. One, its really expensive, and braces can really take their toll on your checkbook. Two: kids really hate braces, for the most part, and they will tend to be rather resistant in you choosing for them to get braces. And three: the maintenance of braces, a retainer and so forth are also costly and tedious – which is why many parents are not fond of this task during the youth of our offspring. But if you have not already heard about revelations and big strides made in the fields of eliminating braces for most people, then read on…read on!

How Does Invisalign Work?
In a nutshell, Invisalign is a newer orthodontic remedy for the many calamities that are caused by braces; the tediousness, the costliness and so forth. Read more

The dental office – an expensive yet necessary part of life, that for many people means a certain amount of pain to get the treatments that they so desire, while maintaining proper oral health. And did I mention that dental treatments can be really expensive? I mean lavishly costly? So I find myself once again in the seat at the dental office, getting a routine oral checkup and exam. Of course my dentist uses the latest and greatest equipment (remind me to thank him for doing away with those horrid bite wing x-rays in favor of an external and easy machine), when my dentist informs me that they will be taking free pictures of my mouth so they can show me ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos should I want to pursue getting cosmetic dental veneers applied to my teeth. That was all nice and dandy, and boy did the ‘after’ photo look rock star, super model awesome! Read more

A newer dental credit card has made its way across the counters of numerous dental offices over the past decade, and it’s called Care Credit – a subsidiary of GE Money Bank. Basically, this is a low cost credit card that can only be used for dental work, hospital bills, and some veterinarians also accept it for payment of vet bills. But the main premise of this card is to offer consumers a way to pay for necessary dental treatments without going broke from the out of pocket costs in the process.

How it Works
You apply for and get approved for this dental credit card that is the first step; their credit requirements are lax, and so many people will get the green light. Then you present it at the time of payment to your dentist who charges the balance due to the card. Read more