We have had some changes internally here at the office also. One very big change is that after eleven years Psyche has moved to an office much closer to her home. After traveling 45 minutes each way all of these years Psyche has switched to an office where her commute is a bit more reasonable. We miss Psyche, her energy, her passion for celebration , and her years of connection with all of us. On the positive side of that change we get to welcome Julie. Julie is my new assistant and brings an astonishing level of aptitude and familiarity to a position within days rather than the years that I thought it would take. We would also like to heartily welcome Caroline as our new part-time hygienist. She plays a valuable role here, and is a new favorite of many of our patients already.

Recently Marilyn has gotten the opportunity to spend a few days a week with her grand-child, so she is here a bit less now and Darcy is here a bit more. We are so grateful that Marilyn is able to continue with us part-time.  So we are managing change, embracing change, and even finding ourselves celebrating it occasionally.

http://www.5280.com/2009/topdentists/topdentistsprofiles_dynamic.php#general

The fact that flossing daily can extend life expectancy falls in the weird-but-true category. In fact, floss does two things: it prevents gum disease (that’s rather obvious), and it prevents heart disease (not so obvious). Preventing both of these together is what adds years to your life. Here’s how flossing improves life expectancy:

When you floss, you help prevent your gums from becoming inflamed. That’s a good thing. What is happening when your gums are inflamed is that you have a chronic bacterial infection in your mouth. This harms your arteries through two mechanisms: the bacteria find their way in to your arteries and hang out (causing plaques), and your body mounts an immune response to the bacteria in your mouth, causing inflammation (which in turn can cause your arteries to narrow). This makes it hard for your heart to do its job and can lead to heart disease.

There is some debate about how many years you can gain with heart disease. Dr. Perls says 1.5 years, while Dr. Roizen says 6 years. Both of these doctors are gerontologists (aging docs) and have popular books on aging and life expectancy (see reviews: Living To 100, RealAge and You! Staying Young). Who is right? It doesn’t matter. Flossing is good for your gums and good for your heart, so we should all just do it.

Of course, this is easier said than done. How do you get in to a solid flossing habit? First, you need to make sure you have some floss. There are tons of different kinds of floss (flavored, unflavored, strings, ribbons and on and on). Pick some and give them a try. Next, you have to remember. Put your floss on top of your toothpaste. Hard to forget that way. Then just do it. You already have a habit of brushing your teeth at least twice daily (right? - please say yes), so just anchor your flossing habit to that.

In our family, the change involves our oldest daughter (in the center of the family pic) joining International Justice Mission in Bolivia.  We miss her but we are so grateful that she gets to fulfill her longtime dream of pursuing missions in South America.  The change in our family also involves our middle daughter (on the far left) starting her freshman year at Taylor University in Indiana.  Somehow Indiana didn’t seem so far away until we started trying to get her home for the breaks.  We miss her, and we’ll get her home, but it’s more complicated than it was getting our oldest daughter home from college in Wheaton!  We are envious of our friends whose kids are going to school in Colorado, but … managing to be grateful that she gets to experience such a great school like Taylor.  Now our youngest (on the far right) is an only child at home and she’s doing a great job of putting up with us.

We will have more posts coming soon … we would love to hear from you, what do YOU think, what would you like to know about?  Also, join us on Facebook at Creekside Family Dentistry or Victor H. Burdick and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Burdickdental and we want to follow you too!

p.s.  The photo of our family was taken by our daughter Alisa’s friend Hailey Moore, award winning 18 year old photographer! Thank you Hailey!