Exceptional Smiles @ Landerbrook - May 2020
May 2020
THE HEIGHTS SMI LE Herald
5825 Lande r b rook Dr i ve , Su i t e 124 , May f i e l d He i gh t s , OH 44124
( 440 ) 483 - 1003
Be Patient, Be Kind How We Get Through a Crisis
I miss going to the office. I’ve always loved my job, but I never realized how much I would miss the day-to-day work until I wasn’t able to go to the office anymore. Things have gotten so bad that I even downloaded the office music playlist on iTunes and have been listening to it at home. It’s nice to see everyone’s faces during our weekly Zoom meetings. These meetings also come with the added bonus of revealing that the distractions that go on at my house do in fact go on at other people’s houses, too.
pretty nice. We’ve gone through some old board games, done a lot of reading and cooking, and my oldest has even got me running in the morning! I’m not very fast, but I’m moving, and that counts for something. We’re also still doing karate lessons. Mentor ATA Martial Arts has been doing online lessons, which has been awesome. My two oldest and I were even able to test for our yellow belts at home. I’ve really been counting my blessings during the last few weeks. Things have been tough, but my family is healthy and we’ve been able to stay home during this whole ordeal. That’s a luxury not many people enjoy. I have such deep respect for the doctors and health care workers who are literally on the front lines of this. I also want to shout out the people who work in grocery stores and have to face that risk every day so the rest of us can still get food and supplies. Things are pretty scary right now, which is why it’s so important for us to remember to be patient, thoughtful, and kind to each other. We’re all trying to get through this crisis and deal with it in different ways. However you’re dealing with it, I hope you and your family are healthy and safe. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and stay safe out there.
It’s a rough time, but I’m really
proud to see how mature my kids have been about the situation.
As much as I’ve been griping about having nothing to do, I’m well aware of how my situation pales in comparison to the situation many other people have found themselves in during the pandemic. Even in my own house, I really have no room to complain. My wife is a teacher and she had to abruptly shift
all her traditional classroom lesson plans to fit an online learning environment. She spent hours and hours getting things ready. I was amazed by her, and it gave me a real appreciation of what teachers across the country have had to do to help their students keep learning. Speaking of students, my kids also have had to go to online classes. My two oldest had a smoother transition than most. Their school already had online coursework as part of the structure. That’s not to say this
has been easy. They’re still missing out on spring sports and spending time with their friends. It’s a rough time, but I’m really proud to see how mature my kids have been about the situation. All three of them are up every morning clacking away on their computers. That’s some great self- motivation — they must get it from my wife. This certainly isn’t how any of us thought we’d be spending the last weeks of the school year. We’ve had a lot more family time, which, all things considered, has been
-Dr. Jason Schermer
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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE Using Tech to Keep Your Teeth on Track
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Look in the mirror and give yourself a great big smile. Do your teeth look different than last year? Are you sure? Unless you’ve undergone extensive cosmetic dentistry over the last year, you probably won’t notice much difference in your teeth from year to year. However, that doesn’t mean your teeth aren’t changing. It can just take years before these changes are visible to the naked eye. By the time you realize that your bottom right incisor is rotating, it can be a bit of an investment to put everything back in place. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could catch these unwanted changes years in advance?
At Exceptional Smiles at Landerbrook, we strive to help our patients do that with our iTero dental health scan. Once a year, we use our iTero scanner to take a digital 3D image of a patient’s teeth and save it in our records. This is a welcome advancement from the gooey impressions we used to take. If we’re ever concerned about possible changes in their smile, or if a patient has questions, we’re able to compare the most recent scan with past records and track changes. This helps us in a number of ways. First, if we detect something is going in a direction we don’t want, we can create a treatment plan to fix the issue long before it can become a big
problem. The iTero dental health scan also helps us keep our patients honest about wearing their retainers. (That’s right. If you lie about wearing your retainer, we’re going to know, so you might as well just wear your retainer.) These scans also help us spot gum tissue changes, hard tissue changes, and any other unexpected shifts that could signal a problem with your oral health. Plus, with these digital scans, we can use the in-office 3D printer and mill to make crowns, whitening trays, or night guards with no fuss. The iTero dental health scans are another way patients can be more aware of and proactive about the health of their teeth.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
The staff here are awesome! They are very educated and always updating their skills. I love to get my teeth checked and cleaned. Thank you for being GREAT! – Anthony T. For the first time in my life I look forward to cleanings, and I’m not afraid of having dental work performed! At Exceptional Smiles, I had the best cleaning of my life yesterday. – Linda N.
You may have noticed some information on how to provide feedback in our office, or you may receive a text with a link for your feedback. Your comments and suggestions are extremely important to us and to the continual improvement for which we strive. If you find that we did something you liked at your appointment, let us know. If we did something you didn’t like, by all means, let us know so we can make it better for you on
your next visit. Scan with the camera on your smartphone to share feedback about your experience. This allows us to help more people.
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(440) 483-1003
Exceptional People Dr. Holly Witchey Helps Preserve History
During the Civil War, a Portsmouth, Ohio, native dedicated his factory to manufacturing cannonballs for the Union Army. At the end of the war, he was given a battalion flag as thanks for his service. The flag hung in the Ohio Statehouse for the funerals of Presidents Lincoln, Taft, McKinley and Garfield before it
in 1949. The neck was held on by tape and the hands were gone. He could have easily bought a new one, but his daughter was getting married and he wanted to give her Grandmother’s Virgin Mary. We didn’t try to make it look new, but we fixed her neck and got her new hands. He cried when he came in and saw his mother’s plaster statue restored. That’s what I love about the work we do. We get the Rembrandts, but we also get people’s great stories.” ICA partners with museums, historic houses, historical societies, galleries, performing arts organizations, and libraries across the country. In addition to helping organizations and institutions preserve pieces of history, the ICA is also dedicated to sharing knowledge with the public. They offer free presentations on how to protect your treasures as well as tours of the lab.
went missing for years. When the flag was rediscovered, it was folded up in a box and badly in need of flattening out the creases from been folded and stored, and it was in need of repairs. To save this piece of Ohio history, the flag was sent to ICA-Art Conservation, the oldest, full-service nonprofit art consevation lab in the United States. We often appreciate the art in a museum but may overlook the work that went into getting these pieces into that museum. This is where art conservators come in. For over 70 years, the highly educated ICA conservators have cleaned, repaired, and cared for paintings, objects, works on paper, and textiles of cultural heritage and personal significance. One of our patients, Dr. Holly Witchey, is the ICA Director of Education & Outreach. An art historian by training, Dr. Witchey has a Ph.D. in 15th-century Italian fresco painting. Though not a conservator herself, Witchey has worked with conservators her whole career. She joined the ICA to help educate the public about art conservation and get people excited about the prospect of preserving our history. “Art conservators are like Santa Claus,” Dr. Witchey said. “Once people learn about our work, they want to come see what we do. Last year, a man brought in a plaster Virgin Mary that had been given to his mother on her wedding day
Members of our dental team Liz and Janae recently took a fantastic tour with Dr. Witchey through the conservation labs at ICA. They got to see current projects — including a capelet that belonged to Mary Todd Lincoln — talk to ICA conservators about their work, and explore the lab at the historic Hingetown facility. If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Witchey’s work and the mission of the ICA - Art Conservation, visit ICA-ArtConservation.org to schedule a tour once businesses are up and running again.
Springtime Cacio e Pepe Nothing is more comforting than a big bowl of cacio e pepe, which is Italian for cheese and pepper. This dish combines a wholesome flavor profile with fresh, seasonal ingredients to satisfy any craving.
Leah’s Bad Dad Joke of the Month A cheese factory exploded in France. Da brie is everywhere!
Inspired by Eating Well
Ingredients
• 6 oz multigrain spaghetti • 8 oz fresh asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces • 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon zest • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp black pepper • 1 cup baby arugula
Directions 1. Heat oven to 425 F. 2. In a large pot, cook spaghetti until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of water before draining and put spaghetti in a covered pot to keep warm. 3. Line a 15x10-inch baking pan with foil and toss in asparagus and olive oil.
4. Cook asparagus for 5–7 minutes and sprinkle with lemon zest. 5. Add 3/4 cup of the reserved water, Parmesan cheese, and pepper to the spaghetti. Stir until creamy. 6. Toss in asparagus and arugula before serving.
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(440) 483-1003
I N S I D E 5825 Landerbrook Drive, Suite 124 Mayfield Heights, OH 44124
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Challenges of Today Are Your Teeth Changing? Our Patients Say It Best Celebrate Our Exceptional Community: Dr. Holly Witchey Springtime Cacio e Pepe Is It Safe to Go to the Dentist?
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idea that blood and all bodily fluids that could contain blood might be contaminated and must be treated as infectious. These regulatory guidelines emphasized infection control protocols and have been updated over the years as both technology and medical understanding have improved. The most recent guidelines from 2016 are the gold standard for infection control. These guidelines include the use of personal protective equipment for dental personnel, the requirement that practices must have an individual trained in infection prevention on staff, and the mandate that all equipment must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration and cleaned with chemical germicides registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as “hospital disinfectant.” You may be concerned right now, but rest assured that when you come in for your appointment, our team has taken every measure to protect your health. We are staying up to date and will continue to use the best and most effective measures to keep patients safe. This includes taking extra time to thoroughly sanitize all the equipment in the office between each patient. It may also include closing the office and rescheduling appointments, if such a thing is deemed necessary.
Dental Sanitation and COVID-19 How Dentists Keep Patients Safe
Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, infection control was a huge priority for dental offices. Every piece of equipment you see at the office, from the chair you sit in to the sickle probe used to remove plaque from your teeth, is thoroughly sanitized after every use. However, this wasn’t always the case. Archaeological evidence shows that humans have been operating on each other’s teeth since 7000 B.C. However, dentistry didn’t become its own profession until the 18th century. It would take another 200 years before dentists recognized the possibility of cross infection between patients and dental practitioners. The first dental cabinets
equipped with “sterilizers” weren’t available until the early 1900s. These early attempts at sterilization were far below today’s standards. The process of sterilizing equipment was slightly more rigorous in the 1970s, but regulation was still lacking. By the 1980s, only 30% of dentists wore gloves, masks, or gowns. It wasn’t until the AIDS epidemic that infection control in dentistry was reformed. Panic over infectious diseases in general prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to publish its first set of comprehensive dental infection control guidelines. This included adopting “universal precautions” based on the
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