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The MONTHLY Smile
706-453-1333 www.LakeOconeeDental.com
JULY 2018
20 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT DR. PATTI
6. My first car was a rusty, beige Chevrolet Chevette.
One of the most rewarding parts about being a dentist, aside from the clinical aspect, is getting to know our patients. Every person has a story: unique facts and experiences that create the tapestry of a person’s life. I find those details fascinating!
7. My first job was working in my brother’s flower shop. I took orders, ran the register, and made deliveries.
8. I was a founding member of my sorority chapter at Marquette University — Alpha Chi Omega.
9. I worked as a dental assistant to help pay my way through college. My undergraduate degree was in dental hygiene. That degree allowed me to work as a hygienist throughout dental school. 10. I went to law school briefly after dental school. My thought was that I would go into medical legal defense, but I quickly realized I’d rather be in a dental office than a courtroom. 11. I have run the Tough Mudder race twice. As the name implies, there’s a lot of dirt. And water. The first time, I ran it on one of the coldest days of the year. It was miserable. The second time around was a much better day. I ran it again because a friend and her husband asked me to do it with them. For the record, there are no more Tough Mudders in my future. I’ve officially crossed it off the list.
Oftentimes, when you come into the office, we only have a few minutes to talk and connect. So this month, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different. I’m sharing 20 little- known facts about me. My hope is that, in sharing these, it will inspire you to come up with a few of your own fun facts to share the next time you come into the office! 1. I grew up in Oostburg, Wisconsin, a small town located between Milwaukee and Green Bay. Yes. It was cold.
12. I love classic rock. The ringtone on my phone is “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
13. My favorite candy is Swedish Fish. I always brush afterwards!
14. I am a hopeless softie when the kids ask for a pet. I would always say, “Okay, we’ll just go look.” I’ve since learned I can’t “just look.” Inevitably, we always come home with a new pet. As a result, we’ve had a turtle, a fish, hermit crabs, a guinea pig, and a sugar glider. That’s in addition to our two dogs. 15. I make a mean chocolate pecan pie. It’s become famous around these parts. (I’m sharing the recipe — be sure to check inside this issue!)
2. I have four older brothers. They teased me a lot growing up, but it made me tougher in the long run. #tomboy
3. My middle name is June. The name is in honor of my Aunt June, my mom’s sister.
4. Growing up, I played basketball and volleyball, and I ran track.
5. For 20 years, I held the record at my high school for the 300 meter hurdles and the mile relay.
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Lake Oconee Dentistry | Personalized & Comfortable | 1
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT JAW PAIN Under Pressure
14 dogs and two cats ran for mayor, with Max leading the pack. Max was elected to a second term in 2013, but soon passed away after a battle with cancer. Thankfully, his successor was quickly appointed: Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II. BRYNNETH PAWLTRO, LUCY LOU, JUNIOR COCHRAN, AND GOOFY BORNEMAN. These four dogs all hail from Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. Back in 1998, the people of Rabbit Hash decided to elect a dog mayor. That year, Goofy Borneman, a mixed breed, became the first in what would become a continuing tradition. He held the office until 2001, when he passed away at age 16. In 2004, Junior Cochran, a black Labrador, took on the role of mayor, but his term was plagued by scandal after he spent too much time hanging around the town’s general store — and Health and Safety was called. Then, he too died in office in 2008. Later that year, Lucy Lou, a border collie, was elected into office and became the town’s first female mayor. The good news is she saw her term through to the end, but she didn’t run for a second term. Instead, pitbull Brynneth Pawltro, or Brynn as his friends call him, ran and won. Today, you’ll find Brynn roaming Rabbit Hash, staying carefully out of Health and Safety’s way. TEETH GRINDING A lot of people grind their teeth due to stress, but you can also grind your teeth in your sleep without realizing it. Grinding in your sleep is often a sign of a sleep disorder like sleep apnea. UNTREATED CAVITY If you fail to get a cavity treated right away, the damage can work its way beneath your enamel and down the pulp of your tooth. Most people with major cavities aren’t able to determine which tooth is the problem because the pain radiates throughout their jaw. BAD BITE If your teeth aren’t lined up right, you can end up with an overbite or an underbite. A bad bite can get in the way of your ability to chew, wearing out your jaw muscles and leading to pain. A lot of the time, your dentist can help you determine the cause of your jaw pain. If you suffer from an aching jaw, be sure to mention it during your next appointment. We’d be happy to help you find the reason and the solution for your pain.
Did you know the average strength of a human jaw can produce a bite of 162 pounds per square inch (psi)? This is enough to scratch pure iron, but it’s nothing compared to the power of some bites in the animal kingdom. The strongest bite on Earth belongs to the Nile crocodile of sub-Saharan Africa, at 5,000 psi. You definitely don’t want to get on this croc’s bad side. Our jaw is designed to help us bite and tear food, but some meals are a little tougher on your jaw than others. Some of the most difficult foods to eat, in terms of jaw pressure, are things like nuts (especially walnuts), popcorn (due to the kernels), and raw fruits or vegetables, which put extra pressure on the incisors. Even softer foods can wear out your jaw. Well-done steak and caramel candy require extra chewing, and therefore extra jaw pressure. Eating a lot of food that’s hard on your jaw can lead to pain, but if you experience chronic jaw pain, it might not be caused by your diet. Jaw pain can be brought on by a number of problems, including the following:
WHEN POLITICS GOES TO THE DOGS
6 Dog Mayors From Around the US
Most towns and cities around the country play it safe: They elect humans to hold political office. But a few towns decided to do something a little different. They threw political formality to the wind and elected dogs to office. Here are a few popular pups from around the country.
DUKE. This Great Pyrenees became one of the most popular pups to hold elected office. He first ran for mayor in 2014 in Cormorant Township, Minnesota, and won by a landslide. He’s been in the mayoral race every year since then — and he’s won every time! Today, Duke is still in office, where he never misses a photo-op or a pat on the head. MAXIMUS MIGHTY-DOG MUELLER. This golden retriever was first elected to office in 2012 in Idyllwild, California. His election was part of an initiative put together by an organization called Animal Rescue Friends, or ARF. As part of the election, area residents could nominate their cat or dog for mayor. During the inaugural event,
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Where Essential Oils Come From SOURCING THE SWEET-SMELLING STUFF
Lavender essential oil is harvested from sheaves of lavandula angustifolia , that purple herb you see all over gardens across the United States. There are lavender farms all over the world, from California to Japan to Brazil, but the biggest world producer of lavender is, interestingly, Bulgaria.
Call it a pseudoscientific fad or a medical revolution; either way, essential oils are more popular today than they have ever been. Though research on the efficacy of lavender, ginger, and the dozens of other sweet-smelling oils is conflicting at best, people are using them at an astonishing rate. In fact, according to Stratistics MRC, essential oils were a $5.91 billion industry in 2016 and are expected to reach $12.85 billion by 2023. Whether you’re an essential oil acolyte or fly into a rage at the faintest hint of bergamot, your mind is already made up about aromatherapy. The question remains, though: Where does all this delicious-smelling stuff come from? Most essential oils are derived from a process called steam distillation . Soon after harvest, the plants are placed on a mesh inside a sealed still, into which steam is injected. As the steam rises and envelops the plant, it breaks it down and lifts its constituent components up through a tube and into a condenser. The condenser cools the resulting vapor and collects it in liquid form at the bottom. Since essential oils do not mix with water, they float on the surface, where they’re siphoned off, bottled, and shipped off to a distributor. There are other methods, such as expression (aka cold pressing), but because steam distillation is so easy to do, most essential oils you see on the shelf will have gone through this process.
Tea Tree oil comes from the leaves of melaleuca alternifolia , commonly known as narrow-leaved paperbark, a short, bushy tree that produces white, fluffy flowers in the spring. The trees are endemic to Australia, but today are usually farmed in New South Wales or Queensland. Bergamot is distilled from the peels of lime-green bergamot oranges, or citrus bergamia . Most of it comes from coastal areas around the Ionian Sea. Whatever you do with it, use it sparingly on your skin — it can amplify skin damage from the sun!
... COVER CONTINUED
Dr. Patti’s Famous Chocolate Pecan Pie
16. I love french fries.
17. I’m not big on dessert. (I’d rather eat more french fries.)
18. I’m a huge Atlanta United Fan. Soccer wasn’t a sport I knew much about until I met David. His passion has since become mine.
Ingredients • 1 frozen deep-dish pie crust
• 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 3 large eggs • 1 1/2 cups pecan halves • Whipped cream
• 4 tablespoons butter • 3 ounces semisweet chocolate • 1 cup light corn syrup • 1/2 cup sugar
19. I live by my Google calendar. If it’s not on my calendar, it’s not going to happen.
20. I’m a frustrated night owl. The nature of our business requires me to rise with the sun. But if I don’t have to be somewhere early, I would much prefer to stay up late and sleep in. What about you? Were you a high school athlete? Do you have a talent no knows about? Do you have a signature recipe friends and family rave about? Share some of those facts with us at your next appointment! We love getting to know our patients better and look forward to learning more about you!
Instructions 1. Heat oven to 350 F. In a medium saucepan, melt butter with chocolate, stirring until smooth. 2. Remove from heat and beat in corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, salt, and eggs. Mix well. 3. Place pecans on bottom of pie shell. Pour chocolate mixture over pecans. 4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream.
–Dr. Patti
See you soon,
Lake Oconee Dentistry | Personalized & Comfortable | 3
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
1011 Parkside Main | Greensboro, GA 30642 If you have any questions, call us at 706-453-1333 www.LakeOconeeDental.com
We’re located at 1011 Parkside Main between the Publix parking lot and the movie theater.
Where Do Essential Oils Come From? page 3 Dr. Patti’s Famous Chocolate Pecan Pie page 3 Who Wore the First Braces? page 4 Inside
20 Things You Never Knew about Dr. Patti page 1 Suffering From Jaw Pain? This Might Be Why! page 2 6 Dog Mayors From Around the US page 2
DO MUMMIES WEAR BRACES? A Brief History of Orthodontics
Braces are a part of many people’s lives. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t wear braces in high school, and it’s likely you have a friend or sibling who spent
Aristotle, would write about methods for straightening teeth while patients were still alive, braces wouldn’t really get their start until after the Dark Ages. In 1728, French dentist Pierre Fauchard published “The Surgeon Dentist.” One of the treatments was the bandeau, a horseshoe- shaped piece of metal that could expand the arch of a patient’s mouth. If this sounds painful, that’s because historians believe the bandeau was actually a torture device. Fortunately, Christophe- François Delabarre came along in 1819 to invent the wire crib, which signaled the beginning of modern orthodontics. Braces would change rapidly over the next hundred years as dentists learned more about teeth. For a long time, most braces were made of gold, platinum, silver, or gum rubber, though some orthodontists relied on ivory, brass, and even wood. Stainless steel wouldn’t become the norm until the 1950s. Then, in the 1970s, with the introduction of dental adhesives, orthodontists no longer needed to wrap wires around each individual tooth, and braces as we know them came to be. Today, traditional metal braces have been joined by ceramic braces, lingual braces, and plastic aligners like Invisalign. Patients have plenty of options in their search for the perfect smile!
a few years with metal strapped to their teeth. People have been striving for a perfect smile for a long time. In fact, archaeologists have found evidence that many ancient civilizations
used some form of braces.
Several ancient Egyptian mummies have been discovered with bands of catgut wrapped around their teeth, and across the Mediterranean, the Etruscans often buried their dead with gold bands around their pearly whites. These braces were part of burial rituals, meant to keep a person’s teeth in place after they died. Though philosophers of the time, including Hippocrates and
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