LET'S TALK ABOUT HALLOWEEN 2020

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Whether you’re staying home this year or trick-or-treating, you’ll love these fun activity ideas as either a substitute for trick-or-treating or a fun addition to your October activities.

To start, here is an article from the CDC on staying healthy during the holidays.

We also found this great article from Eater that lists a lot of ideas for a safer Halloween, then has experts share their thoughts on HOW safe it actually is.

This viral Facebook post (the online viral, not the covid viral) looks like a great idea, and a fun project to do with your kiddos!

Photo scavenger hunt:

Before 10.31 take your kiddos on a photo scavenger hunt to get everyone in the spooky spirit! Divide into family teams of two, or invite friends to participate in their own neighborhoods with the same list of things to find.

Hike/walk to make a spooky shape: Use an exercise app that has a map feature like, ‘Map My Run,’ to take a stroll or jog that ends up in the shape of something spooky! Make a ghost, a bat, a witch's hat, or a jack-o-lantern! Invite friends to participate in their own neighborhoods and compare your run map creations.

Zoom Dance Party:

Organize a Costumed Dance Party via Zoom! A free account allows you to have 100 participants for 40 minutes. Find a time that works for your family and friends and get ready to bust a move! Set up your computer in a space that has lots of room for your family’s best dance moves. Create a song playlist for everyone to listen to! Be sure to mute all participants so that everyone can enjoy their own music, and not hear the echo of everyone else's.

Reverse Trick or Treating: This requires some planning and organization with the neighborhood, but if you can pull it off it’s a very low risk way to distribute treats. Kids stand in their front yards in their costumes and grownups, who are better at social distancing and covid protocol, walk or drive by distributing treats.

Whatever you do, stay safe! Wear a mask, use hand sanitizer often while you’re out and wash your hands when you get home.

LET'S TALK ABOUT SALIVA

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Let’s Talk About Saliva

Dr. Avani Gandhi

Pine Smiles Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics

Chino Hills, CA

Every person on the planet deals with saliva on a daily basis. If you’re a parent in Chino Hills (or anywhere), you probably dealt with a lot of saliva while your little one was teething! There are so many names for it! Spit, drool, slobber, spittle, froth, and probably a lot of other ones I can’t think of right now. Let’s dive right in (pun intended) and find out more!

So, what is saliva? It is a liquid that is made from cells in your salivary glands. Saliva contains minerals that help your teeth harden or remineralize. When baby teeth come in they are softer and gradually harden more as they are bathed in saliva.

Dry mouth is a side effect of many medications. It’s an uncomfortable feeling and can lead to dental complications because your saliva isn’t cleansing your teeth as much. Since we want the happiest smiles and the happiest kids in Chino Hills, we want to make sure that even their spit is healthy by making sure they’re drinking plenty of water.

Saliva is made of water, mucus, proteins, mineral salts, and amylase. Amylase is a digestive enzyme that starts breaking down complex carbohydrates. Saliva also helps with our speech! And it is important in helping to control our bodies water balance, so grab a cold, refreshing glass of water and drink up!Where does saliva come from? We have three sets of major salivary glands in our mouths: the sublingual salivary glands, the submandibular salivary glands, and the parotid glands. We also have several hundred minor salivary glands on our tongue, palate, lips and cheeks.

The sublingual salivary glands are about the size of an almond and are underneath the tongue, in what we call the floor of the mouth. Sub means under and lingual means tongue. These glands produce mainly mucus and it comes out of the Bartholin’s ducts. If you, or a friend, have ever been able to “gleek” or squirt spit by moving your tongue, you know it comes from the sublingual salivary glands.

The submandibular glands are found under the mandible or jaw. The saliva they produce comes out of the Wharton’s ducts.

The parotid salivary glands are the largest ones and are found between the ear and the jaw. The saliva they produce comes from the Stensen’s ducts.

All these glands are super busy and produce one to two liters a day! Most of the saliva we create we swallow. Saliva is important because it lubricates our mouths, helps us swallow, helps us digest the food we eat, and protects our teeth from getting cavities by washing food and bacteria off of them.

Career in Dentistry

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Do you have a child who loves science? When they’re at the right age, talk to them about a career in dentistry. There are so many great reasons to become a dentist. Dentists make a difference in their community by making sure it is full of happy, healthy smiles. Dentistry is a growing profession and will always be in demand. Dental students can choose from many different fields of study within dentistry like family practice, pediatric dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, just to name a few.

You can be your own boss, work for an existing practice, educate, or work in public health! There are so many options. Most dentists work in private practice by themselves or with a partner. An academic dentistry career combines teaching, research, community service and patient care. Public Health Dentistry focuses on community rather than private practice. Promoting dental health and preventing disease are the major roles of a public health dentist. The U.S. Public Health Service offers dentists an opportunity to provide dental care in unique environments like a Reservation, on a military base, or in a prison. Dentists in research careers are on the cutting edge of scientific discoveries that impact patient care. Examples are laser dentistry, implants to replace damaged bone and computerized X-rays. Dentists in the United States can work internationally through groups like the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Food and Agricultural Organizationof the United Nations (FAO). Many dentists volunteer to bring dentistry to aid people in third world countries in addition to their main career. Hospital dentists treat patients with medical conditions and disabilities alongside physicians.

There are more than 60 dental schools in the United States accredited by the ADA's Commission on Dental Accreditation. Each program is evaluated for its content and quality. DDS/DMD programs take four years to complete. Students should contact individual dental schoolsfor specific prerequisite information but in general, the following is required:

●8 hours Biology with lab

●8 hours Physics

●8 hours English

●8 hours General Chemistry with lab

●8 hours Organic Chemistry with lab

Interning for a dental practice during summer breaks is also a great way to find out what it takes to have a career in dentistry.

Back to School

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Whether your family is heading back to school in person, online, home schooling, or a combination of the three, it’s important that we do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19. We believe that the best way to do this is to keep communication open and full of reminders to wear a mask, socially distance, and wash/sanitize hands. Communicating openly with your children can also help ease worries about going back to school in the midst of a pandemic. We hope that the following tips and suggestions make everyone in your family feel more confident and capable.

First, wearing a mask is proving to be our best defense against COVID-19 when combined with social distancing and hand washing. This article from the MAYO Clinic has information on types of masks and how to use them effectively. The most important tips are to wash or sanitize your hands before and after taking your mask on and off.

Second, masks are not a substitute for social distancing. It’s still important to maintain six feet between you and others whenever possible. Create a fun way to help your children determine the length of six feet! Take out your measuring tape and measure an everyday item, like their backpack. Then determine how many backpack lengths equal six feet.

Third, make sure hands and surfaces are clean. Make sure your children and their classrooms are well stocked with hand sanitizer. Having sanitizing wipes for schooldesks and other surfaces is also important. Below we share instructions for making your own sanitizing wipes. We’d like to point out that we are not using these wipes in our practice. We are using hospital grade sanitizer approved by the FDA and recommended by the American Dental Association. This DIY surface wipe recipe can be used effectively at home and on personal spaces at school.

Step 1: Cut a roll of paper towels in half using a serrated knife. We found that VIVA brand paper towels are easiest tocut without too much fraying.

Step 2: Find an airtight container that can hold the half roll of paper towels.

Step 3: Add 2 cups of water, 1 cup of rubbing alcohol (at least 70% concentrate), and a tablespoon of dish soap to the container. You can also add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil to make it smell good!

Step 4: Add the half roll of paper towels. Once it has soaked up most of the liquid, flip the roll so that the other end gets saturated with the mixture.

Step 5: Remove the cardboard part of the roll. You’ll then be able to pull up pieces of paper towel easily from the center of the roll.

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Let’s Talk About PIMU

Dr. Avani Gandhi

Pine Smiles Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics

Chino Hills, CA

Have you heard of PIMU? If not, you’re not alone. It’s a relatively new diagnosis in the DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders –5) and it stands for Problematic Interactive Media Use. It encompasses Internet Addiction, Internet Gaming Disorder, Gaming Disorder, and Media Addiction. It is considered an environmental condition of the digital age.

If you’re like me, you wonder how screen time affects your child and want to know how much is okay, or how much is too much? How can I monitor their screen time and the types of apps and sites they are visiting? How will I know when it becomes a problem? Can it be a problem for me too? And if it is, what are the resources? It seems like youth are constantly on their mobile devices to learn, communicate, relax, and entertain themselves.

Electronics and the internet are ubiquitous in our lives. People are spending more and more time on mobile devices, especially children and teens. Studies have shown that media overuse can disrupt a child’slife and create issues in the family and at school, as well as emotional, mental and physical health. It is important to be aware of signs of addictive, impulsive, or excessive behaviors towards screen media use.

Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to PIMU because their prefrontal cortex does not fully mature until their mid-twenties. The prefrontal cortex is the area in our brains where decision making, judgments, and problem solving occur. Have you ever thought about poor decisions you made in your teens and twenties and wondered why in the world you would have done those things?

PIMU is a spectrum and clinical presentation varies, but can appear in one of the four following ways:

1.Excessive video gaming where the child plays for hours onend and will only take breaks when forced.

2.Using social media as a primary way to connect with others instead of in person communication.

3.Obsessive pornographic use that results in sexual dysfunction.

4.Seeking information by spending hours of time surfing online or watching videos instead of other activities.

If you notice that your child is fixated on screens, it is important to talk to your child and to your child’s doctor. Other signs include social withdrawals, poorer performance in schools, and less interest in personal hygiene. Children and teens may also have other conditions like ADHD, social anxiety, depression, autism, and substance use that can predispose or even cause PIMU. PIMU can also contribute to eating disorders, weight gain, and problems sleeping.

If you’re concerned, it’s a good idea to take stock of how long, how often, and how many screens are used by every member of your family. It’s a good idea to make sure that every person in the family, including you, is getting “a balanced diet of experiences.” The best way to do this is to use media mindfully, notice problematic behaviors, be a media role model, and remove screens from the bedrooms. We want our children to have rich interactions with the world and to be able to be present with others (we want it for ourselves too). Let’s all try to be more present with one another. ☺

Let’s Talk About Smiling Through Summer 2020

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Let’s Talk About Smiling Through Summer 2020

Dr. Avani Gandhi

Pine Smiles Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics

Chino Hills, CA

We’ve come up with a theme for the summer of 2020! ‘Bloom Where You’re Planted’ We bet that most of your summer plans have changed, which can be a letdown, but no reason to not make the best of what we have.

Throughout the summer we’ll be sharing fun activities and ideas for making this summer close to home the best it can be.

Today, we’re going to go over a few safety precautions.

Don’t forget to continue social distancing, hand washing, and covering our mouths with masks when in public. Let’s continue to flatten that curve and tell COVID-19 that it is not welcome in our summer! Be sure to pay special attention to your local officials for information on your area’s numbers and closures. Even if things are opening up, we still need to be cautious.

Just like we brush, floss, and visit the dentist to have healthy smiles, we also need to protect our skin by; playing in the shade, wearing protective clothing, and applying sunscreen regularly.

We know that staying hydrated is an important part of day today health, but it can also have a big impact on your kids’ oral health. We need to stay hydrated so that our bodies can create the saliva that washes away cavity causing bacteria.

If you’re riding bikes, scooters, or skateboards be sure that your head is protected with a helmet. Did you know that wearing a bike helmet reduces the risk of head injury by 50%? Let’s keep those smile holders intact this summer.

Make sure your first aid kit is stocked with a kid friendly bug spray, antibacterial ointment, band aids, and hydrogen peroxide. Extra time at home and lots of summer play can mean more owies! Be prepared.

Protect your smiles by brushing for two minutes, twice a day, limiting sugary snacks, and visiting our office every six months! We are open andare going above and beyond to keep your smiles safe from viruses.