Movie Maker Goes to the Dentist!

 

Here you see our long standing patient Ms. Melanie Walas, who makes our "Comes From Afar" box in our Newsletter with her trek from the East Bay. She collects vintage clothing and kooky accessories and always has amazing outfits, as you can see with the beautiful pink coat that she made.

One of her early projects was making costumes for puppets for the stop-motion animation films JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and MONKEYBONE. She has worked for ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) and other companies for many years as a model maker/painter. She has painted spaceships, ships and sets for such films as STAR WARS(I - III), PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN(I-II), SPACE COWBOYS, WAR OF WORLDS, GALAXY QUEST, STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE MATRIX(II-III). More recently, she has been working as a digital painter at ILM, painting robots for TRANSFORMERS (II-III) and buildings and props for the movie RANGO.

Her current projects are top secret until they come out, but we're always excited to see what she's been up to!

We enjoy her dental visits, as we enjoy seeing all of our multi-talented, and dear patients. Go Melanie! See you in the Movies!



Your dental office celebrates with a holiday party at Doc's house!

Here you see Dr. PN and Dr. Fung and their illustrious staff enjoying time of fellowship and fun for the holidays. They drew names and exchanged Secret Santa gifts and played games including a musical attempt at Christmas Carols with each member tooting a different note. Dr. PN tried to conduct but gave up and turned the job over her more musically trained sons. A good time was had by all and a toast was raised to honor all you wonderful dental patients! And to wish you each a wonderful holiday season and a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

Author and Attorney visits the dentist!

Author, and noted Bay Area Attorney, Rob Waring visits the dentist!  Dr. Presley-Nelson's very long time dental patient Rob Waring, was in the office the other evening and we all celebrated his book, UPSIDE DOWN: THE PARADOXES OF GENDER IN THE 21ST CENTURY. This is a must read for those interested in women’s future role in our society. Mr. Waring works as an attorney to protect the welfare of foster children in the Bay Area. We are proud of all our accomplished and precious dental patients and enjoy seeing each and every one of you.

Check out more on Mr. Waring's book on Amazon: Click here.

Grammy Nominee Visits the Dentist!

Dr. Presley-Nelson and staff always enjoy their visits with Grammy Nominee, and local favorite musician, Dave Costa of the Dave Costa Trio.  Kath and Doc sometimes visit The Cliff House to see him perform with his group.  He has had quite a career back east and in the Bay Area.  Read about him at www.davecostamusiccom/bio.html.  He’ll be at the Cliff House next, this Friday, Nov. 9^th, 2012.

His third album “When the Love Bug Bites”, released October 2009, was in the top 10 for National Indie Radio Air Play for 12 weeks (Roots Music Report). His song “When the Love Bug Bites” crossed over to commercial radio, charting as high as #3 on the WEIB top 40 in New England, and brought him to nomination for a 2011 Grammy Award!  Another accomplished and famous dental patient receiving quality care at Dr. Presley-Nelson’s office.  We are honored to have him and all of our precious patients have confidence in us.

Halloween Time is here and so therefore Candy Time is here.

As a dentist concerned about the oral health of our patients,  let’s talk about Halloween candy.

First of all, for those of you who have been through our free and very entertaining Plaque Control Instruction…you may remember this.  SUGAR DOES NOT HARM PLAQUE FREE TEETH!  Oh yes, now it is coming back to you.  Tooth decay occurs when a colony of bacteria, like a furry little moldy bio-film on your teeth, produces toxic acid waste and holds it in place until the acid dissolves tooth structure.  The germs that make up this plaque colony always produce acid, regardless of whether you eat anything or not…even candy.  So it is best to just get and stay plaque free with careful daily brushing and flossing and the use of other aids.  BUT IF YOU MISS SOME PLAQUE AND FEED IT SUGAR…it produces 3 times the acid for 20 minutes per sugar exposure.

SO GET THOSE KIDS PLAQUE FREE BEFORE they hit the Halloween goodies.  And maybe limit the exposures, in case they missed some plaque.  Gooey or sticky sweets hang around longer and really add up the exposure time.  But remember a plaque free tooth is safe from the ill effects of sugar…not the rest of the body mind you… but the teeth, if clean, do not suffer.  You might use a disclosing tablet and help your child check for missed areas right before the big night (consider the added effect of a scary red mouth…Boo!). Plaque re-grows about every 24 hours, so a once-a-day thoroughness is mandatory, all the time, aside from Halloween issues.

So how about this proposal?  Get the kids plaque free in the afternoon of the Big Night, then let them eat what they want of the treats when they get home from trick or treating.  After they are asleep, leave a small amount in their bag-under-the bed but go through it first, discarding questionable and low quality items.  Take the rest and divide it up into little plastic baggies, with just enough that you would allow in their school lunch in each bag, and freeze it.  That way you can grab a baggie and throw it in their lunch on certain days when you have deemed their morning oral hygiene better than usual.  Reward/Incentive.  It never hurts.

As for suggestions about handing out apples and nickels instead of candy (I’ve even tried brushes and toothpaste, mind you  :D ) I say DON’T.  Give the little Goblins what they want.  My attempts at saving the neighborhood kids from the Demon Decay only got my house egged and my pumpkins smashed.  Now I give them Snickers.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN,

Dr. Presley-Nelson

Noted San Francisco author and novelist visits the dentist!

Sarah M. Glover has published a new novel, GRAVE REFRAIN, available in local bookstores (I got mine on West Portal Avenue) and on Amazon.  It is a dark and spooky romance set in fabled San Francisco where "when it comes to true love, one lifetime is never enough."  This book is a great Halloween Read, equal parts contemporary and paranormal, love story and ghost story, you can't put it down!

Long time patient, Sarah, is an up and coming author. We enjoy her dental visits. We have so many famous and talented patients!  We feel truly blessed to have them AND ALL OF YOU come and see us.  Your trust in us is a privilege. 

-"Doc" PN

Dr. Presley-Nelson and Staff enjoy a continuing education day out of the office!

 

 

Here you see Dr. Presley-Nelson and staff learning ways to take better care of patients at a recent continuing education day, held at the Burlingame Marriott Hotel. It was an intense day-long event featuring different classes for different staff vocations. Kathleen, our illustrious hygienist attended seminars for hygienists, the assisting staff went to lectures for chairside assistants, and office personnel learned better ways to serve patients in insurance, appointment booking, and telephone matters.

 

Dr. Presley-Nelson attended a very stimulating day-long seminar by Dr. Atlas of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry. One of the many topics was how to increase bond strength to the tooth in white fillings. As usual when a class is good, this promoted the purchase of new materials. Dr. Presley-Nelson was particularly impressed with a certain unfilled, flowable resin for lining the pulpal floor that actually shrinks upon curing toward the tooth structure instead of AWAY from the tooth. This was demonstrated by a new technique involving an "ultrasonic movie or film" that actually showed the material's action during its hardening phase. Marvelous new things are happening in dentistry all the time!

 

A lot of learning and a great lunch later, we are all back with the best and the latest, to take care of our first priority OUR PATIENTS!