We Respect Your Dental Health

This is the hardest section to know what to write and say to you. We probably respect your dental health more than you do. Dental health is what we have extensively studied, what we know, and what we do. As dental professionals we are possibly obstinately obsessive and completely compulsive about the health of your teeth, gums, and mouth. We have seen the pain, expense, mental anguish, and self depreciation that dental neglect can bring. We do not want that to happen to you. We are fortunate that there are so many highly skilled, competent, and caring dental professionals in our community. What we say here applies to most of them.

At the end of this section we will talk of our experience, and you are welcome to see the "About Us" page on the website.  As for our experience and skills, this is probably an area where there are not a lot of differences between us and other dental offices. It is certainly difficult for even me, as a dentist, to evaluate the skill and ability of a dentist, or the quality of his or her work. There are so many factors we do not know or cannot control in the human body. We simply think we are as good as any and better than many.

You may have seen or heard about a recent article by AOL. It addressed “dental myths”. Unfortunately some of their presentation was not completely accurate, from my viewpoint. One of their first points was that not everybody needs to have a dental exam and professional cleaning every six months. The author claimed this idea started in a cartoon in the 1940’s. While it may have been in a cartoon then and was recommend by a very few dentists early on, it actually “started” or at least gained popularity because of early TV commercials for Ipana toothpaste. Desiring to win dental approval for their product, this company included this idea in their commercial. For us old folks it was the commercial with the tooth brushing beaver. Anyway, it is true that not every one needs to see a dentist every six months but for most of us, clinical experience and research has shown this to be a good general recommendation. I used to recommend yearly exams and “prophies” (our dental word for prophylaxis which refers to a professional cleaning to prevent disease) to about 25 -30 % of our patients. I have changed because of some of the systemic problems that have been associated with gum infections.  When we examine your mouth we are looking for several problems that could affect your dental and yes, your overall health.

First, we are checking the lining of your mouth, your tongue, cheeks, and lips for sores and signs of cancer or other diseases. Oral cancer has a very high rate of cure when detected early but a very low cure rate once it has progressed for even a few months. Second, we are concerned about your “bite” or how your teeth fit and work together. This includes your jaw joint (TMJ) and the muscles that move your jaw. Problems here can do more than just affect your appearance. They can cause pain or a lot of problems you may not even notice until irreparable damage is done. Third, we check the condition of your gums. This is an extremely important area and I am sure you have heard a lot about gingivitis and periodontal disease, which means gum and bone infection. In the United States more adult teeth are lost due to this disease than  to cavities. This is THE reason a visit to the dentist every six months is so important for most people. It is the mouth disease that has been linked to heart disease, low birth weight babies, diabetes, and perhaps some lung disease. It is the evidence behind these medical links that has made us supporters of six month visits. Periodontal disease causes you to loose bone around your teeth and since the bone holds the teeth in, if you loose enough bone, you will loose your teeth. Once the bone is gone, we can not get it back and the damage is permanent. This disease is easy to prevent and rather simple to control if caught early. Hence, we use the term prophy or prophylaxis for prevention. Finally, we get to the teeth and check for cavities.

Everyday someone tells me, “I hope you don’t find anything,” or even gives a command, “Don’t find anything!” Of course we hope we don’t find anything or if we do that it is something small and easy to fix. If we do find a problem with the teeth we can usually fix it. If the problem is with the “soft tissues” sometimes we can fix it and try to help you control the problem. This is where you want to know, “Are you any good?”  We think we are and have put lots of information throughout this website to try to convince you.

Dr. Clark has thirty years of experience, an advanced general practice residency and over 2000 hours of continuing education. Dr. Schiffman graduated from Ohio State in 2004. He too continues to go to dental education courses. We feel that combination of experience and new knowledge and technology is valuable to our patients. We have a modern facility with up to date technology, a highly qualified staff, and the skills you would want in your dentist. Dr. Clark and Dr. Schiffman use optical magnification for all procedures and we even use an operative microscope for many of them. This allows us a precision that otherwise would not be attainable. Our lab technician, Charles Warren also has over 30 years experience and has lectured internationally. He and Dr. Clark produced a video on porcelain veneers.

We feel absolutely confident in saying that your dental health would be in good hands with us.