News segment with Terrie Reeves & Dr. Payet on “Train for Life”, on TVNews 14 in Charlotte – coming soon!

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of recording a short interview with the Founder and President (and one of my patients) of the Wellness Coalition of America, Ms. Terrie Reeves, for her weekly segment on TVNews 14 (every Sunday) called “Train for Life.” Each week, Terrie interviews people in different areas of life, all of which are somehow related to our total health and well-being.  My first interview was how dentists can be an important part of your health-care team, because many diseases can be diagnosed through various conditions that come up in the mouth – diabetes, leukemia, gum disease – especially this one, because it has been shown to be linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and more.  You can see the video segment that was aired in late spring 2009 at this link: Dental Health and Total Body Health Links (please note that the video must be viewed on Internet Explorer or Safari, but does not play on Firefox – sorry!).

Well, today we’ll be recording 2 new segments to be aired this fall.  The first will be on the NTI-tss, an FDA-approved and non-medication treatment for Chronic Migraine and Chronic Tension Headaches, and the second spot (won’t air until November) will cover the most effective and comfortable treatment for periodontal (gum) disease available: the LANAP (Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure) protocol, which can only be performed by a dentist licensed in the use of the Periolase MVP-7 free-running pulsed Nd:YAG dental laser.

I’ll be sure to post links to each of these as they become available!  I must admit, it’s kind of fun to become a local expert on dentistry for the media.  🙂

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Further Information on LANAP Treatment for Gum Disease in Charlotte

OK – so I’m just going to be adding a LOT of information about periodontal (gum) disease and how the Periolase MVP-7 laser treats it so well; in addition, I’ll finally be getting around to adding more information on the significant health effects that gum disease can have, including:

• Increased risk of heart attack
• Increased risk of stroke
• Risk of worsening diabetes
• Increased risk of pre-term births
• Increased risk of low-birth-weight babies

Just so you know I’m not making this stuff up 🙂  , here are a few videos by national news programs that will help fill in the gaps:

And in case you missed Whoopi Goldberg talking about her gum disease on “The View,” don’t miss it again!

Dental Implant Bridge Smile Makeover in Charlotte

There are several factors that can make a Smile Makeover much more difficult to look good or great, and this was an instance in which pretty much ALL of them were in place, so this was quite a challenge for me; fortunately, I had the distinct pleasure of working with a terrific patient and an amazingly good dental lab to create a pretty beautiful smile in the end.

When Kat first came to us in August 2006, she’d always taken good care of her teeth, but she was ready for some real changes and improvements to her smile and wanted someone with experience in fixing real problem smiles.  During my initial exam, I quickly realized there were several complicating factors that had been overlooked for years that had directly contributed to the problems she recognized.  She knew about the significant gum recession, was unhappy about the dark metal lines around her dental bridge, and wanted to brighten/straighten her whole smile.

What I recognized as problems that she didn’t:

• Crowded lower front teeth that were banging against the back of the upper dental bridge
• She clenched her teeth intensely, pushing the lower front teeth powerfully against the back of the upper dental bridge
• A history of chronic migraines that did not respond to conventional treatment, and as she’ll tell you in a heartbeat, she tried EVERYTHING.
• The 2 teeth holding up the bridge had cracks in the roots deeply below the gum level.
• A very high smile line, meaning that – when she smiles big – her lip rises way up high so that even the gums show (most people don’t do this)

We spent quite a while talking about how all these things fit together, as well as discussing the possibilities to give her a beautiful smile she felt good about.  Ultimately, we decided on extracting the 2 cracked teeth, placing 2 dental implants, Six-Month Braces to straighten the lower front teeth so they wouldn’t bang against the top ones, using the NTI-tss for resolving the chronic migraines (resulting from the incredibly intense muscle clenching), and finally a dental porcelain-to-metal bridge to replace the upper missing front teeth, supported by the 2 dental implants.  The entire process took just under 2 years, but even Kat will tell you – it was worth it!  She recently got married and says she felt so good smiling for her wedding photos with total confidence.

You know — this is the kind of thing that makes dentistry really enjoyable.  We get to help people LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, AND EAT THE FOODS THEY WANT. 🙂