Top 10 (plus story)

Hey how was everyones weekend?

Mine was very eventful.
As you know Luke's B-Day was yesterday.
So instead of 25 kids over in the pool and bounce house, we have evolved to having three friends over for a "sleep over".
So I was in charge of the boys on Saturday.
So at 2pm the four boys and I went to the G0-Karts (oh, Lukes sister and brother went also).
Now if you thought getting a root canal was expensive try going go-carting.
$4 each for 8 laps. But if you buy a bunch of them you get it for $3.
I bought 16 tickets for $48. Me and Noah raced my Madison on the slow cars.
While the boys went on the medium fast track.
I let the boys go three times and me and the little ones went twice.

I thought this was going to be an all afternoon gig. Not exactly, we got back in the car all excited and laughing, but it was only 32 minutes later.

So we were back at the house and we looked up movies. The movie we wanted to see was playing at 4:10 right up the road.
So we loaded up the mini-van again and went to see Prince Caspian. This time Madison took a friend and all of us journeyed to the theater.
Now picture this...
Me and 6 kids (9 and under).
We bought tickets (don't even ask how much) and got in line for popcorn.
"Get over here"
"Don't touch that"
"No you can't have Jumbo Milk Duds"
"No I don't have quarters for the game room"
So I get a Large Popcorn and two large drinks (dont ask) but...
FREE REFILLS.
I pay $30 bucks for that and they give me a free refill that costs them $.50.
And somehow I am suppose to feel like I got a deal.
I got extra bags and little cups, for everyone and got into the theater. The boys wanted no part of the girls so they sat in the row behind us.
I start our personal concession stand and pour popcorn into each bag and filled all their drink cups.
Okay, the popcorn is empty and one and a half of the jumbo cups were empty.
Then I am going to go get the refill. But the issue is now, do I leave 6 kids in the theater to go get free stuff. Do I leave the 6 innocent children vulnerable to the sickos of the world to get FREE REFILLS? You bet I did.
So I tell them, "Sit here, no one move, I will be right back".
I run to the counter. Wouldn't you know it there is a line. I try to go straight to the counter and ask a dude to fill them up. He says I have to stand in line. I wanted to jump over the counter and strangle this 16 year old pimply faced kid but I restrained.
I got in line... I was second. Behind a woman who was ordering for her softball team. She ordered so much stuff she had to have an employee help her bring all her stuff to her seats.
I got the stuff and ran back to the kids. 1-6 I counted and they were all safe.
Now, one of the girls pipes up, "I have to go to the bathroom."
WHAT?!!!
Now my daughter is 7 and her friend is 8. What the heck do I do?
I can't bring them into the mens bathroom (It is a disgusting place. Trust me ladies. And I am not having my daughter anywhere near those seats) and I can't let them go to the bathroom by themselves. Can I?
What the heck?
I let them go together with strict orders.
While they are gone the movie starts while I am doing the second fill up on all the drinks and popcorn.
They safely return and I can sit and relax for a minute.
The movie was 2 hours and 20 minutes.
It was pretty good. In the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe there was symbolism that I got. There was redemption. I got that.
In this one I didn't get it. I kept waiting for the thing that led me to the Bible story but there was nothing there.
It was just a kids movie and a pretty violent kids movie at that.
Then we got home, safely a little before 7pm.
Then it was swimming time.
Swimming for 2 and a half straight hours until pizza. I looked like a prune and so did all the kids.
Next was pajamas and brushing of teeth (one kid didn't bring a toothbrush, can you imagine not bringing a toothbrush to a dentist's house).
I dropped them in front of a movie at about 10pm and they went to bed without many issues.
It was great. I think Luke had a great party.
We spent way more than if we had the 25 kids and the bounce house, but it was worth it.

Sunday is always reserved for the family party. But a funny thing is we have a great family that are friends. The mother and one of the sons have the same birthday as Luke, so now it is a family and friends party. 21 people to be exact.
We finished at 10pm.
I was pooped last night.

But, enough about me...
Lets talk about some products

Where was I....

Top 10.

Next on the list is...

Burs.

You know how much I like doing fillings.

Well to me, in order to do a filling that looks like a tooth it involves a specific bur.

If I want to do a crown prep that is similar to Dr. G.V. Black, you need a specific bur.

If you are doing a lot of veneers you have to have the right bur.

When you are cementing a porcelain onlay, you need the correct bur to smooth and polish.

Easy, but it took a long time for me to find the right ones. In fact, I am always looking for something better.

#7

An intraoral camera.

I do not have the biggest baddest most expensive one. I have a decent one. I have one that the pictures can be loaded directly into the persons chart.

I use the camera all the time.

I use it on New Patient Exams. I show people what I see. I am not talking to them in a language they can't understand. I take the trust factor out of it.

They see a broken filling. They see a crack. "WOW!! That looks bad, when can we schedule to get this problem taken care of.

I also use it during a procedure.

"This is what the tooth looks like after I have taken the old filling out". I leave the stained dentin for effect. This is where they usually cuss.

"Holy S!@#$$#%t"

Then I show them a picture after I put the caries detector in it.

Then I show the finished prep and how clean and yellow it is.

Then I show the final restoration.

This is where they cuss again. I get alot of WOWs.

A couple of seconds more. Yes, it can be a pain in the butt. But it is worth it to me. For a patient to see his or her problem and watch us fix it.

Next.

Monitors mounted on the ceiling.

In my rooms I decided to place monitors above the patients head.

I wanted to be able to communicate to the patient without bringing them back up.

I take an xray with them back. I do an exam with them back. I am doing a restoration when they are back. I hated sitting them up.

I leave them back and communicate with them.

I LOVE IT.

And the best is this monitor can be used for movies. I purchased all my computers with DVD players in them and I have a stash of about 60 movies and they can choose from. I have wireless

headsets that they put on and lala land it is.

I decided not to have the 12 o'clock monitor and use this one instead. So I have a 7pm monitor and a ceiling mounted.

In this picture you can see one of my rooms and everything in it.

Take note of the...

Ceiling monitors

Wireless headsets

Intraoral camera

Electrosurge unit (under the counter)

Aquariums for ambiance

Windows that lookout to my atrium (foliage and a pond outside).

Listen, I don't mean to sound like I am bragging.

I love my rooms. These are years and years of adding more and more stuff on.

If you don't have all of this stuff, think about it. You don't have to run out and go into to hauk to get it.

Last thing for the day.

My DEMI LED Curing light.

Have you guys seen this yet.

OMG. It is out of this world.

I went from a halogen light (I used for 11 years) to a cordless LED light (the LEDemitron II).

It was decent but had all these battery problems that couldn't be resolved. I was literally recharging a battery after every procedure. What the heck do I do now? I had already thrown all the other lights I had out. I was in a pinch.

So I talked to the rep and he told me to try these (yeah, try these for $1000 a pop). So I did. Since then I have bought four.

What he ended up doing for me is letting me trade in old LE others.

But this thing reads about a 1300 on my light meter (just as a reference, my dad is using the Demitron 501 halogen light and it reading about 400). It is small and light weight and the battery lasts about a MONTH.

Are you kidding me?

I have to stop here.

It is too long, but I had to tell you about the party and I didn't want to wait to tell you about the other products.

Talk to you Wednesday.

john

Ps Don't forget to double clip on the picture to make it big