Kim Clijsters won the Aussie Open ... with the help of a Dentist!

For those of you who don't follow tennis, earlier today Kim Clijsters of Belgium won the 2011 Australian Open women's singles title, her fourth Grand Slam title. She defeated Li Na of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win her first Grand Slam in the land down under, and will be looking to retire within the next year after having come out of a previous retirement back in 2007. Interesting. And exciting! But you may have already gathered that from the thousands of articles about her hard-fought win today.

But what you probably didn't hear ... was that Clijsters had chipped her tooth when she landed at the airport before the tournament even began! Some say - and by 'some' I mean myself - that it's possible she wouldn't have won the Aussie Open had a dentist not come to her aid in this oral emergency! In fact, she may have had to withdraw from the tournament completely due to the excruciating pain ... (just kidding here)!

So it turns out most chipped tooth situations aren't that painful. But it IS important to see a dentist as soon as you can after you realize your tooth has been chipped. Depending on the severity of the situation, you may need a filling or even a crown. Besides potential pain, increased sensitivity to cold and heat, and perhaps a small hole in your smile, an obvious reason to visit a dentist immediately is so your gums or tongue don't suffer any damage from a sharp, jagged-edged tooth. This is not unlike a shark, but sharks probably don't think about these issues.

Anyways, here's the quote from her press conference after her win:

"Q: What happened to your teeth at the airport?


Kim Clijsters: To my tooth? Yeah, it chipped off. That's what happened. I was eating a rice cracker, actually, nothing hard. Just a nice, soft rice cracker. I thought there was like a piece of rice that wasn't cooked well or something, and I just spat it out. I felt my tooth not being there completely, so I was like, Oh boy."

Oh boy indeed! Who knew that an innocent rice cracker could win a battle of strength against your tooth?

"I went to a dentist here in Melbourne and he fixed me up really quickly ... He just said that me if you get to the final ... so I promised him 'OK, for sure, I'll do that.' So, thank you."

That's very sportsmanship-like of you Kim - congrats on the win!

But anyways, case in point, dentists are more important than you might think! Although a chipped tooth is probably one of the best worst things that could happen to you from a sports injury or any injury whatsoever, more damage could have easily been done. If Kim was a high school tennis player with braces and suffered a 35 meters/second (or 80 mph) tennis ball to the face, the situation would have been much different. An oral surgeon may have been involved!

Oh, and here's my favorite bit from Kim:

"Q. Are you going to name the mystery dentist?

Clijsters: I actually don’t remember his name. He was somewhere near Chapel Street."

:)

Kim's pearly whites

What was the dentist's name??

Eric

Why do you fear the Dentist?

Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of the dentist? The former may have been a favorite TV show of yours from childhood (Nickelodeon, anyone?), but unfortunately the latter is a negative no-brainer to many. We all know of some friends or family members who really despise their visits to the the dentist and will do anything in their power to make these bi-annual visits as brief as possible.

Since writing my post last week on the new device that eliminates the sound of a dental drill, I've been doing a lot of thinking on why some people have such an extreme fear of the dentist. Let's just call this dental phobia. And as I've been continuing my shadowing and work at my awesome dentist's office this month, although I haven't encountered any patients who seem to have any apparent dental phobia, I do notice some general trends including hand-clasping, eye-closing, legs-crossing, and (just once) chair gripping - even during general cleanings! These behaviors are usually secondary to some of the things you might expect a patient with dental phobia to exhibit.

A fear of dental visits may pose a major issue in achieving and maintaining good oral health. Often, it just takes one negative experience, usually from childhood, for an individual to develop a dental phobia that may last a lifetime. If you had to have seven baby teeth pulled out when you were in the second grade because of the cavities that formed due to your bad childhood brushing habits (and because of all those Hershey's, Reese's Pieces, and Kit Kat bars you gulfed down in one sitting that day after Halloween), it makes sense that your dental phobia likely has its roots in the unpleasant and painful dental experience that ensued. A few numbing shots to your gum and a fountain of your own tears probably didn't help your newly developed phobia either.

But for adults, a number of other factors besides the physical often explains a dental phobia.

The sky-high costs of certain procedures (especially if you don't have insurance or if your carrier doesn't fully cover certain procedures), the disruption of your normal work day, the need for control (especially of a part of your body where you otherwise have 100% control of what goes in and out), and even antiseptic odors can contribute to such anxieties. Self-consciousness and general anxieties may also be possible factors contributing to this fear, in addition to a combination of higher order social and psychological factors.

As you can imagine, a modern-day dentist also assumes the role of a psychologist in ensuring that patients have a pleasant experience while receiving the utmost oral care. Interestingly, some dental schools like UCLA and UCSF dental actually require that all applicants take an introductory psychology course.

Ultimately, while a comfy chair and your favorite TV show playing on the screen may help you temporarily forget about your dental phobia, the most important step in overcoming your fear of the dentist's office begins with good communication between you and your oral care professional.

Never be afraid to ask questions before, during (procedure-permitting), and after a procedure!

For those of you who are more cosmetically-inclined, just imagine how great your teeth will look when all's said and done!

Eric

Pre-Dental Society Updates

Great news: the website for the pre-dental society is almost finished - it will be up and running soon!

As a brief preview, here is the bio I will be putting up on the website. I've always been asked a lot why a career in dentistry and not say, medicine (or finance, consulting). The answer and story that comes with it is long, but I'll be sure to share it all with you sometime in the future. I promise!

But for now, here's the bio:

Eric Chen
Class of 2012 | Molecular and Cellular Biology

My belief in the commitment to the best self and the common good saw tremendous alignment with my passion for dentistry. The creation of a patient's best self through oral health and confidence, and the commitment to the greater community from a public health perspective - these are my visions in dentistry. Outside of the classroom I serve as President and former concertmaster of the Mozart Society Orchestra, and volunteer heavily with the Harvard College Red Cross. I'm an avid swimmer and water polo player, I love the beach, and I also write a blog on all things teeth!


And no the last line was NOT a shameless plug for my blog ... otherwise I would have included a link! :)

In other news, we're currently in the midst of organizing our 2011 Boston Pre-Dental Conference, to be held on campus in Cambridge! Details coming soon!

Eric

Afraid of the dentist? This active noise control invention will help!

One common reason why people are afraid of the dentist is because of the sound of ... the drill!

I'm sure many of you have experienced the dental drill before - typically it's used to carve out the decayed tooth material before your dentist puts in the filling. Because the sound of the drill usually comes immediately before some amount of acute pain (dentists like to call this pain pressure), many people unfortunately associate the drilling sound with anxiety, a sense of fear (seriously!), and a mouth that was numbed an hour too late.

In reality though, the sound of the drill should be linked to happiness! Your cavities will disappear, and the value of your mouth will increase tremendously with the new addition of expensive (and shiny) metals.

Anyways, a group of researchers at King's College London Dental Institute led by professor Brian Millar have developed something called the digital signal processor chip.

How it works is simple: you attach this small device to your headphones, and - similar to those Bose Noise Canceling headphones - the sound of all that dreaded drilling inside your mouth suddenly disappears!

The trick here is that this device selectively filters incoming sounds. So although your ears will miss out on all that deep drilling, you can still hear the dentist warning that you will continue to feel that "pressure."

Details: this "digital signal processor" chilp analyzes the incoming sound from the dental drill via small microphones placed near the drill and then produces an antiphase sound wave that cancels out the undesirable noise. Further, "adaptive filtering" technology is used so that the sound of the drill, and only the drill, is removed even if the drill's sound wave amplitude and frequency change during your time on the chair.

Yet somehow, you still hear your dentist: "You might feel some pressure ..."

Photo creds to Sony.

Imagine you are the woman in the pink. Imagine the the chair is in a slightly (er .. considerably) more reclined position. And now imagine the sounds of THIS ... eliminated!

Pure bliss!

Now how do we bring this to market?

Eric

And we're back!

Hey all,

Sorry for not keeping up with my posts recently!

December was really hectic with exams, final papers, a concert (which went REALLY well), and ... SNOW back in Massachusetts! But now that I've been back home in LA for a bit (and will still be for another two weeks before school starts again), I promise I'll get back to blogging!

On the bright side, I've been doing some work at the dentist's over winter break, and will be going in again for a full day this Saturday, from 8-6 !!

Can't wait to share! :)

Eric