October is here.  The beginning of the holiday season and pumpkin spice everything!  This is also a time when we eat more sugary foods than normal. We all know the obvious foods that contain sugar – cake, cookies, and sodas – but it’s the hidden sugars that we need to become aware of.

• COFFEE DRINKS…Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte has 50 grams of sugar (in a grande).
• SWEETENERS…Stevia in the raw packets, which sound healthy, contain dextrose (sugar) as its first ingredient.
• DRIED FRUIT…We don’t think anything about pouring Craisens (for example) over our salads or cereal, but ¼ cup contains 29 grams or 6 tsp of sugar.
• SMOOTHIES….These are another surprise!  We are lead to believe that they are a fast, healthy meal option.  Unfortunately, most commercial smoothies contain at least 12 tsp of sugar!
• GREEN JUICES….The variety found at the grocery store sounds like an easy way to hit our daily veggie quota, and most bottles say “no added sugar.”  Yet despite its name, the drink is mostly fruit juice and contains 12 tsp of sugar.

Look closely at labels and nutritional information to find these sneaky sugar foods and limit the amount you consume.  Your dental health, as well as your whole health, will be much better for it.   If you do consume some sweet treats you can swish with water to help immediately cleanse your teeth.  Of course, brush and floss twice a day.   That is the very best thing we can do for our gums and teeth!

Dear Valued Patients,

Greetings from the team at Austin Skyline Dental. We wish all of you health, prosperity, and enough rain as 2015 begins. We celebrated our 35th anniversary last December here atop One Highland Center and plan to keep providing your care for many years to follow.

We are pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Eric Broberg to our staff. He will join Dr. Kimball as an associate dentist. Dr. Broberg is a fine young gentleman that graduated from the University of Texas at Houston Dental Branch three years ago. He will greatly enhance our team.

I honor and credit my staff, including Dr. Kimball, for their part in extending my philosophy of individualized care. During these times of third party/insurance involvement, we still believe the two most important parties are you, and our collective staff. We know Dr. Broberg is of this same philosophy of patient centered and health focused dental care. While doctors Kimball and Broberg will be taking on most of the endodontic and surgical care we provide, I will continue a full speed restorative schedule. They will allow me to last longer and better focus on the three areas of dentistry I have grown to enjoy.

First, I am excited to announce the expansion of my services to include full treatment orthodontics. I am not becoming a specialist but, while retaining all aspects of my general/restorative practice, will be treating simple orthodontic cases with brackets, arch wires and functional appliances. There will certainly still be referrals to orthodontic specialists when appropriate but there are intrinsic advantages to treating what can be done well without referring out. Click on our website to discover how the orthodontic philosophy I have embraced varies from the philosophy most American orthodontists provide.

Second is my interest in upper airway resistance problems involved with snoring and sleep apnea. Working in conjunction with your physician, often an ENT or sleep medicine doctor, we can provide dental appliances that in most cases can replace the need of a CPAP. Though some of the time, the CPAP is still the better option, there is no question that dental appliances are far more user friendly. Your physician and I will work out which is best in each case for each individual patient.

Finally, having enjoyed significant cosmetic successes over the decades, Cosmetic Dentistry will be my third area of focus. I will spend more time on larger, more complex cosmetic cases. We have finally found a predictable tooth whitening process that nicely supplements what our porcelain veneer lab can provide. Each case has an individual formula.

Dr. Kimball, Kris, Tricia, Lucinda, Michelle, Carol, Mandi and now Dr. Broberg make what I do possible. They are my greatest asset and we remain excited about being open five days a week, unlike most private care practices. With Broberg joining us, this coverage is better secured and might expand.
We now have appointment times up to 5:30 pm on Mondays. We will also strive for some Saturday hours if things develop…starting with your referrals!
We are accepting new patients and most value your word of mouth referrals. Treating your family and friends is an honor and we commit to work our best to serve each one of our patients with the highest of standards.

Sincerely,
Dr. Parker

It is our belief that we better serve our patients by recognizing a hygiene appointment to be one of treatment. The type of treatment our hygienists provide is either one of prevention, or one of therapy to treat inflammation, an actual state of disease. Besides not being licensed to diagnose, how could our administrative staff be able to know what type of therapy a new patient needs by phone or internet? We trust in the sequence of relationship, examination, diagnosis, treatment planning, consultation and only then treatment. We believe in taking enough time to do a good job.

Outside of children and adolescents, we do not see it as appropriate to have our patients’ teeth and soft tissue “cleaned” at the initial appointment. Our adult new patients come in with all levels of gum health or disease. These various levels of health or disease properly require proportionate levels of care.   Factor in, as well, how any given patient these days might choose to influence their plan of care with such topics as local anesthesia or sedation. Proper planning is important.

Some entering patients have had such negative experiences with hygiene that local anesthesia is preferred, with or without sedation. This is one of the most frequently benefited topics for a more comfortable delivery of our services. This entire discovery and consultation process can occur promptly enough. Most often, our better informed patient is scheduled for the correct level of hygiene care in only a few days.

During the exam, each patient will be shown the landmarks of gum pocket measurement and share in establishing their periodontal health status. While most adults just need prevention, about 25% require soft tissue or periodontal maintenance, while another 5-10% are better situated by being referred to a periodontist. This referral obviously needs close discussion with a lot of patient input. From our instruction, offered in the demonstration concerning pocket depths between their teeth and gums, our patients are better able to comprehend and make decisions. This elevation of our patient’s dental I.Q. will go further in maintaining periodontal health over their lifetime than any one, initial appointment cleaning.