I’ve learned a lot about dental procedures and practices over the past year and a half, and I hope you have too. This post marks the end of my writing to you about all things dental and yet I encourage you to keep coming to asktheemergencydentist.com. I know the dentist behind the website and he truly does care about helping everyday people get out of pain and not get taken advantage of when it comes to dental work.

We’ve covered many topics over the past 18 months - everything from how to get your toddler interested in brushing her teeth to the importance of flossing to how to select dental insurance. Whether you’re a mom wondering when you should start taking your child to the dentist or a single man with a mouth that’s been throbbing for six months, asktheemergencydentist is here to help you navigate the sometimes confusing world of American dentistry.

If you only read this post and don’t go back and look at any of the other helpful information on this site, remembering these three things will put you on the path towards dental health:

1. Brush your teeth and floss your gums daily.
2. Find a dentist and visit him/her for checkups at least every six months.
3. If you’re in pain, don’t continue to try to tough it out. Get to a dentist now.

If fear is keeping you from seeing a dentist regularly, visit emergencydentalcareusa.com and call for a referral for a good dentist in your area. Pain medications and advanced technology mean even root canals and tooth extractions don’t have to hurt. If money is keeping you from getting relief for your mouth/tooth pain, call Emergency Dental Care, USA and ask about the many financing options available. You don’t have to suffer.

Remember, this isn’t 1770. We live in an age where advanced technology makes decaying, rotten and wooden teeth a thing of the past. You can have white teeth and a beautiful smile. Take care of your mouth and you’ll not only feel better, you’ll find yourself smiling more too.

Media Release October 24, 2011

Building on the success of last year’s event, Emergency Dental Care USA is
again offering its Halloween Candy Buy Back program to children and adults
alike.

The second annual buy back will take place from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1
at the office of Emergency Dental Care USA, 2605 S. 84th Street in Omaha. It is
sponsored by Michael Obeng, DDS.

Dr. Obeng will buy back prepackaged, unopened candy for $1 per pound, up to 5
pounds of candy per child. Kids will also receive a toothbrush in exchange for
their candy.

The candy will be shipped to Operation Gratitude to fill up care packages for
service members stationed overseas. These care packages are assembled at
the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California, for safety and security.
“Last year we paid out $95 to kids who brought in their treats,” said Dr. Obeng.
The total collected was raised to 131 pounds by adults who stopped by the office
throughout the day to drop off their candy as a gift to the troops.

Parents and kids had all kinds of reasons for participating. One parent said her
children are allergic to peanuts, so they never went trick-or-treating because they
couldn’t eat the candy. Last year, however, they were able to go and then trade
in their candy for cash to buy other treats.

The kids also shared their plans for their money. They reported that they would
use it to buy “a music box,” “swimming goggles,” and “a horse when I grow up.”
Emergency Dental Care USA is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., including
holidays. A new office will open soon at 144th and F Streets, 402-891-0411.

For more information, call the Omaha, NE office at 402-926-4411.

Last week America and the world lost a visionary in the passing of Apple founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs. Someday, people may look back on Jobs as one of the greatest innovators in history. Jobs’ success proves that any industry can benefit from innovation. While the dental industry may not receive as much public attention as the tech or computer industries, it too has benefited from innovation.

An innovator looks at the way things are and says, ‘how can they be better?’ If you’ve every visited an Emergency Dental Care USA office then you have benefited from the innovation of Dr. Michael Obeng. Dr. Obeng is the emergency dentist we’d like you to meet today.

Dr. Obeng graduated from Creighton University with a Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.). Immediately following graduation he opened a private practice with a standing policy of seeing patients in dental pain at any time. Patients began to tell him that he was one of the few dentists that would see them on an emergency basis. When an urgent care facility opened across the street from Dr. Obeng’s practice, he realized that dentistry could benefit from an urgent care type practice. When he discovered that an urgent dental care facility did not exist in Omaha, he decided to start one.

In September of 1996 Dr. Obeng opened a clinic focused exclusively on emergency dental care for treatment of things like toothaches, broken teeth, broken crowns and dentures, swollen jaw, bleeding gums and missing fillings. Over the past 15 years, that single clinic has grown into a network of independent Emergency Dental Care USA offices located in cities across America like Denver, Des Moines, Albuquerque, Minneapolis, Omaha, Portland and Seattle.

The emergency dentist himself still believes in his innovation, saying wholeheartedly that “Emergency Dental Care USA is one of the few practices where patients are extremely appreciative of your services. You are really performing a wonderful service to the community and as a result, it is satisfying.”

Maggie Harris is an orthodontic device maker. For nearly 30 years, her lab has made retainers and braces for children and adults. In that time, she’s compiled an entire book of stories about how people lost their retainers. Real-life stories of how people have lost their retainers fill the pages. Retainers are victims of dog mauling, absentmindedness and even 10-story drops off roller coasters. While there are many ways to lose a retainer, there’s one common way they’re made.

How Retainers are Made

A mold of your teeth is taken. Then, a prescription slip from your dentist and the mold are sent to an orthodontic lab. A lab technician fits dental wires around the mold according to your dentist’s directions on the prescription slip. Then, an acrylic plate is made to hold the wires around your teeth. The acrylic plate is custom designed to fit comfortably against the roof of your mouth. After cooking in a pressure pot for about 10 minutes, the retainer is pulled off the mold, trimmed on a lathe and customized to your color and pattern preferences.

You can get everything from a lightning bolt to numbers to gold in the dark paint added to your retainer. Think of wearing a retainer as a fun experience and feel free to express your style with your retainer. You’ll be more likely to take proper care of it. Besides, the more you like your retainer, the less likely you are to lose it.

How to Get a Retainer

A prescription from a dentist is the only way to legitimately get a retainer. It’s the only smart way to get one too because only your dentist can tell you if you need a retainer. Your dentist will examine your mouth and teeth and if you need one, your dentist will write a prescription slip with instructions about the type of retainer including the specific design he wants the lab technician to follow when making your retainer. An orthodontic lab will follow your dentist’s prescription to make a retainer that fits your mouth and fixes the problems your dentist noticed during your dental exam.

Next time, we’ll wrap up our series on retainers by talking about how to take care of your retainer and tips on where to keep it so that your dog doesn’t enjoy it as a midnight snack.

It’s been almost two months since Allcare Dental patients in Des Moines, IA showed up to receive treatment and learned that their office was closed. Patients were left stranded, some in the middle of treatments and others with treatment they’d paid for but not received yet.

Emergency Dental Care USA has been in the news for helping those patients complete their treatments for free or at discounted rates.

“As of March 1, the value of the work we’ve performed for these patients is more than $65,000,” said Michael Obeng, DDS, owner of Emergency Dental Care USA. “ We still anticipate seeing up to 20 more Allcare patients in the next month.”

Emergency Dental has already helped nearly 100 Allcare patients, including ones like Virginia Spracher, who were left with painful, mis-fitting dentures when Allcare closed its offices. An Emergency Dental Care USA dentist helped Ms. Spracher get a good fit on her dentures and a smile on her face. Ms. Spracher’s experience was such a good one that it changed her entire perspective on dentistry.

“I’m not afraid of the dentist anymore! I am so happy right now.”

Any dentistry practice that can do that for someone is a good one in my book.

Are you a skeptic? Someone who tends to find a little fishy what so many others believe hook, line and sinker? If so, then you’ll like today’s post in celebration of President’s Day. It’s about George Washington’s wooden dentures.

Today seems like a good time to debunk a popular dental urban legend. George Washington’s false teeth were in fact, not wooden. While our first President did wear dentures, the four sets we have preserved and on display at the National Museum of Dentistry were intricately carved from Hippopotamus ivory, gold and lead as well as human and animal teeth.

People might get the impression that President Washington was a boring, stuffy, sedentary person because he’s never shown smiling in any paintings or portraits. Historians tell us now that Washington was an incredibly athletic and adventurous man who started losing his teeth in his twenties. The dentures he wore forced his mouth open slightly. To compensate and avoid wearing a surprised expression in every portrait he posed for, Mr. Washington had to hold his mouth shut and frown slightly.

So this President’s Day, in addition to enjoying time with your family, take a moment to be thankful for dentists and the devices they’ve helped us with, like dentures, which have been in use for a long time, helping people to enjoy healthy smiles.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago today the electric dental drill was patented by George Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan. If that sounds like something to forget rather than an event worthy of celebration, consider the alternative.

I thought this hallmark of dental history deserved a look back at other milestones in dentistry.

7000 B.C. - Teeth uncovered in a Pakistan graveyard show evidence of drill holes indicating the practice of dentistry dates back at least this far.

2600 B.C. - Hesy-Re, an Egyptian scribe known as the first dentist, dies. Re’s tomb was inscribed with the words “The greatest of those who deal with teeth.”

300 B.C. - Aristotle writes about treating decayed teeth and gum disease.

500 - 1000 A.D. - Monks practice dentistry and dental surgery throughout Europe.

1530 - “The Little Medicinal Book of All Kinds of Diseases and Infirmities of the Teeth” by Artzney Buchelin is published in Germany. It is the first book devoted entirely to dentistry.

1723 - Pierre Fauchad publishes “The Surgeon Dentist” and is afterwards considered the father or modern dentistry.

1768 - 1770 - Paul Revere places ads in the Boston newspaper offering his services as a dentist.

1789 - Porcelain teeth are patented.

1790 - Josiah Flagg constructs the first dental chair in America.

1839 - Vulcanite (rubber) dentures are made in America.

1859 - American Dental Association forms.

1880s - Toothpaste is mass-produced and sold in tubes.

1895 - First dental x-ray taken.

1940 - The connection between fluoride and prevention of tooth decay is made.

1989 - Home teeth-bleaching is introduced.

Read more about the history of dentistry or dispel dental myths (like the fact that President George Washington’s teeth actually weren’t wooden). And, be thankful that you live when you do, and get to benefit from millennia of dental progress.

I can tell you this much – a toothache is no laughing matter. Dr. Michael Obeng, founder of Emergency Dental Care USA, understands. That’s why there are dentists available after hours at any of the Emergency Dental Care USA offices throughout many parts of the United States.

I’m grateful they were there for me when I needed a dentist after hours. But it’s not the first time they helped me out during a dental emergency. I’m hoping it will be the last, but I’m keeping their phone number nearby just in case. Remember that Emergency Dental Care USA is there if you need them. Regardless of the dental emergency, you can count on them to help you out.

It never fails! It’s late, way past the hours my regular

dentist’s office is open and I need help – now!

I have a toothache that just won’t quit. I really thought

I could make it until the morning, but the pain is just

too bad.

Then I remembered what a friend told me a few weeks

ago about an emergency dentist’s office where you

can go in after hours and get help for any type of

dental emergency. Emergency Dental Care USA

offices scattered throughout the Midwest and West

Coast, are open past regular hours. Professionals are

available to take care of any dental emergency a

person might have.

I make a call. It’s as easy as that. I don’t even have to

do that because they take walk-ins – no appointments

needed. It’s a relief to know that the professionals at

Emergency Dental Care USA are always there when I

need them.

We are down to the last few weeks of 2009. Soon, we will be ringing in the New Year; saying goodbye to the old.

But while we prepare to celebrate, let’s not forget that we can still take advantage of our dental insurance and not lose the money we’ve already paid into our deductible plan. Along with a new year comes a clear slate as far as our insurance carrier is concerned. We will begin all over with a new deductible.

Dr. Michael Obeng says it only makes sense that we make a dental appointment before 2009 ends. Use the money you’ve already paid and enjoy a healthy smile as well.

Dr. Obeng and his staff at Emergency Dental Care, USA wishes you a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!