The Center for Esthetic Dentistry Blog | Dr. Charley Varipapa

Friday, February 17, 2006

Another Friend Of The Practice

I thought you'd be interested in seeing our friend and client Mike who we have used in our marketing, Mike had his teeth Zoom whitened. He is a designer and accomplished artist. His studio is in Washington DC. he also has a reastaurant in Washington's Logan Circle area called RICE, the web site is www.simplyhomedc.com. He has an awesome smile and could share his experience with all of you. Robert is our tech who peforms all of our zoom whitening proceedures and even makes our custom whitening trays in our laboratory.
Look for Mikes ad in the Blade Newspaper and the Washingtonian Magazine. He's particular and particular people have chosen us over the years. Look for comments coming from patients and friends of the practice soon.

posted by Dr. Charley Varipapa at 3:31 PM 0 comments

Sonoma and Dental Implants

Last night I had a very nice dinner at Sonoma in Capitol Hill with Spike from Aquilano Salon which is one block north of us, Dr Joe Khalil a former student of mine who is now an exceptional Prosthodontist (prosthodontists are specialists in facial prosthetics like artificial noses and ears for victims of cancer or traumatic injuries) and Mr Brandon Krapf the local rep for the Zimmer Implant Company. As someone who has been restoring implants for over 20 years I was surprised to hear from Brandon and Dr Khalil that less than 20% of dentists restore implants and and even fewer place them. We haev always considered what is in thebest interest of the patient in developing treatment plans and implant dentistry fits into that formula incredibly well.

Using bridges to replace missing teeth is not in the best interest of most patients and represents archaic treatment to say the very least. Simply being able to avoid the struggle of flossing and threading floss under bridges is reason enough to place a dental implant and not grind down adjaccent teeth to create a bridge, sacrificing 2 teeth to replace one. Teeth that are connected together loose 25 to 70% of their proprioperceptive capabilities. Proprioception is that ability to know where parts of your body are in relationship to other parts-for instance: touching your nose with your finger tip with your eyes closed.

Modern dentures can be held in place comfortably, securely and confidently with various types of implants components. It is unbelievable that someone would not at the very least be givenm the choice of having their denture secured with implants if theyare suitable for them.

By the way dinner was really nice, the pistachio ice cream (I had just a taste) was delicious! I didn't mean to ignore Spike in my dental implant disertation, he is doing great as a colorist on the national Redkin Team and will be doing hair at the big Style New York fashion shows this fall. Anyone looking for a great hair colorist or stylist should contact him or his partner Kim at their shop at 724 N Washington Street in Old Town, 703-683-0755. See ya later

posted by Dr. Charley Varipapa at 7:22 AM 2 comments

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Cosmetic Dental Academy

We are going to the Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry meeting in SanDiego, California in May of this year. We have scheduled 4 days of hands on dental workshops and lectures. We are all taking different courses and a few we will take together. One program is on Occlusion-the study of the bite, and how important it is to know the individual factors that impact different peoples bites. This is something I have studied over the years and has contributed to the long term success of our cases, some of the before and afters on our web site are over fifteen years old! Looking forward to the new information and all the other programs on cosmetic dentistry and the benefits it can provide for our patients. We also are participating in a 10K walk/run to benefit The House of Ruth and battered women. For this meeting we are staying in a cottage in the town of LaJolla instead of the usual hotel at a convention center. We will fill you in on the meeting when we get back.

posted by Dr. Charley Varipapa at 1:26 PM 0 comments

Continuing Education

We have two upcoming trips planned. We are going to Las Vegas the end of the month to The Las Vegas Institute and are enrolled in a "Dental Concierge" course. It is a hospitality training program that we decided to take to see if we can learn more about caring for our guests. Right now I can say that I am very proud of the way Robert, Clare adn Eli care for patients and friends of the practice. Just yesterday I was looking for Clar and she was outside having walked a patient to her car. Robert and Eli have exquisite manners and it is a pleasure to see them interact with patients. Robert always says he just acts like his grandma always taught him to act! So why are we going? We thought that there might be something we could learn to make our patients visit the highlight of their day. Please let us know how you have enjoed your visit with us.

posted by Dr. Charley Varipapa at 1:12 PM 0 comments

Welcome!

Hi! This is going to be fun and I hope informative, I will try to make it informative as well. We have been enjoying meeting a lot of new people here in the practice. Many come to us from the web and the neighborhood but mostly they come from our family of patients. We are pleased to meet and visit with the people you have referred to our practice. Thank you very much for that, we sincerely appreciate the confidence you have shown in us in referring your friends.

posted by Dr. Charley Varipapa at 1:07 PM 0 comments