4th Annual Patients Appreciation Party

Yesterday we had our annual Patients Appreciation Party and we had so much fun!

This is our favorite day of the year at Smiles For Kids.  This year, just like last, we rented out a movie theater and started out with a carnival of games and food.  We had a great time playing BINGO.  Stefanie did a wonderful job leading this game and many kids won gift certificates to Toys R Us for winning.

Meantime Morgan led many little ones in the game of Hullabaloo.  If you've never played this game, you should look for it!  It is so much fun.

Martina had the spinner game where kids could win all kinds of fun jumpy frogs, necklaces, tatoos and stickers.  And they sure did!  Malgosia and Michele were our face painting artists and so many kids walked out with rainbows, pumpkins, snakes, elephants, swans, hearts and flowers on their arms and faces.

Daniella was our master arts and crafts lady.  She helped kids color pictures and make picture frames.  She did a great job taming the crowd there!

Finally Yvette worked as a team with her son Alex and directed kiddos in the bean bag toss.  They had fun.

Carrie and Kasia welcomed everyone and distributed raffle tickets so that everyone had a chance to win some fabulous prizes such as Toys R Us giftcards, Children's Museum Membership, Houston Arboretum Membership and gift certificates to restaurants around town.

It was so fun to see all the smiley faces and to see all the kids have so much fun!  And of course you cannot have a party without pizza so we all ate tons of pizza!

After a little bit over an hour of all this fun we finally settled down into our seats and watched Chicken Little.  What a fun movie that is!  Everyone munched on popcorn and chilled out for the next hour and a half.  Thank you guys for coming to play with us!  It was so much fun and we hope to see you soon in the office and next year at the party again.

Smiles for Kids and Kids' Meals

Last week we got to participate in a really fun event right downstairs from our office at the Avalon Diner.  A wonderful organization called Kids' Meals was doing a fundraiser there to collect revenue to feed hungry children in the Houston area.  Here is their website if you'd like to find out more about them! http://www.kidsmealshouston.org/  We were so blessed to be part of this great effort!  And it was so much fun as 104.1 KRBE was there with music, fun and Roula and Ryan from the morning show. They were both serving meals at this cool event and certain percentage of all meals sold went to Kids' Meals.  Smiles For Kids sponsored this fundraiser, but we also came to Avalon Diner to have lunch and to contribute to this great organization.  Here are some pictures from the event and hope you will enjoy them a bit :)

At lunch at Avalon Diner with Roula and Ryan!

Dr. Kasia with the director of Kids' Meals, an incredible woman, Ruth Burrell.

Dr. Kasia and the kids helping the fund-raising!

Our promotional table at the event

Yvette and Dr. Kasia with Roula from 104.1 KRBE

Brushing and flossing as Michele would like you to do it!

When to Floss

For most patients, dental floss should be used before tooth brushing. The following reasons are why:

1. When the surfaces in between the teeth are flossed first and the plaque (biofilm) is removed, the fluoride from the toothpaste used while brushing reaches the surfaces in between the teeth to prevent cavities.

2. If brushing is accomplished first, flossing may not be carried out. This is because the mouth feels clean; the need for flossing may not be appreciated. Also time may be limited and flossing can be postponed.

How to Floss

1. Hold the floss between thumb & index finger or hold between thumbs. The ends of the floss can be tied together to make it easier to hold (circle of floss).

2. Grasp the floss firmly, allowing 1/2 inch length between fingers.

3. Work the floss slowly between the teeth in a short sawing motion. Avoid snapping through the contact area.

4. Curve the floss around the tooth in a C-shape.

5. Press the floss firmly against the tooth. Move gently beneath the gingiva until tissue resistance is felt.

6. Slide the floss horizontally and vertically with pressure to remove plaque.

How to Brush

1. Wet the toothbrush

2. Apply a smear of toothpaste across bristles

3. Start with the sides of the top right molars & work your way around all the fronts of the teeth until the top left side molars are reached. Then work the toothbrush the opposite from left to right brushing the tongue side of all the top teeth. Repeat steps for the lower teeth. As you are brushing the toothbrush bristles should be touching the teeth and the gums at the same time (the gums will blanch) moving in a soft circular motion. Roll & vibrate the brush slowly down over the rest of the tooth, making sure some of the bristles are reaching in between the teeth. Special angles with the toothbrush such as inserted up right or at a slight angle to reach the tongue side of the front teeth.

4. While brushing light pressure should be used, if the bristles are bending too much pressure is being applied.

 

Below is the link showing active ingredients of different toothpaste. If a patient is placed on Clinpro, they also need to use a TP with abrasive agents to continue fighting tartar buildup & excess plaque.

"This product is for once a day use in place of regular toothpaste for patients 6 years of age or older as recommended by a dental health professional." from the Clinpro website. Clinpro is only gently abrasive, patients with poor hygiene should improve OH before being placed on Clinpro; for the following reasons 1. They already have poor brushing skills and they will need to use two different toothpastes, you don't want to overwhelm someone that already has poor habits. They need to improve one step at a time. 2. If the patient with poor OH is given Clinpro by the DDS they will probably just brush with that and the toothpaste is not going to help them improve their OH.  

http://www.dimensionsofdentalhygiene.com/uploadedfiles/DDH/Magazine/2010/10_October/1010tpf.pdf

Halitosis

90% of halitosis originates in the oral cavity (poor OH) 10% has systemic or nonoral causes.

 

Tongue Cleaning

Brushing and cleaning the top of the tongue is a daily requirement. The tongue is a nice warm home for bacteria to live and cause bad breath. If brushing the tongue makes one gag, you can brush from side to side in a sweeping motion to help lesson the gag reflex.

New York City Conference

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry puts on a wonderful conference each and every year over Memorial Day weekend.  This year was in New York City, the city that never sleeps.  And so neither did we!  But we learned a lot!

Our hotel was in Times Square, which is an amazing place!  It is light like daylight all day long.  Thank goodness for black-out curtains in the hotel.  But at the same time it was a wonderful place to stay in the middle of the heart of New York City.  I took several classes and so did Stefanie, our office manager.  On Friday we took what is called "Miniclinics", which is a bunch of small lectures condensed into one 3 hour class.  We learned about "Performance Management of the Dental Team" first.  It was a very interesting lecture about staff retention, measuring success of your staff and their interactions, figuring out the best ways to make your staff work well with one another and with the patients and other staff issues.  It was truly fascinating and wonderful. Second topic of discussion was "Clinical Tips for Successful Placement of the Bonded Resin Composite Strip Crown".  It was a very good clinical lecture on how to make front baby teeth look good in case they have early childhood decay.  I learned a lot from this portion of the class and hope to use the techniques on the little ones.  The third topic was "Etch, Bleach, Seal Technique: Alternative or Adjunct to Microabrasion". Many of our patients have hypoplastic (under-formed) teeth that are esthetically challenging and upsetting to both the patients and the parents.  This lecture discussed methods of treating them using simple bleaching and sealant techniques that could help our patients with overcoming these slight imperfections without aggressive treatment.  The final topic in this lecture series was "New High Tech Gizzmos That Every Pediatric Dental Office Needs to Increase Efficiency and Productivity".  I am always excited to learn about new advances in technology and inventions in pediatric dentistry and this was a very fast paced, information loaded session.  We learned that we basically use the latest and greatest technology for our patients and I was so excited to hear that!  It is so good to know that we are up on top of the innovations and that our materials, instruments, techniques and software are the cream of the crop!

After this class we went to visit the exhibits.  We purchased a few new things that will aid us is better dentistry.  We are trying new front teeth crowns, we purchased Isolite dental illumination system and we shopped around for toothbrushes, toothpaste and such.  We spent many hours talking to dental manufactures and exploring new ideas for pediatric dentistry.

After that we had a bit of entertainment and saw Jersey Boys musical after dinner with a bunch of fiends from pediatric dental field.  We also trotted over to the Empire State Building which is truly amazing!  And then found our way back walking to Times Square.

On Satruday morning we took the final class: "Fraud and Embezzlement in the Dental Office"
 It was a truly scary class as you find out exactly how mean and conniving people can be. It was sad to see the case studies and it made us want to only have good and honest people in our office as we hope we have now!  Stefanie and I appreciated thinking of our staff and how amazing they are!

This was our final class.  After that we enjoyed New York City for another day of musicals, walking tours, biking in Central Park and lots and of sunshine.  It was a great trip and such a wonderful learning experience.  I'm already looking forward to next year's class in San Diego!

Warm welcome to Melissa

Some of you might have been around Smiles For Kids to remember Melissa Vaikhman.  She started in our office about 4 years ago when she was still in high school.  She worked with us during holidays and summers and two years ago she went to school to get her dental assistant license.  This is such a big commitment!  It requires a test, learning how to take X-rays, mastering OSHA and few other skills.  She of course passed the test with flying colors and did a great job.  Then she started college at Trinity University in San Antonio and is majoring in psychology.  Last summer she wanted to try her newly acquired psychology skills as a camp counselor and we missed her dearly here.  But this year she decided to come back and take over for Natalie who went back to school full time and left us for now.  We are so excited to have Melissa here!  She now finished her second year in college and is doing a fabulous job for us!  She is a fully trained dental assistant and you might see her this summer taking x-rays, doing parent talks, sitting in on exams and helping the kids get from one area to the next.  Please say HI to her and warmly welcome her back!  We are also interviewing for a full time dental assistant as Melissa will eventually go back to school.  So stay in touch to hear more about our newest team member as we find someone perfect and special to see our wonderful patients!

MS 150-Bike Ride From Houston to Austin

So we did it again!  This is the 8th time that our family participated in this amazing ride.  Have any of you guys done it? I'd love to hear about your experiences!  For those of you that have never done it or maybe even haven't heard about it... Here is our story:

We LOVE this bikeride!  It is a rain or shine event that has such wonderful, amazing, spirited and simply awesome riders and volunteers that it is hard to describe the atmosphere in words.  It starts on Satruday early in the morning with 3 different start lines.  It is about 100 miles of a ride if you start from the furthest one and 75 if you start from the closest one.  13,000 riders line up to do this ride.  Most of the riders have a team they ride with.  My dad, my husband and I have ridden with many different teams before, but this was out second year to ride with the Continental Airlines Team.  This particular team is super wonderfully organized!  We actually have support both days at lunch so we don't have to stand in line with the rest of the riders.  And aside from turkey and beef wraps they made me my FAVORITE food, peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas inside.  Gotta love it!

We spend this first night in La Grange TX on the county fair grounds. It is such a site!  Hundreds of teams set up their huge tents in the field.  Many with generators, kitchens, kegs of beer and fridges full of food.  Our team had lots of goodies and the evening spread included even a wine and cheese tasting party!  My mom and the boys as well as few friends of the family came to see us in La Grange and celebrated the evening with us.  We ate and drank and chilled out, but at 9pm sharp the lights are OUT.  And good thing since we had to wake up at 4:30am to get in our fabulous breakfast of eggs, yogurt, cereal, coffee and other goodies, get our bikes back in shape and hit the road!  That second day we rode 75 miles of hilly Austin countryside.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and we rolled up and down those hills without much delay.  It was such a fabulous ride!  I was so proud of my dad, who at almost 60 years of age did an amazing job both days!

We finally got to Austin around 2pm on Sunday and we were welcomed by crowds of spectators including mom and the boys as well as friends of ours.  We even managed to have dinner with some friends who live in Austin after they were nice enough to let us freshen up in their showers :)

I wish I could have all of you guys inspired to do this ride one day. It is just the most wonderful event I've even been in and I strongly encourage you to try it!  It is just such a great ride!

Well Baby Class

This past Tuesday we had a wonderful new class for parents and kids under three years of age.  We are so excited about launching this program because it gives us an opportunity to share our knowledge of oral health with so many parents! This class is completely free of charge or obligations to the families.  We provide snacks for both parents and kids and the only requirement we have is that the kiddos are under three years of age.  We are planning on having this event few times a year.

We first took this lively group of kids and parents on a tour of our beautiful office.  We showed moms and dads our state of the art digital xray room and explained our beliefs on when and how to take xrays.  We took them through the New Patient Room and talked about how we convince little ones to show us their pearly whites :).  We showed parents our hygiene area where Michele does the cleanings and our exam room.  We also showed them our "jungle and space travel" themed treatment rooms with TVs over the chairs that can entertain little ones while we fix any possible cavities.

After the tour we chatted with parents about all things that are important to little ones' oral health.  We had a slideshow about proper brushing and flossing techniques, about foods that are healthy for the teeth, about habits such as thumb sucking or pacifier use and other pertinent topics.  Finally we took each family to a separate room where our staff showed moms and dads how to properly brush little teeth and Dr. Lindhorst examined individual smiles for cavities as well as proper dental development.  As the parents were walking out, our front desk staff gave them prizes and answered any insurance questions they might have had.

It was such a fun morning and we all had a good time.  We are looking forward to the next session in 6 weeks on May 24th!

Our community service

February is "Children's Dental Health Month" and although it is the end of March already... we are still doing lots of things to spread the word about pediatric dental health and the world of pediatric dentistry.  Our main project in February is what we call "THE School Project".  Yvette, our dental assistant, goes to many schools in the area and does a wonderful presentation for the kids on dental care, healthy eating habits, cavities, prevention and other such issues. She does an amazing job and the kids are super excited to see her.  She sees about 1000 kids in local elementary schools, daycare centers and community centers.  She also gives each and every one of the little ones dental supplies, educational materials and fun dental related activities.  She truly is amazing so if you see her in your kiddo's school say HI and tell her she is doing a great job!

Yvette is also in charge of the different HEALTH FAIRS we participate in.  Just tomorrow she is going to the Harris County Clerk's Office to present the importance of dental health and to discuss with all the participants good oral hygiene and habits.  This Saturday she is doing a HEALTH FAIR in a local school, Helms Elementary School, where she will get to talk to students and parents about oral health.

On April 12th we are starting a new program for kids under 3 years of age where we will do a completely free class for parents with kids under 3 who want to learn about ways to take care of their children's dentition and  how to educate the little ones' on healthy habits.  If you are interested, call our office and schedule!  We have one more date available at the end of May.

And this is just what we've done in the last 2 months!  More coming soon so stay tuned!

Our 5th Anniversary Party and Open House for the new office

Hi everybody!

It was so nice to have so many of our friends yesterday at the Open House/5th Anniversary Party. We saw some patients and their parents, few new faces of people who just wanted to see our office before bringing kids in, many dentists of all specialties that we work with, and finally many of our business associates. 

I also loved seeing my personal friends come and celebrate with us! And what a party it was!!! Glorious Foods, my absolutely favorite cater, outdid themselves as they always do and prepared amazing "international" food spread. Oh, it was heavenly! Salmon cakes, crab filled pastries, eggrolls, chicken skewers, and many others were served with delicious sauces to the delight of our guests.

Our staff wore outfits from all around the world to enforce our "Travel Around The World" theme. We gave tours, caught up with old and new friends and truly had a blast. I want to thank all of you who took the time to visit with us! You are all absolutely wonderful and such a key part of our growth and vision... Thank you and please come play with us any time!

Originally Posted: July 5, 2010 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
Summer 2010 is here and it is HOT here in Houston!!! We had a fun spring at Smiles For Kids and we are really enjoying the summer since as always it is busy, busy, busy. In the spring we did lots of new fun things… We hired a new wonderful hygienist since Rae decided she needed to take a break from working with kids and moved on to a general dental office. We will miss her dearly and we wish her luck in her new endeavors. Meantime we found Michele!!! Oh my goodness she is great! She recently graduated from the dental hygiene program and is as eager, innovative and fun as you can get. She loves working with kids and she is really, really good at it. If you have not met her yet, you will soon and I guarantee you will love her.

Around the same time we had a change in our front desk staff. Jessica left our practice, but we got Lindsay as an incredible reward! Lindsay has had few years of experience working in a pediatric dental office and she is very knowledgeable on insurance issues, treatment plans and any other questions you might have about technical and financial topics. She is cheerful and full of energy and I think you will find her very helpful when you call or when you come for your next appointment.

Everybody else is doing GREAT! Our back staff is having fun with few new things we have incorporated into our daily routines. One of the greatest things you will find our office using is ORAVERSE. Check it out here. It is the only medicine that reverses oral anesthesia and numbness of your mouth. It is a rather incredible drug that allows you to be able to eat, chew and speak normally very soon after a dental procedure. We are very excited about having it incorporated into our practice and we will be happy to answer any questions connected with it.
We are also now connected to Facebook. Please join us there to hear the latest updates and daily adventures of Smiles For Kids. You can keep up with us and all our new discoveries that way.

One more exciting piece of information is that we are looking into moving our office into a bit more comfortable, modern and accommodating space! I will not tell the secrets yet as nothing has been signed, but… we are moving just a mile or so away, right on the feeder of I-10 to an office that is about twice the size of what we have now. We are in final stages of planning and financing our new project and we will let everyone know as soon as it is in motion where and when we are moving! So for now, please keep your fingers crossed and think of us as we are moving through this grueling procedure.
As for other news from this spring… as always my husband and I with my dad in tow have done a few runs, a bike rides and a few trips :) So here is what my wonderful family has been up to. First of all I did my first full marathon in Dallas right before Christmas time. My dad has a goal of running all 4 major Texas marathons and this was another one he checked off his list. 26.2 miles of fun and games! I must say it wasn’t too bad and I enjoyed training for it with my dad and my wonderful husband. We did lots and lots of runs in the urban Houston area, but we also ran in some state parks such as Brazos Bend to train for this big day. Everyone did great!

Then we ran the Houston ½ marathon in January and finally we switched to biking in preparation for the MS-150 in April. This year the weather held up for us although we had many threats of rain and storms and it rained ALL NIGHT as we were sleeping in the tent at La Grange. But the road was clear although a bit wet and it stayed cool thanks to the overcast sky. My mom and her friend and our cute little boys met us in Austin to cheer for us and to bring us back home. Then in May we took a trip to Switzerland with the boys. We have friends who live there and they prepared a very neat tour of the Swiss Alps for us. We stayed in a little “village” called Beatenberg and hiked the beautiful mountains, rode many trains, buses, and funiculars and even took a boat ride on one of the two lovely lakes we could see in the valley below our home in the mountains. The weather was rather ugly with lots and lots of clouds and it rained or snowed every day.

BUT we managed to have a great time anyway and both Christoph and Luki did a great job hiking and hiking. Few weeks later we went to Chicago for the annual AAPD conference. At first I wasn’t too excited about Chicago, but boy was I wrong! What a great city! It was hard to stay in class when the weather was lovely and the city was calling. But I did !!! I took some great classes on pediatric oral pathology, new findings in pediatric oral pharmacology, esthetic restorations of anterior teeth and what they call “mini-clinics” which are many short presentations on various topics in pediatric dentistry. But I also got to hike the downtown of Chicago, see views of the city from Hancock Center as well as from Willis tower (former Sears tower), admire the architecture of Chicago from an architectural boat tour, hang out at Navy Pier and play in the Centennial Park. And to top off the great trip I also was able to catch up with many of my friends from pediatric dental residency that live now all over the country.

Of course we ate at Gino’s East, which has at least an hour wait of just standing in line outside but the pizza is worth every second of it! I’m a convert of Chicago and will recommend it to anyone who wants to visit. Especially if you are going in the beautiful spring time! And now here we are… busy in the summer time in our office. We are enjoying all of our patients and waiting for our college kids to hear their stories! We have had a few new high school graduates excited about their new college life coming up and we share their excitement and congratulate them from the bottom of our hearts! Enjoy your summer dear patients and parents and we want to hear from you soon! And Happy 4th of July!

Originally Posted: September 20, 2009 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
It is fall again at Smiles For Kids and time to update you on our fabulous summer! So first and foremost… we had the AAPD (American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry) conference this year in Hawaii… yes… you read it right! Most of our staff went to this conference and we had a great time! The actual conference was in Honolulu and we stayed at a lovely Hilton Hotel on Waikiki beach. The classes were excellent and I think everyone learned a lot about practice management, better billing systems, dental materials advancements etc. All kinds of excitement!!! We managed to go to class despite the lovely Hawaiian weather, but we also spent time at the pool, at the beach and connecting with old friends. It was so great to see my co-residents that are now all over the world and to meet pediatric dentists from everywhere. We also had some great “girl time” here and there as you can see from the pictures.

After a few days in Honolulu our “significant others” and families flew in and we all split up and went to explore Hawaii. So very, very fun! I took my family to Kauaii and the Big Island. Can’t even start telling you how amazing those places are!!! And everyone including my little boys did so well hiking, trekking and having a blast!

And then the rest of the summer was a huge blur! We saw so many of our lovely patients!!! We had fun learning of their summer adventures. We had a postcard contest where our patients sent in postcards from vacation and won prizes for best ones. Kayla White and the Fowler family won the prizes this year. Kayla sent us a postcard from Disneyworld and the Fowlers vacationed in Rockport and hang out on the beach. THANK YOU for sharing your vacation with us!

Bill, the boys and I took few quick summer trips. We went to San Diego area to hang out with friends and in San Diego Zoo and Legoland again. We also went to Galveston to the Moody Gardens for a weekend and to Lake Travis for 4th of July. Christoph went to Disneyworld and to see space shuttle launch. How cool is that??? I’m attaching a picture of that just because it is so very, very neat!!! Bill and I also took a quick weekend to trip to our favorite Napa Valley. That was our treat for our 9th wedding anniversary and we really enjoyed cooling off in the northern California summer.

I had a pleasure of doing a few short (sprint) triathlons this summer. One with a girlfriend and one with my dad. I had a great time doing one with Holly, but it was so special to do one with my dad! He worked so hard to be able to do this 300 meter swim, 16 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run all together. He had fun I think and the boys and my mom came to cheer us on. It truly was fun, fun, fun!

And here we are now, the fall is here, the weather is getting bearable! We are adjusting our gears from the crazy summer and trying to relax. We hope to see many of you at our fall Skating Party at the Dairy Ashford Roller Rink! Right before that I’m taking all my boys for a week “post summer” relaxation at the Grand Canyon. I have a dental management workshop in Scottsdale for few days, so we will work hard and play hard all in one week. We are also about to enjoy an afternoon of fun and relaxation at the Houstonian Hotel Spa. It should be a fun afternoon for all the girls. I do hope to do some fun girly time, bonding and have some fun!

Originally Posted: February 9, 2009 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
Wow what a weekend! It was so great to do some skiing. Fast and furious though… We left after work on Friday and got to our destination at 3am. Still… we managed to get ourselves ready for the slopes by 10am and skied hard for 3 days. And then we caught a 7am flight to come back and see patients most of the day today. Going behind a snow plow made me a bit uneasy this morning in the darkness, but we made it in time to the airport. I loved this trip! The snow was falling for large part of the time and it made the world magical. And all those little kids skiing impressed me to no end. I’ve been skiing since I was around 7 years old, but there were some 3 year olds just going! Fun to watch. Next time I will take my boys. I think that Christoph will do well this time. And who knows… maybe Luki can try it too! He will be over 2 next time we’ll go for New Years. We’ll see what he can do! Meantime, enjoy some pictures. I love snow and skiing!

Originally Posted: January 13, 2009 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
Looks like I do best with summaries of each year! Well… Happy 2009! Hope that the holiday season was great for everyone! As always we enjoyed seeing all the kids during the holidays. We love our college and high school students showing up during the holidays to tell their stories…

We have had a busy 2008-both in the practice and at home! At Smiles for Kids we are working on making our office better and better for you every day! We have done a big marketing project this year with Carrie taking a leading role in making it happen. She is the smiley blond girl that welcomes you in the office-so please tell her she is doing a grand job!

We also finally got digital X-rays! We have had the panoramic machine for a while (the one that goes around your head to tell you what your bone looks like, if you have wisdom teeth etc), but we finally installed a regular cavity detecting x-ray machine as well. It is so great for our patients since we can largely decrease the radiation for each x-ray taken, we can now share the records with other specialists, and we can show the parents and patients blown up pictures that easily let them understand cavities and problems. We are very, very excited about this new equipment in our office.

Seattle Study Club, my monthly dental meeting, has proven very valuable. Since it incorporates dentists of all specialties, it is great for learning what is going on in dentistry outside of pediatrics. We discuss many comprehensive dental problems and talk about practice management. I feel so privileged to be part of such a great group!

I also attend monthly meetings with the pediatricians in Memorial City Medical Center. What an invaluable group! We discuss many topics in children’s health such as new flu vaccinations, obesity, over-prescribing of medications, new findings in asthma research, and others. I get to share with pediatricians how dental health incorporates into a patient’s overall well being.
Now for all the fun we’ve had as a team… In March Smiles for Kids celebrated 2 years with a fun bowling party put on by Yvette. It was great to have all the spouses and the kids of the employees come play with us.

In April we had Stefanie’s baby shower and soon after that, in May Stefanie had her 2nd baby girl-Kaycee. She is completely adorable, smiley and fun. And by now she is a BIG girl of 7 months… At the end of the summer we celebrated with a BBQ at Malgosia’s house. Everyone came together for some pool time, good food and hanging out. We also celebrated Stef coming back to work after a 3 month maternity leave. And in October we had a Girls Day Out at the Houstonian hotel Spa. What a fun treat for everyone to enjoy! At the end of the afternoon we basked in the jacuzzi telling stories and laughing. And then… Martina’s daughter turned 15 and we all went to the fabulous Quinceañera. For those of you that have never been… by all means-GO!!! We partied all night and had a great time! Before we knew it… Christmas time came along and we had a fun celebration for our team at the Rainbow Lodge.

So that’s just the life of the practice! And it has not been any quieter on the home front! My boys are growing and growing like little weeds! Christoph just turned 4 and had a fabulous party at Pump It Up! Luki is 15 months now and the sweetest little man ever. We made sure that they are not bored this year! We took them on several trips. In February we drove all around Texas with some friends from Europe. It was really neat to show them how fabulous Texas is! In May we went to Washington DC for a pediatric dental conference and showed the boys a bit of US history. Christoph’s favorite was the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, Luki was just content sleeping in the stroller. In July we traveled all around southern California starting in LA, going down to San Clemente, then Legoland, San Diego and ending up back in Big Bear for the 4th of July fireworks!

I saw two of my dear pediatric dental friends and it was good to talk about the “old times” of residency and the “new times” of building their offices and having beautiful kids. So if any of you are moving to southern CA… I do know some GREAT dentists to recommend!!! And barely 2 months later had we taken the boys on another plane ride, this time to Poland. Luckily for us… we just happened to avoid IKE’s visit to Houston. I hope that all of you have recovered from it already and resumed “normal” life. We enjoyed Poland a lot although it was very cold and very rainy… Not really my favorite weather, but friends and family made up for the nasty cold. I guess we are not able to sit still because just 2 months later again… we went to London for Thanksgiving to visit friends of ours! The fact that my boys still want to live with me is shocking ?, but they are not complaining! My little troopers and world travelers!

Now my husband, my dad and I are getting ready for the Houston ½ Marathon next weekend. It is exciting as always and has become a family tradition. We are starting to think about MS-150 upcoming in April too! This year we are riding on the NASA team-Team Mission Control. Both Bill and I got new bikes we are very excited about (used ones… but still new to us). Wish us luck!!! And hope to see some of you on the road or in La Grange.

I hope this brings you back to date on all the fun things that Smiles for Kids and my family has been doing. I am looking forward to your visits every few months! See you soon!!!

Originally Posted: January 24, 2007 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
It has almost been a year since I’ve posted on this blog! Wow… Hard to believe how fast the time has gone by! So now here we are…early 2008. Since I wrote last time much has happened…
First of all we had a whole summer of fun. At the very beginning of the summer, I enjoyed working for my dear friend; Dr. Pam Clark in Pearland while she was taking time off with her first baby. It was such a great experience to work in another pediatric dental office and to learn new things.
At the end of May we took a trip to San Antonio for the annual American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry conference. It was great to learn few new pearls of pediatric dentistry and to catch up with many pediatric dentists from all over the United States. We all worked very hard this summer and I was excited to welcome many new and wonderful patients to our office. As always in the midst of the summer rush, we took the week of July 4th off to rest a bit from the craziness. Bill, Christoph and I went to California to hike in Big Bear area and to relax with friends in San Fernando Valley.

At another point of the summer my husband and I also went to San Francisco and Napa Valley for a long weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather there and a wedding of a college friend of mine.

Overall, summer was busy, busy and for me it was a bit tiring since I was also growing a whole new baby! By the end of the summer I was barely fitting in our office with my huge tummy and my beautiful son, Lukas was born on October 13th, 2007. He is a quiet, loving, smiley and beautiful baby. So sweet! Few great pediatric dental ladies helped me in running the office while I was being a mommy. Some of you might have met them… Dr. Clark, Dr. Dube and Dr. Jetton. I can’t thank them enough for taking care of all of you and of my staff! Meantime we were adjusting at home to a life with 2 boys. Christoph has gone through the transition smoothly and has been a great big helper for me. I’m so excited about them playing together in the future! Christoph is also at school now and he is enjoying that greatly.

Professionally speaking, I have joined a great study club called Seattle Study Club, which reviews many dental topics monthly. We have had some neat orthodontic lectures and case discussions and next month we have a team building workshop for all the staff in our office. I am delighted to be invited to be part of this study club and I have enjoyed many benefits of it.

I also attended a practice management class in Las Vegas put on by the Levin Group, a leader in dental practice management. It was wonderful and I have hired the Levin Group to help me develop our practice and make it better. I hope all of you will see that and enjoy hanging out with us.

Finally the holiday season came along and we had a really good time. I loved seeing all my older patients again. What fun it is to hear about all their college majors, stories, places they’ve been to and all kinds of other fun things they tell us! We had our office holiday party at Michelangelo’s restaurant and everybody enjoyed the great food and the fun games. We even had our summer hygienists; Gina and Clarence come and enjoy the party.

Speaking of Gina, did you guys know she just had a baby??? A beautiful, healthy baby boy Hunter. We have very much enjoyed following her pregnancy and looking at the baby’s pictures. And I guess this pregnancy thing is in the water because Stefanie, our office manager and hygienist is also expecting a baby. This will be a second one for her and we are all waiting for June to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl. So do tell her CONGRATULATIONS when you see her next time!

All our staff had happy holidays and I think that everyone got all the gifts they had wanted ? We are now back to work and perfecting our practice to get ready for yet another summer. I hope to see many of you then, but I promise to write sooner than one year from today!

Originally Posted: May 15, 2007 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
Well, well, well… The holidays had come and gone! We have seen many of our wonderful patients over the holidays and we are very happy to catch up with you! It was especially nice to see many of the older kids coming back from college to hang out with us. It is always a pleasure to hear all about your plans for the future and how school is going. To our high school seniors… Good Luck in the near future finding out about your college admissions. I believe in all of you! I’m sure you will get into the right place for you!
As for our holiday season-we had a great time here at Smiles For Kids! We worked hard and played hard! Our office had all kinds of fun decorations put up by Malgosia. We had Christmas movies playing all season long. I think we know many of them by heart! On the 16th of December we had a Christmas party at my house. It was a lot of fun. The food was delicious, gifts were fun, and we even got to dance by the end of the party! You should have been there.

All of our staff had a great and safe holiday season. Everyone’s family is doing well and all got the gifts they needed. Everybody even made it through New Year’s Eve activities and is now safely back to work.


But we hit January running! I went to Ft. Worth to take a wonderful class that reviews all topics of pediatric dentistry. And yes, of course I was there during the ice storm! But I got to see some of my pediatric dental friends and it was good to catch up on some knowledge and some fun. And most of all, I took this class in preparation for a test I took on March 9th, second part of the Pediatric Dental board exam. I took the first written part 2 years ago and now it was time for the practical part. So I spent lots of time studying and finally I flew to Dallas to take the test. Talk about a stressful day! This is a very well designed oral exam that takes 2 hours of answering question on various cases of pediatric dental issues. Impressive test, but surely stressful. But that’s OK-a month later it turned out I passed! So for all of you interested in titles, I am now past all the possible exams and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry!
Sometime in the midst of all the studying, Martina, Yvette (my wonderful assistants) and I participated in Give Kids a Smile Day at the University of Houston Dental School. We volunteered all Saturday morning to do dental work for low income children in need. It was a lot of fun and I truly appreciated having my assistants there with me. They were wonderful as always.

In the meantime we took a little vacation and went to visit my grandma in Krakow, Poland. We took Christoph with us and it was an interesting quick trans-Atlantic trip.

I also want to tell you guys about our new panoramic digital x-ray machine. Now we can take the pictures we used to have to send you to an outside facility and make our diagnosis of dental findings complete without sending you all around town.

Now we are ready for the summer. We are hoping again to see many of our wonderful patients this year! Come out of the pools, camps, sunbathing activities and join us for an hour to catch us up on your life. We are waiting for you with excitement!

Originally Posted: November 2, 2006 - By: Dr. Lindhorst
 
Smiles For Kids has had an eventful few months! Our summer was very busy and fun. We saw many of our patients and we enjoyed hearing about their vacation plans and fun they were having in Houston. We have lots of great swimmers, travelers, and other great little and big kids in our office!
But all that summer fun had to come to an end eventually! We were still hoping for the heat to go away as well! I think we might be getting there now.
We welcomed fall this year with an open house of our remodeled office. Lots of our patients had a chance of seeing it already, but many of the pediatricians, orthodontists and friends of ours came to celebrate the end of construction with us.

Then October started and we headed out to Las Vegas for the ADA (American Dental Association) conference. We took many classes on things such as new dental materials and techniques, updates on insurances, bleaching, and sedation. We enjoyed ourselves and went to see some shows while we were at it. It was a lot of fun and we hope to share this with you in pictures! If you have any questions about our classes, we would be very glad to share this with you. Please call us or ask at your next appointment.

We are also hoping that you are gearing up for the holidays and that you are still watching your snacks! We are attaching a letter that we send to schools that give parents suggestions on what and how to eat during the holidays. Have a wonderful holiday season and don’t eat too much turkey!
And don’t forget about your checkup during the holidays!

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