Is something fishy in your dental office?



We have had a working 55 gallon fish tank in our dental office waiting area for over twenty five years. Currently we have a "brackish tank" featuring Cichlids. My patients seem to really like it and I believe it distracts them while they are waiting. Jose who cleans our office nightly has assumed the responsibility for cleaning the tank. He does some water exchanges every two weeks or so and we give him a little extra to take care of our fish... It's so worth it!

I used to take care of it myself, but I ended up coming in on my days off to care for the tank and I just am not that into it anymore, but the tank is really nice feature for  our patients and many comment on it while they wait for their appointment. The fish actually seem to like interacting with our patients and can be quite a pleasant diversion. Oner is always chasing after another. Believe it or not this happy fellow, although our largest fish, is not usually in charge. Some of the littler fish seem to be even more territorial  and  pick on him when they feel like it.

We keep our tank decorations simple and currently have no plants. Bill our fish tank "architect" changes its decor every year or two and currently it has some flat rocks that serve as  "stone shelters" for the fish and remind me of the houses in the old Flinstone cartoons.

Overall having the tank is great, except for the one or two times over the years when it sprung a leak. My downstairs neighbor, a pediatric dentist who often clowns around for his patients wasn't very amused!




from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2019/06/is-something-fishy-in-your-dental-office.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of
Read more

Tongue Ties: What Parents Need to Know

Image
For a long time, people just didn’t seem to know much about tongue ties. In the early years of my practice, few of my patients had ever heard of a tongue tie. When I pointed out that they or their children might be tongue tied, I was often the very first practitioner who’d mentioned it to them. When I told them that a tongue tie might actually be the root cause of their oral myofunctional issues, or even their sleep apnea , I’m sure that some of them thought I was crazy. But in the last few years, things have changed so much! Initially, there was a small increase in the number of patients who were contacting me specifically about tongue ties. Dentists and orthodontists also began reaching out more frequently to discuss the application of myofunctional therapy exercises to tongue tie treatment. But in the last year or so, that little bit of interest has become a surge of awareness. Tongue ties and their effects on health and craniofacial development are finally becoming mainstream.
Read more