Coolest iPhone Accessory Ever- The ProScope Micro Mobile

The ProScope Micro Mobile is the coolest iPhone/iPad accessory I have seen.  It is a microscope that you can attach to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.  It has a magnification of up to 80x.  You just attach it to your device and open the camera app and you are ready to go.  You control the magnification with the touch screen.  You can take pictures and video just like you normally would with your device.

I’ve included some pictures of some bugs and plants we found in our backyard.  I also have a short video to show you some of the results you can get.  We have certainly had a lot of fun using the Micro Mobile.

 

This is the ProScope Micro Mobile Information Video

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Impacted Wisdom Tooth Time Lapse Video

Impacted Wisdom Tooth Time Lapse Video

Time Lapse Video showing the development of an impacted wisdom tooth.

This video will show you how a lower wisdom tooth (third molar) can become impacted and reasons why they sometimes need to be extracted.

 

Impacted Wisdom Tooth

Impacted Wisdom Tooth

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Phase One and Phase Two Orthodontic Treatment

Phase One and Phase Two Orthodontic Treatment

Many parents will ask at their child’s exam, “When is the best time to start orthodontic treatment?”  The answer is that it varies from person to person, depending on what the orthodontic problems are.  The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that kids be seen for their first orthodontic check up at age 7.  This is the age when most kids have their permanent front teeth, incisors, and their first set of adult molars fully grown into place.  In most cases, kids don’t need treatment at that age, but Dr Kyger can identify any potential problems that are developing and give you an idea of when the appropriate time to start will be.  In general, it is easier on everyone (the patient, orthodontist, and the parents) if treatment starts after all the adult teeth have grown in (usually around the age of 12-13).  However, their are some instances where it is advisable to start treatment earlier than that.

Sometimes Dr Kyger will recommend treatment while some of the baby teeth are still present.  This is often called interceptive, or Phase One, orthodontic treatment.  Some of the indications for this early treatment are significant crowding or bite problems (overbites, underbites, open bites, extreme deep bites where the lower front teeth are digging into the roof of the mouth, and crossbites of the front or back teeth).  Some of these bite problems are associated with a current thumb or finger sucking habit that needs to be addressed as well.

 

Orthodontic Problems to Watch for in 7 Year Olds

Orthodontic Problems to Watch for in 7 Year Olds

 

One of the goals of Phase One treatment are to harmonize the growth of the upper and lower jaws as much as possible.  Another goal is to make enough room through expansion of the dental arches to make enough room for all the adult teeth to fit into place.  Our goal is to treat our patients without having to have any teeth pulled whenever possible.  By timing an appropriate Phase One treatment we are usually able to straighten all the teeth in Phase Two without any extractions.

You can think of Phase One as treating significant bite problems or correcting a developing skeletal growth problem.  Phase Two is the definitive straightening of the teeth.  Most people are ready for Phase Two by the time they are 12 to 13 years old.  This is usually the age when most people have lost all their baby teeth and the adult second molars all the way in the back have grown into place.  Phase Two is usually a shorter treatment time than it would have been without the Phase One treatment (12-18 months vs 18-24 months).  On rare occasions we get such a nice result out of Phase One that we don’t need to do a Phase Two treatment.  This is the exception to the rule, however.  If your child is getting Phase One treatment, plan on needing a Phase Two treatment in a few years.

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Orthodontic Retainers, Why They Are Needed

 

Orthodontic Retainers

Orthodontic Retainers

Orthodontic Retainers, why they are needed.  Everyone needs some kind of retainer after they finish up with their braces or Invisalign treatment.  Your teeth have memory, and for most people, their teeth want to move back in the direction they came from.  The amount of movement varies from person to person.  Some people are lucky and their teeth don’t move very much.  Others see a more significant amount of movement.

When asked by my adult patients why retainers are needed, I pose them this question.  “Can you name one part of your body that hasn’t changed over the last 30 or 40 years?”  Our bodies change as we age, and that includes your teeth.  They are not set in stone.  You can generate a lot of force when you bite down.  These forces are transmitted to the teeth and they can move the teeth around.  This is especially true for people that grind their teeth (brux) in their sleep.

The most common reason I see people in their 30’s or 40’s to get their teeth straightened for a second time is because they stopped wearing their retainers and their lower teeth crowded up.  It is for this reason I typically use a bonded (fixed) retainer on the inside of the lower front 6 teeth after we are done with treatment.  It is not visible to others and after a day or two people really don’t notice them that much.  Those bite forces I mentioned earlier have a tendency to make the lower canine teeth collapse inward toward the tongue over time.  As the canine teeth drop back, the lower front teeth (incisors) tend to crowd up.  With the lower bonded retainer in place this can’t happen.  Of course, if someone doesn’t want this type of retainer, I will make them a removable retainer.

For most of our patients, we make a removable upper retainer.  This is either a traditional retainer that has the wire that goes across the front teeth, or a clear plastic retainer that is form fitted to the teeth.  Both types have their advantages.  The nice aspect of a traditional retainer is that the orthodontist can move teeth with it (we can with the clear retainer as well, but on a much more limited basis).  If a tooth moves, I can put a bend in the wire and move it back.  Having said that, whenever possible, I do like to use the clear retainer.  It’s clear!  People can’t really see it, and patient compliance is higher with this type of retainer.

When we have a patient that started out with a very large gap between their upper front teeth, in addition to the removable upper retainer, we may also bond the upper two front teeth together to prevent the gap from opening again.

People will often ask, “How long do I have to wear my retainer?”.  The answer is “How long do you want your teeth to stay straight?”  It is a long term proposition.  Now that certainly doesn’t mean you have to wear it all the time forever.  We start people off with full time wear (take it out to eat, brush, and for sports).  As soon as we can we start to cut back on the number of hours a day it needs to be worn.  For most of our patients, we have them wearing it just at night within about six months.  Eventually, we like to get to the point where people are just putting it in a night or two a week to keep things straight.

Check out our retainer video on youtube to see images of different kinds of retainers.

Minecraft Type Games for ios youtube video

Minecraft type games for ios.

Minecraft has become a phenomenon on PCs, Macs, and more recently on ios devices (iPad, iPod, iPhone).  Minecraft comes under the heading of ‘Sandbox Games’.  Basically, Sandbox Games are games where the game is a world that you can interact with.  Most of them are 3D and the world is made of blocks.  These blocks can be altered, removed, or new ones can be placed.  You can create anything that you want.  Giant buildings, entire cities, space ships, or whatever you want.  The only limit is your imagination.

With the popularity of minecraft, similar sandbox type games have started to appear in the app store in itunes.  Each one has it’s own personality and unique characteristics.  The games demonstrated in this video are:  block fortress, eden, block earth, survival craft.

Block Fortress is unique in the fact that it is actually a hybrid game.  It is a cross between a sandbox game an another type of game called a tower defense game.  In tower defense games, the gameplay involves building defenses to a fortress that is then attacked by an enemy.  Whether or not you win is dependent on how well you have designed your defenses.  In block fortress, you build a fortress out of blocks.  Some of these blocks have defensive capabilities (missile launchers, canons, that kind of thing).  There is some ‘crafting’ involved.  There are mineral deposits in the landscape that you need to utilize to build your defenses.  You pick the difficulty level of the game.  After you have built your fortress, you start the attack and see how you do.  Your character is also involved in the defense and you can have a variety of hand held weapons to aid in the defense of your fortress.

Eden is a classic sandbox game.  Your world is made of blocks that you can interact with and build things.  There is no ‘crafting’ in Eden, but they give you a variety of blocks to work with.  The world is populated with a bunch of cute, bouncy creatures.  They leave you alone as long as you leave them alone.  You have the option to change the colors of blocks or the creatures themselves.  You do have the ability to set fires, and of course, there is TNT for blowing stuff up.  Eden is a cute game that would be an appropriate game to introduce younger players to sandbox type games.

Block Earth is a very pretty sandbox game.  There is no crafting involved, but the blocks they supply you with have a more photo realistic texture to them than most sandbox games.  The sky has very realistic looking clouds and the sun and moon.  There are also flying dragons in the sky and floating islands of land.  You have a jetpack that allows you to fly for short distances.  A unique aspect of Block Earth is you have missiles.  These missiles can be used to either remove blocks or to place blocks.  Underground they are really helpful in clearing out a cavern and above ground you can shoot them into the sky to build sky islands.

Survival Craft is similar to Minecraft in many respects.  At the start of gameplay, you find yourself stranded on a shoreline after being abandoned by your ship.  It looks peaceful enough, but you learn soon enough why the game is called Survival Craft.  There are lots of creatures on land and in the sea that would like to have you for a snack.  In one of my first games, I was chased into the ocean by wolves where I was promptly eaten by a shark.  You do craft tools that you need to use.  There are a variety of animals you interact with and each one has it’s own characteristics.  For example, at night, the wolves can turn into werewolves.  The horses can be ridden.  You can pick the difficulty level and at the easiest level you have the power of flight, so you can get away from danger.

All of these games are fun for kids or adults.  They are the types of games that are fun to play with your kids.  I find them to be very good in stimulating creativity.  Check them out and have fun!

 

Orthodontic Correction Lower Crowding Time Lapse Video

Orthodontic Correction Lower Crowding Time Lapse Video

This video shows the treatment results on a patient that had significant crowding of the lower teeth, with a blocked out lower canine.  The orthodontic treatment was done with braces on the upper and lower teeth.  The results were achieved without the removal (extraction) of any teeth.

In most cases these days, we are able to treat patients without having any teeth extracted.  That can be a challenge in cases like this where the person has significant crowding and there is one tooth that is completely blocked out of the dental arch.  There are several techniques we use to make enough room for blocked out teeth like this.  We expanded both the upper and lower dental arches.  Basically, this means we uprighted the side teeth and widened them a little bite.  This widening makes more room for the teeth.  The lower front teeth were also very upright.  Looking down at the lower front teeth from above you can see more of the front surface of the teeth than the back side of the teeth.  For teeth to fit normally, the front teeth should actually be angled forward.  We angled the front teeth forward for this patient, and that also made more room.

The final technique we used is called interproximal reduction of some of the lower teeth.  This is a fancy way of saying we went in between some of the lower teeth and made them a little bit skinnier.  Usually we use a sanding disk in between the teeth to do this.  This technique is very effective in allowing us to straighten the teeth without having to resort to dental extractions to make enough room.  This interproximal reduction is pretty quick, the patient does not need to be numbed up to have it done, and it stays well within the enamel of the teeth so there isn’t any sensitivity afterwards.  The use of these three techniques allowed us to make enough room for all the teeth to fit.

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Orthodontic Correction of Lower Crowding Time Lapse Video

Orthodontic Correction of Lower Crowding Time Lapse Video