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The FOGHORN
ROTARY CLUB OF HALF MOON BAY
September 29, 2022
Speaker - Dr Bonnie Jue DDS
of Sonrisas Dental Health
Article by Joe Brennan
Dr Bonnie Jue DDS of Sonrisas spoke to us about Dental health and maintenance. Sonrisas Dental Health, Inc is a non-profit dental center dedicated to providing access to quality dental care and oral health education to our community. They provide these services with dignity, respect and compassion. Begun in Half Moon Bay they now operate out of offices in HMB and San Mateo. She is a long time member of Sonrisas Dental Health, currently serving as Community Engagement Director. She is also in private practice and is an assistant Professor at both the University of the Pacific, UOP, and University of California San Francisco, UCSF, Dental Schools.
Dr. Jue enjoys and takes pride in this out reach aspect of her long dental career. We were treated to an informative and entertaining slide assisted presentation about the wonder of our teeth and how to best care for them so they will serve us well. She explained that dental care awareness is critical for dental health and is most important to deliver as early as possible. They reach preschoolers on a regular basis and have infant programs as well. The point is to condition children to being examined and helped by dental professionals before any painful interventions are necessary so that regular dental screening is just part of normal life. Care of childrens’ milk teeth is critical to the later healthy eruption of their permanent or adult teeth. Education is a key element in establishing the healthy dental habits which will serve a lifetime. Their school-based oral health screening and education program identifies children who have had little of no previous dental care and helps too restore their dental health.
Secondarily she stressed the continued need for dental health maintenance as we age. She explained the various threatens to our teeth as we age and urges vigilance in their care. Regular biannual dental visits are a must as is a consistent daily dental hygiene habit. We should brush twice a day plus floss and/or water pink our teeth daily. The main threat to our aging teeth is gum or Periodontal Disease which is the major cause of tooth loss in adults. Periodontal Disease starts by a bacterial infection which attacks the gums, bone and ligaments supporting the teeth and holding them in the jaw. It is usually painless and can develop slowly or progress rapidly. This underscores the need for regular dental checkups as we are not aware of periodontal diseases until our gums and bone have been so seriously damaged that tooth loss is inevitable.
Dr. Jue made available three pieces of literature for us to take home:
The booklet entitled ‘What to do for Healthy Teeth’, 200 pages of easy to reed illustrated instruction covering the whole subject well.
A pamphlet entitled Periodontal Diseases
A pamphlet entitled Diabetes and Your Dental Health
She also provided each of the 15 attendees a take away bag containing a toothbrush, paste, floss and a two minute timer to time your brushing.
Sonrisas Dental Health offices are located at:
210 San Mateo Road, Unit 104
Half Moon Bay CA 94019
650-726-2144
And
430 El Camino Real
San Mateo, CA 94401
650-717-3480
For access to fun educational videos about dental care type: https://bit.ly/SDH-playlist
More can be learned about Sonrisas at their website, www.sonrisasdental.org
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In the Q&A following Dr Jue’s talk Rotarian Brennan volunteered a story from his pediatric dentist sister Lisa’s early days at UCSF Dental School. It was the introduction of the orthodontic segment of their curricula; The profession explained that orthodontics was basically the gently pressure on teeth to move them into proper alignment and could be done by merely pressing on them with one’s finger to achieve the same result. He then asked the class why we don’t just fix the problems with our finger? The class offered many reasons including that it wouldn’t be hygienic, people would forget, they could over correct and so on until the professor ended the speculation by telling them why we don’t just fix the problem with one finger: “To date we have not figured out how to bill for the finger!” :)
Rotarian Steve Wilson distributed delicious light green apples from his tree in Lake County…an appropriate addendum to today’s presentation as apples are known as “nature’s toothbrush!”
Next meeting, Thursday October 6th, is a Social at San Benito House @ 5:30PM