What most people inherently know but don’t think about is that unless it’s an emergency like a throbbing toothache or a facial swelling that requires immediate care, dentistry competes for discretionary dollars. What sort of discretionary dollars? New clothes, vacations, jewelry, presents or even that new car. Being mindful that this is not a good economic environment to start a dental practice, Dr. Alan Winter still decided to leave his periodontal group practice and strike out on his own. In order to achieve this goal, a number of thought processes were critical in how he went about this daunting task. The first step was to find a suitable office.
In New York City, this is not easy. He had to be in mid-town, and he had to be centrally located to both his referring dentists and to public transportation. He also had to find a building willing to take on a dentist as a tenant, because many buildings look unfavorably on dentists due to the traffic of patients, water needs, and the smell of medicaments (even though this is ancient history). As luck would have it, a colleague, Dr. Marc Beshar was in the market to transfer his lease and existing dental office to a dentist so that he could move his cosmetic practice a few blocks over to a landmark building. Dr. Beshar’s needs turned into the first cornerstone of Dr. Winter’s plan: find an existing office to minimize dollars required to build out a new facility.
In this case, Dr. Beshar had four operatories and a laboratory that was in a room large enough to be turned into a treatment room. In addition, he had already negotiated a new lease with his building’s landlord, paving the way for another dentist to continue in his space. When Dr. Winter learned of this opportunity, he jumped at the chance of taking over the lease in a favorable location with a landlord committed to a dental tenant. Dr. Winter bought the existing equipment from Dr. Beshar and an added benefit was to turn the laboratory into a fifth treatment room.
As soon as the deal was struck, Dr. Winter next searched for associates to form a group that would offer a full range of periodontal treatments, including periodontal (osseous) surgery, gum grafts, dental implants, laser gum surgery and more and help pay for the expenses to run the office. Dr. Winter put an ad in the New York State Dental Journal, and within a month had met and interviewed three outstanding candidates. Rather than pick one, he selected all three who were young and eager to start periodontal practices in Manhattan, but did not have the means or opportunity do to so these tough economic times. So within three months, Dr. Winter went from considering starting a new periodontal practice to not only acquiring and readying a new office, but forming Central Park Periodontics, that will immediately impact New York City dentistry and periodontal care as it is launched on July 1, 2010.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Periodontal (Gum) Disease and Laser Gum Surgery
Is gum disease common?
If you’ve been told you have periodontal (gum) disease, you're not alone. An estimated 80 percent of American adults currently have some form of the disease. Periodontal diseases range from simple gum inflammation to serious damage to the soft tissue and bone that support the teeth. Untreated, gum disease can progress to the point that teeth need to be removed. Gum disease is the major cause of tooth loss in adults.
Gum disease is a threat to your oral health. Research points to the possible health effects of periodontal diseases that go well beyond your mouth, and may be linked to other systemic conditions. Whether gum disease is stopped, slowed down, or gets worse depends a great deal on how well you practice oral hygiene ad care for your teeth and gums daily, as well as with the assistance and treatment by dental professionals, you dentist and his/her dental hygienist.
What are the symptoms of gum disease?
Here are the most common symptoms of gum disease. If you have any of these, you should consult your dentist about the health of your gums and teeth.
* Red, swollen, or tender gums
* Bleeding while brushing, flossing, or when eating hard food
* Receding gums that pull away from the teeth that cause teeth to look longer than before
* Loose teeth
* New spaces forming between teeth at the gum line, often trapping food
* Spreading of teeth that once touched one to the other
* Persistent bad breath (halitosis)
* A change in the way your teeth fit together when you bite
* Bone loss noted on dental X-rays
* Gum pockets greater than 3 millimeters
If you have gum disease, can a laser (LANAP) gum procedure help your condition?
In most instances, laser (LANAP) gum procedures can help patients diagnosed with gum disease. While Dr. Winter, who is a board-certified periodontist, does perform traditional periodontal procedures such as flap surgery, osseous surgery, bone grafts, dental implants, gum grafts and more, as a result of his special training, he is certified to offer LASER therapy as an alternative to other conventional forms of gum treatment. The LANAP™™ procedure can successfully be performed on patients with diabetes, patients on aspirin therapy, patients who take blood-thinners such as Coumadin or Plavix, patients with osteoporosis, patients on bisphosphonates such as Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel, Reclast and as well as other medical conditions. If you’ve been told you would benefit from gum surgery, then LASER therapy is certainly an option to consider, and it is an option that is simple to perform and comfortable for the patient.
The LANAP™ utilizes a tiny beam of LASER energy to treat moderate to severe periodontal disease. This LASER light gently removes harmful bacteria and diseased tissue from the gum pocket. In effect, it sterilizes both the infected pocket and the tooth root. Sterilizing the hard outer shell of the tooth root, known as cementum, is critical to the success of the LANAP™ because endotoxins that are secreted by harmful bacterial pathogens become embedded into the root surface. This process is more thorough and effective than the traditional scraping of the roots commonly referred to as scaling or root planning. This insures the best opportunity to remove the endotoxins so the tissues in the pocket have an opportunity to regenerate.
Clinical example
The image on the left is the before X-ray. It depicts severe bone loss characterized by a darker gray between two incisors (lower front teeth). This darkness means less bone is present. At examination, the gum pocket was 10 mm deep. (Pockets cannot be seen on X-rays). Treatment options for this problem included removing the tooth, performing gum surgery and inserting a bone graft while using a guided tissue membrane, or treating the gum pocket with a laser. A laser gum surgery was performed and the X-ray on the right is a 3-month followup. It demonstrates that the dark bone is becoming lighter in color; this translates to the fact that new bone is forming. This area will be monitored in the coming months and years, but at the present time, the residual pocket is healthy and only measures 1 mm in depth.
If you’ve been told you have periodontal (gum) disease, you're not alone. An estimated 80 percent of American adults currently have some form of the disease. Periodontal diseases range from simple gum inflammation to serious damage to the soft tissue and bone that support the teeth. Untreated, gum disease can progress to the point that teeth need to be removed. Gum disease is the major cause of tooth loss in adults.
Gum disease is a threat to your oral health. Research points to the possible health effects of periodontal diseases that go well beyond your mouth, and may be linked to other systemic conditions. Whether gum disease is stopped, slowed down, or gets worse depends a great deal on how well you practice oral hygiene ad care for your teeth and gums daily, as well as with the assistance and treatment by dental professionals, you dentist and his/her dental hygienist.
What are the symptoms of gum disease?
Here are the most common symptoms of gum disease. If you have any of these, you should consult your dentist about the health of your gums and teeth.
* Red, swollen, or tender gums
* Bleeding while brushing, flossing, or when eating hard food
* Receding gums that pull away from the teeth that cause teeth to look longer than before
* Loose teeth
* New spaces forming between teeth at the gum line, often trapping food
* Spreading of teeth that once touched one to the other
* Persistent bad breath (halitosis)
* A change in the way your teeth fit together when you bite
* Bone loss noted on dental X-rays
* Gum pockets greater than 3 millimeters
If you have gum disease, can a laser (LANAP) gum procedure help your condition?
In most instances, laser (LANAP) gum procedures can help patients diagnosed with gum disease. While Dr. Winter, who is a board-certified periodontist, does perform traditional periodontal procedures such as flap surgery, osseous surgery, bone grafts, dental implants, gum grafts and more, as a result of his special training, he is certified to offer LASER therapy as an alternative to other conventional forms of gum treatment. The LANAP™™ procedure can successfully be performed on patients with diabetes, patients on aspirin therapy, patients who take blood-thinners such as Coumadin or Plavix, patients with osteoporosis, patients on bisphosphonates such as Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel, Reclast and as well as other medical conditions. If you’ve been told you would benefit from gum surgery, then LASER therapy is certainly an option to consider, and it is an option that is simple to perform and comfortable for the patient.
The LANAP™ utilizes a tiny beam of LASER energy to treat moderate to severe periodontal disease. This LASER light gently removes harmful bacteria and diseased tissue from the gum pocket. In effect, it sterilizes both the infected pocket and the tooth root. Sterilizing the hard outer shell of the tooth root, known as cementum, is critical to the success of the LANAP™ because endotoxins that are secreted by harmful bacterial pathogens become embedded into the root surface. This process is more thorough and effective than the traditional scraping of the roots commonly referred to as scaling or root planning. This insures the best opportunity to remove the endotoxins so the tissues in the pocket have an opportunity to regenerate.
Clinical example
The image on the left is the before X-ray. It depicts severe bone loss characterized by a darker gray between two incisors (lower front teeth). This darkness means less bone is present. At examination, the gum pocket was 10 mm deep. (Pockets cannot be seen on X-rays). Treatment options for this problem included removing the tooth, performing gum surgery and inserting a bone graft while using a guided tissue membrane, or treating the gum pocket with a laser. A laser gum surgery was performed and the X-ray on the right is a 3-month followup. It demonstrates that the dark bone is becoming lighter in color; this translates to the fact that new bone is forming. This area will be monitored in the coming months and years, but at the present time, the residual pocket is healthy and only measures 1 mm in depth.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Economy Is Still On Its Knees, Yet This Periodontal Start-Up Stands Tall
With commercial rents still high and professional space hard to find in New York City, Central Park Periodontics has defied current market trends by creating a full-service periodontal practice that specializes in dental implants, the treatment of periodontal disease, and laser gum surgery. It has done so with a rare blend of an experienced clinician and three associates.
Central Park Periodontics is unique by launching a new dental practice in this economy. And more so because it specializes in periodontics, implants and laser gum surgery.
Why create a new dental practice in the midst of troubled economic times? “The city was ripe for a periodontal practice that caters more to the individual needs of each patient than to a by-the-book-formulaic approach to patients,” says founder and president, Dr. Alan A. Winter, who is a board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. “Every patient is different and every clinical periodontal and dental problem can be handled by more than one modality.” Dr. Winter went on to say, “While periodontal surgery is effective when needed, it is not the only way to treat gum disease. Improved oral hygiene, effective root planing and scaling, and laser gum treatments can also be effective treatment modalities for bleeding gums and periodontal pockets.”
How else does Central Park Periodontics blend new technologies with its unique brand of personalized periodontal and dental implant treatments? They utilize state-of-the art digital X-rays that reduce radiation to a minimum; have evolved into a “green” practice by eliminating most forms of paper and charts, and embrace technologies such as electronic submission of insurance forms, contacting patients via email or texting, and posting the New Patient Health Questionnaire that can be completed on their website in order to save time during that first office visit.
But being a new practice, does not mean that the periodontists of Central Park Periodontics are fresh out of school or inexperienced at performing complex periodontal surgeries, inserting endosseous dental implants, treating root recessions with gum grafts and more. Founded by Dr. Alan A. Winter, Central Park Periodontics blends his more than three decades of dental experiences as a clinician, teacher, scientific writer, and lecturer with his younger associates, Drs. Samantha Aaron, Navid Baradarian, and Julia Sivitz, who are highly trained in osseointegration, sinus grafts, and the best ways to approach the complex links of periodontal disease with systemic diseases such as heart disease or strokes.
Central Park Periodontics was created in a series of bold moves. “I went to fifty periodontal practices over the course of one year,” says Tufts Dental School graduate, Dr. Julia Sivitz, “and no one would offer me a job.” Likewise, Dr. Samantha Aaron – a graduate of NYU’s dental college – interviewed at a number of established periodontal practices that yielded the same result: no job offer. Dr. Navid Baradarian’s story differs in that he received extra training in a general dental residency and then practiced family dentistry for a year before returning to dental school to earn his periodontal certificate from UMDNJ (the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey). His experience taught him to seize and opportunity and he did so by buying a small periodontal practice in Brooklyn. “For me, though, I always wanted to practice periodontics in Manhattan and Central Park Periodontics offers me that opportunity.”
The blend of young and old makes Central Park Periodontics special. In this economic environment, like many others, dentists find they need to tighten their belts and delay retirement by practicing longer. The last thing they would consider is to create a new office let alone take in three associates at the same time. Yet that is just what Dr. Alan A. Winter has done. “Young dentists bring new skill sets and energies to a practice,” says Dr. Winter. “I needed to a create a periodontal practice that would cater to the special dental needs of the boomers because of the strong evidence linking untreated gum problems with systemic diseases and at the same time, bring in talented associates skilled in treating the cosmetic periodontal needs of today’s younger generation.”
Central Park Periodontics is unique by launching a new dental practice in this economy. And more so because it specializes in periodontics, implants and laser gum surgery.
Why create a new dental practice in the midst of troubled economic times? “The city was ripe for a periodontal practice that caters more to the individual needs of each patient than to a by-the-book-formulaic approach to patients,” says founder and president, Dr. Alan A. Winter, who is a board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. “Every patient is different and every clinical periodontal and dental problem can be handled by more than one modality.” Dr. Winter went on to say, “While periodontal surgery is effective when needed, it is not the only way to treat gum disease. Improved oral hygiene, effective root planing and scaling, and laser gum treatments can also be effective treatment modalities for bleeding gums and periodontal pockets.”
How else does Central Park Periodontics blend new technologies with its unique brand of personalized periodontal and dental implant treatments? They utilize state-of-the art digital X-rays that reduce radiation to a minimum; have evolved into a “green” practice by eliminating most forms of paper and charts, and embrace technologies such as electronic submission of insurance forms, contacting patients via email or texting, and posting the New Patient Health Questionnaire that can be completed on their website in order to save time during that first office visit.
But being a new practice, does not mean that the periodontists of Central Park Periodontics are fresh out of school or inexperienced at performing complex periodontal surgeries, inserting endosseous dental implants, treating root recessions with gum grafts and more. Founded by Dr. Alan A. Winter, Central Park Periodontics blends his more than three decades of dental experiences as a clinician, teacher, scientific writer, and lecturer with his younger associates, Drs. Samantha Aaron, Navid Baradarian, and Julia Sivitz, who are highly trained in osseointegration, sinus grafts, and the best ways to approach the complex links of periodontal disease with systemic diseases such as heart disease or strokes.
Central Park Periodontics was created in a series of bold moves. “I went to fifty periodontal practices over the course of one year,” says Tufts Dental School graduate, Dr. Julia Sivitz, “and no one would offer me a job.” Likewise, Dr. Samantha Aaron – a graduate of NYU’s dental college – interviewed at a number of established periodontal practices that yielded the same result: no job offer. Dr. Navid Baradarian’s story differs in that he received extra training in a general dental residency and then practiced family dentistry for a year before returning to dental school to earn his periodontal certificate from UMDNJ (the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey). His experience taught him to seize and opportunity and he did so by buying a small periodontal practice in Brooklyn. “For me, though, I always wanted to practice periodontics in Manhattan and Central Park Periodontics offers me that opportunity.”
The blend of young and old makes Central Park Periodontics special. In this economic environment, like many others, dentists find they need to tighten their belts and delay retirement by practicing longer. The last thing they would consider is to create a new office let alone take in three associates at the same time. Yet that is just what Dr. Alan A. Winter has done. “Young dentists bring new skill sets and energies to a practice,” says Dr. Winter. “I needed to a create a periodontal practice that would cater to the special dental needs of the boomers because of the strong evidence linking untreated gum problems with systemic diseases and at the same time, bring in talented associates skilled in treating the cosmetic periodontal needs of today’s younger generation.”
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