Dr. Beverly Presley-Nelson, General Dentist

This beautiful gift basket was delivered to my office by a sweet lady from New Jersey. We had squeezed her in for a dental emergency about a couple weeks before, and fixed her problem. She was able to finish her vacation here in San Francisco in comfort. Just before she headed home, she took the time to bring this huge basket of goodies to my dental office, along with a long and lovely letter of praise and thanks for myself and my staff. Acts like this make being a dentist worthwhile SEE MORE OF OUR BLOGS AT www.healthytoothteam.com

CHEWING GUM! Yes or no? The use of chewing gum as a diet aid or to quit smoking, or to combat the effects of dry mouth, is common. However, from a dental perspective, the use of chewing gum is NOT a good idea. Even sugarless chewing gum is not recommended. ... By the time we eat, speak, laugh, and make other facial expressions and motions, the teeth, the joint and the muscles of our face, head, and neck have gotten quite a work out. Chewing gum adds unnecessary motion, tension, stress, and wear to our oral structures. Often TMJ symptoms and ruminating tooth pains can disappear when gum chewing is given up. Restorations can be damaged or sucked loose buy gum chewing, and certainly partial dentures can be moved around in destructive ways. We would advise using sugar-free lemon drops to aid in breaking oral habits, such as smoking and over-eating, and to help with dry mouth issues, and asking for your medications in the form of a patch or a pill instead of chewing gum. Take it easy on your joint, muscles, and teeth! Your oral structures need to last a lifetime. Visit our blog on our website for more information about this and many topics www.healthytoothteam.com

Our dental staff loves to celebrate birthdays! For each staff member’s birthday we always bring humorous cards and then we sit at lunch together and read the cards out loud. We enjoy laughing together as a team. Then we eat cake. Sugarless cake of course, Ha ha ha. Actually regular cake but we make sure we are plaque free first. The birthday girl in this picture is Jedahya Hidalgo, our main chair-side assistant. Our dental team hopes all of you dear patients have wonderful birthday celebrations.

Plaque control is more important than using toothpaste, because it’s what you remove, not what you rub on that counts. However, when you DO use toothpaste, this Crest 3D White Brilliance can bring you up a shade or two! Ask us to evaluate your shade at your next dental visit.

Come and see what’s new at your Sunset neighborhood/Parkside dental office here in San Francisco! Every operatory is equipped with new computers, where low radiation digital x-rays can be viewed easily by the patient and the dentist. Intra-oral photographs can give details of needed care for the patient to view, and they can be of help for insurance company documentation. Digital X-rays cut down on radiation and WE HAVE THE THIN KIND, THAT ARE COMFORTABLE IN THE PATIENT’S MOUTH, thinner than even the old fashioned x-rays. Your health is in our best interest. Visit www.drpresleynelson.com

Nightguards! Why the expense? We recommend nightguards for some patients to protect their teeth and jaw joints from the damage caused by clenching and grinding. Why not pay less for one from the store or online? Because so much goes into making this important appliance to customize it for individual needs. See the photo of the doctor carving an individual nightguard in wax form, making it a personal solution for each patient. See more on our Facebook Page, or on our blog at www.healthytoothteam.com

Longtime patient (since childhood) Michele Driscoll Lynch is a teacher and so sometimes schedules her dental appointments in the summer. Last summer she had a particularly large number of appointments, and so began calling her visits "Summer Dental Camp" and kept us all laughing by asking if there were arts and crafts, snacks and a T-shirt. At her last appointment of the season we presented her with this "camp T-shirt". She surprised us by wearing it again this year. We are so glad to have Michele keep us laughing.

Here is our long time, very entertaining, patient Frank X. Gallagher, with Sting at the Rainbow Room in New York City. Frank is a production manager for numerous high profile musicians and bands. Frank reports that he enjoys working with Sting almost as much as he enjoys his dental visits with Dr. Presley-Nelson and staff!

The New Year newsletters are hot off the presses and on their way to you! Keep an eye out in your mailbox.

Why wear a temporary crown between dental visits? It is vital and necessary for the fit of the final crown! It keeps the prepared tooth from drifting to meet the opposing tooth, or leaning to one side or the other. It also protects the prepared tooth. If your temporary comes off, save it and call us to bring it in to be re-cemented. It is a quick visit, without anesthesia. If it is broken or lost, we will make a new one, which takes a little longer, but is very important. Clean around your temporary crown gently, and if you floss it, pull the floss out to the side. Soon you will have a lovely finished crown, that will feel great and give long service.

Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!

We are so proud of our long time patient Bill Ruck! He was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in August of 2014. Bill is a third generation San Franciscan and currently he is a principal engineer at CSI Telecommunications. Read more at http://drbeverlypresleynelson.blogspot.com//

Plaque control on Ms. Tooth. Thanks to our patient who gave the gator a new friend