Marcos Ortega DDS

IT'S EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION DAY, so shout-out to our awesome employees! We appreciate their hard work so much. #employeeappreciation #employeeappreciationday #grateful

WHETHER A PATIENT brushes with an electric or a manual toothbrush, we generally recommend the soft-bristled option! Soft-bristled toothbrushes are more gentle on gums and enamel while still cleaning teeth effectively! #dentalcare #oralhealth #dentistry

WHICH WARM DRINK do you like cozying up with most: coffee or tea? Comment with your favorite below. #coffee #tea #poll

COMMENT BELOW with what you wanted to be as a kid. What were your big dreams when you were young? #career #kid #childhooddream

WHEN WE THINK of being healthy, how much are we thinking about oral health? Just because we go to our dentists for oral health concerns and physicians for overall health concerns, it doesn’t mean there’s no connection between the two. What we eat affects our health, as do other mouth-related habits like smoking or nail-biting, and problems in overall health may show their first obvious symptoms in the teeth (and especially the gums). Maintaining good overall health is easi...er when we maintain good oral health, and vice versa. Studies suggest that gum disease is linked to a number of chronic conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and several types of cancer. This is because unhealthy gums can’t serve as an effective barrier between harmful oral bacteria and the bloodstream. On the other side of things, the treatment of chronic conditions frequently includes dry mouth as a side effect. The takeaway from all of this should be that keeping up with our oral health is about more than just having fresh breath and pearly white smiles. Straight, healthy teeth lead to better digestion and clearer speech, and healthy gums make it easier to manage chronic conditions. So make sure to brush twice a day, floss daily, and minimize sugar intake! #health #oralhealth #healthychoices

HERE'S A REMINDER to store toothbrushes upright to keep them clean and dry between uses. #dentalfact #toothbrush #healthysmile

HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY! We're celebrating US presidents past and present today. #presidentsday #usa #unitedstates

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! In honor of this heartfelt day, comment with your favorite romantic comedy below! #valentinesday #vday #romanticcomedy

TO CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH, we want to spotlight one of the early pioneers of African Americans in dentistry: Dr. George Franklin Grant, born in Oswego, New York in 1846 to parents who were former slaves. As a teenager, George worked as a lab assistant to local dentist Dr. Albert Smith, who encouraged him to pursue a career in dentistry. At age 22, George was one of the first six African Americans accepted into the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine. After g...raduating in 1870, Dr. Grant went on to become the first black Harvard faculty member when he took a position in the Department of Mechanical Dentistry. He specialized in cleft palate and speech therapy, and he gained international recognition for inventing a prosthetic insert that enabled patients with cleft palates to speak and eat normally. Dr. Grant was a founding member and president of the Harvard Odontological Society. He was also elected President of the Harvard Dental Association in 1881. Perhaps his most unusual accomplishment, though, was the invention of the golf tee! #blackhistorymonth #blackvoices #oralhealth

IT'S NATIONAL PIZZA DAY, so we hope you are having a slice day! #nationalpizzaday #pizza #pun

DID YOU KNOW yesterday was National Brushing Day? In honor of this pretty cool holiday, we want to know: do you prefer a classic or electric toothbrush? #nationalbrushingday #toothbrush #poll

WISHING ALL OF YOU a safe and happy Halloween, from our family to yours! #halloween #halloween2020 #staysafe

IT’S THAT SIMPLE! Easy changes to your routine like flossing daily, using an alcohol-free mouthwash, or brushing for a full two minutes can really make a difference to your oral health. #oralhealth #goodhabits #healthysmile

HALLOWEEN TENDS TO come with a lot of sugar. We don’t want any of our patients getting post-Halloween cavities, so let’s just take a minute and go over the best and worst types of treats for teeth. Anything hard, sticky, or sour is going to be bad for teeth. Hard candy takes a while to dissolve, which means the teeth are exposed to sugar for a long time. Sticky candy is like breakfast in bed for bacteria, adhering to the teeth and pushing the sugar right up against the en...amel and gum tissue. Sour candy contains acid as well as sugar, so it’s doubly bad for teeth. Chocolate is on the good end of the oral health spectrum, and the darker, the better. Chocolate contains flavonoids and polyphenols, compounds that limit oral bacteria, fight bad breath, and slow tooth decay. Dark chocolate has more of these compounds and their benefits are less offset by sugar than in sweeter milk chocolate. The best candy option for teeth, unsurprisingly, is sugar-free gum sweetened with xylitol. Other types of candy that use xylitol aren’t very common (yet), so it might be trickier to find, but xylitol gum is a great sweet treat to aim for when trick-or-treating. Xylitol not only doesn’t feed oral bacteria, it actually hurts it! #healthysmile #halloween #halloweentreats

WE’RE ALWAYS HAPPY to talk to patients about how we can alleviate dental anxiety! Give us a call before your appointment to let us know how we can help. #dentistsofinstagram #dentalanxiety #werehappytohelp

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION to ask yourself every day is have you brushed today? Comment with a thumbs up emoji if you have! #oralhealth #healthysmile #brushyourteeth

WHEN HALLOWEEN ROLLS AROUND, do you typically choose a costume to scare your friends or make them laugh? #halloween #halloweencostume #halloween2020

WE HAVE THE BEST BOSS! We want to wish a happy Boss’s Day to our boss and all of the other bosses out there. Thanks for being awesome! #bossday #bestboss #thankyou

WE’RE REMINISCING ON the very first scary movie we ever watched! Do you remember yours? If so, comment below! #scarymovie #halloween #spookyseason

SEVERAL ANCIENT CULTURES, from ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire, and lasting all the way up to early modern England, blamed cavities and toothaches on a nefarious creature called a tooth worm. Gross! (But, more importantly, false.) We still aren’t sure where this theory came from, but it could be as simple as that they looked at diseased dental pulp and mistakenly thought it was a worm that had bored holes through the tooth. It wasn’t until the early years of the Age of ...Enlightenment that pioneering dentists like Pierre Fauchard debunked the tooth worm theory. Still, they were kind of on the right track. It’s true that tiny organisms cause tooth decay but those organisms are bacteria, not parasitic worms. People didn’t have microscopes to be able to observe bacteria back then, so they gave it their best guess. Points for effort? Even though their theory about the cause was wrong, tooth decay wasn’t a widespread problem historically until sugar (oral bacteria’s favorite food) became a readily available commodity. That’s why we in the modern dental health community recommend cutting back on sugar consumption and limiting it to mealtimes! #toothdecay #history #dentalhistory

IT’S BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH so we’re posting to say that our team supports all those who’ve been affected by breast cancer. We stand with you! #breastcancerawareness #breastcancerawarenessmonth #awareness

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL DENTAL HYGIENE MONTH so we want to remind you of these four important daily habits: brushing, flossing, rinsing with alcohol-free mouthwash, and chewing sugar-free gum! #nationaldentalhygienemonth #dentalhygiene #thedailyfour

IT’S WORLD TEACHERS’ DAY! We want to make sure we express our gratitude for all that teachers do for their students and communities. #worldteachersday #thankyouteachers #teacherappreciation