Love and Orthodontics - Love & Orthodontics

Don't let them steal your joy

1/30/2017

A GREAT book on how to live a life full of JOY is Dr Chris Baker's powerful little guide, REAL.

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart…” ~ George Willis Cooke

Screens. Your and your family’s mobile phones, pads, computers, TVs and computer games, are stealing your joy.

That’s complicated, because of your need to communicate with your phone, and to answer emails and work at the computer. Even your children may be required to work at the computer in and out of school.

However, we know now that screens are addictive, creating notable changes in brain chemistry, particularly the release of dopamine. Dopamine is nicknamed the “pleasure neurotransmitter,” and neurologists know it is due to dopamine that screen use is addictive.

Besides being addictive, screen games, shows, videos, have fast-paced scene changes every few seconds, and contribute to ADD and other brain disorders.

In fact, IUD is the medical name of the mental health disorder, Internet Use Disorder, classified in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic Manual).

IUD messes people up. It has the hallmarks of all addictions - inability to focus on tasks that require concentration, restlessness, moodiness, lack of joy. These screens steal our joy.

“We live our life through screens and images in this way, and we don't know what is real or fake anymore. And it doesn't matter to us”
~ Alison Jackson

This week, consider turning off your TV and not using your other screens any more than absolutely necessary.

And focus on joy. “Joy is not in things - it is in us.” ~ Richard Wagner

Enjoy the faces and voices of your favorite, most beloved people. Grab the moments and turn them over and over in your heart. Savor life's preciousness.

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

After all, “For to miss the joy is to miss all. “
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Love,

Want a happy life? Here's how!

1/23/2017

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States' Declaration of Independence.

The phrase gives three examples of the "unalienable rights" the Declaration says have been given to all human beings by their Creator.

The Declaration proclaims that a government should protect these rights, which include “the pursuit of happiness.”

Based on new discoveries in the Science of Happiness and Positive Psychology, there has been much written about pursuing happiness.

Based on new discoveries in the Science of Happiness and Positive Psychology, there has been much written about pursuing happiness.

How do you pursue happiness? A lot has been said about practicing gratitude for the great things we already have in our lives, and that
creates a powerful foundation for happiness.

However, there is another key to happiness - love and compassion. Loving and feeling compassionate for others’ needs, and wanting to
show them they are loved is a way to super-charge your happiness.

To practice gratitude and love together, boosts the power of both and happiness follows quickly!

“Because of the way that your brain operates, the pursuit of gratitude and compassion will make you happier than the pursuit of happiness.”
~ Dr. Arnit Sood, Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic

This week, try the quickest way to greater happiness - practice gratitude and love in your life. Connect with people. Make eye contact and smile. Hug as many people as you can. Love them dearly.

And see your gratitude expand in amazing ways, and then your ability to love will concomitantly be super-sized as a result!

Amazing! Want a happy life? Gratitude and love.

Happiness to you!!

Love,

Make Practice Great Again!

1/20/2017

Find the Joy in Your Everyday Practice Life: Part I

Recapture the passion for your dental practice! The key to this is the way you see everything.

The orthodontic wing of the American Dental Clinic in Abu Dhabi, where I practice.

The American Dental Clinic in Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

It’s not only about technical skills! What are the differences that make the differences?

You can recapture the passion. Here I will share a totally different perspective that will change your attitude and mental approach to your practice, and will change your life!

Q: What do you have to change to make things change?
A: The way you see everything.

That may sound overwhelming, or ridiculous. Yet, no, it is actually a tiny simple shift in your thinking that can take you to the happiness you want, that can set you apart from other dentists. When your perspective on life changes, it can create powerful change. And, it all flows from love.

You see, when you start understanding that every tiny decision you make takes you where you go, AND, how your decisions are based on your beliefs,

NOW, you can change everything easily. It’s easy to do - and easy NOT to do! (I will introduce you to Jeff Olson in a bit, from whom I learned how it’s easy to do — and easy NOT to do.)

OK, now back to the way you see everything, and what love has to do with it. The two emotions from which all other emotions come, are fear — and love. In fear we worry. In fear we feel anxious, less than, depressed, despair, disgusted, helpless, even angry and lost. In love we feel grateful, hopeful, capable, curious and happy.

So, to begin to see everything differently, to begin to see things in your life change, you can look through the eyes of gratitude. Gratitude is abundance-thinking. When our view is one of abundance, our emotions are positive and our actions follow. When our thoughts are of stresses, our view is one of lack. And seeing lack, our emotions are negative, borne of fear. Our resulting actions stem from the fear.

When you look at for what you are grateful, your gratitude creates thoughts that change your emotion AND your actions. It all flows from love.

Bo Sanchez, Motivational Speaker, says there are three kinds of gratitude: Situational, Simple, and Sacred. In situational, you feel gratitude for a “big thing” like a new car, or getting engaged. Because we don’t have “big things” coming into our lives every day, we feel situational gratitude only occasionally.

Simple gratitude is what you feel across your life, and for all the simple things - your home, your family, your food, and so forth. That gratitude is better than situational, because you can feel it much more often so its feelings of abundance have the chance to impact your emotions and actions fairly frequently.

Finally, sacred gratitude is across the board feeling grateful for everything. This includes even the hard stuff, the challenges, the grief in loss, knowing no matter how difficult, there is benefit to you to come. That’s the best sort of gratitude because it is all the time, and for everything.

Now, go out there and think about the abundance of your life. Read over this a few times so you can put it into practice. You’ll start seeing EVERYTHING differently!

And next time, we’ll talk about more critical elements to finding joy. Gratitude is more than enough for now!

Joy is just around the corner

1/18/2017

Genevieve Davis' book, "Becoming Magic" is a great guide to creating a miraculous life.

So many times we wait — for something to happen before we decide to be happy, to live life with gusto. Yet, we only have today.

Strategy 1: Live today — no more waiting!
Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.
~ Dale Carnegie

Strategy 2: Dwell in — be in — gratitude.
Focus on what you have and feel the wonder of it all. Anastasia Turchetta calls this being in your GRATE-space. Live there.

Strategy 3: Choose well!
“Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we're frantic, life will be frantic. If we're peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace.”
~ Marianne Williamson

Strategy 4: Stay focused on your big bold goals!
“You can get to where you want to be from wherever you are — but you must stop spending so much time noticing and talking about what you do not like about where you are.”
~ Esther Hicks

...and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. Love yourself, love each other, love when its hardest.

Go for it - turn the corner - to JOY!

I send love,

Make Practice Great Again

1/11/2017

Find the Joy in Your Everyday Practice Life:
Part II - The Critical Elements

A classic book for improving your life and your business is Dr Norman Vincent Peale's "You Can If You Think You Can."

Though it was written for parents, Dr Chris Baker's book, "Your Child's Smile," has been used as a textbook for dentists who want to treat children.

Dr. Wayne Dyer's classic work, "You'll see it when you believe it," takes readers on a step-by-step path toward living and loving both life and career.

Critical element 1: Gratitude
As you drive in to your practice in the morning, spend the drive-time in gratitude, loving your life and yourself.

Think about your simple gratitude, and about your sacred gratitude. While you may have some current situational gratitude - the new car you are driving, your daughter’s amazing sports performance last night, also remember the simple gratitudes - your home, your work, your shower this morning, the way your staff makes your patients happy.

And, practice your sacred gratitudes: feeling grateful for everything in your life - even the hard stuff, the challenges, the grief in loss, knowing no matter how difficult, there is benefit to you to come.

There is no substitute for feeling grateful, happy, blessed.

By the time you get to your office, you will be ready for a fantastic day where things seem to turn “your way.” I love the story of the doctor whose staff knew what sort of day “they were in for,” when they noticed how the doctor got out of the car - slowly, slumped, low-energy, or, on some wonderful days, upright, with energy, smiling.

Before you walk through the door, take a nice slow breath through your nose. This engages the peace of your para-sympathetic nervous system. It changes your physiology immediately to one of peace. Then, you can walk in to your office and greet each team member by name.

We all love to hear our name. It has been said that your name is the most beautiful word in the whole world. Yes, greet with love and their name! And feel your gratitude for each one of them. Why not? - the alternative is not going to make you feel happier, and gratitude can make you remember all your joy.

Critical element 2: Your beliefs and thoughts
Decide to love your practice. Assuming you are continuing to practice dentistry, you don’t have to love your practice. Your choices would appear to be three: You can:

1. ...transition/sell your practice if you’re not happy with it,

2. ...keep trudging through your days and practice, facing the difficulties and challenges with dread at the worst, coping at the best, or...

Critical element 3: Decide to love the practice life, and do what you need to do to see it as joyous.

I know one general dentist in a small upper mid-western town who so loves his practice, patients, and staff! His life is full and his family reaps the benefits of a joyous husband and father.

Years ago he did not feel quite that way about his practice. It was much more work, not financially great, and he came to the fork in the road - toward joy? Or toward the "same old, same old"? His beliefs and thoughts had to change, and when they did, he ran smack into the knowledge and guidance he needed to transform his practice to GREAT, and with that, his life to GREAT.

You may think, “Dr. Chris, you have no idea…”, or “It’s just not that simple.”

Indeed, it’s not that simple. But it IS that worth it! And it gets easier and easier. You can turn your beliefs / perspectives of your daily “grind” to daily joy.

You can if you think you can.

Yes, it will take work. Work that has the magnificent outcome of bringing you to a joyous existence.

The work can be magnificently successful if you “get out of the way”, and get into the belief state as soon as possible. Nothing will change until you do.

How do you get out of the way? You might call this release, or surrender, or focusing on what is right in your life/practice. Dr Wayne Dyer liked to remind us, “You’ll see it WHEN YOU BELIEVE IT.”

Focus on what’s right. Act as if. Walk in that door in the morning and act as if your practice is the best place in the world to be. If it were, would you ignore the staff, or would you say a bright and cheery “Good morning, Claire” to each person you see, greeting them by name?

If your practice were such a happy place to be, would you look at the schedule with dread over the patients who are scheduled? Or would you think how lovely it will be to see each one? Act as if…

Believe it TIL you see it!
The change is in YOU.

Your belief, your trust, your joy will change everything, including your practice. And when that happens, you will truly be living your magical, miraculous, magnificent life of your dreams!

Just you wait!

Your staff will become wonderful (or you’ll find new staff who are wonderful and fit your new life well.) Your patients will be delightfully happy with your care (or the grumps will leave.) You will have created your great practice!

More critical elements to come next time!!

Design your life, Part 2

1/10/2017

Keep reminding yourself of what your "big bold goals" are.

What do you want out of life?

Do you dream of great and heroic things?

This is the second of a two-part series beginning December 8, 2016.

So, you have a big, bold goal in mind - or maybe several! Now that you know you want it, how do you get going?

Place your attention on your goal. Write it down. Carry the paper in your pocket. Look at it whenever you put your hand into your pocket. Some have said you can put a small shell or rock or item in your pocket and feel it. ANYTHING that helps you keep your attention on the goal is great.
Begin moving toward the goal. For me, though I didn’t know it at the time, wanting to be in medicine, I moved toward my goal by working in the hospital environment. Fortunately helping with bedpans did not dissuade me from my goal 😜- rather, the environment propelled me.

As Les Brown says, ”Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner."

Before you sleep, picture yourself living your goal. Think about how it feels; see it as your reality. This is charging after them. Your life design is working!

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward."
~ Amelia Earhart

As our son Trey says many times, “Never give up.”

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ~ Thomas A. Edison

Today going to the dental office, or to teach orthodontics, or cooking dinner, or sitting on the couch talking to my husband Claude, is glorious. Most moments. When I realize I am not enjoying a moment, as soon as I can realize it, I begin focusing my attention on gratitude and on my goals.

The goals keep changing. We meet goals, and some goals change form or meaning. Some goals are merely stepping stones to more important and wonderful parts of life, and as such are part of the journey, yet not met in the form we imagined. Yet all very important.

Every night Claude and I say together, “I know, within me now, is the Divine ability to manifest or attract everything I need or desire. All I desire is on its way. It will arrive on time, and in even greater amounts than I have imagined.”

And every morning we say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for the miracles and magnificent outcomes of today.” Then we review what they were that day.

"Today is life--the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto." ~ Dale Carnegie

It brings to you joy and prosperity

1/9/2017

Read Dr Chris Baker's book of positive life strategies, REAL.

This week - strategies to get to a 2017 filled with miracles and magnificent outcomes!

Q: What keeps us from enjoying each magnificent year filled with 365 magnificent days?

A: Our humanness. Our beliefs. Our hurting hearts. Amazingly, deep down, we all have insecurities and feelings that we are not good enough.

We assume - we make up - what others think of us. Then we decide those things are true and come to believe it about ourselves. Everybody secretly harbors the fear of being not smart enough, not pretty enough, not lovable enough, not successful enough…

So, to get to those magnificent and miraculous days? Become aware of what you are buying into, what you are accepting daily. Look at what you’ve already been programmed with and begin to question it, disassemble it and let it go.

Wake up and free yourself from the negative programming of the world.

This week, become as aware as you can of your negative fears and beliefs. Just the awareness alone begins to move you toward joy and prosperity, because your focus changes.

AND, also become aware of the good in your life.

“Clearly, one of the major obstacles to our experience of gratitude is the habit we have of sleepwalking through life. The truth is that we are never lacking for blessings in our lives, but we are often lacking in awareness and recognition of them.” ~ Rev. Diane Berke, Ph.D.

To a 2017 awareness - and a new gratitude!

Houston... we have a problem!!!

1/6/2017

Both the dental patient and the dentist have a problem!

It’s tough to have the patient’s head positioned comfortably, AND ideally for the dentist.

This challenge makes the dentist’s job difficult because without the best view of the mouth, and without the best light on the mouth, the dentist is working in the dark.

And, it is difficult for the patient to be tolerant and still and be engaged in something interesting during the otherwise boring dental treatment. If the patient is not comfortable, to be tolerant and still is an impossible task for him/her.

It helps if the patient can read a book, pad, or use a game or cell phone during the otherwise boring time in treatment.

Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. started as a New York City hardware store in 1848, and in 1881 began distributing its own catalog (The 1912 catalog was 1,112 pages.) The store was the first to offer the newest and greatest - a pop-up toaster (1930), a portable radio (1930), an electric toothbrush (1955), and a telephone answering machine (1968). Although these amazing products were very practical, Hammacher Schlemmer also sold whimsical and luxury items. Regular customers have included the British royal family, the King and Queen of Spain and Lord Rothschild, many U.S. Presidents and First Ladies decorating the White House, and Princess Grace of Monaco. NYC mayor Rudolph Giuliani renamed one block of 57th Street in NYC as Hammacher Schlemmer Way. The catalog today still has fascinating, unusual and fun items.

About 15 years ago, I was browsing through the current Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and saw this ad:

I thought, “Wow! I know what those are for! - those are for dental patients in the dental chair!” And sure enough - FINALLY - a solution that works fantastically. At the time I called them ‘gameboy glasses’, because then, gameboys were what every child wanted to play with while in the dental chair!

These glasses are fantastic - today! For the patient, they can comfortably hold their book, pad, phone, with their arms resting on their torso, and see it well. The operator’s hands and instruments working on the patient’s mouth are not in the patient’s way at all.

For the operator, the dental light beam is able to shine on the oral treatment area perfectly without the patient blocking the light or the view at all. AND, perhaps the biggest bonus is that in order for the patient to have their head at the angle where the glasses work best, they tend to tip the chin up a bit.

In other words, the patient naturally tips his head up, which makes the view perfect! EXACTLY where we dentists want the patient’s head to be.

You can order them from Amazon (see photos on left ). I recommend having a pair at each chair. Once they have used the glasses, the patients will ask for them each visit. And you will be happy with the result.

For my child patients, whether they are reading a book, a pad, a phone, or watching a movie on our computer monitor, they are engaged, comfortable and off on “planet-la-la land.”

Talk about a win-win solution for you... and for your patients!

Which mind-viruses are pro-biotic?

1/4/2017

Those who we spend much time with often determine which paths we take in life. Our environment "programs" the way we think.

(Pro-biotic = benefitting life) Ok, it stunned me one day, to understand what “programming” we get from our culture, our family, particularly our parents, and the people around us.

I guess the reason it was so astonishing was that my ego-self thought I had decided who I would be. We do that, you know. It’s just how the ego works.

On the one hand, we feel so sure that we are the one making our own decisions. It feels so good to be in charge of ourself. On the other hand, it’s downright scary, because we’re so unsure that we’re making the right decisions, that we are really capable, and that we are as significant as we want to feel.

And then to find out that our upbringing by the folks that love us the most and our culture have actually shaped our thinking, our reactions, our interests, our lives. Many of the decisions and thoughts we believe to be ours emanated from others.

Here we thought we just happened to agree with certain people. Or disagree with other people. As I said, astonishing!

Our “programming” spans the continuum from great to not-so-great, and everything in between.

Wayne Dyer used the phrase, “mind virus” to describe these memes. What on earth is a meme?

Meme is an element of a culture, or system of behavior passed from one individual to another (by parents, peers, media) by imitation or other non-genetic means (from the Greek word mimeme, to imitate).

So what Wayne Dyer called "mind viruses" are beliefs, memes, that we got from others and that we pass on to others.

Now you have a starting point to begin anew, to design your life. You do get to choose what you will think. You get to create your life through your choices, every moment, to stay positive, even when surrounded by negativity.

You can choose to be grateful when you feel as if you have nothing for which to be grateful. You can look at your beliefs and change your outlook, your understanding of the world, and your world will begin to change.

And guess what? Your beliefs truly are contagious. As your energy sends your positive happy beliefs out to others, the other folks can ‘catch’ ‘em.

“No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for 'we' are the only thinkers in our mind. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.” ~ Louise L. Hay

Happy 2017, Beloved

1/1/2017

Get great life strategies from Dr Chris Baker's book, REAL, available at Amazon.

It’s very neat, how we generally feel optimistic at the beginning of a new year. We tend to feel more hopeful, more capable, more sure.

On this New Year’s beginning days, you can enjoy this optimism and feelings of possibility.

No matter how crazy last year may have seemed, you can bask in being here to enjoy this new year. You are here for important reasons!

KNOW you are in a beautiful, wonderful world that needs you. Replace any doubts with gratitude. (Remember, this is your optimistic time!)

Remember to choose good thoughts. Picture exactly what you want to achieve and be. Then, take actions that move you toward those goals. You can achieve whatever you desire. Believe it and see yourself having achieved it.

“Not only do you become what you think about, but the world also becomes what you think about. Those who think that the world is a dark place are blind to the light that might illuminate their lives. Those who see the light of the world view the dark spots as merely potential light.”
~ Wayne Dyer

You are special. You are incredible, loved, and eternal. “Perhaps the most exciting realization in the world, is finally understanding that living the life of your dreams is entirely up to YOU…”

This is also about the scariest realization! —- UNTIL you realize it includes ‘me’. “
~ The Universe (Mike Dooley)

And when you encounter someone who is challenging to you? Remember, ”Everyone is acting from his own level of consciousness. This is all we can ask of ourselves or anyone else. However hurtful someone is, he is doing the best he can, given the limits of his consciousness.
~ Deepak Chopra

And yet, “Everything is already perfect and complete.”
~ David Hawkins

In time we will understand. And in the meantime, be the incredible person you are, for the world to become more like you, and remember how much you are needed!

Love,