Sometimes you think someone said your name - only to see no one.  ​

Sometimes a butterfly - or bird - keeps flitting about you, following you, crossing back and forth around you. You wonder why that tiny creature, that collection of molecules and cells is attracted to you.  

You wonder what it means. 

In your “soul group” of loved ones, one of those loves is perhaps following you about, and their love and energy is so palpable, you hear your name. 

You know what it's like -- how you put all your energy, prayers and strength into your child, that part of your heart that is walking around outside of you. You send them off to a day without you and spend the day “following them around” in your heart and mind. 

Maybe one of your God-sent-loves is there as you see the butterfly or the bird.  Maybe you hear your name - and no one seems to be there.  Maybe you feel a sudden lightness of love.

No matter, you are being followed by God’s own in the unseen, those who love you.

In love,

"It's not just that there are miracles happening around you -- it's that you are making the miracles, yourself."

"Instead of praying in your need, you would  pray in the overwhelming abundance and gratitude of your life." 

You work miracles every day.  

It’s not just that there are miracles happening around you - it’s that you are making the miracles, yourself.

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross told the story of a child in the hospital ICU. 

During his morning rounds, a doctor (with a small bald spot on the crown of his head) came over to her bed.  She looked up at the tall man standing beside her.   

“I know you!" the little girl said. "You were at my bed last night.”  

The astonished physician, knowing he had been performing CPR on her in the ER the night before (and knowing she had been without pulse and breathing when he was with her), asked, “How do you know?”  

She answered, “I was looking down at you working on me and saw your bald place on your head.” 

If you could see from outside yourself - if you could look down at yourself traveling your journey through life, nothing would surprise you, scare you or seem impossible. You would see who you really are!  You would see your miracles.

You would be so happy, feel so good, you would free yourself of all the impossibilities of directing your world and your life.  

Instead of praying in your need, you would pray in the overwhelming gratitude and abundance of your life.  You would love everything about life, and not notice things you don’t like.  

Go on - keep busy with performing miracles!  Stay in your gratitude and abundance.  

Stay in your love, you crazy miracle!

Love,

French Romantic composer Louis-Hector Berlioz (1803-1860) was also a lover of fine food. 

Healthful eating is a great part of living a REAL life. Dr Chris discusses this in her book, REAL. 

Claude and I made this tonight for supper, after he heard on Abu Dhabi Classic Radio,  the story of composer Louis-Hector Berlioz liking this concoction. Berlioz’s chef made it with Duchene mashed potatoes, and we made it with mashed cauliflower.

Berlioz cast himself as a musical revolutionary. He was what was then called a Romantic idealist in a time when artists in other areas, such as painter Claude Monet , challenged the Parisian arts establishment with new innovations.

Successful in his work, Berlioz blazed new artistic trails in the face of the cultural establishment. He was a Romantic, indeed. 

An appropriate tribute to this great composer, Oeufs Berlioz is both  a simple and elegant recipe that uses classic techniques.

I found several descriptions of this dish. Almost all of them call for duck eggs, duchesse potatoes and a mushroom or truffle sauce. 

Here’s how we made it:

Ingredients - Serves 2
2 eggs (chicken) per person

Get your cauliflower boiling
Preheat your oven to 220C

Cauliflower:
• 1/2 medium head of cauliflower, cut into pieces and boiled until soft,   then mashed with butter and cream.
 • Add a good chunk of butter to your taste, and plenty of pepper   and salt.

Start working on the mushroom sauce,
then when the cauliflower is ready...
• Make 2 nice cones on a baking sheet and put into the oven for 20-25 minutes until they have browned crispy edges

Mushroom sauce:
 • 200 gm mushrooms, button, or similar, chopped - I used some large brown buttons from Ireland - yummy
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 100 ml beef stock
• 50 ml red or Madeira wine
• 2/3 cup cream
• 2 sprigs of thyme

To Make the Mushroom Sauce:
   •  put chopped shallots in olive oil, cook until soft
   •  add chopped mushrooms and thyme sprigs
   •  allow them to take some color before pouring in the beef stock
    • cook it down and then add the wine.
   •  cook it down til a thimbleful remains
    • add cream and heat through, then keep on the lowest heat possible.

Poach your eggs in water with 1 t vinegar, 4-5 minutes for soft, or soft boil the eggs.
Plate it up.  Arrange the sauce on the plate, and the rest around.

Serve.

Orthodontics treatment is much more complex, different and difficult than what many young patients assume. A doctor dedicated to his or her craft puts much education, study and experience into each orthodontic case he or she treats. 

Dr. Chris Baker's book, "Your Child's Smile" is the best  parent guide for their child's oral health.  It has also been used as a dental school textbook.

Orthodontics is the practice of the realities of moving teeth through bone over a period of time.

This past week, we had two high school students who are interested in dentistry  spend the days with us in internships.  They came in each morning and would spend about half of our office hours with us.

The students  encountered orthodontics from a totally different perspective than what they experienced when they were our patients.  They both agreed, very surely, that orthodontic treatment seemed much more complex, different and difficult than they had assumed when they were patients. 

Isn’t that the way life works? 

Perception varies according to the view through which we see it.  It’s like looking into a room from a window on one side and seeing one part of the room -- and then from the other side, the view through a different window makes the room seem totally different.

What we regard is often limited by what we know and see. 

To a teenager having braces treatment, the experience is one without much visual awareness of what is being done with those braces.  While they're sitting in the dental chair, their minds are full of schoolwork, classmate matters, family matters, athletic and other activities of that evening, and so on. 

The patient's awareness of what we are doing with the “hardware” of orthodontic appliances is minimal.  Once the appointment is completed, they can “get back” to their “real life.”  

But seeing us work with the realities of moving teeth through hard, mineralized bone was a different matter for our high school interns. 

​Think of a bone.  It is miraculous that by placing the right force in the right direction on teeth, we can move teeth through that seemingly impenetrable, dense structure. 

And, amazingly, the bone restructures  and remodels itself to complete its presence around the tooth in the new position.  

Our interns learned that we cannot move one tooth without anchoring somewhere, somehow to other teeth. They found out that it is a challenging, mechanical, engineering process to accomplish a bite that will work and last for almost a hundred years, and  provide a smile that will charm, comfort, engage, and communicate the soul within. 

Our interns were impressed with the time the human body requires to allow teeth to move, and to remodel the bone -- and why it takes the time.  The human body is dynamic - always changing.  It is not static - staying the same. 

Orthodontic changes are not guaranteed; they are not totally predictable;  they are not stable over time without retention, because of the dynamic properties of the muscles, speech, habits, tongue position, tooth clenching or grinding, eating, biting, opening, closing and even wear of the teeth. 

Plus, a growing patient adds the challenge of growth changes to what we are working to do for them.

We were glad to share with two young people who wanted to understand more about what dental care can offer to each person.  

​We look forward to their joining the professionals who provide that care.  

Studies have proven, repeatedly, that it is more healthy for a child's development to have physical play, rather than being physically sedentary and frequently exposed to screens. 

Dr Chris Baker's book, REAL, is a treasure of resources for living a healthy lifestyle and raising productive children. 

Screen use by young children is unhealthy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued warnings about this danger. 

The dramatic increase in Autism Spectrum Disorders has been associated with screen use.  Dream It! Leaving Autism Behind is an inspiring story of one young man's growth and development, leaving autism behind.

Screen time creates brain damage in children. as shown by at least 11 recent studies. 

One school activity that has been proven to be beneficial for developing brains is cursive writing. 

Despite the dangers posed by the  use of screen by young children, many school classrooms incorporate their use. 

“Children should be seen and not heard."

Say what???

Online, there are lots of articles, studies and blogs about how our children are faring today.  One such article, by blogger Vicky Prooday is titled, “Why are our children so bored at school, cannot wait, get easily frustrated and have no real friends?” 

Others discuss the huge increase in the diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorders, learning disabilities and other childhood mental health areas.  

Why do many children begin school not emotionally able to cope with the school environment?

Why do so many children fare  poorly on testing and educational measures?

Why is there such a huge increase in ADD/ADHD, with many children who cannot sit and learn, let alone cope?

Why does such a huge number of children exhibit signs of addiction to screens and completely fall apart when the screen is taken away?

Why do so many children not have real friends?

Why are we in pediatric dentistry finding that children are emotionally incapable of coping with the dental care environment? And why does a huge percentage of children receive routine dental care provided while sedated or under GA (general anesthesia)?

Our grandparents did not have these problems.  

What has changed?

The answer lies in our modern culture, our current beliefs as parents and in our resultant inability to give our children what they need to develop — their abilities to learn, cope, to have and enjoy true friends and life — real life.

The changes in our modern culture include:

Cultural Change #1: Omnipresent screens, including TV, movies, iPads, computers, electronic games and phones, which severely harm our children in two ways:

• First, screen time creates brain damage, even in not a lot of exposure to screens.  (Weng 2012, Hong, 2013, Zhou 2011, Yuan 2011 and 2013, Dong & Devito, 2013, Koepp, 1998, Kyhn, 2011, Ko, 2009, Han 2011, Kim, 2011 and Hou 2012)
  • You can see the damage in your child when they are impulsive, moody and can’t pay attention.  The sensory overload and hyper-aroused neural system are damaging their gray matter of their brain. YES - there is actually atrophy (shrinkage or loss of brain cells) in the areas, frontal lobe,  where processing of screens occurs, and where planning, impulse control and ability to suppress unacceptable impulses occurs. And, the white matter in the brain, the functioning links between the various parts of the brain lobes and centers are damaged and not functioning properly.
  • The brain’s size (particularly the outer layer, the cortex) is reduced.
  • So, the BRAIN STRUCTURE AND ITS  FUNCTION ARE  DAMAGED.
• Second, screen use causes cravings. impaired dopamine function.  This is ADDICTION.

Boredom due to a damaged nervous system, and addiction, both disconnect the child from the ability to learn, to enjoy other types of stimulation like playing outside, and to emotionally attach to their family and to real friends.

Cultural Change #2:  Parents have come to believe it is good for the child to “be in charge”, for the child’s needs to be met as immediately and completely as possible.  Quite frankly, we have become servants to our children and their desires. 

I remember being shocked a few years ago when I had explained the child’s abscessed tooth and need for extraction of an infection that was dangerously close to his brain and encephalitis. The mom asked the child, “Do you want to get your tooth taken out today?”   

That was shocking. It was not shocking to hear the child’s answer. What do you think most all children who cannot begin to understand infection, encephalitis, meningitis or dental treatment would say?  

Of course, the child answered, “No.”

And once again, I was shocked to hear mom say to me, “Dr. Chris, he said ‘no’ for today.”  

As our children do not learn to cope with difficult things or things they do not wish (dental treatment), they do not learn that they CAN cope.

Millions of children in modern society are much less equipped than previous generations to deal with the simplest frustrations.  How will they cope with the real world someday in their jobs.  Will they be able to hold a job?  
​
How will our children be able to learn to enjoy eating nutritious foods and to exercise and stay healthy if they have learned they “don’t have to do what they don’t like”?  

I had a parent explain to me that neither she, nor her child ate anything except “white foods.”  When I looked quizzically at her, she explained that they ate breads, pasta, crackers, cakes, and popcorn.  Oh - and their ‘treats’ (candy and sweets)  could be other colors. 

The media and modern culture teaches modern parents to think if their children appear to be content, they have succeeded.  

Quite the opposite!. Our beliefs are killing the chances of our children being happy.  

I have wondered out loud more than once, “Who will our children marry, if there are so few capable, healthy young adults?”  

And, if reincarnation is a reality, then what sort of world will we come back to?

We must:

1. Severely limit screens in our children’s lives.
2. Limit screens in our own lives so we have time and energy to connect with our children emotionally and actually.
3. Teach our children that they can cope - they can wait to eat dinner, or spend time outside and find it fun - and find the fun.
4. Involve your children in every aspect of the family work - housework, cooking, table setting, packing lunch, folding laundry at first, and eventually doing the laundry.  
5. Teach “cotillion” courtesy skills - gracious behaviors that include saying thank you and please, sharing, taking turns, finding ways to make the other children and people feel loved and important to your child.  

You see, no matter how charming and cute children are, they must learn not to expect others to give them attention to “build them up.” The child should be doing that for the people around them, in being sweet, gracious, polite and helpful.They will be the happier adult, future parent, spouse and friend.  

My grandmother used to say, “Children should be seen and not heard.”

I thought that was a mean thing to say. Years later, she explained to me, when I had my own child, that she felt a child could be emotionally damaged by receiving too much attention and should not enter into the conversation until spoken to.   

Now, I understand what she really meant. It’s for their well-being. And for our future.  

After all, the brain and its function are more and more difficult to change as one gets older. Let us work on fixing what we can and doing well for our children.  One might think that raising children is not “rocket science.”  Well, in our modern culture — maybe it is!

Our children need us to help them grow and develop without the disabilities of impulsivity, attention-neediness, inability to focus and pay attention, inability to learn well, and inability to truly connect with others.  

Happiness awaits!

You are doing it.  You are fielding life’s stuff.

The world doesn’t always work the way you want it to. Stuff happens.  

And when it happens, your seeds of possibilities begin to grow.  

In disappointment and distress are the seeds of wisdom - and the seeds of despair and grief. 

In despair are the seeds of acceptance, personal growth and gratitude - and the seeds of helplessness and more despair.

In grief there are the seeds of love, compassion and growth - and the seeds of devastation and hopelessness.

In growth are the seeds of appreciation, gratitude and joy. 

In gratitude and joy is the seed of fulfillment and love.

Our expectations and willingness shape these possible sequels to what happened.  What we think - feel - do, when stuff happens, determines which seed grows.  ​

Love,

Even identical twins can have very different orthodontic needs. (Photo Raul Carabeo / Wikimedia Commons) 

Dr Chris next teaches at the RMO Diagnostics & Early Treatment Seminar in Denver, August 18-19. For more information, call  (303) 592-8268.

Dr Edward H Angle (1855-1930) is considered to be the father of American orthodontics. (Wikimedia Commons image)

Dr Chris Baker's book,  "Your Child's Smile", is the premiere guide for parents who want to learn more about their children's oral health.

Dr Chris is very happy to lead a very happy team at the Advanced American Dental Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Orthodontic treatment challenges the best of us.  What seems easy to many patients, is often a tough job for the orthodontists!  

Those of us who provide orthodontic treatment develop a keen awareness of the difficulties in our work with the constantly-changing human body. And, it’s over a relatively long period of time to accomplish orthodontic results.  

Can you imagine?  — We have learned ways to attach braces to teeth, move the teeth through bone, and remove the braces without harming the teeth? That in itself is almost crazy.  

Even in this day and age of high tech, lasers, 3D printing and other miraculous medical treatments, it is still amazing that we can move teeth through bone into nicer positions.  And more amazing, is that Dr. Edward Angle was doing it in 1900. (Dr. Angle was the inventor of modern orthodontics.)

It is of critical importance that in our performing the miraculous feat of moving teeth through hard bone, we take the health and well-being of the whole patient into consideration.  
Of course, you say.  

BUT that can be very difficult when coupled with the fact that each human body reacts differently to everything. Even identical twins’ teeth and treatment results are different.  

Why is that a problem?  

Because the variation in the human body’s reactions means that you can provide seemingly the exact same orthodontic treatment sequence, wires, brackets, and plan, and the results you see will vary so widely that it scares the bejiminy out of you!  
​
Your patient treatment that you planned to make everything better for your patient puts you in a fret and worry fest.  You start out to help and now you ask, “Why, oh why are the teeth doing THAT?  And what should I do about it now?”

Or, how did I get into this pickle and how do I get out of it?

The inevitable, every-patient variations - the crazy-making happenings that scare you or prolong the patient’s treatment and take much more time than your patient wants, is, in the orthodontics world, called “finishing” the treatment.  

“Finishing” starts before you bond the braces on. You work to identify the areas of likely challenge, the “outliers” in the patient’s presentation.  

Then you work and practice to learn the many strategies to help address and salvage the orthodontic treatment so the problems don’t prolong treatment time and make patients, parents and you frustrated and unhappy.  

In orthodontic treatment we must learn a lot of strategies, so we have a lot of tools in our toolbox, since EACH patient’s teeth will react differently. 

We must choose the appropriate tools, or at least tools that seem as if they will be helpful, employ them and see what happens.  Sometimes the tools we employ are not helpful.  It depends on that human body’s physiology.

Like everything in life, finishing takes learning, practice, and more practice.  As they say, “Why do you think they call it dental practice?”  

An overview of finishing of orthodontic treatment entails a few areas:
​
First, learn to identify when and where the treatment has stopped progressing in the best ways and directions.  Even that can be tough.

Secondly, learn and understand what you can do and what you cannot do.  There are late growth patterns that befuddle you. We must learn what strategies may help, which strategies may intercept or guide growth even a little bit, and which strategies may worsen the situation.  

We must learn what tooth eruption problems will likely not respond to efforts to get the teeth to erupt, and when we must counsel the parents and patient about implant replacement. 

We must understand how difficult asymmetric treatment can be, and what may help.  What to do with the peg lateral you want to maintain as a natural “implant,” and what to do with the missing lateral space?

Third, we gain capability in treatment strategies AND communication strategies to aide in addressing problems encountered mid to late treatment, such as inadequate molar buccal overjet, open bites, inadequate elastic wear, space that doesn’t close, crown and root torque problems, and marginal ridge height discrepancies. 

Most of all, in order to prevent being in a pickle, early identification before you start treatment and consideration of the options of alternative treatment plans that may be better, gives us more awareness.

We can help the patient and parents understand realistic expectations concerning treatment time, pitfalls and possible complications.

Not getting into the “pickle” and also knowing what to do when it is unavoidable, is a powerful, valuable body of knowledge called “finishing.”  
Learning more and more is the key!

You must set goals for yourself. You cannot "hit a target" if you don't know where it is.

Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie   (1857 –  1926) was a  French   psychologist   and  pharmacist  who introduced a  method of  psychotherapy  and  self-improvement  based on  optimism.  Coué's teachings have influenced many writers, such as Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. 

When you think about it, you have been doing the  best  you can.  Everyone  always does.  

YET — what would you need to change to do differently — and better?

This week, Claude and I thought out the basic fundamentals of doing “better” than what has been our “best,” up to now. 

What would we need to change to do differently? 

Here they are:

ONE: You must set goals for yourself.  You cannot “hit a target” if you don’t know where it is.  

TWO: Give yourself time. You can’t change your  result   immediately, but you  can  change your  direction  immediately.  You can begin moving in the direction of your dream - right now!  

Remember that it is the tiny little productive actions, repeated consistently over time — that add up tot he difference between failure to reach your goal, and success.

The challenges that seem overwhelming today are actually opportunities. 

Steve Harvey  says, “Your setback is just a set-up for a comeback.”  

Change  yourself  by changing your philosophy - your beliefs - through your thoughts.

Decide to believe you CAN do it.  

Think,  “Difficult takes a little time; Impossible takes just a little longer.”  

Think,  ”There is a way to do it.”  
​
Think, “Every day, in every way, I’m doing better and better.  Every day, in every way, I’m happier and happier.  Every day, in every way, I’m stronger and stronger.”     ~ It was   Emile Coue de la Chataigneraie   (that's his photo, on the left),  who said it first in French,  “Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux.”

Every time you have a disappointment, think,  “Disappointment has reminded me.  I have the opportunity to change my beliefs.  I can see this as opportunity to move toward my dream.”

As you change, everything around you will change too.

Truly.

Love,