It is time once again to help out Puritan Cleaners collect coats for the winter. Bring in your unwanted coats… Large or small, old or new. I will take them any which way you can. I will deliver them to Puritan Cleaners to be dry cleaned so someone in Richmond will have a warm coat to wear this winter. Cut off date will be November 1st. Thank you all.

The most obvious reason to have saliva in our mouth is to help lubricate food so it is easier to swallow our food. But there are many other things that it does for us. Here is a short list of some of its duties that are essential, but not always quite glorious!

1) Lubricate our food before we swallow.

2) Neutral  PH( 6.2-7.4) so our mouth does not have an acidic PH.

3) Assist in breaking down carbohydrate before getting to the stomach

4) Assist in tasting the food.

5) Contains immune system antibodies, and antibacterial properties which some believe,”licking a wound”  is therapeutic.

6)Prevent cavities only when the PH is neutral.

7)Provide essential minerals to rejuvenate teeth strength.

8)Protect mouth from drying out.

A very funny man. He once said,( to me) I told my dentist my teeth are turning yellow. The dentist told him to wear a brown tie.

My dental office is spending the evening at the Richmond Diamond tonight.  Our team plus our spouses and some kids are eating  dinner first at the park then we will cheer on the squirrels to beat Erie, PA. I am hoping the rain holds off until after the game. NBC 12 shows some storms heading our way, but it looks very spotty. Look for us if you are at the game along the third base line (lower level). I hope the city can get their act together so we do not lose this “FUNN” team to another city!!

Seems to me, one of the most debilitating problems that I deal with on a daily basis for many of my patients is a dry mouth. Xerostomia  or lack of  saliva can occur for so many reasons… But quite often it is a side effect of the medications we take. Saliva is produced in our mouth by our three main salivary glands…Parotid, submandibular and sublingual. In addition, there are hundreds of minor salivary glands. When everything is working just right, there usually  is about 1-quart of liquid made per day…enough to fill 2-medium sized bath tubs per year. But suffice to say, that we produce less saliva as we sleep (less our pillows would be soaked by morning)  and less as we age or from dehydration. When we are scared  or nervous the saliva flow drops. The phrase “scared spitless ” comes from this this condition. Cancer, radiation therapy and smoking also causes the saliva to dry up. So if any of you  have experienced a dry mouth, temporarily or permanent then you  understand how uncomfortable this can be.

Stay tuned , as I  would like to share with you some reasons we need  “spit” in our lives. Often,  something as simple as our saliva  is  taken taken for granted  for the multiple thankless jobs it performs until it is not there!

Coca Cola is selling some of their soda in a tall glass bottle, sweetened with sugar cane rather than high fructose corn syrup. The Coca Cola company said the flavor is still “the real thing”.  I saw this new soda   displayed at a local supermarket, Martins in Richmond, Virginia.  Apparently, the sugar cane version is marketed in Mexico. I have not tried this Mexican concoction and was wondering if anyone has tasted it? It seems to be a big hit with the Hispanic population, since it brings a certain familiarity of home. Beware, even if it tastes different, sugar is still sugar and your teeth do not care if it is sugar cane or high fructose corn syrup.

Instead of buying each other a gift for our annual Christmas lunch we decided to buy some Christmas gifts from the “Angel Tree” in order to make some local children happier on Christmas Day! It is a nice feeling to give a gift to someone who might not otherwise have any gifts to open.  We hope they enjoy their new toys. Best wishes to all my patients and to my employees for a happy and healthy holiday.

After a long day at work, here we are in the break room kicking back before we head home for the day!  Plenty of laughs help top off a good day.  Good Times, Good Times!

School starts up in only two weeks.  Some folks will be quite happy to get their kids back to school, while others may be sad to see the lazy days of summer come to an end. This year my office bought  school supplies to help our school kids start the year off right. We helped “stuff the bus” at our local Wal Mart.  Good luck to all our families as the new school year begins!!

Congratulations to Doctor Circeo for being the recipient of the 2014 Top Dentist award as polled by his peers in the Virginia Living Magazine. What a great honor, great job Dr. C.!