News

Hi there! The letter copied below was sent out to all patients last week. But I know addresses change and mail gets tossed, so I am posting it online too. Thank you to all who have called or written with their well wishes for our practice and our new partner, Dr. Sonya Hamberg!

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To My Beloved Patients,

I hope this letter finds you well on a sunny June day. These are exciting times for me as I have a big announcement to make: I am welcoming a partner into the practice! It is with great pleasure that I get to share this news with you.

Many of you have asked if I would ever be taking on an associate. I always honestly answered no. Even though we are busy and the office is now fully renovated, I didn't want to bring in somebody who could damage our reputation or eventually leave, and I didn't know anybody I wanted to partner with. This would have to be a special person and great dentist to join us...enter Dr. Sonya Hamberg, DDS!

Sometimes life makes your path clear and deciding to join forces with Dr. Hamberg was just that for me. First, a little background: Sonya is the fiancée of my best friend, Shane Whisler. They met while he was on vacation and she was attending a dental seminar. As luck would have it, Sonya was from Seattle, they fell in love, and the rest is becoming history − they will be married next summer and I have the honor of being best man!

Dr. Hamberg was 4 years old when she decided to be a dentist (beating my declaration of becoming a doctor at age 5!). She has been working as an associate in private practice since graduating from The University of Washington School of Dentistry in 2011, as well as being a clinical instructor to the dental students at UW. Over the last year she has been transitioning her life down here and looking to invest permanently in a nice practice, so for quite a while I had been helping her evaluate potential offices around Thurston County. I love having solid dental colleagues as friends in the community, so I was thrilled at the prospect. She even promised to be in the annual fundraiser show for the Olympia Union Gospel Mission with me! (Which, by the way, is coming up on October 15^th at the Washington Center. Hope to see you there!)

So how did life make things clear to me? Well the first clue popped into my head while saliva was being suctioned out of it...this winter I needed my first-ever filling! I was actually quite nervous (ironic for a dentist), but I knew just who to ask − Sonya and I had already been consulting each other on some more difficult cases. When she asked if the Union Gospel Mission needed more help and later if she could use my office to take care of one of Shane's friends, I was impressed. But a few months ago when I dislocated my thumb and she was the first to come to my aid, that's when it all clicked.

I realized that with the right partner I can run an even stronger and more sustainable practice, yet also lead a more balanced life − I plan to volunteer at the Mission dental clinic again and start teaching dental students part-time as well, things that are very important to me but have been on the back burner. And I realized I already had the perfect dentist right in front of me. Somebody whom I trust implicitly, who shares my values and approach to dentistry, and most importantly who loves what they do and serving people.

Dr. Sonya R. Hamberg will be starting with us on July 5^th, and she is everything you want in a dentist − caring, talented, humorous, practical, and ethical. She's also already quite familiar with the office, having worked here many days helping me and others out. I hope that you will welcome her and encourage you to see her as an extension of myself. We plan to be more available to you than ever, starting later this fall we'll finally be open on Fridays! But of course we will honor any preferences you have, so it won't hurt my feelings too much if you agree that Dr. Hamberg is really great and schedule more with her...I get it, she's my dentist too!

Sincerely,

Jared D. Persinger, DDS

P.S. Going forward the practice will be called Lacey Family Dental. Different name, but the same people who have been here for you, waiting to serve in any way we can!

Thanks to our local blog Thurston Talk for the interview and awesome write up! And I'm so glad you included my picture from the 2014 Mission Fundraiser show (below), I would totally grow out my hair if it'd look this cool!

Looking at this before and after photo set, one might be tempted to classify this as solely cosmetic dentistry. And the teeth do look a heckuva lot better, right? Longer, whiter, missing tooth replaced!

But the back side view reveals severe wear and decay, as seen below. This is not just a touch up job, and in fact the patient was given the option of dentures at multiple offices he sought for opinions.

We are thankful he ended up here and that we found a way to make this happen for him! By phasing over time and dealing with the most pressing needs first, we not only saved these teeth but created a beautiful smile that he says has given him renewed confidence to speak and laugh in public.

Your dental needs may be more or (hopefully) less than this, but whatever they are we can give you customized options and find a way to make your restoration a reality.

Call us at (360) 459-1600.

Happy Halloween! I'm definitely not one of those dentists who will tell you to never eat candy. Have fun, keep it reasonable, and consider brushing twice on Thursday night so you're not haunted by cavities like Jack O'Lantern* here  :-O

Cavities, while frightening, don't happen mysteriously over night from eating a lot of sugar. Prolonged and routine exposure to sugar feeds bacteria in your mouth. These bacteria produce acid that rots (demineralizes) your teeth over time and even entrench themselves further by building up a sticky film to live in - plaque. Plaque calcifies or hardens into tartar over time, making a fortress for those bacteria!

It's deviously simple, what these bacteria do. YOU feed THEM every time you eat, especially when you eat simple sugars. And if you let them live unhindered in the nooks and crannies of your mouth, tooth decay is the predictable outcome.

Common sense steps for those worried about tooth decay include 2-3 times daily brushing (ideally with a fluoride toothpaste, but the most important thing is breaking up the bioflim), once daily flossing, and limiting frequency of snacking.

With snacking, as far as your teeth are concerned, more important than the amount of sugar you ingest is how often sugar is washing over colonies of hungry bacteria. The same Coca-Cola sipped every 10 minutes all day long is MUCH more destructive to your teeth than drinking the entire can all in one sitting (consider not doing that either, though, if you are worried about your health).

If you'd like to know more, give us a call: 360-459-1600. We'd love to have a personal discussion and provide you with a thorough dental screening (usually covered by insurance or just $19 including x-rays for new patients).

*yes this is/was my pumpkin this year!