Exciting things are happening at Falmouth Dental Arts! We are adding new staff members to better serve you and make your visit more comfortable. New lasers and digital xrays are invaluable to enhance health. Dr Vocal is making smiles beautiful with 6Month Ortho and we are extensively treating head, neck and TMJ pain with new technology. The new UnderArmour Performance Enhancing Mouthguards are here and receiving a lot of attention. More on all this later. Have a Great Thanksgiving everyone!

Oral Cancer Detection and Peru

Exciting things are happening in the practice. We will soon be able to do superb cancer screening with one of the new lights that help us detect it. Did you know that more people die of oral cancer than skin cancer each year? I wasn't aware of that myself. The scope is just another one of the new technological breakthroughs that keep coming out.

My grandson, Dewey, is back from Peru and had a fantastic time with the National Geographic crew that went with them. They will be sending him a DVD of his trip. He took over 2000 pictures while he was there and some are quite impressive.

I hope everyone is having a great summer (if it ever comes here in Maine).

A YOUNG NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CONTEST WINNER

Well, it's been a long winter but it looks like we may even have a spring. We've had some exciting news in our family. Our grandson, Dewey, submitted a photo to a national contest for National Geographic Kids and Won! He was chosen, along with 13 other kids and two teachers. They will all be going to Peru for 12 days accompanied by their photographers, a guide, a biologist, a naturalist, some real life explorers and others. He is 13 and is very excited about it. WE are incredibly proud of him. Here is the winning photo. Dewey had to write a story about the photo and the following is what he wrote:

National Geographic Hands-On Explorer Challenge

Dewey Sheehan

Fossil Discoveries

My name is Dewey Sheehan, I am thirteen years old, and am from Pembroke, Maine. Pembroke is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and has large beaches covered with rocks made from shale. The ocean is about 100 yards from my house and I explore it often! Approximately 3½ years, I made a very interesting discovery! I found 490 million year old fossils. I was overjoyed by the discovery because I had never seen fossils before. The fossils I had discovered were marine snails and bivalve shells. It was awesome to see their imprints in the shale. The shells were arranged in different ways. Some were upside down (I call these “impression shells”), and some were right side up (these I call “pop outs”).
Once my excitement was over from the first fossil, I wondered if there were any more. I searched in some more shale and sure enough I found more and then thousands more! Since then, my brother and I have found many different types of fossils, including: brachiopods (an appearance of an open shell), backbone of a fish, a sea worm, fossilized plants, and a coiled rock that appears to be some sort of animal feces. Most of the fossils we find are lying on the beach. We also extract large sheets of them (with chisels) from huge pieces of shale on the beach.
I have done lots of research on the Maine Geological Survey website to find out the names of the fossils. I also learned that they are from the Ordovician Period. During the Ordovician, most of the Earth’s land was submerged under water, which explains why most of the fossils are shells, and under water creatures. Hopefully with extended research I will find out how they became non-existent in our world.

35 Years!

What's it like to work with the same person for 35 years? Francine, my assistant, has been with me since 1974 and I truly think my patients would miss her more than me if I retired! 35 Years! That's unbelievable, especially when you think of how often people change jobs these days. She is truly a remarkable woman to have put up with me for so long. Between her and Sarah, my wife, it adds up to 78 years!

I am blessed with a fantastic staff. Many have been with me over 10 years and Sue has been with me 20. To have that kind of stability in a dental practice is a blessing. I appreciate each and everyone of the 10 people who support me and Dr. Vocal. When you are looking at your coworkers or the people you mangage how many have been with you that long? Wow!