Upcycling tips on coming show

Information on restoring vintage furniture and problems facing pediatric dental patients will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. and on Thursday at noon. (All times are Mountain.)

Bruce Johnson is the spokesperson for Minwax in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, and he says that contrary to some advice, vintage furniture pieces often look better if they are restored rather than covered with paint. He’ll demonstrate how to restore a small Tudor end table using a stain that is similar to the base.

Dr. J. Tim Rainey will talk about some of the problems facing pediatric dental patients and explain how heavy sedation can be avoided. He also says that prevention is the most effective treatment for decay for all patients, and he’ll show some products that can be very useful. He’s with the Texas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies and lives in Refugio, Texas.

Information on “upcycling,” bamboo for crafts and making a double Roman Shade will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at noon and on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“Upcycling” is a new term meaning to restyle older clothing, not to be confused with recycling. Barbara Crawford, owner of Crawford Designs, will show how to take 2, 3 or 4 clothing items from the closet, then cut them apart and put them together in a fresh, new way. She’s from Katy, Texas.

Judy Novella is with Fairfield Processing Corp. in Danbury, Connecticut, and she will talk about the strict requirements regarding rayon from bamboo and how all products made from bamboo are under close scrutiny by the FTC due to deceptive claims about the product.

Terrell Sundermann is going to demonstrate making a double Roman Shade which is a two-shade system mounted on one board which can easily be made at home. The front is a typical Roman Shade, and the back is a sheer Roman Shade. Her business is Terrell Designs, and she lives in Englewood, Colorado.

Pediatric dentistry

The design for dentistry came from a perceived need related to an industry driven mistake. Starting during and after WWII, the population in general had disposable income for the first time. Toothpaste is one of the first things people buy with “discretionary income”.

These thousands of now educated professionals also set out to transform rural America to the most ad-vanced country in the world. They got most things right. What they got wrong was the future need for den-tists. The figures used to calculate the future need was thrown off by the toothpaste industry induced epidemic of decay. When the reason for the epidemic of decay was removed, the sugar in the toothpaste, there was not a corresponding shift in the dental profession that reflected the needs of the public. Rather than freestanding mini clinics manned by a few dentists trained to repair the ravages of decay, the focus should have been on training prevention specialists.

The pediatric population is faced with the problems created by the mini clinics that need a massive influx of patients with serious problems just to meet the massive overhead associated with running these mini clinics. The most lucrative portion of the pediatric practices is dentistry requiring heavy sedation. We also see very aggressive “selling” of heavy sedation and very little “full disclosure” or informed consent. Most heavy sedation is accompanied by steroids to control an unlikely nausea. Universally, what we see on “second opinion” visits is over diagnosis, overtreatment and lack of prevention.

Prevention is the most effective treatment for decay. Pediatric decay can mostly be stopped simply by educating the parents. Initiate the child into the dental practice when the child is six months old. Prevention of pediatric decay starts BEFORE the child is born and preferably before conception. The oral bioflora of the child comes from the placenta of the mother, which reflects her oral bioflora. Having the pregnant parents initiate effective oral hygiene methods will alter the mother’s oral bioflora. Emphasize the use of baking soda and Xylitol for the mother-to-be.

The most commonly diseased area in the human body is the distal of the first pediatric molars which erupt when the child is likely still on a soft, cariogenic diet. Simply teaching the parents how to clean BEHIND the first primary molar will stop the need for this most common pediatric dental treatment.

Once a child reaches 2.5 years of age, there is a natural increasing resistance to decay due to the “maturation of enamel” phenomena which applies to both permanent and pediatric dentition. If there is a reasonable diet, teeth literally become more resistant to decay as time passes and the need for invasive dentistry lessens accordingly. As the child approaches nine years of age, the question is if the tooth will last until it will shed naturally or should we intervene with a restoration?

The most important step in “nurturing” a child to accept preventive measures is in having the parents successfully use a toothbrush effectively daily. The patient must be plaque free. If not, this is a sign of effective resistance by the child and a harbinger of failure. The dental professional contribution to “nurturing” a child is to acclimate the child to having the dental professional spray water and air in the mouth while suctioning.

If the above are accomplished, the dentist can do virtually any procedure in the child’s mouth. The goal of pediatric dentistry is to stop the decay without traumatizing the child. There is very little feeling in the dentin of pediatric teeth. There is no need for heavy-handed treatment modalities. Most repair of pediatric decay can be accomplished quite comfortably without anesthetic.

“Creative Living" is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.