Where Your Smile Is Their Passion

| SMILES FOR SPRING | WHERE YOUR Smile IS THEIR Passion

THE OFFICE OF SUSAN M. DENNIS, D.D.S.

Your smile is one of the first things people notice about you upon meeting. It is a gateway to how approachable you may be, and truly completes your look. But what you may not think about, is how what makes up your smile, is a critical component of your overall health and day-to-day life. In a way should, this make it a vital priority in our care, like our doctors and other medical visits we should be making.

The American Dental Association did a survey in 2018 that said 47% of Americans feel they don’t see their dentist as often as they’d like to, which makes you wonder about the other 53%. Some go religiously—and then there are the rest of us. The reasons for avoiding the dentist vary, with it sometimes being as simple as affordability, insurance coverage and time (because whoever has that?). Yet, for some of us, it comes down to past bad experiences, avoiding the “shameful” visit, pain or mostly, pure fear. Some of that fear stems from the bad experiences, pain and cleanings ending with you shamed. But what if you could go to the dentist and not experience any of that? There is a real dental pratice here in our area, that says you should never feel pain at any of your visits. This office promises to take the time to listen to your fears and discuss your care before they even open your mouth. It is a place that looks at the entirety of your oral care, beyond just your teeth and gums, and then explains those findings to you so you can BOTH work together to find the best approach to caring for your mouth and your smile.

This is not Narnia, nor any mythical office. It is real, and you can find it in Portage:

THE OFFICE OF SUSAN M. DENNIS, D.D.S.

WELCOME TO OUR OFFICE

A red-carpet treatment” of dental care

This is not your ordinary dentist office. And the lobby is far from the stale lobbies your memories (or nightmares) can recall. Surely, you are more familiar with dentist lobbies adorned with metal-rung chairs with vinylcovered cushions placed in rows of three to four at a time, complete with racks or tables of outdated reading materials. Here though, a plush couch sits beneath a giant goldframed mirror with several fabric chairs and a cute leather ottoman. In the corner is a small cabinet of sorts where a Keurig sits longingly awaiting its next use (although it remains out of order due to COVID-19 precautions at this time). This room feels more like a friend’s living room than a waiting room.

The only “office” aspect is the long counter by the door, with tall plexiglass to handle your appointments and payments safely, while protecting the faces you’ll come to know in your visits there. If you come across a day Kali is working, I guarantee she will wear the biggest smile when she sees you. Note, every patient’s first visit consists of two things: a goodie bag with an assortment of things, and the exclusive tour.

Have you ever been on a tour of a doctor’s office? Any medical office? Every hallway and door of those health care offices are an absolute mystery. But not here. You’ll see the wall of degrees and photos, where you can see Dr. Dennis in her college days! On the opposite side you will find photos of patients with their newly improved smiles. There’s a stop at the sanitizing station— where tucked near the top of the room is one of two new air purifiers they purchased to help clean the air—a machine NASA uses. The ionizer causes the early morning air prior to patient arrivals to smell like the air after a thunderstorm. Even just a few hours later, the air smells amazingly clean and refreshing.

Continuing around the office, they’ll point out the machines behind checking and improving your smile, while answering any and all of your curious questions. Do not forget to take in the breathtaking views patients have from many of the rooms in the practice. In those, you are no longer in a dentist office—you’ve got a front row seat to a National Geographic documentary.

The tour is just part of a string of patient care offerings Dr. Dennis’s office works to do to ensure your comfort, with each tour stop somewhat dispelling the mystery that is dentistry. The details go down to having curtains that can be closed to provide some privacy for your appointment and shut out the other on-goings in the office. They offer a calming atmosphere and this feeling you are at a boutique clothing store fitting room as opposed to the actual dentist.

This particular tour ended with Kali exclaiming, “You have to see the bathroom.” This is not typically a thing anyone says during a tour of their home, or office. I think we can agree, it comes down to an acknowledgement of the direction of the bathrooms, and not what they look like. Imagine a little garden shed...with cute copper spouts and literal flowers and ivy painted crawling across the walls of this “tool shed.” You really do have to see it to believe it.

ENTER, THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT THE DENTAL PRESCRIPTION

You and your dentist create your rules of engagement for your office visits. They are quite literally rules concerning your comfort. In order to do that, they need to get to know you—and Dr. Dennis emphasizes the objective to become a friend you can trust in this process. What are your concerns going into your appointment? Are you scared? The questionnaire you fill out prior to your first appointment even asks how fearful are you of your visit on a scale from one to 10. Truthfully, many of us are on that higher end. The base of that fear could range from the cleaning itself, to tooth issues and more.

Fear holds many from seeking treatment (yours truly...going eight years without a dental visit). For instance, some of us are immune to many numbing agents, causing one to feel substantial and unnecessary pain, which can be rather traumatic. But Dr. Dennis’s office has a ‘recipe’ of anesthetics that work 100% of the time. She really aims to ensure you should never feel pain in her chairs.

Other things like time or finances are also big-ticket issues, and they are there to hear them. They want to listen to you and understand how you are feeling or what you are feeling when you come into a dentist’s office. They want to help. They want to guarantee efficiency (they can make some crowns in-house, same or next day). And, they are there to answer any of your questions and be as knowledgeable as possible so that you feel confident about your treatments going forward. Patient questions were an integral start to the practice you now see today. In Dr. Dennis’s earlier years, she wanted to be able to answer her patient’s questions, in a more holistic way, or rather be able to explain how one affliction or issue could affect your oral health, and vice versa. After seeking more training to develop a more holistic plan for her patients...she came up with what she calls, The Dental Prescription.

To explain, The Dental Prescription is five categories of exams to look at the entire patient diagnosis—all affecting the health of your mouth. Those categories making up the totality of the prescription: cosmetic, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and musculature, restorative, gum health and oral cancer screening. Once your prescription is created, you have a conversation to discuss what has been found and you work together on a “plan of attack” to help you make changes to help with your new diagnoses.

The Dental Prescription is Dr. Dennis’s holistic panel for diagnosis— to understand what is happening with your mouth as a whole. This is how the prescription is broken down.

1) Cosmetic

How does your smile fit your face? Here, lip contour, skin tone, color of teeth, crowding, wear and spacing is assessed to see how everything fits together. Treatments could include Invisalign, veneers, and potential whitening techniques and products.

2) TMJ and musculature

Here, a look at your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and the muscles necessary to operate it. They will ask if you have chronic clenching and grinding— looking at things like teeth placement and receding gumlines, which could be a sign of issues. Bad bites can also be the cause of many headaches. Hundreds who have been to the office have been helped by this portion of the exam. The office can also create custom bite guards to help with bite issues.

3) Restorative

This is your tooth-by-tooth exam. Do you have cracked teeth? Missing teeth? Worn teeth? Do your teeth align properly? Do you need dental implants, crowns or bridges? Removable dentures? The objective here is to protect as many teeth as possible, but there are many options for patients to choose from to help in restoring or further protecting their teeth.

4) Gum Health

Did you know, 85% of people have some sort of infection in their gums... whether mild or severe?

A complete probing of spaces between your gum and tooth will be performed in a few spots, looking for possible infections that are notorious for hiding there. If an area appears unhealthy, a sample is taken to find what of seven different types of problematic bacteria may be the cause. For those...a treatment plan is created to help improve gum health...some involving antibiotics or laser therapy.

5) Oral Cancer Exam

Here, a look at your tongue, cheeks and tonsils, with an exam of your neck checking your thyroids, lymph nodes and salivary glands. Since this has been implemented into part of the exam, the practice has doubled the net average of diagnosis of oral cancers because of how diligent this portion of the exam is.

YOUR EXPERIENCE, MATTERS

You may find yourself a little hesitant in immediately seeing the dentist after reading all of that. And that is quite understandable. Conquering your dental fears just to find out you have an infection or cancer is a fair reason to be hesitant. And many of us can relate and advocate for that fear. Your focus however should shift from what could be happening to your mouth, to what is happening right now in your mouth. Remember that pain in your mouth every time you eat something cold, or even breathe in cold air? Notice how you never smile with your teeth in pictures because of the coloring or maybe you never fixed the gap between your front teeth and absolutely hate it. This “prescription” is there to help fix all of that, and help you be more confident about your smile—to make you look and feel good. Which, if you recall from our last issue, The Beauty Book, “when you feel good, you look good.”

Take it from the kid teased on the bus for her “horse teeth,” in middle school—really just a bad overbite. The hurtful remarks and tears that resulted, really made an impression. And the braces she would later receive would change her life. That girl, was Dr. Dennis. Her awful experience led her on a mission to help people feel great about their smile. “From the young to the young-at-heart, my passion is to give every patient a healthy and beautiful smile for life.”

This idea coincides with what the practice achieves in and out of the office. For instance, this month begins another round of their patient referral program—every quarter they encourage their patients to refer new patients who could use the beyond creature-comforts of this practice. Referrals are encouraged with prizes and raffle tickets for the grand prize, a Pit Boss barbeque for this quarter. In March, one lucky, deserving first responder found out they will receive a smile transformation of a lifetime—$10,000 worth of a transformation.

Every detail in her practice emits care and passion to truly help you, to help the community and make a difference in your lives. There are so many detailed components worked into your treatment and visit to ensure your comfort while working to dispel or ease your fear. From the Dental Prescription, to the tiny (but large) touches of comfort you can order from their Comfort Menu, it’s not just about giving you the smile you want and deserve, and the confidence to go along with it, it is doing everything they can to make sure you can be as comfortable as possible while working on those changes.

It is a feeling that flows through the office—an ambience that is more than soothing, and the people behind it are all entirely passionate about what they do, and pass that on to you during your visit. While you are there for your first visit (or multiple), sure, you are able to see dental tools and machines in the room, but you never feel like you are in the depths of a dentist’s office. The only way they could make it cozier and more welcoming, is to possibly turn the dental chairs into recliners.

MEET THE TEAM

Left to right - FRONT ROW, SEATED: Dr. Pollaccia, Dr. Dennis, Dr. Fichter SECOND ROW: Debbie, Deonna, Kim, Kali, Danielle, Amanda, Liz, Sara, Tyler BACK ROW: Jill, Chrissy, Dru, Annisia, Tammy, Ana, Jim, Stephanie NOT PICTURED: Dulce, Loretta