Wendy's Eye Candy

That's my patient featured on the Wendy William's show!  Isn't she gorgeous! 
Thanks to Gillian for acknowledging my part in making her smile beautiful.
Thanks to Beverly for finding me the link to this picture.

The Wendy Williams Show and Dr. Okun

I received got a phone call this morning from my patient, Andrea, who was very excited. Her sister Gillian, a patient of mine who is long finished with her braces, was on the Wendy Williams Show this morning, and was selected from the audience for her excellent appearance. She was well dressed, her hair was done, and her smile was beautiful. Andrea was bubbling when she said, “I just wanted you to know that when Wendy commented on Gillian’s beautiful smile, Gillian gave you credit. She said, ‘Thank you and thanks to my parents and Dr. Okun.’ ”

It makes me so happy to see the smiles of my patients when they get their braces off. Their whole demeanor changes when they smile in the mirror and like what they see. Hearing, years later, that my patient still appreciates what braces did for her smile has kept me smiling all day.

Thanks to Andrea for sharing!

Mary Ann’s Unfinished Business

Our office coordinator Mary Ann Perry  received her Master’s of Science in Organizational Management and Human Resource Development from Manhattanville College last Thursday. She completed this degree in only one and one half years! The thing she enjoyed most in this program was doing her final project on the lack of diversity in the National Football League. Her instructors told her that her project was the best researched paper they have yet encountered at Manhattanville. She actually had 32 pages of annotated bibliography! She is now working on finding a publisher for this project.


After Mary Ann gets this paper published she plans to continue her ongoing education. Her next interest is getting a phD in Black History. Mary Ann enjoys gaining knowledge to be an expert story teller.

Another Happy Patient

It's a pleasure to present "Another Happy Patient": I recently finished braces for a young woman who had had braces as a child, but she was never happy with the result, and the teeth had gotten more crowded as she got older. Her biggest problem was that she could only close her teeth on one tooth in the back, so it was difficult to eat. Her upper jaw was way too narrow for her lower jaw, and the lower teeth were very crowded. We had discussed surgery to make the upper jaw wider, but she was not interested. We decided on a compromise- treatment that included extracting two lower teeth, and wearing braces for up to two years. Since she was so anxious to be done with braces, we ended treatment after only 1 year and 3 months. The patient was so happy! She reported that “just from a ‘I can eat salad’ standpoint, it’s so much better. We knew it was going to be a compromise but I wasn’t going to do surgery. My teeth are so straight now, and it’s so much easier to close my lips. Thank you so much Dr. Okun.”

Sterilizing your Oral Appliances

Dr. Okun has a warning to all patients wearing removable oral appliances. Orthodontic Retainers, Occlusal Guards (for TMJ- facial pain), Athletic Mouth Guards, Invisalign and Clear Correct Aligners, and Dental Sleep- Appliances are all made of plastics which melt in high temperatures. They will distort if placed in boiling water or left on the car’s dashboard on a sunny day. If you wish to sterilize your retainer which fell in the dirt, or to Kasher your oral appliance for Passover, DO NOT BOIL IT! Instead soak it in warm water with a tablet of retainer cleaner like Retainer-Brite, or in a denture cleaner made for Partial Dentures. It will be sterilized in 10 minutes, but can be left soaking as long as 12 hours without damaging the appliance. Remember to wash off your retainers in running water before placing them back in your mouth!

Children’s Dental Health Month Raises Awareness of Oral Health

Once again, Dr. Judy Okun participated in the judging of the dental health posters submitted by students from Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties of New York State as part of National Children’s Dental Health Month. The theme this year was “Sugar, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!” The goal was to have students learn the negative impact of sugar and the positive impact of nutritious foods, and to have them submit it in a visually convincing poster. The posters were judged in age categories and the first and second place (and tied second place) winners received monetary rewards for their efforts. Congratulations to this year’s winners: Kayla P. and Briigid B. (Kindergarten), Marisa L., Ella M., and Kevin D. (first and second grade winners), Uriel Matias K., Tamaiah D., and Veronica W. (third and fourth grade winners), Dejvy N., and Kaylamarie B. (fifth and sixth grade winners), Lauren W. (seventh and eight grade winner), Gabrielle G., and Hawhon G. (ninth and tenth grade winners), and Christopher M. (eleventh and twelfth grade winner). This years winners came from St. Augustine School of Ossining, Geo Grant Mason School of Tuxedo, Paideia School 15 of Yonkers, Solomon Schechter School of White Plains, Casimir Pulaski School of Scarsdale, St Anthony School of Nanuet, Solomon Schechter High School of Hartsdale, Hendrick Hudson High School of Montrose, and Walter Panas High School of Cortlandt Manor.

My Dental Drill has Cruise Control and Daytime Running Lights

Did you ever notice how much easier it is to maintain your speed on the empty highway when you have cruise control? How about how much easier it is to see (and be seen) in dreary weather and dark tunnels when you have daytime running lights? These modern additions to driving are what electric contra-angle hand pieces have done to the dental drill. My Bien-Air electric hand piece is a “step up” from my compressed-air driven drills. With preset speeds and torque maintenance I can easily cut through the wires of my palatal expanders, but can also polish off the residual glue after removing orthodontic brackets. I don’t have to worry about “backing off” to maintain torque, nor do I have to worry about spinning too fast and destroying my polishing burs. My electric hand piece also has a light that shines exactly where I am working; now I can see in the back of a tiny mouth even when the patient is not facing the overhead light. I am certainly enjoying my new technology!

Winter Doldrums or Holiday Cheer?

December brings early sunsets and holiday decorations. We could get depressed by the dark and dreary view outside our windows during the after- school hours… With the early winter sunsets we are no longer getting the strong afternoon sun streaming in our office windows. Or we could be happy with the holiday decor in the shopping plaza around us. Either way shopping seems to lift the spirits. We’ve done our holiday shopping by adding new braces colors. To match the seasonal boughs of holly we have true red and bright red along with true green, jade, pastel green, neon green and teal. For our Chanukah spirit we have blue (glow, pastel, true or metallic) and white. Our latest color additions are the glow blue, bright red, and jade which we received today, and the neon orange, neon green, and neon pink which we added this Fall. We hope our new braces color choices help brighten your holiday spirit.