Happy Halloween!

Have you ever been to one of our local haunted houses?? My husband and I took our middle school daughter and her friends to a haunted house a few weeks ago and…. Wow, was that intense! There must have been a THOUSAND zombie actors (ok it was probably more like 30-but if felt like more, they where popping up everywhere) throughout the experience all with the purpose of scaring us to death!  Before we entered the factory, my daughter and her friends asked me if I was scared. I obnoxiously claimed that I would probably ‘laugh the whole time, no way was I scared it was all fake’ (famous last word).  I also tried to prep the girls by telling them to ‘fly under the radar', instructing them to not scream too much or the zombie actors would zero in on our group, terrorizing us the whole time. The girls nodded and assured me that they understood and would try to lay low.

Okay,so the zombies of the
haunted house were a bit scarier than this.

That lasted abooouuuuut... O-N-E second. Literally, the SECOND we entered the haunted house, the zombies were on us!  And, despite my earlier recommendation to those sweet girls, they all immediately started screaming- at the top of their lungs! So, guess what??  The zombies zero-ed  in our our little group, relentlessly.  

Now, let me set the scene for you and how it works at the haunted factory... All ticket holders are divided into groups who go through the factory together. It’s a group of maybe 50-100 people all in 

a single file line, clutching each other’s shirts (yes, strangers- touching each other) not wanting to lose the group. Who wants to get left behind, all alone, with a bunch of zombies? Did I mention that there is fog, flashing strobe lights, and EXTREMELY loud scary noises. Making it so you can barely see your hand in front of your face and you can’t hear each other at all??!? Oh, and my favorite effect, zombies squirting some kind of mysterious liquid on you (hopefully water?), in your face, on your hair, all over your clothes. The haunted house does not allow their actors to touch the guests, but wow did they get close!  Popping out of dark corners, dropping down from the ceiling screaming in your ears! To add to everything else all along the way you have to duck under pipes and valves and go up and down metal or concrete stairs (remember, you can’t see or hear). Worst part... you have to walk into the basement of this factory and squeeze through black inflatable walls- that are closing in on you!! Another fun treat is walking across a metal catwalk through a giant spinning canister (kind of like in a fun house) painted in glowing black light paint, kind of disorienting, while scary zombies are on the cat walk with you. 

This isn't use but I can guarantee
this is what we looked like, the entire time!

My  ‘mother of the year’ moment came when I shoved my 7th grade daughter in front of me to lead us through the chaos! Needless to say, I was unable to stay cool, calm, and collected as I planned.  I screamed the whole time while four young girls clung to me, screaming along with me!  We were like a little pile of people crab walking through the factory tour which seemed to last for hours (ok it was probably more like 25 minutes). 

Meanwhile, my husband was sauntering along behind us with a bored, slightly amused look on his face, that was until my daughter (who, as I said earlier,  I shamelessly shoved out front to lead our group-I know, mom of the year, right?) tells us that she has been clutching onto the stranger in front of us (bless this man’s heart, he was clearly someone’s dad to have been as patient as he was with us). At that point my husband heroically jumps to the front of our group so that she can clutch onto him instead of a random man. 

Call me crazy, but after all of that… it was SO MUCH FUN and we wouldn't have missed it for anything. We will probably make torturing ourselves, screaming through this haunted place, a yearly tradition!

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love Halloween! Why?  Because it kicks off my favorite time of the year. It’s a time of year that we can dress up, act silly, go to haunted houses and give treats to our friends, family and neighbors.  It’s a time of year that the weather becomes mild and its enjoyable to go outside. All of the neighborhood seems to come out  and participate in fall festivals, trunk or treats, trick or treating, and Halloween parties. I see it as a wonderful month of community. I love that!  

At our office, throughout the year, we host several events to serve our community.  During this time of the year our community service events include a food drive and a backpack initiative for local foster children (more to come on those events later).  One of our favorite service events we are able to host is our Halloween Candy Buy Back, participating with Operation Gratitude.  

Each year my office hosts this event during the first few days of November in which children can donate their unopened Halloween candy to our US Troops. For every pound that patients bring to our office (up to 3 pounds), each child receives 1$ per pound and a goodie bag full of treats.  We also give away Firefly glowing toothbrushes (while supplies last) to all children who make a donation to this cause. We are buying back so that we can give back to our U.S. Troops together!  So, come join us for the Halloween Candy Buy Back this year taking place at our office Monday November 3rd-Thursday November 6th. Look for more information on the blog in the coming weeks about our other service events.  Happy Halloween!

#trickortreat #halloween #scared #hauntedhouse #community #ARPD #drrohner #kidsdentist #halloweencandybuyback #HCBB #carepackages #candy #cash #prizes

****Copyright Angelica Rohner Pediatric Dentistry 2014

Breaking The Pacifier Habit

How do we get rid of the Paci? Without all of the crying & days of torment...

Parents of our patients are always looking for tips and advice on how to handle dental concerns. We try our hardest to have a solution and answer to every problem.  Believe or not, we don’t come up with all of these fantastic tips all by ourselves. We learn many methods from real life experience through conversations with our sweet patients and their parents.

One of my favorite parts of my job is being able to interact with the sweet children and with their parents and caregivers.  I LOVE people and I enjoy hearing about their days, their lives, and their experiences! 

If any of you have any children who have/had a pacifier then you know that we parents need all the tips that we can get when it comes to giving up the ‘paci’.  Well… today, one of our four year old patients taught us a fantastic way to give up the pacifier.

This sweet, four –year -old marched into our clinic for her dental cleaning, proudly, holding a brand new stuffed teddy bear from the “Build a Bear” store at the Galleria.  I mean this was no ordinary teddy bear. This was one of the softest, most cuddly, most friendly looking big stuffed teddy bears that I have seen in a while. It had Dark brown silky smooth fur, with soft, kind eyes, you know the type of stuffed bear that I mean!

She promptly handed me her teddy bear and said, “Feel his tummy and guess what’s inside”, while she was smiling and giggling all the while. I anxiously grabbed he bear, I couldn't wait to find out...  I did as she asked and I pushed on the bears tummy and, guess what was inside?!?  That’s right! It was her pacifier, stuffed inside that teddy bear’s tummy! Apparently the sweet folks at the Build-a-Bear store sewed up this child’s very last pacifier safely inside this teddy bear’s tummy in order to ‘help’ her give up her pacifier.  This way, she could give up her oral habit, but she could keep her pacifier nearby (and near her teddy bear’s heart).  How comforting is this and how fantastic is this idea-our patients are so awesome!

We have plenty of ideas around here about how to give up the pacifier or other oral habits- methods ranging from thumb-buddy dolls and books to reward or incentive programs. We love to talk about solutions for how to stop the habits, sharing ideas and exchanging them with our patients and their parents. This Build A Bear was one method that I had not heard yet. 

And, when it comes to ideas on ways to give up those oral habits, I believe that we need to find the best method to suit each individual child. In other words, each child needs his or her own individual plan to make this transition as comfortable as possible. We might have to try several different routes in-between their 6 month checkups but, we will find one!

I am always looking for fun, nurturing new ideas on this topic!  What are some other ways that you all have helped your children give up their pacifiers?  PLEASE let us know! Your advice can help other children that struggle with a hard to break oral habit just like your child’s.

#buildabear #ditchthepaci #ARPD #kidsdentist #advice #ideas #pacifier #drrohner #habits

***Copyright 2014 Angelica Rohner Pediatric Dentistry

Everyone Loves A *Sneak Peak*

After sharing the news of our upcoming renovation we have had plenty of inquisitive questions. We want to share some of the fun details with y-o-u! 

The Phase I of our renovation is the clinical area including; sterilization, treatment chairs, x-ray rooms, supply storage, and the best part- the play area. In order for you to get a good visual we want to introduce you to the official floor plan...

I'm sure this may seem like mumbo jumbo as far as understanding where things are now in aspect to where they will be in this plan. But, the most important part is we worked REALLY hard to get this plan just right. With 5 open bay hygiene treatment chairs, 2 semi-private operative treatment chairs and 1 private treatment room- every child's needs can be met.

Now, for the fun part- COLORS! 

The main colors will include corals, blues, and green throughout the office. We plan to include a fun ocean mural similar to the one we have in our waiting room now. 

For our new color scheme we are going with the soft relaxing beach tones. We will have alternating chair colors in shades of ocean blue and a fun bright green. 

Our clinical dental units will be clean and fresh with white quartz counters and stainless cabinets. Our favorite part of this combination is how it shines!

 Sterilization is one of the most important parts of a dental practice. This area serves as the greatest point of infection control. Infection control is why we wash our hands constantly, wear protective gear such as jackets, classes and masks, wipe down every part of our dental unit after each patient, and why we sterilize instruments, 

This area will be organized from dirty to sterile side in order to avoid contamination. We went with clean colors here as well.


The planning of this project has been complicated but mostly just long. BUT, the result is going to be exactly what we wanted and what our patients need- so no complaining here!

One of the things we are most excited about is freshening up our current logo. To go along with our change in color schemes we have revamped the Angel Fish logo. We knew what we wanted... something that represented our practice well. Colors that were calm yet fun and inviting. We wanted our Angel Fish to be welcoming and exciting but we didn't want to lose her all together. We thought, this designer is going to kill us! ;) But, it was well worth it!

We think we nailed it...

What do you think? We won't be implementing it until 2015 (following the renovation) but are just too excited to keep from sharing it. 

There are a lot of changes going on here, but we'd rather call them improvements! If you stop moving you are standing still, and we all know that no one ever gets anywhere standing still. We love hearing from you about the excitement for the renovation. Any questions or comments you have we are more than happy to answer. So, keep the positive feed back coming! Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.

#renovation #ARPD #bigchanges #improving #kidsdentist #bestdraround #drrohner #fun #kidsloveus #fish #fishdentist #logo #logodesign #floorplan #colors #beach #ocean 

****Copyright Angelica Rohner Pediatric Dentistry 2014