As Door Creek Dental continues to expand its scope of practice, both Dr. Kirkpatrick and Dr. Andersen strive to keep abreast of new techniques emerging in the dental field.

Dr. Andersen recently traveled to the highly regarded Fahl Center in Curitiba, Brazil to further her education on anterior direct bonded restorations.  Many of you may ask, “What are anterior direct bonded restorations?”  Anterior direct bonded restorations are commonly known are “fillings” or “bonding” and are placed on front/anterior teeth.  A restoration or “filling”  may be recommended by the doctors due to decay, missing enamel due to trauma or simply to optimize our patient’s aesthetic needs.

In her recent course work, Dr. Andersen worked with numerous dentists from various parts of the world, all gathering together for the common goal of getting acquainted with recent advancements in aesthetic dentistry.  The Fahl Center in Curitiba specifically trains dentists in cutting-edge cosmetic dentistry techniques.  These techniques help assure that direct bonded restorations are long lasting and look very natural.  While some teeth may still require a veneer or crown to be optimally restored, direct bonded restorations provide a more conservative treatment option.

If you have any questions or would be interested in learning more about your options for a new and improved smile, please feel free to call us and set up your complimentary consultation today!

Door Creek Dental is proud to join other companies that support green power, investing in cleaner energy for our community through MGE’s Green Power Tomorrow program. And, together we do make a difference.

Collectively, we offset more than 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. This helps our community:

• Reduce global climate change
• Reduce the environmental impacts of developing fossil fuel resources
• Reduce our dependence on scarce energy sources
• Reduce our dependence on foreign energy resources

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Other Door Creek Dental green practices include recycling office supplies, creating patient “welcome bags” from post-consumable products and stocking the employee kitchen with non-disposable dishes and silverware and filtered water instead of bottled.

We have programmable thermostats throughout the office and keep temps a bit lower than many offices. To minimize solar gain, windows are covered with light-filtering film and have adjustable blinds. To save water, the building has low-flow toilets and motion sensor faucets that only run when users wave their hands under them.

Good lighting is critical in the operatories, so we worked with MGE to ensure high-efficiency lighting delivered excellent light quality. Each room has multiple switches, linked to multi-bulb fixtures, to ensure optimum lighting flexibility. We also use motion sensors and timed external lights.

We are in the midst of completing our transition to a completely electronic office. This will save paper and keep plastic (from xray film processing) out of the landfill.

Whether it’s recycling, working to create a paperless office or carpooling to work, our team is completely dedicated. Everyone understands how important it is for each person to do their part, and the difference that every small change can make.

A great big thank you to Kendra, Charley, Sydney, Brooke, Lindsay, Simone, Cassie, Grace, Jasia, Kira, Kendra, Audrey, Kaitlyn, Elise & Marcia of Girl Scout Troop #2529 for allowing us to be a part of their community service project. Door Creek Dental was happy to donate toothbrushes, toothpaste and lip balm to be included in the care kits that the Troop assembled to be given out at Bethel Lutheran Food Pantry in December.  Kudos to all of you for a job well done!

We will be closed on Friday, Jan 1 for New Year’s. We wish all of you a very safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing you in 2010!

For the safety of our patients and our staff, Door Creek Dental will be closed Wednesday 12/09/09 due to the blizzard. Stay safe & warm!

With the cold and flu season upon us and heightened awareness due to the H1N1 virus we thought this would be a great time to inform you of our sterilization procedures.

We have very stringent procedures for sterilization to protect both our patients and our staff. Everything that is touched is sterilized in between patients. This even includes things such as pens, drawer handles, the overhead light, the computer keyboard and mouse. Our keyboards have a protective covering that makes them much easier to sterilize between patients. All of our sterilization procedures, from wipe down medical grade disinfectant to steamed autoclave for our instruments are approved and recommended by The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and are compliant with Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

Rest assured that at Door Creek Dental we are taking all the necessary steps to make sure that your health is protected when you are in our office.

Want free dental care for life? Go to http://sonicare.com/start/free-dental-care-for-life.asp for details and your chance to win. Good luck!

At the end of October, 2009 we returned back to Sumango, Guatemala in an effort to assist Los Olivos again by setting up a week long dental clinic.

 Our team was comprised of three dentists, two hygienists and a medical group that served as awesome dental assistants. We treated over 250 patients for prevention, fillings and extractions. The team meshed very well and the week went so smoothly.

As before, it was a very rewarding experience and a good reminder of how lucky we are here to have preventative dentistry. The dental need is so great there, it’s difficult to take in unless you choose to just see each person as an individual. Although the Guatemalans are thankful for us, we feel that we receive the bigger blessing through the entire experience of their culture, gratitude and example of kindness, family and compassion for their people.

Thank you for your interest.

Scott Kirkpatrick, DMD & Krysta Wetzel RDH

Congrats to McKenna K for winning the $25 Barnes & Noble gift card that we gave away in conjunction with the Halloween candy buy back. Her name was drawn from all of the children that traded in their candy. This is our first year offering the candy buy back, so we are very happy to report that we collected 50 pounds of candy and donated it to Project H.O.M.E. (Help Our Military Every Day). Karen Schilling and Judy Anderson of Project H.O.M.E. have sent over 4500 care packages and over 8700 birthday cards to American troops in the Middle East. Want to help Project H.O.M.E.? Contact Karen at karens51@ameritech.net. Thanks to everyone that partipated in our candy buy back and made it such a great success!

Hi kids, bring your halloween candy in November 2 - November 6 during normal business hours. (Monday - Thursday 8 am to 5 pm, and Friday 7 am to 1 pm) and we’ll give you $5, plus you’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. You must be 15 or younger to participate.

Tell your friends & neighbors - You don’t need to be a patient at Door Creek Dental to participate.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Door Creek Dental!