Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

Chris thanks all of us with sore mouse fingers.

Hey!

Flap says click some more…..you will be glad you did!

Keep hitting the button, Please.

Flap knows you will be glad you did.

Check out this new way to extract (pull) a deciduous (baby) tooth, the Gator Gripper.

How have you removed a loose baby tooth in the past?

* String and a doorknob
* Clump of Kleenex
* Biting into corn on the cob

These methods may seem tried and true, but the fact of the matter is these archaic techniques can be painful and even dangerous!

The patented GatorGripper® is a unique, child-friendly gadget designed to enable adults to grasp and remove a loosened baby tooth. Its slim plastic design allows the GatorGripper® to slip easily into the mouth of a child to grip a loose tooth as it’s safely wiggled free.

One of the most significant elements of the design is that the GatorGripper® applies “pressure numbness” to the loose tooth, which eliminates the pain that is sometimes associated with a baby tooth being extracted.

With the GatorGripper®, you and your family have a safe and affordable way to remove a baby tooth.

Hummmmmmm but do lay folks have the skill and patience to extract a tooth on an apprehensive patient (nee screaming kid).

The lightweight GatorGripper® is safe to use. Parents can easily adjust two settings to grip either a molar (posterior) or a front (anterior) tooth. The GatorGripper® is not like the forceps used by the dentist; the GatorGripper® is a gadget to let you hang on to the tooth and wiggle it free in a painless and simple way.

Dr. Lance Long, a dentist, and one of his patients, Fern Rossi, developed the idea in 1997. After obtaining a United States patent for the GatorGripper® in 1999 and a Canadian patent in 2003, the inventors focused on shifting the design of the GatorGripper® from paper to an actual product.

My dad used Nylon Cord and he was very dexterous but…………this looks too ooooowwwie.

Better to see the dentist.

H/T Baltimore Tales

Flap was discussing with a colleague today about the immense growth of the blogosphere and what it means for dental bulletin boards and web sites. So, I started to compare.

Here is the Dental Town site probably the largest (at least by Howard Farran’s claims) dental bulletin board site. It boasts over 56,000 members (unverifiable and likely a grossly inflated number since so-called Townies can join with more than one name and/or identity). There are no sitemeter counters that Flap can see on the site.

A better indicator of traffic is the number of visitors (dentists most probably but there is no verification of occupation since verification is only an e-mail address) who complete the Dental Town annual survey.

So far only around 800 plus participants have completeed the on-line survey in ten days this month. Granted some dentists may be on vacation, but that only means 80 participants per day.

An estimate of traffic is difficult at best. Of course, Dental Town could place a public site meter on their site but this might influence advertising revenues if their claims do not match reality.

On the other hand, the blogosphere has The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem. Flap has listed the traffic of the top 25 blogs. Tremendous traffic by anyone’s count.

1) Daily Kos: State of the Nation 538162 visits/day (4)
2) Gizmodo: The Gadgets Weblog 212559 visits/day (87)
3) Gawker 149866 visits/day (164)
4) Instapundit.com 131878 visits/day (2)
5) Defamer 129915 visits/day (392)
6) Eschaton 119014 visits/day (10)
7) lgf: this space unintentionally left blank 87399 visits/day (7)
Go Fug Yourself 79098 visits/day (321)
9) Michelle Malkin 75674 visits/day (3)
10) Power Line 72942 visits/day (5)
11) Crooks and Liars 62627 visits/day (58)
12) Scared Monkeys 61630 visits/day (301)
13) Wonkette 56885 visits/day (44)
14) A Socialite’s Life 49944 visits/day (2760)
15) Blogcritics.org 49928 visits/day (68)
16) The Smirking Chimp 42683 visits/day (465)
17) The Washington Monthly 39718 visits/day (16)
18) Riehl World View 34371 visits/day (437)
19) Blog for America 33746 visits/day (645)
20) www.AndrewSullivan.com – Daily Dish 31283 visits/day (18)
21) Captain’s Quarters 28615 visits/day (6)
22) Hugh Hewitt 26906 visits/day (14)
23) Lifehacker 23153 visits/day (464)
24) MyDD :: Due Diligence of Politics, Election Forecast & the World Today 21908 visits/day (80)
25) PoliPundit.com 21367 visits/day (41)

Flap has made his point.

The blogosphere is seen by many more dentists and non-dentists each day than a dedicated dental bulletin board site, Dental Town. Dental Town has a print magazine which is distributed free to thousands of dental offices each month and drives traffic to its site. But, not nearly as much traffic as the blogs.

Why should dental product and service advertisers pay thousands of dollars to Howard Farran’s media group for a worn out, declining print media business and a bulletin board with less traffic?

Look for dental product manufacturers and distributors establishing their own blogs to self-promote and market their products and services. Why pay a middle man?

Ask the Los Angeles Times.

The future belongs to the blogosphere.

Drudge has CABLE CONTROVERSY: CNN AGREES TO AIR BLOODY ABORTION AD ON JUDGE ROBERTS.

CNN has reviewed and agreed to run a controversial ad produced by a pro-abortion group that falsely accuses Supreme Court nominee John Roberts of filing legal papers supporting a convicted clinic bomber!

The news network has agreed to a $125,000 ad buy from NARAL, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, for a commercial which depicts a bombed out 1998 Birmingham, AL abortion clinic.

The Birmingham clinic was bombed seven years after Roberts signed the legal briefing.

The linking of Roberts to “violent fringe groups” is the sharpest attack against the nominee thus far.

However, the non-partisan University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Factcheck.org reviewed the NARAL ad and found it to be “false.”

Factcheck.org found “in words and images, the ad conveys the idea that Roberts took a legal position excusing bombing of abortion clinics, which is false.”

The Republican National Committee is preparing to send a letter to television stations asking them to pull the spot, according to sources.

The RNC’s letter claims: “NARAL’s ad is a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts that has no purpose but to mislead the American people.”

Michelle Malkin has THE ABORTION CROWD GOES NUTS.

In Opinion Journal this morning, Manuel Miranda nails loony NARAL for its inexcusable attack ad against SCOTUS nominee John Roberts.

These people will stop at nothing to smear the most unassailable of conservatives. They wouldn’t know the truth if it drove over them with 18 wheels.

John Hinderaker at Power Line has more.

Ed Whalen over at Bench Memos has been tracking Judge Roberts.

The Washington Post has Press Release: NARAL responds to criticism.

Here is a copy of a lengthy response by NARAL Pro-Choice America to Factcheck.org’s criticism of its ad:

You can view the ad here.

NARAL = YUK!

Here is a sick snuff cartoon.

NARAL President Nancy Keenan said her group isn’t saying Roberts condoned the bombing of clinics. She said, however, that Roberts, through his arguments, essentially supported bombers.

Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, called NARAL’s claims “false and outrageous.”

Indeed.

Technorati Tags: John Roberts, NARAL, Ken Mehlman, Nancy Keenan

Flap saw Pete Rose signing autographs in the shopping plaza adjacent to Caesar’s Palace on Sunday. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

Kind of a shame he bet on baseball.

Palmeiro too.

Technorati Tags: baseball, Pete Rose, Rafael Palmeiro

Thanks to a reader for passing along this from Slate, The Meth-Mouth Myth.

For the last year, a moral panic about methamphetamine and its users has been gathering force, and last week it peaked as Slate‘s corporate sibling, Newsweek magazine, joined the crusade with a cover story. Calling methamphetamine “America’s Most Dangerous Drug,” the magazine also portrayed its use as “epidemic.” In typical moral-panic fashion, Newsweek offered no data to anoint meth as the deadliest of drugs, nor did it prove its assertion that meth use is spreading like a prairie fire. Instead, the magazine relied almost exclusively on anecdotes from law enforcement officials, anti-drug politicians, and users (current and reformed) to stir up emotions against meth and meth-heads.

Read the whole story here.

So, there is no problem with Methamphetamine and a cause for alarm is unwarranted?

This guy is a MORON.

Try some of these pieces:

Combat Methamphetamine Act: Clears Senate Judiciary Committee

Pharmaceutical Companies Reformulating Cold Medicines to Eliminate Pseudoephedrine

Santa Maria Times: meth·am·phet·a·mine: a drug that destroys bodies and lives

Methamphetamine: Meth Mouth ReDux

and how about the images which I see and treat on a weekly basis like

and……

Give the New York Times an honorable mention for an April 12, 2005, story that discusses meth mouth from a public health point of view, stating that the poor dental and oral health of rural, ethnic, and disabled Americans has not improved since a surgeon general called attention to it in 2000 report. Thanks to the American Academy of Periodontology for providing the Richards article on short notice. Thanks to reader Jon Paul Henry for the moral-panic angle. Send e-mail containing an angle of your own to slate.pressbox@gmail.com‘);. (E-mail may be quoted unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Jack Shafer‘); is Slate‘s editor at large.

The article which this moron quotes is grossly misread and I will include the abstract:

(doi:10.1902/jop.2000.71.8.1371)

Dr. John R. Richards

Division of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA.

What exactly is your point?

Meth use is NOT a problem and that this type of dental destruction is due to poor brushing or dietary habits?

The Methamphetamine problem is exaggerated and can be rationalized away?

Flap welcomes your comments.

Arbitrary and Capricious has No myth.

There is a meth problem, and people’s health and families are suffering from it. But who are you going to believe: Slate, or your own lyin’ eyes?

As far as the “myth” of “meth mouth,” who should you trust? Pundits or dentists?

Bonus link: say it with me – Meth is Bad.

Skelly has this one sooooooo RIGHT!

Technorati Tags: methamphetamine, moron, Slate,Jack Shafer, Journal of Periodontology, dental, dentistry