“The importance of establishing good oral health habits in children has long been recognized, but it is equally important for older adults,” said Dr. Arwinder Judge, vice president of clinical support at Aspen Dental Management, Inc. “For example, receding gum tissue, a condition that can expose the roots of teeth and make them more vulnerable to decay and infection, is a common problem associated with aging. That means that regular oral health care becomes even more critical.”

Dr. Judge added, “Dentists can also detect problems that go far beyond the mouth, including early signals of heart disease, diabetes and vitamin deficiencies. Think of the dentist as an essential part of your larger health care team.”

General Oral Health Advice for Older Adults

• Visit your dentist for regular hygiene checkups. The dentist doesn’t just look at your teeth, but at your whole mouth. That means that even patients who have no natural teeth and wear full dentures should have their mouth examined not only for signs of gum disease or oral cancer, but also for proper denture fit. A change in the fit of dentures could indicate gum disease or underlying bone loss.
• Remember that cavities don’t just happen in kids. Among the 95 percent of older adults who still have teeth, more than nine out of 10 have cavities. This includes about one-fourth who haven’t received treatment for their decay.
• Tell your dentist about any medical conditions, recent operations, allergies, and medications you may be taking, or changes to your medications. This will avoid any potential adverse interactions with the medications that your dentist may prescribe. Plus, more than 400 commonly used medications for common conditions like high blood pressure and depression can be the cause of dry mouth. A reduction of the flow of saliva increases the risk for oral disease.

  Oral Care Advice for Denture-Wearers

• Think about how your dentures fit.  The tissues in the mouth change over time, and bone and gum ridges shrink. This can result in ill-fitting dentures that make eating uncomfortable or downright painful. Nearly 50 million Americans wear dentures; the average denture-wearer gets his or her first set of dentures in their mid-50s. But while the American Dental Association recommends that dentures be replaced every five to seven years, many people keep the same set of dentures for much longer. So talk to your dentist about denture fit.
• Use the correct amount of denture cream.  If you experience discomfort or if you are using more than one tube of denture cream every three weeks, your dentures may not fit properly and should be evaluated. Your dentist can tell you if they need to be adjusted or replaced.
• Consider your diet and nutrition. Wearing poorly fitted dentures can not only cause sores or pain in the mouth — it can also prevent healthy eating. Research indicates that people with ill-fitting dentures have poorer nutrition than those with well-fitted dentures or natural teeth due to the difficulty they have in chewing foods, especially certain fruits and vegetables.

To learn more about special offers and discounts at Aspen Dental, visit www.aspendental.com/appointment.dental.offers.php.

About Aspen Dental

With nearly 300 practices in 22 states, Aspen Dental is one of the largest and fastest-growing networks of dental care providers in the U.S. Dentists and staff at Aspen Dental are committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality care. All Aspen Dental locations are accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which signals a commitment to meeting certain standards of service and making a good faith effort to resolve consumer complaints.

In 2010, Aspen Dental practices recorded nearly 1.9 million patient visits, including visits from more than 422,000 new patients. Patients can learn what to expect during their first visit at www.aspendental.com/appointment.first.visit.html.

For more information about Aspen Dental or to make an appointment, visit www.aspendental.com or call 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633). To learn more about careers at Aspen Dental, visit www.aspendentaljobs.com. 

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When Steve Wallace and the 5-Hour Energy Camry take the green flag on February 20th at NASCAR’s most historic venue, the well-pedigreed racer will write his own chapter in NASCAR history.  His Sprint Cup debut will make the Wallace family the first ever to have produced four Daytona 500 competitors, breaking a longtime tie with the Petty, Allison, Earnhardt and Bodine families.  When Wallace starts the 2011 event, a member of his family will have competed in 27 of the last 30 Daytona 500s.

The third-generation driver will have familiar leadership for his first run in The Great American Race, as RWR General Manager, Larry Carter, will serve as crew chief for the No. 77 5-Hour Energy Toyota.  A veteran Sprint Cup crew chief, Carter led Rusty Wallace to a top-ten in the elder Wallace’s final Daytona 500 in 2005, as well as a fourth-place finish in the July 2005 event at Daytona.

Providing additional comfort to the younger Wallace in his Cup Series debut is a guaranteed place among the 43-car starting field, enabled through an agreement between RWR and Penske Racing.

Said Steve Wallace, “Starting my first Daytona 500 is definitely going to be the most exciting day of my career—make that my life—so far.  It’s something that every kid wanting to be a racer—including me—dreams of doing one day.  It’s the some of the best drivers in the world competing in the biggest race in the world.  I really have to thank 5-Hour Energy and Aspen Dental for making this possible.

“As far as the race, my goals are simple: to stay out of trouble, earn all the respect I can from the other guys and make sure the 5-Hour Energy Toyota is there at the end of the race.  The way restrictor plate racing goes, if we can do that, there’s no telling what can happen.”

If his Nationwide Series record is any proof, Wallace has shown his ability to survive—and thrive—on Daytona’s high banks.  Wallace has four lead-lap top-15 finishes in his last five Daytona starts, including a top-ten in last February’s 300-miler.  In the other event, Wallace ran among the contenders until being taken out by a bizarre incident for which Jason Leffler was penalized five laps.

Team owner Rusty Wallace shares his son’s enthusiasm for the event. “This is a big event for all of us—for Steve, our team, our family and our sponsors,” Wallace stated, “When you’re a young driver coming up, you dream about racing in the Daytona 500 and now Steve’s going to get the opportunity to do it.  He’s grown by leaps and bounds as a driver in the Nationwide Series over the last few years and we think he’s ready for this opportunity.

“We’ve been looking at this race as an opportunity for a while, because I really believe that the new pavement at Daytona is going to be a great equalizer among the teams.  The cars will have a ton of grip and it’s going to make handling a much smaller part of the equation.

“Our program for Daytona has come together pretty quickly and I really want to thank 5-Hour Energy and Aspen Dental for coming aboard to support it.”

# # #

About Rusty Wallace Racing, LLC

North Carolina-based Rusty Wallace Racing (RWR) is a professional auto racing team steeped in the legendary history of its founder, Rusty Wallace—one of NASCAR’s top-ten drivers of all-time.  The team currently campaigns the No. 66 and No. 62 Toyota Camrys in the prestigious NASCAR Nationwide Series, driven by Steve Wallace and Michael Annett, respectively. RWR entries have been among the top-ten in the final Nationwide Series driver or owner standings in each of the last three seasons.  For more on Rusty Wallace Racing, please visit the award-winning rustywallace.com.

About Living Essentials, LLC

Living Essentials based in Farmington Hills Michigan, is the maker of 5-Hour Energy®, the category leader of 2 oz. liquid energy shots.  5 Hour Energy® is available nationwide in major retailers in the Grocery, Drug Store, Mass Merchant Warehouse and Convenience Store classes of trade.  Living Essentials sells over 7 million bottles of 5 Hour Energy® per week.  For more information, please visit 5hourenergy.com.

About Aspen Dental

With more than 275 dental practices in 21 states, Aspen Dental is committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality dental care in a welcoming environment. Services range from dentures and preventive care to general dentistry and restoration. Aspen Dental offices are open extended hours, offer affordable fees and a wide range of flexible payment plan options, and work with all insurance providers. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome. For more information, call 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633) or visit www.aspendental.com.

Wallace announced Wednesday he had landed Aspen Dental as a new sponsor for Nationwide driver Brendan Gaughan for the final race of the season at Homestead. The agreement is with Aspen Dental of Syracuse for Gaughan’s No. 62 Toyota.

“This is good to have a sponsor like this that’s gonna help us in this economy, help us get our race teams going, and be partners of ours for a long time to come,” Wallace said. “This is a one-off right now, but we’re looking for these guys to be major partners.”

Aspen Dental marketing director Mike Petrosillo said the company, which has 255 dental practices in 21 states, looked at a lot of race teams before deciding on Wallace. The company hopes to extend the sponsorship through next year with a goal of reaching the Cup level if and when Wallace makes the jump.

“We’re committed to this for the long term,” Petrosillo said. “We believe you’ve got to stick with things to make them work, and we plan to do that. We would go to the Cup level with Rusty. That’s the big win, racing on Sunday.”

Wallace said he was ready to move to such a level this year if he could have found sponsorship.

“I’ll tell you, it is super expensive,” Wallace said. “It costs about $6 million a year to run one of these Nationwide cars and it costs about $18 million to run the Cup series. It doesn’t have to all come from one sponsor, but I think the days of having one major sponsor on a car all year long are about over.”

Half of Gaughan’s races are sponsored by a casino and the other half by various entities.

Wallace’s announcement came on a day when the owner of Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis said it would cease all operations at the track. Dover Motorsports Inc. said in a release the track could no longer be operated with an “acceptable return.”

The company previously announced that it would not look to run any NASCAR Series events at the facility in 2011. The track ran its final NASCAR Nationwide Series event last month.

“Some racetracks have struggled and some have not,” said Wallace, co-owner of Iowa Speedway. “For whatever reason, Gateway struggled because they just couldn’t seem to get the crowds across that bridge to the track. Some of the major metro cities, there’s a lot to do. I hate to see St. Louis go because it’s a great track, but I just think they could have done a better job promoting that thing.”

As part of the agreement, Aspen Dental is the exclusive ticket back sponsor of individual game and group tickets, outdoor and club season tickets and suite season tickets.  The ticket backs contain exclusive offers for Bills fans.

In addition, the Aspen Dental Name that Smile promotion on game days gives fans the opportunity to win prizes while they guess which player’s smile is projected on the big screen. Aspen Dental will also advertise on the Bills website and participate in exclusive Bills fan e-mail campaigns.

Beginning in late August, fans can also play Name that Smile on the Bills website, buffalobills.com. The site will show a player’s smile and give fans three names to choose from.  Once they have voted, they will receive an exclusive Bills fan offer redeemable at any Aspen Dental office.

“Aspen Dental and the Bills both strive to provide high quality, affordable service and products,” said Bruce Popko, Bills senior vice president of business development.  “The Bills partnership with Aspen Dental will highlight some fun promotional opportunities that will connect well with our fans.”

Aspen Dental practices are committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality care under the Aspen Dental brand. Aspen Dental practices are nationally accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and maintain an A rating with the BBB’s Reliability Report. The Aspen Dental network is comprised of more than 240 locations in 20 states. In 2009, Aspen Dental doctors recorded more than 1.5 million patient visits, including visits from more than 340,000 new patients. For more information about Aspen Dental practices and services, please visit www.aspendent.com. To learn more about careers at Aspen Dental, please visit www.aspendentaljobs.com.

Members of the Training and Development team at Aspen Dental Management, Inc. received a CNY BEST Learning and Performance award from the American Society for Training and Development in recognition of excellence in learning and performance practices that link learning to strategic growth. Members of the ADMI team are as follows. Front, left to right: Robin Ivens, Operations Trainer; Carrie Clark, Manager, Operations Training; Lisa Brennan, Operations Trainer; David Sokolowski, Managing Director, Training and Development. Rear, left to right: Lenore O'Connor, Director, Operations Training; Mark Britz, Instructional Designer.

Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI) received a CNY BEST Learning and Performance award from the American Society for Training and Development in recognition of excellence in learning and performance practices that link learning to strategic growth.

ADMI’s Training and Development team was honored at the CNY BEST Awards Ceremony on June 10, 2010 for its Blended Learning Approach, a program based on the philosophy that today’s employees require ongoing support for learning, rather than single, exhaustive knowledge download. The team developed a series of e-learning modules using rapid e-learning tools, which were supplemented by written job-aids, SharePoint blogs and wikis to provide ongoing support and education. The program not only showed significant cost savings over traditional training delivery methods but also resulted in improved performance.

“Our training and development team fully believes that employees derive the greatest benefit from consistent, ongoing learning opportunities,” said David Sokolowski, managing director of training and development at ADMI. “Developing and implementing solid programs for clinicians and office staff in more than 245 Aspen Dental practices across 20 states is a huge challenge, so I’m incredibly proud of the team’s ingenuity in creating and implementing this award-winning initiative.”

ADMI has invested significantly in training in recent years; the company’s Practice Support Center in East Syracuse, which opened in 2006, houses a 90-seat auditorium to host regular, onsite training sessions. In 2009 alone, ADMI invested more than $6 million in support of professional development initiatives for 750 doctors, hygienists and office managers at the Support Center and in the field.

In addition to Sokolowski, members of the ADMI Training and Development team include Lenore O’Connor, director of operations training; Mark Britz, instructional designer; Carrie Clark, manager, operations training; Lisa Brennan, operations trainer; Robin Ivens, operations trainer; Mike Jimerson, director of laboratory performance improvement and Teresa Clonan, administrative assistant.

ABOUT ASPEN DENTAL & ADMI
With more than 245 locations in 20 states, Aspen Dental practices are committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality dental care under the Aspen Dental brand. Aspen Dental practices are nationally accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and maintain an A+ rating with the BBB’s Reliability Report.

The Aspen Dental network of practices is supported by Aspen Dental Management, Inc. (ADMI), one of the largest and fastest-growing providers of integrated business services to dental practices in the U.S.

ADMI provides business expertise that allows dentists to focus on providing quality care to their patients. These services include training and professional development, benefits administration, marketing, insurance processing, procurement, facilities and equipment.

To learn more about careers at Aspen Dental, please visit www.aspendentaljobs.com. 

Fall for Smiles is a public messaging campaign conducted in collaboration with Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait, an initiative of the Dental Trade Alliance. The campaign begins in September 2010 to promote messages to consumers about the importance of self-care, good nutrition, regular dental visits, and tobacco avoidance in maintaining oral health.

During the campaign, OHA will announce the results of a public opinion survey on consumers’ beliefs about oral health. Sponsored by Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait and Plackers dental flossers, the survey of more than 1,000 adults and more than 1,000 children asked questions about oral care habits and perceptions.

Prior OHA surveys have shown that adults are unaware of the role that infectious bacteria play in tooth decay, and that time spent brushing teeth tends to diminish at nighttime and on weekends. This suggests that routines play a role in optimum oral care habits.

“The Fall for Smiles campaign is intended to bring the oral health community together to promote common messaging about what Americans can do to keep their mouths healthy,” said Beth Truett, president and CEO, Oral Health America.

“We are excited about the strong interest we have from the public and private sectors in a messaging campaign in the third quarter that reminds consumers about the importance of oral care routines as families are heading back to school and back to work.”

Fall for Smiles will include outreach to dental care providers through a participation booklet and kit created by Patterson Dental. The campaign will also dedicate a week to oral health issues faced by mature adults and older Americans, an initiative being sponsored by Aspen Dental. A “Tobacco Free Week” will focus on the oral health risks of tobacco use.

“Oral Healthcare Can’t Wait shares a common purpose with OHA’s Fall for Smiles campaign—to increase dental patient awareness,” said Gary Price, CEO, Dental Trade Alliance. “Our members are encouraged by the collaborative nature of this effort, and the multiple opportunities for outreach to patient populations and opinion leaders throughout the country.”

For more information, visit www.oralhealthamerica.org.

To read more about Oral Health America, go to Oral Health America.

A down economy is fueling growth of a New York-based dental clinic chain, which plans to open three outlets in the Pittsburgh area this year and 36 clinics nationwide by year’s end.

In recent weeks, Aspen Dental opened a clinic in Cranberry Township, and other offices are planned in Homestead and Washington, Pa., said company spokesman Brian Healy. Aspen was founded in 1998 in Syracuse, N.Y., and has annual revenue of around $500 million, with annual revenue growth of 60 percent.

Joining Aspen was “too good of an opportunity to pass up” for Dr. Nathan Laughrey, who bought an Aspen office in the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills in 2006 in a 50-50 investment agreement with the company. All Aspen offices are independently operated. Laughrey always dreamed of having his own practice, but “it was kind of daunting to make the financial commitment.” In addition, Laughrey, who served as general practice residency director at Allegheny General Hospital, worried as the economy tanked and classmates in private practice struggled.

“Dental school really doesn’t teach you a lot about running your own business,” he said.

Aspen Dental’s band Brush performed live at the Landmark Theater during the event on March 26. Nearly 300 employees and family members were on hand to cheer them on, an enthusiastic crowd that won Aspen Dental the “Best Audience Participation” award.

“The American Red Cross does incredible work, both in Central New York and around the globe, and it was a pleasure to participate in this year’s event,” said Rob Connor, chief operating officer at Aspen Dental Management, Inc. “The support that we received from our colleagues demonstrates once again that Aspen Dental is made up of vibrant, passionate people who care deeply about their company and their community.”

Added Michelle Keib, a Red Cross volunteer who chairs the event, “We’re grateful for the generosity demonstrated by the Central New York community during our annual Rockin’ the Red Cross event, which raised approximately $46,000 to help aid families right here in our communities who are affected by disaster. The excitement and enthusiasm of Aspen Dental’s employees really speaks to a culture of community, participation, and volunteerism.”

About Aspen Dental
One of the largest and fastest-growing providers of denture and dental care services in the U.S., Aspen Dental practices are committed to providing patients with affordable, high-quality care under the Aspen Dental brand.

There are currently more than 235 Aspen Dental locations in 20 states. In 2009, Aspen Dental recorded more than 1.5 million patient visits, including visits from more than 340,000 new patients.

Aspen Dental doctors and staff help meet the demand for high-quality, yet affordable denture and dental services by offering convenient retail locations, extended hours, affordable fees and a wide range of payment plan options. The offices work with all insurance plans.

For more information about Aspen Dental and the services it provides, please visit www.aspendent.com. To learn more about careers at Aspen Dental, please visit www.aspendentaljobs.com.

The hockey day begins with a “masters” game, featuring players generally age 50 and older, between the Syracuse Gray Wolves and the visiting Rochester Rockers hitting the ice at 3:00 p.m. in the Battle for the Denture Cup. I will be in goal for Syracuse. It’s revenge time for the Gray Wolves as last year we were outshot and outscored by Rochester; the game ended with a 2-0 score.

Then, that night at 7:30 p.m. the Syracuse Crunch will take on their East Division rivals, the Albany River Rats, for the “real” game of the day.

As always, the Crunch, from Howard Dolgon, team President to Jim Sarosy, Senior Vice President and right on down to the players, have always been there anxiously waiting to get involved and help central New York in any way they can. The great folks at Aspen Dental have been there as well supporting our community in whatever way they can. In the end, its great organizations coming together for a great cause; the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Admission to the Denture Cup game at 3 p.m. is FREE! Tickets for the Crunch game later that night are still available at various price levels as well.

Hope to see you Saturday!

- Wayne

Wayne Mahar is a hockey enthusiast, with a niche for weather here in Central New York. In January of 1985, Mahar become Syracuse’s first full time meteorologist, which sparked an era of making weather forecasting throughout the area much more serious. In addition to his on-air time on Action News and CNY Central, Mahar is President of Precision Weather Service, a private weather consulting firm. When not on the Weather Deck, Wayne can be found skating between the pipes at area hockey rinks.