Tag: Smile

Guest Post: 7 Reasons Not To Fear The Dentist

1. Your dentist gives you free stuff! Don’t you want free lip balm, toys and all the toothbrushes and floss you can stuff down your pants? After the dentist finishes the exam and cleaning, often these lovely parting gifts await you.

2. Your dentist understands your fear. And will give you plenty of nitrous oxide (laughing gas)! Whether it’s because you had a traumatic experience as a child or you don’t like the idea of someone poking around in your mouth, some people have a real fear of visiting the dentist. According to Comfort Dental of Anderson, Indiana, when patients receive sedation dentistry work, it allows them to have little or no memory of the experience. No reason to be scared, you won’t remember anything!

3. Your dentist helps you have a winning smile. Say goodbye to crooked and yellow teeth! Smiling helps facilitate better first impressions and makes you look more attractive. Your dentist can help create a million-dollar smile–whether it’s a professional teeth whitening session or straightening your teeth with braces. Your teeth will look so stellar that friends and family will no longer ask about your uncanny resemblance to Count Dracula!

4. Dentists use the latest technology. No rusty tools a-la Little Shop of Horrors. Today’s dentists’ offices are more like Star Trek (Beam Me up Scotty!). Offices are equipped with the latest technology so procedures are not only less invasive but also allow patients to feel more comfortable. There are many new technologies that accomplish these goals, such as devices that even eliminate the need of the fear-inducing drill.

5. Your dentist keeps you healthy. If your dentist spots something like oral cancer during a routine checkup, you can thank them for saving your life. Truth is you only have one set of teeth. If you deal with dental issues before they become a problem, chances are you won’t be so scared to go because there won’t be any major problems. Crazy concept, we know.

6. Calming atmospheres and soothing music. Some dentists’ offices have transformed into downright spas! Televisions, calming music, chamomile tea and white noise machines with ocean sounds are just a few of the amenities that provide a calming and inviting dental experience.

7. Your dentist knows what he is doing. They went to school…for many, many years! Becoming a dentist involves at least two to three years of prerequisite science courses during the four years of college to receive an undergraduate degree , and dental school is another four years. Throughout schooling, dental students have intensive instruction that involves nine hours of lectures and/or lab five days a week, totaling about 100 credit hours of classes each year.

After all the years of school, they still need to be licensed by the state before they can practice. They need to pass the National Board Dental Examinations and clinical board examinations to show that they are competent to practice dentistry. Some states may even require one to two years of residency. And if your dentist decides to specialize in anything from pediatric dentistry to periodontics, that involves even more years of schooling. All this makes them super smart, so you trust them to look in your mouth.

Becoming a dentist takes hard work and extensive training. So have no fear. You are in good hands!

If you have a dentist who had put you at ease, nominate them here.

Post contributed by Alisa Vilabrera of TopDentists.com

September 23, 2012
7 Reasons To Smile At A Stranger

The other week I came across a nice little campaign from a New York City-based good karma deliverer. Going by the name of Urban Muser, he/she is leaving notes in subway stations and on trains encouraging people to smile at strangers. And then other people, from all over the world, are doing it too. It’s a lovely idea, simply but effectively executed. We should smile at strangers more. Here’s why:

Smile At A Stranger by Kim Tackett

1. Love. It’s easily done. You’re sitting on the bus and bham! your future wife/husband sits in the seat opposite you. You don’t know them. You’ve never seen them before in your life, but something deep down in your loins says this is the one for you. So, what do you do? Do you carry on reading the paper and hope they come over and ravish you right then and there or do you take matters into your own hands? All you have to do is catch their eye and smile at them. The chances are they’ll immediately turn away, but don’t fret this is natural instinct. They’ll turn back. And when they do, smile again. If they smile back, you’re in. If they don’t, never mind. Just make sure you get off at the next stop. You don’t want to be accused of stalking.

2. Opinions. Maybe you’ve just had a session in the dentist’s chair and now want an opinion on your freshly cleaned pearly whites. Smile at someone. If they whip out their sunglasses you’ll know your dentist has done a good job. If they ask you if you’d like to borrow a bit of dental floss, you know you’ve just been ripped off.

3. Cracked It. Have you noticed that people find chimpanzees and monkeys cute? This can’t be because they pick both their noses and bottoms. That’s disgusting. It must be because they have a cheeky smile. So the next time someone catches you with your hand down your pants just smile at them. They’ll immediately fall for you.

4. Annoy. If someone is annoying you, don’t fire the staple-gun at their head again, smile at them. And don’t stop. Get in their face and smile at them. Even when they ask you what you’re smiling at, don’t stop. Don’t even speak. Just keep smiling. I guarantee that within two minutes they will be far more hacked off with you than you were with them. Especially if you follow them into the toilets and peer over the cubicle door.

5. Intrigue. Just go and sit in a cafe and smile at your fellow coffee drinkers. They’ll wonder what on earth you are smiling at. They’ll be intrigued by you. Are you coming on to them? Are you a spy? Do they have froth on their top lip? Just don’t smile at the girl with the big boyfriend. Especially if you are with your own girlfriend.

6. Reactions. When I was a schoolboy, I was cool. Whenever I went off to another school in the minibus to play rugby or cricket or hockey or other posh-boy sports (like chess), I used to smile and wave at random people as we passed by. In wasn’t a casual smile and wave though, this was a smile and wave that screamed, ‘Hello! I know you!’. The double-takes were priceless. In the minibus I was heralded a genius. Though when in France I accompanied it with a “Salut!” and a boy on a bike very nearly killed himself under a lorry. So you’ve go to choose your moments wisely. An you can do too much. So my advice is don’t do the French shouting to start with. Or the waving. Build it up over a period of time. To begin with, just smile as you walk past someone. A smile that says, ‘I know you!’. You’ll enjoy it, I promise. One day, if you’re lucky, you might become cool too.

7. Contagious. Smiling, like laughing, is contagious. According to the Guinness World Record website, there is no world-record for the number of people smiling at once. (Though, incidentally, I have just set it with the grand total of one). Therefore, why not try and set one. Smile at as many strangers as you can and hope that they smile enough to catch someone else’s eye. Then they’ll smile and the cycle will begin. Eventually everyone in the world will be smiling. And that’s a world record that can’t be broken. Here’s a picture of Jon and Marc smiling to get you started.

October 11, 2011
7 Reasons To Like Andy Murray

I know what you’re thinking, ‘Blimey! He’s gone for the impossible post!’ To think like that though, is to underrate my brilliance. Or is it naivety? Either way I am going to do what Andy Murray’s PR Agency has consistently failed to do. Make the miserable, moaning, anti-English, I-don’t-wanna-play-for-the-Davis-Cup-team, tennis supremo, look amiable. Wish me luck.

1. He Always Comes Back. At least when Murray loses, he fronts up, comes back and takes the flack. And you can’t say that about all Scots. Anyone seen that Scottish Prime Minister we once had?

2. Money Is Nothing To Him. Andy has confirmed that he would happily play tennis for free. Which is tremendous of him. I would like to announce here and now that I wish to take him up on his offer. All prize money should now be sent to me. Thanks.

3. Judy Murray. If you don’t like Andy, start now. You are disliking the wrong Murray. Judy is the annoying one. She is the one who thinks Wimbledon is too traditional. And she’s smug. It’s not a good combination. I just look at her and feel annoyed. Try it. It makes you respect Andy. I mean, he has to put up with her all the time.

4. He Has Restraint. You have to hand it to Andy, how he hasn’t punched Gary Richardson yet is something of a miracle. Along with 90% of the nation, he always looks like he wants to. Whenever he tries to walk from the practice courts to the locker-room, Richardson is there, asking stupid bloody questions. ‘How did practice go today, Andy?’, ‘How are you going to play today, Andy?’, ‘Are they your balls Andy?’. And if that’s not enough, Richardson then does the immediate post-match interview, which, without fail, goes like this, ‘Well done. You’ve won. What’s your reaction?’ Come to think of it, if Murray thumped him then I’d probably like him even more.

5. COME ON! Remember the days of the Tim Henman fist clench and the whispered, ‘Come on!’? We all used to hate that. We all wanted him to show a bit more emotion. With Murray comes emotion. When Henman won a great point, he’d clench his fist, look to his mother and father and jog to his chair. Then he’d realise it was only 15-40 and he still had two break-points to save. With Murray, it’s completely different. When he has played a great point he’ll come back out of the crowd, scream about Bonnie Prince Charlie, show his muscles and generally get pumped up. In fact, we get to see Murray at his most excitable point. I pity his girlfriend.

6. He’s Due. I don’t mean a Grand Slam, I mean a smile. The fact is though, that Murray isn’t going to smile until he’s got what he wants. England’s footballers were smiling having been beaten by Germany. Idiots. I only want smiling when you’ve won something. Something major. This is surely what Murray is waiting for. I have faith that he has a great big smile. If we all like him and get behind him, he might just show it to us one day. Possibly on Sunday?

7. He’s Our Only Hope. The fact remains that without Murray, Briton’s have no one to support. You may as well support me for all the other British players coming through the ranks. And you really should be thankful to Murray that you don’t have to do that. Despite what people say, my drop-volley really isn’t worth your applause.

July 2, 2010