Tiwari Watson Dental Blog

Multitasking by writing this one while out walking our dog Fergie today and thinking about a funny appointment I had this week.

One of our patients brought in a set of teeth that she purchased online. ‘Perfect smile veneers’ they were called. She left them with us after we all had a bit of a laugh at how not so perfect they were!

Thankfully she didn’t pay an awful lot for them and they were probably worth it for the laugh we had! Special thanks to our patient for sharing that with us!

I’ve only ever seen the ‘clip on smiles’ once in real life before that. I was talking to someone on our works Christmas night out a few years back and when I mentioned I was a dentist they immediately pulled out their teeth to show me. ‘You’ll love this then’ I’m sure they said. To be fair I was surprised as I didn’t immediately realise their teeth were removable until they were presented to me for inspection! I remember being equally as surprised at what was going on underneath the ‘clip ins’ though.

One of my good friends Calum, a dentist at Dalmuir Dental Care made an excellent review of the clip in smile just this week:

All joking aside my advice is to be aware of buying these type of things online. Some of them may even look ok but could be masking dental disease, or even worse, covering perfectly healthy teeth with this type of thing will inevitably cause future problems.

I get that they are cheap and we all love a bargain, my own wife is a professional yellow sticker hunter. But what happens by ignoring problems or delaying treatment is they become more difficult and therefore potentially more costly to fix.

That’s why as dentists we like to see our patients every 6 months and take X-rays every so often. It allows us to identify for example, early decay that can be fixed with a small filling, rather than ignoring it until it becomes a large filling or a root canal and a crown (or a missing tooth of course!)

We understand that cost is important and will always discuss any fees in detail so that we can come up with a suitable plan that fits your needs, desires and budget.

So if your considering a clip in smile please reconsider and give us a call instead!

Have a good week everyone ,

Joe

Great to see the sunshine back for Mothers Day today! Im hoping this is a sign of some nice weather coming back for Spring/Summer,  although I wouldn’t be surprised if we get another beast from any direction next week.

Also I totally forgot the clocks changed last night, gutted to realise its the one where we get 1 less hour in bed this morning.

We’ve just finished a lovely breakfast though and are now planning a dog walk around the park soon.

Raashi surprised me this Mothers Day weekend actually, I thought she was at Asda yesterday but according to the Manchester United manager she was at Old Trafford bagging her first goal in the premier league. Couldn’t be a prouder husband!

 

Now that Im a dad myself I realise just how much my own mum did for me when I was younger, and the sacrifices she made! Since I moved to Glasgow 12 years ago she calls me (at least) once a day just to check in, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I think its genetic as my Nanny Trisha does the same for her.

Raashi’s mum Manju is always on hand in Glasgow to help us out with cooking, babysitting and everyday life! On the cooking front she has been single handedly been trying to fatten me up for years now, always giving me the extra portions and leftovers. Of course I initially decline but always eat them anyway.

So a special thanks and lots of love  to Raashi, Mum, Nanny, and ManjUnited.

Lots of love to all the mums today – where would we all be without you!

 

 

Have a good week everyone,

 

Joe

 

 

After a busy week this week it was nice to have Saturday off. My mum was over having some dental work done, and babysitting of course.

She left early on Saturday evening to make it back for my brother Nathans boxing match that night. For our desert Raashi and I then tried to make sticky toffee sauce at home but unfortunately there was a strong scent of garlic in the pan. Trust me when I tell you sticky toffee and garlic don’t go well together.

I was glad Nathan pulled the weekend back for the Watson clan with a victory later on that night. I have 3 younger brothers, Nathan being the eldest and weighing in at 9 years younger than me. Although since the age of 12 he’s probably been bigger than me, so he’s been my ‘big’ wee brother since then. I used to joke with friends saying ‘ill get my wee brother for you’ if I ever needed back up.

He was fighting in an international tournament against a Spanish boxer. I couldn’t make it back for it but was delighted to hear he won, and I’ve since seen the video of the fight. I have no idea how boxers do it. As a sport its so demanding. I remember being at the gym once doing an exercise class which involved a punch bag for one of the stations.  Now I know I’m not the fittest but after less than 60 seconds I could barely hold my hands up and the momentum in the bag was nearly enough to knock me over. How these guys do it for 3 minute rounds, when someone is actually trying to hit them back is beyond me! At least in the likes of football, netball, rugby and most team sports you can get your breath back and your team mates can bail you out if needs be. Whereas in boxing, while focusing on catching your breath back you’ve also got to try and not get punched in the face. Crazy!

I’ve seen the hard work that goes in before a fight too. Nathan has a very strict diet, exercises twice daily and to make weight he uses a sweat suit in the sauna on a bike!

So here’s me, inspired by and very proud of my ‘big’ brother this weekend. Congratulations to Nathan – the hard work pays off!

Pele, one of the greatest footballers of all time, sums it up well:

“Success is no accident, it is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you do or are learning to do.”

Have a good week everyone,

 

Joe

 

17th March has always been one of my favourite days of the year. Celebrating the life of St Patrick with a few pints of the black stuff was always a great day out. Personally I had an added gratitude to pay St Paddy for driving all the snakes out of Ireland too, as I’ve always had a snake phobia! Not sure where the myth came from but the phrase ‘St Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland’ was common knowledge when I was growing up and still is I believe.

I always had an image of him driving some sort of horse and cart filled to the brim with snakes on his way to the sea to have them shipped out. True or not, we don’t have many snakes in Ireland so its all good!

Im not even sure where the phobia came from to be honest, I’ve never had a bad experience or anything like that. I do remember watching ‘Anaconda’ once as a kid though and that freaked me out. Maybe that was the trigger.

At Uni I used to share a flat with a vet and he was pondering getting a pet snake at one point. After our discussions he agreed to get a pet rat instead. Not a lot better to be fair but I could at least be in the same building as a rat. If he had chosen the snake I would have moved out of the flat and probably back to Ireland where at least I knew there were no snakes at all, thanks to St Patrick of course.

 

Patients often tell us they have a phobia of the dentist too. What is amazing about treating nervous dental patients is the transformation that comes after just 1 or 2 appointments the phobia can be completely gone!  If your anxious then there is no problem with taking things very slowly when you come in. First appointment would always just be a conversation where we can find out about you and your desires. Then we can chat about how we can achieve those desires. That might involve just taking very small steps with treatment to build confidence, using our video goggles to take your mind off whats happening, or considering IV sedation which will help you feel more relaxed and forget the treatment itself. Take your first step by giving us a call when your ready on 01415573488.

In the mean time enjoy the rest of St Paddy’s day!

Heres our attempt at a nice family St Paddy’s day photo.

 

Have a good week everyone,

 

Joe

 

 

 

 

 

I had an early start on Tuesday this week for a 6am flight to London. I was attending a course on advanced gum surgery that was booked a few weeks previously. My travel arrangements were quite tight in terms of timing, as I didn’t want to spend the evening in London the night before.

So I knew that any delays or mishaps would mean I would definitely be late for the course. I really didn’t want to be the guy who interrupts the lecture by walking in late, no doubt out of breath after running (walking fast) for the first time in at least 6 months. I was therefore glad when we touched down 15 minutes early into London city airport.

Next up was a tram into Euston station. I’ve never been to London city airport before so there was a bit of messing about asking where to go, which platform, when to change etc. Then I spot the queue for the tram… Nightmare, It was huge!

And worse, every tram that comes up is packed already.  When I knew my tram was inbound I began to move towards the edge of the platform. So did everyone else. 100% I knew that If I missed this one, I would be late. As it approached i noticed it was absolutely packed to the rafters too. ‘Sardines’ came to mind. 😦

Thankfully a few people were getting off so I was thinking I might have a chance of getting on. When the last person got off I began shuffling towards the door, trying to be polite by not knocking into anyone. The people behind me weren’t up for that approach though.

All of a sudden there was this massive push to get on and I was helplessly bumping into everyone in front. Apologising all the way I end up on the tram, wedged in with my fellow sardines. What was interesting was that no-one seemed to care enough to look up from their phones when I was bumping into them. Unless of course they were taking selfies while complaining about me.

Anyway, I made it into the course with bags of time to spare as It didn’t actually start until 09.30 and not 09.00 as I thought. There was a free breakfast so obviously I made the most of that to help me soak up the day ahead. Ill not bore you with the details but it was a great course and well worth the trip. And I made it back home in time for a pancake before bed.

Our dentist Laura was also on a sedation course in Glasgow on Tuesday and although it was 9-5, she came back to work from 6-8pm to provide cover for any emergency patients that day. The same day our nurses Gemma and Bili paid a visit to St Cuthberts Primary school for a world of work week, talking to the children about what its like to work in a dental practice.

As a team we’re always striving to improve our own skills, for the benefit of our patients and I look forward to more courses in the future for all of our staff. If you have any questions about any of the services that we offer give us a call on 01415573488.

 

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Friday night we enjoyed a team night out to 29 in Glasgow city centre. The occasion was a celebration of successfully completing our practice inspection (which comes along every 3 years) and to thank all our staff for working so hard lately. Our new computer system is amazing although its been a steep learning curve to get to grips with and everyone has really mucked in with it – so it was nice to pay a small thanks to our amazing team.

My mum was over visiting from Belfast on Friday so we even had a free babysitter for the night. The best bit about that was the 12pm lie in for me on Saturday and the fact that mum literally volunteered to change nappies when required. When its a number 2, Raashi and I sometimes try to negotiate who’s on duty for the task ahead, so the words “let me change it” from mum were music to my ears! 😉

Friday was good fun and I am looking forward to our next team event. We’re working on a fundraiser for Marie Curie in the near future so that should be great too with what we have lined up.

On Thursday this week we took it in turns to help raise funds at the Tesco in Springburn. I couldn’t believe the generosity of everyone, Marie Curie haven’t counted it yet but I was overwhelmed by the fact so many people stopped to put change in and chat to us. Our tubs were all full! One person even gave me a £10 note which I was quite smug about, until just before we left, deep into injury time, my collection partner Gemma scored a winner with a £20 donation from a very generous lady! A small part of me was jealous that she had secured the biggest donation, but it was lovely to see how much people appreciate the work that Marie Curie do.

Looking ahead to next week its pancake Tuesday, and i’m excited as i’ve got big plans to eat hundreds of them, ideally covered in chocolate. After that I am adamant that i’m going to start eating healthier and exercising more often. I’ve been trying for ages so this is finally it im telling myself (touch wood/fingers crossed and praying emoji!)

Religious or not, lent is normally a good time to set up new challenges or give things up.  I hope the team at work can help me out on this front by hiding any chocolate biscuits we have lying about in the staff room, or eating them before I get the chance to. Similarly, if you’ve been too anxious to book an appointment for a while, why not set yourself the challenge to do it over lent. We’d all be delighted to see you!

 

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having moved over from Belfast for University, I’m now enjoying my 12th year of being in Glasgow. I remember when I first came over my thick Belfast twang was seldom understood. I got used to seeing the confused look remain on a persons face after the third time of saying ‘sorry what?’ after I had asked them a question. And we all know that after 3 times of not understanding someone its worth just smiling and nodding and hoping that’ll do the trick.

After getting a lot of smiling and nodding to my questions I quickly realised I had to change something if I was going to be understood in my new home city. So I slowed down a lot and changed the pronunciation of certain words, like ‘shower’ instead of ‘shar’, ‘towel’ instead of ‘tal’, and ‘roll and sausage’ instead of ‘sausage bap.’

I also managed to pick up on the Glaswegian fairly quickly too. ‘Pieces’ actually meaning the whole sandwich and not just parts of it. ‘Ginger’ being a fizzy drink and not just a hair colour or spice. ‘Gonnae and cannae’ were my personal favourites. One that took me a while to get though was when someone says ‘how?’ and they actually mean ‘why?’  I did my fair share of smiling and nodding with that one for a while if I’m honest.

At one point I realised I had maybe taken mellowing of the accent too far when I was describing an x-ray to a patient who hadn’t been in for 2 years. He said to me ‘you know something when I was last in, another dentist told me the exact same thing.’

My reply:  ‘yes that was me’

To which he said: ‘no it was an Irish guy’.

(insert embarrassed emoji face)

Just this week I had a funny debate with my two year old daughter about how to pronounce ‘water’. Apparently I say it funny so perhaps some of the Belfast twang is still holding on.

We’ve got another Irish accent at the practice now with our dentist Laura so its nice to hear the familiar tones around again.

Accents aside, dentistry can be another language in itself, however when explaining treatments we will always keep the technical jargon to an absolute minimum. We’ve even got models of what a ‘crown’, ‘bridge’, ‘implant’ etc look like so that we can help explain these options. We also have the facility to email videos of treatments over to help our patients understand the options clearly before making a decision.

If there is a language barrier we can help arrange for an interpreter to be present, though our very own Mr Chan speaks cantonese and malay too.

 

Have a good week everyone, or ‘catch ye’ 🙂

 

Joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling very refreshed today after a 10 hour sleep last night! Our new baby Sienna is starting to sleep for a bit longer at the moment which is great, and when she does wake up I do feel a bit guilty for nodding back off to sleep but (un)fortunately I don’t have the tools required for breastfeeding.

Normally I would get up with our eldest daughter Mila when she wakes up, this morning that was at 7.30am and although I did try to convince her back to go back to sleep, she was having absolutely none of it. She was ready for the day ahead. Thankfully so too was Raashi (somehow!) which meant I was able to lie in until 10am – bliss!

It was lovely to then head out for a late breakfast with our friends Claire, Jez and their son Jack who are over visiting from my home town, Belfast. We went to a place on Great Western Road called Public House by Nico. Definite 5*’s from me.

The menu all sounded delicious, and I’m sure everyone will sympathise that when your hungry its hard to pick just one thing. I wanted all of it. I decided not to ask the waiter what he would recommend and settled for the Full Scottish (minus the mushrooms of course).

Looking back I realised that having so many options can be confusing. Scrambled, fried, poached or benedict??

It got me thinking maybe this is what its like for our patients. After presenting all the options I usually get asked ‘what would you recommend?’

I always try to empathise with my patients, by putting myself in their shoes and asking ‘if I was in this situation what would I do?’

I’m happy to give those suggestions but ultimately the choice is always yours. Our staff will give you all the information you need to make an informed decision. If you aren’t sure about whats on our menu please just ask, our signature dish will always be friendly advice.

 

Have a good week everyone,

Joe

 

New years resolutions. Who has managed to survive past January and is still going strong with them? Raashi and I wrote ours on a piece of paper and signed it, then stuck it to the fridge as a constant reminder for ourselves to try to stick to them.

Among others they are:

Me:          Get up at 6.30am every (work) day, do any admin tasks then have breakfast. (I don’t always eat breakfast and doing admin in the morning means I have more free family time in the evenings after work)

Raashi:     No McDonalds for the year

Both:        Eat healthier more often, exercise at least once per week and keep Screen time limited to 30mins max on social media and only essential apps 10pm-7am (essential being calls and alarm)

The 1st and 2nd Jan obviously don’t count but we then got off to a flying start on the 3rd and 4th. Two solid days of sticking to it. Our beautiful second baby girl Sienna then arrived on the 5th. At that time I thought it was fair to take 2 weeks paternity/maternity privileges but unfortunately since then we’ve not really got back to it.

Having said that, this week I did manage a light jog at lunch time on Thursday. Sadly it was because of the rain I was forced to run to and from McDonald’s for my McChicken sandwich meal.  To be fair to Raashi she has stuck to that one. I made no such promises in relation to the Golden Arches as I knew I’d fail.

The phone one is a great idea, the problem is it’s too easy to click ‘remind me in 15minutes’ when your phone notifies you its time to stop procrastinating.

Exercise wise we both used to play team sports. Such an easy and enjoyable way to keep fit. And you push yourself because you don’t want to let your team mates down! Injuries and time mean we can’t really commit to that any longer so it’s a case of trying to go to the gym when we can. Personally I absolutely hate going to a gym. I find it boring and in the absence of team mates my routine is to pretend to work hard for 30 minutes then go for a sauna/steam. Sometimes I used to go and completely skip the first part and head straight for the sauna steam, coming out feeling refreshed having convinced myself it was a ‘good sesh’ that day.

We have been making plans to relocate our practice and in the new premises I am planning for plenty of parking but also a bike shed and shower so we can all cycle to work. In the mean time if anyone has any good ideas of how to keep fit easily i’m all ears!

 

We made some New years resolutions/targets at work too and with the benefit of teamwork we’ve been doing really well on this front.

One of these was to raise £1000 for Marie Curie Hospice in Balornock, so far we’re at roughly £100 which has actually been from our patients kindly donating £1 to enter our competition this month.

We’ll announce the winner of this next week so keep an eye on our FB page – someone will win one of our professional tooth whitening kits worth £250!

Here’s the challenge if anyone wants to have a go – match up the baby photos to the team members. You can donate on FB although they set the minimum donation to £4, so you can enter x4 or alternatively you can enter in practice too.

 

I hope you are all doing well sticking to your own resolutions, if not maybe we can all share a ‘starting again from now’ challenge 😉

 

Have a good week everyone,

 

Joe

 

 

Saturday night used to be a going out night for Raashi and I.

After a hard week at work it was great to go out with friends and enjoy a few beers or wine.

This weekend I realised just how much times have changed for us when the only ‘going out’ we were interested in was a trip to Asda to buy an emergency supply of chocolate for a sofa dwelling evening ahead!

We’ve just started a new box set, The assassination of Gianni Versace, during which we made a strong dent in the emergency supplies and even managed a glass of wine too -although I nearly fell asleep half way through that. Other young parents or those who have been at this stage of life before will no doubt know the feeling.

 

I laughed a bit when I realised here we are, two dentists absolutely stuffing our faces with all this chocolate and fizzy drinks  – I wondered what our patients would think.

Before judging us, grab a bag of the dinky deckers and try to eat just one of them!

So, as dentists, when we’re giving out diet advice its a case of do as we say and not as we do – certainly for Raashi and I anyway!

In all seriousness, if you are like us and love chocolate and fizzy drinks, best to limit it to just after meals and use a straw! Snacking constantly on sugary foods or drinks throughout the day is much worse for your teeth. ‘Zero Sugar’ fizzy drinks are better but don’t be fooled into a false sense of oral security – some of them are more acidic than vinegar!

As for kids, my advice is try to avoid giving them any for as long as possible. We don’t deprive our oldest daughter Mila of chocolate completely, but we do our best to limit it. Re fizzy drinks (and fruit shoots!) I would definitely say avoid completely for kids. Mac B water is flavoured and sugar free – if your kids like sweet tasting juice give that a try. Make sure to help them brush their teeth AM & PM too, up until about the age of 7. Mila and I have a battle with the toothbrushing every time but I always make sure I win.

 

Have a good week everyone

 

Joe

(Ps if by some miracle any of you do manage to eat just one of the dinky deckers please bring in the rest of the bag for us)