Over this past weekend our Aileen was happily married to long time boyfriend/fiance Adam. The entire office staff was in attendance to celebrate the happy couple. The reception was extremely heart felt and the reception was an absolute blast. Feel free to congratulate Aileen on her recent nuptials during your next visit to the office. We are all so happy for Aileen and Adam!

We have a new Humphries Orthodontics video intro created by Dr. Sage Humphries. This will proceed any video roll on future video projects. Let us know what you think!

The second annual Humphries Orthodontics Patient Appreciation Day is in the books. The event ran quite smoothly and it appeared as though the guests all had a great time. I am proud to announce that we served over 500 burgers and over 250 photos were taken in the Joyfully Yours photo booth.

I would like to thank our wonderful entertainment. The line was full all day long for the balloon twister Gabriel Newton, Color Me Face Painting, and the Joyfully Yours photo booth. Gabriel’s balloon twisting was amazing. I cannot believe the balloon art that he was churning out. I saw one patient leave with a ninja the size of my son. Vanessa’s face painting was so popular that many of the adults found them self getting in on the fun. The energy in the photo booth was amazing. I had a great time looking through some of the pictures from the event on the Joyfully Yours Facebook photo gallery. Feel free to take a look or download yours!

I would like to give a special thank you to our prodigious youth talent, Tyler the magician and singer/songwriter Aly Ashford. You can download Aly’s EP Forever Young on the iTunes store. I have no doubt that we will see great things from both of them as time ensues.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who attended this year’s Patient Appreciation Day. This is the second consecutive year that we have hosted the event and we are very pleased with how it has been received. We feel as though the event improved dramatically between the first and second year and we are all very excited to see what next year brings. Thank you to all of our patients who have entrusted us to take part in their oral health care!

Two weekends ago the NBA ran a spot on Kenneth Faried during a basketball game. I immediately noticed something that very few probably noticed. During the interview the “Manimal” was wearing clear aligner orthodontic appliances. Two things tipped me off. The first is that the maxillary left central incisor is not tracking ideally as you can see a faint gap between the edge of the tooth and the aligner (it is barely off and it may be that he just changed to a new aligner). The second, although barely noticeable, are the attachments on all of his maxillary anterior teeth.

I know that many patients are conscious of attachments on the front teeth. But, watching this spot of the Manimal, with his attachments on, and his aligners in, really shows how conspicuous clear aligner therapy can be. Even with attachments on the from teeth!

Way to go Manimal your teeth are looking great!

I am very proud to announce that, as of February 1st, Humphries Orthodontics now has a third location in Laguna Niguel. I have mentioned the acquisition to several patients over the past several months and many have asked how I was going to find the time to work in a third location. The answer is very simple. I will not be working in the new location.

For those that do not know, my wife, Dr. Alene Humphries, is also an orthodontist. We met as residents at USC and we were married shortly after graduation. It is my wife who will be providing all of the patient care in the new office. I will be involved in the new office, but my contribution will be managerial in nature. I will be involved in implementing the systems that we have in Orange and Artesia in the new office. For example, I spent the good part of this weekend building out the network to make the office all digital (paperless charts, streaming patient entertainment, etc. – the computer backend of our practices is very complex). In addition, we will be installing an iPad bar in the reception area to emulate what we have in the other offices. Every operational aspect of the third office will be the same as our existing offices with the exception of my wife treating the patients rather than myself.

You may be wondering how this will impact the Orange and Artesia offices. The short answer is that it will not. Although Debbie will be helping with the financial transition, and may be in Laguna Niguel from time to time, all of the staff in Orange and Artesia will be the same with one exception. On the days that Laguna Niguel is closed, we will have two additional employees in Orange and Artesia (one front and one back office). This will allow us to better serve our existing patient base.

It has been a long standing dream of ours to acquire a third office to compliment Orange and Artesia. In addition, we always wanted to work together indirectly. The office in Laguna Niguel will allow us to fulfill both of those dreams. We are really excited about the new office and we are confident it will enable us to touch more lives in a positive manner.

Sincerely,

Sage M. Humphries, D.D.S., M.S.

With the beginning of the new year I am very excited to formally announce our new logo. We began to implement this logo on our stationary and web site this past fall but will be transitioning completely to this logo by the spring of 2014.

As many of our patients and their families know, I am intimately involved in every aspect of Humphries Orthodontics. My involvement goes far beyond that of the typical orthodontist. I essentially do everything myself. This ensures that we are able to properly implement my vision. This begins with all of the patient facing elements and extends to everything else including our graphic design and every line of code written for our web site.

When I purchased my first practice (the Orange office) I needed to develop a logo for stationary, letterhead, and everything else. The original “H” logo was designed for our business cards with a specific print process in mind. The silver shading was created to simulate an embossed silver foil. In my opinion the logo looked good on a back lit computer display and in its intended silver foil. Unfortunately the logo fell short of my desires when printed on paper (which is where it is used most commonly). During the course of treatment there are a number of letters that I write to patients, their dentists, etc. Each time I sign a letter, I look at the stationary header and feel as though our logo fails to properly represent what Humphries Orthodontics embodies.

In January of 2013 I set out to create a logo to properly represent Humphries Orthodontics. Over the course of approximately nine months I continued to iterate, and iterate until I felt as though I had something that properly represented our office. This logo, in one of its forms, is what you see above (I have versions for paper, computer, etc but all within the same vein). I believe it accurately portrays the cutting edge nature of Humphries Orthodontics. It is more modern, and more streamlined. This is exactly what I strive to instill within each office. I work tirelessly to keep up with everything that can help me deliver better orthodontic care and a better overall patient experience. Each year I introduce the newest research proven orthodontic techniques and improve each office (e.g. in office entertainment) in order to make each visit as enjoyable as possible. In addition, we internally aim to be environmentally conscientious. This is one of the reasons that I transitioned to a purely paperless system from the beginning. Not only do our systems limit paper waste but our digital radiography reduces radiation and the consumption of environmentally hazardous developing chemicals.

Ultimately, I am very excited about 2014. I have some exciting things planned to better serve our patients and their families. The logo change is symbolic of this effort to never rest and work tirelessly to reach our goal of delivering the highest quality orthodontic care in a warm and friendly environment where the patient experience is unsurpassed.

Happy New Year!

Sage M. Humphries, D.D.S., M.S.

Optimal oral hygiene is always a struggle with orthodontic appliances or braces. They braces make it much more difficult to access the areas of the tooth adjacent to the gums. This can result in plaque accumulation which in turn can lead to gingival inflammation and even decalcification or white spots on the teeth.

A recent independent randomized controlled clinical tria has shown that the Braun Oral-B oscillating rotating toothbrush results in significantly greater plaque removal over a manual tooth brush. In the study, the authors compared the efficacy of the oscillating rotating brush versus a manual tooth brush. In addition they compared the efficacy of the electric brush with a conventional brush head and an orthodontic brush head. The results showed that the the oscillating brush results in greater plaque removal than the manual tooth brush and that the orthodontic brush head results in greater plaque removal than the regular head.

I have long felt that brushing technique is more important than the actual toothbrush that a patient uses. That being said, the reality is that many patients are not able to manipulate a manual toothbrush well enough to remove all of the plaque. This is especially the case for young children or disinterested teens (and even the rare adult). Thus, after reviewing this study, I am advocating the use of an electric toothbrush with an oscillating orthodontic head for all patients. This particular brush also had the added benefit of a mechanical feedback mechanism for those that brush too hard. It is a win for any type of brusher!

I am so honored to have been selected by the readers of Parenting OC as Orange County’s best orthodontist. The most recent issue of Parenting OC is their readers’ choice edition, where they name the best of the best in many different categories. I am truly honored to have received this distinction as the best orthodontist.

At Humphries Orthodontics we all work very hard in order to deliver superlative orthodontic care in a warm environment where service is unsurpassed. It is my goal to ensure that each patient receives the best possible treatment outcome while also delivering the best possible experience throughout the course of treatment. This award is particularly meaningful because it comes directly from our patients. We obtain much joy in knowing that our efforts are appreciated. As you know, we never rest ,and we make every effort to make our offices better and better by the day. Thank you so much to all those that voted me as Orange County’s best orthodontist. I am truly honored.

Check out Johnny Ramos’ spot in Disney XD’s “This Is Me” segment for Hispanic Heritage month. We are truly proud to be a part of Johnny’s sensational smile!!!

According to Visa’s Tooth Fairy personal finance application, the Tooth Fairy is paying a over 40% more per tooth today than she was 2 years ago! Children are getting an average of $3.70 this year per lost tooth up from $3.00 just last year. To find out more about the economics of the Tooth Fairy take a look at this recent Associated Press article. To get an idea of parents in your age group, income bracket and education level are giving their kids, Visa offers a Tooth Fairy Calculator app.