brown eyed braces

Choosing Colors, Post #3:

Need more ideas in choosing your colors?  Here the rest of our 10 ways to choose list.

4) Survey Says: Still can't decide?  We're here to help. If you can’t make a decision, or don’t care to, our staff members are here to help. Not only can they guide you in determining a set of colors that suit you, but adding another’s creativity will often help spark your own. Never hesitate to ask for a little friendly advice!

3) Personalized Colors: The colors you select for your braces can help reflect your natural beauty. Here’s how to do it:

• For those with darker skin complexions or hair, colors like blue, turquoise, gold, orange, green, fuchsia, and pink are excellent choices.
• For those with lighter skin tones or hair, colors like vermilion, bronze, raspberry, plum, red, royal blue, or salmon will always work wonders.
• For those with brown eyes and blond hair, notes of blue and rich purple will help keep your skin tone beautiful and warm.
• For those with blue eyes, additional shades of blue will accentuate your features and allow your natural beauty to pop.
• For those with red hair, colors similar to emerald will create a contrast that will always steal the show.
• For everyone else, bright red, pale pink, eggplant, and teal are considered colors that go great with every skin tone.

2) Happy Holidays: It doesn’t matter what holidays you celebrate, changing your colors is always a fun way to get into the spirit of things. Whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, or the Fourth of July, sharing your holiday cheer with each smile will brighten everyone’s day. Here are a few examples of holiday color combinations for those special days throughout the year:

Halloween = Orange and Black

Hanukkah = Blue and White

Christmas = Red and Green
Valentine's Day = Red and White
St Patrick's Day = Green
Independence Day = Red, White, and Blue or just Red and Blue

1) Express Yourself!: You’re unique, sometimes it’s just best to go with what you like, regardless of what anyone thinks or advises. Besides, you’re the only you out of seven billion other people in the world and that’s a beautiful thing: Embrace it. Whether it’s your favorite color, a spontaneous decision, or something that identifies who you are, go for it!

Choosing Your Colors: Post #2

So continuing with our "10 ways to choose your braces colors", here's a few more reasons:

9) Wave Your Flag!: Whereever you're from, show a little pride in your heritage. Whether it’s the red, white, and blue of the USA, red and white for Canada, or green, white, and red for Mexico, matching the colors with your patriotic pride is a wonderful way to show the world where you’re from.

8) Cheering on your team: Match your elastics to those of your favorite team. Here are a few color combinations for our home-town teams to get you started:

Dark Blue + Orange = Denver Broncos

Burgundy + Steel Blue = Colorado Avalanche

Black (Or Silver) + Purple = Colorado Rockies

Powder Blue + Gold = Denver Nuggets

Light Blue + Red = Colorado Rapids

7) School Spirit: Consider representing your school by smiling its colors. It doesn’t matter if you play in the band, perform on the stage, represent on the field or are just a dedicated student, school spirit shows you take pride in your school.

6) Celebrate good times, come on!: Change your colors to blend with a special occasion. Whether it’s a wedding, a school dance, or any other occasion, matching your outfit and the colors of your smile to the occasion is a great fashion statement.

5) Show your Heart!: The world we live in is full of issues that demand our attention. By becoming aware, and sharing that awareness with others, we can motivate change and progression through action. While others often hang or wear ribbons for awareness, those who wear braces can show their advocacy every time they smile. Here’s a few colors and their respective meanings to get you started:
Pink = Breast cancer awareness. (October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month)

Black and White = Rare-disease awareness.

Yellow = Support our Troops.
Blue = Bullying awareness.
Periwinkle = Eating Disorder awareness.

More ideas to come!

It's Election Season

I know, you thought that wasn't till next year, but really, it's time again to VOTE!  Like most of us, we  like our voices to be heard.  Fortunately, you have a chance to cast your votes and have your voice be heard loud and clear. That;s because important voting is occurring right now.  Colorado Parent Magazine is currently accepting votes for their "Family Favorites".  If you are reading this, then you are obviously one of our favorite patients and as such, we'd love it you voted for us!  To vote, simply click here , go to the bottom of the screen, click continue and follow the instructions.  Note: you must vote in at least 20 categories for your vote to count (if you can't think of 20 answers that you like, at least put in something you know fits-- like Beaver Creek or Vail for ski lessons or Jump Street for a play place). Of course, for Orthodontist, we hope you will put "All About Braces"!

Choosing your Braces Colors

We know one of the best things about having braces (other than you getting an awesome smile!), is getting to choose new colors at your appointments.  While these have a clinical function, we know how fun they can be!. We also know that making the right decision in choosing a color combination can be hard. We can help! So over the next few days we'll post a list of the top 10 ways of choosing your colors that we hope helpful!  Let's start today with #10:

10) Tis’ the Season: We are blessed that Colorado is a four-season state with spring, summer, fall, and winter. This allows us Coloradoans the chance to dress fashionably and change their look throughout the year. But what does this mean for the color of your braces? Well, that’s simple.Matching the colors of your braces with the season is an easy way to separate yourself from the drab crowd. Here’s how:

• Autumn: Golden yellows, dark reds, cobalt blues, and vibrant orange all paint a dazzling image of the perfect pumpkin spice sipping fall day.


• Winter: Artic blues, regal purples, shimmering silvers, and stunning greens will all allow your smile to pop this winter in stark contrast to the icy snows and gray skies of winter.

• Spring: Poppy red, Monaco blue, emerald, violet, and jade are all wonderful, bright colors that are perfect for spring. Say goodbye to the bitter colds of winter and hello to the bright smiles of spring.

• Summer: Sunny yellows, juicy pinks, tangy teals, and perfect pastels are all excellent choices for when the thermostats start to rise. Add a little coral, a twist of turquoise, or a dash of blue and you’ll be the talk of the town in no time!

Making a beautiful smile more affordable

It's all in the timing!

While we know that at All About Braces we offer an exceptional value to our patients (thus our tagline "Affordable Fees, Priceless Smiles), and are often one of the lowest cost providers in the marketplace, there is no alluding the fact that even with really low fees, for many families the cost of braces can be expensive.  We try everything we can to make it as easy to budget and afford as we can by offering things like zero percent financing and flexible payment options.  There is, however, another way that you can save yourselves a bundle on your braces.  That is by using a Health Savings Account (HSA-- or sometime called an FSA depending on the plan).  A health savings account is the perfect tool to help budget for orthodontia. With an HSA (which is usually offered by your employer) contributions can be withheld directly from a paycheck, and all contributions are removed PRE-TAX.  What that means to you is that you do not have to pay income tax on any of the money you spend from the HSA.  So, for example, if you pay $1,500 next year to your orthodontist (which we hope, of course, is us 8-)) out of your HSA and you normally pay 33% in income taxes, you would SAVE $500 in taxes by using the HSA.  I mention this in my post now because typically you CAN NOT sign up for an HSA anytime you wish, but rather, in most cases, once a year when your company has you choose your benefit plans for the upcomming year.  For most companies, that happens in the Fall of every year, so the time to think about this and start planning for it IS NOW.  The even better news is that if you are just planning on starting braces now, you likely can use the tax advantages from an HSA to help you save in BOTH 2014 AND 2015.  We can make payment arrangements that will allow you to maximize this benefit.  Hoping this little bit of advice will help many of you save a bunch of money!

We're #2! We're #2!

IN THE NATION THAT IS! Healthtap just named their bi-annual winners and not only was Dr. Baskin once again identified as THE #1 ORTHODONTIST IN THE STATE OF COLORADO, but Dr. Baskin was also named the #2 orthodontist IN THE NATION! As if these accolades were not enough, Dr.. Baskin was also named the #3 most influential doctor in the state across all medical specialties. Next time you see Dr. B offer her your warmest congrats! We are all so proud of her!

Now It's Your Turn!

Did you see our email about the $1,000 off Invisalign?  If not, you should.  Here it is-- very exciting offer! :

We're So Excited! (and we just can't hide it!)

Anyone notice the new 2013 issue of Colorado Parent Magazine's list of the "Best of the Best" that hit newsstands today?  If you did, we hope you noticed that FOR THE SEOND YEAR IN A ROW, COLORADO PARENT NAMED US THE #1 ORTHODONTIST IN COLORADO!  For those who did not know, every year Colorado parent surveys parents from across the state asking them to name their favorite things:  play places, restaurants, pediatricians and, yes, orthodontists.  Well it seems people love us, they really do love us as we received more votes from parents than any other orthodontist in Colorado.  Can you see us blushing through the screen?  Thank you to all the amazing parents who not only entrust us with giving your kids amazing smiles that will last a lifetime, but for taking the time out to tell the world how happy you are with our treatment and service.  We are forever grateful and we love you too!  And, if you are reading this and are not yet a patient, maybe knowing of our reputation might encourage you to go to our website and make an appointment today-- we'd love to see you and show you how we have so many happy, satisfied patients.

Thanks Healthtap! We love you too!

We recently heard that Healthap, an exciting web portal that provides a question and answer forum between patients and medical providers, recognized us as the "#1 Orthodontist in Colorado" (and, btw, in the top 10 in the nation!).  We think Healthtap is a great place to get honest answers from real experts on medical questions.  Seems people, and other doctors, liked our answers enough to continually give us high praise.  the praise from our peers around the nation, and patients, was overwhelming.  Through this feedback, Healthtap determine that, at least in Colorado, there is none better than us!  Yes, we're blushing just a bit!  Thanks Healthtap-- we think you're pretty cool too!

Come one, Come all ....

So we here at All About Braces are gearing up at our Monaco & Evans location for the Second Annual Monaco health and Wellness Fair.  The fair is scheduled for 9-4 on August 24th at our Monaco and Evans location, 2250 S. Monaco Pkwy. Last year was a big hit with the mascot for the Rapids there and dozens of business providing free samples, health info, etc.  This year, as co-hosts of the fair along with our partners, Kids Choice Dental, we plan for the event to be even bigger and better.  We'll have bouncy houses, Zumba classes, Free food, drinks, entertainment-- as well as tons of health information and free screenings from a wide array of medical and dental providers.  So as they used to say in old ads in New York for the Mets "bring your kiddies, bring your wife, garunteed to have the time of your life"!  We'll see you there!

Congrats!

Shouts of "Hurray!" and "Congrats!" can be heard throughout our offices. During the past few months, both Dr. Rejman and Dr. Timock have BOTH been identified as Diplomates by the American Board of Orthodontics! We are, of course, so proud of the both of them!

5280 WINNERS ..... AGAIN!!!!!

We are so happy, thrilled, humbled, grateful (the list of adjectives could go on and on) to have discovered that for the second year in a row, our doctors were honored with the 5280 Award for Top Dentists (orthodontists) in Colorado.  For those of you who don't know of the 5280 Top Dentist Award, here's a brief overview which explains why we are so proud.  Each year 5280 uses a third party (USA top dentists) to survey dentists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, etc (all dental professionals) and asks them who they think does great work in other dental specialties in their local area.  Only dental professionals are able to get a ballot to vote and they can not vote for themselves. While there is more than 1 winner, winners typically represent the top 5-10% of the providers in a given market.  So you can imagine our elation to discover that for the second year in a row our colleagues in other dental professions across the state thought that the quality of our work was deserving of their vote.  To all the docs out there who voted for us-- thank you, thank you, thank you for your support and entrusting us with your patients.  For our patients, rest assured, you now have further confirmation to something you already know quite well-- that you are in great hands!  To all-  we promise to continue to work hard and deliver the exceptional level of patient care that we have become well known for.

Elections May Be Over, But You Can Still Vote!

I think we are all thankful that the election season is now over and we all do not have to sit through thousands of campaign ads.  However, for most of us, we still like our voices to be heard.  Fortunately, you still ahve a chance to cast your votes and have your voice be heard loud and clear. That;s because important voting is occurring right now.  Colorado Parent Magazine is currently accepting votes for their "Family Favorites".  If you are reading this, then you are obviously one of our favorite patients and as such, we'd love it you voted for us!  To vote, simply click here , go to the bottom of the screen, click continue and follow the instructions.  Note: you must vote in at least 20 categories for your vote to count (if you can't think of 20 answers that you like, at least put in something you know fits-- like Beaver Creek or Vail for ski lessons or Jump Street for a play place). Of course, for Orthodontist, we hope you will put "All About Braces"!

Do you LIKE to give? We Do!!

Keep the season of giving going all throughout January!  We LIKE to give.  We really, really LIKE it.  We LIKE it so much, that we've decided we going to give for LIKES all month long.  Yup, for every LIKE (to our page, not just to this status please and thank you) we get on Facebook during the month of January we are going to donate $1 to the JFS Community Food Pantry of Denver.  Even better, for every video we get that anyone posts on Facebook that tells about their awesome experience with Braces or Invisalign and All About Braces, we'll donate $10!  So show that you LIKE us right now!  Get your friends to LIKE us!  Get your neighbors to LIKE us!  Heck, get your grandma's friends to LIKE us!  And get out those camera and phones to take some fun and awesome videos of your beautiful smiles!

Happy New Year!

We hope all of our patients enjoyed both a happy and healthy New Year!  We have seen a lot of wonderful developments and changes these past few weeks and are so excited about what 2013 has in store for us and our patients. 

First and foremost, as some of you may have seen on our web site, we have added a new doctor to our practice.  Dr. Krystal Baumgartner joined us in December, having completed her orthodontic residency at Saint Louis University. Dr. K (as we now affectionately call her), will be working across all of our offices over the coming months, so there is a really good chance you will see her at one of your next upcoming appointments.  We are so excited to have her joining us and know that you will be too when you meet her.  Her picture is on her webpage along with her bio so you can learn more about her.  So when you see her, say hi and give her a big Colorado welcome!

Yet another exciting development is the rush of new Invisalign patients we have seen in just the past 2 weeks. For those of you not familiar with Invisalign, we have a ton of information on the site. In short, it's a great solution for adults (and some teens even) to get an incredible smile without anyone seeing any braces on your teeth (they are completely invisable!).  While there are a lot of providers of Invisalign out there, people are realizing that the quality of service is NOT the same, and that using a Board Certified Orthodontist provides the best value for your money.  Our patients know they are investing in their smile for the rest of their lives, are the word is getting out that to get the highest level of service and amazing results for a fair price, All About Braces provides unequaled value in the market. We have extensive experience with Invisalign, and indeed are recognized by Invisalign as one of their preffered providers.  So if you have always wanted a great smile but don't want metal braces (or know someone who fits this bill), its not too late (indeed we have Invisalign patients from 15 to 67 years old!)-- call (or have your friends/family call) for a free consultation and let us tell you more about how Invisalign can help you get the smile of your dreams!

Invisalign Happy Hour!

Check out this exciting event we have coming in November:

Thursday, November 8th 5-7 PM

At our Monaco & Evans location

Adults Only! Wine, Drinks &

Appetizers Will Be Served

2250 S. Monaco Pkwy 303-476-6233

For New Patients:

• Free Consultation

• Dollar for dollar down payment match up to $750!

• Free teeth whitening at end of treatment ($300 value!)

• No interest 􀏐inancing over the length of treatment

• Absolutely no obligation!

For Existing Patients:

• Free teeth whitening at end of treatment ($300 value!)

just for attending

• $200 referral bonus for every new patient you bring that

starts treatment – bring your friends and co-workers!

Space is limited-- only 16 spots for new patients are

available so call to reserve your spot today!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!!

Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, one thing we can all agree on is how awesome it is to have a free democratic government where we get a chance to choose our leaders.  As we see it, there is nothing more American and is an act of great patriotism.  To that end, and in an effort to continue to serve both our patients and our communities we are proud to announce that we are teaming up with the League of Women Voters to offer voter registration in our offices over the coming week.  Specifically we will have registration tables set up as follows:

AURORA
FRIDAY, 9/28 10AM-1PM
WEDNESDAY, 10/3 10AM-1PM

DENVER
THURSDAY, 10/4 10AM-1PM

Time is running out.  The last date to register to vote is 10/9.  If you come, or tell someone to come, you should know that an acceptable form of ID must be brought.  What are these you ask?  Glad you did:

Acceptable Identification Forms

• Valid Colorado driver’s license
• Valid picture identification card
• Valid U.S. passport
• Valid U.S. military card
• Copy of current utility bill or paycheck or government check showing address
• FAA photo pilot’s license
• Certified documentation of naturalization
• Valid Medicare or Medicaid card
• Certified copy of birth certificate
• Valid student ID card with photo

So tell everyone you know who may not be registered to stop by on one of these days and get signed up.  We hope to see many of you there!

Now You Don't See Them, and Now you Still Don't

Funny how things snowball.  Until about 2 years ago, while Dr. Baskin had treated dozens of Invisalign patients in the past, as a practice taken as a whole we had only lightly dabbled in Invisalign. However, once Dr. B (as we affectionately call her) got our other docs excited about treating eligable cases with Invisalign we started seeing more and more Invisalign cases.  Well now for this past year we have seen so many cases that we have become Invisalign Preferred providers as designated by Align tech, the makers of Invisalign.

Why is Invisalign becoming so popular?  Well it's a pretty cool technology. You see with Invisalign, the aligners are both invisible and removable.  Because you can take the aligners out, Invisalign lets you can eat and drink what you want while in treatment. Since Invisalign is virtually invisible, chances are no one will even notice anything is different, until your new smile is revealed, of course. Invisalign also makes your brushing and flossing during treatment much easier than with traditional braces.

How does it work?  The Invisalign System combines advanced 3-D computer graphics technology with 100-year-old science of orthodontics. Invisalign aligners are designed to move your teeth in small steps to the desired final position prescribed by your orthodontist. Each aligner is precisely calibrated and manufactured to fit your mouth at each stage of the treatment plan.

Your first step is to visit our office to determine if Invisalign is right for you. After sending precise treatment instructions, Invisalign uses advanced computer technology to translate these instructions in a sequence of finely calibrated aligners — as few as 12 or as many as 48.

Each aligner is worn for about two weeks and only taken out to eat, brush and floss. As you replace each aligner with the next, your teeth will begin to move gradually — week-by-week until the final alignment prescribed is attained. Then you'll be smiling like you never have before!

Flying with Eagles!

Did we mention how much fun we had at our health and wellness fair?-- especially having Toothy hamming it up with the Rapids mascot Edson.  Couldn't resist posting this picture!

Let the Debates Begin!

So While Romney and Obama prepare to come to Denver to debate about health care and women's rights, we have other important (OK, maybe less important, but fun!) issues to discuss.  Namely:

what is the best color combination for rubber bands? Let the debate begin .......  Go to our Facebook page and let us know your thoughts.

 

Also, speaking of colors for your braces (and yes, we do have an app on our website that let's you see what colors would look like.  Its here and its really cool-- try it!), for all you BRONCOS fans out there-- the first regular season game is only 2 weeks away-- time to consider navy and orange for you next appointment?

Paying for Braces-- TAX FREE!

While we know that at All About Braces we offer an exceptional value to our patients (thus our tagline "Affordable Fees, Priceless Smiles), and are often one of the lowest cost providers in the marketplace, there is no alluding the fact that even with really low fees, for many families the cost of braces can be expensive.  We try everything we can to make it as easy to budget and afford as we can by offering things like zero percent financing and flexible payment options.  There is, however, another way that you can save yourselves a bundle on your braces.  That is by using a Health Savings Account (HSA-- or sometime called an FSA depending on the plan).  A health savings account is the perfect tool to help budget for orthodontia. With an HSA (which is usually offered by your employer) contributions can be withheld directly from a paycheck, and all contributions are removed PRE-TAX.  What that means to you is that you do not have to pay income tax on any of the money you spend from the HSA.  So, for example, if you pay $1,500 next year to your orthodontist (which we hope, of course, is us 8-)) out of your HSA and you normally pay 33% in income taxes, you would SAVE $500 in taxes by using the HSA.  I mention this in my post now because typically you CAN NOT sign up for an HSA anytime you wish, but rather, in most cases, once a year when your company has you choose your beenfit plans for the upcomming year.  For most companies, that happens in the Fall of every year, so the time to think about this and start planning for it IS NOW.  The even better news is that if you are just planning on starting braces now, you likely can use the tax advantages from an HSA to help you save in BOTH 2013 AND 2014.  We can make payment arrangements that will allow you to maximize this benefit.  Hoping this little bit of advice will help many of you save a bunch of money!

The Secret's Out

Pssst ... it's a secret, don't tell anybody.  Ok, actually go ahead and tell everyone (that is, after all, the whole idea!).  Some of you may have seen on Channel 9 yesterday that we are running a Deal Chicken deal (we know, the name is rediculous, but the savings are awesome!). It runs through the rest of this week, then its gone, gone, gone. The deal is, pay $49 for $1,000 coupon towards Invisalign or comprehensive braces and free exam, x-rays and photos (a $300 value).  While most of you who may read this are existing patients, and the deal is for new patients only, think how grateful your family and friends will be when you tell them about the deal and how they can use it toward treatment at the best orthodontist in the world (OK, we're a LITTLE bias)!  Here's the link for the deal: https://www.dealchicken.com/buynow/16380. So go ahead, let the secret out, bank yourself a favor, make people happy-- tell the folks you know about the deal (or even buy one for them as a gift!).  This is a secret worth not keeping!

We're the Talk of the Town!

We know, it's a figure of speach, but we mean it literally.  We recently received the highest, 5-star rating for 2012 from Talk of the Town which assess general reviews and customer feedback froma cross the web. So what this means is that across the web (places like Angie's List, Yelp, Google +, etc.), we received the highest reviews for customer care and satisfaction.  We can never thank all our patients enough for all the kind words they say about us!

We're having a Party (and you're invited!)!

Yup, it's true.  We are having a huge Health and Wellness fair at our Denver location (2250 S. Monaco) this Saturday, August 11th from 9AM-4PM.  There will be cooking classes, Zumba classes, the Rapids, the Cutthoats, a boucy house, giveaways, other doctors, handmade clothing artists and more!  We expect a big crowd and a lot of fun so come on out and join us!  Hope to see you there!

So Colorado Proud!

So, if you are like us, you've been glued to the TV this past week watching the Olympic Games.  We, of course like many of you, have had a special focus on the swimming and our own Missy Franklin.  She is truely an amazing young woman and we just had to say how Colorado proud we are of her!  Way to go Missy!  You wowed us not only with your victories (and of course with your beautiful smile!), but with your poise and sportmanship.  You rock girl!

We're #1!

Things have been so busy these past few months, its been hard to find time to post, but we just had to share some very, very exciting news.  Every year Colorado parent Magazine surveys parents to find out what there favorite things are in Colorado.  Favorite ski resort, favroite restaurant, favorite play place, etc.-- you get the idea.  They publish the 5 highest vote getters and announce in their June issue the winners in each catagory.  You can imagine our joy and delight when we discovered that the parents of Colorado voted us THE #1 ORTHODONTIST IN THE STATE!  We felt like Sally Fields at the Oscars -- "you love us, you really love us!" To be sure, it is a humbling award and we promise not to forget what got us to this place-- treating all of our patients as if they were family, with as much care, dignity, kindness and respect as we possibly can. Like anything, we know success can be fleating and we promise to work hard to continue to provide the high level of service our patients have come to expect (and obviously love based on the survey results!) from us.

Read All About It!

As we noted a few months ago ALL 4 OF OUR DOCTORS were recently recognized by 5280 as one of the top orthodontists in the state. Well the issue just hit the newsstands, so you can read all about it yourselves (and see a nice pic of all our docs!). Of the many hundreds of orthodontists in the state, less than 15%  are recognized as "top Dentists" in 5280 Magazine's annual report.  the report is not a popularity contest among patients, but rather developed based on peer voting of other Dentists and Dental Specialists.  So you can only imagine how proud we were when not one, not 2, not 3 but all 4 of our doctors were recognized in this year's Top Dentists review.  Thank you to all of the dentists across the state who have come to recognize our work and felt compelled to vote for us in a polling of what orthodontists they felt were exceptional. We are amazingly honored and humbled by the awards.
We just attended a wonderful party held for the winners and met some outstanding doctors.  It was really special to be interacting with such an elite crowd of practitioners and we look forward to working with many of them.

Aloha!

So our own Dr. Mershon and lead staff members Michelle and Yvette just returned from the national AAO (American Association of Orthodontists) annual meeting.  This year's meeting was held in sunny Hawaii.  While it was rough for them to have to go to Hawaii for the meeting, somehow they managed! The report back is that they all had a great time and actually learned a lot in the process.  The meeting gives us a chance to both keep current with the latest products and latest thinking (via the lecture series) in our field.  I t also gives us a chance to meet with some of our vendors and take advantage of some annual meeting specials (which helps keep our overhead, and in turn our prices for our patients, low).  So keep a lookout on our Facebook page for pictures of Dr. Mershon and the staff in sunny Hawaii.  The rest of us are just hoping we get to see Dr. Mershon in a grass skirt!

Go Outlaws!

We are so proud to be official corporate sponsors this year of our hometown Devner Outlaws-- the most popular professional Lacrosse team in America!  If you are a fan of the Outlaws, you will be seeing a lot of us!  We will be at every game this year by gate 10 (yes, stop by and say hi!), you'll see us in the gameday programs and we will be sponsoring "Smile Cam" during the halftime show (a chance to show off you beautiful All About Braces smiles!).
In addition, the team has allowed us to sponsor an amazing giveaway we're calling the "All About Braces Team Tunnel".  For the lucky winners, they'll get 4 tickets to a game, a chance to go with the press to the before-game media event, a chance to get team autographs and the opportunity to be in the team's tunnel to great the players as they enter the field!  It's a dream come true for all those Lacrosse fans out there.  To enter, you must come into any one of our 4 All About Braces offices and fill out an application.  there will be 2 winning families each week.  Good luck!

Win, Win, Win!

If you've been living undera rock, you may not have noticed that we have a number of contests going on right now.  First off, we are offering a $100 gift card to one lucky winner who posts a review of us on any of our 4 Google Places pages.  This is not the testimonials page on our site (although we do love those too!), but going to one of our google places pages. logging in with a gmail account (if you don't have one it's easy to creat one) and reviewing us there. There is a LINK to our Google Places pages on our site.
In addition, we are running a contest for an AMAZING give-away for any Lacrosse fans to win an awesome pize for the Denver Outlaws.  Entries are only available in our offices, so stop in.  We'll give more details about the prize in our next post.

5280 Top Dentists!

Wow!  Wait, its worth saying again:  WOW! So we just heard from 5280 regarding their coveted annual awarding of the top dentists and dental specialist (i.e., orthodontists, endodontists, periodontists, etc.).Of the many hundreds of orthodontists in the state, only about 1 in 5 are recognized as "top Dentists" in 5280 Magazine's annual report.  the report is not a popularity contest among patients, but rather developed based on peer voting of other Dentists and Dental Specialists.  So you can only imagine how proud we were when not one, not 2, not 3 but ALL 5 OF OUR DOCTORS were recognized in this year's Top Dentists review.  Thank you to all of the dentists across the state who have come to recognize our work and felt compelled to vote for us in a polling of what orthodontists they felt were exceptional. We are amazingly honored by the awards.

We're Studying Hard for You!

Many of you likely have noticed that we frequently tout that we have "board Certified Orthodontists".  For those unfamiliar with the details of the orthodontic world you might think "yeah, so, aren't all orthodontists board certified"?  The answer is no, not even close.  Truth is, one does not even need orthodontic training to perform orthodontics (as unbelievable as that seems).  Yup, folks that haven't even gone through what is typically 3 years of post-graduate training to be an orthodontist can, legally, put braces on your teeth. But even having gone through an accredited orthodontic program does not mean that you are board certified.  Indeed, VERY FEW orthodontists actually go through the rigorous process of board certification.  Why?  Its simple-- its really, really hard.  To become board certified a doctor must prepare and study for hundreds upon hundreds of additional hours well after they have completed their degree and are in practice.  They must prepare detailed presentations of their cases that they then must present to the board in an all-day marathon session where they are reviewed and questioned with regard to their diagnosis, treatment plan, techniques and results.  Its hard-- really hard.  And not everyone passes.  To pass you must convince the board that you are indeed at the top of our field, performing orthodontics at the highest levels possible. So now you understand why so few orthodontists want to go through the process.  You may ask then, so why do we?  It doesn't make us more money or allow us to do something other orthodontists can't do that don't go through the process. The answer is, simply, that we know that committing oneself to go through the process in the end helps make you a better doctor.  It makes you evaluate different approaches and consider the latest research and knowledge available in our field. It makes you consider all of your experiences and how you can become better from them.  And, of course, this is all better for you, our patients.  It helps you know that our doctors are absolutely among the best in the business.  It gives you the confidence in knowing you are getting the absolutely finest care available.

So why do I bring this all up today?  Well for the past few months our own doctor Patil has been preparing for his own board certification process. He has spent upwards of 300-500 hours preparing, oftentimes spending 18 hour days during weeks off we have given him to get ready.  This Monday was the deadline for his submission (which he of course met). In a couple of weeks he will travel to present his cases in front of the board.  We are supremely confident that he will pass with flying colors.  It would be an understatement to say that we are so proud of him!  Not only has he reported that it indeed is a great exercise (albeit painful-- but as they say-- no pain, no gain!) in making him a better practitioner, but as we work in a collaborative, group setting, his experience has helped in even further sharpening the skills of our other, already board certified orthodontists.

So keep posted for the results of Dr. Patil's process and be prepared to give him a mighty congratulations once the process is complete (as we are extremely confident he will pass).  It will be very well deserved!

On to Capital Hill!

So our own Dr. Baskin was asked to represent orthodontists in Washington, D.C. this week to help lobby legislators to help maintain the integrity of and further help promote excellence within our profession.  She is on a flight this very moment for a quick 2-day visit to our nation's capital.  As always, we are so proud of her!  Hopefully, we'll get her to post an update once she returns.

Signs of Success

We are getting very excited about our new signage which will be put up in the next few weeks (I know, sometimes it doesn't take that much to get us excited-- but you should see these signs!).  The signs are beautiful!  There are new signs for our Lakewood office which will be viewable as you drive down Wadsworth and a beautiful new sign that is scheduled to go up in Fort Collins in the next 2 weeks.  Keep your eyes peeled-- over the next couple of months we plan on getting even more and better signage across all our offices.

Vote, Vote, Vote

OK, So we know most of you are thinking, "wait, elections are not until November".  But you would be mistaken because the important voting is occurring right now.  Colorado Parent Magazine is currently accepting votes for their "Family Favorites".  If you are reading this, then you are obviously one of our favorite patients and as such, we'd love it you voted for us!  To vote, simply click here , go to the bottom of the screen, click continue and follow the instructions.  Note: you must vote in at least 20 categories for your vote to count (if you can't think of 20 answers that you like, at least put in something you know fits-- like Beaver Creek or Vail for ski lessons or Jump Street for a play place). Of course, for Orthodontist, we hope you will put "All About Braces"!

As the politicians all say, "thank you for your support".  We at All About Braces approve this message!

Ringing in 2012!

So its been a while since our last post.  Lots going on here at All About Braces.  We've been working on our newly revamped website which is now up and ready to go for the new year. It looks great!  Definitely worth going to check it out! 
We've also been busy studying-- Dr. Patil was recently away, not to enjoy the holidays, but to prepare for his board presentations.  Yup, for us to be the only practice in the state with all 5 of our doctors board certified and eligible, it takes a lot of work.  But we know in the end our patients want to know that they are getting the absolutely best care from the best trained doctors possible and that our doctors are always staying up-to-date on the latest and best knowledge our field has to offer.
Meanwhile, keep a look our for Dr. Mershon being quoted in an upcoming article on orthodontics by Colorado Parent Magazine.
2012 looks to be an exciting and busy year for us.  It will be our first as an official sponsor of a professional team as the Denver Outlaws begin their season this fall.  Go Outlaws!! And with our growing practice, we are also looking to expand our staff across our offices to better serve our wonderful and growing patient base.  Keep your eyes out for more exciting changes, news and contests as the year progresses.

Top Orthodontists of 2011

So Othodontic Products just came out with their list of the top orthodontists of 2011.  This is a list that is based on other orthodontic peer nominations (i.e., not one of these "pay us a fee and we'll say you won an awards" we've seen a lot of recently). There were about 160 doctors from around the world listed.  Six were from Colorado AND THREE OF THE SIX WERE OUR DOCTORS!  We are so proud! Coupled with the national awards Dr. Timock and Dr. Patil got last year and the Smiles Change Lives Award just given to Dr. Baskin, it seems more and morethe world is recognizing that we truly have something special going on here at All About Braces.  Keep up the good work team!

Rock on FoCo!

I was up in our Fort Collins office a few days ago.  Dr. Timock and Moriah are a well oiled machine up there! Patients came in happy and left happy. Our staff has a really great repore with their patients and the patients love them (as do we!). Even with the Rams having a tough year, the folks up there have one thing to cheer about-- the All About Braces office!

Happy Halloween

So Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.  How special to have a day a year we can pretend to be a superhero or fairy princess!  Once I started dental school it became a running joke- one of my more favorite holidays was a favorite for the cavity factor.  Obviously there could be nothing further from the truth.  I even limit the number of water bottles my kids consume rather than tap water due to the lack of flouride!  As an orthodontist November 1st is now my least favorite day of the year and has been dubbed "ortho emergency day".  I'm all for healthy snacks and treats, but like the Obamas realize there has to be some flexibility- it is Halloween after all!  PLEASE take care tonight reviewing your "loot"  Things like M and M's, Reeses, chocolate bars with out nuts are fine.  Avoid carmels, sticky Starbursts, Now and Laters, Sugar Daddies etc.  They pull "tricks" on your precious braces.  Have fun, be safe, be careful about what you are eating and if you are a superhero or fairy princess make sure to leave the world a bit better for the rest of us!

Changing the world- one smile at a time!

This past week I was honored and humbled to be one of the blessed recipients of a Smiles Change Lives ( http://www.smileschangelives.org/ ) Gini award. It was presented to me by a true orthodontic mentor and last years recipient, Dr. Stephen Litton.  To my delight  my husband, Rabbi Eliot Baskin and I were also assigned a seat next to founder, Virginia Brown for dinner after the awards program.  This woman has a passion for making the world a better place and was an orthodontic patient as a college student and as a parent when she could afford to complete her care.  We heard from a young woman who is the recipient of care through this great organization and how braces changed her life.  She shared how she cried when she saw her senior pictures and how she had gained so much confidence with the transformation of her smile!  While the concept of giving back is not new this organization is unique in the industry for the hand up not hand out philosophy.  As orthodontists we have many opportunities to help young and young at heart improve self esteem- and SCL and the participating orthodontists donated well over 1.2 million dollars of care in 2010 alone.  So what is my message for all of you- follow your dreams and try to make the world a bit better than you found it along the way.   I get the joy of making people smile every day- it is the best job ever!!
Dr Hilary Nieberg Baskin

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Smile for the Camera!

We are very excited that later this week we are having Laura Mahony join us for a FREE outdoor family photo session. We love Laura- she is a remarkable photographer, whose style is playful, informal and active.
As we see it, this is a great opportunity to get new individual, sibling, high school and/or family photos taken. Photo sessions will be held just outside of our Monaco Offices (2250 S. Monaco, just South of Evans) in 10-minute increments and Laura will take as many different groupings as time will allow.
If you would like to reserve a slot on a first-come first-serve basis, please emailYvette@aabraces.com with the day and time. Also, please arrive a minimum of 5 minutes before your photo session is scheduled to begin. Below are the available time slots.  

To view Laura Mahony's work, visit www.lauramahonyphotography.com.

Beeming with Pride!

So in yiddish there is a word "khvelling"-- it means "beeming with pride".  Usually used by parents and grandparents to describe how proud they are of children.  Well we are khvelling over our own Dr. Baskin this week. Dr. B is being awarded a "gini" award this Friday from the organization Smiles Change Lives.  Mrs. Virginia Brown, or “Gini” as her friends call her, is the founder of the national nonprofit organization Smiles Change Lives.  Founded in Kansas City by Mrs. Brown and her son Thomas Brown, Smiles Change Lives (SCL) has helped more than 1,500 children receive affordable orthodontic treatment in partnership with caring orthodontists.

“The Gini Awards recognize the heroes that go above and beyond in their role as volunteers,” shares Gracie Harrison, Volunteer Coordinator for the agency. “What could be more appropriate than to name our premiere service award after our founder who has created a legacy of care for underserved children?” adds Ms. Harrison.

This year, Smiles Change Lives has decided to honor Dr. Hilary Baskin for her outstanding service to children’s oral health. A force to be reckoned with, Dr. Baskin has been a visionary in launching a statewide program serving Colorado, establishing a diverse referral network, conducting orthodontic screenings in her practice, attending public outreach events and keeping SCL at the forefront of Colorado access-to-care networks. Her practice, All About Braces, is “all about SCL!”

SCL works with 460 volunteer orthodontists nationwide and utilizes hundreds of office, committee and event volunteers in its Kansas City headquarters. Six individuals and two companies will be honored this year as remarkable ambassadors for the SCL mission of providing access to orthodontic care for children in need.

We are SOOOOOO proud!

Halloween

From  Owen-- Got in early this AM thinking I'd be the first person in the office only to find my staff was already busy decorating the office for Halloween.  It looks great! Its one of the reasons I love our team so much-- they definately know how to have fun and make an environment that our patients feel comfortable and happy in.  Now we'll just have to wait to see the costumes that people end up coming inj with.  I just heard from Dr. Mershon that Dr. Rejman is planning on coming in to the office as  princess one day!  Can't wait to see that!  Guess our Aurora patients should be on the lookout (or start looking now to have a Oct. 31st appointment!).

Busy, Busy, Busy!

So as we start our first real blog post, the first thing that comes to mind is just how hoping our offices have been these past few weeks. One big driver: Living Social.  We ran Living Social promotions in both Fort Collins (over the summer) and Denver (in September). Got great responses.  We LOVE Living Social- just wish they would not make us wait so long to run this again.  We had a lot of people call and say they missed it and it will be a while until we can do it again. But WOW! what a response.  We had hundreds of people buy the promotion. Most were adults looking to get Invisalign, or adult braces. For the adults, we also discussed ceramic brackets which for many provide just the right cost/benefit combination in meeting their desires for a less "visable" look. Found this slightly silly video (got to love the accent) which does a good job of showing these on someone's teeth. Needless to say, the promotion brought in a lot of new patients which has been keeping us busy.
Will need to write about the next cool thing we are doing-- patient photos-- in the next post.

Welcome to our Blog!

Ok, so we know, it's about time we entered into the modern age and started a blog for All About Braces.  Sure, our website http://www.aabraces.com/ has a lot of info on the practice, but we realized it was a bit staler in that it lacked our voices and more frequent input.  So here we are, our own blog.  We'll do our best to keep it fresh and current.  One way we will look to achieve that is that we will have many voices contributing including our doctors: Dr. Hilary Nieberg Baskin, Dr. David Mershon, Dr. Dan Rejman, Dr. Raj Patil, Dr. Adam Timock, our staff and our COO (me, Owen Nieberg). So, for those of you who may read our blog, we hope you find it informative, helpful and even at times entertaining.  please give us feedback along the way.