Gastric bypass and Sleep

Sleep effects quite a bit more than most people think. How well you sleep can play a part in the ability to lose weight and successful dieting.

Sleep studies were performed in patients undergoing gastric bypass from January 2004 to January 2007. Obstructive sleep apnea was noted as present or absent.

A total of 132 patients were involved. Sleep study results indicated that 64 percent of patients had a confirmed diagnosis of OSA.

In OSA patients, body mass index, neck circumference, and age were higher than with obese patients without OSA. Not only will your weight put you into the category of possibly having sleep apnea, but it may stop you from losing those excess pounds even if you were trying!

Learn more with Suwanee Dental Care!!

The Wind Beneath My Wings is my wife Sheila Williams. She and I have been married 33 years and have two grown sons. She started out as my dental assistant as soon as we got engaged and moved on to every other job in the office over time except dental hygienist.

Now, she is CFO of our businesss and is the Director of the Healing Rooms At Sugar Hill, a prayer ministry for physical, emotional and spiritual trauma. She is also the director of Kenya Medical Outreach, Inc. a Georgia non-profit charity that has annual trips to Kenya for missions and has ongoing projects there throughout the year.

Every doctor needs a supporting cast and every smile maker needs a team. My team is the best in the land and Sheila is the head of our fantastic dental team. She makes me smile so I can help make you smile. She is the wind beneath my wings.

Losing brain power with less sleep

Did you know??
Losing sleep means less brain power...
The association between moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and impaired neurocognitive function is coming under the spotlight.

A new study in the journal Sleep and Breathing examined the association between cogitative function and how severe sleep apnea can be.

The study was published using 290 middle age adults. Fifty-five percent of participants were female. Patients were screened and demonstrated a high-risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Participants’ verbal memory was assessed through testing using auditory and visual cues. OSA severity indicators were measured by using sleep studies.

The results showed a clear connection between the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (using oxygen saturation) and cognitive function. Researchers found that adults at high risk of OSA demonstrated verbal memory and executive function impairments.

Just getting quality sleep helps you tackle your day and make smarter, better decisions! If you find yourself feeling sleepy through the day, or even falling asleep through the day, get yourself evaluated! A simple visit to the dentist could let you know if sleep apnea is playing a part in slowing down your life.

Are you concerned about your kids having dental x-rays?

Let us help calm your fears! We are concerned about radiation too, so we want you to have the facts you need to make an educated decision when it comes to your children.
We want you to know the truth about dental x-rays. Just to break it down for you, below is chart of the radiation doses you receive from different x-rays.
An annual maximum occupational exposure for radiation workers in the United States is 5,000 millirems (measure for radiation). When you spread low doses out over a period of time, it’s not as destructive to the body because it has time to recover.

High dose group includes:
Mammography 1000
Pelvimetry 875
Lower spine 450
Middle spine 347

Medium does group includes:
Abdomen 147
Ribs 143
Pelvis 133
Skull 78
Hip 72

Low dose group:
Neck 52
Femur 21
Full mouth dental series (digital) less than 1
Dental bitewing (digital) less than .05

To put this in perspective, you would need to have 2,000 dental x-rays to equal the radiation in 1 mammogram. To reach that maximum safety dose, we would have to take approximately 10,000 dental x-rays.

On average people receive 3 dental bitewings worth of radiation a day just from being outside in the sun, around concrete buildings or roads. There are some studies produces by radiologist saying that low doses may actually reduce cancer risks. Knowing how low the dose is, let’s talk about the benefits of dental x-rays.

Here are just a few:
• Detecting hidden decay
• Detecting the presence of a cyst or tumor
• Determining the presence of permanent teeth
• Detecting oral cancer problems
• Detecting root involvement with the sinuses
• To help determine whether or not to remove primary teeth
• To determine if extra teeth are present

The list goes on and on. I hope you feel safe and secure when your child gets his or her next set of dental x-rays!

Russian Girls and Russian Boys Smile For Us

We know smiles, especially Russian Smiles. Every year Suwanee Dental Care hosts a group of Russian Girls and Boys who are part of the T.E.A.R. program that brings Russian orphans to America as part of a cultural exchange and arts program. After going through a rigorous competition back in Russia, a handful of fortunate youth from all over Russia travel throughout the USA showing their artistic talents and meeting with people on this side of the globe. T.E.A.R. is The Evangelistic Association of Russia and is a mission to the Russian people to share the Good News about Jesus Christ. Suwanee Dental Care is proud to be a sponsor of this outstanding effort to bring God into the workplace as well as into the heart of these orphans from a place far, far away.

Here is an example of the type of art that these talented youngsters produce and a story about how it all comes about.

Fantasies to Faith Art Contest

One of the many things that TEAR has done as a way to reach the orphans in Russia is to hold a Christmas Art contest for them. Each year, over 50,000 children from orphanages all across Russia participate! The top 10 winners of the contest win a trip to the United States to celebrate Christmas in the home of an American family.

The TEAR website reports that the top 150 paintings have been displayed in the Moscow Art Museum for several years. Their website also conveys that multiple orphanage directors have expressed a great improvement in the attitudes, behaviors, and even grades of the children who participate. They become motivated, experience a sense of purpose, and most importantly are in the Word of God in preparation for their project.

Each child must read the Bible for himself or herself to determine the true meaning of Christmas. They are then to create a painting and write a short essay explaining their artistic point of view of what they have learned.

The results have been astounding, to say the least.

Dental Implants Save Face

Reproducing the natural look, normal feel and function of your lost teeth may seem difficult to achieve. At Suwanee Dental Care, many people have come to us because they sensed from their own dentists that this was the case. What they were pleased to find out was that there are good alternatives for almost every type of situation that can be successful.

Photo insert: Dr. Bill Williams with fellow Atlanta implant dentist Dr. Bernee Dunson and his wife Hillary at the American Academy of Implant Dentistry annual session in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dental implants are ideal for replacing missing teeth that have been lost due to dental caries or to periodontal disease. In many cases, the bone can be regenerated and an implant placed in its ideal location to maintain the health and beauty of the mouth. The problem with missing teeth is that it can be detrimental to your body’s overall general health as well as to the structures inside your mouth. It’s a well known fact that tooth loss leads to being a dental cripple with one tenth the biting power and ten times the facial wrinkles compared to people who have their own teeth….or dental implants. In essence, dental implants can help you "save face"!

Just as atrophy occurs with muscle disuse, so atrophy occurs in the jaw bones as teeth are lost. Excessive atrophy leads to excessive aging and weakness of the jaw and facial muscles. One of our goals at Suwanee Dental Care is to educate the patients we have to not lose teeth, to not allow missing teeth to remain in that detrimental state for long and to replace those that are missing with the

best available option, bone-saving and bone-stimulating dental implants (as opposed to dental bridges, partial or full dentures). While those options are better than nothing (toothlessness), they pale in comparison to dental implants for longevity, function, and, most of all, the ability to preserve bone. For those who are missing teeth, dental implants are the absolute superior way to replace them. There is no bridge that is as good as a good dental implant for restoring a single tooth. The successful dental implant, over a lifetime, will be much less expensive to place and maintain than the average dental bridge or partial denture, too.

Many people will look at the initially higher cost of a dental implant, abutment and crown on that implant and consider it too expensive compared to a dental bridge or partial denture. This is actually shortsighted because the complications and remakes of traditional bridges and partials are much higher over time. And, when bridges and partial dentures have to be remade every ten years or so, and when the implant is still functional after the same time span, the cost of the implant begins to look like a total bargain.

Photo insert: Annual session of the AAID in NOLA.

Dental implants have been around for over 50 years as a common part of the dental list of options for patients. While not too many dentists placed them in the early days and many implant systems have been come and gone, what is now used in dental implants by the highly trained dentists such as those at Suwanee Dental Care, are extremely reliable and have a highly favorable track record. Because of this fact, dental implants as an option for our patients, have risen from the bottom of the list in 1975 to the top of the list of options in 2011. We place them confidently and often and can say that they are well tolerated and enjoyed by hundreds of our patients. In fact you have probably met several of our team who have dental implants in their own mouths…Angie our treatment coordinator and myself! I had a dental implant placed to replace a missing permanent tooth in 1986 and it’s as good today as it was back then…perfect in form, function and comfort to this very day.

Sleeping Your Way to a Smile

So you haven't been to the dentist for years... Every time you think about it you feel the sweat start to drip. Don't feel like that anymore!!! IV sedation can be the answer you were searching for.

IV sedation can offer a stress-free way to approach treating any issue that you have with your smile.

With IV sedation patients feel more sedation than other avenues of treatment. IV sedation is better suited to moderate to severe anxiety than pill or oral sedation. The speed of onset is faster. As soon as the IV is started the medication starts working. Patients almost immediately drift to sleep.
The doctor can then adjust dosing and manage the comfort of the patient easily. After the procedure is finished, recovery tends to be quicker than with oral sedation. After waking, patients tend not to remember treatment because the medications given keep patient unaware during the procedure.


Here at Suwanee Dental Care, we are proud to offer you a well-trained staff and environment that put our patients first. Our dedication is to your health and well-being. Come in and speak to our caring doctors and see if IV sedation is the answer you have been waiting for!