Well, the long hot summer of 2010 is soon coming to a close.  You couldn't tell by the weather but the CNE or "ex" as those in the GTA call it, opens tomorrow.  For those of us who grew up in the Toronto area that's a sign the "real" new year is coming- the new SCHOOL YEAR.   I suppose you can tell from the picture above I got a chance to relax a bit over the summer and I hope all of you got to enjoy some down time too.

Right now we're busy at the office seeing lots  kids for their dental checkups before going away to school.  I enjoy this time of year hearing about the different things kids have been keeping busy with over the summer.  Some have had summer jobs I would have loved to have had when I was a kid.  ( no it wasn't that long ago, or at least it doesn' t feel that long ago!).  And I really appreciate the advice university students have been giving me about living in residence as my son is leaving for university in a couple weeks.  While it is really easy to talk and even see our kids away at university these days with things like "Skype" I suspect he'll be way too busy with school and frosh week to call mom and dad too often. 

Oh well. 

Enjoy what's left of summer, it's been a great one and winter will be here before you know it!

R.

This past year has been another busy year for continuing education.  Most programs start to wind down for the summer until next September the new "school year" starts again. 

The final formal lecture I attended for this season was last Friday, the subject was Infection control and Steriliztion standards in the dental office.  This is something that goes on behind the scenes in every dental office.  Most patients are more aware of it these days because they  see us wearing masks and gloves as well as wrapping various items in plastic.  This lecture reviewed the latest standards in care.  Most of you might already know that we use sterilizers ( we call them "autoclaves" ) in the office to sterilize everything we can.  But how do dentists know  they actually work and kill the bacteria and virus's that could infect a patient or staff memeber?  Along with chemical strips that tell us that the sterilizing conditions have occured in the autoclave, we place live harmless bacterial cultures inside and expose them to the sterilizing conditions.  We then culture them for 24 hours and see if they grow.  If not, we've been successful.  If not, action is taken!  Today,these spore tests are done each and every day that the office sees patients.

Being a great summer day and a Friday as well, it was great to see the lecture room at the Mississauga Convention Center was packed!