Connection Dentistry Raleigh Blog

Posted on October 17th, 2018

Halloween will be here before we know it! Take advantage of these good tips to avoid putting you or your child at risk of decay.

1. It’s best to eat sweets and candy shortly after a meal.  Your saliva is more active during meal times, so in order to ensure a faster break down of sugar, be sure to plan around other meals.
2. Prevent yourself from snacking on sweets. Snacking throughout the day allows for continued sugar to coat your teeth. This accelerates the break down of your enamel when you are waiting to brush it off.
3. Choose your candy wisely! Avoid eating hard or sticky candies as they stay in your mouth for a longer period of time and are harder for your saliva to break down.
4. Donate your unwanted candy. Select your favorite candies and give us your left over sweets and we will donate it to the troops or you can find a local buy-back program! ($$$)
5. Drink fluoridated water. Drink lots of water while you are eating your sweets to ensure that your teeth will have strong enamel to protect from sugars. That goes for bottled water as well!

Hello everyone,

We have been busy over here in the office and we are excited to share some updates from our staff. From new employees, to babies on the way, we want you to share in our celebrations!

To start off, we have our newest member, Kristina. Kristina is a dental assistant with over ten years of experience. She started with us in July and we are so thrilled to have her skills to share with our patients. Kristina is an excellent baker and decorates her cakes like a professional! She has quickly become an asset around the office with her hard-working attitude and caring personality.

Good afternoon patients of Christine D. Laster – We want to wish a great Independence Day from our office family to yours! Today we are dedicating our blog to the most-eaten foods on America’s birthday, along with the increased likelihood of consumption on July 4th rather than any other day.

1. Potato salad – Americans are 540% more likely to eat potato salad on July 4th than any other day of the year! Crazy!
2. Baked beans – 357% more likely to be eaten
3. Hot dogs – 210% more likely to be eaten
4. Hamburgers – 117% more likely to be eaten
5. Pickles – 167% more likely to be eaten
6. Cole slaw – 150% more likely to be eaten

Hello patients of Dr. Christine Laster. We want to make you all aware of the recent passing of Dr. Don Ferrell Jackson, the very first owner of our dental office location. It is with a very heavy heart that we acknowledge his death on April 25, 2018, at the age of 86.

Dr. Jackson was born in 1931 in Mingo Township, NC, a little ways outside of Fayetteville. He served in the Air Force before attending UNC Chapel Hill for his undergraduate education and then later, his dental education. While at UNC, Don met his wife, Ruth, and they were married in 1958. Dr. Jackson’s wife, Ruth, also attended dental school at UNC and upon graduation, they opened the practice we operate out of today. They worked at this practice until their retirement in 1996. We are very proud of his hard work and dedication to dentistry, and the patients we have gained from his legacy.

Happy Independence Day from Dr. Christine D. Laster and team! The Fourth of July celebrations in America may have changed a lot over the years, but there is no doubt that we Americans love to celebrate the anniversary of our country’s independence! Today we’re devoting the Christine D. Laster, DDS blog to some fun facts about the Fourth!

• My, how we have grown! This year the United States Census Bureau estimates that our country has 313.9 million residents celebrating the Fourth of July this year, but back in 1776 there were just 2.5 million members of the country.
• Our country loves to show how proud that we are of our independence. Did you know that there are 31 United States places with the word “Liberty” in their names? The state of Iowa actually has four towns with the word Liberty in the name: Libertyville, New Liberty, North Liberty, and West Liberty.
• The United States loves Fourth of July food! It is expected that around 150 million hot dogs are eaten on the Fourth each year. One of the Fourth’s most popular sides, potato salad, goes just perfectly with the hotdogs and hamburgers that are standard Fourth of July fare. Some people choose potato chips instead, but we wouldn’t have such a plethora of potatoes if not for the prodigious production of the states of Idaho and Washington — they provide about half of all the potatoes in the United States today!
• Americans love celebrating the Fourth outdoors: About 74 million Americans fire up their BBQ grill every Fourth of July.
• The Chinese contribution: Did you know that Americans have spent more than $211 million on fireworks that were imported from China?