Dr. David Scharf

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Dr. Scharf: A Practice Built on Principle

What Patients Say About Dr. Scharf

As a child, I used to love to go to work with my dad. My dad had a jewelry manufacturing company, and he would sell jewelry to retail stores that sold them to the end customer.

I don't remember how old I was, but I'm sure I was a curious little boy — seven or eight years old — and I vividly remember sort of standing at my dad's desk and saying to him:

“Dad, how come people buy their jewelry from you? Why don't they buy it from someone else?”

My dad told me he doesn't ship a piece of jewelry out of his factory until he personally had inspected it to make sure that it was perfect. Because he knew that if he sent it out perfect, his customer will be happy.

“They would never have to send it back, and their customers were always happy,” my dad once said.  “Combined with giving customers good service, always being accessible to them and giving them what they needed, we make them loyal customers — this is the secret to my success.”

“I turn out the best product possible and I treat my customers well. And if you do that, people will beat a path to your door and they'll be loyal customers.”

I will always remember that lesson.

I've been fortunate to have a lot of blessings in my life. I grew up in a family that stressed education and hard work and instilled those values in me.

In order to become a dentist, you have to go to four years of college, and four years of dental school. I was able to complete college and dental school in six years by attending a six-year BADMD or undergraduate, and dental degree program in six years instead of the usual eight. I was one of only three students accepted into this prestigious program, and the only one to actually complete the program.

I was blessed with the intelligence to work hard and be able to do well in school. I was blessed with a great eye, hand coordination to be able to take a vision in my mind and create it with my hands, and I'm so appreciative of those blessings.

I'm so appreciative of the lessons that my parents taught me growing up because I took those lessons and transplanted them into my practice. I'm blessed to have a successful practice that patients love coming to, that they love speaking about, that they love referring their friends and family too.

It's a blessing to come to work every day, knowing that you're doing something you love, that you're passionate about, and that you're really helping people, that you're making a difference in their lives.

One of my instructors in dental school had an expression. He would say, somehow dentists don't have time to do it right the first time, but they find the time to redo it.

It never made sense to me. It just always made sense to do it right the first time, and in my own practice, I've tried to follow my father’s lesson in terms of precision.

Whatever I do, I try to do it as well as it can possibly be done, so that the patient is thrilled with the result, and it doesn't have to be done again. The result? A happy patient, a happy customer, who in the end is loyal to our practice and refer their friends and family to our practice. That has really been my mission and goal.

My staff and I take tremendous pride in the fact that our patients pass dozens and dozens of periodontists to get to our office to receive the care that we give them.

Our goal is to provide the best possible care, and we take tremendous pride in that. When someone has a healthy mouth, they can chew well. They can smile. They can feel confident about themselves. They can socialize. They can eat whatever they want.

We do more than create beautiful smiles here. We transform lives here. 

Dr. Scharf's chairside manner is one of the main reasons why I refer to his office

David's very calming. He's very thorough. He explains things.

He lets the patients know what to expect. He follows up with them. He calls them prior to an appointment. He calls them after a procedure's done. He doesn't let them fall to the wayside. They're always in the loop during the course of treatment.

When I call and ask a question, if Dr. Scharf's not in, one of them can always look something up for me, if not, they get back to me via email, via phone call, test message. They're always on board with what I need at that time, or for my staff. If my staff calls with a question, they're always able to give us the right answer.

One of the nice things about working with Dr. Scharf is, he has the imaging machines. He's got the laser procedures. He's got enough technology to allow our patients to get the ultimate care in a conservative and predictable manner.

He's also been and attending in the past at NYU, was trained by and worked with Dr. Dennis Tarnow, who’s a known periodontist in both the national and international scene.

So in working with Dr. Scharf, I know that his educational and clinical background was enhanced by being around some of the leading clinicians in the world, which for me makes it a better referral because I know his talent.

Dr. Allan Mohr, DDS

Restorative Dentist

He treated me like another intelligent person who would understand what he was telling me, and he told me exactly what the problem was, what was plan A, what might be plan B, how it was going to work, what he would do, how long it wou6ld take.

People who knew him said to me, “go with his plan. He knows what he's doing.

They gave me a sheet of exactly what to expect, one after the other, and some Tylenol. I took two as precautionary and did not have to take anything else and the phone rings. It's Dr. Scharf.

“Hello Sister Bernadette, how are you doing? I just called to make sure everything's okay. If you experience any discomfort, swelling, bleeding, anything, you have my cell phone, just give me a call. I hope everything's going okay.”

I believe that we have here a person who wants to be the ultimate best dentist so that he can render the ultimate best service to his patients.

Sister Bernadette Donovan

Dominican Nun, Patient

I came to Dr. Scharf. I had to about having implants, because of any other procedure, I'm a diabetic, so any procedure, I needed implants. I couldn't have anything else done. I was nervous, I really was, and I came in here, and Dr. Scharf talked to me, and he is so calm, patient, that I myself relax.

Frances Molly

Patient

He was very caring throughout. He took his time. He would question to make sure I was okay, explains everything beforehand so I knew what to expect, so it wasn't as scary as it could of been.

The follow up, they call you to make sure you're okay, that night, the next day, the next week. You know all the girls at the front desk, everybody, yeah, love them.

Caroline Santana

Patient

Dr. Scharf is a very nice person. He is compassionate. He's caring. He's funny. He's a funny guy. He makes me laugh. He makes the patients laugh. He is just very relaxed in his environment. He's very confident, and he does a wonderful, wonderful job.

He offers a great service and he comes through. He delivers it. He's a model of continuing education, and a model of updating and upgrading. Whatever technology's out there, he's always on the cutting edge.

Dr. Donald Kahn, DDS

Restorative Dentist

To learn about our services and treatments, visit https://www.drscharf.com/, or request your appointment thru calling [phone].

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Do You Really Need Your Teeth?

Well, let's talk about why teeth are important. 

You know, when you think about it, your mouth and your teeth are really the first part of your digestive system. If we took out,  three or 10 feet of your intestine, or we took that part of your stomach, it wouldn't surprise people that it would affect their digestion and affect their overall health. 

Well, if you take out somebody's teeth, and the teeth can't function in the first part of the digestive tract, like it was designed to, it's going to affect someone's health and digestion. The teeth are there to grind up the food, in addition to making us look good (that's not really their main purpose) The main purpose is to grind up our food. 

Now we can eat food without grinding it up, but the particle sizes are really large. And because the particle sizes are large, it can lead to more indigestion more upset stomach, but also people don't extract the nutrients from their food than they would otherwise. In fact, studies show that people with dentures or no teeth, take many more medications if you control for all other factors than people with their teeth, and they think it has to do with poor nutrition. 

So teeth are important, and all the teeth are important. So sometimes people think well, I can lose my teeth in the back because they don't show but I have to keep my front teeth. But that's not the case. 

You know, the front teeth are there to chew, to rip food.  So if you bite into an apple or a sandwich— they're not really there to grind up the food they have very small edges. If you don't have back teeth and you're chewing all your food on your front teeth, you can’t grind up the food the way it's supposed to be. So the particles would be much bigger, but also people end up wearing down their front teeth because they're not designed for that. 

The back teeth are the ones that are really designed to grind up the food. They have big flat surfaces and also to dissipate the force of biting. So a person's jaws come together with the same force whether they're biting, 14 teeth on 14 teeth, or they're biting two teeth on two teeth. So the same force divided by two teeth as amongst the 14 teeth, the force per tooth is going to be much higher. 

Many times when someone has lost their back teeth, what we see is the front teeth start to chip or the front teeth start to flare or move or people come and say “yeah, my teeth are just chipping all my dentistry’s breaking.” And to a large extent, that's because there's no back teeth to dissipate the force.

To answer the question: Do you really need your teeth? Yes! Because they're important for digestion. They're of course important to look good, but they're also important to dissipate the force of biting.

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Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Bleeding Gums

If you are one of those people who think bleeding gums are normal, you may be putting your life at risk. Bleeding gums is a sign of Gingivitis. Which, if left untreated, may spread deeper into the bone and cause a disease called periodontitis. Periodontitis is a root cause of not only dental problems, but has significant implications to your overall health.

Periodontitis and teeth loss

When gingivitis is left untreated, many times it spreads deeper into the bone and causes a disease called periodontitis. If left untreated periodontitis can result in tooth loss. 

Typically, once enough bone is lost, the teeth become loose and start to shift. That's a pretty late sign that there's trouble! Interestingly, in smokers, there's almost never bleeding of the gums. Smoking suppresses the bleeding, inflammation, but makes the underlying disease worse. 

A lot of people don't realize that there are significant health implications associated with untreated periodontal disease. Studies show that people have a 2 to 3 times increased risk of dying of heart attack or stroke from gum disease. 

When people have gum disease, the bacteria from the mouth get into the bloodstream and some of those bacteria are capable of causing the blood to clot (heart attacks and strokes happen when blood clots and blocks the vessel).

 In addition, increase of certain cancers in people with gum disease have been reported, such as a 62% increase in pancreatic and kidney cancer patients. 

Periodontitis and Alzheimer’s

Perhaps most concerning is there's a significant increase in Alzheimer's disease and dementia in people will untreated periodontal disease. Any chronic bacterial infections such as chronic Lyme’s disease or periodontitis will increase someone's risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. 

In animal models, if you take the spirochete, which is a bacteria we see commonly in periodontal disease and put it in the brain, the animal forms amyloid plaques, which is a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. 

A lot of people ignore bleeding gums thinking it's normal. They say, “Well, my gums have been bleeding forever, it must be normal”, but really nothing can be further from the truth. 

We see patients come in many times who have had bleeding out for years and years and after one to two treatments, the bleeding stops and never returns. And they were astonished that it was that easy. 

If someone has bleeding gums, we always recommend that they realize that that's not a normal condition. If your hands bled, if your fingernails bled, if your eyeballs bleed, if you have bleeding from your joints, you wouldn’t think that's normal. Bleeding from the mouth is definitely not normal. 

Treating Periodontitis

The first step is to be evaluated by either your dentist or periodontist. Periodontist is an expert at treating periodontal disease. And there's a number of things that we look at. Typically we get to the bottom of why the gums are bleeding. 

The treatment varies depending on how severe the person's problem is. Some people need little more than a real thorough cleaning, learn how to clean their teeth more thoroughly at home and the bleeding resolves. 

When the cases are more significant, people need what's called scaling and root planing many times and that's where the tartar is removed from under the gums. In the most significant cases people traditionally needed gum surgery— cut-and-stitch gum surgery. We don't do cut-and-stitch gum surgery anymore. 

Lanap Protocol 

I was the first periodontist on Long Island to start to treat periodontal disease with a laser using the Lanap protocol. I was trained in that back in 2008. I'm in my 11th year using that modality now. The technology is lightyears ahead of the traditional way of cut-and-stitch surgery. 

There's no scalpels involved, there are no stitches involved, no reflecting to gum back from the teeth. So, there's much less recession afterwards, virtually no discomfort after the treatment, which is just terrific. A lot of that just comes to how gentle and how precise the laser is, and also the fact that we're not exposing the bone in order to do that. 

Conclusion

If you have bleeding gums, if you have loose teeth, if you have bad breath, which is another sign of gum disease, if your gums are red and puffy, I’d urge you to have your gums checked and not ignore those symptoms. Because number one, they can result in the loss of your teeth. But number two, they can certainly shorten your life. 

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The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

Gum disease can keep you from smiling, eating what you want, and enjoying the company of loved ones, but did you know that you can have it treated without resorting to surgery?

Gum Disease and Its Symptoms

Gum disease is marked by gum recession, but having receding gums may be caused by other things aside from gum disease.  When we age, there is a tendency for gums to recede, especially if the trait is present within your family or relatives.

Once our gums recede, the roots of our teeth are exposed.  The roots of our teeth are very sensitive.  Many people will not eat ice cream or cold drinks, and they suffer from it because they wanted to keep their teeth.

Gum disease, however, is not limited to receding gums.  Another one of its symptoms is bleeding gums.

Most people ignore bleeding gums because they think bleeding gums are normal.  Eventually, these bleeding gums fester, and people have bone loss around the teeth.  They then either realize they have a problem, or they go to their dentist who tells them they have a problem.  By that point, they have bone loss around the teeth, they have bone loss around their teeth, they have deep pockets, and the whole cycle of destruction has started.

The Traditional Method of Gum Treatment

What you have to do, is get rid of the diseased tissue, get rid of the bacteria, get rid of the tartar, make the pocket shallow.  These can be done whether you are treating it with surgery or treating it with laser.

When we do cut-and-stitch gum surgery to treat gum recession, we are opening the gum, scraping out the bacteria and the tartar, and putting the gums back, many times higher up on the root.  So there’s more root exposed, but the pocket is shallow. One of the drawbacks with that root planing or that scraping and cutting procedure is they may end up with cold sensitivity.  The gums may have reconnected to the tooth, and if you have cold sensitivity, the gums have receded, moved up, or have exposed some of the roots, so that now it is more sensitive.

But the flip side is that if you don't treat gum disease sufficiently, it's not enough. Some people would say, “Well, I don't want the surgery. I just want scale and just scale my teeth and don't do anything else.”

When that happens, you have to respect them, that’s what they are choosing, but they would have a false sense of security because they were treating their disease insufficiently.  And if you treat it insufficiently, ultimately it's going to fail, they're going to lose their teeth anyway.

The Laser Gum Treatment Method

The laser does the same thing in a different way — the laser energy kills the bacteria; it loosens the tartar from the teeth so we can remove the calculus.  And then you go back in with the laser on another setting.  The laser, in effect, heats the blood and connects the gum back to the root of the tooth.

What we are doing is we are removing the bacteria that is causing the problem, and then letting the body's own systems takeover to reconnect the gun back to the tooth and restore health.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

After you treat someone with a laser, you don’t have all the recession that you typically have after conventional periodontal surgery, so you don’t have the cold sensitivity.  Those are the things people always complained about, long term.

Because after traditional periodontal surgery there is a fair amount of recession of the gum, so either we intentionally move the gum up, or, because we've reflected the gum from the bone and exposed the root, taking away some diseased tissue, there is more root exposed.  With laser, we're not lifting the gum off the bone, we're not cutting away big pieces of diseased tissue.

It's really been a revolution to my practice for a few reasons.  First, I’ve always tried very hard not to do periodontal surgery, because, for myself, I wouldn’t want it if I needed it.  So we would do scaling, anything nonsurgical, that seemed like it worked, I would investigate and try to use to the extent possible.  And I think over the years, patients really appreciated coming to my practice, because I wasn't very quick to take out the scalpel and to do gum surgery.

No more bleeding gums.  No more bad breath.  And the beauty of it is it happened so quickly.  It's not weeks and weeks of visits.  It's not multiple, multiple visits.  It’s a couple of visits now and people are treated.

Other Advantages of Laser Gum Treatment

The beauty of the laser is that they could have their cake and eat it too.  We treat your gums and get rid of the pockets, then we can regrow some of the bone that had been lost around your teeth without you having to go through surgery and all it entails, and people appreciate that. Numerous patients come to our office after hearing from other patients who have been treated the laser gum treatment method.  Everybody talks about the treatment, and results can be seen every day — patients come back after treatment say, “Wow, that was a breeze.  I’m so glad that I did this.”

I've had a number of patients who had conventional periodontal surgery years ago — they broke down again, they needed periodontal treatment again.   These people are the perfect controlled experiment —  they've had conventional cut-and-stitch periodontal surgery, and then they’ve had laser treatment.  Without exception, they say “Laser was a breeze.  I would never do that other kind of surgery again.  This was simple.”

And it is simple — you get anesthetized, you sit, you have it done, and afterward, there is really very little downtime.  The results are almost immediate.  People come back a week later, and they often say, “My gums don't bleed anymore, my mouth feels great!”

How Laser Gum Treatment Can Help Diabetics

The effect of laser gum treatment can be seen on our patients’ bodies immediately, too.

As a lot of people probably know, gum disease affects diabetes. People who are diabetic, for one, are more at risk for severe gum disease.  Diabetics, who have severe gum disease, have a higher need for insulin or diabetic medications because gum disease is a chronic infection, and chronic infections drive up someone's blood sugar.

I had a patient a few months ago who was on an insulin pump.  He had tremendous periodontal disease and had not been to the dentist in 20 years.  I had treated his dad and his dad referred him to my practice.  He used to subject himself to the insulin pump every three days.  We did his laser treatment, and last week he was in for a quick check and I said, just out of curiosity, “Are you using less insulin?”

He said, “You know, a vial of insulin will last me five days now.”

How his overall health has improved because he got his periodontal disease treated!

Laser Gum Treatment for Holistic Health

When people have tremendous gum disease it is again, chronic inflammation in the body, and when people think of infection, they think of a big abscess or something.

A toothache is, actually, a chronic inflammation.  The body is constantly mounting this immune response to try and get rid of the bacteria, but it cannot get rid of the bacteria.  If you ever had the flu, you know that you are sick — your body is fighting this massive war against what is invading your body.  You have no energy at all.

For many people who have had severe gum disease, after their disease is treated and their body no longer have to constantly fight this infection, they tend to feel they have more energy.  I've never read a study on it, but I've had so many people tell me, “I just feel better, I have more energy.”

Sometimes some of the lightness patients feel after laser gum treatment is also because of how they feel about themselves — they no longer have to worry.  Most people who have gum problems worry about it, about what is going to happen if they don't have it treated, and the worry stays constantly on their mind.  Their breath is always on their mind.

Once patients get treated, they find those worries just cleared off their plate and they can go on with things — they can smile, they can eat without bleeding, and they don't feel bad every day when they brush their teeth and they spit into the sink and they see blood.  The biological aspect of their feeling better is having more energy.  The other part, which is more psychological in nature, can be described in how they think or talk:

“Boy, that's done. I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm going to keep my teeth I'm going to have a nice smile. I don't have to have dentures in the nursing home. I don't have to limit what I eat. I don't have to be embarrassed about kissing my favorite person.  I like to kiss.  They just feel good again.”

Want to learn more about laser gum treatment and other services?  Check out Dr. Scharf and Facebook Page.

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Laser Gum Treatment:  the Latest Innovation to Treat Periodontal Disease

The Old WayLaser Surgery

Nobody wants to lose their teeth.

No one says “Well, I’m okay losing my teeth.”  Who would want to go to work, see their spouse meet, meet their friends, and have half their teeth missing?

Nobody.

But people are hesitant to undergo periodontal surgery because they’ve heard horror stories from their friends and from their spouse. Many people make a conscious or unconscious decision to leave their gum disease untreated because they felt it would be better off to lose one’s teeth than have periodontal surgery done.

Advanced periodontal disease was always treated with cut and stitch gum surgery. People would undergo this type of surgery because they wanted to keep their teeth, but nobody enjoyed doing it.

When someone had advanced periodontal disease, they would have to visit and consult with a hygienist for three or four visits. They would then have a number of visits for the gum surgery.

The surgery involves the periodontist first lifting the gum up from around the teeth.  They would make an incision and lift the gum up from around the teeth  Once the gum is reflected, the periodontist sees the root of the tooth and we would scrape the tartar off the root and hope to remove the tartar to remove the bacteria, before putting the gum back.

The procedure is highly mechanical, which makes it very invasive.  Sometimes, cutting the gum means reshaping the bone. Although the treatment is not painful during the procedure itself, pain can ensue after, when sedative has worn off.  There is also lengthy downtime, and eating is affected.

For periodontists like Dr. David Scharf, DMD, no one thanked him for performing cut and stitch gum surgery on them.  Dr. Scharf, for one, finds the procedure enjoyable to do technically, yet it was hard to delight in doing because he knew that people did not enjoy the traditional gum surgery.

After all, who in their right mind would make a conscious decision to lose their teeth?  If it means going through having periodontal surgery, however, a lot of people just don’t want to do the traditional way.

The innovation of laser surgery changed it all.  With the laser, we can reverse 20 years of neglect, sometimes of 20 years of disease, in a couple of two-hour sessions instead of four or more.

When the laser goes in, it kills those bacteria and it removes the diseased tissue very selectively and doesn’t touch healthy tissue at all.  It’s more precise than any surgeon's scalpel could ever be.

The laser energy first goes into the pocket and it removes diseased tissue but leaves healthy tissue untouched.

How is this possible?

Laser, when moved over a piece of newsprint, it doesn’t affect the paper at all.  It can, however, remove the ink from the newsprint and leaving the paper undisturbed.

The same can be said for Periodontal disease bacteria —  it soaks up light energy very well that when the laser goes in, it kills those bacteria and it removes the diseased tissue very selectively and doesn’t touch healthy tissue at all.  It’s more precise than any surgeon's scalpel could ever be.

With laser, patients are comfortable right away with eating, chewing, and other daily activities once surgery is done.  All they need to do is take a Motrin or Tylenol after treatment.  They don’t have the weeks and weeks of downtime or the longer downtime that cut and stitch surgery would have.

Dr. Scharf, the first periodontist in Long Island who uses and has Laser Surgery services, even recounts how he had once I treated a gentleman in the morning and the patient went to work in the afternoon.

No more bleeding gums.

No more loose teeth.

No more bad breath.

For more information on Dr. Scharf’s Laser Surgery services, check out this link.

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The Real Value of Dental Implants

I've performed over 10,000 dental implant surgery since 1988.  Almost without exception, patients are amazed at how fast and easy the procedure is. Typically they'll say it was one of the easiest dental procedures they've ever had.  We numb the gum with a local anesthetic and the gum and the bone are much easier to numb than a tooth.

When I place a dental implant, the surgery for a single tooth implant typically takes eight to ten minutes.  After we're done, most patients only take a single Tylenol or Motrin and they feel fine the next day with minimal swelling, minimal discomfort.

The Number of Dental Implants Needed

Patients typically ask how many dental implants they need.  When we're replacing one tooth, we need one dental implant. When we're replacing more than one tooth, typically, for two or three teeth, we need two dental implants.  The two dental implants are spaced apart and then a three tooth bridge can be placed on the implants. As opposed to a three tooth bridge placed on natural teeth, this isn't going to decay.

When we're replacing a whole arch of teeth, typically we can do that with two or three implants per side so they're so strong.  If we can space them properly two or three implants per side, we can replace a whole arch of teeth.

Dental Implants as an Innovation

Many patients think that dental implants are new technology.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

The human research on dental implants began in the mid-1960s, and these patients were followed for over 20 years before Professor Branemark presented his research to North America in 1984.

I started placing dental implants in 1988 — really at their infancy in the United States — and I've placed over 10,000 dental implants since then.  Most patients have heard about dental implants now and almost everyone has a friend who's had some dental implants. By the mid-90s to the late 90s is when it really became the accepted method of tooth replacement among the general dental population.

The Cost of Dental Implants

Many times patients can be concerned about the cost of dental implants and there are really two things to consider with respect to cost.  When you're replacing a single tooth, a dental implant restoration can be perhaps 10 or 15% more costly than a three-tooth bridge. Although a dental implant may be more costly, initially, the value is much greater over the long term.

Even forgetting about the cost of having to redo the dental bridge, the most valuable commodity most people have is their time.  Who wants to spend their time having something redone if it doesn't need to be redone? Who wants to get Novocaine again, go to the dentist again, sit in a chair have all that be redone again?

Most people appreciate that it's better to spend a little more initially and then have a restoration which is exceedingly durable and has an excellent chance of lasting their entire life.

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What We Do to Solve Your Problem

When people come in with complex problems, the key really is to do a very, very thorough examination.

To give you an idea, we spend 40-50 minutes with a new patient in our office, in my consultation room.  What happens during such a lengthy consultation, especially on the first meet between a patient and a periodontist?  Why is there a need for long periods of consultation?

What to Expect During First Consultation

Most patients have never had an experience where they have a 40-minute examination with a doctor, but we have to really collect a lot of data in order to understand what is important for that patient.

I want to understand why my patients call me, what they want to get out of our dental encounter, and what problems they want fixed. I want to be sure to address what is important to them, and that can only come through spending time and talking with the patient.

0There have been many patients whom I want to understand what has kept them away from dentistry for a long time.  Do they have any particular concerns? Have they had bad experiences in the past?

Once I have found out these things I will review their medical history very carefully.  There have been many times when I found that there are things in the patient’s medical history that will affect their dental situation, so we want to know about that before we start to maximize their chance of having a successful outcome.

When the medical history review is done, we then examine the patient by doing a thoroughly detailed examination of the gums and the teeth.  We do an oral cancer exam and check the jaw joint, as well. We also do aesthetic analysis if they have aesthetic concerns.

After the thorough examination, we then discuss what radiographs I deem necessary.  Some patients don’t need any x-rays since they come in with x-rays from their dentist and the x-ray results indicate that they are fine.  Others, on the other hand, need dental x-rays, and occasionally someone needs a 3D dentascan called a CAT scan.

The x-rays we take are digital and the days of film and dipping film in the tank is long since gone.  Rather, we use digital radiography that is fast, accurate, and have 3D cone beam scanners to take dentascans which allows us to evaluate people’s bone for dental implants, so patients need not leave the office.  Digital radiography allows us to instantly know if a patient is a candidate for dental implants or other forms of treatment.

Unraveling a Complex Problem

Unraveling a complex problem starts with a detailed examination, which allows people to often have more than one option.

Often times patients would say, “Well, just tell me what I need.”  It does not work that way, however.

“There are two things that are important to the success of a patient-doctor relationship:  communication and trust, and you can only build trust with communication.”

What somebody needs is a function of what they want.  It is just like, say, you want to buy a car, or go get a new apartment.  If you go to the car dealership and say “well, tell me what I need,” the people in that dealership will have to know more about you as well as what you want.  They have to know what you want — do you want something sporty? Do you need a family car? Do you need a gas-efficient car?

There are many times and many ways to get to an endpoint of good health and good aesthetics for a patient, so knowing what is important to them helps us find the solution that will work best for them.  Is it important for somebody to have something that stays within their mouth rather than something removable or are they comfortable with something that is removable? How important is it for them to enhance or change their smile?  What does their smile look like? How many teeth do they show? What are their budgetary constraints?

We have to find a solution that fits within somebody’s budget, so we try to talk to people about that as well in order to understand what they want to accomplish, what their means are, and what their budget is in order to accomplish what they need to do.  In this way, we do our best to find a solution that fits within those parameters.

What to Expect at the End of a Treatment

We at Long Island Periodontist hope that every patient, and that includes you, leaves the office thrilled.  I want to do for the patient what they want to have done, not what I want to have done. This is why I really have to talk to my patients in order to understand what they want and what is important to them.  It is my hope that at the end of treatment they will say “I was treated great,” “That was very, very comfortable —I thought it was going to be horrible, but it was comfortable.”

People comment in our reviews that we pay a lot of attention to them, that they are never left alone, that they never felt like they were a number, and these statements make me feel proud.  We spend a lot of time trying to understand what someone’s concerns are, what makes them tick, and what they need to be comfortable.

We want our patients to leave having had great treatment.  Treatment should be comfortable, so we pay a lot of attention to making the procedures as comfortable as possible through an adequate explanation, topical anesthetic, or a pop of Novocaine sedation if they want it.  We want them to finish their treatment knowing that we paid attention to how they were after the procedure, whether they had adequate pain medication, and that they know how to reach me whenever they need me.

We at Long Island Periodontist want our patients happy with the treatment they get — from gum disease treatment that will help them keep their teeth, to replacing a tooth with a dental implant so they can chew, to replacing a front tooth or missing teeth so they can smile again, or replacing a whole arch of teeth where they once had no gnawers or really poor-looking teeth.

The Key to a Successful Patient-Doctor Relationship

There are two things that are important to the success of a patient-doctor relationship:  communication and trust, and you can only build trust with communication. I can never imagine myself practicing in a setup where I sit with a patient and start treating them without ever talking and getting to know them.

There is a body attached to the mouth, and you have to know what someone has been through in the past, what their concerns are, what is important to them, what is going on with them.  Only by having that conversation can the patient be comfortable and know that I am the right doctor for them, that I understand them, and that I am going to try and make sure that their needs are addressed.

Just as we try hard to run on time to see our patients on time, we like patients who keep appointments.  We respect our patients’ time, which is why we like it when patients respect and appreciate us and value what we do for them.  It is a mutual thing; we see our patients rise to the occasion, come in on time, and keep their appointments.

Want to learn more about Dr. Scharf and Long Island

Periodontist?  Read more stories by checking out our website.

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Solving Dental Problems One by One

What Happens When You haven’t Seen a Dentist for a Long time One of the reasons I became a periodontist was I thought it was really the most interesting and the most all-encompassing specialty.

As a periodontist from Babylon, New York with a practice that specializes in treating gum disease and placing dental implants, I get patients who have been away from dentistry for a long time.

When patients who come to us have not seen a dentist for a long time, there is a tendency that we will not know where to start, especially with people with very complex problems.

The periodontist, however, is a dental specialist that has enough training in all the various disciplines of dentistry to be able to help people like that.  Rather than not knowing where to start, I actually find it gratifying.

People come in for reasons such as not liking the way their teeth look, being unable to chew, not liking their smile, being unable to function well, or being embarrassed.  They have a multitude of complex problems, and we do the untangling for them, one problem at a time, and help the patient get what they want — which, for most people, is a good-looking smile, as well as the confidence that comes with the smile and the confidence that comes with being able to chew and eat anything they want.

Want to learn more about Dr. Scharf and Long Island Periodontist?  Read more stories by checking out our website.

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Visit Original Link

Meet Dr. David R Scharf, a periodontist.  Get to know his secret of making his colleagues and patients happy -- see it all first in this complete video.

Get to know how the best dental care services should look like as Dr. David Scharf talks about embodying commitment and excellence in his dental practice in this podcast. If you want to watch the full video click this link : 

https://www.facebook.com/LongIslandPerio/videos/vl.2375249642509773/372740046613371/?type=1

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Are Two Heads Better than One in Dental Implant Procedures?

The set of questions a patient must ask their doctor before having dental implant surgery is whether the entire implant procedure will be performed by that doctor, whether the doctor will do the implant surgery and then if somebody else will do the implant restoration. Teamwork: Working Together Toward a Common Vision I've always been a firm believer in the team approach. I learned that in the Boy Scouts as a team, we can accomplish more. As a volunteer firefighter, I know for sure we're a whole lot more effective putting out a fire than one guy running to the scene of the fire with his hose. Why is that? Because each firefighter brings his unique experience and efforts to fighting that fire. I believe the same is true in dental implant surgery. When you have a team approach of a surgeon such as myself and a restorative dentist, each person has their area of expertise and many times that can result in a better outcome for the patient. Also, let's take the team approach and firefighting. If I go into the fire by myself, and there's a problem, who's backing me up? there's nobody else there. With team approach and implant dentistry, the surgeon and the restorative dentist access checks and balances for each other. We bounce ideas off each other. Common Problems Patients Face Now, many patients are sometimes discouraged to learn that they have the implant done in one office and the restoration done in another office. And they feel this way because they think it's going to be confusing. It's going to be a needless hassle. How will I know where to go? What will I tell that person? How will it be coordinated? It seems like it's a lot of confusion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many of our patients come to our office and they don't have a restorative dentist. So How Does the Team Approach Work? First, we refer them to a dentist whom I know is a top notch dentist - someone I've worked with many, many times whom I know can do an excellent job and their implant restoration. Second, that dentist and I work together to plan their case. And we give that patient written sheet so they know what every visit is going to be and where that visit is going to take place. How long it's going to be between visits, and what the total fee is going to be. So there's no confusion the patient lost in the middle. We've developed systems which are airtight so that the patient doesn't get lost, as we call it and that the case goes as smoothly as we're done in one office. We like to think of it as a virtual office to doctors almost operating within the same practice into facilities.

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Principles of a Periodontist

As a child, I used to love to go to work with my dad. My dad had a jewelry manufacturing company, and he would sell jewelry to retail stores that sold them to the end customer.

I don’t remember how old I was, but I’m sure I was a curious little boy — seven or eight years old — and I vividly remember sort of standing at my dad’s desk and saying to him:

“Dad, how come people buy their jewelry from you? Why don’t they buy it from someone else?”

My dad replied he doesn’t ship a piece of jewelry out of his factory until he personally had inspected it to make sure that it was perfect, because he knew that if he sent it out perfect, his customer was always happy.

“They would never have to send it back, and their customer was always happy,” my dad once said.  “Combined with giving customers good service, always being accessible to them and giving them what they needed, we make them loyal customers — this is the secret to my success.”

“I turn out the best product possible and I treat my customers well. And if you do that, people will beat a path to your door and they’ll be loyal customers.”

I always remembered that lesson my dad taught me.

I’ve been fortunate that I’ve had a lot of blessings in my life. I grew up in a family that stressed education and hard work, and instilled those values in me.

In order to become a dentist, you have to go to four years of college, and four years of dental school. I was able to complete college and dental school in six years by attending a six-year BADMD or undergraduate and dental degree program in six years instead of the usual eight. I was one of only three students accepted to this prestigious program, and the only one to actually complete the program.

I was blessed with the intelligence to work hard and be able to do well in school. I was blessed with great eye, hand coordination to be able to take a vision in my mind and create it with my hands, and I’m so appreciative of those blessings.

I’m so appreciative of the lessons that my parents taught me growing up, because I took those lessons and transplanted them into my practice. I’m blessed to have a successful practice that patients love coming to, that they love speaking about, that they love referring their friends and family to.

It’s a blessing to come to work everyday, knowing that you’re doing something that you love, that you’re passionate about, and that you’re really helping people, that you’re making a difference in their lives.

One of my instructors in dental school had an expression. He would say, somehow dentists don’t have time to do it right the first time, but they find the time to redo it.

It never made sense to me. It just always made sense to do it right the first time, and in my own practice, I’ve tried to follow the lesson of my father in terms of precision.

Whatever I do, I try to do it as well as it can possibly be done, so that the patient is thrilled with the result, so that it doesn’t have to be done again, so that I have a happy patient, a happy customer at the end, who in the end is loyal to our practice and sends their friends and family to our practice. That’s really been my mission and my goal.

My staff and I take tremendous pride in the fact that our patients pass dozens and dozens of periodontists to get to our office to receive the care that we give them.

Our goal is to provide the best possible care, and we take tremendous pride in that. When someone has a healthy mouth, they can chew well. They can smile. They can feel confident about themselves. They can socialize. They can eat whatever they want.

We do more than create beautiful smiles here. We transform lives here.

How We See Dr. Scharf

Dr. Scharf’s chairside manner is one of the main reasons why I refer to his office

David’s very calming. He’s very thorough. He explains things.

He lets the patients know what to expect. He follows up with them. He calls them prior to an appointment. He calls them after a procedure’s done. He doesn’t let them fall to the wayside. They’re always in the loop during the course of treatment.

When I call and ask a question, if Dr. Scharf’s not in, one of them can always look something up for me, if not, they get back to me via email, via phone call, test message. They’re always onboard with what I need at that time, or for my staff. If my staff calls with a question, they’re always able to give us the right answer.

One of the nice things about working with Dr. Scharf is, he has the imaging machines. He’s got the laser procedures. He’s got enough technology to allow our patients to get the ultimate care in a conservative and predictable manner.

He’s also been and attending in the past at NYU, was trained by and worked with someone who’s a nationally known and internationally known periodontist, Dr. Dennis Tarnow.

So in working with Dr. Scharf, I know that his background educationally, clinically has been enhanced by being surrounded by some of the leading clinicians in the world, which for me makes it a better referral because I know his talent.

Dr. Allan Mohr, DDS Restorative Dentist

He treated me like another intelligent person who would understand what he was telling me, and he told me exactly what the problem was, what was plan A, what might be plan B, how it was going to work, what he would do, how long it wou6ld take.

People who knew him said to me, “go with his plan. He knows what he’s” doing.

They gave me a sheet of exactly what to expect, one after the other, and some Tylenol. I took two as precautionary and did not have to take anything else and the phone rings. It’s Dr. Scharf.

“Hello Sister Bernadette, how are you doing? I just called to make sure everything’s okay. If you experience any discomfort, swelling, bleeding, anything, you have my cell phone, just give me a call. I hope everything’s going okay.”

I believe that we have here a person who wants to be the ultimate best dentist so that he can render the ultimate best service to his patients.

Sister Bernadette Donovan Dominican Nun, Patient

I came to Dr. Scharf. I had to about having implants, because any other procedure, I’m a diabetic, so any procedure, I needed implants. I couldn’t have anything else done. I was nervous, I really was, and I came in here, and Dr. Scharf talked to me, and he is so calm, patient, that I myself relax.

Frances Molly Patient

He was very caring throughout. He took his time. He would question to make sure I was okay, explains everything beforehand so I knew what to expect, so it wasn’t as scary as it could of been.

The follow up, they call you to make sure you’re okay, that night, the next day, the next week. You know all the girls at the front desk, everybody, yeah, love them.

Caroline Santana Patient

Dr. Scharf is a very nice person. He is compassionate. He’s caring. He’s funny. He’s a funny guy. He makes me laugh. He makes the patients laugh. He is just very relaxed in his environment. He’s very confident, and he does a wonderful, wonderful job.

He offers a great service and he comes through. He delivers it. He’s a model of continuing education, and a model of updating and upgrading. Whatever technology’s out there, he’s always on the cutting edge.

Dr. Donald Kahn, DDS Restorative Dentist

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Dr. David Scharf

98 E Main St #2 Babylon,

NY 11702

[phone]

Dr Scharf is the premier periodontist on Long Island. He treats gum disease with a laser and places dental implants on Long Island. He was voted “Best Dentist on Long Island for 2010, ‘11, '12, '13 &14.  He was the first Long Island Periodontist certified in LANAP and one of the first to offer the pin hole gum rejuvenation technique.  Dr Scharf recently published his first book "The Smart Consumers Guide to Dental Implants” available on Amazon.

http://www.drscharf.com/