Calgary Fine Dentistry
Suite 206, 1910 20th Ave. NW T2M 1H5 Calgary, AB, Canada

Meet Raquel! This fall we had the pleasure of having Raquel join our team at Calgary Fine Dentistry as a dental hygienist. Scroll through to get to know her a little...

Thanks so much for dinner Sue! What a delicious feast! #spoiled #bestteamever #bestofficemanagerever

Dr. Lauren Vredenburg and husband Phillip Benson are excited to announce the arrival of their daughter Beatrix Martha Benson. She was born December 17, 2020 weighing 7 lbs 4 oz. Dr. Vredenburg will be taking the next several months to spend time with her young family. She will resume seeing patients May 2021. Dr. Lilge and Dr. Jasmine will be taking great care of all our patients in the mean time.

Earlier this fall we decided that instead of our usual Christmas party this year we would do a holiday gnome making workshop at the Garden Retreat. Everything was planned out and we were going to be able to do the workshop while all being physically distanced with the appropriate COVID-19 protocols in place. However, 2 days before the workshop was scheduled regulations changed and indoor gatherings were no longer allowed so we were forced to cancel our CFD holiday celebration. In order to still support small businesses in our city we decided to have them make the gnomes for us and deliver them as a surprise to the staff! I’m sure the gnomes they made for us were a lot nicer than what we would have been able to make ourselves! Check out a few of our gnomes in their new homes!

Thank you to my team @calgaryfinedentistry for such a wonderful send off! This little lady has such a lovely and supportive community to welcome her into the world!

So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday! I am feeling especially thankful for my wonderful team @calgaryfinedentistry who have persevered and even thrived in spite of all the changes that have been placed on them over the last several months. I am thankful for our community of patient as they were so patient with us while we got organized to reopen our clinic in a way that would keep everyone safe and who trust us with their health each and every day while we ...work to keep their oral health optimized. I am thankful for my colleagues. I am grateful to have so many people I can reach out to and talk through the obstacles of running a dental practice in the time of COVID-19. And finally I am thankful for my amazing family that keep me going every day!

We said farewell to one our amazing hygienist Karen last month. She is on to the next phase now and is retiring from the dental hygiene profession. She practiced for 31.5 years and we had the pleasure of having her practice with us for the last 10 years! When Karen first began her hygiene career, dentistry was a very different environment. Gloves and masks were pretty fresh on the scene. It’s pretty hard to imagine that compared to what we have to wear these days to treat pa...tients. And ultrasonics were around but took a little while before they were used in every day dentistry. To say Karen has gotten to know different phases of dentistry over the years is not an exaggeration. I remember hearing about when Karen first came on the scene at Calgary Fine Dentistry. My mum said she just walked in one day. She had seen the sign and liked the sound of ‘Fine Dentistry’ so figured she’d check it out. Karen was such a good addition to the team here! On top of many years of practicing as a hygienist in a practice doing complex cases, she had such a good understanding of occlusion from her own experience with jaw surgery and full mouth reconstruction. She has been able to use this understanding along with her calm demeanor to help many many patients understand what is happening in their mouths. She has always done everything in her power to help her patients achieve optimal oral health through her meticulous work, treatment plan recommendations and review of home care techniques. Karen will be sorely missed! Patients have been expressing for months now how much they will miss her being their hygienist. And there will definitely be a void on our team without her here. Who is going to tell us about the epic hike they did over the weekend. We know she is looking forward to the next phase. Karen and her husband are planning to move to Ontario next year and spend summers at their cottage in Nova Scotia. I’m sure they will still keep being very active both indoors and outdoors in the years to come and will keep us posted on all their adventures. So help me congratulate Karen on an amazing career! (Sorry for the masked photo but we have to be COVID safe!)

The latest side effect of COVID-19... have you experienced ‘mask mouth’? Wearing a mask all the time can have some serious stinky side effects. Many patients are complaining of their own bad breath that they are experiencing behind their mask. While wearing a mask, people tend to breath through their mouth instead of their nose. This mouth breathing is causing the dry mouth, which leads to decrease in saliva- and saliva is what fights the bacteria and cleanses their teeth.... People’s tendency to drink less water while wearing a mask, as well as consumed more coffee and alcohol during lockdown, have also added to this widespread dehydration. A few tips to minimize bad breath from wearing a mask: - drink more water - cut down on caffeine - use a humidifier - use an alcohol-free mouthwash - scrape your tongue - don’t smoke - get regular dental cleanings! Check out the full article below: https://www.google.ca//mask-mouth-is-a-seriously-stin/amp/

Those of you who have been at the practice lately may have noticed Dr V has been working on something other than your teeth... right around Christmas this year Dr V and her husband Phillip are expecting their second child. Stafford is going to be a big brother! He has been practicing saying baby and giving snuggles to his stand-in doll in preparation. Dr. V will be sticking around until mid-December as long as baby allows it! And then will be away from the practice until May to be with her growing family. Not to worry though, you will be in great hands with Dr Jasmine & Dr Lilge taking the reins. And thank you all once again for sticking with us through a tumultuous time. We can’t wait to welcome another member of the CFD family into this wonderful community.

The Canadian Dental Association (CDA) clarifies that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) considerations to delay the provision of non-essential oral health care during the COVID-19 pandemic are not relevant for the current status in Canada since there is not wide-spread community transmission of COVID-19 in our country. Canada is experiencing cluster-contained outbreaks, conditions which allow for routine oral health care to be provided.

The new norm for a dental cleaning... 3 months ago today we received the mandate from the Alberta Dental Association to immediately stop all non-emergency dental treatment... essentially shut down. And by emergency they meant emergency... in order to keep our dental patients out of the emergency room. Two weeks ago we were able to reopen our doors to more routine dental care. But it sure does not look ‘routine’. The amount of personal protective equipment we wear to keep ev...eryone safe keeps us very toasty and makes us hard to be heard. But most importantly we are back in the office doing what we love... treating our patients! So although things are looking a little different we are still the same people behind the mask that you’ve been seeing for years and we will continue to be here for you for years to come! Thanks for sticking through with us while we navigated how the closure and reopening looked for our office. See more

Day 1 done! And the new look of staff meetings... fresh air and masks!

Day 1! Here we go! (Please note: we are starting slowly with only appointments to see the dentist this week. We will be adding hygiene appointments in in a couple weeks).

CALGARY FINE DENTISTRY IS REOPENING!