Partners in Education Update

We are pleased to announce since we began this cooperative project in August 2010 we have donated a total $61,100.00 to local area schools!!  For the current school year, beginning August 1, 2012, we have donated $7,200.00!

In review, for every patient that starts full orthodontic treatment in our office we will donate $100 to a school of their choice to help out with classroom supplies.  We disperse the funds to the schools every month with a letter including the name of the patient(s) who chose that school to receive the donation.

Recently, the Lexington Herald Leader, The Hamburg Journal and also Business Lexington have written articles about our "Partners in Education" program. We have been fortunate to have the word spread about this exciting project. By informing our communities about our "Partners in Education" program, it allows us to continue supporting our surrounding schools with these much needed donations.

Below is an excel sheet with the school totals so far for this academic school year.

National Orthodontic Health Month

October is National Orthodontic Health Month! 

We want you to have a spooktacular Halloween, but remember to stay away from the treats that can cause problems with your braces.  Here is a little list of some good treats and some not-so-good treats.

Good Treats: Hershey chocolate bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, M&M's,  Sweetarts, Hershey Kisses, 3 Muskateer Bars, pretzels.

Bad Treats: Gum, Jawbreakers, Licorice, Popcorn balls, Snicker's, Skittles, Dots, Heath Bars, Caramel.

Remember, if you break a bracket or a wire, check our website at http://www.kyorthodocs.com/ for emergency information.  Also, please call our office in the morning to schedule an appointment to fix your braces.

Below are some "brace friendly" recipes for your enjoyment!  Have a very Happy and safe Halloween!!!

GOBLIN GOODIES   

Ingredients:
       1 small box rice cereal
       1 small box corn or wheat cereal
       1 small box rice puffs ceral
       3 cups pretzel sticks
       1 stick of margarine
       1 bag milk chocolate chips
       1 bag of white chocolate chips
       2 cups of milk

Directions:
       Line a cookie sheet or large baking pan with tin foil
       Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, putting margarine in the pan and the pan
       in the oven as the oven preheats so that the margarine will melt.
       Remove pan from oven and add pretzels, rice puffs and the corn and rice
       cereal-slowly stirring to coat with melted margarine.
       Once all the cereal and pretzels are in the pan, place pan uncovered in oven
       and bake for 20 mins.
       When the snack mix is finished baking, remove from oven and allow to
       cool. While cooling, in a small sauce pan, over low heat, melt milk
       chocolate chips with one cup of milk, adding milk slowly until melted. 
       Repeat for white chocolate chips.
       With a spoon, drizzle melted milk and white chocolate over the snack mix
        and allow to firm.  Once chocolate is more firm, toss and serve.

GRAVEYARD SHAKES

Ingredients:
       1 3/4 cup milk
       1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
       1 large scoop chocolate ice cream
       1 large scoop vanilla ice cream
       2 Oreo cookies, finely crushed
       1 soft ghost-shaped marshmallow

Directions:
       Combine milk, chocolate syrup and both
       scoops ice cream in a blender.
       Mix well and pour into clear glass.
       Sprinkle a layer of the finely crushed  cookies onto the top of the shake.
Then, set the ghost-shaped marshmallow in the shake to make it appear as
though it is rising out of the top.

 Visit the American Association of Orthodontists to learn more about National Orthodontic Health Month. : http://www.mylifemysmile.org/

Word is Getting Out!

The Hamburg Journal heard about our "Partners in Education" program. 

Click on the link below to be brought to the online edition and read the article about us on page 6.

Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word about this program. We truly appreciate the support!


Hamburg Journal link: http://issuu.com/hamburgjournal/docs/sept2012?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

We're in the Newspaper!

Did you know, the Lexington Herald Leader wrote an article about our Partners in Education program?  In case you missed it, here is the link: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/07/22/2267282/for-each-set-of-braces-central.html

Enjoy and thank you for your support in this great endeavor!

Partners in Education Update

Our Partners in Education program is still going strong!  For the 2011-2012 academic year we have donated $27,400.00 to date and we still have 3 more weeks before the 2012-2013 school year begins! 

How the program works is easy.  For every patient that starts full orthodontic (braces) treatment in our office we will donate $100 to a school to help with the cost of classroom supplies.  Patient's do not have to do anything except on the day that braces are placed, let us know the name of the school you'd like to help and we will do the rest!  The donations are delivered to the schools with a letter containing the name of the patient(s) who selected that school to receive the donation in their honor.  The pie chart below shows what counties have received funding thus far.

We truly believe that every child deserves a great education and this is a way we have found to be able to give back to the communities that have been so good to us.

Flat Ferguson & Tiny Tipton Are Back!

Your favorite "little" orthodontists are back for the summer!  Yes, Flat Ferguson and Tiny Tipton are here and ready to go on vacation with you!

The rules are simple:

-Pick up your Flat Ferguson or Tiny Tipton at any one of our four office locations.

-Take them with you on vacation.

-Take a picture of them.  You could be in the picture or you don't have to.

-Email the picture to us at kyortho@qx.net

We have 3 different categories that we are judging on, which are as follows...

-Furthest traveled

-Most places traveled

-Most unusual place traveled

 All participants will be entered into the contest, and one winner from each category will win a $50.00 gift card to Target.

Make sure to visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bluegrass-Orthodontics/122310402342 to see all the pictures of where Flat Ferguson and Tiny Tipton will be traveling this summer!

Dr. Julie Rambo

We have a new face around Bluegrass Orthodontics. We'd like to welcome Dr. Julie Rambo to our orthodontic family. Dr. Rambo will be covering for Dr. Ferguson or Dr. Tipton when they need to be out of the office attending continuing education seminars. This will allow us to keep our offices open and available for our patients needs.

Dr. Julie Rambo earned her dental degree from the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry and Master of Science in Orthodontics degree from Saint Louis University.

She is a member of the Kentucky Dental Association, the American Dental Association and the American Association of Orthodontics.

Dr. Rambo enjoys exercising, shopping, cooking and watching UK basketball.

We hope you will welcome Dr. Rambo and enjoy working with her as much as we have!



A BLUEGRASS ORTHODONTICS COMMUNITY PROJECT.

Did you know that as many as 12 million elementary school children are on the free or reduced meal programs at school?

In order to help these children and as the school year ends, we are asking patients to bring in their gently used or new backpacks to help with a local organization called

“Blessings in a Backpack”.

This program fills the backpacks with ready to eat food such as tuna, raisins, applesauce, granola bars, etc. and distributes them to local schools. The backpacks are then delivered to the qualifying children on a Friday with the intention of helping to feed them for the weekend.

Currently Blessings in a Backpack is feeding nearly 59,000 children in 390 schools in 35 states and in 3 countries!

Kentucky right now has 47 schools in the backpack program of which 4 schools are located in Lexington!

To learn more about Blessings in a Backpack you can visit them at

blessingsinabackpack.org

We will be accepting backpacks in each of our 4 office locations through

August 30th.

Partners in Education Update

Wow - we can't believe it is already March!  Where has the school year gone?  There are only 3 more months of the 2011-2012 academic school year left.  With that being said, we wanted to inform everyone on the progress of our Partners in Education program.



Dr. Ferguson, Superintendent Tom Shelton
and Dr. Tipton

 Earlier in the year, both Dr. Ferguson and Dr. Tipton have had the pleasure to meet with Tom Shelton, the Superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools. Dr. Tipton also had a meeting with the Superintendent of Jessamine County Public Schools, Lu Young while Dr. Ferguson met with Lana Fryman, the Superintendent of Bourbon County Public Schools.   During their time spent talking with each of the superintendents, the doctors were able to discuss the goals of our Partners in Education program.

Our goal of this program is to help off-set some of the costs the schools need to pay for classroom supplies.  We are able to provide this monetary funding through our patients.  Every new patient, whether a child or an adult, that starts full orthodontic treatment in our office will be able to choose a school of their choice and we will donate $100.00 to that school in their honor.

We started this program last academic year (2010-2011) and we were able to donate $26,400.00!!  This year we are right on track to donating the same amount or more.  So far since August 2011 - February 2012 we have donated $16,300.00 to local area schools.  Please see the pie chart below to see which counties have received funding.

Superintendent Lu Young and
Dr. Tipton

We have had a lot of feedback from various schools letting us know how these donations have helped their school.  For example, Mercer County has used the donations to help fund the local food pantry, which helps to supply food for their Backpack program.  Jessie Clark Middle school uses the funding for their Youth Service program, which buys classroom supplies for the children that do not have the resources to buy their own supplies.  Bryan Station High School has used their funding to help under privileged children be able to attend school field trips.  Finally, LTMS has started a mentoring program to help keep kids motivated with school and their studies. Even though, these are just a couple of stories, there are many more uses for these funds and we are very grateful to be part of helping our local schools.

Again, we are so excited about our Partners in Education program and to be able to continue the program for another year. We feel it is truly making an impact in our schools along with helping to enrich the children through their education. However, we cannot do this by ourselves.  We ask that you help us to spread the word about the Partners in Education program.  You can do this by informing your child's school or PTA about the program, talk to your neighbors, friends, family members and/or colleagues because this program can only be successful with your help!

February is National Dental Health Month!

National Children's Dental Health Month began as a one-day event in Cleveland, Ohio on Feb. 3, 1941. The American Dental Association held the first national observance of Children’s Dental Health Day on Feb. 8, 1949. This single day observance became a week-long event in 1955, and in 1981 the program was extended to a month-long celebration known today as National Children’s Dental Health Month.


We believe at Bluegrass Orthodontics that children's teeth are meant to last a lifetime and a healthy smile is very important to a child's self esteem. With proper brushing and flossing along with eating a balanced diet and visiting the dentist two times a year children can achieve this goal!

We have linked a video about Dudley the Dinosaur visiting the dentisit for your children to watch.  Enjoy and remember to SMILE!

http://youtu.be/TkSQCyl_rfY

Bluegrass Orthodontics Now Has QR Codes!

Bluegrass Orthodontics officially has 2 new QR codes. Not sure what a QR code is? No worries! QR stands for Quick Response. These QR codes are scanned by your phone and the information is relayed to you. Once the QR code has been scanned it may give you details about the business or in our case send you to our website and or Facebook fan page! Go ahead try it your self below:

Facebook - QR Code

Website - QR Code

Damon Forum Meeting

Dr. Ferguson was in Phoenix, Az. over the past weekend participating in the 12th Annual Damon Forum. A 3-day continuing education seminar about the braces we use in our office - The Damon System. While he was there learning about this innovative brace system, he was also fortunate enough to hear their new spokesperson, "Soul Surfer" Bethany Hamilton speak about her experience with the Damon Brace System. Click on the link below to see why Bethany Hamilton is Stoked about Damon Braces and so are we!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O7L1I7dUBU&feature=share



Partners in Education Update

We are so excited to announce we have donated a total of $10,700.00 to local area schools from September 2011- December 2011 through our Partners in Education Program.  As you know, our Partners in Education program is a cooperative program we established in August 2010 to provide local area schools with a monetary donation they can utilize within their school to help off set the cost of classroom supplies. 

When a child or an adult starts full orthodontic treatment in our office, we will donate $100.00 to a school of their choice.  Once a month we will deliver a check along with a letter stating the name of the patient(s) who selected that school to receive the donation in their honor.

We have had such a great response from teachers, principals, superintendents, parents, etc., that we decided to continue this program  for the 2011-2012 year.  Thus, this far Fayette County has received a total of $5,600.00,  Bourbon County has received $1,500.00, Jessamine County has received $600.00 and other surrounding counties have received $2,700.00! 

All of us at Bluegrass Orthodontics are excited to continue this program and be able to give back to our communities which have been so good to us!  We value and understand the importance of education for the future success of the children within our community and this is just one way we are able to help.