I went to a dental conference and part of the entertainment was a visit to the local art museum because dentistry is about 35% art. Everyone has their own opinions about art, as they do in dentistry. Sometimes art comes from our imagination. Sometimes it comes from the quieting of the mind. The pictures below are from a Japanese artist who needed to quiet her mind to function. Yayoi Kusama, born in 1929, was tortured with all the noise in her head. Art was a way for her to quiet the noise. In all of her madness, she brought about a world of repeated polka dots. Their formed patterns were used in fashion, architecture, illusions, and many more. 
Below is one of her illusions; a room filled with LED lights surrounded by mirrors giving it an endless look. Being in the room was amazing. Craziness was the last thing on my mind. It was so beautiful and romantic being in the dark as the colors change. The room was cooler and as people move around, the lights swing back and forth so the landscape in front of you changes. I was amazed how simple the thought but incredibly smart in the execution. 
The artist lives in an institution today in Japan as she waits for the indefinite silence. It's unbelievable to me that someone's mental illness can be transformed into something so creative yet, so simple.  It is true of what they say: One woman's crazy is another woman's intelligent art.

I know there is only a day to celebrate international women but why only one day.  We're doing it all week and all year. Our office has an international myriad of women. We have it all: multilingual, colors, shapes, sizes, looks, intelligence, personalities, etc. Our office is the epitome of women and sisterhood.  We celebrate all women, be it the natural-born females or the gender-altering females . We all have a heart and brain to guide us individually through this ever-changing society that challenges us daily. We all have our attitudes and personalities to deal with hardship that is thrown at us.  We have our nice days and not-so-nice days. But really, who doesn't?  Men have them, too.
Celebrating individuality is awesome because we are all special. It's okay to be different and even better to be proud of being different. Conformity is so restricting and kinda bland. Color variations make a picture brighter, as people variations make life more beautiful and interesting.  Please remember to be kind to everyone, especially to the women around you. We have it rough. We need understanding from our counterparts who are given power just for being born with XY chromosomes. I mean, it's the women that  carried you for up to 40 weeks in the belly. Be kind to those women and the women who supported her during this period.  There are women out there who taunt their own kind, due to skin color or esthetics. It's superficial but it's true. I was born into a family with strong female role models. I intend to continue that trend for my own kids. I believe our younger generations need to see examples of compassion and practices of common sense. It's such simple knowledge but it gets lost easily. I hope the good vibes continue to vibrate throughout the world. Change needs to start somewhere, so why not at home?
Happy International Women Day to all my female peeps. Without you, the world would be very sad. Thank you for your contribution to all the beauty and magnificent magic we all get to experience. Please hug the female next to you, with permission of course. 

When this patient came in, he was already in pain and angry. The pain has become so unbearable that his personality has changed. He was aggressive and short with his answers. It was a rough first impression. But once we removed the tooth, he was a changed man. So happy he was anesthetized, the offending infected tooth was removed, and he didn't realized it came out.

Look at the roots on this one...they hooked onto the bone, making it a complicated extraction. So this is one of our trophies in the office. We were relieved when it came out in one piece as the patient had a hard time opening his mouth for us.

Happy Lunar  2023.  I was looking for a dress to wear to a wedding and saw this on Nordstrom.com. It is so great.  I've been saying Lunar instead of Chinese New Year because Vietnamese celebrate it too. But in Vietnam, the animal is a cat, not a rabbit.  So to see it on Nordstrom website, it was a tickle. After all these decades, I didn't think I would see it but here it is...Nordstrom just sold me 2 dresses.

Just when we thought the pandemic will end in 2021, it continues into 2023 with a new virus, new super infection and "tripledemic". More than a million people have died. But millions of people have also started a new life with mass resignations. It seems like wherever there is  disaster, there is also hope.
We met a lot of challenges this year.  We also accomplished more goals. We ultimately grew as an office and as clinicians. We devoted ourselves to learning more and being able to do more.  We made some big decisions and lots of little ones, too. We are contributing less to the chopping of trees but more to the planting of trees. We will continue to do our part and look for ways to lower our carbon footprint. We got more involved with the community through our volunteer services and organizations. We were not able to donate toothbrushes like we usually do.  Apparently, there is a shortage of toothbrushes from our supplier for months now. 
Dentistry is a great profession to be in. It's a mixture of science and finances, together with leadership and social service. Today, it's also one of the most expensive schooling to attain.  Some students owe up to $600+K after graduation. There are so many things wrong with that.  Medical students owe less upon completion of their training but makes more. Dental insurance companies pays less and less with time while medical insurances pays more. The irony is that the oral health correlates with the overall health: heart, lungs, bone, vision, hearing, fetal health, etc. If your mouth is infected chronically because you can't afford dental care, your overall health is affected. We need to think less about capitalism and the "me" mentality and focus on the health of the community. If the community can't come together, we will see more homelessness, drugs/alcohol abuse, individual mental health issues, suicide/homicide, and more on the rise making our own environment unsafe and sad.
Maybe it's my aging mind that I do believe our happiness is connected to our environment: people, places and things. So let's try to be kinder and nicer to each other. Judge less and keep quiet even when you want to scream. The other person may be having a rougher day than you are. But please do scream before you explode. The medical community said cursing lessen the pain when you  injure yourself.  Here's to a new year, clean slate and continual work on ourselves to be a better person to the world. 

"V" is for Vu...a gift from one of my dental sisters. :-)