Childhood obesity has seen a dramatic increase in recent years. In fact, more than a third of U.S. children are overweight. With it comes significant health and financial burdens that warrant strong and comprehensive prevention efforts.

Because prevention is a hallmark in both pediatric and dental practices, we must focus our efforts at an early stage − establishing good habits of the mother and family while pregnant, and continuing through the pediatric screenings. In recent years, with the advent of oral DNA analysis, we have been able to find a link, a common bacteria present in both obese people and people with high rate of decay. The issue is quite complex and we are unsure as to what comes first, but there is a clear connection in the fact that food products with a high sugar content have the potential to cause both obesity and dental cavities. Whether there are further connections between the two conditions will be researched further.

The New Year brings a new dedication to utilizing technology to make my life easier.  With precious few minutes to waste in the day, it seems like certain technological “advances” actually cause me to waste more time than they save.  Here are some great resources to turn the tables and have your tech tools work for you again.

It impossible is for me to keep track of my phone.  I can actually have it in my hand while I’m looking for it.  Even though I realize I’m an extreme case, everyone has misplaced their phone between the couch cushions or under the seat in your car at some point or another.  If you don’t have another phone handy to call your waylaid device, there are sites that will call your phone for you.  As awesome as this service sounds, I guard my cell phone number like it’s the direct line to Santa, so the idea of handing it over to a website and trusting that it won’t end up on some telemarketer’s list makes me cringe.  Instead, I installed the free Google Voice (www.google.com/chat/voice) plug-in which allows me to make calls (even video chat) from my Gmail account to any phone number, all for free.  I login to my Gmail and click the Chat drop down on the left and can choose the “Call Phone” option to ring my wayward cell. 

Happy New Year!  I hope your winter holidays were fabulous and your new year is off to a great start.

One thing that I enjoy most at the start of a new year is reading trend reports to learn what’s hip in food, entertainment, fashion, technology and more because, ultimately, these trends will impact our parties.  For instance, last year’s #1 restaurant trend, as predicted by Andrew Freeman & Co, was pies … as in the next “in” item to replace cupcakes.  Sure enough, pies, including fruit pies, mini pies, pies-on-a-stick and, even whoopie pies, were served in abundance at birthday parties, wedding receptions and fundraising galas!

It took me a long time to abandon my old flip-phone.  I had just gotten the hang of texting on it and I really didn’t want to shell out the extra thirty bucks a month for the data package.  When I finally decided to make the switch, I chose an iPhone, but I have many friends who swear by their Android and Windows 7 phones.  If you've finally decided to ditch the old phone and make the switch to a Smartphone, how do you decide which one is right for you?  Here's the skinny on what each of the Smartphone operating systems have to offer.

One of the more inefficient habits that I can’t seem to break myself of is stubbornly maintaining a paper trail in a digital world.  I print confirmations of online purchases, email correspondence, even documents sent to me electronically.  I can’t explain it.  If pressed I readily admit that it’s unnecessary and less secure, and yet I’d probably print out our email conversation, just to have it on file.  However, as portable electronics become more popular and cloud-based applications get more integrated into our day-to-day, printers will surely go the way of fax machines.   Here are some ways to wean yourself gently, so that when your granddaughter looks puzzled when you ask her to print something it won’t be such a shock.

If you were fortunate enough to receive a new tech gadget this holiday season, it can be a great opportunity to donate or sell an older device that you no longer need.  Before you send it off with a fond farewell, however, keep in mind that most electronic items contain a wealth of personal information that you want to ensure doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.  Whether you’re handing down your laptop to your teenager, giving your old phone to Uncle Fred, or donating your gadget to Goodwill, make sure that you take a few steps to wipe your data off the device before you re-gift it to gain a few more years of use.

Once the wrapping paper is piled in the corner and the toys have been wrestled from their packaging, you’ll realize that now you have to figure out how to get all your new gadgets and gizmos set up and configured.  Talk about a post-holiday letdown.  Before you send your spouse out to quiz the neighborhood teenagers about their experience with electronics configuration, there are some great online resources to help you get all of your new holiday loot up and running, without turning to the leftover eggnog for comfort.

It’s that time of year when our favorite Christmas movies play over and over again on cable TV.  Surely you recall the famous scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, where Clark Griswold cuts down the forty-foot tree in the forest, ties it to the roof of his car and stuffs it into his living room and decorates it?  I think we can all relate to that scene because that’s the way that many of us did it back in the day—we went out into the woods and cut down our Christmas trees (although they weren't 40 feet tall and FREE!).  However, now you can expect to pay oodles of money foot for a healthy Frasier Fir to dawn in your living room.