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Spring 2012Our Patients ... Our Community

Jon Y. Hatakeyama, DDS & Don Nguyen, DDS

Farewell Karen! You Will Be Missed By All

One of the first people our patients see when they enter our office is Karen Dennis.

She has been a fixture in our office since her first day of work in September of 1990. Karen defines the term, “Busy Body” in our office.

When she’s not greeting patients, confirming appointments, troubleshooting some account, or processing dental insurance for our patients you will find Karen enjoying walks along the banks of the levees at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy or being with her grandchildren. She also finds time to help her husband, Bob, in remodeling projects at home. She loves tending to her rose garden.

In February of this year, after 22 great years working in our office, Karen decided since Bob had retired 6 months prior, she would join him while she was in excellent health. Karen plans to do some traveling and spending more time with her family.

Karen will be sorely missed by our team, our many patients, and of course by Dr. N & Dr. H.

SmileFiles

Classroom Supplies Giveaway Draws Record Number Of Teachers

Morgan Hill Unified School District Board President, Ron Woolf, was amazed by the rapidity which the teachers from his school district descended upon all the classroom supplies laid out along tables within P.A. Walsh Elementary School on March 15th.

Despite the weather, the Morgan Hill’s Teachers Aid Coalition’s (TAC) first of two classroom supply giveaways, had a record 100+ teachers fill their shopping bags with photo copy paper, Bic pens, felt markers, crayons, construction paper and more, putting both teachers and TAC members, Kiki Nakauchi, John Horner, Don & Donna Nguyen, Patrice Lyn, Jon Hatakeyama, Roger Beaulieu, Loritta Johnson, Carolyn Carothers, and Ron Woolf all in festive moods.

Many may not know that our public school teachers are required to purchase much of their own classroom supplies out of their own pockets. TAC has been raising funds for these classroom supply giveaways since 1999.

It is critical to support public education in light of the ever reduced State budget. Proceeds from TAC’s Chocolate & Wine for Valentine fundraiser were successful enough to fuel this year’s two school supply giveaways. However, fundraising is never a sure thing.

TAC President, Roger Beaulieu, welcomes donations as well as those interested in joining the TAC membership. Contact him by email at robeau6@charter.net.

Pictured behind Karen is dental hygienist, Rosa, a staff member of 16 years, and June who has been with us for an astounding 32 years. Does our

staff like working here or what?

With fuel costs rising, home energy bills will be reflective of this trend. It is predicted by some that our PG & E residential electrical bills will double within the next ten years.

Of course we all want to be conscious of using energy efficient household appliances and upgrading items within our homes to prevent temperature fluxuations, but it may be time to examine the use of solar panels.

One cannot help but notice the many public institutions such as Live Oak High or the County Hospital in Gilroy with their many solar panels shading the cars in their respective parking lots.

Research a solar panel system by getting referrals from friends, internet sources and through advertisements. However, the overriding factor is how long the contractor has been in the busi-

ness of installing solar panel systems, and how many local referrals of satisfied custom-ers they can provide?

In some instances the larger the company the better. You want a company who can purchase, get the necessary permits, install, monitor and maintain your solar panel system. It would be a head ache to have to deal with several different entities to obtain these services.

Some of these solar energy companies will also provide financing. There are options from leasing to outright ownership and every option in between. There are state and federal rebates offered for solar panel systems

which might influence your decision to own or lease.

These systems require long term relationships and can involve a signifi-cant investment. It makes sense to take your time to learn as much as you can and interview several solar contractors before making a decision to go solar.

One of the best wine and food events in Northern California will take place on Sunday, June 3rd from 3-6pm along the banks of the San Joaquin River at Rancho Vista del Rio Ranch just outside of Fresno.

Annually up to 70 wineries representing all the wine growing regions of California will participate including such prestigious names as Justin Vineyards (Paso Robles), Silver Oaks (Alexander Valley), Rombauer Vineyards (Napa Valley) and Duckhorn Vineyards (Napa Valley) will be pouring.

In addition, there will be up to 40 restaurants and caterers representing everything foodwise from Cajun style BBQ to Middle Eastern cuisine to European Bistro menu items.

If this is not enough, A Celebration of Wine features a dessert section complete with pastries, cookies, chocolates, ice cream, and specialty coffee and teas.

Moreover, there will be unique items for your bidding pleasure at their special silent wine auction. Dr. H is eyeing a Magnum of a 2007 Silver Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon which includes

a VIP tasting for 4. This silent auction is reputed to be one of the largest. Proceeds from the silent auction go towards scholarships for students in the winemaking program at Fresno State.

After all of that food and drink, one can exercise this food off by dancing to a lively rock & roll band.

Tickets and general information can be obtained from their website at http://acelebrationofwine.com AboutUs-i-18-18.html. Proceeds from the ticket sales will go towards the enology and viticulture department at Fresno State College.

A Celebration Of Wine

Solar Power For Your Home

SPEND $20 MILLION TO COPY GILROY – REALLY?

SMILESAs tooth whitening has become more mainstream, our office has been investigating

the different whitening systems as they became available.Our office found the Sinsational Smile bleaching system a good method when

used on simple stains caused by aging, smoking, food, and drink.This system uses an LED light source on a bleaching agent instead of

a heat emitting light source. It also provides a catalyst which boosts the effectiveness of the procedure, and often reduces the length of time to a half an hour.

Like all bleaching procedures it is not advised for people in poor oral health, sensitive teeth, pregnancy, and those with decalcified teeth.

Our Home Bleaching method is our most popular. We provide upper and lower plastic trays which hold a bleaching agent for home use. It is more effective against more stubborn stains, and unlike the Sinsational Smile bleaching system, you can renew the bleaching procedure when needed in the convenience of your home.

We welcome you to come in for a consultation to see which method is right for you!

Sensational

Governor Brown, upon taking office last year, made a decision to shut down all of California’s Redevelopment Agencies (RDA). This created a situation in which all entities with an RDA had to scramble to spend their remaining RDA funds.

Earlier this year the Morgan Hill City Council made a decision to spend the entire remainder of Morgan Hill’s RDA funds, some $19.3 million of our community’s tax dollars, solely on our downtown.

Publically, Dr. H. has tried point out to our City Council that this route of expenditure benefits only 1% of our Community, Downtown, leaving issues involving public safety, community wide access and transportation needs of the rest of Morgan Hill, completely ignored.

One of the looming problems Morgan Hill’s downtown has always suffered is the inordinate amount of through traffic on downtown’s Monterey Road. This traffic adversely affects downtown ambiance, safety, and convenience. The City’s own studies show that this situation will get worse with time. In the morning, one will see the hundreds of cars of Sobrato High School students

whose only direct route to school is on downtown Monterey Road. Then you will observe their reverse flow on Monterey Road in the mid afternoon.

In addition, those destinations on the west side also have no other choice of routes, whether it be police and fire vehicles, those traversing to Gavilan College or commuting to work in South San Jose also forced to pass through Downtown’s Monterey Road.

Solution? Spend some of that RDA money to extend Butterfield north to Sobrato High School and build Hale Extension to connect to DeWitt Avenue. These alternative solutions would not only help our downtown but the entire Community as well with left over funds to spend on downtown to boot.

However, even the benefit to this spending on our downtown is questionable. Consider that current businesses would have forced closure for an indeterminate amount of time due to construction. The already limited downtown parking would be even more compromised due to storage of building materials and construction equipment. Who would want to dine

downtown with the noise, less parking, and extra traffic created by this huge undertaking?

If our Downtown merchants survive this construction phase, the next part of our City’s plan assumes that our outdoor, family orientated lifestyle will morph into a demographics which would prefer to live in multi-storied downtown apartment dwellings above busy street level retail/commercial spaces like at Santana Row.

Some of us find these proposals laughable, and others, in utter disbelief, but Gilroy went through this same process and came up with the exactly the same conclusion as our City Fathers. Downtown Gilroy now has empty dwellings above retail units. Many of their downtown business have failed. Spend 20 million to Copy Gilroy? REALLY?

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Don Nguyen, DDS, Inc.Jon Y. Hatakeyama, DDS370 W Dunne Avenue, Suite 3 Morgan Hill, CA 95037-4846

Office HoursMon-Fri 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Contact InformationOffice (408) 779-7391Fax (408) 779-5081Emergency 1-877-310-4051Email jyhdds@smilefiles.comWeb site www.smilefiles.com

Office StaffDelilah............... Appointment CoordinatorDawn, RDA ................ Insurance & BillingJune, RDA ............. Treatment CoordinatorMercy, RDA ................Patient CoordinatorBernadette, RDA .........Patient CoordinatorRosa, RDH, Stephanie, RDH, Neva, RDH ...............................Prevention & Hygiene

Communication is important to us – don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Welcome Dawn!

officeinformation

Information included is not dental or medical advice. For your specific information be sure to consult our office. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please contact us directly.

Contents may not be reproduced without permission from the publisher. © PATIENT NEWS (800) 667-0268

13124-76613 CUSTOM Printed with vegetable-based ink.

THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS RUNA rare combination of San Francisco Giants and running will take place on

Sunday, September 16, 2012 at ATT Park.One unique feature of this run, is there will be two days of a pre-race expo to

take place on the preceding Friday and Saturday where one could pick up race bibs and get more information on running products and the race itself.

There will be 5K, 10K and half marathon events all concluding by entering the Giant’s ATT Ballpark and running along the outfield warning path with the race finishing by running down the first base line crossing home plate. Wow!

Besides receiving a race medal, and race T shirt, contestants will receive a custom Matt Cain bobble head doll ... Repeat, a Matt Cain Bobble head doll!

Matt Cain, star SF Giant’s pitcher recently became professional baseball’s highest paid right handed pitcher ever.

Post-race festivities will continue inside the ball park. Proceeds benefit Project Open Hand, a nonprofit organization which provides nutrition to seniors, homeward bound, critically ill and cancer patients.

Registration information can be obtained via their website at

www.racesfgiants.com/index cfm?fuseaction=fundraising.campaign&fundraisingCampaign_id=3 Yes, Dr. H will be in this race for sure.

Newest Staff Member...DAWN WILSON RDA

With Karen’s retirement known for several months, it has allowed Dr. N who is in charge of

personnel, the luxury of being very selective in finding the best person to continue the excellent standards set by Karen.

We feel Dr. Nguyen is batting a 1000 with Delilah and now with his recent selection of Dawn Wilson, RDA, to handle the administrative/insurance duties.

Dawn has had both administra-tive and clinical experience,

previously employed in a busy Campbell dental practice for

over 17 years, with over 21 years total in the dental field.

Dawn’s search for a new office was initiated

by the need to be closer to her Hollister dwellings as her teenage daughter will be en-tering middle school soon. She was impressed by our use of

modern technology including digital x-rays, patient messaging service, our Cerec digital imaging crown fabrica-tion system, and the close relation-ship we have with our great family of patients. Not to be underestimated as a factor in our favor was that Dawn grew up in San Martin where her parents still reside.

You will find Dawn’s cheerfulness heighten if you talk about jewelry making, sewing, and pottery. She is also a Civil War buff. However, you will find her equally cheerful whether she is making an appointment for you, or dealing with your insurance questions.

Stephanie Dental HygienistDawn Wilson