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June 2020 Newsletter
What´s New at Savon
Quote Of The Month: “Summer Expectation = Going to the beach every day, water fights, parties, road trips and BBQs. Summer Reality = Trying to find the right position to hold your phone so the sun doesn´t blackout the screen.” (Author Unknown)
Congratulations To:
G. Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona and N. Foy of Surprise, Arizona, winners of our April early payment drawings for 1 free additional year of membership.
Congratulations To:
W. Bobbitt of Anthem, Arizona and M. Williams of New River, Arizona, winners of our May early payment drawings for 1 free additional year of membership.
Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone that entered the drawing.
To Your Health With Jourdin Hendershot:
Hidden Calories – They Add Up Fast
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Calories (noun) – Tiny creatures that live in your closet and sew your clothes a bit tighter every night!
Hidden calories are everywhere, even in foods that you may think are healthy. No matter where those extra calories come from, they add up fast. According to Michigan State University, eating 100 extra calories a day can add 10 pounds in one year… Yikes!!
The number of calories a person needs will vary from person to person and there is no set number calories for each specific gender. To get an idead of what your specific calorie intake number should be, you can visit: the Mayo Clinic calorie calculator. After filling out your age, height, weight, gender, and activity level, it will provide you the recommended calories for your specific needs.
Before you start tracking your calories, you should have an understanding of foods that contain hidden calories. Identifying some of these foods should help you stay on track with your calories while still maintaining a healthy diet.
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With that being said, here are some foods that may have more calories than you bargained for:
- Reduced–fat foods – Just because some fat is gone, does not mean the calories are, too.
If you pay close attention and use the recommended serving size, you won´t wind up with more calories than you intended.
- Condiments – With one spread of your knife, you could be adding 100 extra calories to your sandwich. A few other quick ways to add calories to your diet include: salad dressing, butter, jelly, and sugar.
If you want to add flavor to your food without extra calories, try salsa. If you are a coffee drinker, use skim milk or a sugar substitute.
- Alcohol – This is a fast way to add useless calories. A 2.5–ounce martini can have about 155 calories.
Try substitutions like Light beer or non-alcoholic beer. Make your own wine spritzer by adding club soda to a half glass of your favorite wine.
- Soda – Did you know there are about 200 calories per 12 oz can of soda?
You might want to consider substitutions like water, club soda, or mineral water. You can always add natural flavoring like lemon, lime or fruit (yes, they will have a few calories, but it´s a lot better than the soda).
- Nuts – Yes, these are a great source of protein and vitamin E but just a small handful of nuts can contain 20 calories.
You can try something like 1 cup of air–popped popcorn, 1 cup of pretzels or crunchy vegetables (carrots, celery, water-chestnuts).
When you first start counting calories, be mindful of where you eat, what you eat and drink and the type of condiments you put on your food. It is best to keep a notebook and write everything down because even the smallest things really DO make a difference when it comes to controlling your weight.
If you have questions you would like to discuss with Jourdin, feel free to drop her an email by clicking here.
The above health material is provided as an information service. It should not be used for diagnostic purposes nor is it intended to take the place of the important relationship between you and your doctor.
Grandma´s Kitchen With Grandma C.:
Creamy Cheesesteak Casserole
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 green peppers, coarsely chopped
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 12 oz of provolone cheese, grated
- 6 oz Velveeta cheese, melted.
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 pkg (16 oz) elbow macaroni
- Salt and Pepper (to taste)
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put macaroni on to boil according to package directions. Boil to an al dente´ stage. Drain.
Season ground beef with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Brown in a large deep frying pan. Drain fat and remove from pan. Set aside.
In the same pan, saute peppers and onions together. (approx., 5 minutes.) Add the ground beef and stir, keeping on med heat.
Melt butter, Velveeta and milk together in a microwave. Stop and stir at 30 second intervals until Velveeta is melted. Add grated cheese and stir, then pour into meat mixture. Mix.
Fold in cooked macaroni. Remove from heat and place in a 9x13 baking dish,lightly greased (I use Pam cooking spray.) Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy! And remember, if it looks and smells good, eat it!!
If you have a recipe that you would like to share with Grandma C., drop her an email by clicking here.
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Special Thank You To Our Network Dental Offices During And After The Coronavirus Quarantine |
Our spotlight for June focuses on all of our network dental offices during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Center for Disease Control, the American Dental Association and the Arizona Dental Association have lifted the restrictions on elective and cosmetic procedures and our network providers are getting back to normal.
Many of you have already received calls from your dental office offering to set you an appointment for your cleaning, fillings or other routine procedures.
Although some of our providers closed their offices during the quarantine, many continued to operate with limited hours for medically necessary and emergency dental procedures.
We have contacted most of our network providers and have their new days and hours of operation. If you are having an issue contacting your dental office, contact our Customer Care Center as 800-809-3494 and we will assist you.
All of our providers have done a great job taking care of our members during these troubled times and we want them to know that we appreciate everything they have done.
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Fun Facts:
Crazy, Zany Facts We Bet You Didn´t Know
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- Slugs have 4 noses.
- Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
- The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.
- The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead”.
- The word “samba” means “to rub navels together.”
- There is a town in Newfoundland, Canada called Dildo.
- There wasn´t a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses.
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Come back for more in next months issue!
Dental Talk - A Member Blog Forum:
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Come blog with us! Dental Talk with Savon is a fun forum to post your interesting topics! Your comments are welcome, it´s free to use and no membership is required.
Some of the topics include;
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These are just a few of the topics. Our blog site contains many other interesting topics. Please join us!!
Here´s Your Answer
Questions From Our Members
R. Browning of Tulsa, OK asks:
“The dentist messed up a root canal on me, what is Savon going to do to fix it?”
Savon’s Answer
Since we are not a dental office there is basically nothing we can do to “fix it.” First we suggest that you discuss the problem with the dentist that did the root canal. If you are not able to resolve the problem, at your request, We will contact the dentist for you and see if we can help resolve the situation. If we are unable to get a satifactory resolution for you, we will direct you to the proper channels.
Tooth Talk With Tommy The Wisdom Tooth
Dentistry Shows Signs Of Recovery From COVID–19
A direct reprint from an article by Melissa Busch, assistant editor at DrBicuspid.com
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A whopping 65% of dental practices had reopened as of May 18 and patient volumes have risen, indicating that the industry is recovering from shutdowns due to COVID-19, according to new data from the ADA Health Policy Institute (HPI)
Practices that had just reopened reported that patient volumes returned to 38% of prepandemic levels. Patient rebound was 54% of what dentists saw before COVID-19 at those practices in the 27 states that have been reopened for all treatments or most treatments with some restrictions for three full weeks, according to poll data released on May 26 from about 6,500 dentists in private practice.
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“This is a more robust rebound than predicted,” said Marko Vujicic, PhD, chief economist and vice president of HPI.
Moving ahead
Stay-at-home orders enacted by states across the U.S. placed the dental industry on pause for most care except for emergency treatments. The eight to 10 weeks of restrictions, depending on where practices were located, had dentistry on a collision course with potential peril. Data showed that 46% of dentists said their practices wouldn´t survive if they were forced to postpone all nonemergency treatments through the end of the summer. Dental spending was projected to be slashed by about a third from $150 billion to $52 billion.
The latest polls, however, show the tide may be turning.
Staff members were fully paid by 58% of dental practices, which is a sharp spike from the 11% fully paid during the week of April 6, when many practices were only open for emergency treatments, according to HPI.
“Procedure restrictions matter,” Vujicic said. “Rehiring has been most robust in states where all procedures are allowed.”
Though this is a rosier outcome than projected, the sector continues to face many challenges. Some practices remain closed due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) or short supplies, and many employee dentists remain unemployed three weeks after about half the states in the U.S. could reopen for all treatments or most treatments with some restrictions.
Although employed dentists have not been hired back at the same pace as dental hygienists, assistants, and other team members, the numbers have doubled since May 4. About 30% of employed dentists reported being paid fully, according to the poll.
They may not have been hired back based on the types of procedures practices were performing, Vujicic surmised. HPI has not collected any data on the specific treatments that practices are providing.
“With new restrictions, dental hygienists and assistants may be needed, not dentists,” he said.
During the week of May 18, 40 states were permitted to reopen for elective services, including 21 that could reopen with no restrictions other than additional PPE. Though restrictions were lifted, some practices opted to stay closed for elective care.
Owner dentists who chose not to fully reopen practices for elective care reported that they based their decisions on state recommendations and a lack of PPE. About 60% didn´t fully reopen due to their states not recommending resuming elective care. About 50% didn´t have adequate supplies of PPE, the poll showed.
The future
Vujicic believes June's polling results may be the most telling.
Dentistry will be on a strong path to recovery if close to 70% of practices are reopened by early June. If the numbers are “57%, 58%, we are in a holding pattern,” he said.
Until next time; brush, floss and keep smiling!
The above material is provided as an information service and is not intended as medical advice.
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