"Momfluential" Blogger Seeing Progress with Invisalign

Isn't it a great feeling when you start a new treatment and someone says they notice results? Ciaran Blumenfeld, aka “Momfluential”, thought so too! Read about her experience with Invisalign treatment below.

I’ve been wondering how long it would take. Just this past week people have started to comment that they can see a real difference in my smile.

I’m at the end of my 5th set of aligners (out of 23). I’ve still got a way to go. This is the point in treatment where you sort of hit a rhythm I think. I have my routines down and there isn’t much newness to the process. I know I will be a little sore for a day or two when I start a new set of aligners and plan accordingly: put the aligners on at night, take an advil pm and dose again with advil if needed the first two days. Other than that it’s sort of same same. I’ve got this.

Until someone told me they saw a difference. Really!?

I couldn’t help but get out my first set of trays and the current ones and compare them. I was surprised that there was such a measurable difference that I could see on paper! I should note: I wrote Wk 5 but I actually change the trays every two weeks so it’s really been ten weeks.

I still have a ways to go but I think I can see a difference in my smile as well. Here’s the latest close up.

And here is the picture I posted when I started treatment. Can you see a difference?

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. I have been compensated for my participation in this program. All opinions are my own.

Read more here.

10 Things To Love About Squirrel Hill

We love having an office in Squirrel Hill! This is a vibrant neighborhood with plenty of personality and a rich history to boot. Here are some of the best things the neighborhood has to offer (courtesy of Courtney Patterson over at Yinzperation.com):


As long as I’ve lived in Pittsburgh, I’ve lived in Squirrel Hill--that sprawling neighborhood on the East End hugged on either side by Frick and Schenley Parks.

In my eight years here, I’ve watched friends who were once neighbors migrate to “up and coming” areas of the city, tempted by more affordable rents, home ownership, and perhaps a grittier view outside their windows. I’ve been tempted too. But whenever I consider leaving, I think about what I’ll miss: incredible parks and green space, dozens of restaurants (and about eight ice cream shops), beautiful homes, and some of my favorite streets to stroll down.

My good friend and talented photographer, Anna Lee Fields, spent an afternoon playing with me in Squirrel Hill. A big thanks to her for the photos.

Here are some of the reasons I’ve made this place home for so long:

1. Parks

Squirrel Hill is surrounded by some of the city's most expansive parks. Hike or bike deep into Frick Park’s maze of trails, and it's easy to forget you're even in the city. Get your game on at Schenley’s tennis courts or golf course, or go for a swim at the pool. Pack a picnic for Mellon Park’s summertime series, "Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch,” where you can enjoy your Sunday morning coffee while listening to a free performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

2. Diversity

A friend said that standing in the Squirrel Hill Post Office at mid-day is the closest you'll come to experiencing Ellis Island today. While Pittsburgh might not draw the immigrant population it once did, nearby CMU and Pitt attract hundreds of international students every year. The neighborhood is a mish mash of families and college students, Jews and Christians, renters and million-dollar home owners.

3. Convenience

If you want space to stretch out, park your car, plant a garden or walk your dog, Squirrel Hill's got plenty of it. Consider Squirrel Hill the closest experience to living in the suburbs while living in the city. With easy access to 376 and major bus lines, you're not far from downtown and the city's urban core.

4. Jerry's 

One of the largest vinyl record stores in the country resides right here in Squirrel Hill. A must-see for any music lover, Jerry’s carries a couple million used records—from the rarest soul to the most mainstream pop. The store regularly draws touring musicians, collectors and DJs from around the world. Rolling Stone Magazine even named it one of the best record stores in the U.S.

5. Walkable

I like to think of Squirrel Hill as its own self-contained town within Pittsburgh. I can walk to the grocery store, tons of restaurants, the drycleaner, my dentist's office, the post office—all within blocks of my home. Even when my only desire is to wander, I love exploring its pretty tree-lined streets.

6. Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

You can’t miss the big stately yellow house that sits on the hill at the corner of Fifth and Shady Avenues. By day, the gallery and shop welcomes visitors to browse the work of talented local artists. By night, it’s a party venue, aglow with paper lanterns, buzzing with laughter and live music.

7. The Manor

Want the old-time movie experience? Buy your ticket and popcorn here. The Manor turned 90 years old this year, and it’s still kicking. Recent renovations have added a new bar, so you can sip your favorite cocktail while watching the latest summer blockbuster or indie film.

Read the full article at Yinzperation.com. 

10 Hot Fields of Study at Pittsburgh Area Schools

Is your teen thinking of going to college locally? According to Pittsburgh Magazine, our regional schools are busily preparing students for the most promising careers of the next decade. The University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, Chatham, Duquesne, and other local schools all offer top-quality programs with “real world” value for today’s market. Gotta love Western PA!


Think global. Study local. Higher education now covers the world, addressing massive challenges: sustainability, new energy solutions, digital media, information technology, international trade, medical breakthroughs and much more. Major corporations are moving onto campus, too, pulling students into new research and ventures.

Here are some CliffsNotes on how regional colleges are jumping in to prepare students for the most promising careers of the next decade.

Ni-how, China: Thick with the BRICs
Brazil, Russia, India and China, often called the BRIC nations, are the world’s biggest emerging markets. They’re stepping up to first-world trade status, followed closely by the Middle East and Africa. Local colleges offer immersion in the culture and business sectors of those nations.

But first, it helps to learn the language. The University of Pittsburgh offers courses in the world’s major languages — and even a dozen that are less-commonly taught, like Swahili and Vietnamese. Pitt’s International Business Center in the Katz School of Business, which launched a Global Management program in 2008, includes language studies as well as business topics. The center bolsters course work with 10-week summer internships in business centers. Preceded by two-week orientations on the business cultures of their destinations, the work assignments include varied levels of language training. This summer, 46 students took advantage of the for-credit experience.

“The program’s been running for three years, beginning in Sao Paolo, Prague and Beijing,” says J.P. Matychak, director of career services for Katz. “We’ve added Madrid, Milan, Berlin and Paris — and we’re investigating India, South Korea and Japan.”

Carnegie Mellon University offered its first section of elementary Chinese in 1992. Today, the Department of Modern Languages offers more than 20 each semester, as well as Mandarin for business managers within the Tepper School of Business. This year, 99 students will major or minor in Chinese studies.

There’s a new demand on the horizon for individuals who can teach Chinese at the pre-college level, too. St. Vincent College recently became one of three colleges in the state to offer a certification program for elementary, middle- and high-school teachers. Students pursuing teacher certification must study abroad one semester or complete an immersion experience. The college arranges such opportunities through cooperative arrangements with Beijing Normal University, Fu Jen University or Wuhan University.

Mad Men: Marketing, Communications and Design
CMU’s School of Design offers undergraduate degrees in communication and industrial design. Dan Boyarski, the design school’s director of alumni relations, says more companies are hiring design professionals because they have a systematic way of creatively resolving problems; meanwhile, companies like Facebook, Twitter and Apple have been seeking these graduates because they’re also users of their products and services. These tech giants are looking for new hires who can think of different ways to extend product lines or build new businesses, enhance the visual impact of their interfaces and improve the user experience.

In the North Hills, La Roche College’s minor in Web design reaches outside the classroom, enabling students to create sites for real-life clients; students have interned in departments at Allegheny General Hospital and Pitt, among other businesses.

Read more at Pittsburgh Magazine.

Changing Lives with Orthodontic Treatment

We are proud to be an orthodontic provider for Smiles Change Lives, or SCL, a fantastic organization that gives children from low-income families access to life-changing, essential orthodontic treatment! SCL got a great write-up a few months ago on Cleveland.com. Take a look!

A few weeks ago, Saving Money wrote about reduced-cost braces offered by the Dental School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

Turns out there's a national program that offers braces for even less.

They're not free. But for $525, a low-income family can get braces and accompanying orthodontic care for a child from a nonprofit group called Smiles Change Lives.

This is not cosmetic dentistry.

"Our kids do have to have a fairly severe need for braces," says Andrea Umbreit, spokeswoman for the Missouri-based nonprofit founded in 1997.

That means a moderate to severe malocclusion -- the improper meeting of the upper and lower teeth -- a misaligned jaw or seriously crooked teeth.

To qualify, a family must have a taxable income that is 200 percent or less of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that's $46,100 a year; for a family of two, it's $30,260. A family's most recent federal income tax records must be provided with the application, along with a $25 fee.

In addition, children who apply to the program need a referral from their dentist that says they take good care of their teeth. Kids with braces who don't properly brush and floss can end up with serious dental problems down the road, Umbreit says. And the program doesn't want to risk that.

If you're interested, you can find details and an application at smileschangelives.org.

If you're accepted, you'll be sent to an orthodontist to make sure you meet the program's guidelines. If the answer is yes, you pay the remaining $500 and treatment begins.

Here's the catch: there's a waiting list. Nationwide, it has 1,200 kids on it. But Smiles Change Lives is recruiting orthodontists every day.

In Ohio, 22 are now part of the program, and 30 children are waiting to see them. Orthodontists who want to volunteer should call 816-421-4949 or go to smileschangelives.org/learnmore.

Know someone who might qualify? Send them to www.smileschangelives.org for more information!

Pittsburgh Girls Battle Age-Old Stereotype that Females aren't as Good at Math and Science as Boys

My staff and I are very proud of all the young girls in the Pittsburgh area that are partaking in activities to become the healthcare practitioners, engineers, scientists and researchers of the future!

The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) Education Coalition does fantastic work in encouraging children and young adults of both genders to pursue their interests in these fields. Director of STEM programs at the Carnegie Science Center Linda Ortenzo and Ellis School spokeswoman Kitty Julian are quoted in this WESA article about lingering stereotypes in the math and science fields:

There’s an old notion that girls are not as good at math and science as boys. That thought still persists today even among teachers – according to a study by the University of Texas.  Girls and educators in the Pittsburgh region are working against that stereotype.

“Girls can do anything that guys can do, and maybe even better…especially science,” was the answer given by a group of girls at Carnegie Science Center’s Click! Camp for Girls, when asked if they thought boys were better at math and science.

On a summer day, campers were testing water quality in the Ohio River. The girls, broken into small groups, collect water samples. After the water collection, they follow directions to test for things such as PH, or acidity, and dissolved oxygen levels.

“PH is 6.5 and there’s no dissolved oxygen in the water…that’s bad…the fish need oxygen.” The campers spent the week focusing on several areas of science, including cryptography, or code-breaking, electric circuitry, and crime scene investigation. Many were excited about science, and took issue with the notion that girls are not as good at math and science as boys.

Teacher Bias

A recent University of Texas study found a prevailing notion among high school teachers that white girls were not as skilled in the subjects as white boys, even when evidence to the contrary, such as test scores, was presented. In contrast, teachers rated minority students of both genders as less adept at math and science than white students, but that idea disappeared once actual grades were taken into account. So why does the idea persist for white females? Part of it may be interest.

“When you look at the research, girls are just as interested as boys, if not slightly more than, all the way up until about fourth grade. Around middle school we see a drop in the interest in students in general in math and science, but for girls it is a precipitous fall off a cliff,” said Linda Ortenzo, director of STEM programs at Carnegie Science Center.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. There many reasons that interest declines, among them are the images girls see of themselves in their everyday lives.

“There’s that whole idea that girls who are smart in math and science might seem less attractive to boys. There’s also this lack of female mentorship at a very critical time,” said Ortenzo.

In addition, there’s something called “stereotype threat” at play.

“Culturally girls believe they’re not supposed to be as good as boys at math and science and girls are particularly susceptible to stereotype threat. So the idea is, if you tell a girl or you convey unconsciously to a girl that she’s not going to be as good as boys at math and science, then she will behave as if she is not,” said Kitty Julian, a spokeswoman for the all-girls Ellis School in Pittsburgh. 

Read the full article here: http://wesa.fm/2012/08/20/pittsburgh-girls-battle-age-old-stereotype-females-arent-good-math-and-science-boys