You might find it interesting to know that Dr. Lynda and Dr. Chuck are childhood sweethearts since they were freshmen in high school, and married in 1981. They grew up in the rural heartland of Illinois in a farming town much like the area we live in here in Vermont.

They were inspired to choose dentistry by an interesting twist of fate: Dr. Lynda's father was a wonderful medical doctor who devoted his life to his patients, but the family rarely saw him because he was so busy. Conversely, Dr. Lynda's neighbor was a wonderful dentist who would drive into his driveway at 6 pm sharp every evening. Dentistry seemed like a better profession for people who wanted a happy family life. Eventually both of our doctors graduated from the University of Kentucky with Doctoral degrees in Medical Dentistry in 1987.

For sports enthusiasts, you might find it interesting to know that Dr. Chuck played basketball for the University of Kentucky and was the team Captain in 1981 and 1982. Dr. Chuck was one of the top 20 high school All-American players in 1978. In those years, Kentucky was the perennial powerhouse of college basketball, winning the NCAA finals the year that they recruited him.Dr. Chuck played against the likes of Michael Jordan,James Worthy, and Charles Barkley. He was always given the toughest defensive assignment on the court because of his smarts and hustle.Chuck was drafted in the 7th round by the Chicago Bulls, but by then, the couple was overwhelmed by the drama and intensity of 'big time basketball.'They decided to have an adventure and Chuck chose to play professionally in Spain before they went on to dental school.

When Dr. Lynda and Dr. Chuck moved to Europe for Chuck's professional basketball career, they lived in a remote part of northwestern Spain called Galicia. It was an amazing experience and in a fortunate twist, they also acquired dual citizenship with Ireland. (It's a long story...ask us about it!)

For months, Dr. Chuck was one of the leading scorers and rebounders in Europe, and the future looked secure for a long, fruitful basketball career,but the fates intervened and Chuck's basketball career was ended by a catastrophic broken Achilles Tendon. This sent Lynda and Chuck back to the USA to complete their long-term educational goal of becoming dentists.

If you want to hear the longer story of Dr. Chucks basketball career, check out his bio over on EverWideningCircles.com, a website Dr. Lynda and he started to help show people 'it 's still an amazing world!'

Liesl,(second from left in the photo below) isa Harvard graduate. She co-founded the Goodness-Exchange: THE home for goodness and process on the web. She created the first social media network aimed at bringing together people of good intentioned ideas around the world. Liesl has her parents artistic eye and made a name for herself in Vermont while she was still in high school as one of the largest single donors to our local battered womens shelter, selling her original photography at PhrogEyePhoto.com and giving the shelter the proceeds.

Louisa, (far left) is an engineer, an artist and an inventor. She had a patent on an entirely new kind of wind turbine by age 22. Links to all of her work across the spectrum of arts and sciences can be found at LouisaUV.com.

While attending Harvard, Liesl studied economics and architecture and did a lot of public speaking and organizing around contemporary social issues. To the right is a great link to one of her talks, this one is a whole new perspective on our preoccupation with 'body image.' Take a look!...

Louisa has been incorporating her love of science and art into an education pathway she has pioneered for our local high school, BFA. She has documented this unusual educational journey at BeyondTheXtraMile.com. You might also find it interesting to know that Louisa 's impulse to 'give back' stems from her sense of gratitude: she started life as a 4 month premature baby, weighing only one pound!

Dr. Chuck and Dr. Lynda have a passion for gardening, wilderness canoe-camping, and the natural world. They have been wildlife rehabilitators for many years. In fact, they have worked with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife as the only licensed home for orphaned moose calves, raising 4 moose calves over the years successfully.

You might also know that Dr. Lynda started this tradition in her family of making giant metal sculptures some 25 years ago. She make large metal sculptures with found objects and junkyard metal pieces too!

Lynda learned to weld on the family farm while growing up and in the early 1990's at our local Adult Learning courses, she mastered the finer points. Since then, Dr.Chuck has had an easy task when buying birthday and Christmas presents -What woman in her right mind wouldn't want a Plasma Cutter, or a new Acetylene Torch tip?!

In the final analysis, our life experiences have taught us to look at every day and every patient visit as a gift. Chuck and Lynda are about relationships, meaningful work,and connections with their patients and team.

High-quality relationships and high-quality dental care are not accidents. Dr. Lynda and Dr. Chuck enjoy maintaining rigorous continuing education schedules and very often take as much as 3 times the amount of continuing education coursework required for licensing in Vermont.

In fact, Dr. Chuck has served the Vermont State Board of Dentistry for years, where he helps oversee the quality of dental care that all Vermonters receive. Dr. Chuck is past president of the Vermont State Dental Society and remains active in that organization whenever he is called upon.

In the winter of 2014, the doctors embarked on yet another adventure, this one would be an effort to change the world a little. They had gotten so tired of the negativity of the 24-hour news cycle that they decided to do something about it: Dr. Lynda created Ever Widening Circles,a place on the web where people around the globe can go for positive, fact-checked articles about the good things in the world we share. We write about great people doing remarkable things in science, art, music, sports, technology, philosophy, and almost any subject you can think of. Two years later now, the website is visited by 50,000 people each month from over 190 countries. Check it out if you want a spring in your step!

Our whole team is committed to seeing that you receive the finest skill, care, and judgment in a warm, friendly environment where comfort, conversation and laughter are a priority.We have made extensive study of leadership and business management for 25 years and are alumni of a 7-year dental management program based on the principles of the Harvard Business School. For this reason, we hope that you will always find a refreshingly eager and knowledgeable team waiting to serve at Fiddlehead Dental with exceptionally good management and communication systems.

Take a look as just a tiny sampling of the crazy fun we have had with various team members over the years; all of them excellent, skilled and serving others as their first priority. This is a look behind the scenes at our own special way of growing and learning together over the years in our 3 hour, monthly staff meetings,..our annual planning days,... and our team parties!....

one of the games we played was a relay race to run to the end of our huge waiting room and change into our scrubs, out of our superhero costumes, in telephone booths that dr. chuck made out of REFRIGERATOR boxes!

one year we pealed onions as fast as we could for an exercise in a team meeting.... all crying and laughing at the same time! Then we made soup!.. a metaphor for the way a good team works together through thick and thin.

never a dull moment!.. instead of a 'normal' staff meeting to review osha regulations, we dreamed up a game of 'clue' and had everyone as one of the game characters. never has any business team had so much fun reviewing boring, but important safety material!

dr. lynda has made the office more beautiful and homey by framing dozens and dozens of her photographs. here we have dr. chuck with a wonderful patient who was moving to hawaii, so one of our team members just grabbed a photo off the wall and gave it to here as a going away present to remember vermont.

Every year we host a city-wide yard sale to benefit our battered women's shelter. on this day in 2014, for some reason, a beauty queen came by for a while and graced the event! (we never did figure out why she was walking around town randomly!)

Dr. Lynda has been a working artist since she was 14 years old. Even at that age, she was commissioned to paint wall-sized murals in bedrooms, businesses and hospitals. She is the sort of person who sees opportunity for art in everyday life, and everyday things.

This sort of worldview makes life a bit exciting for Dr. Chuck who has been forced to accept a huge welding shop and junk metal collection in the woods near their home. He has to keep an old boom truck running in peak condition to tackle the ever increasing size of the Ulrich women 's sculptures and he never knows what he 'll find in the back of his pick up truck if the girls go off on a 'materials finding adventure.'

Dry mouth is a lack of saliva that results in a variety of uncomfortable and/or painful symptoms. The vast majority of dry mouth complaints come from patients on various medications, and patients having gone through radiation and chemo therapy. Dry mouth is a dreadful, irritating condition, as you may well know if you are reading this web page.

Lack of saliva causes taste buds to sense differently, so the first thing a person may notice is food tasting differently. Without the lubricating effects of saliva, plaque will often build up on teeth, increasing the likelihood of gum disease and tooth decay.

What saliva is produced will often feel thick or even stringy, and a person will have difficulty talking and find it hard, or even painful, to swallow. Dry mouth also causes sore throat and sores at the corner of the mouth. Sometimes the skin around the mouth splits and the lips even crack. Due to the lack of fluid in the mouth and the increase in bacteria and plaque on the teeth, bad breath is often very common as well.

The physiology of Dry mouth occurs when normal saliva secretions are dramatically reduced.Healthy salivary glands should produce around 3 pints of saliva a day. That 's why most recommendations about treatment start with 'drink plenty of water'.This might sound like common sense, but many people these days drink far less water than they realize.

Saliva provides a number of dental benefits in addition to its obvious function in helping chew food and prepare it for digestion. Saliva constantly cleans the surfaces of teeth and helps to prevent the buildup of plaque. There are also minerals present in saliva that strengthen teeth against tooth decay. It also discourages bacteria from attaching to teeth and thus helps preserve tooth enamel and protect against gum disease. Saliva is alkaline in nature and neutralizes natural acids that can damage mouth tissues.

Dry mouth can have natural causes like aging, because as a person gets older the salivary glands secrete less. However, severe dry mouth at a younger age is most likely the side effect of both prescription and over the counter medications.

Drugs used to treat anxiety and depression rank high on the list of those that can produce dry mouth. High blood pressure medicine, muscle relaxers, and antidiuretics often cause this condition. Chemotherapy treatment has a tendency to change the nature and amount of saliva produced, and cancer radiation therapy can actually damage salivary glands. Neck injuries that injure nerves can affect the salivary glands as well.

Sometimes simply the presence of a pronounced health condition is all it takes to trigger dry mouth. Individuals who suffer from anxiety and clinical depression often have inconsistent or reduced salivary production.

If you think you may have dry mouth, you should consult with a dentist to study your case history and examine your mouth. It may be necessary as well to do a cat scan on the salivary glands or have some blood drawn for testing.

Be sure to tell your dentist about ALL medical conditions you are suffering from and all medications you are taking. If the dentist concludes you have dry mouth because of medication, it may be possible to try switching medicines or altering the dosage. There are also drugs the dentist can prescribe that will help you produce more saliva. Additionally, your dentist will recommend any number of self-care options that will require lifestyle change on your part.Eliminating sugar and acidic substances from the diet is almost always the first thing dentist asks you to do.

Increasing the amount of water you drink will help remedy dry mouth, and rigorous brushing and flossing will help protect teeth that have become vulnerable to decay because of dry mouth.It may be necessary to use a special fluoride toothpaste or gel for this, so be sure to Ask the Dentist about this.

Since Dry Mouth is caused by many things, it should not be surprising that there are different ways to treat it. If your physician or dentist can determine the cause of your oral dryness, he/she may be able to provide you with a specific cure. The trouble is, this is easier said than done.

If the dryness is due to drugs, it may be possible for your doctor to advise you to stop taking those drugs, reduce their intake or switch to another 'less drying' medication. The info drug search engine can be quite useful in this effort. Sometimes, especially, in life threatening diseases, it may not be possible to change a patient 's drug intake pattern..

Occasionally, we do not know the causes of the diseases which produce dry mouth. This, for example, is the case with Sjogren's Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions. In such cases, we try to relieve the symptoms of the disease rather than treat the disease itself.

Sip water or other sugar-free juices frequently. It is particularly important to drink often while eating. This will aid chewing and swallowing and may enhance the taste of your food. You can carry a water bottle, like bicycle riders do, during the day and keep a glass of water at your bedside at night.

Stimulate the flow of your saliva by eating foods which require a lot of chewing.By chewing sugarless gumBy using, if possible, acid-tasting, sugarless (diabetic-type) candies..By 'sucking' a cherry or olive pit; or the rind of a lemon or lime.

Ask your dentist to teach you how to scrape or brush the surface of your tongue, and do this every day.Use a fluoride toothpaste daily. In some cases, your dentist may prescribe the fabrication of a 'mouth-guard', like athletes wear. A fluoride gel is placed in these trays and they are worn for several minutes every night.

The Use of Drugs to Increase the Flow of SalivaRecent studies have shown that drugs called Pilocarpine (SalagenTM) and Cevimeline ( EvoxacTM) can decrease your sensation of oral dryness. These drugs are generally taken 3 - 4 times a day, after meals, and their effects usually last from 2 - 4 hours. The side-effects of these medications are generally modest.. These drugs, combined with other methods to stimulate the flow of saliva have made it possible for many people to find relief from their scorched-mouth feeling.

Pharmacologic StimulantDrugs Salagen (Pilocarpine HCl); Prescription required Cholinergic agonist MGI Pharma, Inc.Evoxac (Cevimeline HCl); Prescription required Cholinergic agonist Daiichi Parmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Salivart Contains carboxymethyl cellulose and hydroxyethyl cellulose Xenex Laboratories, Inc.OralubeXero-Lube Colgate Hoyt/Gel-KamPlax Water-glycerin agent Pfizer Inc.Gel Oral Balance Glycerate polymer Laclede Professional Products