Office Happenings

Dr. Gradwell’s medical mission trip to Malawi, Africa recently brought much joy to his life!  He has been to Malawi on a medical mission trip for 4 years now and the dental clinic that Dr. Gradwell started there is progressing.  However, what made this trip even more special was that his youngest daughter, Lauren, was asked to join him as a practicing Physcians Assistant.  She ran her own clinic at Kalupe, one of four clinic sites that they set up for the mission trip.  In all, there were 26 people who attended this years mission trip and together they saw 4500 patients to include 249 dental surgeries performed in 1 week.  They took 11 bags of donated medical and dental supplies with them.

Dr. Gradwell is very proud of the dental clinic.  He has worked hard to raise funds for portable dental equipment.  They now have 2 dental chairs, 2 compressors and 2 dental drill sets so they can put fillings in teeth opposed to extracting them.  The clinic is progressing and Dr. Gradwell will continue his efforts with his passion of mission to the people in Malawi.

Our surgical dental assistant, Heather and her family open up their home to a child from the Fresh Air Fund.  This is their 4th year hosting Treece.  This has been a great experience and bond.  Heather’s family has a great relationship with Treece’s family and tries to have more visits throughout the year besides the week that the Fresh Air Fund offers.  They go camping, to amusement parks, play in the pool, catch tadpoles in the creek and even introduced Treece to her new favorite food, pierogies!  The get plenty of “fresh air” when she visits.

 

We love having fun with our patients in the office taking “selfies”!

 

On May 11th, Dr. Gradwell’s youngest daughter, Lauren, graduated from Gardner Webb University with a Masters Degree in Physician Assistant or what is commonly known as a PA. Dr. Gradwell had the honor of hooding his daughter which is a professional academic regalia. It was a very proud moment in the Gradwell family! Congratulations Lauren!

In January, Dr. Gradwell went to Las Vegas for training on the surgical technique on the Hybridge Surgical Technique. This allows patients to have fixed teeth in a turn around period of about 8 weeks. Dr. Gradwell trained with Prosthodontist, Dr. Eric Marsh of the Lehigh Valley. While they were there they had the opportunity to meet Siegfried from Siegfried & Roy.

 

I went to California as a request of Implant Direct’s President, Mr. Tom Stratton. It was an honor to be invited to the corporate center as well as the manufacturing plant of the dental implants that we use here in our office.  It dawned on me, while I was there, that the implants we use in our practice are state of the art and “made in the USA”.

I had the pleasure of meeting their research and development team. The Vice president of research and development, Ines Aravena shared with us the impressive ideas that are in the pipeline in Implant Directs future.  I am so excited that I am part of the Implant Direct family and I appreciate all they do for us to allow for the best positive outcome for our patients.
 Alison, Implant Direct Representative
Also, I had a tour of the manufacturing plant which mills 6,000 parts per day. Most of these parts are milled from Titanium and I saw the titanium rods that eventually become Dental Implants

    Mr. Edward Novak, Implant Direct 
With any good trip there is food.
 
I had a wonderful dinner with the Vice President of the company, Mr. David Painter. He is an insightful leader in the company and with his leadership Implant Direct will continue to be a leader in Implant Dentistry here and abroad.  It was a wonderful couple of days in Thousand Oaks California.  I concluded my trip to California by taking the train down to San Diego to attend the American Academy of Implant Dentistry.  It too was a great meeting which I attended 15 hours of continuing education on the future developments in Implant Dentistry.

Scott Gradwell, DMD.

We have had a very busy summer! Starting in July, we sent out our annual “Christmas in July” treats to our amazing referring dentists. Charlie from King Kone delivered the tasty treats personally in his holiday attire. On some of our warmest days, the ice cream was perfect to cool us all down! Thank you to all the doctors who send their wonderful patients to us!

On July 21^st, our dental assistant Heather, celebrated 40 wonderful years of life! To celebrate, some of the staff went tubing a few days later down the Delaware River and then enjoyed a nice lunch together. Here’s to 40 more!



In August, our typist of 16 years, Sandy, announced her retirement. She has been with Dr. Gradwell for about 16 years. We enjoyed a nice dinner all-together celebrating all the years she spent with us and shed a few tears. She was a great asset to our team and will be greatly missed around the office; but we know that she will be enjoying her freedom-motorcycling around town! Happy Retirement Sandy!!

~Even though Sandy can never be fully replaced, Dr. Gradwell has hired someone to take over her position. Anne is our newest addition to the work family. We are very excited to get to know her better as we work together in the office. Welcome to the staff Anne!