The sequoia redwood trees located in California, are some of the biggest trees in the world. The General Sherman is, in fact, noted as The largest known living single stem tree on Earth! It is 275 ft tall, 25 feet in diameter, and is approximately 2,500 years old.
Something that huge must have an incredible root system that goes down deep in order to stand that tall. Not the case at all. The sequoia redwood trees have a unique root system that is a marvel, compared to their mammoth size.
Their roots are relatively shallow. There is no tap root to anchor them deep into the earth. The roots only go down 6-12 feet, and yet, these trees rarely fall over. They withstand strong winds, earthquakes, fires, storms, and prolonged flooding. How can something up to 500 tons, reaching over 350 feet in height, and live for many centuries remain standing with roots only going down about 10 feet?
The interesting thing about the redwood tree is that their root system is intertwined with the other redwood trees, literally holding each other up. The trees grow very close together and are dependent on each other for nutrients, as well. Only redwoods have the strength and ability to support other redwoods.
In my estimation the redwoods offer us a life lesson on success, endurance, strength, and community. We are great through community. In good times and in bad. We have been in the midst of a pandemic that although has not harmed many in our area directly from the COVID virus, it has affected many financially or emotionally as we have sheltered in place and may not have been able to work through this time. It is my hope that we can remember our community and reach out to our neighbors. Support local business vs buying online. Connect with colleagues and friends to be sure that we are like the redwoods and can not only endure, but we can thrive in the challenging months to come.
As far as Jones Family Dental, we are working hard to meet this challenge with innovation and vision. This pandemic has brought us closer to other offices and colleagues and allowed us to share and grow together. We are so grateful for the continued support of our patients. We want you to know that our office is safe. This virus, and others for that matter, often does harm to those who already have some preexisting conditions. For those people it is crucial to do all that we can to make dental care safe. Here is a partial list of what we have done to make our office as safe as possible. I want to note that these things are not all required or mandated, but after careful research, they do appear to offer a tremendous degree of safety assurance to our team and our patients.
• We are wearing N95 filtration respirators and level 3 surgical masks to protect our team as well as our patients
• We have High Volume intraoral negative pressure suction devices to limit the amount of aerosol that can leave the mouth.
• For the little aerosol that does escape the mouth, we are one of the first offices in the valley to have installed a HEPA filtered aerosol extraction exhaust system for every operatory to ensure that our team as well as our patients can literally breathe easy knowing that we are keeping our environment clean.
• A 5 layer HEPA air filtration system in the waiting area ensures clean air in non-treatment areas as well.
• We are getting patients directly to the treatment rooms and making sure that we limit patient to patient interaction.
Lastly: I will continue to do webinars/facebook live posts. Right now, my interest is focused on TMD and Sleep issues as well as child and airway development. Call us at 541-488-5088.
Remember Smile and the World Smiles with You.
