UK Dentists offering Botox alongside fillings May 17, 2008
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Telegraph News
A growing number of dentists who have left the NHS are setting up lucrative sidelines in beauty treatment, offering Botox injections alongside fillings and check-ups.
One in four dentists are now able to offer the cosmetic injections to freeze facial muscles, as well as anti-ageing fillers and facial peels, a survey found.
The leading cosmetic training body for dentists, run by Dr Bob Khanna, has taught 4,000 of England’s 20,000 dentists procedures such as Botox, while experts said a conservative estimate would suggest one in four are either offering “cosmetic injectables” or preparing to enter the market.
The survey included NHS dentists, some of whom do private work that could include beauty treatments.
More than 1,000 dentists have left the NHS since the Government’s introduction two years ago of a contract that many claim loses them money.
Almost half the population in England – more than 23 million people – had no NHS dental care in the two years to last September.
But increasingly, those paying privately for the perfect smile appear to be open to cosmetic work.
No Wisdom In Routinely Pulling Wisdom Teeth, Study Says May 17, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO.Tags: asymptomatic wisdom teeth, extractions, impacted wisdom teeth, oral surgery, third molars
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ScienceDaily — No reliable studies exist to support removal of trouble-free impacted wisdom teeth, according to a systematic review of evidence. Despite this surprising lack of data, extraction of third molars has long been considered appropriate care in most developed countries.
“Watchful monitoring” of asymptomatic wisdom teeth may be a more appropriate strategy, suggest review authors led by Dr. Dirk Mettes of Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Furthermore, they add, health risks and cost-effectiveness of surgery deserve greater consideration.
“Prudent decision-making, with adherence to specified indicators for removal, may reduce the number of surgical procedures by 60 percent or more,” the authors say.
The review appears in the most recent issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
Impacted wisdom teeth can cause inflammation of the gum, gum and bone disease, damage to adjacent teeth and development of cysts and tumors. General agreement exists that removal is appropriate when pain or problems occur.However, the benefits of surgery are much less clear when it comes to removal of disease-free impacted wisdom teeth. Despite of a thorough review of the literature, the reviewers found no data to support this treatment approach.
Bug Responsible For Bad Breath Found May 11, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, -GEN. INFO.Tags: bad breath, halitosis, Solobacterium moorei
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Solobacterium moorei is the organism largely responsible for chronic bad breath, or halitosis, biologists reported Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research in Dallas.
In a previous study of eight patients with halitosis and five without, S. moorei was “always found in patients with halitosis and never in patients who did not have this problem,” Dr. Violet I. Haraszthy, who was involved in both studies, noted in a telephone interview with Reuters Health. “A number of other studies have also found this bacterium in halitosis patients.”
Haraszthy points out that, at present, “not much is known about this particular organism.”
“As we identify and find out more about the bacteria that cause bad breath, we can develop treatments to reduce their numbers in the mouth,” Clark added in a university-issued statement.
As reported Friday on Reuters Health, the same team of investigators has found that brushing twice a day with antibacterial toothpaste and using a toothbrush with a built-in tongue scraper can eliminate chronic bad breath.
Arginine Candies May Reduce Caries May 11, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, -GEN. INFO.Tags: arginine bicarbonate, arginine candy, BasicMints, CaviStat
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State University of New York (SUNY)
Candies containing a novel formula of arginine bicarbonate and calcium carbonate reduced decayed, missing, and filled surfaces by two thirds in a new study on children’s molars.
In the study — published in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Dentistry — 96 Venezuelan children aged 10 and 11 sucked four mints fortified with CaviStat per day. A control group of 99 children sucked on sugarless mints without CaviStat. At the end of a year, the CaviStat group had 61.7 percent fewer decayed, missing, or filled surfaces in molars than the placebo group, the researchers reported.
Arginine is an amino acid that causes bacteria to produce base, counteracting the acid that demineralizes teeth, the researchers write. The bicarbonate produces an additional buffering effect, while the calcium carbonate provides a source of calcium to replace any that is dissolved in acid.
The study was funded by Ortek, where lead researcher Israel Kleinberg, D.D.S., Ph.D., a SUNY professor of oral biology, serves on the board of directors.
Genetic factors influencing fears and phobias change with age May 11, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO.Tags: fears, fears and phobias, Genetic factors
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Genetic risk factors for excessive fears and phobias are developmentally dynamic from middle childhood to young adulthood, researchers in the U.S. and Sweden report in the Archives of General Psychiatry for April.
This makes sense, lead author Dr. Kenneth S. Kendler and colleagues suggest, because “stimuli that are particularly hazardous for a child are likely to differ from those that pose danger to a late adolescent. If this is the case, selective forces over evolutionary time are likely to sculpt a temporally dynamic set of genetic risk factors with expression tied to developmental age.”
To determine the temporal pattern of genetic effects on the intensity of common fears, Dr. Kendler, from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and his team analyzed data from the prospective Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development.
The study included questionnaires from 2490 twins completed at ages 8-9, 13-14, 16-17, and 19-20. Respondents rated the intensity of fears related to situations (enclosed places, heights, flying, dark, and lightening), animals (snakes, spiders, rats, wasps, and dogs), and injury (dentists, injections, and blood).
Rather than being stable over time, Dr. Kendler’s team observed that genetic effects were dynamic, with some declining over time and other new sets of genetic risk factors “coming on line” in adolescence and early adulthood.
The intensity of fear tended to be highest for animals, the study indicates. Although females were more fearful than males, fears and phobias generally dissipated with age.
The authors encourage future research to clarify whether genetic influences on fearfulness are mediated “at the level of mental processes, such as changes in cognitive biases or disgust sensitivity, and/or at the level of neurobiology, for example, altered functioning of brain fear circuitry in structures such as the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex.”
Adult Teeth May Come In Early In Diabetic Kids May 11, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO, -GEN. INFO.Tags: diabetes, Diabetic Kids, permanent teeth
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health), – Children with diabetes may develop their permanent teeth earlier than normal, which could potentially increase their risk of dental problems, according to findings published in the medical journal Pediatrics.
The study looked at children 6 to 14 years old — 270 with diabetes (mostly type 1 diabetes) and 320 without diabetes. The researchers found that among children age 10 and up, those with diabetes were more likely to have teeth in an “advanced stage of eruption.”
According to Lal’s team, the reasons for the speedier tooth eruption may have to do with gum inflammation, which tended to be greater in children with diabetes. Gum inflammation may diminish the mass of the bones supporting the teeth, shortening the distance that developing teeth need to progress to break through the gums.
Improper Consumption Of Acidic Foods Could Lead To Destroyed Enamel May 10, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO.Tags: effect of acid on the teeth, enamel, hypersensitivity, tooth erosion
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ScienceDaily — Fruit, yogurt, citric and soft drinks, may seem like harmless snacks and beverages, but improper consumption and overuse may lead to devastating and permanent damage to teeth. It’s known as tooth erosion, the break down of tooth structure caused by the effect of acid on the teeth that leads to decay. According to David Bartlett, BDS, PhD, who will lead a discussion at the Academy of General Dentistry’s annual meeting titled, “Acid Erosion-Why is it Important to My Patients?”, “Early diagnosis and prevention of the effects of tooth erosion are fundamental to keeping teeth healthy for life.”
“Sipping or holding acidic drinks in the mouth before swallowing increases the risk of erosion on dental enamel,” says Dr. Bartlett. Dental enamel is the thin, outer layer of hard tissue that helps maintain the tooth’s structure and shape while protecting it from decay.
Soft drinks, which contain acids, break the tooth surfaces. These acids also damage tooth enamel over time by dissolving the mineral structure of teeth, thinning the teeth. Eventually, because of repeated exposure to acid, the tooth’s enamel will lose its shape and color and as the damage progresses; the underlying dentin, (which is the tissue that makes up the core of each tooth), becomes exposed causing the teeth to look yellow.
To prevent tooth erosion, Dr. Bartlett advises patients who eat or drink an acidic food or beverage to wait at least 20 minutes before brushing the teeth so as not to destroy the weakened enamel. He also suggests eating acidic foods within five minutes, instead of snacking on them throughout the day, and eating these foods just during meal times in order to minimize the amount of time the acid is on the teeth.
Mice Teeth Explain The Troubles With Human Wisdom Teeth May 10, 2008
Posted by Dentist.Com in -GEN. INFO.Tags: mice teeth, molar development, wisdom teeth
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ScienceDaily — During evolution, many of a species’ properties are shaped by ecological interactions. This is readily evident in mammalian teeth, whose many features closely reflect what each species eats.
However, for a long time scientists have suspected that genetic and developmental interactions may also influence species-specific properties. Now, researchers at the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Biotechnology show how development affects the evolution of teeth, and have devised a simple developmental model to predict aspects of teeth across many species. The results were published in Nature.
In the study in the field of evolutionary developmental biology, the researchers Kathryn Kavanagh, Jukka Jernvall and Alistair Evans in the Institute of Biotechnology of the University of Helsinki first studied cheek tooth, or molar, development in mice. Similarly to human teeth, mouse molars develop from front-to-back so that the first molar appears first and the posterior molars bud sequentially along the jaw.
Normally the last molar to develop is the third, or wisdom tooth. Experiments on cultured mouse molars revealed that the size and number of posterior molars depend on previously initiated molars. The mechanism, called an ‘inhibitory cascade’, acts much like a ratchet that cumulatively increases size differences of teeth along the jaw. By quantifying their experiments, the researchers constructed a simple mathematical model which they then used to predict relative size and number of molars across many other mouse and rat species.
They show that the model accurately predicts tooth proportions and numbers, one curious effect being that the second molar makes up one-third of total molar area, irrespective of species-specific molar proportions.
This new research demonstrates that with advances in the study of the molecular regulation of development, it is now possible to identify how development influences evolution. And this may help explain the troublesome wisdom teeth of modern humans – the blame may lie within a weak inhibitory cascade that allows the development of the last molar in a jaw that is too small.
Dental Crowns Reveal The Diet Of A Species May 10, 2008
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ScienceDaily — According to recent research, the complexity of tooth surfaces reveals the diet of a species. Scientists at the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Biotechnology and Department of Geology showed that the more complex the surface of an animal’s teeth, the greater the share of vegetables in its diet. For instance, the teeth of carnivores and rodents differ in almost every aspect, but if a carnivore and a rodent eat similar food, their teeth are equally complex. The results were published in Nature Magazine.
The size, number, occlusion and dental crown cusps of carnivores and rodents, such as cats and mice, are very different. Based on their research, the Helsinki scientists discovered that although the teeth of rodents and predators seem very different, the values describing their complexity correspond if the species share a similar diet. Both groups have species that eat both meat and vegetable foods.
The scientists studied the differences in the teeth of various species by measuring the molar crowns of 81 mammalian species and, based on the measurements, creating 3D virtual models of them. The models were then used to develop new methods of measurement, which enable scientists to identify all the parts of teeth that break down the food, the ‘tools’, as it were.
New database is the first to offer information on phenotypes
The 3D virtual models were entered in the MorphoBrowser database created by the team’s scientists. The database now contains data on fossils, existing animals as well as the modified teeth of mutant mice. The open access database for the first time makes phenotypes, or 3D models of the information contained in the genes, publicly available on the Internet. This can be compared to the information on the genetic sequences of different species (such as the human genome), which have been available on public databases for quite a while.
3D measurements enable scientists to determine the diet of extinct animals even in taxonomic groups that have no counterparts in living species. Indeed, the database is particularly useful to evolutionary scientists, who study the diet of extinct species based on the shape of their molars. This new approach also creates opportunities for studying the relationship between dental shapes and developmental biology.
The research was financed by the Systems Biology and Bioinformatics Research Programme of the Academy of Finland.
