Month: February 2009

Monkey Stem Cells Stimulate Brain

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Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have discovered dental pulp stem cells can stimulate growth and generation of several types of neural cells. They suggest dental pulp stem cells show promise for use in cell therapy and regenerative medicine, particularly therapies associated with the central nervous system. Dental stem cells are adult stem cells, one of the two major divisions of stem cell research. Adult stem cells have the ability to regenerate many different types of cells, promising great therapeutic potential, especially for diseases such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. Already, dental pulp stem cells have been used for regeneration of dental and craniofacial cells. Yerkes researcher Anthony Chan, DVM, PhD, and his team of researchers placed dental pulp stem cells from the tooth of a rhesus macaque into the hippocampal areas of mice. The dental pulp … Read more

Brief Downtime

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I apologize for the brief downtime experienced early. I was told by my hosting provider that there was some problem with the .htacess sending my website to another. If you visited around 5:20 p.m. EST today, you would have noticed the website was showing a dentist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The image of how the website looked is shown below. It is not clear from there “We believe” statement if they support or do not support the preventative removal of wisdom teeth.

Vasovagal Syncope at the Dentist

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Vasovagal syncope is characterized by a loss of consciousness and muscle tone, which typically are preceded by non-specific symptoms that last anywhere from a few seconds to a minute. These symptoms result from alterations in the nervous system that can include dizziness, lightheadedness, paleness, palpitations, nausea, sweating, hyperventilation and changes in vision. According to Dr. Kapusta, DDS, “Any patient who experiences a syncope reaction may have an underlying cause that can predispose him or her to a life-threatening situation.” It is considered the most common clinical problem that occurs among patients of all ages, affecting 3.5 percent of the general population. Emotional stress, anxiety, pain, fatigue and being in a hot and crowded environment can lead to vasovagal syncope. “It is not uncommon for patients to experience some anxiety when visiting their general dentist,” says  Melvin Pierson, DDS. “Yet, there … Read more

Root Canal

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I found a pretty informative video on root canal therapy. The video discusses what a root canal is, whether or not you need a root canal, how much pain to expect, the recovery time, and the chance the root canal is successful. Remember that not all root canals will be a success and there are risks with every procedure.

Oral Cancer Diagnosed Too Late

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Across the world, more than 500,000 new cases of cancer of the mouth are diagnosed each year. The majority are found too late, causing many people to die within five years. There is little information related to early diagnosis and referral. Although the need for prosthodontics was expected to decline with the promotion of preventive measures, it is actually increasing with the aging population. The highest risk of developing oral cancer is in adults over 40 who use both tobacco and alcohol. The majority of oral, head and neck cancer are initially diagnosed in a late stage, which has a five year prognosis of less than 50 percent. If these tumors are found in their earliest stage, the five year prognosis becomes a very good 95 percent. All dentists are  trained to detect these tumors in an early stage. Even … Read more