Month: March 2018

Deadly Dentistry: Death in the Dental Chair

by

If you are thinking about having any dental work done for yourself or your loved ones you should know that in many cases it is not without risk and can even be deadly. There are many cases of death occurring in dental offices over the years for both children and adults having dental procedures. The Dallas Morning News made an in depth piece exploring various issues surrounding death in the dental chair and the story indicated cover-up and not holding offenders accountable. The seven part piece was published in 2015 and is available at http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2015/deadly-dentistry/index.html. It is a lengthy investigative piece, so you will need a fair amount of time to get through the entire story. For convience the links for each of the seven parts are also provided separately below. Part 1 http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2015/deadly-dentistry/part1.html Part 2 http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2015/deadly-dentistry/part2.html Part 3 http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2015/deadly-dentistry/part3.html Part 4 (which has … Read more

Medical Students Are At Risk For Suicide

by

Medical students have the difficult task of learning through science and rigorous academic training to take care of others. Med students can suffer from many ailments including anxiety, stress or migraines or even worse. Being a doctor of any kind is quite simply about learning to make other people feel better, and it’s possible to heal your patient that’s the goal. Unfortunately, there are times when a patient doesn’t make it and that can feel devastating to a med student who is undergoing training, such as a resident. You are just learning and have a sense of optimism about the field. You want to help people, genuinely and seeing your patient die is a tragedy and can leave you feeling depressed. According to The American Medical Student Association, med students are three times as likely to die by suicide than … Read more

Elements of Lithium in Water Slows Alzheimer’s Disease Death

by

New research shows that trace elements of lithium in drinking water may slow down death rates from Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, rates of diabetes and obesity also decrease if there is lithium in the drinking water. Usually when one hears about something in the drinking water it is in regard to fluoride or lead. For example see the post talking about how if fluoride in drinking water lowers intelligence at http://blog.teethremoval.com/fluoride-in-water-does-not-lower-intelligence/. Lead in drinking water was a problem for example in the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. The researchers in this study collected statistics on various lithium levels in drinking water in 234 counties in the state of Texas. Texas was used for the data on lithium levels because the researchers said it was freely available. Lithium is a water-soluble alkali metal found in mineral springs and igneous rocks. Lithium is … Read more

Development of new restorative dental materials for cavities

by

New research by Salvatore Sauro, who is a professor of dental biomaterials, has shown that new dental biomaterials can help regenerate dental hard tissues. The work occurred at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, in Spain, with collaboration of researchers from other parts of Europe. Bacterial plaque which causes tooth decay due to acids produced by different bacteria species; has led to research for the development of restorative biomaterials. The international group of researchers generated two new dental restorative biomaterials containing bioactive glasses, and explored their effectiveness in reducing the enzymatic auto-degradation of collagen fibres and evoking their remineralization. The researchers set out to evaluate the inhibition of endogenous proteolytic enzymes of dentin and the remineralization induced by two experimental resins containing bioactive glasses. The first resin contains micro-particles of Bioglass 45S5 and the other one contains micro-particles of an experimental bioactive glass enriched with … Read more

Are female patients using oral contraceptives undergoing wisdom teeth removal at higher risk of dry socket?

by

An interesting article titled “A higher incidence of dry socket may be related to the use of oral contraceptives after impacted mandibular third-molar extraction” appears in the Oct. 2016 issue of JADA by Yumi Ogata and Yong Hur (Volume 147, Issue 10, pp. 840-842). The article discusses some of the issues surrounding whether in female patients undergoing impacted mandibular wisdom teeth removal, if the use of oral contraceptives increase the incidence of alveolar osteitis (also known as dry socket) when compared with female patients who do not use oral contraceptives. The researchers explore 3 electronic databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Elsevier ScienceDirect) for relevant articles published up to April 2014. Two reviewers independently conducted quality assessments of the included studies by using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and resolve any disagreements through consensus with a third reviewer. The authors included 12 articles that reported on … Read more