TeethRemoval.com » Health

American Dental Association Toothflix Demo Series

wisdom — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:39:42 +0000

Recently the American Dental Association (ADA) has released a Patient Education DVD series called Toothflix. It contains 23 different video segments which explore different topics designed to educate patients on their oral health and prevention and treatment strategies.

The complete series including all 23 segments currently is available for $699. Each segment is around 3 to 6 minutes long. It is intended to be played on a TV and DVD player in the reception or waiting area of a dental office. It could also be used in actual treatment rooms perhaps to help explain more clearly certain topics to patients. In addition another use would be for when a dentist goes out into the community to give a presentation or some other event.

The ADA has 7 of the segments partially available on their website for demonstration purposes. I reviewed the segment on Preventing Periodontal Disease and felt it was informative. The viewer learns about how periodontal disease is caused by plaque which is caused by not cleaning regularly enough and properly after eating.

The viewer learns about the warning signs of periodontal disease

Gums that bleed easily are red, swollen, or tender
Gums pull away from teeth
Constant bad breath
Pus between teeth and gums
Loose or separating teeth
Change in your bite
Change in how dentures fit

In addition the factors that increase the risk of periodontal disease are discussed

Smoking or chewing tobacco
Systemic diseases
Medications
Hormonal changes
Bridges or partial dentures that no longer fit properly

Of course the possibility of inflammation and periodontal disease and it’s role in your overall health is mentioned.

As is commonly recommend, the video informs the viewer to brush at least twice daily and floss once a day. It says how it is possible to have periodontal disease without having any warning signs and symptoms.

In addition it talks about how a dentist will measure the space between your teeth and gum with a periodontal probe and that this probing depth should be 3 mm or less for you to be considered healthy.

As a side note, the risk of Periodontal disease is a commonly cited reason to have wisdom teeth removed in young adults. Therefore I go into many more details about periodontal disease and their relation to wisdom teeth under the risks of keeping your wisdom teeth page.

The ADA tends to stay out of the wisdom teeth debate so this is not even mentioned in the video. However I was impressed by the video and thought it did a great job providing an introduction and knowledge needed by dental patients.

Additional information about the ADA Toothflix series is available on the ADA website at http://www.ada.org/2334.aspx. There is no segment on wisdom teeth, but other segments include Tooth Extraction, Root Canal, Cracked Tooth, and Early Childhood Caries.

There are other Toothflix options available besides the complete series. I feel owning this DVD series may make a nice addition for dental offices and aid their patients in understanding and knowledge of their oral health.

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The Cyberchondriac: Managing the Difficult Patient

wisdom — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:24:27 +0000

There is an interesting series over at QuantiaMD on Managing the Difficult Patient. Presentations are available for viewing as long as you sign up for with your email. One such presentation was originally called The Patient Who Knows too much but has been changed to The Cyberchondriac. http://quantiamd.com/player/wywzswwh?courseid=31844

Mary Modahl who is QuantiaMD Chief Communications Officer said after the original title was added

”‘The Patient Who Knows Too Much’ is a very poor title. Certainly a patient can never know too much. In every way, we’re supportive of doctors meeting their patients’ need for care.”

Dr. Joseph Scherger, vice president for primary care at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, defines a Cyberchondriac in the presentation:

“This is a patient who is on the internet…indiscriminate with the material they are reading…they consider themselves an expert yet often their true medical knowledge is limited…they are pushing you to do things based on their information.”

Dr. Scherger takes a jab at Cyberchondriacs and says

“…sometimes these patients are very overweight, they are on the internet all the time…”

He also says that if a patient is going to bring in a stack of materials from the internet they should send it in advance and not just expect the doctor to have the time to go over everything and check the sources at the visit.

One of the problems in the presentation discussed by Dr. Gerald Hickson, director of the center for patient professional advocacy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, is how a patient may see a medical doctor and then go see a subsequent provider. This subsequent provider may engage in jousting and being critical of the other doctor and possibly even suggest they take legal action. He urges physicians to not be so critical of other providers as they may not know all the information.

I often question the quality of information found on the internet and know that it can be extremely difficult to learn what the truth is even if the source is reputable as I have discussed in some detail here http://blog.teethremoval.com/why-people-who-google-and-search-online-for-health-information-just-dont-get-it/

Source: http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/can-difficult-patient-know-too-much/2011-07-08

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Swimming and the Potential Harmful Effects on Your Teeth

wisdom — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 01:12:29 +0000

Recently an article has appeared on DrBicupsid.com titled Swimming in acidic pool nearly destroys man’s teeth written by Rob Goszkowski and posted on September 6, 2011, located at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=rst&pag=dis&ItemID=308363
The article describes a case of a 52 year old man who nearly lost the enamel of his teeth in just 5 month by swimming regularly at his home pool.

In fact, while it is widely appreciated that exercising regularly is good for your health you should consider the potential harm of any sort of new exercise program and yes this includes swimming and even walking.

This man was suffering from hemangiomas in his liver and was told by his doctor to stop jogging so he decided on his own that he would take up swimming and in fact would do so for 90 minutes a day at a pool in his house that was not being professionally maintained.

It was found that the reason for his rapid enamle erosion was due to having a highly acidic chlorinated swimming pool (low pH). The normal pH of a pool should be between 7.2 and 7.6 which is considered to be basic.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcwest/136945653/ and has a Creative Commons License.

Tom over at OralAnswers.com has also explored swimming and it’s effect on teeth in his article titled Can Chlorine in Swimming Pools Dissolve or Stain Your Teeth? published June 15, 2011, and located at http://www.oralanswers.com/2011/06/chlorine-swimming-pools-dissolve-stain-teeth/

In his article he states:

“This means that in a basic swimming pool, the calcium and minerals present in your mouth will harden onto your teeth rather than dissolve (as they would if the pH were acidic – this is why your teeth dissolve slowly when you eat or drink anything acidic.) “

An article titled Swimmers Risk Stained Smiles, Chipped Teeth http://www.knowyourteeth.com/infobites/abc/article/Default.asp?abc=S&iid=331&aid=1324 updated March 2007, says:

“Athlete swimmers, who often swim laps more than six hours a week, expose their teeth to large amounts of chemically treated water. Pool water contains chemical additives like antimicrobials, which give the water a higher pH than saliva, causing salivary proteins to break down quickly and form organic deposits on swimmer’s teeth. The result is swimmer’s calculus, hard, brown tartar deposits that appear predominantly on the front teeth.”

This is not the first case where dental erosion has occurred due to a low pH in a swimming pool due to inadequate maintenance. This is described in an article called Etiology of dental erosion–extrinsic factors by DT Zero appearing in Eur J Oral Sci, vol 104, no. 2 part 2, pages 162-177, April 1996.

Hence it is important to know what the pH is of the pool you are swimming in and especially so if you begin to notice some dental erosion.

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Male Testicular Cancer Awareness: Rhian Sugden

wisdom — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:18:37 +0000

Last week, I posted a bold video to raise Breast Cancer Awareness http://blog.teethremoval.com/rethink-breast-cancer-your-man-reminder/.

Well in Britain around a month or so ago an extremely bold video was released to raise Testicular Cancer Awareness as part of the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign http://www.malecancer.org. This video features model Rhian Sugden and should only be viewed if you are prepared for the worst. So far it is been viewed over 1.4 million times on YouTube.

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Rethink Breast Cancer: Your Man Reminder

wisdom — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:57:20 +0000

A very interesting video was posted to YoutTube last week to help raise awareness for breast cancer. Several shirtless young men appear to show how to check for lumps in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness for younger women.

This is a Canadian campaign by a charity called Rethink Breast Cancer. http://rethinkbreastcancer.com/

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald. Sacha Molitorisz. Steamy spin sells health message. October 14, 2011. http://www.smh.com.au/business/marketing/steamy-spin-sells-health-message-20111013-1ln0z.html

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