Health

The American Dental Society

by

I just wanted to let everyone know about an event that is upcoming.  “The Evidence Based Approach to Anxiety and Pain Control: Why We Do What We Do,” is the theme for this years American Dental Society of Anesthesiology’s annual meeting. It will be happening April 23-25 at the Marriott Hotel in Chicago. The keynote speaker this year is  Dr. Mark Drangsholt who is an epidemiologist and assistant professor of oral medicine at the  University of Washington.His talk will be about Finding, Evaluating and Applying Clinical Information in a Google-Dominated World. To find out more and obtain registration you will want to visit http://www.adsahome.org/annual.html Even so the official website seems to be a bit spare on containing information about the event. Therefore you should visit the ADA over at http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3507

Gene Therapy for Gum Disease

by

Scientists at the University of Michigan have shown that gene therapy can be used to successfully stop the development of periodontal disease. The U-M group is the first known to use the gene delivery approach to show potential in treating chronic conditions such as periodontal disease, said William Giannobile, professor at the U-M School of Dentistry. “Gene therapy has not been used in non-life threatening disease. (Periodontal disease) is more disabling than life threatening,” said Giannobile, who also directs the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research and has an appointment in the U-M College of Engineering. “This is so important because the next wave of improving medical therapeutics goes beyond saving life, and moves forward to improving the quality of life.” The preclinical study offers was a collaboration with the Seattle-based biotechnology company Targeted Genetics. In July, Targeted Genetics released … Read more

Evidence Based Medicine

by

I found a good website discussing some of the benefits of evidence based medicine. It explains what it is, what a systematic review is, and what this means to you. The information is from The Informed Health Online/Gesundheitsinformation.de Team: IQWiG. My favorite paragraph is talking about what to do when there is no clear answer for your medical treatment. It is important to remember, too, that just because there is no clear answer now, it does not mean that there is nothing a patient can do and that someone should take over for them. If there is no conclusive evidence about a treatment, patients need the best description possible of the potential advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives they face so that they can choose what they want to do. A variety of medical and personal issues can influence this … Read more

Dental Spending Expected to Slow

by

The Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that the growth in dental spending is expected to slow. The projected 2 percent increase from $99.9 billion in 2008 to $101.9 billion in 2009 may prove to be the lowest annual increase in dental spending since 1960. This is tied to the peformance in the economy. Today the DOW fell below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. People have to cut back somewhere, so they may be doing so by forgoing visits to the dentist. Even so, this is not a safe bet. You should have a checkup and cleaning atleast once a year. Dental spending is expected to return to more normal levels in 2010. It is projected that there will be an increase of 4.3 percent in 2010 and a 6 percent … Read more

Stress Affects Memory In the Brain

by

Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders. “For patients with major depression and other stress-related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety,” said Nivedita Agarwal, M.D., radiology resident at the University of Udine in Italy. “Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient’s life.” Dr. Agarwal and colleagues used brain fMRI to explore alterations in the neural circuitry that links the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus, while study participants performed a memory task. All patients reported s varying degrees of stressful traumatic events, such as sexual or physical abuse, difficult relationships or bullying or harassment – in their lives. The fMRI images revealed that the prefrontal cortex, which … Read more