The Misbehaving Tooth Fairy

by

In the article “The tooth fairy and malpractice” by Sian Ludman, Hamid Daya, Polly S Richards, and Adam Fox, in BMJ Christmas 2012, 345, e3027, a very interesting discussion is made of the tooth fairy. The article states “We are concerned that the actions of the mythical character at the root of this report must be brought to the attention of the medical community, as it seems to represent the first signs of a worrying new trend in malpractice.” The tooth fairy is widely considered to be benevolent but the authors present a disturbing report. A discussion is made of an 8 year old who presented with a foreign body in the left external auditory meatus (which showed up on a CT scan). The image is in the report. The parents of the boy discussed how three years earlier the … Read more

Exploring Giving Antibiotics Before Third Molar Surgery (Wisdom Teeth Removal) in Spain

by

An issue that one asks when having third molar surgery (wisdom teeth removal) is one whether should have antibiotics administered before or after surgery (or not at all). See for example http://www.teethremoval.com/antibiotic_resistance.html In a recent article appearing in J Evid Base Dent Pract 2012, issue 12, pp. 149-150, Manal A. Awad, reviewed a study exploring amoxicillin administration to those who were having wisdom teeth extracted. The original study was titled “Efficacy of amoxicillin treatment in preventing postoperative complications in patients undergoing third molar surgery: a prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled study,” by Lopez-Cedrun JL, Pijoan JI, Fernandez S, and Santamaria J, Hernandez G and appeared in the electronic 2011 version pages 5 -14, issue 69, number 6. It is well known that amoxicillin is useful in treating oral infections. In the study 123 healthy patients between the ages of 18 and … Read more

Migraine in Children Can Lead to Reduced Performance in School

by

In an article titled “Migraine and migraine subtypes in preadolescent children Association with school performance,” appearing in Neurology in 2012 by Marco A. Arruda and Marcelo E. Bigal, a discussion is made that children with migraine may have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches. The study looked at 5,671 children ages 5 to 12 from Brazil and found that those with migraine were 30% more likely to have below average school performance than those children with no headaches. The researchers collected information from the student’s teachers on their performance and also completed a questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems. Further, the researchers interviewed parents of the students from medical history and other potential useful information. Of the 5,671 children around 0.6% had chronic migraine occurring 15 or more days per month and 9% had … Read more

Market Interaction Erodes Moral Values

by

An interesting article appears in Science in May 2013, titled Morals and Markets (A. Falk, and N. Szech.vol., 340, pp. 707-711). The article sets out to explore how market participants change their attitudes towards harm and damage done to third parties. The act of producing and trading goods in a market produces negative externalities that can lead to exploiting the workforce through poor working conditions, child labor, and environmental damage. It has been observed that people who participate in markets buy goods without much regard to their own moral standards. The researchers devised an experiment to show that if people participate in markets than their moral standards are lowered. The researchers state “Our paradigm for studying moral values and detrimental effects on third parties is the trade-off between a mouse life and money. In our main treatments, human subjects faced … Read more

Are Migraine Related Changes Related to Impaired Cognition?

by

A recent study titled “Structural Brain Changes in Migraine,” appears in The Journal of the American Medical Association, November 14, 2012, vol. 308, no. 13, pp. 1189-1897, by Inge H. Palm-Meinders et al. The study set out to follow-up the 2000 Cerebral Abnormalities in Migraine, an Epidemiological Risk Analysis cohort (CAMERA-1), a prospective population based observational study of Dutch participants with migraine and an age and sex matched control group. This study showed that women with migraines were more likely to have scattered areas of white mater changes on MRI scans. The current study is known as CAMERA-2 and the researchers wanted to determine  whether women or men with migraine have a higher incidence of brain lesions 9 years after initial MRI, whether migraine frequency was associated with progression of brain lesions, and whether progression of brain lesions was associated … Read more