Continuing to Assess the Death Rate of Dental Treatment

For years on teethremoval.com one has been able to find more information about deaths from dental treatment and wisdom teeth removal. In addition it has been estimated that the death rate in dentistry occurs in 1 out of every 400,000 cases. Due to a few recent review articles that appeared in 2017, the mortality rate in dentistry page at http://www.teethremoval.com/mortality_rates_in_dentistry.html has been updated. Two articles that may be of note are H. Mortazavi, M. Baharvand, and Y. Safi, Death Rate of Dental Anaesthesia, Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, Jun., Vol-11 (6): ZE07-ZE09 2017, and N. G. Reuter, P. M. Westage, M. Ingram, and C. S. Miller, Death related to dental treatment: a systematic review, Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, vol. 123, iss. 2, pp. 194-204. e10, Feb. 2017. The first article performed a review of over 20 studies focused on death … Read more

Dental Fads Busted!

There are many dental fads that exist in the world of dentistry. To help you learn more about dental fads, an infographic is presented below which busts four dental fads. The first dental fad is tooth jewelry. The reality is that tooth jewelry can irritate the gum tissues and wear away tooth enamel. The second dental fad is a fruit diet. The reality is that a high fruit diet lacks basic vitamins like Vitamin B, Vitamin D, and calcium. The vitamin deficiency and high amount of acidic content can lead to tooth decay. The third dental fad is activated-charcoal toothpaste. The reality is that charcoal is abrasive and can damage the tooth enamel and gums. The fourth dental fad is dental grills. Dental grills can aggravate tooth decay and damage gum tissue. This infographic is from https://www.medicaltourismco.com/

The Rise of Foreign Trained Dentists in the U.S.

An interesting article titled “Will we see more foreign-trained dentists in the United States?” appears in the July 2017, issue of JADA written by Marko Vujicic (issue 7, pp. 538-540). The article explores the H-1B program with a focus on dentistry. The article presents a figure which shows the number of dentists practicing in the U.S. who received a foreign degree is rising. The article states “Across all US dental schools, there were 896 foreign nationals admitted in 2016, representing approximately 14% of total admissions. “ The article later says that around 1,165 H-1B applications for dentists were received in 2016 which is up from 414 H-1B applications in 2011. The article states “The top 3 companies applying for H-1B visas for dentists were Jefferson Dental Clinics, Western Dental, and Kool Smiles. Combined, these 3 companies account for 12% of total … Read more

The ethics of a fair and honest treatment plan

An interesting article titled “The ethics of presenting a fair and honest treatment plan,” is written by Marvin Elwood Rice, appearing in JADA, April 2017, vol. 148, issue 4. The article discusses a dentist who has had numerous occasions in which a relative, past patient, or a new patient has called for a second opinion because of what another dentist has shown them on the oral camera screen. These are patients who take care of their teeth and are familiar with their conditions. In each instance, the patient was in a panic because the dentist enlarged his or her teeth on the overhead screen and pointed to a dark developmental groove or a stained pit and tried to convince the patient that they had a cracked tooth and needed a crown or that the stained areas were active carious lesions and they … Read more

Synthetic Tooth Enamel May lead to Resilent Structures

Unavoidable vibrations, such as those on airplanes, cause rigid structures to age and crack, but researchers have found that if you design them more like tooth enamel, it could lead to more resilient structures such as flight computers. Most materials that absorb vibration are soft and don’t make good structural components such as beams, chassis or motherboards. Artificial enamel is better than solid commercial and experimental materials that are aimed at the same vibration damping, as it’s lighter, more effective and less expensive. Researchers from the University of Michigan examined many structures in animals that had to withstand shocks and vibrations: bones, shells, carapaces and teeth. These living structures changed from species to species and over the eons. Tooth enamel told a different story. Under an electron microscope, it shared a similar structure whether it came from a Tyrannosaurus, a … Read more