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Headache and Pain Infographic: All About Headaches

Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by wisdom.

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Here is an interesting infographic on headaches from the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The infographic offers statistics on those who suffer from headaches and also offers some remedies to help cure your headache and ease the pain.

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Swimming and the Potential Harmful Effects on Your Teeth

Posted on 22. Oct, 2011 by wisdom.

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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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Darvon and Darvocet banned in U.S.

Posted on 09. Jan, 2011 by wisdom.

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I find it interesting to hear that the drug commonly known as Darvocet and also similarly Darvon has been banned in the U.S. as of November 19, 2010. The formal name of the drug is Dextropropoxyphene and is in the opiod category of drugs.

This ban came by the FDA in response to research that suggests the drug Darvocet can lead to heart problems such as heart arrythmias. The drug is also known to be addictive and is associated with some deaths. It is commonly prescribed in the treatment of pain.

I personally was prescribed darovcet in 2008 in an attempt to treat my chronic 24/7 headache caused by the removal of my wisdom teeth. I took darovcet a few times and spaced out the usage due to the potential addictive nature. However, it was effective in reducing my pain. I didn’t notice any alarming side effects.

The European Medicines Agency recommended that dextropropoxyphene based medicines be outlawed in the European Union in June 2009. Here we are over a year later where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decides to make a similar call in the U.S. and stop the sale of Darvon and Darvocet.

Many patients who have been taking this medication have to discuss with their doctor what they can use as a substitute. It can be difficult to change medications as well. It seems as if Tramadol is the current leading choice for those who need to switch over from Darvon or Darovcet.

I find this case interesting as it could relate to the removal of wisdom teeth. The British National Institute for Clinical Excellence has long argued that there is no evidence to remove disease free impacted wisdom teeth and says to keep them in due to the risks that can occur. It seems to me that a similar call should be made in the U.S. unless evidence surfaces. Unfortunately the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) won’t step in to the wisdom teeth removal controversy. Even so, the American Public Health Association does have similar recommendations as the British National Institute for Clinical Excellence regarding third molars.

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Western Dental injuries and pain

Posted on 08. Aug, 2010 by wisdom.

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I found some interesting pieces from ABC 7 KGO-TV San Francisco, CA. The articles and videos are about the second largest HMO in the state of California called Western Dental.

Numerous people are profiled talking about things such as nerve damage following wisdom teeth removal, people’s healthy teeth being pulled out and being replaced with dentures, a syringe injecting bleech into a girl’s sinus during a root canal, and putting too much filler into the root of a woman’s teeth during a root canal and causing severe pain.

Of course Western Dental defends by not admitting wrongdoing but then lawsuits result and a settlement is reached in some cases. In other cases Western Dental has not paid for subsequent follow up treatment.

To see the videos and read more of the articles visit these 2 links.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7583317

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7585208