Near Death Wisdom Teeth Removal Experience

I wanted to alert everyone to a recent article in The Orangeville Banner and The Wellington Advertiser regarding 17 year old female Mercedes Moore and her wisdom teeth removal near death experience. According to the articles, Mercedes had her wisdom teeth removed in February, 2009. She began to feel a purple lump on her left temple along with pain and swelling. She saw the dentist for a follow up and told her he thought nothing was out of the ordinary. Eventually she had to be airlifted to a hospital because she was suffering from septic shock due to an infection that had developed and spread to her main arteries and organs. She had to undergo a surgery on her brain to remove a piece of skull and clean the infection. This surgery lasted 10 hours. Due to the blood clotting … Read more

Micro RNA and it’s role in Oral Cancer Detection

New research has emerged in Clinical Cancer Research which could aid in the diagnosis of oral cancer by looking at saliva, specifically MicroRNAs. MicroRNAs are molecules produced in cells that have the ability to simultaneously control activity and assess the behavior of multiple genes. Knowing the that microRNA is present in saliva represents a major step for the detection of oral cancer at an early stage. “It is a Holy Grail of cancer detection to be able to measure the presence of a cancer without a biopsy, so it is very appealing to think that we could detect a cancer-specific marker in a patient’s saliva,” said Jennifer Grandis, M.D. David T. Wong, D.M.D., D.M.Sc. and his colleagues measured microRNA levels in the saliva of 50 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma and also in 50 healthy control patients. They were … Read more

Lasers to Detect Tooth Enamel

A group of researchers in Australia and Taiwan led by Wang, Fleming, and their colleagues showed that they could analyze the health of  extracted human teeth using lasers. This is done by measuring how the surface of a tooth responds to laser-generated ultrasound. This allows them to then valuate the mineral content of tooth enamel. Enamel is the hardest and most mineralized substance of the human body which engulfs teeth in a protective layer. Enamel constantly undergoes a cycle of mineral loss and restoration, in which healthy teeth maintain a high mineral content. If the balance between mineral loss and gain is lost, teeth can develop areas of softened enamel which are precursors to cavities and damaged teeth. This research could lead to the ability to assess oral health and predict emerging dental problems, such as tooth decay and cavities … Read more

Win a Smile MakeOver

I wanted to alert anyone who might be interested, that 1-800-DENTIST® is running a $30,000 smile makeover contest until mid November of 2009. To learn more you can visit www.1800dentist.com/my-smile-bites. You will need to submit and create a 2 minute video of yourself which discusses your smile and what you think would make it better. After your video is uploaded, family and friends can vote and help you become the winner of the contest.

Stone Left Blind After Wisdom Teeth Removal

Earlier this year I reported on a teenager Austin Stone who was left in a coma after having his wisdom teeth removed due to complications from a faulty medical gas system https://blog.teethremoval.com/wisdom-teeth-removalleads-to-coma/. Stone was very recently able to walk at his High School’s graduation ceremonies and receive his high school diploma.  However, he was left blind, hard of hearing, and now has speech problems. A special ceremony was arranged for him to receive his diploma and his father helped him walked to the stage. To learn more visit http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/news/2009/sep/10/homecoming-hero/