Rare Case Highlights Importance of Communication and Follow-up After Dental Procedures

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An interesting article titled “The interplay among a dental procedure, infective endocarditis, and an acute ischemic stroke” appears in the Journal of the American Dental Association by Momodou G. Bah and et. al., published January 24, 2024. The article discusses a case report that shares the importance of communication and follow-up after dental procedures, especially when it comes to potential complications like infective endocarditis and stroke. The Case: A previously healthy 54-year-old woman experienced a cracked tooth while eating, specifically tooth #30 while chewing a popcorn kernel. Her dentist extracted the tooth, but she did not inform the dentist about persistent pain at the site for two weeks, and there were no follow-up calls scheduled. Five weeks later, she developed stroke symptoms and was diagnosed with infective endocarditis, a rare but serious infection of the heart valves. The Connection: Tests … Read more

Giving social support may help to lower inflammation and improve health

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An interesting article titled “Perceived social support-giving moderates the association between social relationships and interleukin-6 levels in blood,” appears in the 2022 edition of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (no. 100: pp. 25-28) written by T. Jiang and et al. The article seeks to explore if perceived social support-giving (i.e. the belief that one can be available to give social support to others) moderates associations between social relationships and inflammation. Thus the article looks at the willingness to give social support to others such as family and friends instead of just receiving help from those same people. In the article, the researchers looked at data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS II) and in particular 1054 healthy middle-aged adults between 34 and 84 years old. The data contained questionnaires on social integration, support-availability from others, positive relations … Read more

Orthodontic patients prefer face-to-face interactions over teledentistry

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Teledentistry use in orthodontics has been growing in recent years. To better understand patient preferences and attitudes among orthodontic patients a study was conducted by Jackson K. Griffeth and et. al. titled “Patient perspectives on teledentistry and face-to-face doctor interaction during orthodontic treatment” appearing in  the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (published November 19, 2022). Teledentistry has been covered before on this site see for example the post Delivering Dentistry and Counseling to Patients using Telemedicine. In the article the authors assessed the perceived value of face-to-face interactions between patients and orthodontists, patients desire for convenience, and attitudes toward teledentistry for orthodontics. In the study the authors had orthodontists email their patients surveys that were completed by those 18 and older and by the parents for those under 18. The authors had eight orthodontists in the study that had … Read more

Prompts to reduce opioid prescribing

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An interesting study with a potential technique to reduce opioid prescribing is published in Nature Communications by Doctor, J.N., Kelley, M.A., Goldstein, N.J. et al. titled A randomized trial looking at planning prompts to reduce opioid prescribing (vol.15, no. 263, 2024). The article suggests informing doctors about patients who died from overdoses, combined with specific guidance on safer prescribing practices, may be an effective way to reduce risky prescriptions of opioids and benzodiazepines. Despite efforts in the U.S. to reduce opioid addiction and related fatalities, it is believed too many opioids are still prescribed. Some evidence has shown that notifying doctors about an overdose death of a patient may be effective. Researchers from the University of Southern California investigated this approach by sending personalized letters to clinicians in Los Angeles County. Some received letters simply notifying them about a patient’s overdose death, while others received … Read more

Comparing the effectiveness of diclofenac, celecoxib and ibuprofen for wisdom teeth removal.

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An interesting study titled “Comparative Effect of Celecoxib, Diclofenac, and Ibuprofen in Controlling Postoperative Pain, Edema, and Trismus After Third Molar Extraction: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial” written by L. Bassyoni on February 06, 2024 appears in Cureus 16, no. 2, e53687. The study sought to compare celecoxib, diclofenac, and ibuprofen for managing postoperative pain, swelling, and mouth opening ability (trismus) after wisdom teeth surgery. The study included participants recruited from the oral and maxillofacial surgery specialty clinics at King Abdul-Aziz University Dental Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Only one impacted lower wisdom tooth was extracted at the time of surgery. The study was a double-blinded randomized controlled trial which meant that study participants were randomly assigned to one of the three medication groups and neither they nor the researchers the medications received. The study was rather small and only had … Read more