Invasive dental procedures linked to heart inflammation

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An interesting study titled “Endocarditis, invasive dental procedures, and antibiotic prophylaxis efficacy in US Medicaid patients” appears in Oral Diseases on April 27, 2023, written by Martin Thornhill and et. al. The study investigates the association between invasive dental procedures and endocarditis, which is inflammation of the inside lining of the heart chambers and heart valves. In the study the authors used the MarketScan multi-state Medicaid database to examine 1.68 million Medicaid patients with linked medical, dental, and prescription data and compared it to 7.95 million individuals with employer-provided Commercial/Medicare-Supplemental health coverage with linked dental and prescription benefits. The authors found that the cohort study showed increased endocarditis incidence within 30 days of invasive dental procedures in those at high risk, particularly after extractions or oral surgery. It was also determined that antibiotic prophylaxis significantly reduced endocarditis incidence following invasive … Read more

Kinesio Taping to Help with Complications after Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An interesting article titled “Kinesio Taping as an Adjunct Therapy in Postoperative Care after Extraction of Impacted Third Lower Molars—A Randomized Pilot Study” appears in the Journal of Clinical Medicine written by Piotr Pławecki and et. al. (2023, 12, 2694). The article seeks to study the effectiveness of kinesio taping when compared with the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for treating complications after extraction of an impacted lower wisdom tooth. In the article the researchers divided 30 participants into two groups: 15 of the participants had tape applied after wisdom tooth extraction while the other 15 did not. Both groups were told to take 100mg of Ketoprofenum (a NSAID). Patients in the study had a lower impacted wisdom tooth extracted for the following reasons: 1) patients without comorbidities, 2) patients with indications for surgery to remove the impacted lower … Read more

Taskforce says teledentistry can help improve global oral health

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An interesting article titled “Taskforce backs the benefits of teledentistry to improve global oral care outcomes” appears in BDJ In Practice in 2023 (volume 36, page 8). The article discusses how a task force that has conveyed has concluded that teledentistry has the ability to give millions more people than currently accross the world access to dental services. Teledentistry has been covered before on this site see for example the posts Cosmetic Dentistry in the Era of COVID-19 and Delivering Dentistry and Counseling to Patients using Telemedicine. The article discusses how the taskforce feels that teledentistry can help to improve education, dental referrals, early detection of disease, treatment planning and treatment viability. Teledentistry can be particulary helpful in areas where there is limited access to dental professionals. The taskforce understands that heping to preventive dental disease is the best option and dental professionals … Read more

Cinematic rendering to visualize teeth segmentation

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An interesting article titled “Cinematic rendering to improve visualization of supplementary and ectopic teeth using CT datasets” written by Ines Willershausen and et. al. appears in Dentomaxillofacial Radiology in 2023 (no. 51, 20230058). The article discusses cinematic rendering (CR) which is a visualization technique that uses physically based volume rendering to create photorealistic images from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) data. Specifically the article attempts to tailor pre-existing CR reconstruction parameters for use in dental imaging to create 3D visualization of ectopic, impacted, and supplementary teeth. This image is from Ines Willershausen and et. al., “Cinematic rendering to improve visualization of supplementary and ectopic teeth using CT datasets,” Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, 2023, no. 51, 20230058 and has a Creative Commons license. 7-year-old girl with a horizontally impacted canine (a) A panoramic radiograph. (b) Semi-transparent reconstruction parameters are utilized to … Read more

Mental health conditions linked to higher oral disease risk

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An interesting study was presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) that was in conjunction with the 47th Annual Meeting of the CADR in Portland, Oregon on March 17, 2023. The study was conducted by lead author Alex Kalaigian from the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry and was part of a talk on “Examining Mental Health and Oral Health: A Nationally Representative Cohort” in a session titled “Psychological Factors for Oral Health.” The study analyzed self-reported data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study.  The self-reported data had a screener that measured mental health symptoms according to three disorder categorizations: internalizing, externalizing, and substance use and evaulated six oral health outcomes: self-rated oral health, bleeding gums, loose teeth, tooth loss, gum disease, … Read more