Seventeen Year Old Teenager Due for Lung Transplant after Wisdom Teeth Removal

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An unfortunate story appears in KRDO describing a seventeen year old man who had two impacted wisdom teeth extracted in October 2022 in Colorado. Seven days after the procedure the man started coughing up blood and ever since then his health has deteriorated. Prior to the surgery the teenager was in good health regularily lifting weights and playing with his siblings in his home state of Colorado. As reported in March 2023, now the man over four months later is an inpatient at a hospital and struggles to walk from a hospital bed to a bathroom that is five feet away. Two days after he started coughting up blood he went into septic shock where he was placed on a ventilator and moved into the intensive care unit of a hospital. His family is in a constant state of fear … Read more

Cinematic and Volume Rendering of the Facial Skeleton CT can aid Visualization

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An interesting article titled “Three-dimensional perception of cinematic rendering versus conventional volume rendering using CT and CBCT data of the facial skeleton,” written by Tobias Steffen and et al. appears in the April 2022 edition of the Annals of Anatomy (151905). The article sought to explore if three-dimensional cinematic rendering image re-constructions offer advantages over conventional volume rendering to visualize cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and computed tomography (CT) images of the facial skeleton. In the study, ten dentists reviewed 10 different patient cases of CT or CBCT exams of reconstructed cinematic rendering or volume rendering of the orofacial skeleton. The dentists were given a questionnaire to assess objective and subjective criteria of image perception. To assess objective criteria, predefined questions on the visual perception of anatomical image characteristics, were given to the denists. To assess subjective criteria, a visual … Read more

The Relationship Between Bruxism and Vitamin D

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An interesting article titled “Association between bruxism severity and serumconcentrations of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D levels” appears in the 2022 edition of Clinical and Experimental Dental Research written by B. Allaf and M. Abdul-Hak (pp. 1-9). In the article discussion is made of a study that was conducted to investigate the relationship between bruxism, when someone unconsciously clenches or grinds their teeth, and blood levels of 25‐hydroxyvitamin D, commonly known as Vitamin D. Vitamin D is an essenetial vitamin found in foods, like salmon, eggs, and dairy products. Vitamin D can also be obtained from mainly through skin exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Obtaining a low amount of vitamin D has been linked to greater risks of diseses ike cancer and heart diasese and could help prevent gum disease. In the study, 100 patients who had dental treatment peformed at Damascus … Read more

Wisdom teeth could hold regenerative medicine answers

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An interesting article titled “A single-cell atlas of human teeth” written by Pierfrancesco Pagella et al. appears in iScience (vol. 24, no. 102405, May 21, 2021). In the article the researchers analyzed five wisdom teeth that had been extracted to conduct a comprehensive single-cell atlas of the human tooth. The cells studied came from these five wisdom teeth and were extracted by dentists in Zurich. Isolating the cells from these wisdom teeth may have introduced variability between samples and some cells may not have survived the isolation process. Even so, the study found novel insights into how stem cells work which could help answer questions in regenerative medicine. In the study, the researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich used single-cell RNA sequencing to investigate cells present in dental pulp and the periodontium. The researchers compared patterns of … Read more

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs better than opioids for pain after dental extractions

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An interesting article titled “Acute Postoperative Pain Due to Dental Extraction in the Adult Population: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis,” written by A. Miroshnychenko and et. al appears in the 2023 edition of the Journal of Dental Research. The article seeks to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess tto compare the effectiveness of 10 different pharmacological treatments including acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and opioids, to the management of acute pain after dental tooth extractions. Further the article looked at the pain associated with pulpitis or its complications. The authors were motived to conduct the review based on the opioid crisis occuring in North America which has been discussed before on this site, see for example the posts Assessing the Impact of Three Day Opioids Limits for Dentists, Dentists Overprescribing Opioids to Adults in the U.S., and Reducing … Read more