Looking at the dentition of several million year old skull

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An interesting article titled “Preliminary paleohistological observations of the StW 573 (‘Little Foot’) skull” appears in eLife written by Amélie Beaudet and et al. (March 2, 2021). The article explores initial results an X-ray based imaging investigation of the skull of a 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus specimen which is a prehuman ancestor known as Little Foot. In the study the authors presented initial results of the investigation of the dentition and cranial bones of Little Foot. Little foot was found in a cave in the 1990s in South Africa. It took 15 years to completely remove Little foot from the ground and is regarded as the most complete skeleton of the early hominin lineage leading to humans. The researchers brought Little Foot’s skull from South Africa to the U.K. to scan it with a synchrotron x-ray microcomputed tomography system. The authors were able to, for the … Read more

If you Have Bleeding Gums you May Need More Vitamin C

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An interesting article titled “Bleeding tendency and ascorbic acid requirements: systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials” written by P. P. Hujoel et al., appears in the 2021 edition of Nutrition Reviews (Vol. 79, no. 9, pp. 964–975). The authors sought out to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials on whether ascorbic acid also known as Vitamin C supplementation leads to less bleeding of the gums on gentle probing also described as gingival bleeding tendency and (2) to relate Vitamin C plasma levels to bleeding of the eye known as retinal hemorrhaging. In the study, the authors investigated 15 prior clinical trials in six: India, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and United States, with 1,140 participants with 97.4% of them being healthy, with measures of gingival bleeding tendency. The authors also looked at data from … Read more

Dental Anxiety for Post Traumatic Stress Survivors

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An interesting article titled “Dental anxiety in relation to torture experiences and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder,” written by Høyvik et al. appears in the European Journal of Oral Sciences (vol. 127, pp. 65-71, 2019). The article sought to explore dental anxiety amongst those who have suffered torture experiences and have experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The article describes how in recent years Europe has received an increase in refugees and asylum seekers from countries experiencing war. As a group these refugees and asylum seekers have a high amount of mental health issues which could be due to experiencing stressful events in their life such as torture. The authors state: “Several aspects of the dental visit resemble the torture situation. The patients may feel tied to the dental chair and are literally underneath health personnel in white coats … Read more

COVID-19 Leading to More Orofacial Pain

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An interesting article titled “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Orofacial Pain Practice: Perceptions from a Convenience Sample of Orofacial Pain Practitioners,” appears in the 2022 edition of The Journal of the American Dental Association written by Fernanda Yanez Regonesi and et al. The article sought to explore the impact of COVID-19 in patients impacted by orofacial pain. In the article the authors analyzed voluntary anonymous online survey data from those who participated in a webinar from the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP) on orofacial pain, headaches, and sleep care during COVID-19. The authors used statistic tools to analyze the responses from the AAOP members to questions relating to orofacial pain practices and perceptions about patient symptoms. A total of 111 practitioners completed the survey from the 617 it was sent to. A total of 47 of these … Read more

Patient Stress Impact on Tooth Extraction Complications

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An interesting article titled “The potential role of patient stress in rates of dental post-extraction complication” written by McDowall appears in the 2014 edition of Oral Surgery (vol. 7, pp. 162-167). The article explores whether stress, alcohol and tobacco use impacts the complication rate experienced after a tooth extraction. The authors recruited patients for the study who were at least 16 years old and having at least one tooth extracted. The patients were asked to fill out questionnaires incorporating the Global Measure of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) and questions related to tobacco use. The PSS consists of fourteen questions designed to determine how stressful the persons life is and higher scores indicated greater perceived stress. The FAST consists of four questions designed to determine the frequency too much alcohol consumption and higher scores indicate … Read more