Physical activity can help reduce gum disease

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An interesting article titled “Leisure-Time and Occupational Physical Activity Demonstrate Divergent Associations with Periodontitis: A Population-Based Study,” appears in the January 2, 2023, edition of Journal of Clinical Periodontology written by Marruganti Crystal et al. The article discusses how physical activity can help to reduce inflammation, which can potentially decrease the risk of developing periodontitis also known as gum disease. Reducing gum disease has been discussed before on this site, see for example the posts Blueberry extract could help treat periodontitis and Natural Supplements to Improve your Periodontal Health. In the article the authors examine data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2014 database. They retrieved data from 10,679 adults and assessed physical activity from the Global Physical Activity questionnaire which classified activity as either high or low leisure-time or occupational activity. A full-mouth periodontal examination was … Read more

Antibiotic resistance: what should dentists know

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An interesting article titled “Antibiotic resistance: The silent pandemia” appears in the International Dental Journal on January 12 2023 written by Angel-Orión Salgad Peralvo and et. al. The article discusses a call to action for dentists worldwide to cut back on their antibiotic prescribing habits arguing that 66% of antiobitics prescibed is not warranted. In the article the authors mention that dentists prescribe 10% of all antibiotics in the world. However, the way they see it, antibiotics being overly prescribed can contribute to the worldwide development of antimicrobial resistance. Antibitoics are used in dentistry for preventive purposes and to avoid systemic bacteraemia in patients at risk or to prevent possible bacterial contamination during surgery. Yet the resistance problem increases medical costs and increases mortality. Therefore they feel that dentists should change the way they prescribe antiobitics as the resistance problem … Read more

Detecting Lou Gehrig’s Disease Markers in Teeth

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An interesting article titled “Early life metal dysregulation in amyotrophic lateralsclerosis” appears in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology written by Claudia Figueroa-Romero and et al. (pp. 872-882, 2020). The article seeks to explore if metal uptake is dysregulated during childhood in people later eventually diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a disease that leads to paralysis and early death that is characterized by motor neuron degeneration and this causes the brain to lose its ability to initiate and control muscle movement. The majority of cases of ALS have no known cause but both genetic and environmental factors are suspected. In the article the researchers discuss how they collected permanent teeth from patients who had teeth extracted or who had died and were obtained at autopsy. The data included teeth from … Read more

Articaine versus Bupivacaine Anesthetic Effectiveness for Lower Teeth Extraction

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An interesting article titled “A Comparative Evaluation of Anesthetic Effectiveness of 4% Articaine vs 0.5% Bupivacaine for Lower Molar Tooth Extraction” appears in Cureus in December 16, 2022, written by Tenglikar P, Manas A, Sahoo A, et al. (vol. 14, no. 12, pp. e32611). The article discusses the differences in the effectiveness of two common local anesthesia agents used in dentistry to control pain. The authors set out to explore the the effectiveness of 0.5% bupivacaine with 4% articaine in lower tooth extraction based on duration of anesthesia, onset, and pain perception along with observing blood pressure and heart rate. Today lidocaine (lignocaine) is extensively used as a local anesthestic agent in dentistry to control pain. Other anesthestic agents exists including bupivacaine and articaine. The authors conducted a randomized controlled study of patients having lower teeth extracted from June 2017 to October … Read more

Healthy Mitochondria Could Prevent Alzheimer’s disease Progression

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Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found rendering mitochondria resistant to damage can stop Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases caused by amyloid toxicity. Alzheimer’s disease leads to dementia and is becoming more and more of a burden on healthcare systems. The disease is believed to be caused by an accumulation of toxic plaques in the brain and an abnormal aggregation of a beta-amyloid inside neurons. Previous research has looked into treatment for Alzheimer’s disease by reducing the formation of amyloid plaques.  These results were not very promising and now researchers are looking for other treatment strategies such as considering Alzheimer’s disease as a metabolic disease. The researchers looked at mitochondria, which are energy-producing powerhouses of cells, and important in metabolism. The researchers found that by boosting mitochondria defenses against a particular form of protein stress a reduction … Read more