Visualization of Facial Pain Sensory Signaling

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An interesting article titled “Visualization of trigeminal ganglion sensory neuronal signaling regulated by Cdk5,” written by M. Hu and et al. appears in the 2022 editon of Cell Reports (Mar 8, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 110458). The article seeks to explore some of the mechanisms underlying facial pain and used intravital imaging to compare trigeminal neuronal activities after mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimulation. The work was carried out by researchers for the NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Orofacial pain that occurs in the oral and facial region affects 5% to 12% of the U.S. population. This pain can affect daily activities and causes many to seek medications like opioids for releif, but opioids can be addicting. Thus researchers are interested in learning more about how facial nerves process pain signals to help lead to more efficeitn … Read more

Using Artificial Intelligence to Detect Gum Inflammation

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An interesting article titled “Accuracy of Artificial Intelligence-Based Photographic Detection of Gingivitis” appears in the International Dental Journal written by Reinhard Chun Wang Chau and et.al., 2023. The article used artificial intelligence (AI) to provide automated visual plaque control advice based on intraoral photographs. Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that is categorised into gingivitis and periodontitis with reversible and irreversible tissue damages. It is beleived to affect mroe than 50% of the world. Periodontal disease is caused by accumulation of plaque biofilm along the gingival margin, which causes local gingival inflammation. As inflammation occurs at the gingival margin, redness, swelling, and loss of stippling appearance as loss of gingival fiber attachment are observed which are changes detected visually by dentists. The study used a deep learning algorithm named DeepLabv3+ built on Keras with TensorFlow to analyze intraoral photographs … Read more

Man with infected wisdom tooth dies several weeks later

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In early 2021, a man 44 years of age living in Auckland in New Zealand, died a few weeks after being aware of having an infected wisdom tooth. He first complained of having pain in his lower right wisdom tooth on Christmas Eve in 2020. He went to see a doctor about it several times over many days for swelling and pain and was given antibiotics. He was unable to swallow the pills so was given liquid antibiotics instead but nothing seemed to help with the infection. Later the pain and swelling in his face and neck became progressively worse. He went to the hospital on January 4, 2021. While in the hospital he had x-rays taken and was later discharged. The family was shocked to hear that the man was able to get discharged that soon. He was sent … Read more

Periodontal Disease associated with heart attacks

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In the past on this site links between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease have been mentioned, see for example the posts Additional link between cardiovascular and periodontal disease and Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Risk. Periodontal disease is also known as gum disease. Recently, a study appearing in the Journal of the American Dental Association titled “Association between periodontal care and hospitalization with acute myocardial infarction” written by Romesh P. Nalliah and et. al. (April 19, 2022) has shown that those with periodontal disease are at increased risk of ending up in the hospital due to a heart attack. In the study researchers explored periodontal care and heart attack-related hospitalizations and aftercare by analyzing Iinsurance claims data from MarketScan Research Databases, which includes information from hundreds of millions of patients in the U.S. Patients were included if they had been hospitalized in … Read more

Surgery Free Wisdom Tooth Bud Ablation Treatment To One Day Replace Surgery?

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An interesting article titled “Fully Guided Tooth Bud Ablation in Pigs Results in Complete Tooth Bud Removal and Molar Agenesis” appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery written by Leigh E. Colby and David P. Watson, Vol. 81, Issue 4, pp. 456-466, Apr. 2023, Published Dec. 16, 2022. The article seems to be a follow-up to a prior article discussed on this site in the post “Tooth bud abalation of wisdom teeth may be alternative to surgery in the future“. That study had shown that fully guided microwave tooth bud ablation (3TBA) could be used to successfully remove wisdom tooth tooth buds without damaging surrounding tissues in a study with 5 pigs. The most recent study used a 28-day longitudinal characterization study to determine if healing response following fully guided microwave ablation of tooth buds in pigs would result in … Read more