children

The Image Gently Campaign in Dentistry

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If you keep abreast at all with radiation exposure from medical imaging, you may have heard of the Image Wisely campaign. The Imagely Wisely Campaign was designed to have people aware of the fact that certain medical imaging tests such as CT exams are sometimes over used and do not have to be used in certain instances. The goal is to reduce radiation exposure to patients while still providing good medical care, see http://www.imagewisely.org/. The Image Gently campaign is designed to provide information to parents and others to help reduce exposure to radiation for children, see http://imagegently.org/, and has been around since 2007. The campaign is supported by the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging, which is a coalition of healthcare organizations dedicated to providing safe and high-quality pediatric imaging. Recently, it has been announced that a new Image Gently campaign in dentistry … Read more

The Immune System in Critically Ill Children with Influenza

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An interesting article discussed the results of a study looking at the immune system in critically ill children. The article describes a study published in early 2013 in the January issue of Critical Care Medicine. Recent evidence indicates that the suppression of innate immune system function can occur in critically ill patients. In this study patients with innate immune suppression produced reduced amounts of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α  when their blood is stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The article states “Results indicated that despite high levels of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, critically ill children with influenza demonstrated lower TNFα production capacity compared with healthy control subjects. Further, children who died from influenza had markedly lower TNFα production capacity compared with survivors.” Hence this study suggests that the reduction of immune function in these children who are critically ill may make them more prone … Read more

The Misbehaving Tooth Fairy

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In the article “The tooth fairy and malpractice” by Sian Ludman, Hamid Daya, Polly S Richards, and Adam Fox, in BMJ Christmas 2012, 345, e3027, a very interesting discussion is made of the tooth fairy. The article states “We are concerned that the actions of the mythical character at the root of this report must be brought to the attention of the medical community, as it seems to represent the first signs of a worrying new trend in malpractice.” The tooth fairy is widely considered to be benevolent but the authors present a disturbing report. A discussion is made of an 8 year old who presented with a foreign body in the left external auditory meatus (which showed up on a CT scan). The image is in the report. The parents of the boy discussed how three years earlier the … Read more

Migraine in Children Can Lead to Reduced Performance in School

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In an article titled “Migraine and migraine subtypes in preadolescent children Association with school performance,” appearing in Neurology in 2012 by Marco A. Arruda and Marcelo E. Bigal, a discussion is made that children with migraine may have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches. The study looked at 5,671 children ages 5 to 12 from Brazil and found that those with migraine were 30% more likely to have below average school performance than those children with no headaches. The researchers collected information from the student’s teachers on their performance and also completed a questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems. Further, the researchers interviewed parents of the students from medical history and other potential useful information. Of the 5,671 children around 0.6% had chronic migraine occurring 15 or more days per month and 9% had … Read more

Food, Children, and Diet

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I became aware of Dr. McDougall through finding his newsletter in a Google Search where he discussed how to protect yourself from abusive doctors. See https://blog.teethremoval.com/how-to-protect-yourself-from-abusive-doctors/ I also wanted to highlight some of the other articles and discussions that Dr. McDougall writes about. He is a practicing doctor in Florida and in April 2012, wrote a letter to governor Rick Scott of Florida regarding child abuse http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl/apr/abuse.htm. In the article he states “In compliance with Florida state law, I am filing this report about widespread child abuse caused by various food industries working directly with branches of US government. These food organizations are actively involved in acts of commission and omission that result in harm, potential for harm, and/or the threat of harm to children. The health consequences of their various business activities amount to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse … Read more