dental care

Is the health news you are reading accurate?

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An interesting article titled “Keeping up with the news: Separating fact from fiction,” appears in the Oct. 2015 issue of JADA and written by the American Dental Association (vol. 146, no. 10, pp. 792). The article encourages dental patients to make sure that they know the source they are receiving their news from is trustworthy. The article discusses a few things to look for to make sure this occurs. The article tends to focus on receiving information from websites. If you are looking at a website, the first thing to look for is an about us section. This is because you want to know who is responsible for the article. It is good to know who pays for or sponsors the website. Also if you are looking at a website the domain name can give a hint. If it ends … Read more

Can Graphene Be Used to Treat Gum Disease and Fight Cavities?

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When bacteria invade the mouth dental disease can form. This can lead to tooth decay or gum disease. Traditionally, antibiotics are prescribed to kill the bacteria if it is found. However, antibiotic resistance has been an issue in recent years where the antibiotics no longer work as effectively to kill the bacteria. Thus new methods to eliminate bacteria are need. Scientists have discovered a material called graphene oxide is effective at eliminating this type of bacteria even if it has developed antibiotic resistance.  Previous studies have shown that graphene oxide which are carbon nanosheets studded with oxygen groups, is a promising material in biomedical applications. Graphene oxide can inhibit the growth of some bacterial strains with minimal harm to mammalian cells. Researchers were interested to see if graphene oxide is effective at elminating bacteria responsible for dental disease. They tested … Read more

Looking Forward in The Dental Market

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An interesting article appears in the November 2014 issue of The Journal of the American Dental Society by Marco Vujicic titled “The invisible hand and the market for dental care.” In the article the author opens by discussing Adam Smith’s invisible hand and that it is better than central planning and regulated prices. The author then discusses the supply and demand of dental services from 1993 to 2012. In the article, 3 distinct periods of dental care from 1993 to 2012 are described. The first period was from 1993 to 2002 when dental care was growing steadily at about 4% per year in real terms while the supply of dentists remained constant. In this period dental incomes increased. From 2002 to 2008, dental spending grew at about 2% per year while the supply of dentists remained roughly the same. In this … Read more

Proper Dental Care Can Lead to Less Respiratory Infections in the ICU

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A study appearing in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology suggests that proper dental care can lead to less respiratory infections in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital. The study was conducted by Brazilian researchers who used an observer-blind randomized clinical trial to analyze data from 254 patients who stayed in a ICU for at least 48 hours. The patients were randomized to receive enhanced dental care by a dentist or to receive standard oral hygiene by a nurse. Enhanced dental care included teeth brushing, tongue scraping, atraumatic restorative treatment, removal of calculus, extraction of teeth, and topical application of chlorhexidine 4 to 5 times a week. Regular dental care consisted of mechanical cleansing using gauze which was followed by chlorhexidine 3 times a week. The patients who received enchanced dental care were 56% less likely to develop a respiratory … Read more

Few Children Under 1 See a Dentist

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Unfortunately, new research has shown that few children under the age of 1 are seeing a dentist. This was touched on in an earlier blog post over at https://blog.teethremoval.com/will-health-care-reform-result-in-more-dental-visits/ where it was mentioned that for children between ages 1 and 4 around 60% of them have seen a medical doctor (physician) during the year, but not a dentist. The new research appears in an article titled “Factors Associated With Dental Care Utilization in Early Childhood,” by Denise Darmawikarta and et al. which was published online in Pediatrics in May 2014. The study looked at 2505 children in Toronto, Canada, who were seen for primary health care between September 2011 and January 2013. The study was past of TARGet Kids (The Applied Research Group for Kids), a collaboration between doctors and researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in … Read more