dental caries

Less sleep may increase cavities risk

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An interesting article titled “Association between sleep duration and dental caries in a nationally representative U.S. population” written by Abdullah Alawady and et. al. appears in BMC Oral Health (vol. 23, Article number 497, 2023). The article seeks to establish the relationship between sleep duration and dental caries (cavities). The authors used data from the 2017-2018 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to explore 5,205 patients age 16 and older who completed a dental exam and sleep questionnaire. They performed regression analyses to reveal a statistically significant negative relationship between caries and sleep duration. It was found that those who have an average sleep duration of seven or more hours per night were less likely to have caries compared to people who slept less than seven hours (95% confidence interval 0.33 to 0.82; p < 0.05). Specifically 88.9% (4630/5205) of the … Read more

Is Pediatric Dental Death Avoidable?

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An interesting article titled “Pediatric Dental Anesthesia: An Avoidable Tragedy,” written by Lee et al. appears in the December 2017 edition of Pediatrics (vol. 140, no. 6). In the article the authors present a case of a dental death after anesthesia for early childhood caries and have experts provide commentary. Pediatric dental deaths have been reported in the news over the years with all too much frequency. See the dental deaths page for numerous cases and the original source of the information regarding the case. In the article by Lee the authors say how young children with early childhood caries or cavities are often treated using moderate sedation or general anesthesia. It is estimated that up to 250,000 pediatric sedations for dental treatment occur in the U.S. each year. In these sedations the children are often given benzodiazepines, opioids, nitrous … Read more

Development of new restorative dental materials for cavities

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New research by Salvatore Sauro, who is a professor of dental biomaterials, has shown that new dental biomaterials can help regenerate dental hard tissues. The work occurred at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, in Spain, with collaboration of researchers from other parts of Europe. Bacterial plaque which causes tooth decay due to acids produced by different bacteria species; has led to research for the development of restorative biomaterials. The international group of researchers generated two new dental restorative biomaterials containing bioactive glasses, and explored their effectiveness in reducing the enzymatic auto-degradation of collagen fibres and evoking their remineralization. The researchers set out to evaluate the inhibition of endogenous proteolytic enzymes of dentin and the remineralization induced by two experimental resins containing bioactive glasses. The first resin contains micro-particles of Bioglass 45S5 and the other one contains micro-particles of an experimental bioactive glass enriched with … Read more