dental treatment

Blood tests to detect dental fear

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An interesting article titled “The impact of dental treatment and age on salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels of patients with varying degrees of dental anxiety” written by AlMaummar, AlThabit and Pani appears in BMC Oral Health in 2019 (19:211). The article discusses the use of blood tests to attempt to determine which children might be more susceptible to dental fear. Dental fear has been discussed before on this site such as in the post Dental Anxiety and Fear: Impact on Oral Health. The study included 151 children who were treated at the dental clinics of King Abdulaziz Medical City and Riyadh Colleges of Dentistry and Pharmacy in Riyadh. Each of the children had behavior screening done using a Frankl behavior rating scale and a Children’s Fear Survey Schedule children’s subscale to assess dental fear. Based on answers to the behavior … Read more

5 Tips to Maximize Your Dental Insurance Coverage

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While it is a somewhat common fear for people, going to the dentist is one of the most important things you can do for your health and well-being. Not getting your teeth cleaned and checked up on frequently can lead to plenty of unsightly, harmful and painful symptoms or issues. Unfortunately, many Americans see a dentist much less frequently than they would like. A big reason for this is cost. Paying for dental visits out of pocket can be expensive. As a result, most people will have some type of dental insurance coverage to save them money on these important visits.  However, simply having coverage isn’t always good enough. In order to truly get the most out of your plan, you need to be sure to maximize your coverage. If you are curious about how you can go about doing … Read more

TeethRemoval.com in the Scientific Literature

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Readers of this blog may sometimes not take the scientific merit of this site very seriously. Even so the site attempts to provide some up to date research on wisdom teeth (also known as third molars), dentistry, and other topics in medicine. In the past years several pages of this site including http://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html and http://www.teethremoval.com/dental_deaths.html have been cited in scientific article publications and posters. I wanted to draw attention to three instances of this occurring. First, an instance of citing the complications page came in an article titled “Time to Remove Your Wisdom Teeth!?” written by Michelle G. Tran from University of California, Davis appearing in the Lent 2013 edition (vol. 18, University of Cambridge) of the Science in Society Review by the Triple Helix, pages 20 to 21. See http://camtriplehelix.com/archive/journal/issue/18.  This is the University of Cambridge site but it appears there are 18 universites that … Read more

Can You Use Nitrous Oxide Inhalation combined with Propofol Sedation for Dental Treatment?

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An interesting article titled “A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial of Conscious Sedation Using Propofol Combined With Inhaled Nitrous Oxide for Dental Treatment” written by Chizuko Yokoe and et al. appears in the 2015 Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery (issue 73, pp. 402-409). The article discusses how propofol is one of the most common sedative agents used during dental procedures. However, when used by itself it can lead to adverse complications in patients. The authors set to explore if you can safely combine nitrous oxide with propofol for dental procedures and also improve the quality of the sedation. A total of 90 patients in Osaka, Japan were used in this study. All patients were between 20 and 70 years of age and were not able to undergo their procedure without the use of sedation. After the patients were seated in … Read more

How to Manage Pain Patients in Dental Practice

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An interesting article appears in J Can Dent Assoc 2012;78:c83 titled “Neuropathic Orofacial Pain Patients in Need of Dental Care,” written by Gary D. Klasser and Henry A. Gremillion. It was posted online on August 17, 2012, over at http://www.jcda.ca/article/c83. The abstract of the article states “Dental pain is a common complaint among the general population. Most pain is a result of traumatic injury or bacterial infection in pulpal and periapical tissues, and dental practitioners are successful at diagnosing these conditions and providing prompt relief. However, in some cases, patients continue to complain of persistent pain, which may be categorized as neuropathic. These people may avoid or neglect routine dental treatment or interventions to prevent precipitation, perpetuation or exacerbation of their pain condition, and practitioners may have to modify their procedures when managing the dental needs of this unique population.” … Read more