dentistry

Traveling Oral Surgeon Performs Wisdom Teeth Extractions and Other Procedures for Those in Need

by

Rural residents in the U.S. are less likely to have access to specialized dental health care treatments. One New York based oral surgeon decided early on in his career to travel to provide oral surgery for those in need. The oral surgeon was inspired to practice medicine since a trip he took to South Africa when he was younger. When he was there he saw packed waiting rooms and numerous patients holding their mouths in need of dentistry. When the oral surgeon started practing he had an idea, why shoud he be limited to one office when he moves around and open up a business and spread himself around. For over eight years the oral surgeon has traveled to parts of Upstate New York and western Connecticut to work out of other dentist’s offices. Using their equipment the oral surgeon … Read more

Over half of patients say dentists fail to screen for health risks

by

An interesting article titled “Patients’ comfort with and receipt of health risk assessments during routine dental visits: Results from the South Atlantic region of the US National Dental Practice-Based Research Network” written by Y. Guo and et. al. appears in the Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiololgy (vol. 00, pp. 1–10, 2022). In the article the authors seek to better determine the comfort level patients have with with health risk assessments (HRAs) and ascertain factors associated with the provision of HRAs. In the article, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study of 30 actively licensed dentists that were recruited out of 469 dentists in the South Atlantic Region of the US National Dental PBRN and recruited 30 patients each seen between January and March 2018. Each patient was asked to complete a questionnaire before and after their dental visit. The pre-questionnaire consisted … Read more

Dentists Find Additional Bacteria Species Involved with Tooth Decay

by

An interesting article titled “Selenomonas sputigena acts as a pathobiont mediating spatial structure and biofilm virulence in early childhood caries,” written by Hunyong Cho and et. al. appears in Nature Communications (vol. 14, no. 1, 2023). The article seeks to study if other bacteria besides Streptococcus mutans are involved with tooth decay and cavities in children, also known as dental caries. Prior to the study it was believed that S. mutans and other acid-making bacteria are adequately removed by teeth-brushing and oral care, and this creates a protective biofilm, or plaque, on teeth. If the plaque is left in place for too long, bacteria consumes sugars from food and drinks and coverts them to acidsm which erode the enamel of affected teeth, in time creating cavities. The article investigated the role of Selenomonas sputigena (S. sputigena) in early cavities in children. S. … Read more

Periodontal Disease associated with heart attacks

by

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

Is Dentistry in an Uphill Battle Against Dr. Google?

by

During the February 2022 Chicago Dental Society Midwinter Meeting Dr. Gregory Psaltis gave an interesting talk titled “Dealing with Dr. Google.” Dr. Psaltis presented how nowadays patients are turning to internet searches to seek information on scientific topics and in particular their dental treatments. Based on what the patients find online this can cause them and their parents to challenge any recommendations. In the talk Psaltis said how parents of young dental patients these days are arriving at dental practices and don’t agree with the recommendations the dentist suggests. He presented four such scenarios including that parent’s do not want x-rays for their child, that parent’s do not want flouride for their child, that parent’s only want tooth-colored crowns—not silver (stainless steel) for their child, and that parent’s only want only fillings for large lesions and never any crowns for … Read more