oral health

Tooth Wear and Affect on Quality of Life

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An interesting article titled “Tooth Wear and Oral-Health-Related Quality of Life in Dentate Adults” appears in the Journal of Dentistry written by Mireille Kanaan and et. al. (2022). The article sought to determine the extent to which tooth wear when adjusted for oral health risk indicators, adversely impacts the Oral-Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) for adults. In the study the authors investigated 570 adult patients with complete or near-complete dentition. All patients in the study had at least one bilateral molar occlusal contact and were 18 years or older with a median age of 52. The study participants answered a self-applied questionnaire that consisted of four domains: (1) characteristics of the participants, (2) oral care attendance, (3) oral health conditions and lifestyle, and (4) complaints of OHRQoL. The athors found that 62.8% of the patients in the study had complete … Read more

Six Tips for Dental Professionals to Improve Their Mental Health

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Dental professionals face numerous stressors in their day to day work including reimbursement concerns, practice management issues, financial pressures, paperwork demands, uncooperative patients, physical demands inherent in delivering oral health care, and tightly booked schedules. Dental professionals often have personal characteristics like perfectionism and prioritization of others’ needs that in conjunction with the day to day work stressors can lead to dental professionals vulnerable to distress, burnout, and mental health disorders. This stress endemic is discussed in the article “Anxiety, depression, and the impact on dental health care workers,” written by Maria L. Geisinger and Stacey L. Dershewitz appearing in the Journal of the American Dental Association (vol. 153, no. 8, pp. 734-736, Aug. 01, 2022). The article also discusses how dental professionals can improve identifying and preventing mental health disorders. The authors feel that mental health disorders can have … Read more

Numb chin syndrome: what dentists should know

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An interesting article titled “Numb chin syndrome: What all oral health care professionals should know,” written by Christina Perez and et al. appears in the Journal of the American Dental Association (published May 26, 2022). The article discusses the rare sensory neuropathy of the mental nerve called numb chin syndrome (NCS) and to inform oral health professionals and dentists of the clinical characteristics since they may be the first to encounter it in their patients. In the article the authors found a total of 2,374 studies in PubMed and the Cochrane Library. Based on the authors inclusion and exclusion criteria 102 articles were left. From these 102 articles, 8 studies were observational, 85 were case reports, and nine were letters to the editor. The articles included 288 patients which the authors performed descriptive statistics on. This resulted in numb chin … Read more

Dentists Find Additional Bacteria Species Involved with Tooth Decay

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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

Grant Awarded to Help Improve How Primary Care Doctors Apply Fluoride Varnish on Kids Teeth

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A grant in the amount of $424,000 was awarded for researchers at Kennesaw State University in Georgia to study how flouride varnish is applied to kids teeth. The grant was awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in particular to explore how pediatricians apply fluoride varnish to kids teeth. The grant is for a three year period of time. It is the first NIH grant awarded soley to Kennesaw State. Fluoride varnishis applied to help reduce decay for both primary teeth and permanent teeth and thus can help improve oral health. In the U.S. insurance pays for pediatricians to apply fluoride varnish to young children. Even so it has been reported that only 4% of pediatricians report regularly applying fluoride varnish to the primary teeth of infants and children. Due to affordability issues many children particulary under three years … Read more