teeth

Experts Insist Flossing Does Nothing to Limit Tooth Decay…Could They Be Correct?

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When it comes to orthodontics health and habits, it always seems that someone is telling us what we can and cannot do. Perhaps that is why those studies that make us feel better about not always following the rules makes us feel better. Findings published for the past decade about the effectiveness of flossing on tooth decay has been mixed. Some studies have found that it has no relation to tooth decay while others insist that tooth health is directly related to nothing more than flossing. There seems to be some truth to the scientific findings that the shame we all get by our dental hygienist may not be well founded. Could it be that we need not feel ashamed that flossing is not on our lists of to-dos? The research shows that if you don’t make a daily routine … Read more

Blueberry extract could help treat periodontitis

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In an article by Amel Ben Lagha and et al titled “Wild Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifoliumAit.) Polyphenols TargetFusobacterium nucleatumand the Host Inflammatory Response: Potential Innovative Molecules for Treating Periodontal Diseases,” a discussion is made that blueberry extract could be used for treating gum disease (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2015; 63 (31)). Gum disease occurs when bacteria form biofilms or plaques on teeth and the gums become inflamed. In ore severe cases this condition is called periodontitis and requires antibiotic use. By potentially using blueberry extract instead of antibiotics periodontitis could be treated. When gum disease occurs the gums get red and swollen an can bleed easily. If the condition is not treated periodontitis can occur. In order to treat periodontitis dentists scrape off tartar and use antiobitics. Researchers have been exploring other natural ways to treat gum disease. As … Read more

The History of Dental Pain Management: The Progress That Has Been Made

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This is a guest article by Dr. Justin Clemens. Within the past 30 – 40 years, it has become increasingly popular to sedate patients to have dental work completed. Although this seems like a long time, in the sense of medicine and dentistry, it really isn’t. This is where the true melding point of medicine and dentistry occurred. Let’s take a little trip in time to see where we began in dentistry to help us better understand where we are now in terms of pain management. The most recent of what we would call “modern dentists” were more like “tooth mechanics”. They were simply drill and fill or just yank it out with no numbing at all. This was until the advent of cocaine in the late 1800s. It is from cocaine that we derive all of our synthetic local anesthetics with … Read more

Preserving Research Funding in Dentistry

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An interesting article titled “The vital role of research funding in preserving the oral health of the public and the dental profession,” appears as a guest editorial in the June 2015, issue of JADA and written by Maxine Feinber and et. al. The article discusses how it is critical that investments in dental, oral, and craniofacial research continue in the United States to help improve the nations oral health. The article states “…oral diseases persist on a scale that is poorly understood and wholly unacceptable… 3.9 billion people had oral conditions, with untreated dental caries in permanent teeth the most prevalent disease, affecting 35% of the world’s population….1 in 5 Americans is afflicted with dental caries…” The article says that around 4% of health care spending in the U.S. is for dental services. Even so we know little about oral disease and … Read more

Are Dentists Not Busy Enough?

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An interesting article titled “Solving dentistry’s ‘busyness’ problem” appears in the August 2015 edition of JADA and written by Marko Vujicic. The author states that nationally (U.S.) around 1 in 3 dentists say they are not busy enough. This differs by state and whether or not the dentist accepts Medicaid. The author states that the number of working age adults who have seen a dentist within 12 months has been declining over the past 10 years. In addition, inflation adjusted dental spending has been flat for several years. So the demand for dentistry is declining. The author also states that the number of dentists has increased over the last 10 years. So decreasing demand and increasing supply creates a problem for dentistry. Even so the author feels that dentist utilization by seniors will increase over the coming years and dentist utilization … Read more