teeth

Illinois Man Dies From Too Much Anesthesia While Having Teeth Extracted

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A 51 year old man from Illinois died after having five teeth extacted in July 2021. He had has teeth extracted by an oral surgeon in Lake County which is North of Chicago. During the procedure he was given as given a single dose of 200 milligrams propofol. There was no anesthesiologist present and the oral surgeon was the one also administrating the anesthesia. During the tooth extractions, the man stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. Emergency responders were called and when they arrived took the man to a hospital where he died the next day. According to statements from the Lake County Coroner there was too high of a dose of propofol given and this dose would cause a person to not breathe. Further, the oral surgeon did not supply supplemental oxygen until the tooth extractions were already … Read more

Does a Parasite in the Mouth Contribute to Periodontitis?

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An interesting article titled “Entamoeba gingivalis Causes Oral Inflammation and Tissue Destruction,” appears in the Journal of Dental Research written by X. Bao and et al. (vol. 99, no. 5, pp. 561–567, 2020). The article seeks to explore the protozoan Entamoeba gingivalis (E. gingivalis) in inflamed periodontal pockets. In the article, the authors sought to validate the frequency of the Entamoeba gingivalis by analyzing the gums of 158 people with periodontitis and healthy controls using polymerase chain reaction and microscopy tests. A total of 107 of the people in the study were healthy controls while 51 had periodontitis. For those healthy control patients, E. gingivalis was detected in oral cavities in 15% of these patients. For those with periodontitis, E. gingivalis was detected in 77% of inflamed periodontal sites and 22% of healthy sites. The authors state “In conjunction with abundant … Read more

Panoramic X-Ray Showing Tooth Inside Chin Lights up Internet

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A man posted an image of a panoramic x-ray of his mouth in the midlyinteresting channel on Reddit and this caused the internet to light up. The Reddit user u/super9mega posted the x-ray with the caption “There’s a tooth in my chin.” Reddit users were quite amazed and the post has racked up over 50,000 upvoes and over 2,000 comments. The user explained that the tooth is not causing him any discomfort and he was not aware that it even was present prior to the x-ray he received by his dentist. It seems the consensus by the man’s dentist and also those commenting is that it would do more harm than good to attempt to remove the tooth. With wisdom teeth it is somewhat common to see completely horizontal wisdom teeth that do not erupt. Embedded teeth like this tooth … 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

Could a Medication One Day Be Given Instead of Braces to Control Tooth Movement?

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Recent research from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) showed that osteocytes have a crucial role in orthodontic tooth movement as the major source of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-Β ligand (RANKL) which is a protein critical to bone remodeling. It is  known that the differentiation of osteoclasts is regulated by RANKL. However, the source of RANKL in the periodontal tissue during orthodontic tooth movement was not previously identified. Now thanks to the research team it is know that osteocytes mainly express RANKL and play a key role in the remodeling of  bone surrounding teeth during orthodontic tooth movement. To explore this issue, the researchers used an orthodontic tooth movement model in which open coil springs were inserted between teeth of mice to move first molars. They then injected a neutralizing antibody against RANKL intended to reduce tooth movement. The … Read more