wisdom tooth

Sports and Energy Drinks Can Cause Permanent Tooth Damage

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I have previously written about how sports and energy drinks can cause tooth erosion see https://blog.teethremoval.com/energy-drinks-cause-tooth-erosion/. Studies have shown that 30% to 50% of U.S. teens are consuming energy drinks, and up to 62% are consuming at least one sports drink per day. A study published in the May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry, the journal of the Academy of General Dentistry, found that an alarming increase in the consumption of sports and energy drinks, especially among adolescents, is causing irreversible damage to teeth — specifically, the high acidity levels in the drinks erode tooth enamel, the glossy outer layer of the tooth. Poonam Jain, BDS, MS, MPH, lead author of the study says “Young adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their sports performance and energy levels and that they are ‘better’ for them than soda. Most … Read more

Coconut Oil May Help with Tooth Decay

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Coconut oil may be able to attack the bacteria that causes tooth decay. A team from the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland tested the antibacterial action of coconut oil in its natural state and coconut oil that had been treated with enzymes. The oils were tested against strains of Streptococcus bacteria which are common inhabitants of the mouth. They found that enzyme-modified coconut oil strongly inhibited the growth of most strains of Streptococcus bacteria including Streptococcus mutans — an acid-producing bacterium that is know to be a major cause of tooth decay. In the future the researchers plan to examine how coconut oil interacts with Streptococcus bacteria at the molecular level and which other strains of harmful bacteria and yeasts it is active against. The team also showed that the enzyme-modified coconut oil was harmful to the yeast Candida … Read more

Some New Wisdom Teeth and Dental Information Websites

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Recently I have come across a few new websites in the dental space and wisdom teeth space on the internet. Update as of June 2019 both of these websites are dead and no longer exist. 1) One of these websites is http://www.teethcenter.com. This site says  “TeethCenter is an organization committed to providing consumers and dentists with an online resource for dental related and news and information. There are many “health” sites on the web, but, not a prominent site dedicated to dental news and information.” The website looks quite nice but it’s articles in terms of quality are the typical. For example, on the page “Should I Have my Wisdom Teeth Pulled,” discussion is made of some reasons for and against wisdom teeth removal but not statistics/data to help aid the reader is presented.  I have provided a lot of … Read more

Reads like a Dentist’s Advertisement

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I periodically like to check out the wisdom tooth page over on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_tooth Recently I came across the talk page which has an interesting comment near the bottom written on September 3, 2012, “There is very little discussion of how common it is to have wisdom teeth, and how often wisdom teeth pose no problems if left alone. Nor is there adequate discussion of how often extraction is necessary when they do pose problems. Some lip service is paid to it in the “controversy” ghetto, but in the end the discussion of the “controversy” is equivocating and unclear. As a whole, the article conjured up the image of an eager, pushy dentist insisting that, “Yeah, buddy, wisdom teeth are a huge problem! It may not seem like it, but it’s bad – trust me, I know these things – … Read more

Rogue Dentist’s Crusade

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An interesting article appears recently over on Yahoo by Liz Goodwin, December 3, 2012, titled “Rouge dentist’s 30-year crusade against wisdom teeth removal extracts results,” located over at http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/rogue-dentist-30-crusade-against-wisdom-teeth-removal-105243007.html. The article discusses 86 year old (retired) dentist and public health advocate Jay Friedman. I have talked about Dr. Friedman before such as on this post https://blog.teethremoval.com/american-journal-of-public-health-author-jay-w-friedman-is-2009-author-of-the-year/. The article on Yahoo states “Friedman has argued for more than 30 years that removing a young person’s healthy wisdom teeth — called “third molars” by professionals — is an unnecessary and irresponsible practice. …Many dentists and oral surgeons have dismissed him as a traitor and a zealot…” The article discusses how oral surgeons have been angered by Dr. Friedman and have questioned his qualifications. Some say he is biased against wisdom teeth extractions because his aim is to save the insurance industry money. … Read more