Activated Charcoal is everywhere these days, even in toothpaste

If you listen to bloggers and other influencers on the internet, they’ll tell you that activated charcoal is said to be a good natural alternative to peroxide for whitening the teeth. The black powder is thought to absorb and remove stains caused by foods like red wine, coffee and tea.

But does it work?

The buzzy ingredient, which is typically made from either bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, coal, olive pits or sawdust, according to Healthline, is known for its abilities to absorb dirt and impurities. It’s kind of like a magnet that attracts toxins, which is why it’s used in water filtration systems and to treat drug overdoses and food poisoning. So that would also work for your teeth, right?

Well, not so fast. We talked to dentists to see what they thought about it, and they’re not convinced.

What to consider before you try charcoal toothpaste

“Activated charcoal can have many health benefits due to its ability to remove harmful toxins from the body,” Dr. Nicole Khalife, a New York-based dentist, told HuffPost via email. But she added that individuals should consider a few things before they try using charcoal to whiten their teeth.

First, she said, if you do use it, you should make sure the powder is extra fine, so it’s not too harsh on your teeth. Second, you should definitely not use it daily. She recommended once a month, if you must, because of its abrasiveness.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she advised that everyone speak to their dentist prior to using any activated charcoal products, as “everyone’s mouth is different, so instructions should be tailored for each patient.”

The potential negative effects

Dr. Timothy Chase, cosmetic dentist and practicing partner at SmilesNY, told HuffPost that using activated charcoal to whiten your teeth can potentially cause more harm than good. Chase said that while he understands people love to try new fads and trends, he likes to advise his patients “to use what’s been proven to work.”

“There has not been a single study done that shows that using charcoal products for oral health care does anything good for your teeth at all,” he said.

Both Chase and Khalife agreed that the abrasiveness of the charcoal can actually have the reverse effect on people’s teeth.

“If activated charcoal is used too often or incorrectly, the enamel can erode,” Khalife said, with Chase noting that “once you remove enamel, it doesn’t come back.”

Chase also said that while using something abrasive like charcoal to scrub surface stains away may make teeth look whiter in the short term, they may eventually look yellower “because you’re thinning that enamel and showing more of the inner dentin, which is darker.”

The potentially harmful effects of activated charcoal don’t stop at the enamel. Chase and Khalife explained that a loss of enamel can lead to increased sensitivity and increased susceptibility to dental decay.

Charcoal toothpaste hasn’t been given a thumbs up by the American Dental Association

If that’s not enough to make you wary about scrubbing your teeth with activated charcoal, it’s important to note that the American Dental Association hasn’t given charcoal its Seal of Acceptance.

Last year, an article in the Journal of the American Dental Association concluded that there’s “insufficient clinical and laboratory data to substantiate the safety and efficacy claims of charcoal and charcoal-based dentifrices.” The article also stated that more studies need to be done to prove whether charcoal is really safe for oral care.

Chase said he advises patients looking for whiter teeth to “use a non-whitening basic fluoride toothpaste, like a Crest Cavity Protection, and then use something as simple as Whitestrips, if they want to do it on a budget, or go to their dentist and have home trays made to use bleaching material, or have in-office whitening done.”

Chase said that peroxide-based whitening products (like white strips and dentist-provided products) have “been proven to work really well, to be relatively inexpensive and to be very safe. There’s been long-term studies done with peroxide, and we know it’s safe and we know that it works.”

“The best way to remove deep-seated yellowing of the teeth is with professional whitening,” Khalife said, explaining that in-office whitening usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half and provides immediate results, while at-home whitening is usually done over a period of one or two weeks.

“Personally, I prefer custom whitening trays due to less sensitivity afterwards,” she said.

When it comes to trying out fads, whether it be activated charcoal or even rubbing strawberries on your teeth, Chase admitted it’s great that people want to learn about ways to take care of their teeth, but advised that they might not work, or worse, might damage the structure of your teeth.

“My feeling is to use the simplest ingredient that does what you want it to do. Fluoride toothpaste does what we want it to do. It cleans the teeth, it doesn’t have a number of different additives,” he said.

As for non-charcoal whitening toothpastes, Chase said while they generally work because they’re somewhat abrasive (like charcoal), the product probably isn’t in contact with teeth long enough for the active ingredient to do anything drastic.

If you are looking to whiten your teeth, the best thing to do is talk to your dentist about the best method for you. And when you’re looking for products to take care of your mouth at home, Chase advised looking for the ADA Seal of Acceptance.

“I think that stamp of approval means something,” he said.

The human oral cavity is colonised by a huge variety of bacteria. When surgical procedures such as a tooth extraction are carried out, the bacteria can pass into the bloodstream causing bacteraemia that is generally transient. What is not yet clear is how significant this presence of bacteria in the blood is in terms of the origin and evolution of infectious processes such as endocarditis of the heart valves, prosthetic valves, hip and knee joint replacements generally, and in local infection.

Numerous studies have shown that a mouthwash containing chlorhexidine has a powerful antimicrobial effect on saliva microflora and bacterial plaque. "On the basis of this hypothesis we can assume that antimicrobial mouthwashes used before the dental procedure should reduce the number of micro-organisms that pass into the patient's bloodstream, yet this is a hotly debated issue," said the members of the UPV/EHU's research group.

In 1997 the American Heart Association (AHA) suggested that patients at risk of infectious endocarditis should use an antimicrobial mouthwash before a dental procedure. In 2006, the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) recommended a single mouthwash with 0.2% chlorhexidine (CHX) (10 ml for 1 minute) before the carrying out of dental procedures associated with bacteraemia in patients at risk. Yet in 2007 the AHA recommended against adopting any antiseptic prophylaxis protocol.

In an effort to shed scientific light on this issue, the UPV/EHU research group comprising Iciar Arteagoitia, Carlos Rodriguez-Andrés and Eva Ramos decided to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of random controlled trials (RCT), following the PRISMA Statement. The aim was to assess the effectiveness of chlorhexidine in preventing bacteraemia following a tooth extraction. The research was conducted in collaboration with the UPV/EHU's Department of Epidemiology and was published in Plos One.

In the study that included 8 clinical trials with 523 patients there were 267 in the group treated with chlorhexidine, in which 145 cases of bacteraemia were recorded, and 256 in the control group, in which there were 156 cases of bacteraemia. The results of the research therefore indicate that the percentage of cases of bacteraemia that can be prevented if a population undergoes chlorhexidine-based prevention is 12%. The NNT, the number of patients that need to be treated to prevent bacteraemia, is 16.

The results point to the relative and not particularly significant effectiveness of the use of chlorhexidine when it comes to preventing the bacteria present in the mouth from passing into the bloodstream when dental extraction is carried out. "Yet, given its low cost and the absence of adverse reactions and complications, we would recommend a mouthwash with chlorhexidine before a procedure of this type is carried out," concluded the UPV/EHU's research group.

A Neanderthal who lived 130,000 years ago appears to have carried out some “prehistoric dentistry” in an attempt to deal with an impacted tooth, researchers have said.

Teeth found at a site in Krapina, Croatia, at the start of the last century were re-examined by scientists and found to have a number of grooves, scratches and chips.

While it is possible there is another explanation, the scientists, from the US and Croatia, said they appeared to be evidence of attempts to use a toothpick to deal with the impacted tooth and the misalignment of another one.

If true, this would add to the growing body of evidence that Neanderthals were significantly more intelligent than previously believed.

Recent research found evidence that suggested they used natural forms of penicillin and aspirin as medicine.

The Krapina Neanderthals have previously been found to have created jewellery out of eagle talons, in another sign that they were more sophisticated than generally given credit for.

Professor David Frayer, of Kansas University, said the marks on the teeth suggested the individual was in some pain and was trying to do something about it.

“As a package, this fits together as a dental problem that the Neanderthal was having and was trying to presumably treat itself, with the toothpick grooves, the breaks and also with the scratches on the premolar,” he said.

“It was an interesting connection or collection of phenomena that fit together in a way that we would expect a modern human to do.

“Everybody has had dental pain, and they know what it’s like to have a problem with an impacted tooth.

“The scratches indicate this individual was pushing something into his or her mouth to get at that twisted premolar.

"It's maybe not surprising that a Neanderthal did this, but as far as I know, there's no specimen that combines all of this together into a pattern that would indicate he or she was trying to presumably self-treat this eruption problem.”

It is thought the marks could have been made by bones or stiff grass stems.

The researchers said it was unclear whether the Neanderthal was doing something unusual or if such attempts at dentistry were widespread.

There is evidence that dentistry was ‘invented’ much, much earlier in human history.

The oldest toothpick grooves discovered so far date from an earlier human species, Homo habilis, some 1.8 million years ago.

The research was described in a paper in the Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology.

Some Australians have reported waiting three years to have wisdom teeth removed that have long been causing them pain, with lengthy delays being faced in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.

One Victorian woman said she had waited three years for an "emergency appointment" to have her wisdom teeth and the molars next to them removed because they were cracking under pressure.

She now plans to fly to Queensland for treatment.

But in the sunshine state the issue is just as bad, with many people in regional towns struggling to see a free dentist.

Hervey Bay man Marc Facer has made an official complaint to Queensland Health because of his repeated attempts to get emergency care.

"I have been suffering from an extremely loose tooth which rocks sideways - which also has a chronic infection - and then I can't chew as it's higher than the rest of my teeth and I can't eat," his complaint said.

"I do not have many teeth left so it's not really a case of chew on the other side, and I am still waiting for dentures after three years."

Mr Facer said every time he went to the local clinic with an infection he was given antibiotics and told to go home.

He claims he was eventually told that if he wanted treatment he would have to have an inspection and if his mouth was not visibly swollen enough he would be rejected, otherwise he would have to wait six to eight weeks.

Vouchers are usually provided so patients can see a private dentist for free but the patient Mr Facer claims he was told the Hervey Bay clinic had been out of them for six months.

"My tooth is that loose that I think that I could rip it out myself," he said.

"I cannot stay on antibiotics and pain meds for eight weeks."

He said in 10 years he had never had any repairs done, just teeth removed.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said currently the longest wait at the Hervey Bay Oral Health Centre for a general dental appointment was 2.5 years, while the longest wait for emergency treatment was two months.

With the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service completing 254,706 sets of oral health work in just under a year, they said this was already 44,993 over the number that the service funded.

"Oral health teams across the state work extremely hard to ensure patients receive treatment within the recommended waiting times," the spokeswoman said.

"Although we have seen an increase in the waiting times for public dental care, the majority of patients on the general dental waiting list are being seen within the clinically recommended time frame of two years."

Increased wait times have been due to demand for services, an ageing population and population growth, but Queensland Health said the most significant issue was a reduction in federal funding.

The current National Partnership Agreement on Public Dental Services for Adults represents an $8.7 million reduction, or about 30 per cent in annual funding for Queensland in 2017-18, compared to the 2015-16 financial year.

In New South Wales one mum reported waiting 10 months for her children to be seen.

Another woman said she waiting more than four years for her wisdom teeth impacting a jaw nerve, with a further two years to get it removed.

"As they opened it up it literally shattered in my mouth," she said.

In Victoria the Labor government is also trying to slash dental waiting lists they say have swelled because of federal funding cuts, also about 30 per cent.

Last month the state's Minister for Health Jill Hennessy announced $12.1 million in funding to cut wait times.

They expect more than 18,300 people currently on a waiting list will be treated by the end of June.

Waiting lists have ballooned out to more than 19 months for general care and 17 months for denture care, with patients with urgent needs fast-tracked to the front of the queue, and more than 140,000 people waiting overall.

CANBERRA, Australia: For Australians, private health insurance is a privilege. Now, further market consolidation in the private health insurance industry, flowing on from the planned A$4 billion merger plan between HBF and HCF, may result in less value for money for current policyholders.

In response to the news of the consolidation between Western Australia’s largest not-for-profit health fund with its east coast counterpart, the Australian Dental Association (ADA) said the merger will not materially benefit the consumer regardless of whether or not market consolidation occurs from for-profit or not-for-profit insurers.

“There is little evidence that consumers are getting adequate value for money when it comes to their private health insurance, yet taxpayers’ funds are underwriting the industry to the sum of A$6 billion per annum in the form of the private health insurance rebate,” said ADA President Dr Hugo Sachs.

According to the health expenditure reports released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, even with the industry subsidy provided by the Australian government, individuals are paying more out of pocket for dental health each year, to the amount of almost 60 per cent annually. Additionally, the overall contribution by private health insurers to dental services has only increased from 14 to 18 per cent.

In addition to paying more, the latest report by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on private health insurers’ membership and benefits shows that, for the December 2017 quarter, benefits only paid for 46 per cent of the cost of policyholders’ dental treatment. The rest had to be paid out of pocket.

According to the report, dental benefits, which represent around 53 per cent of all rebates paid under general treatment or “extras” policies, have only just returned to 2015 levels. Data from the APRA shows that the average rebate paid per dental service in 2015 was A$65. In 2016, it dropped by 3.1 per cent to A$63—however, according to the latest APRA report, this recently returned to A$65 per dental service.

More than 100 children are having multiple rotting teeth extracted, filled and capped under general anaesthetic each week, the latest NSW hospitalisation data shows.

Tooth decay and other preventable dental problems landed 16,700 NSW adults and children in hospital in 2015-16.

"It's absolutely a crisis when you also consider the amount of suffering, the amount of time parents have to take off work, and the cost to the government and to the parents," said paediatric dentist Dr Sarah Raphael from the Australian Dental Association NSW.

Dentists say some of the biggest culprits are highly processed, sugary foods and drinks, and as families gear up for the new school year, they are urging them to cut the empty calories.

A Fairfax Media analysis found that in extreme cases a school lunch box consisting of five basic items can easily contain more than 160 grams of sugar, or 40 teaspoons.

Australian adults and children should consume no more than 51 grams in free sugars a day, according to World Health Organisation guidelines, and halving this amount can lead to extra health benefits.

The term "free sugars" extends the definition of added sugars to include sugars naturally present in honey, fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates.

Dr Raphael said apart from obesity and weight-related health problems such as type 2 diabetes, consuming too much sugar was linked to tooth decay because the bacteria that breaks down food and drinks in the mouth produced acids that erode the tooth enamel.

She said parents should be extra wary of sweet sticky food that can get stuck in the grooves of the teeth and always provide water so that sugars and acids can be washed away.

"We're seeing kids from 18 months with decay and the peak age range for paediatric dentists treating children under general anaesthetic because of decay would be three to six years of age," she said.

"Decay affects the way children smile, socialise, eat and even speak properly, and these kids are going to form speech patterns that are more awkward."

About one-third of NSW children aged five to 10 have decay in their baby teeth and one-fifth of children aged six to 14 have decay in their permanent teeth, the National Child Oral Health Study 2012-14 found.

More than 5500 children aged up to 14 were hospitalised for tooth decay-related operations in 2015-16, up 48 per cent on the figure a decade and a half ago, NSW Health statistics reveal.

This will lead to extremely dangerous habits that could lead to gum disease and rotten teeth, ending up costing you thousands more than current affordable dental care would have to fix it.

The dangers of tartar, cavities and plaque

Many people don’t realise that even though they may brush their teeth consistently and well, there are lots of areas between and around the teeth which are impossible to reach or clean with regular brushing.

If you don’t seek out professional dental care, these unreachable areas will accumulate plaque that will soon solidify into tartar which will make it harder to brush your teeth and even damage the gums due to bacteria!

The erosion from tartar will also eventually lead to cavities forming which create holes in your eroding teeth. Once damaged, this will be permanent and the only solution is for a professional to fill the inside of the cavity.

These three dangers of tartar, cavities and plaque can all be easily avoided with regular and affordable dental care, which is much cheaper than having to remove tartar and fill cavities.

Don’t wait until gum disease

It’s not uncommon that when plaque and tartar do build inside the mouth, they will also damage the mouth’s gum tissue. The tartar will attack the gum with an infection that will eventually break down the tissue that holds the teeth and gum in place.

Symptoms of this will include bleeding, extreme soreness and swelling. This eventually leads to deterioration of the bone holding the tooth in place until the teeth loosens and falls out.

Treatment for gum disease requires numerous cleanings, medications and frequent surgery. None of this is cheap and will deal extreme financial blows to your savings.

Regular dental care will be able to identify these symptoms before the disease even impacts on oral health, keeping you safe mentally, physically and financially.

Dental care includes X-rays

Affordable dental care will include x-rays in many of the regular check-ups and scan your teeth and jaw bone. This is one of the most important parts of check-ups, because damage or diseases attacking these bones can’t be seen by the human eye! Only x-rays can accurately and safely identify any major oral health issues that could be detrimental.

How often should you go?

Affordable dental care is commonplace these days, and even without it, regular check-ups should be a top priority for you. Although it is up to you how many times you’d like to go, it is highly recommended by all dentists that you at least get a check-up every 6 months.

These regular check-ups are critical to your oral health as dentists will work to keep your gums and teeth as possibly clean as they can. At the same time, going every 6 months will establish a healthy habit for your oral health as well.

In the U.S., 47 percent of adults aged 30 and older have periodontitis, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The current treatment for periodontitis entails controlling the growth of gingival tissue to allow the bone to regenerate. To do this, a membrane is placed to prevent the gingival tissue from growing where the bone should.

The problem with these membranes, according to Dr. Ali Tamayol, is that they do not act as barriers as intended. He believes that nanoparticle fibers would solve this problem, because they are difficult to penetrate. Therefore, Tamayol proposed the idea of using nanoparticle engineering for these membranes to Dr. Alireza Moshaverinia—a board-certified prosthodontist at UCLA who conducted the experiments for this research—because he said it would help the barriers prevent gingival ingrowth until the bone has regenerated.

The researchers decided to use zinc oxide as a component in the membrane, because it would prevent bacteria growth and aid bone regeneration. However, finding the right concentration of zinc oxide to use proved to be an issue, since using too much or too little could cause further problems, such as inflammation.

“We need to find the correct concentration to ensure it’s not having any adverse effect, but it’s also helping,” Tamayol said. He has subsequently put the research on the membrane on hold for the moment. Tamayol and his team will continue the research in January in a laboratory that is opening its doors on the second floor of Scott Engineering Center. The team hopes to receive a grant to support its research so that it can continue to develop the membrane to potentially use it on humans in the near future.

Tamayol and his team have published two papers based on this research. One of these papers, titled “A multifunctional polymeric Periodontal Membrane with Osteogenic and Antibacterial Characteristics,” was published in the Advanced Functional Materials journal on November 10.

A behaviourally driven bacterial disease, dental caries is one of the most prevalent primarily preventable conditions in the world. Even in developed countries with water fluoridation and ready access to fluoridated toothpaste, a large proportion of children still have experience of advanced dental caries. In the past 50 years, the prevention of dental caries has focused mainly on the delivery of fluoride, whether it be via reticulated water, toothpaste or professionally delivered products, such as varnishes and gels.

A sound knowledge of the causative factors of dental caries, however, is important in the process of developing a holistic preventative programme for the individual. Demineralisation occurs when the fluid at the surface of the tooth becomes under saturated with respect to tooth mineral. This is normally due to a decrease in pH below the often-stated critical pH of around 5.6. The critical pH is not a constant, but relates to the amount of calcium and phosphate present, as well as the pH. The microbiome of the dental biofilm develops after birth, and is influenced significantly by the ingestion of fermentable carbohydrates, especially sucrose and fructose. The production of organic acids from the metabolism of sugars decreases the pH in the biofilm, creating an amphibiotic change to an aciduric and acidogenic microbiota, also known as Marsh’s ecological shift. Dietary change to infrequent ingestion of sugary foods and drinks therefore is the first step in prevention of dental caries.

In addition to dietary control, fluoride is still considered the gold standard for caries prevention. However, the action of fluoride, especially for remineralisation, is limited by the concentration of bioavailable calcium and phosphate in the local environment (biofilm fluid). Remineralisation is only possible in the presence of bioavailable calcium and phosphate, with the intrinsic source being saliva, a limited resource. Recently, several products containing calcium and phosphate have been developed and are available commercially.

While a number of claims of efficacy have been made, the evidence for many is still limited. For example, casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) is a milk-derived product that utilises a peptide to stabilise calcium and phosphate in a bioavailable state—reacting to acidity and saturation with respect to tooth mineral. Incorporation of CPP-ACP into products such as a topical crème can provide high concentrations of calcium and phosphate ions that can diffuse into demineralised tooth structure down a concentration gradient. This remineralisation is enhanced by the presence of fluoride ions.

The inhibition of demineralisation and subsequent remineralisation of early carious lesions (white spot lesions) is sometimes considered unlikely owing to an inability of the patient to reduce risk factors, such as a sugary diet, poor oral hygiene habits, including interdental cleaning, as well as poor salivary flow and possibly developmental defects of enamel. In these instances, the use of sealing or infiltrating agents, such as fissure sealants or resin infiltrate, can be effective, although remineralisation of the treated area may not be possible afterwards. These products either seal the surface of the lesion or infiltrate the porosity of the lesion to decrease the loss of mineral from the tooth, and can prevent the lesion progressing to cavitation.

The prevention of dental caries is far more than just fluoride. A sound knowledge of the caries process assists the clinician in formulating an individualised preventative programme for patients.

This afternoon, Prof. Manton is presenting a paper titled “The prevention of dental caries—It is a lot more than fluoride” as part of this year’s World Dental Congress programme in Madrid.

In China, a robot dentist installed two dental implants for a woman last Saturday, in what could be the world's first fully automated dental implant surgery, reports the South China Morning Post. Human doctors supervised the whole procedure but did not actively intervene. The surgery, which took place in the city of Xi'an, was first reported by the state-run Science and Technology Daily.

According to the report, the robot followed a set of pre-programmed commands to install the dental implants. Experts said that the implants were fitted within a margin of error of 0.2-0.3 mm—matching the standards required for this type of procedure, reports the Post.

Robots can safely conduct dental surgeries like implantations with more accuracy and agility in a narrow space like the oral cavity, according to dental experts cited by the Science and Technology Daily.

Dentistry has increasingly enlisted the help of robotics, notes the Post, with robot usage increasingly common in orthodontic procedures and root canal surgeries, as well as in student training. Yomi, a robot system designed to assist dentists in dental implant procedures, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March.

The study is one of the first to focus on an older age group to examine periodontal disease as a risk factor for cancer. “Our study was sufficiently large and detailed enough to examine not just overall risk of cancer among older women with periodontal disease, but also to provide useful information on a number of cancer-specific sites,” explained Prof. Jean Wactawski-Wende, the study's senior author and dean of the University at Buffalo’s (UB) School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Overall, 7,149 cancers were identified in the study group, the majority of which were breast cancers (2,416 cases). When looking at different types of cancers, a significant association with periodontal disease was found for lung cancer, gallbladder cancer, melanoma (skin cancer), and breast cancer. A weak association was also found for stomach cancer.

The highest risk associated with periodontal disease was found to be esophageal cancer. Women with periodontitis were more than three times more likely to develop esophageal cancer compared to women without the oral health condition. Although the underlying reasons for the connection are not fully understood yet, Wactawski-Wende reasoned that: “The esophagus is in close proximity to the oral cavity, and so periodontal pathogens may more easily gain access to and infect the esophageal mucosa and promote cancer risk at that site.”

A new discovery was the link between periodontitis and gallbladder cancer. Lead author Dr. Ngozi Nwizu, who worked on the research while completing her residency in oral and maxillofacial pathology in UB's School of Dental Medicine, said: “Chronic inflammation has also been implicated in gallbladder cancer, but there has been no data on the association between periodontal disease and gallbladder risk. Ours is the first study to report on such an association.”

According to the researchers, the findings for this particular age group offer a window into the disease in a population that continues to increase as people live longer lives. “The elderly are more disproportionately affected by periodontal disease than other age groups, and for most types of cancers, the process of carcinogenesis usually occurs over many years,” said Nwizu. “So the adverse effects of periodontal disease are more likely to be seen among postmenopausal women, simply because of their older age.”

The study, titled “Periodontal disease and incident cancer risk among postmenopausal women: Results from the women's health initiative observational cohort”, was published on 1 August in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

An authority on tooth whitening and aesthetic dentistry, Greenwall lectures extensively, in addition to running a multidisciplinary private practice. She is also founder of the British Dental Bleaching Society and the Dental Wellness Trust charity, which aims to promote good oral health in less fortunate communities around the world.

Hunt has been a professor and Head of the Department of Orthodontics at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute since 1998. There, he also leads a research team in the field of craniofacial reconstruction and tissue engineering. Previously, he served as President of the British Orthodontic Society and Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Also recognised for her contributions to dentistry was Dr Serbjit Kaur from Park View Dental Practice in Leicester in the UK. She served as Deputy Chief Dental Officer for England under Dr Barry Cockcroft from 2008 to 2015.

Further honours recipients were Margaret Katherine Ross, Programme Director for the Bachelor of Science in Oral Health Sciences at the Edinburgh Dental Institute, and Dawn Ailsa Adams, Clinical Director of Community Dental Services at NHS Fife.

Every year, the Queen’s Birthday list recognises members of the public in Britain for their contributions to various fields. This year’s list saw honours awarded to over 1,000 people, including Sir Paul McCartney, MBE; J.K. Rowling, OBE; and comedian Billy Connolly, CBE, among others.

In the study, researchers at the University of Washington assessed data on 6,654 U.S. adolescents collected between 1966 and 1970 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. More recent data were not used owing to a lack of current information on the prevalence of lower-face asymmetries in the U.S. population.

In total, an estimated 1 in 4 U.S. adolescents have lower-face asymmetries, the researchers concluded. Retrognathic asymmetries (17 percent), the most common lower-face asymmetry in the U.S. population, were found to fluctuate randomly between the left and right sides of the face. Such randomness indicates early-life stress, said lead author Prof. Philippe Hujoel, from the university’s School of Dentistry.

Hujoel emphasized that malaligned teeth, overbite and underbite have to be distinguished from asymmetric occlusion, as these conditions can be associated with asymmetric and symmetric occlusions, the last of which is largely a reflection of genetics, not environmental stress.

Further research is needed to identify whether lower-face asymmetries are predictive of chronic diseases in living populations in the same way that skull asymmetries have been associated with degenerative diseases in long-deceased populations.

The study, titled “Lower face asymmetry as a marker for developmental instability,” was published online on April 11 in the American Journal of Human Biology ahead of print

In addition to the 200 m record he broke at the 2016 British Masters Indoor Championships in London, Eugster holds the 400 m record and several long-jump records for his age group. Recently, he competed at the World Masters Athletics Championships Indoor in Daegu in South Korea.

Born in London just after World War I, he graduated with a dental surgery degree from Guy’s Hospital in 1948. In addition to this, he obtained degrees from universities in Zurich in Switzerland, where he also temporarily worked as a clinical instructor, Heidelberg in Germany and Chicago in the US. Eugster was in private practice until 1975 and continued to publish a newsletter on clinical dentistry in three languages for three decades after his retirement.

Earlier this year, he published his first book, Age is Just a Number. He gave his last interview on ITV’s This Morning programme, during which he criticised the way ageing is treated in today’s society and spoke out in favour of lifelong learning.

“We, along with everyone who knew Charles, are incredibly sad to lose such a truly inspirational figure,” his publicist said on Facebook. “He has shown, by remarkable example, how fantastic life can be in older old age. It has been a privilege to work with and learn from Charles.”

Oral cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in India and is estimated to cause about 50,000 deaths annually in the country. In addition to a variety of factors that are known to increase the risk of oral cancer, including tobacco and alcohol use, human papillomavirus infection, poor diet and neglected oral hygiene, chronic mucosal trauma has been associated with the disease in the past. However, the connection between such trauma, which can be caused by sharp teeth, dentures or implants, among others, and the occurrence of oral cancer has not been scientifically established thus far.

In the current study, the researchers systematically reviewed 22 articles that described the role of chronic irritation in causing oral cancer. The results suggest that chronic mucosal irritation resulting from ill-fitting dentures may be considered a risk factor for carcinogenesis in the mouth. According to the researchers, trauma-related cancers might be seen more often at the lateral border of the tongue and at the alveolus. However, no association was found for the duration of denture use and cancer formation.

Referring to mechanisms behind the relationship, research has suggested different scenarios, the researchers wrote. It has been proposed that persistent mechanical irritation causes DNA damage and may eventually result in cancer formation. Another possible mechanism is that chronic mucosal trauma results in inflammation, thereby releasing chemical mediators such as cytokines, prostaglandins and tumour necrosis factor, which may result in carcinogenesis. 

The study, titled “The role of chronic mucosal trauma in oral cancer: A review of literature”, was published online on 30 March in the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology.

Using a highly accurate fingerstick test for HbA_1c, researchers found that they could identify new cases of diabetes.

Their results in over 300 patients showed not only that HbA_1c increased significantly with increasing severity of periodontitis, but that patients with severe periodontitis were twice as likely to have suspected diabetes than patients with milder gum disease or healthy controls.

The study, by lead author Wijnand J Teeuw, DDS, head of the periodontology clinic, Academic Center for Dentistry, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and colleagues, was published online February 22 in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

The new research reinforces previous findings that periodontitis is linked to other serious conditions such as heart disease and myocardial infarction.

Furthermore, it builds on work suggesting that screening for diabetes at the dentist's office is feasible, thus offering greater opportunities to identify cases of undiagnosed diabetes, given that approximately 70% of Americans seek some kind of dental care at least once a year.

For example, a US study of over 400 patients indicated that oral blood collected during a routine dental procedure gives an HbA_1c reading as accurate as traditional fingerstick readings.

The possibility for diabetes screening at the dentist was also bolstered by the recent development of a novel 14-item questionnaire designed specifically for use in the dentist's office to identify patients at high risk for medical conditions with oral involvement.

Study coauthor Susan Maples, DDS, from Holt, Michigan, previously told Medscape Medical News that she believes "dentists would be happy" to perform screening, "especially if they can negotiate with insurance companies about reimbursement."

One Step Further

As Dr Teeuw noted, "the dental clinic might be a suitable location" for screening, but there will be a "cost issue to screen everyone" so it would be better to be able to identify those at highest risk. "So, to make screening more effective, we were looking at oral complications of diabetes [in our study], and one of them turned out to be severe periodontitis."

"The first signs of periodontitis are often without any complications or pain, and due to the fact that diabetes patients, in the beginning, are very susceptible to infections and impaired wound healing, we thought that periodontitis might be one of the early signs of an underlying illness like diabetes," he explained.

So a screening program for diabetes targeted at individuals with severe periodontitis using an HbA_1c fingerstick test would be easier to rollout, but cost may still be an issue.

One way around this would be simply for dentists to refer the patient to their primary care physician.

And if the fingerstick analysis is not available, "you at least think about an underlying pathology like diabetes and you refer your patient to the general practitioner for diagnosis." He added it is important to highlight that "as dentists, we are not equipped to do the diagnosis. We can only screen."

GOROKAN dentist Tony Collins put his invaluable skills to the ultimate test earlier this year by ­volunteering in the slums of Madagascar.

After returning from the African island nation where he and a colleague extracted around 1500 teeth from hundreds of people in just a few days, Mr Collins is determined to head back in 2017.

“I saw infections, pain, suffering — you could just not imagine,” the Point Frederick resident told the Express Advocate.

“I’ve done a fair amount of work in East Timor and I’ve seen some pretty shocking dental scenarios, but nothing prepared me for what I saw in Madagascar.

“We had 56 patients one morning and at least 30 at any one time.

“We’d work from sun up to sun down, and sadly we’d have to send 30 home at the end of the day.

“Towards the end of our time there we ran out of anaesthetic — it was shocking­.”

The AM recipient is no stranger to tackling big challenges in the name of charity having run from Sydney to Melbourne an incredible five times.

His latest fundraising cause for Thrive Madagascar saw over $3000 raised by Brett Hunter and the Raine & Horne Terrigal-Avoca Beach team at a recent charity auction.

Mr Hunter said it was great to see the community show their support to ensure villagers wouldn’t have to go without pain killers next time around.

“Our first world problems seem insignificant compared to that,” Mr Hunter said.

“Hopefully we’ve provided enough anaesthetic and medical supplies for the full length of Tony’s next stay in order to help those people that are living in far worse conditions than we could ever possibly imagine.”

Mr Collins said his work with Thrive Madagascar opened his eyes to a whole new level of poverty and hardship.

The non-profit organisation provides one of the world’s most impoverished nations with opportunities to lead a healthy and ­successful life, including dental hygiene.

“The World Bank figures indicate that the average income for Madagascar is $451 a year which shows things have to be pretty desperate there for people to survive,” the 69-year-old said.

“I’ve heard stories of when it’s raining the locals put nets over the storm water outlets so they can collect any pieces of food waste.

“There are 24 million ­people in the country — it’s about the same size as NSW — and from what I know there are about 57 dentists, which makes 400,000 patients per dentist.

“One dentist can’t see that many patients in a lifetime.”

GOROKAN dentist Tony Collins put his invaluable skills to the ultimate test earlier this year by ­volunteering in the slums of Madagascar.

After returning from the African island nation where he and a colleague extracted around 1500 teeth from hundreds of people in just a few days, Mr Collins is determined to head back in 2017.

“I saw infections, pain, suffering — you could just not imagine,” the Point Frederick resident told the Express Advocate.

“I’ve done a fair amount of work in East Timor and I’ve seen some pretty shocking dental scenarios, but nothing prepared me for what I saw in Madagascar.

“We had 56 patients one morning and at least 30 at any one time.

“We’d work from sun up to sun down, and sadly we’d have to send 30 home at the end of the day.

“Towards the end of our time there we ran out of anaesthetic — it was shocking­.”

The AM recipient is no stranger to tackling big challenges in the name of charity having run from Sydney to Melbourne an incredible five times.

His latest fundraising cause for Thrive Madagascar saw over $3000 raised by Brett Hunter and the Raine & Horne Terrigal-Avoca Beach team at a recent charity auction.

Mr Hunter said it was great to see the community show their support to ensure villagers wouldn’t have to go without pain killers next time around.

“Our first world problems seem insignificant compared to that,” Mr Hunter said.

“Hopefully we’ve provided enough anaesthetic and medical supplies for the full length of Tony’s next stay in order to help those people that are living in far worse conditions than we could ever possibly imagine.”

Mr Collins said his work with Thrive Madagascar opened his eyes to a whole new level of poverty and hardship.

The non-profit organisation provides one of the world’s most impoverished nations with opportunities to lead a healthy and ­successful life, including dental hygiene.

“The World Bank figures indicate that the average income for Madagascar is $451 a year which shows things have to be pretty desperate there for people to survive,” the 69-year-old said.

“I’ve heard stories of when it’s raining the locals put nets over the storm water outlets so they can collect any pieces of food waste.

“There are 24 million ­people in the country — it’s about the same size as NSW — and from what I know there are about 57 dentists, which makes 400,000 patients per dentist.

“One dentist can’t see that many patients in a lifetime.”

THE number of preschoolers in NSW having to have mouthfuls of rotten teeth removed is soaring.

Tooth decay and cavities are the most prevalent health problem in the state and as children’s diets worsen in the grip of the obesity epidemic more and more youngsters are being forced to have teeth removed.

Figures from NSW Health reveal the frequency of hospitalisations for removal and restoration of teeth caused by dental cavities or decay has significantly increased in the past 13 years.

In 2014-15, the rate of children aged 0 to 14 years undergoing the surgery was 402.5 per 100,000 population.

Rates are highest among 5 to 14 year olds but the surgeries are also plaguing younger children, with a rate of 343.5 per cent 100,000 population in 0 to 4 year olds.

It marks an alarming jumping from 2001-02, when the rate for all children was just 300 per 100,000 population.

Australia Dental Association NSW branch president Dr Sabrina Manickam said dental conditions caused the greatest number of preventable hospitalisations in children and parents had to act to stop the rot.

“I have seen it many times when kids need all their teeth removed. The youngest I had was three years old,” Dr Manickam said. “I can’t blame parents for not understanding but once they have the knowledge they need to make decisions that make dental health the priority.”

About 40 per cent of children in NSW aged 5-6 have untreated dental decay or have experienced dental disease.

Dr Manickam is a dentist in Orange, in rural NSW, and said it was “devastating” to see the problem in children under 5 years old, with poor diet often the cause.

“It’s the frequency of sugar and it can vary from sugary breakfast cereals that target kids to beverages like chocolate milk and soft drinks and coke,” she said.

“I’ve seen cordial in the kid’s bottle, fruit juice in the bottle and I have seen coke in the bottle — that can never be justified.”

She said mothers were now being told to wipe their baby’s teeth after they consumed formula or breast milk as an extra layer of protection against rot cause by sugar.

Dr Manickam said during surgery children had to be put under general anaesthetic so they didn’t develop a fear of the dentist.

“We don’t want to see these rates continue to increase. It’s all completely preventable.”

Australian Dental Association chief fluoride expert Dr Michael Foley raised the concerns after two councils recently decided to stop adding it to the water supply.

Mackay Regional Council voted on the move last week, and the Gladstone Regional Council made the call in July.

Polls suggested a majority of respondents supported the decisions.

Dr Foley, who blamed the moves on pressure from “nutty” fringe groups, is among the chorus of voices calling on the State Government to take over responsibility for fluoridating water.

He said most politicians avoided the issue “because they don’t want to face the wrath of the extremist fringe groups” when they won’t see any benefits for at least another decade.

“Surely both sides of politics can get together to stop this lunacy that’s happening with water fluoridation, because at the end of the day people’s health is being affected by these lunatic, conspiracy-theory fringe groups,” Dr Foley said.

“As a health professional I’m entitled to get really annoyed when these nutty conspiracy theory groups bombard councils because it ends up impacting on the health of Queenslanders.”

There are now only 24 councils out of the state’s 77 that are still actively adding fluoride to water, with many of those in the southeast corner.

Five council areas, mostly in Central Queensland, have high enough levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the water that there is no need to add more.

But Queenslanders for Safe Water president Merilyn Haines said water fluoridation was “unethical mass medication” without the “express consent of the community.”

“When you’re adding fluoride chemicals to drinking water, it’s done with the deliberate intention of having a therapeutic effect on part of the human body,” Ms Haines said. “It’s both a medication and a treatment through the water supply without any informed consent.”

The retired medical-laboratory scientist denied her group bombarded councils to convince them to stop adding fluoride, nor were they approaching any more councils. “We’re not bombarding them,” Ms Haines said. “We just present respectful correspondence with lots of scientific information.”

From 21 to 25 March, more than 2,200 dental companies from all over the world will be exhibiting their latest products in five halls of the exhibition centre of Koelnmesse, which organises about 80 trade fairs, exhibitions and special events for the most important markets worldwide every year.

Visitors to IDS 2017 will be able to see and try out the latest advances in dental technology, and 3-D printing techniques and additive manufacturing in particular. Today, these technologies are widely used in the manufacture of crowns, bridges and denture bases in the dental laboratory or in-house, for example.

Moreover, the 2017 event will give a comprehensive overview of current hygiene and infection control concepts, a topic on which it is necessary to be constantly updated owing to new laws and regulations. Over the last decade, biofilms and the spread of multidrug-resistant micro-organisms have become an increasing problem, both for medical device manufacturers and, more crucially, within clinical settings. Therefore, companies specialising in this field will be showcasing new means of consistent hygiene management in the dental practice during IDS 2017.

In 2015, almost 139,000 trade visitors from 152 countries attended the world’s leading dental trade fair, corresponding to an increase of almost 11 per cent compared with 2013. The event also set new records in terms of the number of exhibitors and the exhibition space sold. About 2,200 companies from 59 countries presented their innovations, product developments and services in an exhibition space covering 157,000 m².

But an Indian dentist from Abu Dhabi in UAE has a very peculiar collection, which has now brought him close to making it to record books. What started off as a professional necessity for Dr Nizar Abdul Rahman, has now resulted in a collection of 10,000 teeth.

The dentist, who is now eyeing a spot in the Limca Book of Records and a Guinness World Record, started preserving teeth to convince people, since locals were apprehensive of less experienced dentists. He preserves the teeth at a hospital and keeps them in hydrogen peroxide.

But the dentist who has a huge collection of teeth, does not advise people to go for extraction, he told Khaleej Times, "I always suggest my patients all ways to save teeth. It's only after following all precautionary measures that we finally go for extraction,” he added, "Students contact me for teeth. They need it for practical exam and need to fill natural teeth."

Nizar’s wife Simi Nizar is also a dentist and has joined her husband by collecting teeth by herself, although she doesn’t have a big collection of teeth.

"It is about three to four times harder than most steels... and four times harder than pure titanium, which is what's currently being used in most dental implants and replacement joints," says Emilia Morosan, a physicist at Rice University in Texas, who lead the team of biomedical engineers and materials scientists that created the new alloy. The scientists unveiled their new metal this week in the journal Science Advances.

The new alloy is "the hardest known bio-compatible [metallic] compound," ever created, Morosan and her colleagues write.

The new metal is composed of four parts pure titanium to one part pure gold, combined at scorching temperatures in a process called arc melting. As is often the case in materials science, Morosan and her colleagues stumbled across the recipe for the new metal by accident. They had been studying different combinations of titanium-gold metals, specifically those with near-equal ratios of titanium and gold.

To understand what made their new alloy so incredibly strong, Morosan and her team peered into the metal's atomic structure with electron microscopes. Morosan says one major key to the metal's fantastic properties is the dice-shaped cubic crystal structure of the metal.

At the center and on each of these cube's corners is a gold atom. Studded throughout the cube are titanium atoms, which latch onto three gold atoms each. That dense, symmetrical structure allows the metal alloy to stand up to intense pressures from all angles. Morosan's team discovered this unique structure is formed only at blazing high temperatures. Try to make it using a cooler process and you'll end up with a weak alloy of titanium-gold no harder than pure titanium. The new metal alloy is not only hard but also extremely resistant to gradual wear.

The researchers went into this project knowing that gold and titanium are two of the most bio-compatible metals available. Unlike copper or iron, which are frequently used in industrial alloys, these metals don't tend to kill off nearby human tissues, and the body usually won't reject the intruding metals and form scar tissue. That's why this new alloy is such a good candidate for prosthetics. After various cell culture tests, Morosan's team can safely say that today's metal is just as biocompatable as weaker versions of titanium that are already being used in biomedical implants.

"This material is well-suited for medical applications where titanium is already used, with some examples including replacement parts and components [such as knee and hip replacements], dental prosthetics, and implants," the scientists write.

How about claws? We're asking for a friend.

Binary asteroids are discovered by astro-photometry, which is a series of pictures of the asteroid where the brightness of the asteroid is compared with the background stars and plotted over time.

That data is then provided to a centre in the Czech Republic where it is combined with data from other collaborating observers and reduced using a sophisticated algorithm to determine if the asteroid is in fact binary.

Dr Oey got involved in astro-photometry at a minor planet conference in Port Stephens and began searching for asteroids through a high-powered telescope in his observatory in Leura in the Blue Mountains, which he operates remotely from his Kings Cross home.

“My routine is that I go home, have dinner, help my daughter Sinead with her homework and then open up the observatory remotely and tell the telescope to take a certain number of pictures throughout the night,” he said.

“Sinead is one of the main motivators for me in my astronomical work — I see it as being a good role model for her.”

To follow Dr Oey’s astronomical discoveries, visit bluemountainsobservatory. com.au

HE’S a dentist by day, a gentleman astronomer by night and now his name is flying through space between Mars and Jupiter.

Potts Point dentist Julian Oey has become well known in the field of astro-photometry in the last 10 years.

He has discovered four rare binary asteroids and co-discovered eight others; something he said was quite an achievement.

“When you discover a comet, it’s automatically named after you, but to have an asteroid named after you, you have to get nominated,” Dr Oey said.

“Those who nominate you are usually very important people in the astronomy community.”

Dr Oey was nominated by Alan Harris from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Petr Pravec from the Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic and the julianoey asteroid was officially named in Prague at a banquet last week.

A binary asteroid is an asteroid body with a satellite around it and is the field of astronomy Dr Oey is most interested in.

The partnership between the University of Queensland and Goondir Health Services will offer rural placement for fifth year UQ dental students and provide a four chair dental clinic in the town.

Goondir Health Services said it would address a shortage of dental services in the district.

Executive officer Louise Sanderson said construction was due for completion in August.

"It certainly will fill that gap," she said.

"In 2014 we actually did a survey amongst our clients and dental health was the biggest issue that they had and access to dental facilities was their concern there.

"If you've got a dental problem then it will result in pain, limited function and in the worst cases you can be hospitalised.

"Every semester Floyd Leedie, who is the CEO of Goondir, takes the dental students across ... Cherbourg and provides them with the history of Aboriginal communities and how the history has impacted on today's health.

"It's really important to understand where people have come from and why they're currently experiencing the current not only health issues but social issues as well."

HOPE4HEALTH, a non-profit organisation and registered charity founded by Griffith University students in 2006, initiated the volunteer programme for final year dentistry students. The organisation aims to eliminate health inequality and improve health outcomes for local, rural, indigenous and international communities.

Michael Baker, an Indigenous student himself, has been involved in the programme for several years as coordinator. “I have been fortunate enough to gain entry into such a prestigious degree at Griffith,” he said. “I feel as an Indigenous dental student that I need to give back to the community as well.”

Together with a group of fellow dental students, Baker visits the Cherbourg community four times a year to conduct weeklong dental clinics. “It is nice to see that we are making an impact in the community. There is a long way to go but we're taking it in small steps and we will get there,” Baker said. He organises the trips, collects donations from corporations, Griffith University and the Australian Dental Association and takes the mobile clinic on the three-hour drive to Cherbourg. On the latest trip, he took about AU$60,000 worth of dental gear to Cherbourg and his team spent a day setting up four surgery rooms at the local health clinic.

“The program has the potential to see up to 120 patients every trip. We generally see around 100 a trip and try and perform as much treatment as we can on those patients,” Baker said. “Unfortunately the closest dentist for Cherbourg residents is over an hour away in Kingaroy with a waiting list of up to two years, so a lot of the patients we see from Cherbourg have a lot of chronic and acute pain.”

Apart from helping dental patients in need and gaining practical experience, the volunteers have an opportunity to gain greater knowledge of Indigenous communities, such as the one in Cherbourg, which is one of the main goals of HOPE4HEALTH.

Although Baker recently finished university and will soon start working as a registered dentist, he still wants to support the volunteer programme in the future. “I won't come out here as a student in the future, but I will definitely come out as a supervisor so I will still have an active role in this programme as time goes on,” he said. “It's not something I want to give up.”

Developing a set of protocols that they called the Caries Management System (CMS), the researchers compared people who received traditional “drill and fill” treatment with those who received CMS treatment, focusing on prevention.

In the study, the CMS protocols included the assessment of decay risk, the interpretation of dental X-rays and the specific treatment of early decay. Among other things, preventive measures included the application of high concentration fluoride varnish to the sites of early decay and, on the patient’s side, restricting sugary snacks and beverages between meals.

In testing the CMS protocols on 1,000 patients from 22 general dental practices in New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, decay risk was substantially reduced during the seven-year study. Moreover, the need for fillings was 30 to 50 per cent lower among CMS patients in comparison to the control group. At 80 per cent, the reduction was even greater among those considered at a high-risk, patients who were getting as many as two fillings per year.

“This research signals the need for a major shift in the way tooth decay is managed by dentists,” said Associate Professor Wendell Evans from the University of Sydney. “A tooth should only be drilled and filled where an actual hole-in-the-tooth is already evident,” he said.

According to Evans, tooth decay is not the rapidly progressive phenomenon that dentists long believed it was. Instead, it develops more slowly, leaving plenty of time for the decay to be detected and treated before it becomes a cavity and a filling is required. On average, it takes four to eight years for decay to progress from the tooth's outer layer (enamel) to the inner layer (dentine), he explained.

“Research such as this contributes greatly to the evidence base that underpins contemporary dental care in Australia and the ADA will be promoting these findings among its members,” Eithne Irving, Deputy CEO of the Australian Dental Association, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Professor Wendell is correct in saying that prevention is a key plank in the fight against dental disease and this is why the ADA continues its efforts of oral health promotion through activities such as Dental Health Week and community access to fluoridated water supplies,” Irving concluded.

The board also reminded dental practitioners to carefully read the registration standards, which specify the profession’s standards of practice, before making the required declarations in their application for renewal of registration.

The board requires dental practitioners on the specialist register to maintain both general and specialist registration. Dentists or dental specialists who use conscious sedation in their practice must have endorsed registration. More information about conscious sedation is available on the board’s website, www.dentalboard.gov.au.

Dentists who fail to renew their registration by 30 November can submit their application until 31 December, but will be charged a late-payment fee. A fee schedule is available on the board’s website.

Online renewal of registration for dental practitioners registered in Australia is still open. Last year, 97.6 per cent of all health practitioner registration renewals due by 30 November were submitted online.

The exhibition will span about 13,000 m² and showcase the latest products from Australia and overseas, many of which are to be launched on the Australian market for the first time at the event. The process of allocating exhibition space has almost been completed. The organisers will be opening the next sales release on 26 October to sell the remaining booths.

Since its establishment in 2006, ADX, which is held every two years, has cemented itself as the must-attend trade show for both the dental profession and the dental industry.

In 2014, around 6,000 visitors registered for ADX, including dentists (43 per cent), dental practice managers (11 per cent), dental assistants (10 per cent) and laboratory technicians (9 per cent), and similar numbers are expected for 2016 . In addition, there will be approximately 2,000 representatives of more than 140 product and service suppliers exhibiting. Thus, more than 8,000 stakeholders from across Australia’s dental community are expected to attend the event.

The Sydney Exhibition Centre at Glebe Island will again host ADX next year. The decision was made by the Australian Dental Industry Association based on extensive feedback from exhibitors and visitors.

ADX 16 will also feature a dental laboratory pavilion and an extensive continuing professional development programme.

ADIA’s recommendations arose from the increasing prevalence of dental laboratory products sourced from overseas and the inability to readily identify the source of the products, the association stated.

While the regulatory standards for design, performance and manufacture of these devices are appropriate and do not require revision, ADIA believes that there is a need to consider revision of regulations governing the information provided to patients. It has thus called for a new regulation that will require companies that offer custom-made medical devices to provide a statement of manufacture in the future.

In order to identify unnecessary, duplicative or ineffective regulations that could be removed or streamlined without undermining the safety and quality of therapeutic goods available in Australia, the Australian government appointed a review panel in late 2014. According to ADIA, the review is an important step in securing a regulatory framework for medical devices that is based upon a risk management approach designed to ensure public health and safety, while freeing industry from unnecessary regulatory burden.

This places wine-tasters, for example, at increased risk of tooth wear, the researchers said. Previous research only found a softening effect in teeth exposed to wine after 1 hour.

Professional tasters usually test up to 150 wines per day, and wine judges even more. With wine-tasting, the beverage is retained in the mouth for up to 60 seconds before it is spat out.

In order to assess the demineralisation during wine-tasting, the team simulated the conditions of the process in a laboratory, exposing extracted third molars repeatedly to white wine and artificial saliva. After 1 and 10 minutes, a nano-scratch test was conducted and the result was an increasing scratch depth. Surface roughness of the enamel also increased by almost 200 per cent.

Reflecting on the findings, the researchers recommended that professionals take early preventative measures, including the application of remineralisation agents, such as calcium, phosphate and fluoride, to minimise the risks of erosion. Chewing gum and skipping toothbrushing the morning before the wine-tasting are additional measures that could lessen the occupational hazard, they said in the report.

“After a wine tasting, the teeth are likely to be much softer, so we recommend rinsing with water, and when it comes time to clean the teeth, just putting some toothpaste on your finger and cleaning with that,” remarked Associate Professor Sue Bastian from the university’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, which also teaches wine-making, about the results. “Cleaning with a brush when teeth are soft runs the risk of damaging the enamel.”

With pH values of 3 and 4, the acidity of wine is comparable to most soft drinks, which, owing to their high concentration of organic acids, are reported to be the main cause of the increase in tooth wear around the globe, particularly among children. Most professional wine organisations, however, currently do not recommend any special precautions for their members.

The event aims to raise awareness of the NDF’s mission to help those less fortunate and to highlight the Australian dental community’s involvement in philanthropic endeavours in local communities. With its participation in a Guinness World Records attempt, the organisation hopes to rally support for its pro bono dental care programmes.

“This year, we have decided to assemble as many dental professionals and patients as we can, at multiple sites around Australia—with the aim of delivering more treatments on one day than we ever have before. To add to the excitement, we are aiming to create a new Australian record highlighting the generosity of dentists and the dental industry in supporting some of those most in need in society,” explained Dr David Digges, National Chairman of the NDF.

In conjunction with World Oral Health Day, the NDF is looking to co-ordinate as many of its Dental Rescue Days across Australia as possible within one joint National Day of Action. NDF’s Dental Rescue Days are organised in collaboration with major registered charities working with the homeless, street kids and others in need.

Dental practices that would like to volunteer for the event can contact the NDF. The organisation will then get in touch with local charities to look for patients, people who are genuinely in need and have chronic dental issues. On the day of the event, the volunteering dental practices just have to provide the basic dental treatment to the local patients in need.

The NDF is a charitable organisation that facilitates the provision of pro bono dental treatment to those who cannot access proper dental care. The organisation is supported by the wider dental industry and several Australian dental associations and is dependent on the active participation of volunteer dentists and dental assistants.

The figures released for the quarter ending September 2014 show that there are currently 20,749 registered dental practitioners in Australia. This represents an increase of 3.3 per cent when compared with the statistics published in October 2013 (20,087).

The greatest increase was noticed in the number of oral health therapists. This number rose by more than 22 per cent from 804 to 985 therapists over the past year.

While the number of dental hygienists (1,309) and dental prosthetists (1,229) increased only slightly from 2013 to 2014 (1,276 and 1,201 respectively), the number of dental therapists declined marginally from 1,139 in 2013 to 1,094.

The Dental Board of Australia has been publishing quarterly data profiling Australia’s dental workforce since 2012, including dentists, students, dental specialists, dental therapists, dental hygienists, oral health therapists and dental prosthetists,. All data can be accessed on their website, www.dentalboard.gov.au

The new technology, called electric field-induced release and measurement (EFIRM), was developed at the University of California, Los Angeles. According to the researchers, it allows for rapid testing of a patient's saliva for epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutation, an indicator of lung cancer.

In contrast to conventional methods of detection that are mainly based on tissue biopsy, which is invasive, expensive, and time consuming, EFIRM relies on a multiplexible electrochemical sensor that can detect these gene mutations directly in bodily fluids. The total detection time is less than 10 minutes and only requires a small saliva sample, the researchers said.

In clinical application, for example, EFIRM detected epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutations in the saliva and plasma of 22 patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma. In blinded tests on saliva samples from 40 patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma, the researchers achieved nearly identical results as with bronchoscopy-based detection.

The findings may have important implications for further development of effective and noninvasive methods for early detection of lung cancer. Early detection significantly improves survival rates in this patient group. The new method could be combined with tissue DNA testing or used as a complement to biopsy in cases in which the size of the tumor is insufficient for DNA extraction.

The study, titled "Noninvasive Saliva-Based EGFR Gene Mutation Detection in Patients with Lung Cancer," was published in the November issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The 2015 congress will be held under the theme “The future is here” and will showcase the latest technology, materials and clinical techniques in dentistry.

According to the dental association, the high-quality scientific programme, which features over 100 speakers, experts in the dental profession in Australia and globally, was designed for dental practitioners at any level. The lectures and limited attendance hands-on workshops will cover almost 60 topics, including techniques in aesthetic dentistry and implant treatment, 2-D and 3-D diagnostic radiology, as well as restorative dentistry.

Moreover, multiple Lunch and Learn Sessions will be held each day during the lunch-break throughout the congress. These additional events will enable a more personalised continuing professional development experience with smaller groups and the ability to interact directly with presenters.

The exhibition will provide visitors with the opportunity to view, test, sample and experience new products and materials from a broad range of suppliers and industry leaders.

The event is sponsored by a number of dental companies, including Colgate-Palmolive, A-dec, Oral-B, SDI, DENTSPLY and Sirona. Dental Tribune International recently signed an exclusive agreement with the Australian Dental Association to be the official media partner of the congress. The publisher will have a booth at the exhibition and will be publishing a today trade show daily newspaper during the congress.

For instance, the report shows that the average number of teeth affected by dental caries in Australian adults decreased from 15 per cent in 1987–1988 to around 13 per cent in 2004–2006. The latest statistics demonstrate, however, that the proportion of people reporting any adverse oral health impact, including toothache, generally increased from 31.4 per cent in 1994 to 39.9 per cent in 2008.

Similarly, the average number of primary teeth affected by tooth decay decreased steadily in the period from 1977 to 1995. Yet, researchers have noted a gradual rise in this number again from 1996 onwards.

“In contrast to these negative trends in oral health, the trends in dental visiting patterns have generally been more positive,” said Dr Adrian Webster, spokesperson for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The proportion of people aged 15 and over who had visited a dentist in the previous 12 months increased from 56 per cent in 1994 to 62 per cent in 2010.

“But despite this, the cost of dental care remains a barrier for some,” Webster stated. According to the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey, there was an increase in the proportion of adults avoiding visits to a dentist owing to cost, from about 25 per cent in 1994 to 30 per cent in 2010.

The report also showed that the number of employed dental practitioners increased from around 18,700 in 2011 to nearly 19,600 in 2012. Over this period, the ratio of dentists per 100,000 population rose from around 55 to 57 dentists.

The report, which was published on 18 August, can be accessed on the institute’s website.

In laboratory tests, the researchers exposed human tooth enamel surfaces to liquids with pH values of 1.5 and 3.0 for 30, 60 or 120 seconds, and measured quantitative changes in the average surface roughness using confocal and electron microscopy.

They found that the average surface roughness increased significantly with the duration of the erosive challenge. In addition, a micrographic analysis revealed severely etched enamel rods, especially in enamel samples that were exposed to a pH value of 1.5.

“Dental erosion is an issue of growing concern in developed countries, and it is often only detected clinically after extensive tooth wear has occurred,” said study author Dr Sarbin Ranjitkar, a member of the university's Craniofacial Biology Research Group. “Such erosion can lead to a lifetime of compromised dental health that may require complex and extensive rehabilitation, but it is also preventable with minimal intervention,” Ranjitkar added.

Ranjitkar thus recommended that parents minimise consumption of any kind of soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit juice or acidic foods by their children. She suggested that children consume fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice, as these may contain additional food acids.

Moreover, the researchers believe that the findings of the study could provide a foundation for further research, leading to the development of highly sensitive clinical diagnostic tools and preventive strategies for dental erosion in its initial stages.

The study, titled “Three-dimensional profilometric assessment of early enamel erosion simulating gastric regurgitation”, was published online on 1 July in the Journal of Dentistry ahead of print.

From:  Thursday, October 09, 2014 - 8:00AM 

To:  Saturday, October 11, 2014 - 4:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

Website:  http://www.dentalshowcase.com

Trade Show - Moscow - RUSSIA  

From:  Monday, September 29, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Thursday, October 02, 2014 - 5:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

Website:  http://www.dental-expo.com/eng/dental-expo.html  

From:  Thursday, September 25, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Sunday, September 28, 2014 - 5:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

From:  Thursday, September 18, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Saturday, September 20, 2014 - 5:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

Website:  http://www.lda.org.lb  

From:  Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Sunday, September 14, 2014 - 5:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

Website:  http://www.fdiworldental.org  

From:  Wednesday, September 03, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Saturday, September 06, 2014 - 5:00PM 

Email:  Email the event organiser 

Website:  http:/www.medvin.kiev.ua  

From:  Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 9:00AM 

To:  Saturday, August 23, 2014 - 5:00PM 

http://www.feriameditech.com/

According to the organisers, the exhibition space of 150,000 m2 is already quite full. The Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Dental-Industrie, the commercial enterprise of the Association of German Dental Manufacturers, and Koelnmesse commented in a joint statement: “Companies are opting at an increasingly early stage to participate in IDS in order to secure stand space and to be actively involved. The excellent interim result underlines the position of IDS as the leading international business and communication platform for the entire international dental industry.”

Owing to these positive developments, the organisers are expecting significant interest in IDS 2015 from the international dental industry, inspired by the record results of IDS 2013. Once again, they expect more than 2,000 companies from around the world to participate, including all international market leaders.

With 2,058 exhibitors from 56 countries and a foreign proportion of 68 per cent, as well as more than 125,000 visitors from 149 countries (48 per cent), IDS 2013 set record highs in all exhibition figures.

 Of 68 used non-disposable syringe tips tested for microbiological growth, almost 40 per cent were found to be harbouring different kinds of bacteria after having been sterilised with a Class B autoclave. According to the researchers, the level of contamination did not decrease significantly regardless of the number of additional sterilisation cycles the tips were run through. Flushing the instruments simultaneously with air and water before the cleaning and sterilisation processes also resulted in no difference to the level of contamination, they said.

While control tips of the disposable kind also showed contamination, the level was significantly lower.

The researchers suggested that one of the main reasons for the build-up of bacteria or contaminants in non-disposable tips could be corrosion facilitated by continuous exposure of the instruments to humidity during treatment, which increases the roughness of the surface, allowing potentially harmful micro-organisms to accumulate over time. While such micro-organisms might be harmless, the researchers recommend the use of disposable tips over non-disposable tips to reduce the risk of cross-infection.

For the study, new and used non-disposable syringe tips from the urgent care unit at the School of Dentistry of the University of Otago in Dunedin were investigated. The research was funded by ACTEON GROUP, a French manufacturer of dental equipment.

In particular, the study showed that almost two-thirds of participants (61 per cent) who reported depression also reported having had oral pain over the past year. In addition, more than half of the participants (57.4 per cent) considered their teeth to be in fair or poor condition. Compared with individuals without an oral health condition, the prevalence of depression was significantly higher in those with two, four or six conditions.

According to the researchers, poor dental health has not been studied extensively in the context of its links with mental health. “The relationship is not well understood, with previous studies investigating poor dental health as a by-product of depression, rather than a precursor,” said Dr Adrienne O’Neil, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Treatment (IMPACT) Strategic Research Centre at Deakin University. '

“Although the results of this study provide only a snapshot of this association, they add to emerging theories around the importance of oral health and bacteria in mental health. If poor oral health is a risk factor for depression, this may have implications for depression management, as well as depression prevention from a public health perspective,” O’Neil added.

The IMPACT Strategic Research Centre is an integrated research facility that investigates the causes of and impact of psychiatric, musculoskeletal, metabolic and other disorders, and contributes to the development of innovative therapies and preventative interventions.

For the study, the researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a programme of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US.

The study, titled “The association between poor dental health and depression: Findings from a large-scale, population-based study (the NHANES study),” was published in the May issue of the General Hospital Psychiatry journal.

SYDNEY, Australia: The Australian Dental Association and the Australian Dental Students Association have launched a campaign to raise awareness about the oversupply of dentists and dental practitioners. Both organisations have called on the Australian government to act on dental student numbers.

Audrey Irish, President of the Australian Dental Students Association, said: “It takes at least five years of study to become a dentist and course costs can range between A$50,000 and A$250,000. Unless we balance student numbers with demand, we are setting new graduates up for unemployment.”

“It is inappropriate and economically irresponsible of the government to invest so much money in the education of dentists, only to have them take employment in less skilled roles,” Dr Karin Alexander, Federal President of the Australian Dental Association, added.

According to the association, the number of overseas-qualified dentists entering Australia each year is more than the output of two dental schools. Dentists from the UK and Ireland, for example, receive automatic recognition of their qualifications in Australia.

The associations also highlighted that the claim that oversupply will address distribution issues in the country is naïve because the population is too small in some rural areas with an undersupply of dentists to sustain a practice on an ongoing basis.

According to the latest figures published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, almost 80 per cent of all employed dentists work in major cities and only 0.9 per cent are settled in remote areas. According to a study published last year in the Rural and Remote Health journal, the practice-to-population ratio ranges from 1:52 in remote areas to 1:20,100 in large cities.

CANBERRA, Australia: According to the latest information published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), people living in remote areas and with lower household income have poorer oral health compared with other Australians. The national agency reported that dental health and dental visiting patterns are affected by remoteness and socio-economic status.

AIHW’s figures show that about 38 per cent of people living in remote or very remote areas have untreated tooth decay, but this is the case for only 24 per cent of people living in major cities in Australia. According to AIHW spokesperson Dr Adrian Webster, the average number of decayed, missing or filled permanent teeth (DMFT) was 14.75 in inner regional areas of the country.

In addition, the numbers indicate that more adults in major cities (49 per cent) visit a dentist once a year, compared with people living in remote or very remote areas (31 per cent).

Access to dental health care is a major problem in Australia. While almost 80 percent of all employed dentists work in major cities, only 0.9 per cent are settled in remote areas.

With regard to wealth, Webster noted that visiting patterns also varied by household income. “Under one-third (28 per cent) of adults in the lowest income group had visited a dentist for a check-up in the last 12 months, compared with over half of those in the highest income group (56 per cent).” About one-third of the lower income group had not visited the dentist at all in the past two years (34 per cent), compared with less than one-fifth (16 per cent) of the higher income group, he said.

People in higher income households (A$ 100,000 or more per year) also had lower rates of untreated decay, as well as fewer missing teeth and went to the dentist more often, compared with those in lower income households (less than A$ 12,000 per year).

The Child Dental Benefits Schedule, or CDBS, is a government initiative providing $1000 of free dental benefits to children aged two to seventeen who meet the eligibility criteria. This $1000 will be valid every two calendar years and continue until the child is over 17 years of age.

Research towards achieving the aim of producing bioengineered teeth -- bioteeth -- has largely focussed on the generation of immature teeth (teeth primordia) that mimic those in the embryo that can be transplanted as small cell 'pellets' into the adult jaw to develop into functional teeth.

Remarkably, despite the very different environments, embryonic teeth primordia can develop normally in the adult mouth and thus if suitable cells can be identified that can be combined in such a way to produce an immature tooth, there is a realistic prospect bioteeth can become a clinical reality. Subsequent studies have largely focussed on the use of embryonic cells and although it is clear that embryonic tooth primordia cells can readily form immature teeth following dissociation into single cell populations and subsequent recombination, such cell sources are impractical to use in a general therapy.

Professor Sharpe says: 'What is required is the identification of adult sources of human epithelial and mesenchymal cells that can be obtained in sufficient numbers to make biotooth formation a viable alternative to dental implants.'

In this new work, the researchers isolated adult human gum tissue from patients at the Dental Institute at King's College London, grew more of it in the lab, and then combined it with the cells of mice that form teeth. By transplanting this combination of cells into mice the researchers were able to grow hybrid human/mouse teeth containing dentine and enamel, as well as viable roots.

Professor Sharpe concludes: 'Epithelial cells derived from adult human gum tissue are capable of responding to tooth inducing signals from embryonic tooth mesenchyme in an appropriate way to contribute to tooth crown and root formation and give rise to relevant differentiated cell types, following in vitro culture.

'These easily accessible epithelial cells are thus a realistic source for consideration in human biotooth formation. The next major challenge is to identify a way to culture adult human mesenchymal cells to be tooth-inducing, as at the moment we can only make embryonic mesenchymal cells do this.'

The public health message from the study is that even mild inflammation in the mouth needs to be controlled because it can lead to more serious consequences, said Luis Giavedoni, Ph. D, a Texas Biomed virologist and first author of the study.

"This is important because moderate gum disease is present in more than 50 percent of the world population. It is known that severe gum disease leads to generalized inflammation and a number of other health complications, but the conditions that we created were moderate and they were mainly localized in the mouth," he added.

"After infection with the simian AIDS virus, the generalized acute inflammation induced by the virus was exacerbated in the animals with gingivitis, indicating that even mild localized inflammation can lead to a more severe systemic inflammation," he added.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and conducted at Texas Biomed's Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC), appears in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Virology. Collaborators included scientists at the Dental School at UT Health Science Center San Antonio and at Seattle Biomed in Washington State.

Giavedoni and his colleagues studied whether inflammation of the mouth would increase the susceptibility of the monkeys to becoming infected with the monkey AIDS virus. This was based on epidemiological evidence that shows that infection and inflammation of the genital mucosa increases the chances of becoming infected with HIV by the sexual route.

The scientists induced moderate gum inflammation in a group of monkeys, while a second group without gum inflammation served as a control. After exposing both groups of macaques to infectious SIV, a monkey virus similar to AIDS, in the mouth they did not observe differences in the rate of infection, indicating the moderate gum disease did not increase the chances of getting infected with the AIDS virus.

"However, we did observe that the animals that had gum inflammation and got infected had more viral variants causing infection and they also showed augmented systemic inflammation after infection; both of these findings may negatively affect the progression of the viral infection." Giavedoni said.

This work was supported by NIH grants R01 DE017541 and R24 OD01396. Support for the SNPRC was funded by grants P51 RR013986 and OD P51 OD011133.

Christopher Dean and Tim Cole at University College London studied the microscopic structure of adult molars to reconstruct the pace of their development, much like tree rings can be used to build a picture of tree growth. They found that the roots of chimpanzee molars go through a growth spurt as the teeth erupt through the gum - probably to provide more stability for biting and chewing. The same thing happened in early hominins, but not in modern humans: by the time our molars arrive, their roots have been fully developed for at least a year.

Dean and Cole found an explanation in Homo erectus, a species who lived between 1.8 million and 300,000 years ago. H. erectus gained its molars at exactly the same age as our molar roots have their growth spurts. Or as Dean puts it: "Our roots are stuck in the past."

In humans, he says, root growth spurts are merely a hangover from an early stage of evolution. We retain molar roots like H. erectus because the growth spurts use too little energy for natural selection to weed them out (PLoS One, doi.org/j8w).

H. erectus had a bigger brain and smaller teeth than its ancestors. Some believe, controversially, that these features reflected big dietary changes, including eating the first cooked food, which would have been easier to chew while supplying more energy.

The new study may find favour with critics of the controversial "cooked food hypothesis". It shows that H. erectus still required an early molar root growth spurt - presumably to prepare its teeth for heavy-duty chewing.

The study was completed by Prof. Mariana Henriques and her co-employees within the College of Minho in Largo do Paço, who investigated the anti-yeast characteristics of silver nanoparticles of numerous dimensions to discover their effect against C. albicans and C. glabrata. These two yeasts cause various infections, including dental thrush and dental stomatitis, an uncomfortable infection that affects around seven from ten denture customers. Infections like these are particularly difficult to treat because the micro-microbes involved form biofilms.

The scientists used artificial biofilms in issues that was similar to people of saliva as carefully as you can. They added different dimensions and amounts of silver nanoparticles and situated that nanoparticles of numerous dimensions were equally proficient at killing the yeasts. Due to all the different size of nanoparticles with anti-yeast characteristics, the researchers hope this could allow the nanoparticles to be used in a number of programs.

Some researchers have expressed concerns in regards to the safety of nanoparticle use nevertheless the Portuguese scientists stressed this studies within an early on and extensive safety tests will probably be completed before any product reaches industry.

“With the emergence of candida infections, which are frequently facing the standard anti-yeast remedies, likely to growing requirement of alternative approaches. So, silver nanoparticles appear like new potential method to combat these infections,” Henriques mentioned. “As the nanoparticles are relatively stable in the liquid medium they might be advanced right into a mouth clean solution soon.”

Ongoing to maneuver forward, Henriques hopes to integrate silver nanoparticles into veneers, that may prevent infections from creating itself.

New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Head & Face Medicine resulted in thicker margins around the tooth and, in over half the cases, complete coverage of exposed roots.

Researchers across Germany and Switzerland led by Dr Shahram Ghanaati and the dentist Dr Markus Schlee investigated the possibility of using collagen, extracted from bovine pericardium, to form a support for mending receding gums and exposed roots. The collagen was extracted by a process involving osmotic, oxidative and alkaline treatment. This ensured that the cell walls were broken down, proteins and fats dissolved, and that bacteria, viruses and other pathogens were inactivated and removed.

The study followed 14 otherwise healthy patients with over 60 'recessions' between them.

Their damaged teeth were cleaned before surgery and the collagen implants held in place with loops of surgical thread around the affected tooth. Two weeks later the sutures were removed.

None of the patients needed antibiotics.

The patients were re-examined after six months to see how well they had recovered. Dr Schlee described the results, "In all cases the healed-over implant improved the look and severity of the recession, and, in over half of all treatments, resulted in total coverage of the exposed root. We would not have expected any of these patients to get better without surgery."

The collagen seems to be able to act as a scaffold for the body's own cells to repair the damage leading to results on a level comparable to that of connective tissue grafts.

Bovine collagen is a possible solution for patients with little available donor tissue or for whom multiple surgeries are not an option.

Source-Eurekalert

When examining the jaw, the researchers noted that one of the canines had a cavity that had traces of beeswax on it. Radiocarbon dating verified that both the jaw and beeswax were contemporaneous – that is, it wasn’t the case that a few hundred years later that the beeswax came to be on the jaw.

During the course of their investigation, one of the main questions was whether the cavity and other damage to the tooth happened before or after the death of the person. Although it can’t be completely ruled out, the damage to the tooth is consistent with damage that happens in a person’s lifetime, not the type of tooth damage that happens after death.

Moreover, the researchers also believe that the use of beeswax as a post-mortem burial ritual is unlikely as well, as there isn’t much evidence of ceremonial burial in the cultures of that area 6,500 years ago. Additionally, the only tooth where beeswax was applied was the one with the cavity. The crack in this tooth was particularly bad and probably caused the person a lot of pain. So the filling was probably applied to help dull or remove that pain. There’s evidence that the use of honey and other bee products for similar purposes was known at the time.

From the combination of all the evidence, the researchers concluded that “[b]ee products were largely used by prehistoric communities for technological, artistic and medical purposes but here we report, for the first time, its possible use for therapeutic-palliative dental filling.”

This is just one more piece of a growing body of evidence that medical techniques in the “stone age” were a lot more sophisticated than the popular sterotypes suggest. Prehistoric civilizations, far from being primitive and unsophisticated, were actually quite adept at using techniques that we might be tempted to think of as being quite modern.

That’s a mistake, though. As Sophie Bushwick at Discover noted, when she discussed this paper, “we drill a cavity before filling it in order to remove the decayed part of the tooth. For that kind of technology, our 6500-year-old friend would have to…go back another 2500 years.”

Scientists in Japan have created a microscopically thin film that can coat individual teeth to prevent decay or to make them appear whiter, the chief researcher said. The "tooth patch" is a hard-wearing and ultra-flexible material made from hydroxyapatite, the main mineral in tooth enamel, that could also mean an end to sensitive teeth.

"This is the world's first flexible apatite sheet, which we hope to use to protect teeth or repair damaged enamel," said Shigeki Hontsu, professor at Kinki University's Faculty of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology in western Japan. "Dentists used to think an all-apatite sheet was just a dream, but we are aiming to create artificial enamel," the outermost layer of a tooth, he said this month. Advertisement

Researchers can create film just 0.004 millimetres thick by firing lasers at compressed blocks of hydroxyapatite in a vacuum to make individual particles pop out. These particles fall on to a block of salt, which is heated to crystallise them, before the salt stand is dissolved in water. The film is scooped up on to filter paper and dried, after which it is robust enough to be picked up by a pair of tweezers. "The moment you put it on a tooth surface, it becomes invisible. You can barely see it if you examine it under a light," Professor Hontsu told AFP by telephone. The sheet has a number of minute holes that allow liquid and air to escape from underneath to prevent their forming bubbles when it is applied on to a tooth. One problem is that it takes almost one day for the film to adhere firmly to the tooth's surface, Professor Hontsu said. The film is currently transparent but it is possible to make it white for use in cosmetic dentistry. Researchers are experimenting on disused human teeth at the moment but the team will soon move to tests with animals, Professor Hontsu said, adding he was also trying it on his own teeth. Five years or more would be needed before the film could be used in practical dental treatment such as covering exposed dentin - the sensitive layer underneath enamel - but it could be used cosmetically within three years, Professor Hontsu said. The technology, which has been jointly developed with Kazushi Yoshikawa, associate professor at Osaka Dental University, is patented in Japan and South Korea and applications are under way in the United States, Europe and China.

TEETH are typically the hardest material in the body, but not so for some suckermouth catfish (Loricariidae). Their pearly whites do something wholly untoothy: bend.

Adaptations to avoid broken or chipped teeth are common enough - the teeth of sharks and rays, for example, are slightly loose. But this is the first published report of bendable teeth. It makes sense for catfish to have them, though, since they scrape food off rocks and other hard surfaces with their mouths - a habit that could easily break rigid teeth.

Tom Geerinckx, an evolutionary morphologist at Ghent University in Belgium, extracted teeth from five species of scraping suckermouth catfish and analysed their composition and microstructure. He found that each tooth had a bendable section containing more collagen and significantly less calcium, phosphate and magnesium than the rest of the tooth. The work will appear in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

"[The] teeth are very long and skinny and they have a built-in section that's flexible. That's absolutely mind-blowing," says Peter Wainwright of the University of California, Davis.

Such teeth may not be unique, though. Wainwright suggests they are also found in some common reef fish that feed by scraping rocks. "I've personally tweaked their teeth and holy cow, they're bendable," he says.

Picture is of her boat Nightmare.

Video of Michelle racing

I started Racing 3 years ago in a 17ft Everingham Hull 5.2ltr Carby boat called Nightmare. I have competed in many club days with placing many times over the years. My most recent race was the 2012 Bridge to Bridge which is a 112km race from Brooklyn Bridge to Windsor Bridge. We were the only all girl team to participate and we won our class and did it in 50minutes which averaged a speed of 84-85mph (roughly 137kph). We also received the fastest woman to compete award.

Rappers who wear grills, a gold or platinum piece of jewellery that sits on their teeth, can now have bling that sings. Aisen Chacin, an artist at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, has created Play-A-Grill, which turns the jewellery into a tongue-controlled MP3 player.

Play-A-Grill uses bone conduction to play sounds, with vibrations on the teeth being passed to the ear drum through the skull. The idea has been suggested before, in the form of a false tooth, but Chacin wanted to make something more fashionable.

She embedded a vibrating motor connected to the headphone jack of an MP3 player inside a mould of her mouth, with the player's controls facing downwards so they could be manipulated with the tongue. The vibration of the motor was strong enough for her to hear the music through her skull, though controlling the MP3 player with her tongue proved more difficult. If the music is loud enough, the palate acts as a resonator and others nearby can hear sound coming from the wearer's mouth.

"The Play-A-Grill attempts to provide a display that challenges our perception of listening, altering the body's natural sound output and relocating as an input," Chacin says. She presented the work at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week.

Across the ages, hormonal changes take place during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Krejci found female hormones that fluctuate throughout women's lives can change conditions in the mouth that allow bacteria to grow, enter the blood, and exacerbate certain health issues like bone loss, foetal death and pre-term births.

Her overview of the literature was reported in the article, "Women's Health: Periodontitis and its Relation to Hormonal Changes, Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Osteoporosis" in the May issue of Oral Health and Preventive Dentistry.

The Case Western Reserve University periodontist reviewed 61 journal articles with nearly 100 studies for a collective answer on whether hormones have a relationship to gum disease and specific women's health issues like preterm labour, bone loss, and the side effect of hormonal replacement therapy.

"There's definitely a gender-specific connection between women's hormones, gum disease, and specific health issues impacting women," Krejci said.

"Although women tend to take better care of their oral health than men, the main message is women need to be even more vigilant about maintaining healthy teeth and gums to prevent or lessen the severity of some of women-specific health issues," Krejci said.

In addition to the brushing and flossing daily regimen, Krejci recommends visiting the dentist at least every six months, and more if there are any gum problems found or women suffer from bone loss or are pregnant.

She added that it is widely known that hormones cause some women gum problems during pregnancy. Women already susceptible to gum disease before being pregnant, she advises, need to make sure that these oral problems are treated.

Although women were once discouraged from seeing the dentist while pregnant, she said that scaling and planing of the roots of teeth to eliminate some gum disease is now recommended during pregnancy for women. Severe gum disease requiring surgery is still generally postponed until after the baby's birth.

Gum disease begins with the build-up of bacterial plaque on the teeth and under the gums. Untreated it can cause irritation and inflammation during which harmful and toxic by-products are released. These toxins erode the bone that anchors teeth and cause breaks and bleeding in the gums.

Recently an 83 year old woman of Belgian decent suffering from severe osteomyelitis had most of her lower mandible destroyed by the infection. In a world first the Biomed team operating from the university of Hasselt Belgium constructed a new mandible by using MRI scanning that was then fed into a specialised 3D printer which recreated her jawbone from a coated biocompatible ceramic layer.

No detail was spared the implant had dimples and cavities needed to allow muscle attachment and nerves to pass through plus various support structures for doing dental implants.

The 4 hour operation taken place last June has allowed the patient to speak and now swallow normally. Operation leader Jules Poukens said the operation appeared so far quite successful. The implant was a mix of Titanium and covered in a specialized ceramic layer for biocompatibility.

Original Article

"We currently have 12 confirmed cases, of which three are dead," says Zarir Udwadia of the Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, and head of the team whose diagnoses of four cases has just been published.

The emergence of the disease in such a densely populated city is a major concern as it could spread so easily. "We know one patient transmitted it to her daughter," Udwadia told New Scientist. "It's estimated that on average, a tuberculosis patient infects 10 to 20 contacts in a year, and there's no reason to suspect that this strain is any less transmissible," he warns.

For patients, the outlook is grim. "Short of quarantining them in hospitals with isolation facilities till they become non-infectious – which is not practical or possible – there is nothing else one can do to prevent transmission," says Udwadia.

The worry is that if it continues spreading, TB will become incurable again and patients will have to rely on their immune system, rather than medical intervention, to overcome the illness – a scenario last seen a century ago.

Wake-up call

The World Health Organization is urgently organising a meeting to review the evidence and decide what steps to take next. "This is a problem that was predicted," says Paul Nunn, coordinator of the STOP TB department of the WHO in Geneva. "It's a wake-up call for countries to accelerate provision of proper care, particularly for multidrug-resistant patients," says Nunn.

"It's very worrying, but kind of inevitable, given the gradual emergence of resistance," says Ruth McNerney, a TB researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "It's like watching a slow-motion horror movie unfold."

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, which is resistant to the mainline treatments isoniazid and rifampin, emerged in the early 1990s. In 2006, extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains emerged, defying all the expensive second-line treatments too.

Now, the focus may switch to totally drug-resistant (TDR) tuberculosis. The first two cases of TDR were reported in Italy in 2007. Then, 15 patients with TDR were reported in Iran in 2009.

The Indian report is the first since then. Udwadia blames the emergence of totally untreatable TB on poor management of the MDR strain. "Years of mismanagement of MDR-TB at government and private care levels resulted in amplification of the level of resistance till we finally ended up with this untreatable strain," he says.

Expensive drugs

He adds that while India has made huge strides in controlling conventional TB through its national programme, it has failed to provide the same level of support and treatment for patients with MDR-TB – not least because the drugs can cost between $2000 and $12,000 per patient. Treating conventional TB costs just $20 per patient.

Patients with MDR-TB – of which there were 110,000 in India in 2006 – must turn to private practitioners for help. They seldom receive proper treatment, though. Udwadia surveyed 106 private practitioners in a Mumbai suburb and found that only five of them would prescribe the correct prescription if approached by a MDR-TB patient.

Nunn agrees that this is a major problem in many countries, calling on governments to accelerate and boost programmes to diagnose and treat MDR-TB, despite the cost.

He thinks it is possible that drugs such as clofazimine and thioacetazone might yet be able to treat the new form of TB, but they have serious side effects. Thioacetazone strips the skin off patients with HIV, for instance. So the best response is for countries to step up surveillance and treatment for MDR-TB.

"We must wake up the politicians," says McNerney. "Do we wait until it starts to come to the UK and the US on airplanes, or do we act now?"

Journal reference: Clinical Infectious Diseases, DOI: 10.1093/cid/cir889

Although all carried the same number of teeth.

The differences persisted even after She accounted for the effects of climate, Geography, and random genetic variations. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1113050108)

The likeliest explanation is that Grain-rich agricultural diets tend to be softer and easier to chew Than the wild plant and meat-rich Diets of hunter/gatherers- So the Jaw does not grow so large,says Von Cramon-Taubadel.

The panel noted in its report that these nonfluoride options could provide an extra benefit to prevent cavities in patients at high risk for developing cavities when used in addition to products such as toothpaste, dental sealants and varnishes that contain fluoride as well as community water fluoridation and good eating habits.

The full report is available on the ADA's Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry (EBD) website (http://ebd.ada.org/). The executive summary of the report is published in the September issue of The Journal for the American Dental Association. The clinical recommendations from the expert panel were reviewed and approved by the ADA's Council on Scientific Affairs.

The ADA recommends that clinicians determine a patient's risk for developing cavities by conducting a caries risk assessment, which includes completing a caries risk assessment form that can be used as a communications tool with their patients. The Caries Form (Patients Ages 0-6 Years) (http://jada.ada.org/content/142/9/1065.full.pdf) and the Caries Form (Patients Over 6 Years) (http://jada.ada.org/content/142/9/1065.full.pdf) are available on ADA.org.

Nonfluoride agents

In addition to a comprehensive cavity-prevention program which includes the use of fluoride, the scientific panel recommended that clinicians consider applying a mixture of cholrhexidine-thymol varnish to the teeth of high-risk adults and the elderly every three months to reduce cavities developing in the root of the tooth.

The panel encouraged clinicians to consider advising parents and caregivers of healthy children older than 5 years who are at higher risk for cavities to chew sugar-free polyol gum after meals for 10 to 20 minutes to prevent cavities.

A polyol is a low-calorie sweetener such as xylitol, sorbitol or mannitol, which is not broken down by the bacteria in the mouth and therefore does not contribute to tooth decay. The panel also recommended that sucking xylitol-containing sugar-free lozenges or hard candy after meals may reduce cavities in children.

The panel's recommendations are based on a review of evidence from 71 published articles that described 50 randomized controlled trials and 15 nonrandomized studies to assess the effectiveness of various nonfluoride agents in preventing cavities.

ADA expert panels, Evidence-Based Dentistry

The clinical recommendations, developed by expert multidisciplinary panels convened by the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs, assessed available scientific evidence and developed practice-oriented recommendations through a comprehensive evidence-based process.

Evidence-based clinical recommendations are intended to provide dentists and other health professionals with a review of the latest scientific evidence on particular topics and are not considered a standard of care. Rather, health care professionals can consider clinical recommendations, patient preference and their own clinical judgment when diagnosing and treating patients.

Thanks to all our sponsors, Variety changes the lives of many children!

Lee Brady

For 50 years, we have been fighting viruses in two ways: drugs for existing infections and vaccines to prevent infection in the first place. However, most drugs or vaccines are specific to one virus, viral strain or family of related viruses. When a virus mutates – as they so often do – researchers must retool our medicines.

The new drug targets a molecule common to all virus-infected cells. Nearly every virus generates strings of double-stranded RNA longer than 30 base pairs during transcription and replication, in an attempt to duplicate itself and commandeer its host cell's machinery. Healthy mammalian cells do not produce double-stranded RNA longer than 23 base pairs.

The immune artillery within mammalian cells includes a protein that exploits this viral characteristic. Todd Rider of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, and his colleagues combined this protein with another from the immune system to produce their new drug.

When a sentinel enzyme called protein kinase R (PKR) finds double-stranded RNA longer than 23 base pairs inside a cell, it binds to the RNA, blocks the production of viral proteins and activates the cell's defences. Many viruses, though, have evolved ways to evade PKR.

Unleash the enzymes

So Rider and his colleagues glued PKR to apoptotic protease activating factor 1 (APAF-1), a protein that triggers cell suicide by unleashing a team of destructive enzymes. Healthy cells normally reserve APAF-1 for extreme situations – to trigger self-destruction in a cancerous cell, for instance – but as part of the new antiviral drug, APAF-1 is activated as soon as PKR identifies and binds to lengthy molecules of double-stranded RNA in an infected cell.

The drug "catches the virus with its pants down", by destroying the cell before new viruses have been assembled inside it, explains Rider. Even if fragmented virus molecules escape the obliterated cell, they will be missing the protein coat that helps them to travel between cells, and so will not infect surrounding healthy tissue. Rider calls his drug double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated caspase oligomeriser (DRACO).

In tests, Rider infected human and mouse cells in Petri dishes with rhinovirus, which causes some forms of the common cold in humans. DRACO prevented the virus from spreading by rapidly killing infected cells without harming healthy ones. Further tests showed that DRACO performs just as well against 14 other viruses, including the one responsible for dengue fever. It also helped boost survival rates in mice given an otherwise lethal dose of the H1N1 flu virus.

"Just as antibiotics revolutionised the treatment of bacterial infections, this project has a lot of potential to prevent or treat a whole range of infectious illnesses," says Rider. Infections on the hit list range from "the common cold to quite serious diseases – [and] even [the most] drug-resistant HIV", he says. DRACO could also act a shield against viruses that might appeal to bioterrorists, such as Ebola and smallpox.

Draconian measures

Andrea Branch of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City thinks the work is intriguing but has some reservations about its practicality. She points out that DRACO is a large protein, which may not enter cells easily.

That said, she agrees that administering DRACO early in an infection could be effective – but adds that destroying all cells infected with the virus can be dangerous in people with advanced viral infections. "Suppose 100 per cent of your hepatocytes [liver cells] are infected and you used this – you would die of liver failure."

Timothy Tellinghuisen of the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, adds that some viruses have evolved ways to conceal their double-stranded RNA, and so could elude DRACO. Still, "this is really an interesting paper, a very clever approach to getting rid of cells containing double-stranded RNA", he says.

The identification of the protein that allows Streptococcus mutans to gain a foothold in heart tissue is reported in the June issue of Infection and Immunity by microbiologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

S. mutans is a bacterium best known for causing cavities. The bacteria reside in dental plaque -- an architecturally sophisticated goo composed of an elaborate molecular matrix created by S. mutans that allows the bacteria to inhabit and thrive in our oral cavity. There, they churn out acid that erodes our teeth.

Normally, S. mutans confines its mischief to the mouth, but sometimes, particularly after a dental procedure or even after a vigorous bout of flossing, the bacteria enter the bloodstream. There, the immune system usually destroys them, but occasionally -- within just a few seconds -- they travel to the heart and colonize its tissue, especially heart valves. The bacteria can cause endocarditis -- inflammation of heart valves -- which can be deadly. Infection by S. mutans is a leading cause of the condition.

"When I first learned that S. mutans sometimes can live in the heart, I asked myself: Why in the world are these bacteria, which normally live in the mouth, in the heart? I was intrigued. And I began investigating how they get there and survive there," said Jacqueline Abranches, Ph.D., a microbiologist and the corresponding author of the study.

Abranches and her team at the University's Center for Oral Biology discovered that a collagen-binding protein known as CNM gives S. mutans its ability to invade heart tissue. In laboratory experiments, scientists found that strains with CNM are able to invade heart cells, and strains without CNM are not.

When the team knocked out the gene for CNM in strains where it's normally present, the bacteria were unable to invade heart tissue. Without CNM, the bacteria simply couldn't gain a foothold; their ability to adhere was about one-tenth of what it was with CNM.

The team also studied the response of wax worms to the various strains of S. mutans. They found that strains without CNM were rarely lethal to the worms, while strains with the protein were lethal 90 percent of the time. Then, when Abranches' team knocked out CNM in those strains, they were no longer lethal -- those worms thrived.

The work may someday enable doctors to prevent S. mutans from invading heart tissue. Even sooner, though, since some strains of S. mutans have CNM and others do not, the research may enable doctors to gauge a patient's vulnerability to a heart infection caused by the bacteria.

Abranches has identified five specific strains of S. mutans that carry the CNM protein, out of more than three dozen strains examined. CNM is not found in the most common type of S. mutans found in people, type C, but is present in rarer types of S. mutans, including types E and F.

"It may be that CNM can serve as a biomarker of the most virulent strains of S. mutans," said Abranches, a research assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. "When patients with cardiac problems go to the dentist, perhaps those patients will be screened to see if they carry the protein. If they do, the dentist might treat them more aggressively with preventive antibiotics, for example."

Until more research is done and a screening or preventive tool is in place, Abranches says the usual advice for good oral health still stands for everyone.

"No matter what types of bacteria a person has in his or her mouth, they should do the same things to maintain good oral health. They should brush and floss their teeth regularly -- the smaller the number of S. mutans in your mouth, the healthier you'll be. Use a fluoride rinse before you go to bed at night. And eat a healthy diet, keeping sugar to a minimum," added Abranches.

Abranches presented the work at a recent conference on the "oral microbiome" hosted by the University's Center for Oral Biology. The center is part of the Medical Center's Eastman Institute for Oral Health, a world leader in research and post-doctoral education in general and pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, and oral surgery.

Additional authors of the study include laboratory technician James Miller; former technician Alaina Martinez; Patricia Simpson-Haidaris, Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine; Robert Burne, Ph.D., of the University of Florida; and Abranches' husband, Jose Lemos, Ph.D., of the Center for Oral Biology, who is also assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. The work was funded by the American Heart Association.

Now, using a highly sophisticated atomic-scale imaging tool on a sea creature's tooth, two Northwestern University researchers have peeled away some of the mystery of organic/inorganic interfaces that are at the heart of tooth and bone structure. They are the first to produce a three-dimensional map of the location and identity of millions of individual atoms in the complex hybrid material that allows the animal to literally chew rock.

Demonstrating that atom-probe tomography (APT) can be used to interrogate such materials opens up the possibility of tracking fluoride in teeth and cancer and osteoporosis drugs in bone (at previously inaccessible length scales). The detailed knowledge of organic/inorganic interfaces also will help scientists rationally design useful new materials -- flexible electronics, polymers and nanocomposite materials, such as organic photovoltaics -- that combine the best properties of organic and inorganic materials.

The results will be published Jan. 13 by the journal Nature.

"The interface between the organic and inorganic materials plays a large role in controlling properties and structure," said Derk Joester, senior author of the paper. "How do organisms make and control these materials? We need to understand this architecture on the nanoscale level to design new materials intelligently. Otherwise we really have no idea what is going on."

Joester is the Morris E. Fine Junior Professor in Materials and Manufacturing at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Lyle Gordon, a doctoral student in Joester's lab, is the other author of the paper.

The two set out to find the organic fibers they knew to be an important part of the tooth's structure, buried in the tough outer layer of the tooth, made of magnetite. Their quantitative mapping of the tooth shows that the carbon-based fibers, each 5 to 10 nanometers in diameter, also contained either sodium or magnesium ions. Joester and Gordon are the first to have direct proof of the location, dimension and chemical composition of organic fibers inside the mineral.

They were surprised by the chemical heterogeneity of the fibers, which hints at how organisms modulate chemistry at the nanoscale. Joester and Gordon are anxious to learn more about how the organic fibers interface with the inorganic minerals, which is key to understanding hybrid materials.

"The tooth's toughness comes from this mix of organic and inorganic materials and the interfaces between them," Joester said. "While this is in principle well known, it is intriguing to think we may have overlooked how subtle changes in the chemical makeup of nanoscale interfaces may play a role in, for instance, bone formation or the diffusion of fluoride into tooth enamel. In this regard, atom-probe tomography has the potential to revolutionize our understanding."

Atom-probe tomography (APT) produces an atom-by-atom, 3-D reconstruction of a sample with sub-nanometer resolution. But many in the field didn't think APT would work to analyze a material made up of organic and inorganic parts.

Fortunately for Joester and Gordon, Northwestern has both David Seidman, a leader in the field who uses APT to study metals, and two of the few APT instruments in the country. (There are less than a dozen.) Seidman, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, encouraged Joester to take the risk and use APT to study biological architectures. The scientists also were able to exchange ideas with the engineers developing 3-D atom-probe instruments at CAMECA, a scientific instrumentation company in nearby Madison, Wis.

Joester and Gordon imaged teeth of the chiton, a tiny marine mollusk, because much is known about the biomineralization process. The chiton lives in the sea and feeds on algae found on rocks. It continually makes new rows of teeth -- one a day -- to replace mature but worn teeth; in conveyor-belt fashion, the older teeth move down the creature's tongue-like radula toward the mouth where it feeds.

Chiton teeth resemble human teeth in that they have a hard and tough outer layer -- equivalent to our enamel -- and a softer core. Instead of enamel, the rock-chewing chitons use magnetite, a very hard iron oxide, which gives their teeth a black luster.

The researchers extracted micron-sized samples from the leading edge of the tooth. Using a focused ion beam tool at the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center core facility, these samples were fashioned into very sharp tips (less than 20 nanometers across). The process is reminiscent of sharpening a pencil, albeit with a supercharged stream of gallium ions.

The APT technique applies an extremely high electric field to the sample; atoms on the surface ionize, fly off and hit an imaging detector (similar to those found in night-vision equipment). The atoms are stripped off atom-by-atom and layer-by-layer, like peeling an onion. Computer methods then are used to calculate the original location of the atoms, producing a 3-D map or tomogram of millions of atoms within the sample.

Joester and Gordon now are studying the tooth enamel of a vertebrate and plan to apply APT to bone, which is also made of organic and inorganic parts, to learn more about its nanoscale structure.

The tooth fairy could soon have less work on her hands now that a gene needed to make tooth enamel has been identified.

Humans cannot restore tooth enamel when it is damaged because the cells that produce it, called ameloblasts, retire once enamel fully covers mature teeth. Consequently, if the surface of our pearly whites becomes compromised through poor diet or inadequate tooth-brushing, cavities form as bacteria attack layers deeper down.

James O'Sullivanat the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues, scanned the genomes of four people from the same family who shared a genetic disorder called amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) that leads to weak enamel, and five family members without the condition. They then compared the results with 952 DNA samples from unrelated individuals.

Family members with AI had a mutation on both copies of the gene FAM20A. The four unaffected family members had only one copy of the mutated gene. None of the DNA samples from unrelated people had the mutation.

In mice, a normal version of FAM20A was expressed throughout the teeth, and at particularly high rates when ameleoblasts were maturing, adding weight to the idea that the gene plays a key role in the production of enamel.

Tony Phan, an oral biologist at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, suggests that the protein created by FAM20A may boost the production of enamel by binding to ameloblasts. If so, it may be possible to use the protein to reactivate the enamel-producing cells on damaged teeth to prevent decay taking hold, he says.

1. ChitoGauze

HemCon Medical Technologies manufactures bandages and wound dressings that harness the power of the sea. The company's products use chitosan, a biopolymer made from a component in the exoskeletons of crab, shrimp and other crustacean exoskeletons. The positively charged chitosan attracts the negatively charged outer membranes of red blood cells; when the two come into contact, localized clotting occurs. HemCon's chitosan-coated bandages are already in use in Iraq; its latest product is ChitoGauze.


2. Gecko Bandage

The ability of geckos to scale vertical surfaces comes from the special topography of their feet: nano-size hairs gives their feet an adhesive property. Robert Langer, Jeffrey M. Karp and their colleagues at MIT created a gecko-inspired bandage, covered with synthetic versions of these hairs. The bandage can stick to wet surfaces—like the heart itself—and it biodegrades over time, meaning that surgeons can use it to help repair internal injuries.


3. QuikClot

The family of QuikClot products make use of kaolin clay, a natural blood-clotter. The tiny particles of aluminosilicate contained in the clay have been known for decades to trigger the body's clotting cascade. Bandages coated with these particles, made by Z-Medica Corporation, have already been used successfully on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan as well by law-enforcement and disaster-preparedness teams in the U.S. The newest product in the family, QuikClot Emergency Dressing, is designed to be used in hospitals and for everyday injuries.

4. Ultrasound Device

Forget bandages—make way for sound. George Lewis, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at Cornell University, developed a pocket-size machine that administers high-energy ultrasound waves. The waves are powerful enough that they can cauterize an open wound and stop it from bleeding—the tool's inventor foresees military medics and EMTs carrying the cell-phone-size devices in their pockets, allowing them to treat severe bleeds in the field.

5. Scaffold Bandage

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have created a superfine, biodegradable bandage that acts as a skin farm over the wound. Doctors take a biopsy of patients' skin cells, which are attached to the scaffold before the dressing is applied over a wound. The skin cells multiply and grow over the scaffold, which eventually dissolves and leaves the patient's own cells in its stead.

6. Electric Bandage

Cut won't heal? Electrocute it. Research has shown that the skin's own microcurrents play an important role in wound healing. Clinical trials have now shown that a bandage that distributes mild electrical current across the surface of a wound significantly speeds healing—even for wounds that have proved resistant to other treatments. The surface of the bandage, a product of biotechnology company Vomaris, is covered in microbatteries which are inert when dry. Wetting the bandage activates the circuit, and small currents are applied over the surface of the wound.

7. Self-Assembling Gel

University of Delaware researchers Joel Schneider and Darrin Pochan have patented a novel hydrogel composed of self-assembling peptides; when the gel is injected into a wound, it becomes rigid. But because it remains porous, the researchers hope it will be able to deliver drugs or regenerative cells into a wound. (Recent research from their labs reveals that living cells can, indeed, be encapsulated in this gel and successfully delivered into a wound.) The gels also have antimicrobial properties.

Fillings are used to fill holes left by tooth decay. (Do yourself a favor and don't check out Google images for 'tooth decay.') Decay is caused by bacteria called streptococcus mutans, and yes it does feed on sugar in the diet. The French team, rather than identify other fillers for the holes, tried to find a way to make the tooth grow back to fill in the hole.

They made a gel substance from MSH (melanocyte-stimulating hormone) with poly-L-glutamic acid, a strong survivor often used to transport drugs through our bodies because it can fight off stomach acids that might destroy the medication. The researchers rubbed the gel on dental pulp fibroblasts taken from human tooth tissue and found that the gel triggered growth of new cells and adhered to each other.

MSH is a substance that is naturally produced by the pituitary gland and it is active in determining the lightness or darkness of our skin color. But recently, MSH has been identified as playing a crucial role in bone regeneration, which is what gave the researchers the idea to try it for tooth regeneration.

The researchers experimented with the gel on mice with dental cavities and the cavities disappeared within one month. It took the same amount of time to restore the human samples to form healthy new tooth tissue. Though it won't be available to dentists for 3 to 5 years, there's one thing you can count on: there won't be a hole in your tooth any more. That tissue you identify as "tooth" will come back and look just like your original - a brand new tooth.

The complete study is published by the American Chemical Society in its journal ACS Nano.

On both side of the canines there are small molar teeth (premolars) and molar teeth (molars). Each side of the jaw has three molars.
 

Last third molars are wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth appear from 16 to 25 years, although they can be in their embryonic state for a whole life.
 

There are 4 wisdom teeth in the mouth on each jaw, on the right and left.
 

What is impacted wisdom tooth?
 

Deeply immersed tooth in dentistry is called a tooth that can not cut in full and take its place in the tooth row. Cut tooth is a tooth raising above the gum and reaching the tooth-antagonist on the opposite jaw. The cause of incomplete eruption is that it was not enough space in the tooth row for this tooth or wisdom tooth has the wrong angle.
 

Impacted wisdom teeth in dentistry are divided by different types. In the direction of position, wisdom teeth are divided into 4 types: medial, distal, horizontal and vertical. The most common type of impacted wisdom teeth is the one with medial immersion. The term “medial” means that the wisdom tooth is angled forward toward the front teeth.
 

The term “distal” means that the wisdom tooth is angled backwards. Wisdom teeth with vertical, horizontal, distal dip are rare. Wisdom teeth are also divided on those called tissue and bony impacted.
 

If the tooth has remained deep in the jaw, did not appear on the surface, we speak of “bony” immersion. If it went through the bone but not completely cut through the gum, then it is called “tissue” immersion.
 

What problems can cause impacted wisdom teeth?
 
There are some problems caused by wisdom teeth:

• Pericoronitis
• Caries of wisdom tooth
• Dystopia
• Damage of the roots of adjacent teeth

 
Pericoronitis
 

Pericoronitis is an inflammation of the gingiva around partially erupted tooth. This is the most frequently occurring complication associated with the eruption of wisdom teeth. A tooth erupts gradually. First, there is one of its hills, forming a gap in the gum, and the rest of the tooth remains veiled by it, forming a hood.
 

Hood around partially erupted tooth is a potential site of infection. Because of the difficulty of cleaning, food remnants and debris are accumulated at this point; so there are ideal conditions for bacteria which cause inflammation of the soft tissue around the wisdom tooth.
 

Wisdom tooth caries
 

We already know that dental caries occurs on the surfaces of the teeth, where plaque accumulates. Wisdom teeth are the most distant teeth, and often using a toothbrush can be difficult. Constant plaque remnants lead to their accumulation and formation of cavities. In addition, if the tooth is cut partially, it is under the overhanging edge of the gums (hood), which also contributes to the accumulation of large amount of plaque and prevents tooth brushing.
 

Often the position of wisdom tooth doesn’t allow cleaning plaque between it and the adjacent tooth. In this case, caries can affect the contact surface of not only the wisdom tooth, but the next one too.
 

Dystopia
 

Dystopia – this is incorrect position of the tooth in a dentition toward the cheek, tongue, or turning around its axis. It is believed that when wisdom tooth erupts, when there is no sufficient space in the tooth row, it puts pressure on other teeth, causing them to move and take the wrong position in the jaw.
 

Damage of the roots of adjacent teeth
 

As we already mentioned, wisdom teeth often take the wrong position in the jaw, even horizontal position in the bone. Thus it can connect the root of the adjacent tooth and have significant pressure on it during eruption. As a result, the root of the adjacent tooth starts to dissolve.
 

When to remove wisdom teeth?
 

There are no explicit age criteria for removal of wisdom teeth. It is better to remove impacted wisdom teeth in a young age because the sooner they are gone, the lower the risk of associated complications is. Secondly, the younger the organism, the easier it is transferred to various surgical manipulations and quicker healing after the removal. Third, less traumatic are removed teeth which roots are not yet fully formed, and the surrounding bone tissue is less dense.
 

Wisdom tooth removal
 

The first step to remove a wisdom tooth is pain relief. After anesthesia, the dentist proceeds to remove the impacted wisdom tooth. Since submerged wisdom tooth may be under the gum and covered with bone, the dentist provides access to remove a wisdom tooth. To create access, the dentist cuts the gum, and then removes the area of bone tissue located above this tooth.
 

In order to remove the smallest possible amount of bone, the dentist often cuts wisdom tooth in parts for removal. For this purpose dental burs are used. After the separation of a wisdom tooth, the dentist removes each of these parts of the tooth with special tools.
 

After removal of wisdom teeth the dentist overcasts the seams on the place of extracted tooth, because he had cut the gum tissue and provided access for removal of wisdom teeth.
 

Some varieties of threads that make these seams subsequently dissolve by themselves, and non-dissolvable stitches are removed by the dentist. Typically non-dissolvable stitches are used – the process of withdrawing is very simple and painless.

"Dental implants will show a growth of nine percent and facial injectables 12 percent, both driven by consumer demand for anti-aging treatments. Otherwise, a few recently developed surgical technologies, particularly percutaneous heart valves, OCT catheters, and spinal nonfusion implants, will grow significantly."

Procedure volumes in cardiovascular surgery, orthopedics, endoscopy, urology, and gynecology will grow at between four and five percent annually from 2010 to 2015, only slightly more than the three percent growth rate in the over-50 population. Most of the growth results from predictable population aging. But a few procedural segments will expand significantly.

"The aesthetic and dental areas have consistently shown greater than average growth," says April Chan, Publications Manager at MRG. "Dental implants will show a growth of nine percent and facial injectables 12 percent, both driven by consumer demand for anti-aging treatments. Otherwise, a few recently developed surgical technologies, particularly percutaneous heart valves, OCT catheters, and spinal nonfusion implants, will grow significantly."

Percutaneous heart valves, launching in the United States in 2012, will grow 200 percent. These devices treat patients ineligible for heart valve surgery and also meet clinical demand for less-invasive heart valve disease treatment.

OCT catheters, first approved in the United States in 2010, will grow 58 percent. This technology permits the detailed 3D imaging of heart vessels for diagnosis of coronary artery disease, at much higher resolutions than ultrasound.

Spinal nonfusion implants will grow 20 percent, due to positive clinical results on these motion-preserving devices.

MRG's North American Surgical Procedure Volumes 2011 includes procedure numbers from 28 of Millennium Research Group's 2010 publications. Therapeutic areas are covered in this report are cardiovascular procedures, dental procedures, diagnostic imaging procedures, facial injectable procedures, gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures, nonvascular interventional radiology procedures, orthopedic procedures, soft tissue repairs, and urology & gynecology procedures.

This simple action that most of us do without giving it a thought could be a major source of exposure to germs, bacteria, viruses and other organisms that could make you and your family sick, according to recent research into what's really clinging to your purse.

Chuck Gerba, a microbiologist with the University of Arizona, used a hand-held germ meter to test how much bacteria was being carried around on women's purses. Purses, after all, are indispensable for most women, and go with them from the car to the office to the bathroom to the grocery store and everywhere in between.

After testing swabs of 10 women's purses for ABC News, Gerba found:

• At least some bacteria on every purse
• Most purses had tens of thousands of bacteria
• A few purses contained millions of bacteria
• One purse was covered with 6.7 million bacteria
• Five purses tested positive for coliform bacteria, which could mean that human or animal waste was present

How do these amounts compare to what's normal? According to health experts, readings above 200, which indicate thousands of bacteria present, are high enough to be worried about. "We found fecal bacteria you normally find on the floor of a restroom," Gerba said. "We found bacteria that can cause skin infections on the bottom of purses. What's more amazing is the large numbers we find on the bottom of purses, which indicates that they can be picking up a lot of other germs like cold viruses or viruses that cause diarrhea."

Another study by Gerba and colleagues that tested dozens of women's purses found equally disturbing results with 30 percent were coated with fecal bacteria, and some purses turned out to be 100 times dirtier than an average toilet seat. The worst area of the purses turned out to be, as you might suspect, the bottom. "The bottoms of women's purses are pretty bad," Gerba says. "About 25 percent have fecal bacteria because women put it down on the toilet floor in restrooms."

As a word of advice, instead of setting your purse on the ground, keep it slung over your shoulder or on a hook/chair back whenever possible.

The work presented in the thesis has examined children, adolescents and young adults in the age groups 3, 6, 12-16 and 18-24, with and without asthma. The first study revealed that 3- year-olds who suffer from asthma have more caries than 3-year-olds without asthma. "The children with asthma had a greater tendency to breathe through the mouth; they became dry in the mouth and were therefore given sugary drinks more often. This may have contributed to them developing higher cariesprevalence", explains Malin Stensson, dental hygienist and researcher at the Department of Cariology, Institute of Odontology at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

These children were then followed in a study from age 3 years to age 6 years. It became clear that the 3-year-olds with asthma subsequently developed more caries than children without asthma.

The scientists have also compared the oral health of adolescents aged 12-16 years who had long-term moderate or severe asthma with that of adolescents of the same age without asthma. "Only 1 out of 20 in the asthma group was cariesfree, while 13 out of 20 were cariesfree in the control group. One factor that may have influenced the development of caries is somewhat lower level of saliva secretion, which was probably caused by the medication taken by those with asthma. Adolescents with asthma also suffered more often from gingivitis than those without asthma", says Malin Stensson.

The work presented in the thesis also examined the oral health of young adults aged 18-24 years, with and without asthma. The results from this age group were nearly identical with those in the group of 12-16-year-olds, although the differences between those with asthma and those without were not as large.

Malin Stensson points out that the numbers of participants in the studies were relatively small, and it may be difficult to generalise the results. What is interesting, however, is that young people with asthma have more caries than those without asthma, even for this participants who come from an area with relatively good oral health. "The study is particularly reliable because the groups are homogenous with respect to age and area of residence. Further, the participants with asthma had all been accurately diagnosed by a specialist. One of the studies is longitudinal, and this gives extra strength to the results", says Malin Stensson.

She emphasises how important it is that young people with asthma receive extra dentalcare early, and that a preventive oral health programme be established between the health care system and the dental care system. "Medical and dental personnel and the parents of children with asthma should be aware of the connection between asthma and oral hygiene."

Sources: University of Gothenburg, AlphaGalileo Foundation.

The meeting comes on the heels of a July 2009 Final Rule from the FDA that reclassified dental mercury from a class I device to a class II device and designated special controls for dental amalgam, mercury and amalgam alloy. The 2009 ruling was the culmination of seven years of deliberation by the FDA and confirmed the safety of dental amalgam for use in all populations.

The Final Rule noted that "scientific studies using the most reliable methods have shown that dental amalgam exposes adults to amounts of elemental mercury vapor below or approximately equivalent to the protective levels of exposure identified by Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."

On December 14, Dr. Mary Tavares, DMD, MPH, testified on behalf of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) during the first day of the Advisory Panel meeting. Dr. Tavares, a Senior Investigator at the Forsyth Institute and a co-Principle Investigator on the New England Children's Dental Amalgam Trial (Bellinger DC et al), stated that "no statistically significant differences in adverse neuropsychological or renal effects were observed in children whose teeth were restored with dental amalgam compared to composite resin." The five year clinical trial, which ended in 2006, was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association and funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR).

AADR continues to support the findings from the FDA 2009 Final Rule and the Association also supports the continual review of new scientific information regarding the safety of all dental products and materials, as it becomes available.

Notes:

To see AADR's full comments to the FDA Panel, click here.

Bellinger DC, Trachtenberg F, Barregard L, Tavares M, Cernichiari E, Daniel D, McKinlay S. (2006) Neuro-psychological and renal effects of dental amalgam in children. A randomized clinical trial. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 295(15):1775-1783.

Source:
Ingrid L. Thomas
International & American Association for Dental Research