So you’ve taken a course on Invisalign and now you think you can straighten teeth. Maybe so. But watch out. These high-tech plastic aligners may not work as well as old-fashioned braces…in which case there could be a lawyer in your future. That’s the word from Daniel Kuncio, D.D.S., a New York orthodontist, and his colleagues at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. The team compared the teeth of
Can this pulp be saved? It’s a question occurring more and more often as dentists confront a growing number of cracked teeth. Cracks can irritate pulp, but according to a new study, catching these cracks soon enough can prevent the need for a root canal treatment. Eighty percent of cracked teeth with reversible pulpitis don’t need endodontics, researchers from the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina, Chapel
So you’ve tried good oral hygiene, mints, mouthwashes, and sweet-smelling gum. Nothing’s worked, and you wonder what else you can do to sweeten a patient’s bad breath. How about magnolia bark? That’s the surprising proposition from researchers at the Wrigley Company. In the November 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they report that this traditional Chinese medicine can massacre the bacteria behind halitosis. In fact, compounds
Sun, sand, and a root canal! Not a natural combination, we know, but that’s exactly what all Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and BlueChoice HealthPlan of South Carolina members can get, now that they have access to dental services overseas through Companion Global Dental. If other insurers follow suit, it could encourage more Americans to leave the country to get their teeth fixed. Companion Global Healthcare was already
Charged with protecting teeth, dentists loath to grind them away. But that’s exactly what they must do sometimes to fix the alignment of an overcrowded mouth or simply even out asymmetrical tooth widths. Grinding may pose a risk to the teeth because it reduces the amount of enamel, theoretically increasing the risk of cavities and periodontal disease. And rough surfaces left by grinding are a fertile field for plaque. The
America’s craze for the perfect set of teeth will make CAD/CAM-produced all-ceramic restorations a $1 billion industry by 2012, according to Millennium Research Group’s “U.S. Markets for Crown & Bridges 2008” report. Dental labs are shifting to these systems as more and more people show a preference for the natural results of all-ceramic restorations combined with the quick,customized turnaround of CAD/CAM systems. This shift will expand the dental CAD/CAM market
A quick dab, no needle and no pain. That’s the appeal of topical anesthetics. But dentists must beware of those in which the ingredients are combined by pharmacies, according to a report in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA); these poorly regulated products have already killed two patients. The practice of compounding — in which pharmacies combine drugs to form new products — is
Cultural habits, such as smoking, and chewing tobacco or areca nuts, may put different ethnic groups at a higher risk for developing invasive squamous cell carcinoma according to an epidemiologic study of oral cancer in ethnic subpopulations in California. Conducted by researchers at USC’s School of Dentistry, and Keck School of Medicine, the study found that African-American and Caucasian men who had the highest rates of smoking also had the
The U.S. surgeon general put dentistry on notice in 2001 with a critical report that laid bare the dismal state of dental health care for the poor. Now three groups, the American Dental Association (ADA), the American Dental Hygienists Association, and a consortium of Alaskan Natives, have finally taken up the challenge. Each is proposing a new breed of professional that’s less than a dentist, but may be more than
“See you in six months!” That standard farewell, heard every day in most American dental offices, is starting to fade. Swayed by the research, a growing number of dental insurance plans are rejecting the traditional semiannual cleaning. Instead, these plans are pushing dentists to see healthier patients less often and less healthy patients more often. Starting next year, “some members … will be eligible for up to four periodontal maintenance
Wondering how to better serve your younger patients? One step in the right direction is getting hard facts about the overall health of this unique population. “Given the complexity of issues surrounding children’s health, it’s vital that related decisions be based on data that are reliable, current, and local,” said David Alexander, M.D., president and CEO of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, in a press release. Dr. Alexander
Americans love gadgets, so it’s no surprise that power toothbrushes are gaining in popularity here. But this year, as the leading manufacturers roll out new models, two questions linger: Is power really better than manual? And do the new power brushes beat the old ones? The answer to the first question, according to some of the world’s leading experts, is (an extremely qualified) yes. “I think the power brushes are