BEIJING (Reuters), May 14 – China’s capital has recorded its first death from an outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease as authorities try to contain the spread of a potent virus just three months before the city hosts the Olympic Games. Beijing Health Bureau spokeswoman Deng Xiaohong said a 13-month-old boy from the city’s northern Changping District died on the way to a hospital on Sunday. Hubei province to
After 10 years of practice, Todd Meeks, D.D.S., was burnt out on dentistry. Then he saw the light at the end of the tunnel — and it was coming from the end of a carbon diode laser. Speaking at the 24th annual meeting of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) last week in New Orleans, this general dentist from Fort Wayne, Ind., described how lasers have changed his practice,
Can you say, “the sixth sheik’s sixth’s sheep’s sick?” Maybe so, but many of your patients can’t when they leave your office. Now you can legally inject them with a drug to make such tongue twisters (and normal eating and speaking) possible much quicker, according to Novalar Pharmaceuticals of San Diego. The FDA has approved the use of phentolamine mesylate as the first-ever drug for reversing local anesthesia, the company
BEIJING (Reuters), May 9 – China reported two more deaths on Thursday from a severe strain of hand, foot, and mouth disease, bringing its toll from the outbreak to 30, all of them young children, Xinhua news agency reported. Hand, foot, and mouth is a common childhood illness, but the current outbreak has led to fatalities in China, mostly when linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severe
As more and more Americans abuse crystal methamphetamine, the effects are showing up on their teeth. And that poses a moral challenge for U.S dentists, says Mitchell Goodis, D.D.S., a Diamond Springs, CA., general dentist. “Meth abuse is an ongoing, growing problem among high-school students, many of whom see a dentist regularly and are not diagnosed despite readily apparent symptoms,” Dr. Goodis told a standing-room-only audience at the California Dental
Does the human body stop growing once we reach our late teens or early 20s, as most of us assume? Recent studies indicate that soft-tissue and skeletal patterns in the nose, lips, and ears grow continuously throughout our lives. In fact, the actual maturation process of longitudinal soft tissue continues from 18 to 42 years of age, according to David Sarver, D.M.D., M.S., a Birmingham, Ala., orthodontist and adjunct professor
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), May 7 – Periodontal disease and increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) in pregnant women heighten the risk of developing preeclampsia, researchers report in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “Maternal periodontal disease clearly contributes to an increased risk of preeclampsia,” lead investigator Dr. Michael Ruma told Reuters Health, “and our results demonstrate that this risk is further increased in the
Dental esthetics firm Heraeus Kulzer recently announced that it will relocate its North American headquarters to its current manufacturing and distribution facility in South Bend, Ind., by December 2008. All business functions, including sales, customer service, finance, accounting, technical services, and marketing, will be centralized at the South Bend facility, according to the company. “This is a time of unprecedented innovation in esthetic dentistry … and in the history of
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), May 6 – Children with diabetes may develop their permanent teeth earlier than normal, which could potentially increase their risk of dental problems, according to findings published in the medical journal Pediatrics. The researchers found that 10- to 14-year-olds with diabetes tended to have their final permanent teeth come in earlier than their peers did. The problem with such accelerated tooth “eruptions” is that they could
A law passed April 15 allows hygienists in Maine to serve patients at any location without supervision by dentists. Maine is hard-pressed for dental care and this legislation has expanded the scope of practice, said Jean Conner, president of the American Dental Hygienists Association. Hygienists have the ability to reach more underserved communities, and from there they can make references that bring more people into the system, she said. So
ANAHEIM, CA – The exhibit hall at the 2008 California Dental Association (CDA) meeting opened for business today, and crowds packed three halls at the Anaheim Convention Center, hoping to discover the next new product or service that will keep their businesses booming and their patients smiling. From improving practice management to imaging in multiple dimensions, hundreds of new products were on display to see and test out. Some of
Sales grew in the first quarter for Align Technology, the Santa Clara, CA, manufacturer of Invisalign, although the company’s net income dipped. For the period (end-March 31), Align posted sales of $74.8 million, up 17 percent compared with revenues of $63.8 million in the same period the year before. The company’s net income for the most recent quarter stood at $5.3 million, compared with $7 million in the same quarter