More than 40 dental students from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles recently provided care at a Kenyan dental clinic where they also distributed toothbrushes and taught locals about oral hygiene. The students collected donated dental supplies and equipment and raised $175,000 to finance the clinic, which treated about 200 Kenyans earlier this month, according to a Los Angeles Times story. The students, who provided dental care
The newest compressor to hit the market, the RAMVAC Osprey by DentalEZ Group, addresses a potential issue that many practitioners many not be aware of: the potential for the spread of contamination from moist, compressed air. Initially introduced at the 2012 ADA Annual Session in October, the Osprey officially hit the market on December 3. “There was a study done at the Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus where they took
The University of Washington (UW) School of Dentistry has announced the winners of its annual sculpture contest, according to an article on the university’s website. Blake Davis, DDS, won with a design of a fisherman with a catch on his hook, while Soleil Roberts, DDS, was voted the runner-up with a wire depiction of an Egyptian queen. The whimsical contest has been run by the department of orthodontics for first-year
Dental service organization Heartland Dental Care has announced its affiliation with Goldstein, Garber and Salama, an Atlanta-based dental practice specializing in cosmetic dentistry. Goldstein, Garber and Salama offers three dual-trained dental specialists to provide comprehensive dental care, according to the practice. In addition, the group has six dentists with advanced training in their respective fields, with a particular emphasis on orthodontics, periodontics, implant dentistry, prosthetics, and cosmetic dentistry. Goldstein, Garber
A 60-year-old woman undergoing dental implant surgery had to have her dentist’s drill bit removed from her right lung after it fell into her mouth and she swallowed it, according to an article in the Local. When the 3-cm long drill bit loosened from its grip and landed in the patient’s mouth, she was immediately placed in an upright seated position during the surgery at Västmanland County Hospital in central
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Tri-Cities Community Health (TCCH) a grant for $500,000 to establish two new school-based health centers in Pasco, WA. On December 19, HHS approved more than $80 million in awards to establish 197 school-based health centers across the country to serve an estimated 384,000 students, TCCH said. One million was awarded to three applicants in the state of Washington, of which
The citizens of Portland, OR, will vote one year sooner on whether fluoride should be added to the city’s drinking water. Portland officials decided to move up the date of a public referendum that had been set for May 2014 to May 2013, according to an Associated Press story. Fluoride advocates said it’s important to have the issue settled quickly because Portland children, particularly those from low-income families, have high
New findings regarding the genetic mutations that cause head and neck cancer may lead to new therapies, according to collaborative research presented in November at the 2012 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium in New York City. Aaron Tward, MD, PhD, and colleagues analyzed tumor samples provided by the University of Pittsburgh from 92 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), according to an article on onclive.com. Patient samples were chosen
Few pictures in history are as enigmatic as the 1945 photo depicting a sailor kissing a nurse in New York’s Times Square. The picture was taken on V-J Day — Victory over Japan Day, the official end of World War II. For nearly 70 years, the girl in the picture was always presumed to be a nurse. Taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, the father of photojournalism, the photo was an impromptu
A 5-year-old boy old has become the first pediatric patient in the western U.S. to undergo transoral robotic surgery (TORS) to repair his rare congenital condition, a laryngeal cleft. Leonidas Hill was born with both a laryngeal cleft and a cleft lip and palate, defects that occur during embryonic development, according to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His cleft is an extremely rare airway defect in the laryngotracheal
Scientists who mapped the genome for the oral probiotic BLIS (bacteriocin-like inhibitory substance) K12 found no negative traits, which supports the safety of the strain, according to a recent study in the Journal of Bacteriology (November 2012, Vol. 194:21, pp. 5959-5960). BLIS K12 is a specific strain of Streptococcus salivarius (S. salivarius) that secretes powerful antimicrobial molecules, according to the team of European researchers. BLIS K12 reportedly supports healthy bacteria,
A new systematic review has found that pregnant women who are at high risk for preterm birth and have periodontal disease may be able to lower their risk by getting scaling and root planing (SRP) treatment (Journal of Periodontology, December 2012, Vol. 83:12, pp. 1508-1519). While previous studies have shown an association between preterm labor and periodontitis in pregnant women, the relationship is still under investigation, and a link has
