Bacterin expands maxillofacial surgery product line

Bacterin International Holdings has signed an exclusive agreement with Jeil Medical to distribute Jeil’s LeForte craniomaxillfacial surgery system in the U.S. and Canada. The LeForte system is composed of orthopedic implants used in craniomaxillofacial procedures, including trauma and reconstruction, and complements Bacterin’s existing expertise and product offerings in the tissue grafting arena, the companies noted. Bacterin is planning a beta launch of the LeForte system next month, followed by a

Philips debuts light-activated whitening system

Philips Oral Healthcare is introducing the Zoom WhiteSpeed, a light-activated tooth-whitening system with different intensity settings for patients who have increased sensitivity, at the Greater New York Dental Meeting this week in New York City. The product uses blue light-emitting diodes to whiten teeth up to eight shades in 45 minutes and delivers 40% better results compared with the company’s non-light-enhanced whitening system, Philips Dash, according to the company. Of

Oral analgesics & third-molar extractions: What works best?

Following a third-molar extraction, pain alleviation is foremost in most patients’ minds. Is there one analgesic that works better than the rest? Two, actually, according to researchers from the University of Oxford: a combination of 200 mg of ibuprofen with 500 mg of paracetamol (acetaminophen) (British Dental Journal, November 12, 2011, Vol. 211:9, pp. 419-420). Etoriocoxib (120 mg) — a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), brand name Arcoxia — also fared well

Henry Schein partners on sleep apnea package

Henry Schein Dental is now offering the Sleep Complete program, an integrated package that provides all of the information and products necessary to add dental sleep medicine to a dental practice. Henry Schein Dental’s Sleep Complete program was developed in collaboration with Nierman Practice Management, Modern Dental Laboratory, and Itamar Medical, Henry Schein noted. The package includes the Dental Writer Diagnostic Report Writer and Medical Billing Software for Dentistry through

Oral cancer complications boost treatment costs

Among patients who are hospitalized for oral cancer, those with medical complications have higher mortality rates and longer hospital stays and incur significantly higher hospital charges, according to a study in Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology (November 2011, Vol. 112:5, pp. 581-591). Cancer patients who developed septicemia had the highest mortality rates, according to the study authors, from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the

Case Western gets $3.8M for sleep apnea, heart study

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received a $3.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study sleep apnea as a possible cause of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most commonly diagnosed type of arrhythmia. The five-year grant will enable researchers to study how sleep apnea produces functional and structural heart changes that may contribute to the development of AF. Changes in heart structure, including

Consuming canned soup linked to high BPA levels

A new study has linked canned soup consumption with huge increases in urinary bisphenol A (BPA) concentrations (Journal of the Medical Association, November 23/30, 2011, Vol. 306:20: 2218-2220). Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that a group of volunteers who consumed a serving of canned soup each day for five days had a more than 1,000% increase in urinary BPA concentrations compared with when the same

U.S. oral cancer deaths decline; education a factor

Mortality rates for U.S. patients with oral and pharyngeal cancer decreased from 1993 to 2007, according to a study in the Archives of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery (November 2011, Vol. 137:11, pp. 1094-1099). The finding comes from an analysis of National Center for Health Statistics data on white and black men and women, ages 25 to 64, in 26 states, conducted by researchers from the Emory University School

Major League Baseball limits smokeless tobacco use

Limits on smokeless tobacco use included in the new Major League Baseball (MLB) contract represent a historic first step to protect the health of big league players and millions of young fans who look up to them. Under an agreement signed by MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association, players, managers, and coaches will no longer be able to carry a tobacco tin or package in their uniforms at

Study compares Diagnodent and Midwest Caries I.D.

The Diagnodent (KaVo Dental) was more accurate than the Midwest Caries I.D. (Dentsply International) in determining when teeth were free of occlusal caries, while the Midwest Caries I.D. more often revealed the presence of occlusal caries, according to a study in Lasers in Medical Science (November 12, 2011). The study, conducted at the University of Gaziantep in Turkey, consisted of 129 visually sound or noncavitated pits or fissures in 82

Flu season begs the question: To vaccinate or not?

In 2008, a Swiss tourist visited a hospital in Tucson, AZ, and subsequently became the source of 14 cases of healthcare-associated measles (Journal of Infectious Diseases, June 1, 2011, Vol. 203:11, pp. 1517-1525). Half of those affected were older than 18 years of age, four were hospitalized, seven contracted measles in healthcare settings, and none had evidence of measles vaccination. The costs of testing, contact tracing, immunization of healthcare workers,

AcceleDent gains FDA clearance

OrthoAccel Technologies has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the AcceleDent tooth movement system and is preparing to launch the product in the U.S. AcceleDent is a removable, noninvasive appliance that a patient with braces wears in the mouth for 20 minutes per day to accelerate orthodontic tooth movement. A randomized, controlled clinical trial conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHCSA)