WorlDental.org

Original post by general dentistry – Google News

One of the best ways to counter tooth loss is by the use of artificial tooth replacements. This procedure is known as a type of prosthetic dentistry. It is also considered a form of cosmetic dentistry.

Although there are many options for the restoration for missing teeth, implants have proven to be the most functionally durable and effective. Dental implants may be the only reasonable option for the restoration of the teeth functions and supporting structures.

People who have lost teeth may feel all too self conscious to talk or smile. In addition, biting irregularities that are the result of the loss of tooth may have a negative effect on eating habits which can lead to secondary health problems such as malnutrition. Regardless of the problems that are related to the loss of teeth, dental implants can provide a simple remedy that has results that are proven.

Dental implants are more durable and stronger than dentures and bridges. Implants offer a solution that is permanent for tooth loss. In addition, implants can be used along with other restorative techniques for the best results. For instance, an implant can serve to support a dental crown that is used to replace a single tooth that is missing. Implants can also be used to support a dental bridge that is used to replace any number of teeth that are missing. Dentures can be used for the reduction of gum tissue irritation and increase stability.

Advances in procedures means that more people may find themselves a candidate for implantation. However, candidacy for implantation depends on your dentist’s determination of whether you are a better candidate for an alternative restoration. Remember that dentists don’t need a specific license by law in order to perform implant dentistry. A restorative or general dentist may perform the bridge and crown placement for the implant restoration. But, prosthodontist are the specialized dentists who usually complete this crucial procedure. An oral surgeons and periodontists are the ones who usually perform the surgery.

The dental implants of today are virtually indistinguishable from the other teeth. This appearance is aided in part by the functional and structural connection between the living and the dental implant. Implants are usually accomplished during a single sitting but also require osseointegration. The anchoring of a dental implant into the bone and root of the jaw is known as osseointegration. This type of implant is usually the most successful type of dental implant.

Following the surgery, the jawbone will firmly hold the implant in place. Bone can then be attached to the implant and this is fixed right with the jawbone and underneath gum tissues. This type of implant may take as long as 6 months to anchor and heal, at which point your dentist can complete the procedure with the placement of a crown. The metal posts or tiny cylinders that can be seen through a person’s gum line adhere to the implant. Most patients are very happy with the comfort advantages and the look that an implant provides so an implant is well worth the expense.

from worldental.org 7-25-2010

Blood Glucose Meter

It is estimated that up to 20 million people have diabetes, but only two-thirds of these individuals are diagnosed. Studies have shown that diabetics are more susceptible to the development of oral infections and periodontal (gum) disease than those who do not have diabetes. Oral infections tend to be more severe in diabetic patients than non-diabetic patients. And, diabetics who do not have good control over their blood sugar levels tend to have more oral health problems. These infections occur more often after puberty and in aging patients.

How are gum disease and diabetes related?

Because diabetes reduces the body’s resistance to infection, the gums are at risk for gingivitis, an inflammation usually caused by the presence of bacteria in plaque. Plaque is the sticky film that accumulates on teeth both above and below the gum line. Without regular dental check-ups, gum disease may result if gingivitis is left untreated. It also can cause inflammation and destruction of tissues surrounding and supporting teeth, gums, bone and fibers that hold the gums to the teeth.

What other types of problems could I experience?

Diabetics may experience burning mouth syndrome and fungal infections, such as thrush and oral candidiasis. Dry mouth (xerostomia) also may develop, causing an increased incidence of decay. To prevent problems with bacterial infections in the mouth, your dentist may prescribe antibiotics, medicated mouth rinses and more frequent cleanings.

How can I stay healthy?

Make sure to take extra good care of your mouth and have dental infections treated immediately. Diabetics who receive good dental care and have good insulin control typically have a better chance at avoiding gum disease.

Diet and exercise may be the most important changes that diabetics can make to improve their quality of life and their oral health. Diabetic patients should be sure both their medical and dental care providers are aware of their medical history and periodontal status. To keep teeth and gums strong, diabetic patients should be aware of their blood sugar levels in addition to having their triglycerides and cholesterol levels checked on a regular basis. These may have a direct correlation on your chances of avoiding gum disease.

What is the best time to receive dental care?

If your blood sugar is not under control, talk with both your dentist and physician about receiving elective dental care. Dental procedures should be as short and as stress free as possible. Also make morning appointments because blood glucose levels tend to be under better control at this time of day. If you have a scheduled appointment, eat and take your medications as directed. See your dentist on a regular basis, keep him or her informed of your health status and keep your mouth in good health.

from infobites.com January 2007

How Gum Disease and Diabetes Relate

Because diabetes reduces the body’s resistance to infection, the gums are at risk for gingivitis, an inflammation usually caused by the presence of bacteria in plaque. Plaque is the sticky film that accumulates on teeth both above and below the gum line. Without regular dental check-ups, gum disease may result if gingivitis is left untreated. It also can cause inflammation and destruction of tissues surrounding and supporting teeth, gums, bone and fibers that hold the gums to the teeth.

Diabetics may experience burning mouth syndrome and fungal infections, such as thrush and oral candidiasis. Dry mouth (xerostomia) also may develop, causing an increased incidence of decay. To prevent problems with bacterial infections in the mouth, your dentist may prescribe antibiotics, medicated mouth rinses and more frequent cleanings.

from infobites.com October 2008

Dental treatment to reduce inflammation may reduce blood sugar

Edinburgh University scientists have found reducing gum inflammation in people with diabetes can help minimise complications with the condition.

It is thought when bacteria infect the mouth causing inflammation the chemical changes reduce effectiveness of insulin and raise the levels of blood sugar.

Treatment to reduce inflammation may therefore help reduce blood sugar.

The findings are published as part of the international Cochrane Collaboration.

Dental institute

The team, including researchers from UCL Eastman Dental Institute, Peninsula Dental School and Ottawa University, said their findings highlighted the need for doctors and dentists to work together in the treatment of people with diabetes.

Dr Terry Simpson, honorary research fellow at Edinburgh University’s dental institute, who led the study, said: “This research confirms that there may be a link between serious gum disease and diabetes.

“It highlights the role dentists can play in managing the condition, given that gum disease is very treatable.

“By far the most important aspect of diabetes management is the use of insulin, drugs and diet to control blood sugar levels but maintaining good dental health is something patients and healthcare professionals should also recognise.

“Although the benefit in terms of insulin management is small, anything we can do to promote the wellbeing of people with diabetes should be welcomed.”

from news.bbc.co.uk 5-12-2010

“Children who mouth breathe typically do not sleep well, causing them to be tired during the day and possibly unable to concentrate on academics,” said Yosh Jefferson, DMD, author of the study. “If the child becomes frustrated in school, he or she may exhibit behavioral problems.”

Over time, children whose mouth breathing goes untreated may suffer from abnormal facial and dental development, such as long, narrow faces and mouths, gummy smiles, gingivitis, and crooked teeth. The poor sleeping habits that result from mouth breathing can adversely affect growth and academic performance. As Jefferson notes in his article, “Many of these children are misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and hyperactivity.” In addition, mouth breathing can cause poor oxygen concentration in the bloodstream, which can cause high blood pressure, heart problems, sleep apnea, and other medical issues.

from sleepreviewmag.com

• Mild misalignment

• Slight crookedness

• Shallow cracks

• Small chips

• Uneven tooth sizes

• Gaps between the teeth

• Discoloration that is unaffected by tooth whitening

Veneers are placed only on front teeth. If you need any back teeth repaired a porcelain crown might be the answer, or perhaps porcelain fillings. Porcelain is an excellent material used by cosmetic dentists, as it comes in many shades of white, often with subtle variations, and can be closely matched to your natural teeth.

Porcelain and tooth enamel have an important quality in common: they both have a pearly white sheen. They react to light in similar ways, which is why porcelain restorations are not visible as being restorations. Nobody will know you have veneers unless you tell them, or unless they knew how your teeth looked pre-veneers. In that case they will be clamoring for the name of your dentist.

The Porcelain Veneers Procedure

First your cosmetic dentist will do a thorough examination of your teeth, gums, and bite. If you have any health issues, they will need to be dealt with first, as there is little benefit in trying to beautify an unhealthy smile. A cosmetic dentist will typically have superior technology including a way of detecting decay before it is visible to the naked eye or on an X-ray. It is always best to deal with cavities or any problem like bleeding gums as soon as possible while they are still small problems.

Once the way to porcelain veneers is clear, there will be two visits.

First Visit

Your cosmetic dentist will prepare the teeth in question by buffing a very small amount of enamel off to make space for the veneers. This does not hurt although if you feel nervous about being at a dentist office, most cosmetic dentists will be glad to give you a mild sedative or local anesthetic or both. Your comfort is always a high priority in cosmetic dentistry.

Digital photos will be taken of your teeth and gums, and these, along with measurements and X-rays will be sent to the dental laboratory for your veneers to be custom-made. In the interim, most people don’t want any temporary veneer cover, although if you would like that, it will be done for you.

Second Visit

After perhaps a couple of weeks, the veneers are ready and your cosmetic dentist will attach them lightly for testing. You can see them in a mirror and discuss any issues with your dentist, and he or she will make sure your bite is smooth. Minor adjustments can be made if necessary. When you are both pleased, they will be permanently attached.

Your smile is now dramatically enhanced and will have an even, bright, and shapely appearance. Your veneers will need no special care beyond the good daily brushing and flossing you give your natural teeth. Your cosmetic dentist may want to check on them after a while. There is one thing you should avoid, and that is biting on hard things with your veneers. Don’t crack any nut shells or open any beer bottles.

Dental porcelain does not stain and with good care your porcelain veneers will last a great many years, perhaps a lifetime. The first step is to schedule a personal consultation.

from bestsyndication.com 6-1-2009

By Ellin Holohan

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) — Breathing through the mouth instead of the nose can lead to more than just dry tongues and palates.

Chronic mouth breathers, most often children with allergies, have problems getting enough oxygen into their blood, which affects their size, weight, sleep and even school performance, a recent study finds.

“Mouth breathing is a medical problem that touches almost every family. It’s an unrecognized epidemic that needs immediate attention,” said study author Dr. Yosh Jefferson, a general dentist in Mount Holly, N.J., who has been treating orthodontia patients for more than 20 years.

“A lot of doctors will say that if you wait, it will just go away,” said Jefferson, who teaches and lectures on mouth breathing to spread the word, adding “it won’t just go away.”

Mouth breathing is caused by nasal obstructions, often the result of chronic infections and allergies. Consequences of untreated mouth breathing include unattractive facial and dental development, such as long face syndrome, narrow mouths and receding or protruding jaws.

Published in a recent issue of the journal General Dentistry, the study notes that mouth breathing is also associated with sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder.

“They are suffocating and literally dying a slow death that robs them of their appearance, health, longevity and quality of life. Mouth breathing is very treatable, but to do this it must be diagnosed and treated as early as possible,” Jefferson said.

Allergy medications aren’t an effective treatment over the long run, because of undesirable side effects, said Jefferson. Mouth breathing is often corrected when tonsils and adenoids are removed, but this procedure isn’t done as routinely as it once was.

Mouth breathers who develop facial deformities need to wear corrective dental appliances, sometimes along with regular braces, to correct high vaulted mouth roofs, narrowing sinuses, and deformed jaws. Left untreated, more serious facial surgery can be needed.

But the complications of mouth breathing aren’t just physical. Shallow breathing causes insufficient oxygen in the bloodstream, resulting in fitful sleep. The children are tired during the day and perform poorly in school, often exhibiting anger and frustration typical of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As a result, they can be misdiagnosed with this condition.

Such was the case of a 5-year-old boy mentioned in the study. A mouth breather, he was often tired and not doing well in school. He regularly lost control of his behavior and had to be disciplined. But a year after he had his tonsils and adenoids removed and began wearing a functional appliance, his mother reported he was sleeping better at night, his behavior was normal, and he tested in the 99th percentile on a school-administered achievement test. He had also stopped bedwetting.

Humans swallow about 2,000 times day, causing the tongue to exert pressure on the roof of the mouth, widening the palate, Jefferson said. Mouth breathers don’t swallow as often because the open mouth tends to be dry. This eliminates pressure, causing the vaulting of the roof of the mouth. The longer the condition is left untreated, the harder it is to fix.

Dr. Leslie Grant, a spokesperson for the Academy of General Dentistry, said besides allergies, trauma at birth and Down syndrome can also cause mouth breathing.

Grant, who works in dental administration for the State of Maryland, thinks there may be a connection between mouth breathing problems and fewer tonsillectomies, once performed more routinely.

“I appreciate that he is bringing this issue to the forefront of the practice of dentistry because it’s important and often overlooked,” said Grant.

Jefferson describes his work as an effort to beautify facial features as well as solve health problems.

“If you harmonize the face the way God and nature intended, wonderful things can happen,” said Jefferson. “And it’s not rocket science.”

from healthday.com 4-23-2010

Dental implants to replace missing teeth are an important advance, and there is no question about their value. But Jane E. Brody’s column “A Dental Shift: Implants Instead of Bridges” (Personal Health, Nov. 17) may lead readers to believe, incorrectly, that bridges are inferior to implants.

A bridge can be made in two visits, does not need at least two surgical procedures and does not require long and painful healing. It restores full function in a very short time. These qualities are especially important for patients who are older and debilitated. Just this past week, I saw a patient whose bridge has been in place for 62 years.

Finally, implants can and do fail. There no restorations in dentistry that are 100 percent successful all the time.

Stephen M. Sheppard, D.M.D.

New York

from nytimes.com  Published: November 30, 2009

For the most part, humans are exquisitely tuned to pain. The brain can immediately distinguish between a splinter in the index finger and a paper cut on the thumb, even though the digits are next-door neighbors. But in the mouth this can be more difficult, depending where and how intense the ache is.

“We don’t know much about tooth pain,” comments dentist and neuroscientist Alexandre DaSilva of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who was not part of the new research. The new study is one of the first to address the puzzle of toothache localization, he says.

In the study, researchers led by Clemens Forster of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany analyzed brain activity in healthy — and brave — volunteers as they experienced tooth pain. The researchers delivered short electrical pulses to either the upper left canine tooth (the pointy one) or the lower left canine tooth in the subjects. These bursts of electrical stimulation produced a painful sensation similar to that felt when biting into an ice cube, Forster says, and were tuned such that the subject always rated the pain to be about 60 percent, with 100 percent being the worst pain imaginable.

To see how the brain responds to pain emanating from different teeth, the researchers used fMRI to monitor changes in activity when the upper tooth or the lower tooth was zapped. “At the beginning, we expected a good difference, but that was not the case,” Forster says.

Many brain regions responded to top and bottom tooth pain — carried by signals from two distinct branches of a fiber called the trigeminal nerve — in the same way. The V2 branch carries pain signals from the upper jaw, and the V3 branch carries pain signals from the lower jaw.

In particular, the researchers found that regions in the cerebral cortex, including the somatosensory cortex, the insular cortex and the cingulate cortex, all behaved similarly for both toothaches. These brain regions are known to play important roles in the pain projection system, yet none showed major differences between the two toothaches. “The activation was more or less the same,” Forster says, although he adds that their experiments might have missed subtle differences that could account for why some tooth pain can be localized.

Because the same regions were active in both toothaches, the brain — and the person — couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from. “Dentists should be aware that patients aren’t always able to locate the pain,” Forster says. “There are physiological and anatomical reasons for that.”

DaSilva agrees that the brain’s inability to tell top-tooth pain from bottom-tooth pain “pairs really well with what we see in the clinic.”

Understanding the pathway from tooth to brain may help researchers devise better treatments for acute tooth pain, such as cavities or infections, and more-chronic conditions, DaSilva says. One such condition is phantom pain that persists in the mouth after a tooth has been removed.

by Laura Sanders Science News

from wired.com 4-17-2010