Category: Dentistry

Dentistry

Dentistry

Eliminating Sugary Drinks Can Reduce Tooth Decay

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Well, DUH.

But, we now have a study in a controlled population of American Indians that verfies what every dentist and most American parents know: sugary drinls, including soda are very bad for your teeth.

A study conducted in four American Indian communities in the Pacific Northwest presents an effective strategy to convince mothers to switch young children from drinking sweetened soda to water and shows that eliminating these sugary drinks from the diets of the youngest members of the tribe significantly decreased tooth decay.

The results of the dental arm of “The Toddler Overweight and Tooth Decay Prevention Study” (TOTS), which targeted American Indians from birth to 30 months of age, appear in the current issue (Volume 20, Number 4) of the peer reviewed journal Ethnicity & Disease.

The abstract of the study is here (Pdf).

Of course, I find it incomprehensible that some public schools continue to have these soft drink (soda) machines available to their students. Of course, the schools justify them by accepting the monetary donations from the companies making the drinks.

Parents if you want your children to have good teeth and fewer problems throughout their lives, limit the sugary drinks, OK?

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Dentistry

20 Mile LA Marathon Training Run Today

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I won’t be blogging much, if at all today and tomorrow.

Today is a 20 mile easy run from Santa Monica through Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey and return.

Tomorrow is LA Roadrunner Marathon Hill training at Los Angeles Dodger Stadium (how much I do will depend upon recovery overnight.

After today, Alice and I will head over to Ronnie’s Diner for the post-run meal and tomorrow we will go over to Walt Louie’s workplace (Walt is a LA Roadrunner Run/Walk #5 Senior Pace Leader.)

Watch my Twitter Feed on the right @Flap —————–> as I will be posting photos and comments. You may follow me here.

And, please visit my LA Marathon Donation Page and give generously to my charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

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Dentistry

Should Dentists Counsel Their Patients About Obesity?

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Yes absolutely but……

Many dentists are already taking blood pressure readings and providing tobacco cessation information. So can obesity interventions be far behind?
Dentists say they are interested in helping patients with serious weight issues, but at the same time they are afraid of offending them and appearing judgmental, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association (November 2010, Vol. 141:11, pp. 1307-1316). The study, conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC), also found that a large number of dentists would be more willing to have such discussions if obesity were linked definitively to oral disease.

Some researchers have already started to propose obesity interventions for the dental office, and studies to support this are in progress, but lead author Alice Curran, DMD, an associate professor at the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, feels they may have jumped the gun. She expressed concern that this research was conducted before anyone ever asked dentists if they are even interested.

“We thought it would be a good idea to find out if dentists are interested; if they are, who is the most interested; and what they would be willing to do,” she told DrBicuspid.com. “Planning interventions should target interested individuals with proposals they can work with.”

The but is a big one – a professional turf war with physicians who likely would complain to state licensing boards AND how would the dentist charge for such services? (probably the biggest but).

While oral health extends beyond the teeth and gingiva in the body, overcoming time worn assumptions about the role of dentists will be difficult to overcome.

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Dentistry

Halloween Candy: Is it the Amount or the Frequency that Creates Dental Decay Risk?

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Candy Corn photo credit

The frequency without a doubt.

Halloween can present a very scary time of year for any parent concerned about their child’s oral health, since your kids will probably come home with that big haul of candy from trick or treating. But should you let them immediately gorge themselves on the candy and get it out of their system?

Temple University pediatric dentist Mark Helpin thinks that might not be such a bad idea.

“The frequency of eating candy, and other refined carbohydrates, and their stickiness, are big factors in creating the risk of caries (cavities),” he said.

Eating carbohydrates can change the pH balance of the mouth, making it more acidic, which can increase the risk of cavities. Each time candy is eaten, the acid environment in the mouth can take up to an hour to dissipate.

“If I eat a piece of candy now, the pH in my mouth will become acidic, and it will take 30-60 minutes for it to become normal,” said Helpin. “If I eat 2 or 3 pieces of candy when I eat that first one, my mouth stays acid the same length of time that it would if I ate just that single piece. It’s still 30-60 minutes. If I keep eating candy throughout the day, there is acid in my mouth for a much longer period of time. The longer teeth are in an acid environment, the greater the risk they will become decayed.”

The problem with having your children gorge themselves with candy is the intestinal upset and, of course, the sugar high behavioral changes.

I, always, recommend moderation with less frequency and brushing and/or rinsing immediately after ingestion.

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Dentistry

Study: Women Who Get Dental Care Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease

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Photo credit: Doctors Hangout

But, men not so much.

A new study led by a University of California, Berkeley, researcher could give women a little extra motivation to visit their dentist more regularly. The study suggests that women who get dental care reduce their risk of heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular problems by at least one-third.

The analysis, which used data from nearly 7,000 people ages 44-88 enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study, did not find a similar benefit for men.

Published online Sept. 29 in the journal Health Economics, the study compared people who went to the dentist during the previous two years with those who did not.

“Many studies have found associations between dental care and cardiovascular disease, but our study is the first to show that general dental care leads to fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other adverse cardiovascular outcomes in a causal way,” said study lead author Timothy Brown, assistant adjunct professor of health policy and management at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

So, the study advises as do I – see the dentist at least twice a year while brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day. If you have n no remaining teeth and wear dentures, keep them clean to avoid build-up of oral bacteria.

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