Well done to Amie and Angie for completing the London Walk to raise money and awareness for Oral Cancer Research and apologies for taking so long to post a photo of them. Clearly their efforts were considerably more than simply growing a mustache like I am currently doing so I think the rest of the StoneRock Team had better join them next year. Well done again and thanks to all of our customers who contributed to this very worthy cause.
Movember is upon us again and I have decided to back this worthy cause, not least because it gives me an excellent excuse to experiment with extreme facial hair.
Prostate cancer is the commonest cancer in men, it kills one of us every hour in the UK and 35,000 of us will be diagnosed with it in the next 12 months. Scary facts but the scariest of all is that with early detection it is curable. Movember is a charity that aims at raising awareness and money for research by encouraging us to grow a Mo’ for a Bro’ so that’s what I am doing.
This is photo is day 1 and clearly I have a very long way to go to prove that I no longer have the upper lip of a 14 year old. The eyebrows are not part of this campaign, I have been growing them for years and now dye them ginger in an attempt to divert attention from the few faint wisps of gray that can be spotted up top by the keenest of observers.
Xylitol is one of nature’s best kept secrets (in this country at least).
Xylitol is a natural sugar, refined usually from fruit sugars or birch tree bark.It has approximately half the calories of normal sugar, is excellent for diabetics as it has lower GI rating and, most importantly for us dentists, helps prevent tooth decay. Imagine that a sugar that prevents tooth decay and we are not singing about it from the rafters (probably just as well given my singing ability). Why is there so little said about xylitol in this country? Short answer, I don’t know but it’s probably down to lack of advertising and some adverse press about side effects. Well lets just clear that bit up. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol which means it is not fully absorbed in the gut. This lack of absorption can lead to an increase in incidence of diarrhea when consumed in high doses (80g per day usually). To put that figure in perspective that would mean chewing 80 tablets of Zapp gum per day or having 16 teaspoons of Perfect Sweet per day.There are no known toxic side effects in humans at any dose.
Given its enormous benefits it is not surprising that it is the principle sweetener in Scandinavia (its use was pioneered in Finland) and is becoming very popular in the USA. Nestle is actively researching the use of it across it’s confectionery and drinks range.
If you would like to try some for your self then please ask for some in your drink next time you visit us at the surgery or ask for a complimentary pack of Zapp gum.
One of the true pleasures of dentistry is when we develop a working relationship over years with our patients. We get to watch children grow from their first dental visit right through to hearing how they have graduated from university and beyond. By seeing people grow and develop in this way we get to see how are work holds up with time and we also see how nature so often fixes things for us.
These photo only represent a year but we can see how some simple dentistry and a bit of dental developement has improved a smile no end. The tooth was underformed but not decayed. It was restored with a direct white filling without any drilling or need for local anaesthetic. I hope that it will last like this for many more years to come, who knows perhaps he to has graduated from university!
