Archive for Dental Research Update
January 15, 2007 at 11:28 pm by Ian Kerr
Filed under Dental Research Update
An extensive review of over seventy systematic review articles on “fluoride application to prevent decay” was recently completed by the American Dental Association.
The outcome of this review is that there is the strongest possible evidence to support the use of topical fluoride gel application every 6 months by the dentist or hygienist for all children, under the age of 18years, who are at risk of decay.
The “category of evidence” for this finding was classed as 1a which is the highest rating and the “strength of recommendation” was classed as A, which is also the highest rating. In other words, this is treatment that we absolutely should be doing, if we want to do the best for our children’s dental health.
Children who are considered at risk of decay are those who have one or more of the folllowing - poor oral hygiene, a high sugar diet, previous decay in the past 3 years, developmental abnormalities of the teeth or an inability to care for their mouths.
If you are a patient of StoneRock Dental Care and would like to find out more about this treatment and whether it is appropriate for your child, then please call us at the surgery and we will be happy to help.
January 15, 2007 at 11:07 pm by Ian Kerr
Filed under Dental Research Update
A recent systematic review of all available information on the possible affects of active gum disease in pregnant mothers has come up with some interesting findings.
Five studies conducted over the past 40 years that have looked at the possible link between active gum disease and either preterm birth (PTB) or preterm low birthweight (PLBW) all showed an increased risk. The increased risk was seen to be between four and five fold for pregnant mums with active gum disease to get either of the above complications. It should be noted however that the quality of these studies were classed a poor to fair, meaning that they only looked at a small number of cases or did not report all of their findings properly.
Even allowing for this, it seems clear that we should do our best to ensure that pregnant mums are doing everything they can to look after the health of their gums and that any active gum disease is corrected as soon as possible.
Both PTB and PLBW are also linked with smoking, nutritional status, diabetes and stress to name just a few so this dental advice should be taken against a background of the overall health of the mother and should not be seen as the only cause of this distressing problem.
January 9, 2007 at 9:54 am by Ian Kerr
Filed under Dental Research Update
Having lived in the Caribbean for several years I got very used to having all my drinks served ice cold. When I returned to the UK it was (and still is) a constant grumble that you can’t get a cold drink in a pub and that no one ever puts enough ice in my glass. Now at last I have the research to back up my complaint.
Research into the mechanisms of taste and smell has shown that there is a specific pathway from taste buds (known romantically as Trpm-5- channel) that is highly sensitive to temperature, 100 times more so at 37C than at 15C. This explains why bitter drinks, gin and tonic for example, taste better with ice, the bitterness being suppressed by the lower temperature.
Interestingly an extra sensitivity to bitter taste (associated with a higher number of fungiform papillae found on the tip and side of the tongue) is present in about 25% of the population and is due to genetic variations. This helps explain how wine tasters can waffle on about flavours that the rest of us can’t detect and also gives an excuse to children who complain about eating their “greens” as they tend to have a much-heightened response to bitter tastes.
The response to this research is now clear
1) Just put more ice in my glass to shut me up at a party
2) Ignore wine tasters, they are genetic freaks
3) Serve children their “greens” ice cold to reduce the bitter taste.
January 8, 2007 at 11:14 pm by Ian Kerr
Filed under Dental Research Update
If you ask most people what causes tooth decay, they will tell you “eating to many sweets” is to blame. In simple terms they are, of course, quite correct. If you walk around with a bag of sweets in your pocket, snacking all day long on them, you wouldn’t be too surprised if you ended up with a few cavities. But the problem is, whilst some children may do this, almost no adults do, yet I spend most of my working day treating adults with tooth decay. So where does their decay come from?
The answer to this question lies in the way sugar is contained with in food and how the body breaks it down in the mouth. Almost all foods contain sugar in either simple or complex form and, if it can be fermented, the bacteria in our mouths will make acid from it. All of the basic sugars - glucose, fructose and sucrose, and most of the complex starches can do this. It is the acid that is produced in this way that causes our tooth decay.
When I chat to my patients about their decay they will often say to me “but I don’t have any sugar”. Clearly this is not the case, as almost everything they eat will contain sugar. What I try to look at with this patients is the number of times a day that they eat or drink sugar containing substances, and what mix of sticky foods and complex carbohydrates they are consuming. Ideally I try to encourage my patients to keep below 6 intakes per day, of all food and drinks, to reduce the number of times that acid is hitting their teeth. We also look to avoid sticky foods in between meals (biscuits, crisps etc.) and replace these with less sticky, lower risk foods such as fresh fruit.
This advice is in keeping with the latest research, particularly that done by Prof. David Beighton at the KCL Dental Institute, London and Peter Lingstrom, associate Professor at Gotenberg University.
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