dentapress: news of dentistry » Panorama

Relax – it creates less headaches

CB — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:09:32 +0000

Are your teeth a pain in the neck? Many people grind and clench their teeth. It’s called Bruxism and can cause facial/jaw pain, headaches, neck/muscle pain as well as excessive wear on teeth. It is considered an unintentional habit of biting down too hard at certain times, especially during sleep (sleep-related bruxism). Grinding is usually noisy and clenching is silent…

Never too young for dental care

CB — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:53:12 +0000

Infants might have only one tiny tooth or a few of them, but keeping them healthy is essential not only to their mouths but the growth of their brains.That’s why a group of London dentists is volunteering to be tooth fairies for a day Saturday.Only, instead of whisking baby teeth away in the night, they’ll show parents how babies and toddlers can keep their teeth in good shape until they fall out naturally…

Marijuana Mouth Spray: Will Cancer Pain Reliever Be Abused?

JG — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:59:36 +0000

The medical marijuana drug Sativex, which could be approved in the United States in the coming years as a treatment for pain relief, has little potential for abuse, experts say. The British pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceuticals is currently testing the drug, which is delivered as a mouth spray and called Sativex, in clinical trials. The company plans to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug as a treatment for cancer pain when the trials are completed, likely sometime in 2014, a spokesperson for GW Pharmaceuticals told MyHealthNewsDaily. The active ingredients in Sativex, known as cannabinoids, are derived from the cannabis plant. It is the first marijuana-based drug to be made by extracting the compounds from the plant, rather than synthesizing them. Two other drugs, Marinol and Cesamet, based on synthetic cannabinoids, were approved by the FDA in the 1980s.

Sale of second-hand teeth is making the world smile

CB — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:58:22 +0000

TIMES are certainly tough if you’re desperate enough to be looking for second-hand teeth.But believe it or not, some people think there is a market out there.Passers-by do a double take when they stroll past a shop and see a jar containing six sets of old dentures with the sign, “Secondhand teeth for sale”…

Straight Teeth Talk: Teeth that don’t fit

CB — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:56:57 +0000

What happens if a person is born with one leg vastly shorter than the other?Having special-made shoes and boots help balance the person and help fool the brain and body into thinking that everything is even.While it is quite obvious when leg length doesn’t match the other, the same doesn’t hold true when it comes to how the teeth fit…

Some people have chronic illnesses. I have chronic teeth.

JG — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:08:53 +0000

I just got back from root canal #13. Yes, thirteen of my teeth have gone under the knife, so to speak, to have their nerves gutted and killed off with neurotoxin and the ensuing hole filled with gutta percha. I still have one or two more left to go before my dentist is satisfied. I’ve also had countless fillings, a dozen crowns, and two molars completely removed because the tooth structure was so decayed my dentist didn’t think they were worth saving. Out of curiosity, last month I asked my dentist’s practice manager how much I’d spent there. “A little over $16,000 since 2006,” she said. Wow. I have dental insurance. I’ve brushed and flossed diligently most every day of my life. How did it come to this?

Death after toothache investigated

CB — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:11:46 +0000

A man in his thirties went to a health care center in Baish, complaining of a toothache and was dead within an hour, local daily Al-Madinah reported Sunday.The Health Affairs department in Jazan has opened an investigation into the cause of death. Acting spokesman of the department Hussain Maashi said the passports of the members of the medical and technical team which dealt with the case had been confiscated…

Eating Foods Fried In Olive Or Sunflower Oil Not Tied To Heart Disease Or Earlier Death, BMJ Study

CB — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:47:10 +0000

In a new study published in BMJ on Tuesday, researchers find that consuming fried food is not linked to heart disease or earlier death, as long as the frying is done in in olive or sunflower oil. But they also note that the people they studied live in Spain, where like other Mediterranean countries they use olive or sunflower oil for frying, so this result would most likely be different in countries where people fry with solid and re-used oils…

Terrifying, But Interesting: Dentistry Museum

CB — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:06:25 +0000

If you’re already been through the halls of medical oddities at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, what’s terrifyingly next? Why, the National Museum of Dentistry, of course.Hope you’ve been flossing regularly!The Dentistry Museum (31 S. Greene St. in Baltimore, home of the first dental school) houses more than 40,000 dental artifacts, including toothbrushes from the 1800s…

Past ADA trustee Dr. Lloyd J. Phillips dies at 89

CB — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:12:08 +0000

Dr. Lloyd J. Phillips, a past ADA trustee who represented the 7th District from 1970 to 1976, died Jan. 15 here. He was 89.Dr. Phillips, who was born in 1922 in Lykens, Pa., earned an electrical engineering degree from Bliss Electrical School and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University…