Thursday, May 15, 2008

Tooth Jewellery and now Tooth Tattoos, Tooth loss leads to Cancer

Tooth Tatoos

You may be familiar with tooth jewellery ? The popular one for quite a while has been the brand known as skyce. These are small crystals looking like diamonds and are fixed on front teeth to give a shine to your smile. If you are not familiar you can click here to learn more. As if this was not enough you now have tooth tattoos.

American tattoo artist Steve Heward, who is also a dental technician, has taken the art of tattooing from the body to the mouth and has made it a huge success. Heward, who has been practising his art since 1979, has also made crowns for a few famous people, including a candidate for the US presidency in 2000.

The tooth artists at Heward Dental Lab can create custom hand-painted artwork and paint celebrities on your tooth. "The work can take from five minutes to an hour. But I usually spend half an hour," said Heward.

And what are the damages? "For the artwork itself, I usually charge about $75 to $500 depending on the subject matter," said Heward.

"My crowns can last a lifetime. And removing the tattoos is also a brief and painless process."

And there are people who love to put pictures of teeth tattoo on their bodies, SEE HERE

Tooth Loss Linked To Esophageal, Head And Neck, And Lung Cancer

Bad dental health-infected Teeth/Gums is a major HEALTH HAZARD, this point has to be driven home to our mass population. We have been bringing relevant publications to your mailbox so that in turn you can pass this info to public. To see them all CLICK HERE

Studying thousands of patients, Japanese researchers have found a strong link between tooth loss and increased risk of three cancers esophageal, head and neck, and lung. They suggest that preservation of teeth may decrease risk of developing these diseases.

In the May issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, scientists from Aichi Cancer Center in Nagoya and Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine speculate that bacterial infection and inflammation resulting from poor oral care that leads to tooth loss could also be driving development of these cancers. Periodontal disease is known to increase risk for stroke and heart disease.

"Tooth loss is a common consequence of chronic bacterial infection and may, therefore, serve as a surrogate for chronic infection and inflammation, which in turn may be important to the pathogenesis of cancer," said the study's lead author, Akio Hiraki, Ph.D., a researcher at the Aichi Cancer Center.

Researchers measured rates of 14 different cancers and rates of tooth loss in 5,240 cancer patients in Japan, and compared those rates among 10,480 matched cancer-free participants. The researchers specifically found that people with tooth loss were 136 percent more likely to develop esophageal cancer, had a 68 percent increased risk of developing head and neck cancer and a 54 percent greater chance of developing lung cancer. The researchers also found that the rate of cancer increased proportionally to the number of teeth a patient had lost.
Conclusion:
There is a significant positive association between tooth loss and the risk of head and neck, esophageal, and lung cancers after adjustment for potential confounding factors. The findings indicate that preventive efforts aimed at the preservation of teeth may decrease the risk of these cancers.

The use of visual assessment of dental radiographs for identifying women at risk of having osteoporosis: the OSTEODENT project published online on triple O, May 2008

Can you identify risk of osteoporosis from Intra oral radiographs? According to this article there is very high (90%) chance of predicting by seeing the trabecular density in premolar region.

Objective

The objective of this study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of visual assessment of the trabecular pattern in intraoral periapical radiographs to identify female subjects at risk of having osteoporosis.
Study design

Six hundred female subjects underwent intraoral periapical radiography of the maxillary and mandibular premolar region. Five observers assessed the trabecular pattern as dense, heterogeneous, or sparse, with the aid of reference images. All patients received a central dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) examination of the hip and lumbar spine.
Results

With sparse trabecular pattern as indicative of osteoporosis, mean specificity was high (91.6 for the upper jaw and 90.8 for the lower jaw) while the sensitivity was low (28.2 for the upper and lower jaw). The mean intraobserver agreement was comparable for radiographs of the upper and lower jaw (median κw 0.53 and 0.57, respectively).
Conclusion

Visual assessment of the trabecular pattern in intraoral periapical radiographs of premolar regions is a potential method to identify women at risk of having osteoporosis.



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Monday, July 30, 2007

Oral Health and Systemic Health are deeply connected

Friends

Healthmantra has brought you updates for past 10 years and now we are creating this blog so that you can always check it for updates and also post your comments.

Oral cavity is a natural incubator with optimal growth environment making it ideal for most types of microbes to inhabit. About 400 species of bacteria can be found in oral cavity all of which are not harmful.

Two major diseases caries and periodontitis are of microbial origin. If not treated both these ailments have potential to transmit the oral flora/ inflammatory products to the blood stream to all parts of body.

The periodontium, comprised of the gingiva, bone and other supporting tissues that anchor the teeth, plays a vital role in the interplay between oral health and systemic disease. Infection in these tissues, primarily by gram-negative anaerobic bacteria, can initiate a series of inflammatory and immunologic changes leading to the destruction of connective tissue and bone. Long considered a localized infection, periodontal diseases are now linked to a variety of conditions with systemic implications. There is a global campaign ( Assisted by Oral Care Giant Colgate) to educate all about the importance of good oral care and its impact on general health.

It is essential for each one of us to understand the importance of this key issue in our profession and take responsibility to educate public and medical specialists. This will lead to better oral and general health for our population and motivate patients for regular dental check ups.

This issue is vital for our profession, let us pool our resources and ensure that each and every citizen of this country is educated in this aspect.

To learn more you can go to these resources:

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