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Single Tooth Anesthesia (S.T.A.)

Do you ever go to the dentist dreading going home with the numb lip, numb tongue and having it be numb for a few hours? This can be annoying.

Which is where the Single Tooth Anesthesia (S.T.A.) comes in handy. The S.T.A. is the first computer controlled local anesthesia. S.T.A. drips the anesthesia right at the tooth at the same rate that your bone absorbs the anesthesia. Inside the S.T.A. machine is a computer that measures back pressure so as not to put anesthesia in too quickly or too slowly. This makes receiving anesthesia as comfortable as possible.

Then the dentist can complete your treatment while you are both numb and comfortable. The best part is you can return to your daily routine without your mouth, tongue, lip and cheek being numb! How cool is that?

~ Kaitie, Registered Dental Assistant

Sport and Energy Drinks can cause Irreversible Damage to your teeth

The number of sugar cubes in each drink.

A recent study published in the May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry, found that an alarming increase in the consumption of sports and energy drinks, especially among adolescents, is causing irreversible damage to teeth - specifically, the high acidity levels in the drinks erode tooth enamel, the glossy outer layer of the tooth.

"Young adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their sports performance and energy levels and that they are 'better' for them than soda," says Poonam Jain, BDS, MS, MPH, lead author of the study. "Most of these patients are shocked to learn that these drinks are essentially bathing their teeth with acid."

Researchers examined the acidity levels in 13 sports drinks and nine energy drinks. They found that the acidity levels can vary between brands of beverages and flavors of the same brand. To test the effect of the acidity levels, the researchers immersed samples of human tooth enamel in each beverage for 15 minutes, followed by immersion in artificial saliva for two hours. This cycle was repeated four times a day for five days, and the samples were stored in fresh artificial saliva at all other times.

"This type of testing simulates the same exposure that a large proportion of American teens and young adults are subjecting their teeth to on a regular basis when they drink one of these beverages every few hours," says Dr. Jain.

The researchers found that damage to enamel was evident after only five days of exposure to sports or energy drinks, although energy drinks showed a significantly greater potential to damage teeth than sports drinks. In fact, the authors found that energy drinks caused twice as much damage to teeth as sports drinks.

With a reported 30 to 50 percent of U.S. teens consuming energy drinks, and as many as 62 percent consuming at least one sports drink per day, it is important to educate parents and young adults about the downside of these drinks. Damage caused to tooth enamel is irreversible, and without the protection of enamel, teeth become overly sensitive, prone to cavities, and more likely to decay.

"Teens regularly come into my office with these types of symptoms, but they don't know why," says AGD spokesperson Jennifer Bone, DDS, MAGD. "We review their diet and snacking habits and then we discuss their consumption of these beverages. They don't realize that something as seemingly harmless as a sports or energy drink can do a lot of damage to their teeth."

Dr. Bone recommends that her patients minimize their intake of sports and energy drinks. She also advises them to chew sugar-free gum or rinse the mouth with water following consumption of the drinks. "Both tactics increase saliva flow, which naturally helps to return the acidity levels in the mouth to normal," she says.

 
reference: May/June 2012 issue of General Dentistry

Dried Licorice Root fights the bacteria that causes tooth decay and gum disease

Scientists are reporting identification of two substances in licorice - used extensively in Chinese traditional medicine - that kill the major bacteria responsible for tooth decay and gum disease, the leading causes of tooth loss in children and adults. In a study in ACS' Journal of Natural Products, they say that these substances could have a role in treating and preventing tooth decay and gum disease.

Stefan Gafner and colleagues explain that the dried root of the licorice plant is a common treatment in Chinese traditional medicine, especially as a way to enhance the activity of other herbal ingredients or as a flavoring. Despite the popularity of licorice candy in the U.S., licorice root has been replaced in domestic candy with anise oil, which has a similar flavor. Traditional medical practitioners use dried licorice root to treat various ailments, such as respiratory and digestive problems, but few modern scientific studies address whether licorice really works. (Consumers should check with their health care provider before taking licorice root because it can have undesirable effects and interactions with prescription drugs.) To test whether the sweet root could combat the bacteria that cause gum disease and cavities, the researchers took a closer look at various substances in licorice.

They found that two of the licorice compounds, licoricidin and licorisoflavan A, were the most effective antibacterial substances. These substances killed two of the major bacteria responsible for dental cavities and two of the bacteria that promote gum disease. One of the compounds - licoricidin - also killed a third gum disease bacterium. The researchers say that these substances could treat or even prevent oral infections.

The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 163,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

For more information about Licorice Root preventing cavities see our earlier Blog Post ~ What could be better than a lollipop? 

Schedule an appointment.

reference - American Chemical Society

Put your dental problems to bed

When it comes to your dental health, consistency counts. Establishing simple routines and practicing them faithfully are the best ways to keep your mouth healthy and your teeth strong.

Taking care of your teeth during the day can prevent dental problems, but nighttime oral care is just as important. That’s because neglecting your teeth at night can undo all your daytime efforts. For starters, the American Dental Association recommends brushing your teeth both in the morning and at night with fluoride toothpaste, flossing between teeth before bed, and limiting between-meal snacks — that includes those late-night ones too. Find out what other steps you should be taking.

Watch What You Eat

Have you heard the saying, You are what you eat? Believe it or not, it also applies to your teeth. Remind yourself of it, especially if you're tempted to snack before bed. Go for healthy options. Calcium-rich foods, like milk and yogurt, will help keep your teeth strong. Fiber-rich foods, like apples, broccoli, and almonds, stimulate saliva production, which reduces the number of bacteria in the mouth. And whole grains, like brown rice and whole-grain pasta, provide iron and vitamin B for healthy gums, and magnesium for strong teeth.

The Worst Foods for Your Teeth

Sticky foods like taffy, gummy candies, and caramel cling to your teeth, providing the fuel that harmful bacteria need to multiply. At night, because you don't swallow as much while you sleep, the bacteria in your mouth can easily multiply. Avoiding sticky foods will help keep their numbers down and protect your teeth. If you do indulge yourself in a sweet and sticky treat, be sure to brush and floss soon afterward. Also, watch out for foods, like popcorn kernels or hard candies, that can break a tooth if you bite down too hard on them.

The Biggest Enemy

Plaque, the bad guy in the battle for healthy teeth, is a film of bacteria on the surface of your teeth. When you eat carbohydrate-rich foods like sugar, breads, pastas, and soda, the sugars and starches help the bacteria multiply and release acids that harm the enamel of your teeth over time and lead to cavities. However, you can sleep easy knowing that when you brush, floss, and rinse with a fluoride mouthwash, you're also attacking plaque at the same time

Fighting Gum Disease  

Gingivitis, an early form of gum disease, occurs when plaque builds up below the gum line and hardens into a substance known as tartar. Left untreated, gingivitis can develop into a more serious form of gum disease called periodontitis — a leading cause of tooth loss in later years. Red, swollen, tender gums and bleeding after brushing or flossing are early warning signs that gingivitis may be developing. Brushing and flossing regularly — during the day and before bed — are the best ways to prevent gingivitis

The Best Ways to Fight Plaque

Cavities occur when the acids in plaque break down enamel, the tooth's outer surface. The best way to prevent cavities is to brush in the morning and brush and floss before bed each and every night. Why? Because the bacteria that create plaque are constantly dividing and multiplying, so must be removed regularly. Fluoride, a mineral contained in most toothpastes, protects teeth by bonding with enamel and creating a harder surface. Toothbrush options include manual toothbrushes, and for extra brushing strength, power brushes.

 

Drill and Fill

Once plaque breaches the tooth's defense system of enamel and causes a cavity, a filling is required to re-create a hard, protective surface. After numbing the area, the dentist uses a drill to remove the weakened enamel and replaces it with a filling material, such as metals like gold, base metal alloys, and dental amalgam, or with white composite materials that match your natural tooth color. The material is selected by you and your dentist based on a variety of factors, including where the cavity is located, how large it is, and the cost.

Morning Breath vs. Bad Breath

When you wake up in the morning, your mouth is dry from not swallowing much throughout the night, and that's what typically causes "morning breath." Chronic badbreath (known medically as halitosis) can be caused by eating such foods as garlic or onions, which enter the bloodstream and are exhaled with every breath. It can also be the result of poor oral hygiene — if so, regular brushing and flossing can provide relief. Certain medical conditions can also cause halitosis, so if bad breath is a recurring problem for you, talk with your dentist or doctor to pinpoint the cause.

 

Show Off Your Pearly Whites

As we age, tooth enamel can become discolored and dull. Avoiding substances known to stain teeth (coffee, tea, red wine, and tobacco products, for example) can help prevent stains in the first place. A whitening toothpaste can add an extra brightening boost, removing surface stains. If brushing alone doesn't remove stains, many in-home and professionalteeth-whitening options are available. If you use a whitening product, be sure to follow the directions faithfully, especially when using the product overnight. Not doing so can damage your enamel and lead to bigger problems.

Don't Skip Your Appointments

Regular trips to your dentist are just as important as your daytime and nighttime oral routines. That's because seeing your dentist frequently gives him or her the opportunity to catch problems early – before they turn into major trouble. Talk to your dentist about how often you should visit, but in general, two to three visits a year are normal. If it has been a while since you've seen your dentist, schedule an appointment today. Doing so could save you thousands of dollars in expensive dental work down the line!

Dealing With Dental Emergencies

Sometimes, dental emergencies arise — a tooth gets knocked out or broken; a crown lifts off. When such mishaps occur, call your dentist immediately and describe the problem in as much detail as possible. He or she will schedule an office visit and advise you on what to do in the meantime. Quick action can make the difference between saving a tooth and losing a tooth.

Put Dental Problems to Bed

As you can see, when it comes to having healthy teeth, slow and steady wins the race. Daytime and nighttime oral care at home, paired with regular dental checkups, can head off most — if not all — dental problems. It's that easy! Just develop these good dental habits, and you'll be well on your way to putting dental problems to bed.

Join the Fight to Save Antibiotics; Preventing Super bugs

As you learned in our blog post last week, Misusing antibiotics can mess with your immune system and make it impossible for your body to fight against lethal infections. Here are five simple things you can do to help prevent superbugs.

1. Use antibiotics correctly. Work with your doctor to determine if an antibiotic will truly help what's ailing you, then follow her instructions. Any time you skip doses, don't finish a course, or drink alcohol when you're on the meds, you make the antibiotic less effective and give bacteria a chance to become resistant.

2. Buy meat labeled "raised without antibiotics" or "organic." Those exact phrases mean that antibiotics were not given to the animal needlessly. Watch out for wording; labels that say "all natural" guarantee nothing. Some good, antibiotic-free brands: Applegate Farms, Murray's Chicken, Bell & Evans, and Niman Ranch. Can't find these in your market? Tell your grocer to stock up and that you and your friends will buy! Also ask your kids' school to serve meat that was raised without antibiotics. Chicago Public Schools just became the largest district in the country to do this.

3. Ask your favorite restaurants if they use meat raised without antibiotics. If a company like Chipotle can do it, why can't others? "Things will only change if we ask for changes," says Gail Hansen, a public health advocate with the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.

4. Spread the message. "Like" the group Save Antibiotics on Facebook, and get friends to do the same. Awareness is key: Most people have no idea which illnesses require antibiotics, nor do they know how much the drugs are used in food animals. "Unless you grew up on a farm, why would you know that?" says Hansen.

5. Tell Congress to pass a law. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act would withdraw the use of antibiotics that are vital to humans from food-animal production unless the animals are diagnosed with illnesses. Says U.S. Representative Louise M. Slaughter, who introduced the bill: "Send a letter to your member of Congress — along with this article! — and tell them to sign the bill and get it passed." Personalize your own letter at saveantibiotics.org/moms/action., then get your reps' addresses at senate.gov and house.gov.

 Author:  Erin Zammett Ruddy; Redbook Magazine

Antibiotics are not candy; overuse of antibiotics create potentially lethal superbugs

We pop antibiotics like Skittles, and if we keep it up, they will seeon become useless againis potentially lethal superbugs.

On New Year's Eve 2009, Jacquie Allen, 42, was told by doctors that her son Brody might not live through the night. What started a few days earlier as a strange pimple on his knee had morphed into a full-blown attack on the 12-year-old's body. "One day he was perfectly healthy and the next he was in septic shock," says Jacquie, who lives in Southern California with her husband and their five children. "He became completely swollen and jaundiced, and his organs were failing. They tested him for everything, but no one could figure out what was wrong. I felt like I was on an episode of House." Finally, doctors determined that Brody had methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It's a type of staph (a bacteria many of us have on our skin) that has become resistant to most antibiotics and can cause infections that are hard to diagnose, tricky to treat, and sometimes fatal. The infection quickly spread to Brody's joints. "They pumped him full of antibiotic after antibiotic, but nothing was working," Jacquie says. Eventually, Brody's elbow became so inflamed that the only option was risky surgery. "The surgeon came in and said, 'Your son is going to die if we don't get that infection out now.'"

Brody made it through the surgery, but the MRSA was unrelenting. It took two more major operations to remove the infected tissue and stop the MRSA's spread. The Allens spent 19 days in the ICU. Before they left, Brody had a catheter implanted in a large vein in his arm so his parents could administer high doses of strong, specialized antibiotics around the clock for the next four months. He was told he'd never have full use of his arm again.

The doctors were wrong: Brody ultimately recovered completely, and now pitches for his Little League baseball team with the arm he almost lost. But we should all commit his story to memory, particularly any of us who have ever taken an antibiotic "just in case," or called the doctor asking for a prescription to help our child kick a stubborn cough. You see, every time we use an antibiotic, we give bacteria a chance to adapt and outsmart the medicine, explains Margaret Mellon, Ph.D., senior scientist of the Food and Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The bacteria develop and share resistance, so the next time they come in contact with the drug, it's a little less effective. There are already numerous strains that have outsmarted some of our strongest meds, and a few that are immune to virtually all of them.

The problem is cultural as well as medical. Americans take antibiotics carelessly, prophylactically, almost recreationally, and our overuse is creating superbugs that no drug will be able to kill. My friend Amy, who sold Zithromax (or the Z-pak, as this popular antibiotic is known) at points in her career as a drug rep, says, "At parties, people thought it was extremely impressive that I had a Z-pak hookup." Some came right out and asked for samples, though she never caved. We pop antibiotics when we don't need them, we skip doses, we don't finish the full course because we feel better in six days instead of 10 — and all those mistakes give the bacteria a chance to stick around and become resistant, explains Lauri Hicks, a medical epidemiologist and the director of the "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work" campaign for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Consumers aren't the only problem: Another major contributing factor in this crisis is the overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry, Mellon says. It's standard practice to feed low doses of antibiotics to chickens, pigs, and cows to make them grow faster and keep them from getting sick in crowded conditions. The United States Food and Drug Administration is finally starting to tackle agricultural use of antibiotics, but the rest is in our hands, and our doctors'. Preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics is "a huge public health issue," says Mellon, "and we need to start taking it more seriously right now."

The unkillable bug is coming

Ever get two days into your course of antibiotics, feel miraculously better, and think, Wow, that's magic? Well, it is. "When antibiotics came about in the 1940s, they completely transformed medicine, saving the lives of millions who would've died of these infections," says Arjun Srinivasan, M.D., a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. Moreover, without antibiotics, lifesaving treatments like chemotherapy, organ transplants, and even simple surgeries would not be possible. "These drugs dramatically improve our lives," says Srinivasan. But the magic is at serious risk as resistant bacteria pick up steam.

MRSA is the most well-known superbug, but it's certainly not the only one. "We've seen new forms of resistant disease emerge over the last decade, and they will keep coming until we can get a handle on the overuse of antibiotics," Mellon says. The CDC, for example, has warned of the potential threat of untreatable gonorrhea. The second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, it has become less susceptible to a strong class of antibiotics called cephalosporins, typically the last line of defense. There are also resistant strains of E. coli causing hard-to-treat urinary tract infections. (Believe it or not, one strain of antibiotic-resistant UTIs has been traced back to the chicken we eat.) When a UTI isn't stopped, it can progress to a kidney infection and then to a blood infection, says Lance Price, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the Translational Genomics Research Center in Flagstaff, AZ. "Blood infections have a 40 percent mortality rate. You can basically flip a coin to see whether you'll live or die." Srinivasan cites another example: "A type of bacteria called carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, has become resistant to all antibiotics," he says. If you pick up the infection, which can cause kidney, bladder, or blood infections, there is no treatment — and you're four times more likely to die from it than if you get a similar infection that isn't resistant to antibiotics.

Making matters worse, there are no new antibiotics in the pipeline. "It takes about a decade for a medication to go through the approval process, so we can be pretty sure we won't have new antibiotics to turn to when the current ones stop working," says Mellon. It's a real wake-up call; adds Srinivasan, "The doomsday scenario some doubters said would never arrive, in some cases, is already here."

Even when it's not life-threatening, dealing with a stubborn infection is frightening. I know firsthand: During the month I breast-fed my son, Alex, I had repeated bouts of mastitis, an infection common in nursing moms. I went on antibiotic after antibiotic, but the infection kept returning — because, it turns out, it was MRSA. I got on a specialized (as in $7,000) antibiotic and had a few surgical procedures on my breast, which cleared the bacteria. Meanwhile, Alex was battling the superbug too — he got it from the hospital nursery and gave it to me — constantly erupting with boils in his diaper area that had to be drained and treated. In the four months we dealt with MRSA, I spent $800 in copays alone. But that was nothing compared to the emotional toll. Every blemish we saw on Alex's body led us into a what-if-it's-MRSA? spiral. As if caring for a tiny new human weren't stressful enough.

Forgetting the personal price of these run-ins with superbugs, "the loss of effective antibiotics is also a huge drag on our economy," says Mellon. One recent study pegs the cost to the U.S. health-care system at upwards of $26 billion a year. The good news is we can do something about it. "The better we use antibiotics, the less of an opportunity we give these bacteria to develop and spread," says Srinivasan. "If you do a really good job of reduc-ing antibiotic use, not only do you hold resistance steady, you can actually see it go down." In other words, we have the power to reverse this crisis. And we must.

You — and your doctor — can help

Saving ourselves from the scary but all-too-real attack of the superbugs means we have to change our habits and attitudes, fast. "We're a society that seeks a quick fix to every problem," says Hicks, "and for a long time, people have thought that the magic pill for any illness is an antibiotic." But antibiotics only work on bacteria, not viruses — meaning they do nothing for a cold, the flu, bronchitis, and even most sinus infections. Doctors know this, of course, but they often dole out the meds anyway, mostly to please their patients. "People get a runny nose and think they must have an antibiotic," says Srinivasan. "They either ask for it outright or the doctor thinks, Oh, if I don't give her a prescription, she'll be disappointed." It seems crazy, but fear of letting down a patient can compel a doctor to grab her prescription pad. "We've also heard from doctors that not writing a prescription would take additional time, because they'd have to sit and explain to the disgruntled patient why she doesn't need it," says Hicks. My friend Liz only has to call her doctor and say, "I think I have strep," and a prescription arrives at CVS within the hour. She also takes a Z-pak with her on vacations just in case she gets sick. That overuse may have caught up with her: Liz often comes down with bronchitis in the winter, but this year, it turned into pneumonia. She needed two types of antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory steroid to clear it. It's a lesson for all of us, reminds Hicks: You may not care about the larger public health threat, but if you want antibiotics to continue to work for you, use them sparingly.

Just as important, we need to quit stuffing our kids full of these meds at the first sign of a sniffle. Three out of 10 children who visit their pediatrician with a simple cold toddle out with a prescription. So when you or your kids see the doctor, let her know you're not desperate for a script, that you just want advice on the best way to treat the illness, suggests Hicks. When it comes to colds, instead of plying ourselves with drugs, we should be treating the symptoms with OTC meds and nasal sprays, and do what we results-oriented Americans hate most: wait it out.

The point is not to avoid antibiotics at all costs, it's to use them correctly. This is the idea behind the CDC's "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work" campaign, with the arguably catchy line "Snort, sniffle, sneeze, no antibiotics, please!" The message seems to be making its way into the national dialogue. It even showed up last season in a scene on 30 Rock: When Jack told Liz Lemon to take something for her cough, she deadpanned, "I'd rather see if it gets better on its own. Do you want me to go on my antibiotic rant? It's endless. You'll beg for death." Go ahead and rant, experts say. "This truly is a national emergency," warns congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter. She introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, a bill that limits the use of antibiotics on farms to treating sick animals. But five years later, Congress has yet to pass it. "We're taking what I think was the best medical breakthrough of the last century and destroying its efficacy," she says. "But if we band together, we have the power to solve this problem."

Author: Erin Zammett Ruddy; Redbook Magazine