Have to laugh

Pleased to see that our Government has done a U turn on Ebola screening at airports.


Yesterday I received a letter from the local authority which basically made me, as a humble local dentist, part of the frontline for Ebola screening!


We were to be on the lookout for patients with headaches, fever, sickness and diarrhoea, because these are some of the symptoms of Ebola. Lets face it, in the next 6 months 99% of the population will experience some of those symptoms. The letter does say be aware there could be other possible diagnoses other than Ebola!


Should we be unfortunate enough to come across someone with those symptoms we are then to try and isolate them in a sideroom if possible. This is presumably to give us time to fill out the paperwork that will eventually generate a visit from people in full Ghostbusters get up to save the day. We are going to need a lot of siderooms.


I feel so much safer knowing we are protected by such stringent protocols

Tooth whitening - beware

A recent survey suggested that nearly 30% of folks would not go to the dentist for tooth whitening treatment, and would prefer to purchase home whitening kits over the internet, or visit a beautician or kiosk instead.

The only people in the UK who can legally provide whitening treatments are dentists and suitably trained dental hygienists, as they are the only people with the correct training qualifications and expertise - certainly not beauticians.

Permanent damage can and has been done to teeth by using inappropriate materials and treatments. A Fake Britain program was screened by the BBC 3rd May to highlight the dangers. People are now being prosecuted for what is seen as the illegal practice of dentistry.

The only safe place to have your teeth whitened is at  the dentist.

Teeth are biggest attraction

A study carried out by match.com has revealed that we judge the opposite sex mostly on their teeth. The study was carried out over 3 years and the results produced a top ten list of things that men judge women on, and vice versa. 58% of men judged women on their teeth, and 72% of women judge men on their teeth. Grammar took second place, followed by hair and clothes.

Gangnam Style toothbrushing!

 
Gangnam Style became an international cult music hit. Now the song has been identified as being best for encouraging children to brush their teeth correctly.
A musical formula has been worked out that developes the best beat pattern required for good cleaning.
It appears that songs which have eight bars of music, followed by another two sets of four bars can encourage brushing. They must also include a double chorus and middle ‘bridging’ section, known as a double eight.

Gentlemen - deal with your gum disease !

Men with erection problems are three times more likely to have inflamed gums according to a new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

 

Men in their thirties, who had inflamed gums caused by gum disease, were three times more likely to suffer from erection problems.

Turkish researchers compared 80 men aged 30 to 40 with erectile dysfunction with a control group of 82 men without erection problems. This showed that 53% of the men with erectile dysfunction had inflamed gums compared with 23% in the control group. When the results were adjusted for other factors, such as age, body mass index, household income and education level, the men with severe gum disease were over 3 times more likely to suffer from erection problems than men with healthy gums.

Dallas star dies from mouth cancer

Larry Hagman, aka JR Ewing, from the 80s hit soap Dallas, died from cancer of the tongue. Larry was diagnosed with the disease in October 2011.

About 8000 people have been diagnosed with mouth cancer in the UK (this year?) and without early treatment about half can expect to die. Early diagnosis is therefore extremely important, as is reducing your risks by stopping smoking and using alcohol only in moderation.

We take care to routinely screen all our patients, not only for mouth cancer, but any one of a zillion conditions that can manifest in the mouth.

Stem cells from teeth 'banked' for future use

Few people cannot have heard about the potential benefits of stem cell therapy. New advances are being made all the time and an opportunity now exists for dentists to 'bank' stem cells either from yourself, a child or loved one. It seems that a good place to harvest stem cells is from the pulps of teeth: either baby teeth that are about to fall out, from permanent teeth that need to be removed electively for orthodontic reasons, or wisdom teeth. The tooth need to be in good condition otherwise or the stem cells will not be as viable. After processing the cells are stored. What price that tooth if it later proves that the banked stem cells could be used to regrow a defective organ? Currently there are 85 medical conditions for which these stem cells can be used.