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Coffee and Tea May Lower Oral Cancer Risk?

March 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
tea

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We’ve covered the health benefits of tea a few times, but this is the first time a research study has ever found an association between health benefits of tea and oral cancer prevention. What’s more surprising is that the study actually included coffee, which dentists usually discourage consumption of due to the fact that it stains teeth.

The research study was conducted in France, where they studied whether consumption of certain beverages could be associated with the incidence of oral cancer. What they found was that the prevalence of oral cancer was markedly lower among study participants who were regular consumers of tea or coffee. As a result, they believe that drinking tea and coffee could decrease the risk of oral cancer through their antioxidant components that are essential to the repair of cellular damage.

The researchers examined the relationship between consuming the beverages and the risk of oral cancer by conducting interviews and administering written surveys to over 4,000 participants in France. Over six hundred of the participants were already diagnosed with oral cancer.

They found an inverse relationship between oral cancer and consumption of tea or coffee, tea in particular. [..Read More]

Filed Under: Dental Health Tagged With: ,

New Drill-Free Technique for Cavities in Children

March 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Child at the dentist

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Dr. Norma Hall, a Scottish dentist, developed a new technique for fixing cavities in young children that doesn’t require a drill, using a local anesthetic, or placing a dental filling. The technique, aptly called the Hall technique, involves capping a baby tooth with a stainless-steel crown to seal the decay. The crown then remains on the afflicting tooth until it naturally falls out with the arrival of the permanent tooth. According to recent research, the process is 20 minutes faster than the traditional filling and has a higher success rate.

More importantly, recent research on the technique has found that this drill-free technique can reduce dentist anxiety in young children. Dr. Lyndie Foster Page and Dr. Dorothy Boyd trained ten dentists to use the Hall technique, and then studied its effects on dentist anxiety in about 200 young children versus conventional methods. One hundred of the children had the Hall technique, and approximately 90 children had a traditional filling. The children were aged between 5 and 8.

They found that the children who received the Hall technique reported less dental anxiety than the children who received fillings. Nearly 90% of the children with the Hall technique reported that they enjoyed their dental visit, whereas only 52% of the children who received a filling said the same.[..Read More]

Filed Under: Dental Health, Dental Procedures, Pediatric Dentistry Tagged With: ,

Obesity Conclusively Linked to Gum Disease

February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
obesity

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It’s been suggested for awhile now that there is a link between obesity and gum disease. There are already links between diabetes and gum disease, and of course there are links between obesity and diabetes, so one would think that conclusively means there is a link between obesity and gum disease. However, there has been no actual evidence to link gum disease to obesity until now.

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have found the link between obesity and gum disease by the underlying inflammatory processes found in both conditions.

“Obese individuals’ bodies relentlessly produce cytokines, proteins with inflammatory properties. These cytokines may directly injure the gum tissue or reduce blood flow to the gum tissue, thus promoting the development of gum disease,” explained Dr. Charlene Krejci, the study’s lead author and associate professor at the university.[..Read More]

Filed Under: Dental Health, Periodontal Disease Tagged With: , ,

How damaging are soft drinks to your teeth, really?

February 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Still aren’t sure about how unhealthy soft drinks can be on your teeth? Do you still consume several soft drinks a day? Do you hide behind the notion that you only consume “diet” soft drinks?

Of course we’re going to recommend that you cut out all soft drinks from your diet altogether, even “diet” soft drinks, since the “diet” only removes sugar and not the even more harmful carbonic acid. However, we are realistic, and we only ask that you cut down your soft drink intake each day to preferably only one or two a day.

If you don’t think you can, or you really aren’t sure how bad soft drinks can be on your teeth, let us share a recent horror story from Adelaide, Australia.

William Kennewell is a 25-year-old man from Adelaide who recently had to have all of his teeth removed due to his soft drink addiction. Granted, Mr. Kennewell was (and most likely still is) extremely addicted to soft drinks. He reported that he drank six to eight liters of soft drinks (approximately 1.4 to 2 gallons) a day. That’s over 20 12-ounce bottles of soft drinks each day.[..Read More]

Filed Under: Dental Health, Dental Hygiene

Filtered cigarettes do not reduce risk of oral cancer as previously thought

February 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Filtered cigarette

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It’s well documented that tobacco, cigarettes or smokeless, has been linked as a cause of oral disease, including oral cancer, periodontal disease, and even teeth decay. Filtered cigarettes have been thought to reduce the amount consumed of the hazardous substances from smoking, but new research from China has found that the filters do not really reduce the risk at all. In fact, they found that the filters are only “protective” for those who smoke very little.

The researchers studied patients in eight hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Guangxi between January 2008 and December 2010. Due to the low smoking rates among women in China, the study only included men. Participants included 319 patients over the age of 30 who had been diagnosed with oral cancer and 428 controls–male patients who were not diagnosed with oral cancer.[..Read More]

Filed Under: Dental Health
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