What Sweet Dreams are made of…

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teeth-grinding-childHi everyone!

As parents, nothing matters more to us than the happiness and safety of our children.  Quite often I get questions from patients who are concerned about their children grinding their teeth at night.  The medical term for the grinding, clenching or gnashing of teeth as we sleep is called bruxism.  While it’s often considered an adult condition, it is common in children as well.  We typically associate bruxism with stress or with an unbalanced or unstable bite.  However, the latest research seems to indicate that bruxism may be an unconscious effort to open a constricted or obstructed airway, and it seems to be closely related to environmental allergies in children. Experts estimate that three children out of ten are nighttime bruxers.

It is easy to understand that the origin of bruxism could be as simple as misaligned teeth. It is also easy to see how stress at work, school or home could contribute to bruxism.Read More→

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A Rinse Test May be the Future of Oral Cancer Detection

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oral-rinse-testHi everyone!

Wouldn’t it be great if there were an oral rinse that could that could easily detect oral cancer in its early stages?  Researchers from the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, in collaboration with Vigilant Biosciences, say they may have such a low-cost testing alternative to detecting oral cancer available in the next 2 or 3 years.

This simple and painless test could potentially prevent a majority of patients from being diagnosed in the later stages of the disease where cure rates are only 40 percent.  Most of the time oral cancer is discovered far too late, when it has already spread to the lymph nodes, requiring radical and many times disfiguring surgery to treat.  Close to 42,000 American will be diagnosed with oral cancer this year alone. It currently causes approximately 8,000 U.S. deaths per year.

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A Dental Screening May Be Key to a Good Night’s Rest

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sleep-apneaHi everyone!

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a breathing disorder in which breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted during sleep. These episodes are called apneas (literally, “without breath”) and last at least nine seconds. Some people have episodes of hypopnea, which means breathing that is partially (but substantially) obstructed.

OSA most often occurs when the airway muscles fail to keep the airway open during sleep. Most people who suffer from sleep apnea don’t know it.   According to the World Health Organization approximately 100 million people worldwide have OSA. In the United States, OSA is estimated to affect 1 in 4 men and 1 in 9 women; and affects 23 million working adults.

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Research reveals Regular Scalings Reduce Atrial Fibrillation Risk

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scalingHi everyone!

A recent study published in the International Journal of Cardiology sheds some light on dental procedures that can lower the risk of developing atrial fibrillation in older adults.  Atrial fibrillation is a type of cardiac dysrhythmia where the atrium of the heart simply vibrates instead of doing a full contraction necessary to pump blood.  Symptoms include fainting, chest pain, palpitations or congestive heart failure.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases a person’s risk of stroke depending upon other risk factors such as high blood pressure.  The presence of AF can be easily confirmed with an EKG or electrocardiogram or clinically identified by taking someone’s pulse, and affects 2.7 million people in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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