How Did Dental Caries Become So Prevalent?An interesting overview of dental caries, titled "Epidemiology of Dental Disease" from the University of Illinois, explains how |
Updates from Jessica
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Cavitiy Rates in Young Children Are Rising
When young children arrive at the dentist with multiple cavities or severe tooth decay, they are usually subjected to invasive treatments and may be placed under general anesthesia. There appears to be a growing concern that the dental health of children is taken more seriously, yet the the reports state that many parents are not properly caring for their children's teeth.
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Are More Children Being Subjected to Invasive Dental Procedures?
"We have had a huge increase in kids going to the operating room,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in Augusta, Me., and a spokesman for the American Dental Association. “We’re treating more kids more aggressively earlier." (Saint Louis)
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Are Your Teeth Trying to Tell You Something?
"Some of the earliest signs of diabetes, cancer, pregnancy, immune disorders, hormone imbalances and drug issues show up in the gums, teeth and tongue—sometimes long before a patient knows anything is wrong." (Beck)
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Do More Dentists Mean More Cavities?
"Icelandic teens get four-times more cavities than their peers in Denmark....Among 12 year-old children the difference is striking: Icelandic dentists find on average two cavities during each 12 year-old’s visit — which is double the figure for Norwegian children, who come out second-worst. The Icelandic result is four-times worse than for Danish 12 year-olds." (Ice News)
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Dental Fillings Excrete Unsafe Levels of Mercury
A February 2011 journal article published in Science of the Total Environment has found that around 120 million people (approximately 1/3 U.S. population) with amalgam dental fillings exceed the California EPA "safe" doses of mercury level exposure. The study states that, according to 2001–2004 population statistics, there are about 181 million people in America (including children as young as two and adults as old as 90) who have a total of approximately 1.4 billion fillings in their mouths. Most of these are amalgam fillings. Since data was available on the weight and prevalence of tooth filling in Americans, the researchers could look at increases of mercury in the urine of those with filled teeth. They could then estimate the exposure to mercury that occurred due to fillings in five age groups. The results showed that dental amalgam does release mercury into the bodies of those who have these fillings. In fact, reports by the World Health Organization (WHO, 1991) and Health Canada (1996) confirm that dental amalgam is the largest source of mercury exposure for people who have these fillings. This exposure is not just a one-time occurrence either. It is continuous exposure that exceeds safe levels.
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Bob’s Chipped Tooth: Poor Nutrition Leads to Poor Dental Health
Meet Bob
Bob is a 37-year-old man with some health complications. He has Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and is overweight. His daily food consumption generally consists of boxed and packaged foods and artificial sweeteners. These types of foods are often considered normal in today’s "civilized" countries; however, they may play a key role in the dental problems that plague many people like Bob. In order to understand this, we should break down at least one of Bob’s meals, and explore the problems with the foods he is and is not consuming. We can use Bob’s breakfast choices to do this.