Saint Apollonia Patron Saint of Dentistry

Saint Apollnia is the patron saint of dentistry, also for those suffering from toothache. She was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria in about AD 250. A mob threatened to burn her alive if she did not deny her faith. She refused so the mob broke all her teeth and threw her into the fire. Miraculously the fire did not harm her. She ended up decapitated.

Her feast day in celebrated on February 9th. She is represented in art with pincers in which a tooth is held. She is one of the two partron saints of Catania, Sicily. In Germany she is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers that are singled out as the patron saints of daily life; Apollonia protecting against toothache. Her relics were preserved in the Church of St. Apollonia in Rome, which no longer exists. Her head went to a church in Trastevere, her arms to a Papal Basilica in Rome and parts of her jaw to St. Basil's. Other relics, sometimes a single tooth, to several churches in Belgium and France. One of the principal train stations in Lisbon is named for her. The Island of Mauritius was originally named for her in 1507 by Portugese navigators. In England, there are 52 known images of her that remain in various churches, mostly in stained gless.

Most Effective Pain Pill for Wisdom Teeth

This month's British Dental Journal has a study on this topic from Oxford. The winner- ibuprofen and Tylenol together! That's one ibuprofen and one extra-strength Tylenol! It achieved a tie with a COX-2 inhibitor not available in the US. They scored the percentage of patients who started out with moderate or severe pain and achieved at least 50% pain relief.

Ibuprofen/Tylenol scored 74%

Naproxen (Aleve) and 2 ibuprofen (separately) "scored well"

Lortab was only 24%

Placebo was 7%. It's always amazing how well placebos do.

Pain control is tricky. This study shows that even the best drugs fail to provide good relief in 30% of patients. No single drug is effective for everybody. Some people believe that a drug must make you stoned to really relieve pain- probably not true. While narcotics (Lortab) do make you sleepy, they also causes nausea, dizziness, constipation and massive problems with addiction. There are probably better medications to make you sleepy. The conclusion of the authors of the study was that if one medication doesn't give you relief, try another.

Think about this before genetic testing

It used to cost a million bucks to have your genes sequenced, to get a print out of all your DNA. It now costs about 20 grand. Recent developments should bring the cost down to much less than a thousand. There are many issues to think about before you buy any genetic tests- including the periodontal disease tests that I have been recommending. One important issue is to keep your information private. You don't want the insurance companies to know what your risk of any disease is. Their job is to share the risk in general, and charge appropriate premiums. Don't give them the answer so they can charge you more!
I made a mistake with my elbow. I went to the M.D. who diagnosed tennis elbow and sent me to physical therapy. When he makes the diagnosis, the medical insurance will cover it. Six months later, the physical therapy didn't help and it affected my insurance rate. Not only medical insurance, I paid more for life and disability insurance for years. I will probably buy some genetic tests at some point. I just think the science is cool. It may also help make some decisions in the future. But I will carefully protect my private information. I don't want any insurance company to know. I don't want my M.D. to write anything down. Of course we protect your privacy with the gum disease tests, no results are reported to anyone but you.