DoctorAdrian

Xylitol- Another Tool for Decay Prevention

2012-01-17T13:18:00.001-08:00

Xylitol, pronounced zylitol, is a naturally occurring sugar substitute. It's extracted from corn husks in the US, rice straw in China, and Birch trees in Finland. Through a couple of very cool, to a dentist, mechanisms, xylitol is good for teeth and bad for plaque bacteria. If you're actually interested you can read all about it at xylitol.org. Several studies show a 60% reduction in cavities.

Who needs it? Anyone who doesn't floss or waterpik enough, has ever had a root canal, or ever had a checkup with more than one cavity. That includes children. Want to decrease the chance of your baby getting decay by 60%? One study showed that result for new moms who chewed the gum from the child's age of 6 months to 2 years. Amazing! It affects the transmission of decay causing bacteria.

So how do you get xylitol? If you're the type who reads ingredient lists you know that most sugarless chewing gum has it. The problem is that it doesn't have enough. Research shows that you need around 4 to 6 grams per day. Most gum has other sugar substitutes but only .1 grams xylitol . Gum and mints that are made for dental benefits have 1 gram of xylitol. So 4 to 6 pieces of the right gum or mints gives the recommended daily dose. Too much can give you the runs.

Where do you get it? The biggest producer is a company in Orem, surrounded by wacky multi-level nutritional companies. They claim to be the largest importer of xylitol in the US. To me that means they get it from China. Smart Sweet does not contain Chinese xylitol and is available online here. Ultradent is a Salt Lake dental company that makes a line of xylitol products- gum, mints, mouthwash. They have tested Chinese ingredients and will not use them. They are a great company run by great people. We will be stocking their products, and using them ourselves. We'll sell them at our cost which turns out to be less than the competitors. Ask for a sample at your next check up.

Saint Apollonia Patron Saint of Dentistry

2011-11-30T09:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-11-30T07:43:00.002-08:00

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

2011-01-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Breast Cncer and Gum Disease

2010-11-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

The first study showing a link between breast cancer and periodontal disease was just published. The study was done at The Karolinska Instute and published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. Periodontitis seems to be closely associated with human cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr and Herpes virus co-infection. It is believed that these viruses act together to suppress immune response to bacterial challenges. The authors conclude that these viruses and bacteria act together to lead to low-degree chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis.

Holy Cow, Now it's ED!

2010-10-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Researchers in Israel found an association between periodontal disease and erectile dysfunction (ED). How's that for a reason to treat your gum disease? In the study, 2.1% of people without ED had advanced periodontal disease in comparison to 9.8% of the mild ED and 15.8% of the moderate/severe E. This article has a nice short explanation of how in the world this works. Medical News Today

Worried about Osteoporosis Meds?

2010-06-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Have you worried about osteoporosis medications (bisphosphonates) and jaw infections? The director of the Osteoporosis Center at the U of Cincinatti says the media may be over-reacting. " Bisphosphonates are used to treat skeletal complications of malignancy, at doses that are 10 times higher than the doses used to treat osteoporosis. About 95% of cases of osteonecrosis of the jaw are in patients who are receiving these very high doses of bisphosphonates for cancer complications. If these drugs weren't being used for that purpose, the incidence of jaw problems in patients receiving treatment for osteoporosis is so small that I doubt that anybody would have ever put the two together." Most importantly, here's the bottom line-"... for the average patient with osteoporosis the risk for getting a serious fracture, such as hip fracture, is orders of magnitude higher than the risk for having a rare complication, such as osteonecrosis of the jaw." More research is being done. For now, don't let the media scare you into stopping your osteoporosis meds. My mother takes the injected one.

Newest links for Periodontal Disease

2010-05-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Would you believe prostate cancer!? Early results from a study at Case Western show a possible link. Patients with more severe forms of prostatitis (including malignancies) also had more periodontitis.
And now Alzheimer's. Researchers at Boston University School of Dental Medicine link tooth loss and periodontal disease to cognitive decline in one of the largest and longest prospective studies on the topic to date. Boston area veterans were enrolled in the study in the 60's and 70's. They found that for each tooth lost per decade, the risk of doing poorly on cognitive tests increased approximately eight to 10 percent. The author wrote, “The findings should also give dentists yet another reason to prevent tooth loss and periodontal disease and encourage patients to do as much as they can to prevent dental disease.”

Will a Mouthpiece Make You Stronger?

2010-03-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

Wonder what the story is with Under Armou@$%'s new mouthpiece? This is an old theory rearing it's head. I wrote a paper about it in college! It didn't work then either. There is some evidence that it may improve balance. The claims of increased strength don't hold water, in my opinion. Some dentists are using the old push down your arm ruse to show that it does increase strength. This has been used by quacks and charlatans to promote dozens of things for the last hundred years. Run from anyone who wants to "test" your arm strength. Many professional athletes use it and believe that it works. Many of them also believe in not washing their game underwear. It is true that a misaligned jaw can show up as headaches, muscle cramps and other aches and pains. The UA mouthpiece may help those people, though probably no better than a $9 boil and bite mouthpiece. Golfers are spending lots of money on UA appliances. Maybe a slight improvement in balance will help, but what are you going to do, put it in your pocket between swings? It probably wont help your game any more than that $500 unobtanium driver that you leave at home now. What is definitely a rip off is their distribution channel- they sell a license to the dentist and they are the only ones who can make it. The only arrangement that would be a bigger indicator of a scam would be a multi-level arrangement. Sorry about the lack of anger management, but I'm in this business to try and make the world a little better. It steams me when those who are supposed to be trusted professionals are ripping people off with scams that have little or no scientific basis.

The Periodontal-Systemic Disease Connection

2010-03-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

By now everyone has heard that gum disease can cause other problems. It has become known as the periodontal-systemic disease connection. The bacteria. possibly some bacterial product, enter the bloodstream from the gums. Research at this point shows an association, we don't yet understand the mechanism. An association has been shown with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, preterm birth, pancreatic cancer, head and neck cancer, obesity. A new condition is added almost monthly.
Now there is a test to show if you have any of the bacteria that cause gum disease and associated problems. You can have the bacteria and not show classic gum disease symptoms- bleeding, recession. The test may be a good idea if there's early heart disease or diabetes in the family, you're planning pregnancy or joint replacement, or diagnosed with heart disease. A plaque sample is sent to Germany for bacterial DNA analysis. The dangerous bacteria levels identified can be treated. A subsequent test proves that the dangerous bacterial levels are reduced and healthy levels are re-established.

My Logo

2010-01-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

My logo is an adaptation of a stained glass window designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Lake Geneva Hotel. Why am I such a Wright fan? In the Industrial Revolution workers, even children, often toiled in dangerous conditions to make cheap mass produced goods. Wright was part of the Craftsman movement that was against the abuses of that era. They stood for great, honest design, custom production, and honorable working conditions. I think those values still resonate in my career.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin's close proximity to both Chicago and Milwaukee made it a popular early 20th century motoring destination. A couple of businessman joined forces to form the Artistic Buildingl Company. Commissioned in 1911, Frank Lloyd Wright's design is a transitional one with crisply geometric and dominant Prairie Style features. The horizontal plan called for a 360-foot long main building with 90 rooms, generous terraces, and a 3-story wing of suites at one end (which was later omitted during construction). The light-colored stucco walls and hipped roof were broken by bands of green, brown, and red art glass windows. There was a large arched fireplace in the lobby along with a flat metal sculpture. The dining room had simple clusters of rectangular art glass boxes around a coffered art glass skylight ceiling. But within two years of its opening in 1912, the hotel developed financial problems. There were many owners over the years, which led to several alterations and continued deterioration. In 1970, a fire broke out in one of the wings and the building was demolished soon after. Presently a 1970s style high-rise condo building stands on the site that looks over the lake and lagoon between Broad and Center Streets.