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.

Breast Cncer and Gum Disease

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!

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?

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

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.”