Research finds tooth enamel fast-track in humans

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA Research has discovered a link between prenatal enamel growth rates in teeth and weaning in human babies. The research found that incisor teeth grow quickly in the early stages of the second trimester of a baby’s development, while molars grow at a slower rate in the third trimester. This is so …

Salivary mucins play active role to fight cavities

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA Salivary mucins, key components of mucus, actively protect the teeth from the cariogenic bacterium, Streptococcus mutans, according to research published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The research suggests that bolstering native defenses might be a better way to fight dental caries than relying on exogenous materials, such as sealants and …

Ancient dental plaque: A ‘whey’ into our milk drinking past?

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA  We drink milk because it is good for us, but we rarely stop to think “Why?” Archaeologists and geneticists have been puzzling this question since it was revealed that the mutations which enable adults to drink milk are under the strongest selection of any in the human genome. These mutations cause …

Predicting Aggressiveness of Oral Cancer

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA Studying mouth cancer in mice, researchers have found a way to predict the aggressiveness of similar tumors in people, an early step toward a diagnostic test that could guide treatment, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “All patients with advanced head and neck cancer get similar treatments,” said Ravindra …

Warning to Parents on High Acidity Drinks

Dental researchers at the University of Adelaide are warning parents of the dangers of soft drinks, fruit juice, sports drinks and other drinks high in acidity, which form part of a “triple-threat” of permanent damage to young people’s teeth.   For the first time, researchers have been able to demonstrate that lifelong damage is caused by acidity to the teeth …

Only 1 in 10 smokers who visited a dentist received advice to quit

Not all smokers receive tobacco cessation advice from health care providers (HCPs), according to a study from Ohio State University. Researchers note that although factors associated with receiving HCP advice to quit smoking and the effectiveness of such advice have been examined, no recent study has explored differences between types of HCPs (eg, physicians vs dentists). The researchers’ objective was …

Widespread oral health problems among Navajo, study shows

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA new study from Colorado School of Public Health shows that despite some modest improvements, poor oral health remains a major problem in the Navajo Nation and among American Indians overall.   “The oral health among Native Americans is abysmal with more than three times the disease of the rest of the …

Long term oral care for adults with special needs

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA A retrospective study conducted by researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and colleagues reports that among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the likelihood of having cavities decreased as the number of years receiving dental care increased. The findings, published in the July/August issue of Special Care in Dentistry, may …

New study reveals widespread support for rapid HIV testing in dental surgeries

Forest Smiles – The Best Dentist in Lynchburg, VA More than 80 per cent of oral health patients are willing to receive rapid HIV-testing in dental settings, which could help reduce the spread of the HIV according to a groundbreaking study revealed today at a Sydney University HIV Testing Symposium. The first of its kind study of 521 Sydney-based dental patients assessed …