BDS INSIGHTS by Dr Manish Khazane

Nearly 450 million people worldwide are currently living with a mental illness, yet nearly two thirds of people with a known mental illness never seek treatment.  Due to the stigma associated with mental illness, a lack of awareness, and limited access to professional help, only 10-12% of these sufferers will seek help. Support, judgement, fear The study revealed three broad segments of people based on their attitudes towards mental illness. People’s understanding of mental health The study showed that while 87% of the respondents showed some awareness of mental illness, 71% also used terms associated with stigma. This shows that stigma and awareness are two separate issues although interlinked. They need to be addressed in parallel in order to tackle the burden of mental illness in India. If individuals continue to view mental illness with apprehension and resistance, it will remain difficult for people with mental health concerns to se...

Dental pulp testing is a useful and essential diagnostic aid in endodontics.Pulp sensibility tests include thermal and electric tests, which extrapolate pulp health from sensory response. Traditional electronic pulp testers work by passing a current into the tooth and measuring how much current is required to cause a sensation. Unfortunately, the diagnosis is often made on a tooth that has or is near a metal tooth filling, which can change the path of the current in unpredictable ways. Clinically, this has led to false-positive readings. University of Oxford researchers have designed a magnetic analog of this device that aims to alleviate this issue.                                         Dental pulp tests are investigations that provide valuable diagnostic and treatment planning info...

Medical professions often require their workers to wear uniforms or other special types of clothing due to the nature of the work. Dentists are one such profession and often wear such things as scrubs and lab coats. They may also choose to have a more standard professional appearance. Scrubs Standard scrubs are the typical attire for dentists. Scrubs consist of a pair of pants and a top. Tops may be either short or long sleeve depending on the individual's preference. Pants are always long. Scrubs come in a variety of colors and patterns. White and various shades of blue seem to be the most commonly worn, but these are by no means the only colors worn by dentists. Patterns range from cartoon and movie characters to seasonal prints. Women also have more choices when it comes to styles. They can choose from stereotypical scrub tops or ones that look more like everyday fashion tops made from scrub material. Lab Coats Dentists often wear lab coats over their scrubs. Lab...

Having natural pink color gums is very important for good smile. Smile looks beautiful if one has beautiful teeth with natural looking pink gums. But that is not always possible. Generally the gums color is same as the skin color. The people from the west are fair and their gum color is also pink mostly. Dark gums are mostly seen in dark skinned people.  The gum discoloration may be present in patches.  The extent of gum discoloration and the intensity is different for different individuals. Dark pigmented gums don’t mean that they are unhealthy and are not an indication of a disease.   What are the causes of Dark Gums: Racial or physiological gingival pigmentation: It is seen as the genetic trait. The main culprit behind this is the black pigment known as Melanin. The production of melanin increases manifolds in the presence of sunlight. At the same time it is more in the persons having complexion towards darker side. The individuals who are i...

Al co hol abuse causes dental disease and mouth cancer warn health experts. To t ac kle this at the earliest opportunity, screening and treatment for excessive drinking is vital.Patients do not attend their GP unless they are ill, but most people visit their dentist for a routine check-up, giving the dental team a unique opportunity to identify misuse.                                        Excessive al co hol co nsumption can lead to cancer of the mouth, larynx and oesophagus and dentists maybe the first to notice these co nditions. So we need to introduce an al co hol screening tool that reliably detects hazardous and harmful drinking alongside effective treatment.Promoting moderation in al co hol co nsumption in the primary dental setting co uld co ntribute to decreasing the e co nomic, social and health burdens associated with al co hol abuse.         ...

Scientists found that men who drank two pints of beer or two glasses of wine before solving brain teasers were quicker in delivering correct answers. Drinking alcohol may enhance a person’s problem solving skills, according to a new study. Scientists found that men who either drank two pints of beer or two glasses of wine before solving brain teasers not only got more questions right, they also were quicker in delivering correct answers, compared to men who answered the questions sober.  While the latest findings go against the traditional beliefs that alcohol impairs analytical thinking and rational thoughts, lead author Professor Jennifer Wiley of the University of Illinois at Chicago discovered that alcohol may enhance creativity problem solving by reducing the mind’s working memory capacity, which is the ability to concentrate on something in particular. “Working memory capacity is considered the ability to control one’s atte...

                                                    ITS APRIL - ORAL CANCER AWARENESS MONTH . Oral cancer is a subtype of head and neck cancer, is any cancerous tissue growth located in the oral cavity. It may arise as a primary lesion originating in any of the oral tissues, by metastasis from a distant site of origin, or by extension from a neighboring anatomic structure, such as the nasal cavity or the Oral cancers may originate in any of the tissues of the mouth, and may be of varied histologic types: teratoma, adenocarcinoma derived from a major or minor salivary gland, lymphoma from tonsillar or other lymphoid tissue, or melanoma from the pigment-producing cells of the oral mucosa. There are several types of oral cancers,...

The controlled addition of a fluoride compound to public water supplies is considered to be the most cost-effective way to prevent cavities and fight tooth decay.  Tooth decay affects children in the United States more than any other chronic infectious disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC states that tooth decay, if left untreated, can cause pain and infections that hinder eating, speaking, playing and learning. "Fluoride makes the entire tooth structure more resistant to decay and promotes remineralization, which aids in repairing early decay before damage is even visible," said C.H. Chu, BDS, PhD, MAGD, ABGD, lead author of the study. "Studies have confirmed the most effective source of fluoride to be water fluoridation." More than 144 million United States residents in more than 10,000 communities drink fluoridated tap water, providing an automatic defense against the harmful ingredients that cause su...

A team of scientists from Boston has confirmed that the bacterium Streptococcus mutans is a primary culprit in early childhood caries (EEC) cavities on the first set of teeth, and has identified a new species of bacterium, Scardovia wiggsiae, which they suspect is also a major contributor. They report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.  T he study's ultimate goal was to determine which bacterial species should be suppressed "to prevent cavity formation," says Anne Tanner, of the Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA. EEC is the most common chronic infectious disease of childhood in the US. It afflicts one quarter of the relevant population, and more than one half among certain disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. In this study, the researchers compared the bacterial populations in samples of dental plaque taken from deep cavities in afflicted children, with plaque from matched sites in cavity-free children. They identified species using 16S r...

Dental implant is one of the Procedure many dentists are doing and rest are planning to do.Dental implants are frequently the best treatment option for replacing missing teeth? but for the beginners its important  to notice that job is not done until the Osseointegration is completed.Numerous studies have been done on animals to confirm the problems that excessive drinking can cause.The studies referenced here have to do with long-term effects on dental implants.  Alcohol effects the bone repair around dental titanium implants. The AAOMS , American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, confirms that dental implants are composed of titanium metal that "fuses" with the jawbone through a process called "osseointegration." According to studies done on rats at the Laboratory of Experimental Surgery, Research Institute Codivilla-Putti, in Bologna, Italy .  Alcohol abuse affects bone repair and decreases the ability to form bone around stand...

Stem cell treatment using specialist human cells to repair or replace damaged tissues or organs is the cornerstone of future medical science. Children’s milk teeth, (baby teeth) have been identified as a rich source of these stem cells and have the potential to treat some of the worst illnesses and diseases facing people today. The world’s first specialist tooth cell banking company, BioEDEN offers a simple, yet highly efficient method of collecting, isolating, growing and storing these powerful baby tooth cells for use by the original donor and potentially their immediate family should they ever be needed in the future. Tooth cell banking is a proactive decision being made by parents all over the world who recognise years of potential health benefits for their child in return for simply saving their baby teeth. Pioneered by BioEDEN , tooth cell banking is a safe, natural and wholly non-invasive method of collecting and preserving precious stem cells which could hold the ...