Dentalnews (en)

Yes and no, most people have good teeth but bad habits!

If you have most of your fillings in your side teeth, then you are one of these people. The dental x-ray shows the fillings highlighted in blue – these are the bright spots in the picture!
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When we start getting fillings in our side teeth, most of us just automatically assume that we have bad teeth, but there is actually a reason why fillings and missing teeth predominate on the side.
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Learning to brush your teeth right takes practice!
The window display – or front teeth, gets a lot of attention, but when it comes to the side we get lulled into a false sense of security by the fresh taste of toothpaste and don’t take as much time to clean them properly. This enables plaque build-up, which eventually results in cavities and periodontitis.
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Bad teeth are actually very rare!
Very few people have congenitally bad teeth, and in these cases all the teeth are affected, even the front teeth.

Good dentist – bad dentist! Are our dentists worse than they were 50 years ago?

Well… yes and no.

No, because the amount of knowledge we have at our disposal is steadily growing, and today’s highly interconnected global information network  makes for a steady stream of new information.

Yes, because studying is becoming more and more like schooling. This seems to be a general trend and not found only in dentistry.
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Acquiring knowledge used to be entirely up to the student. Unlike school, with its schedules, curricula and assignments,a university would leave a student to decide what, where and how to learn.
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Of course this meant that the universities had to deal with a certain number of students who never quite managed to „complete“ their studies, but these tended to give up after a while, thus making it possible to separate the wheat from the chaff. Nowadays, internships and colloquia are used to steer students through their studies, leaving little room for personal initiative. At some universities you are basically „carried“ through your studies.
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Doctors who graduate like this usually stay on in university clinics, since a hospital or clinic acts as a kind of „buffer“ when mistakes happen, a luxury not given to doctors who have their own offices. Now, this does not mean that doctors who work at university clinics are „incompetent“.

However, it has been observed that talented doctors tend to use clinics as a kind of springboard to acquire knowledge and skills. Later on, they “cash in” on what they learned when they open their own offices . Few stay behind at clinics, taking advantage of the possibility to do research and work together with other doctors.
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When talking to a doctor, ask him or her to explain your illness to you, everything can be explained logically and step by step. Moreover, a good doctor should not be afraid to say  – „I don’t know“. If all you get is a vague and incomprehensible explanation, and the doctor seems to be beating around the bush, this is usually a sign that this doctor was „herded through“ their studies.
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Learn for the sake of learning and not just to comply with curricula! Under the old system, it was much easier to simply select out the good and bad students – and one thing that hasn’t changed is that the ones who succeed are the ones who want to! What has changed is that nowadays it is easier for a lot of students to get through  their studies by following lecture notes and a catalogue of questions, by simply „learning by rote“.
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Dentistry is a craft, as are many other courses of study and professions! Universities should try to use a selection process to weed out those who have little skill, and also very little discipline and personal initiative.

Medicine, dentistry and other social professions have to do with ethics, morals and sustainability. The practice of choosing the costliest course of treatment over the best is unfortunately being encouraged by the way in which university studies are set up!

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More about this topic here!

I part one you read all about how defensines affect our overall health, but the connection is even more complex!

Our cells use various substances to communicate with each other – the general term being “cytokines“. These cytokines activate signal paths in the cells.

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You can look at it this way: Cell A (an immune cell) tells Cell B (a cell in the mucous membrane of the mouth) – “produce more mucus, since there are bacteria around”. But Cell A does not really speak to Cell B, but pours out signal molecules  – called cytokines.

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Like a key and lock system, these cytokines activate signal paths in Cell B which lead to an increased production of mucus. Think of these signal paths as a factory, in which the boss gives an instruction to the foreman, who then proceeds to shout it into a microphone. The employees hurry up and change into their uniforms, etc. … this is exactly what takes place in the cell – a cascade of signals. When the cascade is over, the organelles in the cell produce more mucus!

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Researchers have discovered that in cases of periodontitis, bacteria in the gum pockets activate the same signal paths as are activated in oral cancer,so there is very likely to be a connection between these illnesses.

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Source: 2009_ Parodontitis Mundkrebs und Allgemeingesundheit (periodontitis, oral cancer and overall health)

Are periodontitis, oral cancer and overall health in any way related?

They are!
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Our immune system continuously produces substances (loaded proteins, called defensines) which target bacteria, fungi and viruses. Immune cells inject these defensines into bodily fluids, and this “Defensine Cocktail” protects us from attack by bacteria, fungi and/or viruses.
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In evolutionary terms, defensines appeared about the same time as the insects, so they represent a very old component of our immune system, and can be found throughout the animal kingdom. For example, the immune cells make sure a high concentration of these proteins gets into the fluid around the eyes, the saliva, lungs, vaginal fluid etc. Wherever our bodies are faced with invasion, these proteins go!
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But defensine production only runs smoothly in a healthy „household“. This means the well-balanced functioning of our organs, e.g. non-microbial digestion takes place in the small intestine, while microbial digestion takes place in the large intestine. This makes the large intestine an organ of fermentation, and if the small and large intestines don’t „coordinate“ their functions, this can have harmful results on defensine production. The lower the level of defensines, the less protection against micro-organisms.

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What causes an imbalance? Well, a carbohydrate allergy can lead to excessive fermentation in the large intestine. This means an excess of gas, which causes the intestine to blow up like a balloon, to the point where the passage between the large and small intestines no longer closes properly, which enables bacteria to move between the intestines. This results in an inflammation of the small intestine, and along with the reduced production of defensine, years later this can lead to bowel cancer.
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But the connection is even more complex than this – in Part II you will find out just how!

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Source: 2009_ Parodontitis Mundkrebs und Allgemeingesundheit (periodontitis, oral cancer and overall health)

Using donor bones for bone reconstruction?

When a patient has gone without teeth for a long time or suffered from bouts of inflammation, the part of the upper and lower jaw-bones which support teeth has often been found to recede, leading to a diagnosis of „alveolar atrophy“.

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Dental implants can no longer be inserted into the bone which is left, as this may cause damage to nerves and sinuses. The only solution is bone reconstruction, using either bone from the patient’s own body, or other materials.

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Using bone from other places in the patient’s body involves performing additional operations, which is why many doctors prefer using other materials. As you may have read in the various articles we have written on the subject of „Bone reconstruction“ human bone heals much better than artificial products.
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But where can you get human bone?

Human bone – or tissue in general – is taken either from corpses or is a by-product left over after operations (e.g. a fracture of the neck of the femur). There are strict laws in place for regulating and monitoring the removal of tissue and bone. For example, doctors cannot just take products left over after an operation without the consent of the patient, as legally this is still the „property“ of the patient.

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Each country has its own laws with regard to corpses. Many countries have a donor database, in which people who want to donate have to sign up while they are still alive, so that organs and tissue can be legally removed after they die.
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Other countries (such as Austria), take the opposite tack. They keep a list of objectors, meaning that organs and tissue can be removed from just about anybody after their death, who did NOT put their name on this list while they were alive

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Although this may seem somewhat macabre to you, it should be obvious that this makes for a lot more organs and tissue and human life saved by organ transplants or ailments alleviated by tissue transplants. It should also be pointed out that these „removals“ may only be performed by institutions registered with and monitored by the government!
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Whatever option appeals to you more from an ethical point of view, biological material shows much better results than does artificial material.
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So what’s your opinion on using human bone?