Dentalnews (en)

Our appearance is influenced by many different factors, one of the biggest being our teeth!

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Health, beauty and feeling good are becoming ever more important in the industrialized countries. One interesting aspect is that ideals diverge in the northern and southern countries of Europe, in the South (for example Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.) having gaps in your teeth is very common if you live in the countryside.
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A mouth full of healthy teeth tends to be the exception rather than the rule, it is more common to be gap-toothed. And although city-dwellers tend to have less gaps, they do not pay much attention to the appearance of the teeth they do have.
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Gold teeth, bad crowns, ugly amalgamate fillings and/or and or badly made plastic fillings are the norm!

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In the more northern countries of Europe (Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, …) you will rarely find such poor work. If you do, then the person probably could not afford better work. There is a definite trend towards „White“.

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The concept of „aesthetic dentistry“ came to us from the USA. White is not enough – everything has to look natural and teeth are not totally white!

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Ironically, Galip Gürel – a Turk – is the chairperson of the Association for “Aesthetic Dentistry”. There is a trend towards teeth that look more natural. Teeth like those of the former Austrian Chancellor Dr. Klima are a sign that incompetent dentists and dental technicians were at work.

A crown need not be visible, much less a plastic filling in the front (picture above)! These are works of art, which not all dental technicians can master, and crowns such as this can cost €1500-2000.

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A €500 crown stays visible, but should not cause any inflammation and/or recession of the gums – a groove cut and threads should be the standard nowadays, no matter the look!

There’s a fungus everybody’s talking about: candida, a kind of yeast!

About 50 – 80% of all healthy persons have this yeast in their mouth and digestive system. If stool is found to contain large amount of this yeast, it is believed to disturb normal intestinal processing of water, sugar and natrium and cause diarrhea.

Healthy people live in harmony with their yeast and bacteria. How this balance works and what happens when the system gets out of balance is shown by the video on cavities.

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This balance can be upset by outer factors such as nutrition, lifestyle, lack of hygiene or medication (e.g. antibiotics treatment).

There is speculation, although not supported by scientific evidence, that consumption of simple carbohydrates (such as sugar) encourages the spread of candida albicans [2,3]. The theory behind this is that the yeast gets into the stomach via saliva or food, and being acid-resistant goes on to invade the intestinal tract [3].[5]

Although this is only a theory, the web is full of recommended treatments (such as an anti-fungus diet), as are clinics and doctor’s offices.

The main objection to this questionable low-carb diet is that it includes abstaining from fruit for long periods of time, which means you don’t get enough nutrients (vitamins, minerals, roughage, secondary vegetable ingredients). These are substances which play a vital role in keeping our immune system healthy and thus should be an integral part of our daily meal plan [4].[5]

Summing up, although cutting down on sugar is not a bad thing, you should still eat healthy foods such as fruit.

There is as yet no scientific proof that a low-carb diet truly helps to prevent “candida infection”!

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[1] Jonkers D, Stockbrügger R. Unexplained Diarrhoea, Candida in the Faeces. Aktuel
Ernaehr Med 2003;28:87-92
[2] Müller MJ. Ernährungsmedizinische Praxis, Springer Verlag, 2. Aufl. 2007; S.276
[3] Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung: „Anti-Pilz-Diät“ www.dge.de; Zugang: 26.11.2009
[4] Österreichische Gesellschaft für Ernährung: Die „Anti-Pilz-Diät“ – eine berechtigte
Therapiemaßnahme? www.oege.at; Zugang: 26.11.2009
[5] OEAIE 2009; Miklautsch M, Widhalm K

Some people are terrified of going to the dentist. Can they get help?

What used to be the exception years ago has now become a common procedure – dental treatment under general anaesthesia.

We’ve found out that one dental team in Austria goes even further and offers such patients not only treatment under anaesthesia, but also help in reducing their fear. “Fear of the dentist puts a very great strain on the patient”, reports Dr. Belsky. Fear often starts with one bad experience and gets progressively worse. Because both check-ups and treatment are avoided for years, the patient’s teeth keep getting worse.

This is a vicious circle that many people are caught in for life.

The all-encompassing holistic method presented here helps repair teeth step by step and gets patients to feel better as well.

More information on dental work and reducing fear of the dentist here.

More articles on fear of the dentist here.

Your Dental News Team

Jaw cracking, jaw noises, and arthrosis of the jaw are all common occurences, but if you do not have any serious comlaints, they do not require therapy!

Earlier, any problems you had with your jaw were categorized as „ cranio-mandibular dysfunction“ – or CMD, for short. But since there have been changes in the way the jaw is treated in recent years, the term commonly used now is myoarthropathy – or MAP.
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It has been found that the jaw is perfectly capable of adapting to a new set of teeth, this just takes some time. So nowadays doctors like to wait before starting any treatment. Only one device has been found to help in the acute phase of jaw pain –  the Michigan rail.
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This is used as an aid to therapy in acute cases. Arthrocentesis, or washing out the joint, has not really been scientifically proven to work, but even University clinics use this method generously.
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No real connection has been found between malocclusion and jaw problems, although for some reason patients with an overbite – Class 3 patients – tend to have less jaw problems.
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Summing up:
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In the acute phase:

• Going easy on the jaw, no gum, jelly beans or foods requiring intensive chewing
• Opening the mouth carefully (no yawning, oral sex, biting apples, …)
• Pain medication
• Using the Michigan rail

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In the painless phase:

• Correcting a malocclusion
• Mouth-opening exercises
• Waiting

Other types of therapy are simply overdoing it! An MRT will not help much, good x-rays and a proper check-up are more than enough for a diagnosis! Good luck!

Teeth – the daily grind!

A gene called Osr2 provides the code for a protein known as „odd-skipped-related 2 protein“, thanks to which your teeth are all lined up in a row.

This was discovered by geneticists at the University of Rochester. These results may one day help to find a way to get lost teeth to grow back and prevent the birth defect known as cleft palate.
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Activating this gene in mice causes teeth to grow back!
Preliminary studies have already shown that this gene is also active in humans. The exciting thing about this is that the additional teeth grow from tissue which ordinarily does not form teeth!
Researchers speculate that if the trigger for tooth growth is found then one day teeth might be stimulated to grow back in adults. Although mammals only possess one set of teeth, some vertebrates have several sets of teeth that grow!
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More information at www.rochester.edu