Teeth News and Research

Latest Teeth News and Research

Why kids need to wear mouthguards

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 74 million students will head back to school this fall, however, according to the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation (NYSSF), many of those students end up as part of the 15 million dental injuries and five million cases of traumatically lost teeth that occur every year.

5 Oct 2005

Use of the antibiotic amoxicillin during infancy appears to be linked to tooth enamel defects in permanent teeth

Dental fluorosis, a result of exposure to excessive fluoride during enamel formation, is one of the most common developmental enamel defects, according to background information in the article.

4 Oct 2005

Salivary antimicrobial peptide expression and dental caries experience in children

A study comparing antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, a group of small proteins that occur naturally in human saliva and act like antibiotics against oral bacteria, could lead to new ways to screen children for risk of tooth decay and protect them against this common, chronic problem.

28 Sep 2005

Implant-placed overdentures make life more pleasurable

The enticing aroma of a thick, juicy steak was a temptation Marvin Goodwin oftentimes avoided because his dentures made the meat difficult to chew. Now that he's had implants placed to support his denture, he is no longer cautious of the foods he eats.

26 Sep 2005

Delicate balance of induction and inhibition in determining tooth cusps

One of the remaining challenges for evolutionary developmental studies of mammals, whose evolution is best known from their teeth, is how their tooth shape is altered during development.

26 Sep 2005

Daylight savings changes may help extend the life and health of people's teeth and bones

Beginning in 2007, daylight savings time will be extended by almost a month. This additional amount of daylight may also help extend the life and health of people's teeth and bones. That's because vitamin D, also known as the "sunshine vitamin," is made by the body through casual and minimal sun exposure.

26 Sep 2005

Periodontal disease develops much earlier than dentists and other health professionals thought

Periodontal disease -- a progressive, eventually painful and disruptive condition in which bacteria attack gums and the hidden roots of teeth -- develops much earlier than dentists and other health professionals thought, a major new study concludes.

20 Sep 2005

One week after Katrina and many still without clean water as disease spreads

According to health officials, people still stranded by Hurricane Katrina face a serious risk of dysentery and other diseases from contaminated water, and there have already been reports of an outbreak of dysentery in Biloxi, Mississippi.

5 Sep 2005

One protein hardens enamel while the other weakens it, say USC researchers

A gene critical to tooth formation expresses a protein that is then cleaved into two proteins with seemingly opposite functions, according to a University of Southern California (USC)-led team of dental researchers.

1 Sep 2005

Dental problems caused by radiation, chemotherapy should be treated before a child undergoes immunosuppression as part of bone marrow transplantation therapy

Many children who undergo bone marrow transplantation (BMT) as part of cancer treatment already have dental abnormalities that leave them vulnerable to potentially life-threatening bacterial infections, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. A report on this study appears in the prepublication online edition of Bone Marrow Transplantation.

29 Aug 2005

High-dose anticancer chemotherapy and total body irradiation during childhood can damage developing teeth

Research published by the University of Helsinki, Finland, indicates that cytostatic and radiation therapies administered before stem cell transplantation often damage children's permanent teeth.

29 Aug 2005

Heart healthy habits are good for oral health

Heart healthy habits are good for oral health, too, according to a new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Periodontology, the official publication of the American Academy of Periodontology.

22 Aug 2005

Crystal meth crackdown - families back tougher sentences

Many Canadians families affected by crystal methamphetamine abuse, are in support of longer jail sentences for dealers and users of the drug.

15 Aug 2005

Faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth

Using a powerful microscope and computer software, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere has developed a faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth, a practice used to figure out the diets of our early ancestors.

10 Aug 2005

New insights into dietary divergences between some of our human ancestors

A Penn State researcher is part of the team that developed techniques that have generated insights into dietary divergences between some of our human ancestors, allowing scientists to better understand the evolutionary path that led to the modern-day diets that humans consume.

3 Aug 2005