Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year. A time for reflection, year-end, a year anew. . . . Sparkling colored lights, gaily festive parties, gifts given and received. HOLIDAY TIME IS HERE and it’s time to PARTY!

Great dental health and a beautiful smile are a pleasure to have. And your smile stays brighter and healthier with good dental home care (remember, this is your dentist writing) and a regularly scheduled cleaning with our dental hygienist. Your bright welcoming smile is a great gift for family and friends.

In the spirit of the holidays and as our thank you for making us your dental home, we offer you a fun raffle and money saving gifts to support you in having excellent dental health and a bright smile.

The American Dental Association (ADA(R)), in collaboration with Crest(R) and Oral-B(R), yesterday revealed findings from a national public opinion survey on oral health care.

Here is a sneak peek at the key learnings:

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the New Year. A time for reflection, year-end, a year anew. . . . Sparkling colored lights, gaily festive parties, gifts given and received. HOLIDAY TIME IS HERE and it’s time to PARTY!

Your bright welcoming smile is a great gift for family and friends. And your smile stays brighter and healthier with good dental home care (remember, this is your dentist writing) and a regularly scheduled cleaning with our dental hygienist.

In the spirit of the holidays and as our thank you for making us your dental home, we offer you a fun raffle and money savings; a gift to support you in having excellent year end dental health and a bright smile.

You think you have bad breath (Halitosis) or a bad taste?

It can be really unpleasant, for you, and others near you.  Phew! 

OK.  So you have it.  That’s part of your life story.  What causes it?  What can you do about it?  How good will you feel when you have nice sweet breath? 

The dentist-patient relationship is interesting and complex. People often come with dental anxiety generated from difficult dental histories, problem dental experiences as well as practical issues such as time and cost needed for dental treatment. To get past this, one important factor is that the person understands what they want for their dental future. If a person with a dental problem(s) and issues about dealing with these problems can answer the following questions they and their dentist can become clearer about what they want for their  dental health and start dealing with some of the concerns that causes the issues.

What is it?  Most of us are infected by it, some of us are seriously affected by and it can lead to difficult quality of life issues.  It is periodontal disease.

For decades, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommended that patients with certain heart conditions take antibiotics shortly before dental treatment. This was done with the belief that antibiotics would prevent infective endocarditis (IE), previously referred to as bacterial endocarditis. IE is an infection of the heart’s inner lining or valves, which results when bacteria enter the bloodstream and travel to the heart. Bacteria normally are found in various sites of the body including on the skin and in the mouth.

The AHA’s latest guidelines were published in its scientific journal, Circulation, in April 2007 and there is good news: the AHA recommends that most of these patients no longer need short-term antibiotics as a preventive measure before their dental treatment.

The American Dental Association participated in the development of the new guidelines and has approved those portions relevant to dentistry. The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society endorsed the guidelines.

Article Date: 03 Apr 2007 - 23:00 PDT

Who would have guessed that when the Star Trek medical diagnostic tool known as the tricorder makes its appearance in real life, the first user might be ... your dentist.

According to a paper in the March 27 issue of PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), a recently completed pilot study conducted with the University of Michigan shows that a Sandia National Laboratories handheld device determined in minutes - from a tiny sample of saliva alone - not only if a patient has gum disease but quantitatively how advanced the disease is.

"The gold standard for any medical test is when instruments are used to examine human patients," says Sandia researcher Amy Herr. "The pilot study allowed us to compare our results to accepted clinical measurements. Then we could statistically validate both the periodontal disease biomarker and the new microfluidic instrument.

"We achieved faster and more reproducible results because we combined steps that ordinarily require time-consuming manual handling by many people, into a single automated device."

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) laboratory.

From predicting heart disease, diabetes, and premature birth to revealing leukemia, eating disorders, and vitamin deficiencies, your teeth and gums say a mouthful about your health