Earlier this month, a team of researchers from the University of Connecticut and London announced that aggressive treatment of gum disease can improve the function of blood vessel walls in the body, potentially reducing the risk of heart attacks.
Saliva May Replace Blood as Test for Disease
Within two years, you may be able to go for a regular dental visit, spit into a cup and, before your appointment is over, find out from an analysis of your saliva whether you’re at risk for oral cancer. Currently, dentists have to do a thorough mouth exam to probe for oral cancer, which will strike more than 28,000 Americans and kill more than 7,000.Within a few more years, you may be able, with a fancier spit test, to find out if you’re at risk for a number of other diseases as well, including breast cancer, Type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
Oral Cancer Poses Growing Threat
Patrice Di Carlo’s ordeal with oral cancer just might be enough to scare anyone who still chews tobacco or smokes and drinks heavily out of denial forever.Di Carlo, 49, a former smoker who lives in Malden and works as a legal secretary at the Boston lawfirm, Ropes and Gray, discovered what she thought was a harmless canker sore on her tongue eight years ago. Her dentist thought it was nothing, too, which is not terribly surprising: Every year, thousands of people get funny little spots in their mouths that appear benign to the naked eye – even the naked eye of a trained dentist, though two new detection tests are beginning to make things easier.
Unnecessary Dentistry?
He’s 81 now, this former Boston businessman, and when he retired to a southern state some years back, one of the most treasured things he left behind was his friend and dentist of 50 years, Dr. Wallace J. Gardner of Cambridge.
‘Deep pockets’ that nobody wants
It was the “Floss or Die” poster that got to 54-year-old Jack Kelsch of Wareham.
Kelsch works as a grants administrator at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where the perils of periodontal disease are standard water cooler fare and “deep pockets” means gum disease, not money.But as Kelsch discovered, that poster was no joke.
Dental lasers – are they the safest way to fill your cavity?
They might fix your phobia but are they the safest way to fill your cavity?
Until recently, Glenn Gustafson, a 56-year-old Boston man who manages a Weston country club, was your basic dental phobic.
Implants? chew on this first
Last Friday, Ed Pearson, a 45-year-old computer programmer from Charlestown, climbed into the dentist’s chair for what has become almost routine for him: dental implant surgery.
Don’t be afraid of . . . your Dentist
You’d rather face the IRS than the dentist? Relax, there are ways to fight the phobia;
Michele DerVartanian, a 25-year-old student in Medford, says she was 10 when she learned to fear the dentist.
Fear of aids is no reason to avoid dentist
At 2:30 on a Monday afternoon in the summer of 1989, James Sharpe, a convenience store owner from Northampton, settled back in the dentist’s chair to have three teeth extracted.