Last week in Orlando the American Heart Association held its 84th annual meeting. A huge event, by its close over 14,000 medical professionals attended more than 4,000 scientific sessions concerning the latest findings on the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and stroke.
Amazingly, amid that mass of information, one of the studies that received the most attention linked heart attack prevention to regular dental cleanings.
That’s right, cleaner teeth may lead to a healthier heart. That’s really something to smile about.
Researchers at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, followed 100,000 adults over seven years and found those who had their teeth cleaned by a dental professional—at least once over that period—had a 24% lower risk of heart attack and a 13% lower risk of stroke than those who didn’t have a dental cleaning.
Dr. Emily Chen, lead author of the study, told the Orlando Sentinel that protection against heart disease was even stronger among participants who had their teeth cleaned at least once a year.
Of course, there is the possibility that people who have their teeth cleaned take better care of themselves, in general, but—as I said in a previous post, One Secret to Living a Longer Life: Flossing!—a number of other studies have shown that clean teeth can help reduce inflammation-causing bacterial growth, prevent heart disease and prolong life.
“The results are not surprising since there have been many studies showing association between inflammation and heart disease,” said Dr. Lawrence Phillips, Director of Nuclear Cardiology at NYU Langone Medical Center, in USA Today. “Good dental hygiene is recommended for all patients.”
Nothing is definite—unfortunately in healthcare things rarely are—but the evidence is starting to mount. Who knows, maybe just smiling more is good for your heart?
If you interested in reading an abstract of the study, click The Association of Tooth Scaling and Decreased Cardiovascular Disease.
Are Kids Outgrowing Books?
As anyone who has visited the Smile Smart Dental Center’s waiting room knows, we have plenty of toys, games and books to entertain children. But an article I saw on TLC’s parentables website made me wonder, are we behind the times?
Source: abbybatchelder/Creative Commons
Most of you have heard stories about young children flicking their fingers across TV screens expecting the images to move, but this article went even further. It read:
“Last week, I watched a video of a one-year-old navigating an iPad: Her dimpled fingers swiped furiously, completely aware that she was directing the action on the screen. Next, she was given a magazine and tried to move the words and images with her finger to no avail.”
The video (which can be viewed here) ends, “For my one-year-old daughter, a magazine is an iPad that doesn’t work.”
Technology is opening up a vast new world of possibilities for our children, but I wonder what may be lost in the process.
The last time I looked, not many things in the real world moved at the flick of my finger.
The “Silent Epidemic” of Dental Care
I founded the Smile Smart Dental Center because I love seeing people smile. I have a bubbly personality, a good sense of humor and really enjoy taking care of my patients’ teeth. But I’m a dentist, so I realize most people really don’t like coming to see me.
They dislike having dental problems more, though, and they hate not being able to take of those problems. Unfortunately, new research shows that many people simply can’t afford to take care of their teeth.
Approximately 50% of the people in this country have no dental insurance and last year—even for those that do—dental premiums increased at a faster rate than medical insurance premiums. The US Surgeon General has described this crisis of affordable dental care as a “silent epidemic.”
According to the “2011 Survey of Dental Care Affordability and Accessibility,” published by Brighter, an online site where patients can compare dentists by price and reputation, uninsured Americans are falling dramatically short of the Surgeon General’s recommended levels of dental care, which is two visits a year.
In fact, 74% of Americans without dental coverage reported that they went to the dentist only when they believed there was a problem with their teeth, and only 26% went to receive preventative care.
Source: Brighter
The major barriers to access to dental care for the uninsured are high costs and low transparency, followed by the difficulty of finding a good dentist.
Seventy-seven percent of those without dental coverage have delayed regular dental care due to the high cost of care.
Source: Brighter
An additional 73% of those without dental coverage delayed dental treatment because they didn’t have a clear sense of what the costs of the treatment would be.
Because individuals without dental insurance are less likely to get the dental care they need, they are more likely to develop major health conditions (such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke) linked with poor oral health—leading to an estimated 164 million hours of lost productivity in the US annually.
No one has computed the total hours of pain and suffering.
Last month I posted a blog bemoaning the lack of dental care for Florida’s children, The State of Children’s Dental Health: No Smiles for Florida. Fortunately, when it comes to teeth, most older kids across the country are getting the care they need.
An infographic produced by the website GOOD, and designed by Robert A. Di Ieso, Jr., shows that the teeth of a majority of 17-year olds—in all ethnic groups—are in “good” shape or better.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Pediatrics
Remember, good oral health for children of all ages goes beyond brushing and flossing—and even seeing a dentist regularly. Proper nutrition is essential.
A diet of sugary foods and beverages greatly increases the rate of tooth decay in children. So make sure you offer your kids a diet that contains fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables, proteins, dairy and grains. And, even though it is hard (if not impossible), try to limit treats and junk food to once a week.
Nothing is nicer to see than a smile on your child’s face.
I enjoy surfing the internet, because you often find fun and totally unexpected gems, such as this chart from Pleated-Jeans.com:
Source: Pleated-Jeans.com
What caught my eye, of course, was the claim that flossing could add 6.4 years to the average person’s lifespan. Believe it or not, flossing is good for your heart.
According to AOL Health’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Michael Roizen, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the authors of YOU: The Owner’s Manual, when you floss, you rid your mouth of bacteria that can cause inflammation in the gums. That’s good because if the inflammation travels to the heart, it can lead to heart disease.
In a related study, Emory University found that people with gingivitis and periodontitis had mortality rates 23% to 46% higher than those without the gum diseases.
Moral: Floss at least once a day. (It doesn’t hurt to own a pet, either. I have two dogs, Lacy and Cork.)
If you need a reminder, stop by the Smile Smart Dental Center and pick up a free “Floss Is Boss” sticker.
I’m proud to be a Floridian, and I love to smile and bring you good news. But not today.
After reading a new report, The State of Children’s Dental Health, published this week by The Pew Charitable Trusts, I’m feeling less than proud, and very sad.
According to Pew, despite efforts by states to improve dental health policies, more than 16.5 million children across the country lack access to basic dental care.
Comparing the care provided among insured and soon-to-be insured children in all 50 states, 27 states earned grades of an A or B, while five states received an F.
Three of the states—including Florida—got an F for the second consecutive year.
Florida met only two of the eight policy benchmarks for strengthening children’s dental health. As the report stated: “Florida was the worst performer with regard to ensuring low-income children’s access to care. Fewer than one in three Medicaid-enrolled kids received any dental services. During 2010, newspaper articles highlighted several challenges, such as the number of Florida communities that lack fluoridated water and the fact that 32 counties have no pediatric dentists who accept Medicaid.”
As a measure of the problem: more than half the children in Florida on Medicaid received no dental services whatsoever last year. With that many children lacking access to dental care, only severe outcomes can be expected.
Research has shown that children who do not receive needed dental care miss more school and fall behind academically, use expensive emergency room services more often and face poorer job prospects as adults compared with peers who received care.
What can be done?
In a report released last year, The Cost of Delay, Pew recommended focusing on four core policy areas:
- Sealants and Fluoridation: Cost-effective ways to help prevent dental problems.
- Medicaid Improvements: Policies that encourage more dentists to treat disadvantaged children.
- Innovative Workforce Models: New ways to expand the number of qualified professionals available to serve children.
- Data Collection and Reporting: Systems that enable the public to monitor progress within each state and hold elected officials accountable for improving performance.
Let’s all do something in our local communities now. Surely we want to see kids across Florida smiling…not frowning, hurting or embarrassed by the results of the worst dental care in the nation.
Times may be tough, but short changing our children is not the way to fix anything—in fact, it guarantees more problems and higher bills in the future.
We Are What We Eat—and So Are Our Kids
As a dentist, I’m mainly concerned with the health of teeth and gums, but I’m also acutely aware of how we use our mouths. Other than speaking, the mouth’s most important function is eating.
In many ways, our diets function as medications. What we eat affects not just our body types, but also our moods and personalities.
Case in point, over 5 million children in the US have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with symptoms including inattentiveness, over-activity and impulsiveness, which can result in behavioral and learning problems.
As a result, almost 5% of the children in this country are medicated for ADHD every year. But the side effects of medications such as Ritalin can be drastic, ranging from lack of appetite, sleep loss and, in some cases, depression.
I do not mean to question or downplay the heart-wrenching reality of the decisions individual parents of ADHD-afflicted kids must make, but the thought of drugging so many of the children in our society is downright scary.
A new study published in a prominent medical journal, The Lancet may point to way out of the dilemma.
Based on a restricted diet alone, the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands found that many children experienced a significant reduction in ADHD symptoms.
“Food is the main cause of ADHD,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Lidy Pelsser. “After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behavior. They were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums.”
Amazingly, the study found that in 64% of children with ADHD, the symptoms were caused by food.
Granted, this is merely one study. More work has yet to be done, and the roles of individual foods or additives must be fully explored. But this information, along with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearings into the affect of food dyes (see FDA Panel Examines Possible Links Between Food Dyes, ADHD), must give all parents pause—and many parents of ADHD children cause to hope.
NOTE: If you wish more information on this topic, one good reference is the NPR article, Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs.
I would love to hear your opinions and comments on these important questions.
Your Health Is Your Most Important Asset
I attended a fascinating Manatee Tiger Bay Club meeting recently, where I listened to a panel of two physicians and the director of a health clinic speak. I came away with an important message. One the physicians asked his patients what value they put on their lives? Then he told them their health should be their number one asset.
I thought about it and realized that dental health is a key part of that asset.
After all, the mouth is the first step in the digestion process. A person’s ability to chew and swallow is directly related not only to the health of the mouth, but eventually the whole body. If you can’t chew, you can’t eat—or at least eat the foods that are most healthy for you, such as fresh fruits and vegetables.
Furthermore, if someone is missing teeth, or has gum disease, they naturally tend to eat foods that are easy to chew and swallow, which usually means processed foods, often fattening foods—ice cream, mashed potatoes, canned goods, the list goes on.
In this country, where obesity is at an all-time high (for more information, see the HealthDay article Many Obese Moms and Kids Underestimate Their Weight), eating sensibly is more important to the health of your whole body than ever.
When you stop to think about it, your overall health and dental health really do go hand-in-hand as your number one asset.
Believe it or not, at a time of high unemployment in many fields, the demand for dental assistants is at an all-time high.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, dental assisting is one of the fastest growing careers in the country, and through 2016 the job outlook will remain “excellent.”
That is one of the reasons I am so excited about the Smile Smart Dental Assisting School. For many people in the Bradenton and Sarasota area, it could be the first step toward a new career.
Often referred to as the dentist’s “second pair of hands,” dental assistants are essential to the smooth operation of a dental practice. They must possess excellent manual dexterity, be mentally quick and have good communication skills. In addition, they had better be comfortable with multitasking.
If you know anyone who fits the bill, let them know about the Smile Smart Dental Assisting School.
When the idea of creating the Smile Smart Dental Center was at its beginning stages, it seemed natural to add a dental assisting school to the center. Our office has ten operatories, and each is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. It is an ideal learning environment. Plus it is located right here in the community so it is easy for students to get to.
The course is 8-weeks long and classes are held two evenings a week and on Saturdays. Class sizes are limited to ensure an adequate student to teacher ratio—it is a hands-on, one-on-one learning environment. After successfully completing the course, students receive an Expanded Functions Certificate and a Certificate in Dental Radiography.
Best of all, you should see the looks on the graduates’ faces—they are really smiling!
Like it or not, looks matter. Particularly when you are looking for a job.
According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, A New Wrinkle for Job Seekers, many people over the age of 50 are improving their appearance to gain an edge in the workplace.
People are whitening, straightening, veneering and replacing missing teeth because studies show that attractive people are more likely to be hired and promoted.
The article states Nancy Etcoff, a psychology professor at Harvard Medical School, “found that attractive people are more likely to be hired and promoted, earn higher salaries and be perceived as more intelligent and creative than their less fetching peers.”
Nobody says the world is fair. But the findings should come as no surprise. From the time I was in dental school, I have emphasized to patients the importance of taking care of their teeth. Even “baby” teeth need to be taken care of.
Everyone deserves to have a healthy, beautiful smile. A healthy smile is important for speaking, self confidence and eating.
And, apparently, it may even help you land a job.
