Dental Tribune Untited Kingdom Edition

A new study has suggested that smoking causes the body to turn against helpful bacteria that resides in the mouth, making the smokers more prone to disease and infection. The report states that within the mouth of a healthy person there is a delicate ecosystem of healthy bacteria; however, in the mouth of a smoker, this system is turned into a chaotic and diverse ecosystem. The effect of this imbalance can cause the body to become more susceptible to harmful bac- teria and with smokers already at a higher risk of suffering from oral diseases, this can cause several problems. “The smoker’s mouth kicks out the good bacteria, and the pathogens are called in,” said Ku- mar. “So they’re allowed to pro- liferate much more quickly than they would in a non-smoking en- vironment,” said PurnimaKumar, assistant professor of periodontol- ogy at Ohio State University in a report. “A few hours after you’re born, bacteria start forming com- munities called biofilms in your mouth,” said Kumar. “Your body learns to live with them, because for most people, healthy biofilms keep the bad bacteria away.” Likening the mouth to a lawn in one report, Kumar said: “When you change the dynamics of what goes into the lawn, like too much water or too little fertilizer, you get some of the grass dying, and weeds moving in.” For smokers, the “weeds” are problem bacteria known to cause disease. Kumar and her colleagues also looked at how bacterial eco- systems regrew after being wiped away. The researchers took sam- ples of oral biofilms one, two, four and seven days after professional cleaning from 15 healthy non- smokers and 15 healthy smokers. The researchers looked at which bacteria were present and monitored how the bodies treated them ie whether the body per- ceived the bacteria as a threat or not. “When you compare a smoker and non-smoker, there’s a distinct difference,” said Kumar in the re- port. “The first thing you notice is that the basic ‘lawn,’ which would normally contain thriving popu- lations made of a just few types of helpful bacteria, is absent in smokers.” “By contrast,” said Kumar, “smokers start getting colonized by pathogens - bacteria that we know are harmful - within 24 hours. It takes longer for smokers to form a stable microbial com- munity, and when they do, it’s a pathogen-rich community.” The results also showed that smokers’bodiesweretreatingeven healthy bacteria as threatening. For Kumar, the results have a clear message regarding patient care: “It has to drive how we treat the smoking population,” she said. “They need a more aggres- sive form of treatment, because even after a professional clean- ing, they’re still at a very high risk for getting these pathogens back in their mouths right away. “Dentists don’t often talk to their patients about smok- ing cessation,” she continued. “These results show that dentists should take a really active role in helping patients to get the sup- port they need to quit.” The results of the study were published in the journal Infection and Immunity. http://iai.asm. org/ DT Smoking zaps healthy mouth bacteria Could smoking turn bacteria against the body? N ew figures, produced by Cancer Research UK, has revealed that around 157,000 children be- tween the ages of 11 and 15 start smoking each year. The study not only revealed that 27 per cent of under-15s have tried smoking, but it also exposed how eight out of ten smokers took up the habit be- fore their 19th birthday. The figures have highlight- ed that more needs to be done to discourage youngsters from starting the habit and Cancer Research UK believes that intro- ducing plain packaging on ciga- rettes is a good place to start, making cigarettes visibly less attractive. Jean King, the charity’s director of tobacco control, claimed in a report: “The to- bacco industry spends a great deal of money on designing cigarettes and their packets so they seem glamorous, appeal- ing, fashionable and attractive in an effort to recruit more cus- tomers. “With advertising outlawed, the cigarette packet is now the most important marketing tool the tobacco industry has.” Charities have already criti- cised a new report from the Adam Smith Institute, which claimed that putting cigarettes in plain packs would have no benefit for public health; however, accord- ing to a report, Action on Smoking and Health argued that the think- tank had misrepresented the truth and was ‘acting as the mouthpiece for the tobacco industry’. DT 157,000 UK kids start smoking each year Under age smoking is a problem M ore than 300 young dentists attended the Young Dentist Confer- ence in London on 4 February 2012, where the expert panel of speakers included Paul Red- mond, Head of Careers and Em- ployability at Liverpool Universi- ty and Richard Porter, Consultant in Restorative and Implant Den- tistry at St George’s Hospital. Richard Porter opened the seventh annual conference, with topics themed around the ‘gen- eration gap’, by discussing the difficulties young dentists may face when treating the elderly dentate. This was followed by Paul Redmond, who spoke to the au- dience about how different gen- erations communicate with each other and how young dentists can utilise this knowledge to better communicate with their patients of all ages. In an increasingly difficult financial climate, and with NHS pilots under way to review, many young dentists are concerned about how this will affect them in the future and the impact this will have upon their associate con- tract. Grace Chia and Nick Coop- er, two young dentists from a pi- lot practice addressed some of theseconcernsandexploredhow the NHS contract in its current format will impact upon young dentists. Additionally, James Goldman a Senior Legal Adviser from the BDA, described some practical steps which young den- tists can take to ensure they are fully protected at work. In the final session of the day, Alpesh Khetia discussed his experience of team working and the leadership methods em- ployed to get the best from his team members and himself. The Young Dentist Con- ference 2012 was the seventh outing of this annual event or- ganised by Dental Protection, the BDA and BDJ. The organis- ers also wish to thank the spon- sors Schülke for their continued support. DT Young dentists enjoy ‘sell-out’ conference Young dentist conference F amilies with children under three need better practical support if they are to en- courage positive feeding habits from an early age, cautions an in- fluential group of experts on child- hood nutrition and development. The Infant & Toddler Forum (ITF) has welcomed recent gov- ernment focus on early interven- tion, highlighting the earliest years as key to positive outcomes in later life. However, if interven- tion strategies are to tackle the long-term impact of children’s poor nutritional and physical health, expert advice that sup- ports families in early years feed- ing must be a key element. Dr Atul Singhal, Professor of Paediatric Nutrition at the UCL Institute of Child Health and Chair of the ITF, said: “Early in- tervention strategies make up a large part of government plans to tackle health and social inequali- ties, but practical guidance on how to attain good nutrition and feeding is largely missing. “Tod- dlers’ eating habits are hugely influenced at home, and this is the key period when lifelong di- etary preferences and eating hab- its are formed. If we want to see an improvement in health and wellbeing,nowandinthefuture,it’s vital that families have easy ac- cess to simple, evidence-based advice on what and how to feed toddlers.” DT Visit - www.infantandtoddler- forum.com Encouraging positive feeding habits March 5-11, 20126 News United Kingdom Edition