Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

7NewsMarch 26-April 1, 2012United Kingdom EditionUnited Kingdom Edition DTI: Researchers investigating YouTube have suggested that the potential of the online vid- eo-sharing platform and similar social media sites as means of dental education is highly un- derdeveloped. In a study, they found that it could hold im- portant implications for dental professionals, as well as dental education staff. Owing to an increasing integration of multimedia sources into professional and academic education, Dr Mi- chael Knösel, an orthodon- tic specialist, and his team from the University of Göt- tingen, assessed the value of videos on YouTube related to dentistry. Using different search parameters, they dis- covered that there is wide va- riety of material available on YouTube with high education- al value. Two assessors with an academic background evalu- ated 60 videos in the general category “All” and 60 videos in the “Education” category. The results were first sorted “by relevance” and later by “most viewed”. According to the research- ers, the informational value of videos in the general cat- egory was perceived as gen- erally poor, whereas the most viewed videos in the educa- tional category had the highest educational value. Videos in this category were concerned with oral surgery and implan- tology (17), preventive den- tistry (13), general dentistry (16), as well as aesthetic den- tistry and orthodontics (9). Five videos were considered to be entertaining rather than educating. Videos in the educational category were mostly upload- ed by practitioners but also by academic institutions and dental companies. The ma- jority of videos in the general category, which were aimed at entertainment generally, were mostly posted by patients and laypersons, but there was also a significant percentage of videos with a commercial purpose and posted by dental manufacturers. The assessors said that videos in the educational cat- egory depicted an optimistic view on dentistry, whereas those in the general category tended to be rather negative. They found that between 68 and 93 per cent of the videos represented dentistry accu- rately, and videos in the gen- eral category were inaccurate in this regard. The researchers recom- mended that more academic institutions acknowledge You- Tube as an effective supple- mentary medium for educa- tion. Currently, there are only a few dental schools that run their own YouTube channels. The University of Michigan’s School of Dentistry, for ex- ample, initiated its channel more than three years ago and recently surpassed seven mil- lion viewers. “YouTube and similar so- cial media websites offer new educational possibili- ties for dentistry, but are cur- rently both underdeveloped and underestimated regard- ing their potential value. Dentists should also recog- nise the importance of such websites in relation to the formation of public opinion about their profession,” the researchers stated. “We would therefore like to encourage educators to make greater use of this medium, to work to improve the quality of videos, and to demand that contents are updated on a reg- ular basis.” The study, published in the December 2011 is- sue of the Journal of Den- tal Education (J Dent Educ. 2011 Dec;75(12):1558-68), was conducted between six and 8 October 2010. The research- ers used four search items on YouTube (“dentist”, “den- tists”, “dentist’s”, and “den- tistry”). DT Study recognises value of YouTube for dentists O ver the past few dec- ades, doctors have noted a surprising trend in cancer of the ton- sils and base of the tongue. Though oral cancer previous- ly appeared predominantly in elderly patients with a history of tobacco and alcohol use, it’s increasing in younger pa- tients: 30- to 50-year-old non- smokers with the human pap- illomavirus (HPV). Fortunately, the newer form of cancer tends to be less aggressive, and the lat- est approach to treating the tumours can avoid the debili- tating consequences of open neck surgery or extensive radiation. Robotic surgery conducted through patients’ mouths provides excellent re- sults in removing squamous cell carcinoma at the back of the throat, especially in pa- tients with HPV, a Mayo Clinic study published in the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceed- ings found. “We were surprised that the cancer cure results were even better than the tradi- tional treatments that we have been doing, but that is proba- bly almost as much of a matter that these cancers are HPV- mediated for the most part, and they respond much bet- ter to treatment,” says author Eric Moore, MD, a head and neck surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. “Importantly, the treatment preserved pa- tients’ ability to swallow and their speech performance was excellent.” Dr Moore and his team followed 66 patients with oropharyngeal cancer who underwent transoral robotic surgery with the da Vinci ro- botic surgical system. Eve- ry few months, the patients had imaging studies, scans and exams to determine if cancer was recurring. After two years, researchers found that patients’ survival rate was greater than 92 per cent, as good as rates for some oth- er surgical and nonsurgical treatments for oropharyngeal cancer. Because traditional sur- gery techniques to remove throat tumours can be trau- matic, requiring cutting and reconstructing the jawbone, neck and tongue, research- ers were also interested in patients’ healing after robotic surgery. “We found that with tran- soral robotic surgery 96 per cent of patients could swal- low a normal diet within three weeks of treatment,” Dr Moore says. Less than four per cent required a gastrostomy tube, which enables food to bypass the throat. The study provides prelim- inary data showing the robotic surgery is a viable treatment option, Dr Moore says. Con- tinuing research involving multiple medical centres will investigate transoral robotic surgery in a larger population of patients with oropharynge- al cancer. DT Robotic surgery proves successful Using YouTube as a means of dental education is an area that has been described as being ‘highly underdeveloped’ B ridge2Aid (B2A), the dental and community development charity working in the Mwanza re- gion of North West Tanzania, has gratefully received a ma- jor donation from SmartSeal of its innovative endodontic root filling material. The donation, worth in ex- cess of £5,000, includes the SmartSeal endodontic filling material, PropointPTs – taper points that match the Protaper file system already in use by B2A at its Hope Dental Centre – and Smartpaste, which ex- pands in the root canal to seal any lateral canals. Dental staff have been using the SmartSeal full sys- tem at Hope Dental Centre in Mwanza and with patients at the five mines they visit regularly since November 2011. Dr Abed Mafwele, a den- tist from Tanzania working at Hope Dental Centre, com- ments: “SmartSeal is a very good material. I am happy to use this for endodontics and have already had good re- sults.” Dr Paul Brind, principal dental surgeon, Hope Dental Centre, agrees: “SmartSeal is a reliable, easy to use material which is proving to be really useful here in Tanzania. Dur- ing our mine visits it enables us to provide good quality en- dodontics using a very small and portable kit.” Hope Dental Centre is a not-for-profit dental clinic in Mwanza run by B2A. It em- ploys three dentists and a den- tal therapist to provide prima- ry dental care and oral health education to the people of the area. The funds generated by the clinic go towards the de- velopment work B2A is doing in Tanzania. B2A is very grateful for do- nations from companies such as SmartSeal because they enable us to provide quality treatment and generate funds for the training of clinical of- ficers across Tanzania, ena- bling them to equip and em- power local health personnel in the region. For more information on Bridge2Aid please visit www. bridge2aid.org. DT SmartSeal donate £5k to support Bridge2Aid Cancer of the tonsils and base of the tongue has risen over the past few decades