implants international magazine of oral implantology

NEWS implants2_2012 Researchers at the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy have developed a method to massagethebuccalsurfaceswiththeﬁngertips,using toothpasteasakindoflotion.Theyfoundthatbrushing teethtwiceadaywithhigh-ﬂuoridetoothpasteandad- ditionally rubbing toothpaste onto the teeth increases ﬂuoride protection by 400 per cent. Eight years ago, Duraphat (Colgate), a high-ﬂuoride toothpaste, con- tainingmorethanthreetimesasmuchﬂuorideasstan- dard toothpaste,was launched in Sweden.Avail- able without prescription,it is primarily aimed at people with a high caries risk.The re- searchersatSahlgrenskaAcademy have now evaluated the effect of this toothpaste. At the same time, they devel- oped a new method that quadruplesthelevelofpro- tection from ﬂuoride. In the study,16volunteerstestedavarietyofbrushingtech- niques, using either high-ﬂuoride or standard tooth- paste,andbrushingeithertwoorthreetimesaday. The researchers also tested a new method that in- volvesrubbingtoothpasteontotheteethwithaﬁnger. “Thismassagemethodprovedtobeatleastaseffec- tiveasathirdbrushinginincreasingtheamountofﬂu- orideinthemouth”,AnnaNordströmexplained.“Rub- bing the front of your teeth with toothpaste can be an easywayofgivingyourteethathirdshotofﬂuoridedur- ingtheday,afterlunchforexample.However,thisdoes not replace brushing with a ﬂuoride toothpaste in the morningandeveningbutit’sanadditionalprocedure.” The study “Effect of a third application of toothpaste, includinga‘massage’methodonﬂuorideretentionand pHdropinplaque”waspublishedonlineinFebruaryin theActaOdontologicaScandinavicajournal. New massage method Quadruples protection against tooth decay Several morphometric studies have proven sex- ualdimorphismsinhumanteeth,forexamplethat women’s teeth are smaller than men’s teeth. The German Society for Sex-Speciﬁc Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für geschlechterspe- ziﬁsche Zahn-, Mund- und Kiefer- heilkunde) recently reported on a study that found no obvious differences between male and female teeth. The study was conducted by a re- search group headed by Prof.RalfJ.Radlanskifrom theCentreforOralandMax- illofacialSurgeryattheBen- jamin Franklin Campus of Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The researchers ex- ploredwhetherthesexofanindi- vidual could be identiﬁed if only the front teeth were considered. This was tested by having participants evaluate 50 images of the anterior oral region of men and women aged between 7 and 75.The lip area was not shown. The participants included dentists, dental technicians, dental students and dentalprofessionals,aswellas50peoplewhohad no professional dental background. Theresultsoveralldemonstratedthatsexcouldbe detected in only about 50 per cent of the images. Although there are anthropological studies that claim to prove measurable morphometric differ- ences, the study proved that those are not even visibletoexperts’eyes.Whilesometoothpositions were correctly assigned by 70 per cent of the par- ticipants, others were wrongly assigned by the samenumberofparticipants.Theassumptionthat womentendtohaveroundedteethandmenrather angular ones could not be conﬁrmed by the study. Furthermore, contrary to what was expected by manyoftheparticipants,shape,sizeandcolourof thecanineswerenotmeaningfulindicatorsofsex. “In everyday practice, it is relevant whether the restoration ﬁts the patient’s face but not whether the patient is male or female,” Radlanski said. “Recognisable typical male teeth or female teeth do not exist.” Men’s and women’s Teeth do not differ signiﬁcantly Professor Per-Ingvar Brånemark made a surprise entrance on March 22 at the ﬁrst Nobel Biocare scientiﬁc symposium of 2012 in Gothenburg, Sweden. While his dramatic entry to the sympo- sium was largely unexpected, his presence was warmly welcomed. Sixty years have now passed since Professor Brånemark’s remarkable discov- ery that titanium could integrate with bone.Thirty years later, in 1982, the discovery was acknowl- edged and conﬁrmed at an epoch-making meet- ing of dental authorities inToronto,Canada.In ac- knowledgement,thisyearwerevisitTorontoonthe last stop of Nobel Biocare Symposia 2012. TheNobelBiocareSymposia2012continueonthe road from Sweden toToronto,with stops along the wayinFrance,Ukraine,GermanyandItaly.Fromall over the world, many more participants are ex- pected to make the pilgrimage to these symposia during the current year.As they do so they will be paying tribute to the discovery that astonished the dentalcommunityandsparkednewtreatmentop- portunities in such disparate ﬁelds as dentistry and orthopedics. An estimated 1,000 attendees descended upon the hometown of osseointegra- tion—Brånemark’s Gothenburg—from March 21–23 to celebrate the two anniversaries of os- seointegration. For more information please visit http://www.nobelbiocare.com/symposia2012. Nobel Biocare celebrates Dual anniversaries of osseointegration [PICTURE:©KURHAN] [PICTURE:©CHERKAS] 48 I