Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

U K dentist Dr Priya Patel is launching a website in India called ‘dentist- mum’ to provide information and raise awareness of dental issues and oral cancer amongst the Indian population. Although Dr Patel was born and raised in the UK, she says ‘I am an In- dian at heart’. The dentist, who owns the Village Dental Practice in Stevenage and also teaches postgraduate dental students at the Royal College of Surgeons in London and overseas dentists studying for their equivalency exams, decided to launch den- tistmum.in after learning of the alarming statistics surrounding oral health in India: for exam- ple, 40-50% have never visited a dentist; nearly 70% suffer from dental diseases; only 55% of the population uses toothpaste; and 90% of oral cancer cases in In- dia are attributed to the habit of chewing tobacco and gutka. In addition, the dentist to popula- tion ratio in rural areas is just 1:250,000. Dr Patel is working hard to develop the dentistmum web- site and the launch is set for early September. ‘I am loading it with content on a regular basis and fixing minor bugs as well as marketing the website by raising awareness on social me- dia channels and by contacting bloggers in India to help spread the word,’ said Dr Patel, who ad- mits that she is not internet sav- vy and is learning as she goes. She intends to travel to India once the website has launched to raise further awareness. ‘Ultimately even if only one person is successfully diag- nosed and treated for oral can- cer because of my website I will be very happy.’ If you are interested in con- tributing to Dr Patel’s website she can be contacted on e-mail: priya.patel@dentistmum.co.uk and you can also follow her on Twitter: @dentistmum. DT Dental information website launched for Indian market A recent study conducted by the University of Athens has found that electronic cigarettes can still cause irrepara- ble damage to the lungs, despite being promoted as a safer alterna- tive to cigarettes. Researchers at the university conducted a study involving eight non-smokers and 24 smokers, 11 of whom had nor- mal lung function, while 13 had asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (COPD). Applicants used an electronic cigarette for ten minutes, after which their airway resistance was tested. The researchers found that the devices caused an increase in airway resistance for around ten minutes in both non-smokers and smokers with normal lung function, but not in smokers with COPD or asthma, suggesting that electronic cigarettes, which work by delivering nicotine through a vapour, might still be damaging. The findings were presented at the annual congress of the Eu- ropean Respiratory Society (ERS). ‘We found an immediate rise in airway resistance in our group of participants, which suggests e- cigarettes can cause immediate harm after smoking the device,’ said author Prof Christina Gratz- iou, who chairs the ERS Tobacco Control Committee. She added: ‘More research is needed to understandwhetherthisharmhas lasting effects in the long term.’ DT Damage caused by electronic cigarettes A dentist is suing a former patient after he blogged online what the dentist felt were unfair and defama- tory comments. Dr Mo Salah, of Dental Dynamics in Portland filed the lawsuit for $300,000 after Spencer Bailey wrote a series of blogs on Yelp, Docto- rOogle.com and Google, in one instance stating “if Dr Saleh tells you that you have a cavity — GET A SECOND OPINION.” Bailey has said that he had nev- er had a cavity before, however, Dr Salah found several. After experiencing pain subsequent to the procedure, Bailey sought another dentist’s opinion. The second dentist told Bailey that some of the fillings had not been necessary, and they were also badly fitted. It was then that Bailey took to the internet to warn others of the “improper and insufficient dental services by Dr Saleh.” Salah has complained that the blogs caused ‘damage to his reputation, loss of profits and emotional distress.’ Bailey has since removed the posts, out of fear for the safely of him- self and his family, however Salah is continuing with the lawsuit. DT Dentist sues patient over internet blogging xx S pray-on teeth are being developed by scientists at King’s College London and Imperial College London. The spray contains a type of calcium and helps repair damage to the teeth enamel and may help repair any exposed dentin. The developers say the prod- uct blocks tiny tubes in the dentin, which can reduce sensitivity. The spray is held a few mil- limetres from the teeth and pro- jects a dry powder — the action of the powder hitting the teeth also acts as a mild abrasive, helping to remove stains. “Sprays allow more accurate and consistent delivery of the drug or treatment, and allow it to be held in the controlled sterile environment of a spray can,” Sam Shuster from the Newcastle Uni- versity said. DT http://www.kcl.ac.uk Spray-on teeth 6 News United Kingdom Edition September 10-16, 2012 S cientists have known for 30 years about the links between drinking alcohol and certain types of cancer, however there is new research explaining the effect the beverage has on people. The report was first recounted during the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Phila- delphia. The human body metabo- lizes the alcohol in beer, wine, and hard liquor into several sub- stances, including acetaldehyde, a substance with a chemical backbone that resembles for- maldehyde -- a known human carcinogen, according to lead author Silvia Balbo, PhD, a re- search associate at the Univer- sity of Minnesota. “We now have the first evi- dence from living human volun- teers that acetaldehyde formed after alcohol consumption dam- ages DNA dramatically,” Balbo stated in a press release. “Acet- aldehyde attaches to DNA in hu- mans in a way that results in the formation of a ‘DNA adduct.’ It’s acetaldehyde that latches onto DNA and interferes with DNA activity in a way linked to an in- creased risk of cancer.” To test the hypothesis that acetaldehyde causes DNA ad- ducts to form in humans, Balbo and colleagues gave 10 volun- teers increasing doses of vod- ka (comparable to one, two, and three drinks) once a week for three weeks. They found that levels of a key DNA ad- duct increased up to 100-fold in the subjects’ oral cells within hours after each dose, then de- clined about 24 hours later. Ad- duct levels in blood cells also rose. “These findings tell us that alcohol, a lifestyle carcinogen, is metabolized into acetaldehyde in the mouth, and acetaldehyde is forming DNA adducts, which are known major players in car- cinogenesis,” Balbo said. People have a highly effec- tive natural repair mechanism for correcting the damage from DNA adducts, so most are un- likely to develop cancer from social drinking, she added. In addition, most people have an enzyme called alcohol dehy- drogenase that quickly converts acetaldehyde to acetate, a rela- tively harmless substance. However, about 30% of peo- ple of Asian descent have a vari- ant of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene and are unable to metabo- lize alcohol to acetate, resulting in an elevated risk of esophageal cancer from alcohol drinking, the researchers noted. Native Americans and native Alaskans have a deficiency in the produc- tion of that same enzyme. DT Link between alcohol and cancer Scientists have known for 30 years about alochol and cancer