Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

U CL Eastman Dental In- stitute has been leading an innovative research study at the London 2012 Olympic Games to investigate the oral health of elite athletes and the impact of oral health on training and performance. The study is led by Professor Ian Needleman with Dr Paul Ashley, Dr Aviva Petrie, Profes- sor Stephen Porter and Profes- sor Nikolaos Donos, working with the London 2012 Polyclin- ic Dental team led by Professor Farida Fortune from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. To date, more than 300 ath- letes have been recruited to take part, making it one of the most comprehensive investiga- tions of oral health in elite ath- letes ever undertaken. Professor Needleman explains the purpose of the study: “There are many po- tential threats to oral health in athletes including exercise- induced immunosuppression, difficulty in taking time away from training for oral care, and drinks high in sugars. De- spite this, oral health does not usually appear on the radar for many athletes and little is known about such impacts on their performance. “Several athletes during the Olympic Games so far have told us how big an effect it has had on them and we will look for- ward to analysing the data over the next few months.” UCL Eastman Dental In- stitute would like to acknowl- edge the fantastic enthusiasm of the volunteer dental clinic staff who worked hard to con- duct the screenings. The re- search continues the Institute’s focus on investigating the re- lationship between oral health and general health and well- being. DT For more details about the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, please visit http://www.ucl. ac.uk/eastman or telephone 020 3456 1038 The oral health of elite athletes at The London 2012 Olympics E xpert panel to look at the best way to protect patients having cosmetic interven- tions The cosmetic surgery indus- try is under scrutiny and could find itself operating under tighter restrictions following a major re- view into cosmetic surgery and procedures launched today by the Department of Health. The review, requested by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and led by the NHS Medical Di- rector, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, is in response to concerns raised about the industry following prob- lems with PiP breast implants. It will look at many issues in- cluding whether the right amount of regulation is in place, if people have the right amount of informa- tion before going through with surgery and how to make sure pa- tients get the right aftercare. People are being asked to give their views on, and share their experiences of, the cosmetic sur- gery industry and cosmetic pro- cedures. The call for evidence, issued today, which can be found at www.dh.gov.uk/publichealth, is asking for people’s views on: products used in cosmetic inter- ventions people who carry out procedures have the necessary skills and qualifications have the systems in place to look after their patients both during their treatment and afterwards sidering cosmetic surgery and procedures are given the informa- tion, advice and time for reflection to make an informed choice in dealing with complaints so they are listened to and acted upon This comes as a survey shows that many people consider the cost of surgery more important than the qualifications of the peo- ple doing it, or how they will be looked after. The survey of 1,762 people shows that: questioned consider cost as a fac- tor when deciding whether or not 50 per cent for non-surgical pro- their practitioner into considera- tion surgery, 36 per cent for non-surgi- ity of their aftercare It also shows that, as a result of the recent PiP breast implant problems, almost half of women have considered cosmetic sur- gery before, say that they are now less likely to have it. This com- of men. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said: “The recent problems with PiP breast implants have shone a light on the cosmetic surgery industry. Many questions have been raised, particularly around the regulation of clinics, whether all practitioners are adequately qualified, how well people are advised when money is chang- ing hands, aggressive marketing techniques, and what protec- tion is available when things go wrong. “I am concerned that too many people do not realise how serious cosmetic surgery is and do not consider the life-long im- plications – and potential compli- cations - it can have. That’s why I have put together this Review Committee to advise me in mak- ing recommendations to Govern- ment on how we can better pro- tect people who choose to have surgery or cosmetic interven- tions. “We want to hear views from everyone, particularly people who have experience of the cosmetic surgery industry or of other cosmetic interven- tions – good and bad – so we can learn what works best.” A team of experts will assist Sir Bruce Keogh to gather evi- dence and make recommenda- tions to the Government by next March. The members are: Medical Director of BUPA PiP implants Emeritus Professor of Health Law, Ethics and Policy at University College London Claire’ magazine media doctor Chancellor of Loughborough Uni- versity broadcaster The Secretary of State for Health has also requested that the review considers a na- tional implant register, for prod- ucts such as breast implants and other medical devices. The information could include the date and place of the op- eration, the clinical outcome as well as a method of identify- ing the patients who received the product. DT Major review into cosmetic procedures launched A group of molecular mark- that can help clinicians de- termine which patients with low- grade oral premalignant lesions are at high risk for progression to oral cancer, according to data from the Oral Cancer Prediction Longitudinal Study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Associa- tion for Cancer Research. “The results of our study should help to build awareness that not everyone with a low- grade oral premalignant lesion will progress to cancer,” said Mir- iam Rosin, Ph.D., director of the Oral Cancer Prevention Program couver, British Columbia, Canada. “However, they should also begin to give clinicians a better idea of which patients need closer follow- up.” Oral cancers are a global public health problem with close to 300,000 new cases identified worldwide each year. Many of these cancers are preceded by premalignant lesions. Severe le- sions are associated with a high progression risk and should be treated definitively. However, the challenge within the field has been to distinguish which low- grade lesions are the most likely to progress to cancer. In 2000, Rosin and colleagues used samples of oral premalig- nant lesions where progression to cancer was known to have subsequently occurred in order to develop a method for grouping patients into low-risk or high-risk categories based on differences in their DNA. In their current popu- lation-based study, they confirmed that this approach was able to cor- rectly categorize patients as less or more likely to progress to cancer. They analysed samples from 296 patients with mild or moder- ate oral dysplasia identified and followed over years by the BC Oral Biopsy Service, which receives biopsies from dentists and ENT surgeons across the province. Pa- tients classified as high-risk had an almost 23-fold increased risk for progression. Next, two additional DNA mo- lecular risk markers called loss of heterozygosity were added to the analysis in an attempt to better differentiate patients’ risks. They used the disease samples from the prospective study, and categorised patients into low-, intermediate- and high-risk groups. “Compared with the low-risk group, intermediate-risk patients had an 11-fold increased risk for progression and the high-risk group had a 52-fold increase in risk for progression,” Rosin said. Of patients categorised as low- risk, only 3.1 percent had disease that progressed to cancer within five years. In contrast, intermedi- ate-risk patients had a 16.3 per- cent five-year progression rate and high-risk patients had a 63.1 percentfive-yearprogressionrate. “That means that two out of every three high-risk cases are progressing,” Rosin said. “Iden- tifying which early lesions are more likely to progress may give clinicians a chance to intervene in high-risk cases, and may help to prevent unnecessary treatment in low-risk cases.” DT Researchers identify markers of oral cancer September 3-9, 20124 News United Kingdom Edition