Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

T he Eco-Dentistry As- sociation® has an- nounced that it will hold the industry’s first den- tal conference devoted ex- clusively to high-tech, en- vironmentally sound dental practices. The event will take place May 3 and 4, 2013, at the eco-friendly Robert Red- ford Conference Center in Sundance, Utah, part of the Sundance Resort. Attendance is limited to the first 100 reg- istrants. The 2013 Green Dentistry Conference™ will showcase the information and products dental professionals need to create and maintain state-of- the-art green practices. “A” List dental speakers include Gary Takacs of Takacs Learn- ing Center, who will share the essentials of branding and marketing a green den- tal practice, as well as den- tal technology gurus Marty Jablow, DMD, Paul Feuerstein, DMD, and John Flucke, DDS who will talk about how den- tal technologies reduce waste and save energy, and boost the practice bottom line. Bill Roth, noted sustainability au- thor and speaker, will lead a break out group called “Green Builds Business.” The conference will offer panel discussions on every- thing from building and fi- nancing a high-tech, green dental practice to creating a successful green hygiene pro- gram. Unique, small group, hands-on opportunities with dental technology such as la- sers and CAD/CAM systems will also be available. The 2013 Green Dentistry Conference™ will offer attend- ees something rarely found at dental conferences: pro- moting the overall health and wellbeing of the dental team. Optional morning yoga and meditation will be avail- able for all attendees and t here will be presentations fo- cusing on the importance of work-life balance to support personal and professional success. On Sunday, May 5, attend- ees will have the option of hik- ing in the 6000 acres of pris- tine wilderness adjacent to the Sundance Resort, enjoying fly-fishing, golf or the spa. Customisable sponsor- ship opportunities are avail- able for companies offering green dental, green building, or wellness products and ser- vices. Discounted early bird registration opens Tues- day, January 22nd, 2013 at www.ecodentistry.org/confer- ence. Contact info@ecoden- tistry.org DT R esearchers from the University of Adelaide say any health warn- ings about soft drinks should include the risk of tooth de- cay, following a new study that looks at the consumption of sweet drinks and fluoridated water by Australian children. “There is growing scru- tiny on sweet drinks, espe- cially soft drinks, because of a range of detrimental health effects on adults and chil- dren,” says Dr Jason Armfield from the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health at the University of Ad- elaide’s School of Dentistry. “Tooth decay carries with it significant physical, social and health implications, and we believe the risk of tooth decay should be included in any warnings relating to sweet drinks,” he says. Dr Armfield is the lead au- thor of a new study published this month in the Ameri- can Journal of Public Health, which looks at the consump- tion of sweet drinks and fluor- idated water by more than 16,800 Australian children. The study found that the number of decayed, missing and filled deciduous (or baby) teeth was 46 per cent higher among children who con- sumed three or more sweet drinks per day, compared with children who did not consume sweet drinks. “Consistent evidence has shown that the high acidity of many sweetened drinks, par- ticularly soft drinks and sports drinks, can be a factor in den- tal erosion, as well as the sug- ar itself contributing to tooth decay,” Dr Armfield says. “Our study also showed that greater exposure to fluor- idated water significantly reduces the association be- tween children’s sweet drink consumption and tooth decay. This reconfirms the benefits of community water fluorida- tion for oral health. “Essentially, we need to ensure that children are ex- posed less to sweet drinks and have greater access to drink fluoridated water, which will result in signifi- cantly improved dental out- comes for children,” he says. “If health authorities de- cide that warnings are needed for sweet drinks, the risk to dental health should be in- cluded.” DT Soft drinks should have tooth decay warning T he Mouth Cancer Foundation raised £40,000 from its 7th annual Mouth Cancer 10KM Awareness Walk, which took place in London’s Hyde Park on Saturday 22nd September 2012. The Mouth Cancer 10 KM Awareness Walk has been de- signed to increase awareness and generate much needed funds to allow the charity to provide support for mouth cancer patients and carers. Last September almost 800 people travelled to the capital to walk 15,000 steps it took to complete a 10 KM course. Together they celebrated sur- vivorship, remembered lost dear ones and had fun. There were medals, T-shirts and goodie bags for everyone who took part. The Founder of the Mouth Cancer Foundation Dr Vinod Joshi says “The Mouth Can- cer 10KM Awareness Walk proved to be the most success- ful ever in 2012. The profit from the walk, after costs, will be ploughed into our lat- est initiative the Mouth Can- cer Screening Accreditation Scheme which will launch in April this year. This is brand new and will accredit dental practices who actively prove they regularly carry out thorough head and neck can- cer screenings and operate clearly documented referral pathways with a local special- ist department.” DT Charity raises £40k R esearch has suggested that compounds that give col- ourful fruits their rich hues, especially berries, promote health and might even prevent cancer. But for the first time, scientists have exposed extracts from nu- merous berries high in those pig- ments to human saliva to see just what kinds of health-promoting substances are likely to survive and be produced in the mouth. The researchers have discov- ered that two families of pigments that provide berries with their colours, called anthocyanins, are more susceptible to degradation in the mouth than are the other four classes of these pigments. The Ohio State University study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsi- ble for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva. Researchers are investi- gating whether it’s the berry pig- ments themselves, or instead the products of their degradation, that actually promote health. The researchers exposed ex- tracts of anthocyanin pigments from blueberries, chokeberries, black raspberries, red grapes and strawberries to the saliva col- lected from 14 people. The five fruits selected for study allowed the scientists to test the six dis- tinct families of the anthocyanin pigments. Researchers purified the anthocyanins from each ber- ry type and added the extracts to saliva. “Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one’s oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism. The bac- teria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites,” Failla said. “One area of great interest is whether the health-promoting benefits associated with eating anthocy- anin-rich fruits like berries are provided by the pigment itself, the natural combinations of the pigments in the fruit, or the me- tabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract.” There is context for this study that further complicates the un- derstanding of anthocyanins’ benefits. Multiple studies have led to the conclusion that an- thocyanins themselves are very poorly absorbed by the body. “If anthocyanins are the actu- al health-promoting compound, you would want to design food products, confectionaries and gels containing mixtures of anthocya- nins that are stable in the mouth. If, on the other hand, the metab- olites produced by the metabo- lism of anthocyanins are the actu- al health-promoting compounds, there will be greater interest in fruits that contain anthocyanins that are less stable in the oral cav- ity,” Failla said. “We lack such in- sights at this time.” DT Are berries beneficial to our health? 2 News United Kingdom Edition February 11-17, 2013 First Green Dentistry Conference™ held