The Benefits of Xylitol and Fluoride

The Benefits of Xylitol and Fluoride

Have you ever wondered why dentists encourage the use of fluoride toothpaste, or why gum companies advertise the use of xylitol in their products? At Moscattini Dental, we have created this guide to explain the benefits of items containing xylitol and fluoride, why they should be used, and for whom.

What is Xylitol?

As a sugar-alcohol, xylitol occurs naturally in many plants and is processed to become a sweetener used in a variety of food products, including chewing gum.

How Xylitol Benefits Oral Health

Xylitol contains fewer calories than regular sugar. Studies have shown that microbes in your mouth are unable to metabolize xylitol in the same way as sugar, starving the bacteria that regularly cause decay through acid production. It has also been found to re-mineralize previously demineralized portions of the enamel, strengthening your teeth against decay. These effects make xylitol gum naturally appealing as a sugar substitute that also prevents cavities.

We recommend the use of xylitol gum for adults and children to preserve the strength of dental enamel, and reduce the habit of chewing decay-causing sugary gum.

What is Fluoride?

Fluoride is found as an additive in city water supplies and oral care products, including toothpastes. While naturally occurring in many environments such as water sources with certain geological conditions, this compound encourages stronger teeth and protects against decay. 

Why is Fluoride Recommended?

Much like xylitol, fluoride is able to spur remineralization, fighting cavities that break down enamel. For patients who are over the age of two, the use of fluoride enriched toothpaste is encouraged to ensure that their teeth remain healthy in the long term. If your drinking water is not fluoridated, consult your dentist to see if you would benefit from the use of additional gels, mouthwashes, or other fluoride enriched products.

Too much exposure to fluoride can have a negative effect during the formative stage of the enamel. This overexposure is referred to as dental fluorosis, and can result in bright spots on the teeth and staining. To avoid dental fluorosis, use fluoride-free toothpaste before your child is able to brush their teeth without swallowing the toothpaste, and consult your dentist to determine ideal fluoride use for your family.

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of xylitol and fluoride, contact Dr. Moscattini and our dental team today. Moscattini Dental provides patients throughout Duluth, Johns Creek, Suwanee, Norcross, and the neighboring communities with quality care and education necessary to maintain healthy smiles.

Sealants Prevent Up to 80% of Cavities in Kids

Applying dental sealants to the back teeth could prevent up to 80% of cavities in school-aged children, yet about 57% of children between the ages of 6 and 11 years don’t get sealants, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Yet increasing access to school-based sealant programs (SBSPs) could remedy these low figures, especially among low-income families who are less likely to have access to dental care, the federal agency notes.

SBSPs target schools with a high percentage of students who are eligible for free or reduced-cost meal programs. As a result, they provide sealants to children who are at higher risk for cavities and less likely to receive preventive care. Prior research has found that children with poor oral health often struggle academically and even miss significant time in school due to pain and other issues.
“Many children with untreated cavities will have difficulty eating, speaking, and learning,” said CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH. “Dental sealants can be an effective and inexpensive way to prevent cavities, yet only one in 3 low-income children currently receive them. School-based sealant programs are an effective way to get sealants to children.”

In addition to preventing 80% of cavities for 2 years after application, dental sealants continue to protect against 50% of cavities for up to 4 years after placement. They can be retained in the mouth for as long as 9 years. Also, while about 43% of 6- to 11-year-olds have a sealant, low-income children are 20% less likely to have them than higher-income children. Plus, school-age children without sealants have almost 3 times more cavities than those with sealants.

The CDC further reports that applying sealants to the nearly 7 million low-income children who don’t have them could save up to $300 million in dental treatment costs. The agency currently provides funding to 21 state public health departments to coordinate and implement school-based and school-linked sealant programs that target low-income children and those who live in rural settings. The CDC also says that state officials can:

• Target SBSPs to the areas of greatest need in their state
• Track the number of schools and children participating in SBSPs
• Implement policies that deliver SBSPs in the most cost-effective manner
• Help connect schools with health departments, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program offices, community health centers, and dental professionals in the community

Mouthguards May Improve Athletic Performance in Addition to Protecting Teeth

Mouthguards do more than protect an athlete’s teeth during the heat of competition. They also may improve performance and guard against other injuries, according to the AGD. For example, clenching a mouthguard while heading a soccer ball activates the neck and jaw muscles and may protect against concussion. It also repositions the jaw to activate the head and neck muscles, which may help weightlifters feel stronger and less encumbered. And, it modifies the airway opening to make breathing more efficient during physical activity.

Not all athletes take advantage of these benefits, though. The AGD reports that 56% of the 503 middle- and high-school athletes surveyed in Houston in a recent study did not own a mouthguard. Most commonly, the students said they didn’t wear one because they forgot to or because the mouthguard wasn’t comfortable. The AGD urges members of the dental profession to encourage enforcement of mouthguard usage policies among student-athletes.

The study, “Mouthguard Usage by Middle and High School Student-Athletes in Houston, Texas,” was published by General Dentistry.

Cancer Survival Times Tied to Better Dental Care

Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) who practice better dental care and consume less alcohol and tobacco have better survival times than those who don’t, according to a study funded by the German Research Foundation.

The study recruited 276 HNSCC cases and followed them for 6 to 10 years. Interviews included information about dentures, gum bleeding, brushing, flossing, and dental visits, in addition to mouthwash use, smoking, drinking, and diet. The researchers defined good dental care by annual dental visits, daily teeth cleaning, and flossing.
The difference in median survival time between patients with good dental care and poor dental care was 81 months. According to the researchers, the results imply a lack of dental care might contribute to the risk of earlier death or tumor progression, but the effect was not statistically significant.

Patients who smoked 20 cigarettes a day saw their risk of tumor recurrence or death increase by a factor of 3. Patients who had at 2 alcoholic drinks a day saw their risk of tumor progression increase by a factor of 1.5. The researchers also found that using alcoholic or non-alcoholic mouthwash at least twice a day doubled the risk of tumor-specific death, though reasons why remain unclear.

While these elevated hazard ratios indicate good dental care may have a positive impact on survival rates, the researchers noted, the study’s value is limited by its small sample size. The study, “Pretreatment Oral Hygiene Habits and Survival of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) Patients,” was published by BMC Oral Health.

Doctor Uses 3-D Printing to Rebuild a Chin

Shirley Anderson had to have his Adam’s apple and mandible both removed after his tongue cancer returned, leaving the 68-year-old man from Evansville, Ind, without a chin. But traditional prosthetic materials were bulky and cumbersome.

“This was a unique case,” said Dr. Travis Bellicchi, a second-year maxillofacial prosthodontics resident at the Indiana University School of Dentistry at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis. “It’s a much larger prosthesis that what we normally work on. Typically we might do a nose or an ear. This is maybe 4 or 5 times larger.”

Bellicchi, an Indiana University School of Medicine Maxillofacial Prosthetics Fellow, typically serves as a bridge between restorative dental and medical specialties for patients who have had cancer surgery or who have experienced facial trauma from car accidents, gunshot wounds, or burns.

“My training allows me to provide prostheses when surgical intervention or reconstructions are insufficient to provide a good aesthetic or a functional result,” Bellicchi said. “Then I come in and make something out of silicone or acrylic resin that would restore function or, in this case, aesthetics.”

Bellicchi relies on medical, information technology, design, and engineering experts from across Indiana University and Purdue University. His interdisciplinary team is creating a hybrid digital and analog approach, using 3-D printing to create molds with negative space inside of them. The negative space becomes the prosthesis itself.

“Then I use traditional materials, for now, to fill that space,” Bellicchi said. “My motivation to use traditional materials is that they are predictable, they are biocompatible, they have research behind them, and we know how to do the characterization to make them lifelike.”

Anderson was first diagnosed with tongue cancer in 1997 and treated with radiation. The disease returned in 2012. After new radiation treatment, he developed osteoradionecrosis of the jaw. Head and neck surgeons attempted to reconstruct his mandible using pieces of bone from his fibula and a titanium bar, but were unsuccessful.

So, Bellicchi turned to a digital solution. He and his team have completed digital imaging and modeling of Anderson’s face, and they soon expect to use 3-D printing to produce a prototype of a 3-D printed prosthesis itself. Anderson, who currently breathes through a tracheotomy and is fed through a tube in his stomach, hopes some semblance of normal will return with a better looking and fitting prosthetic.

“Shirley really believes in helping us as an institution,” Bellicchi said. “He totally gets the work we are trying to do on the discovery side of this as well as the patient-care side. He is a problem solver and a funny guy. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to spend a year with as I come up with different prosthesis solutions and explore the digital protocol.”

- See more at: http://www.dentistrytoday.com/news/industrynews/item/760-doctor-uses-3-d-printing-to-rebuild-a-chin#sthash.uBHrAiu3.dpuf

Oral Bacteria Linked to Stroke Risk

Researchers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in Osaka, Japan, have discovered a potential link between oral health and the risk of stroke. According to their data, 26% of their patients who had experienced intracerebral hemorrhage had cnm-positive Streptococcus mutans in their saliva. Meanwhile, only 6% of patients who suffered from other types of stroke tested positive for the bacterium.

Also, MRIs revealed significantly higher numbers of cerebral microbleeds in subjects with cnm-positive S. mutans than in those without the bacterium. Cerebral microbleeds are small brain hemorrhages that may cause dementia and often underlie intracerebral hemorrhages. The researchers believe S. mutans may bind to blood vessels weakened by age and high blood pressure, causing arterial ruptures in the brain and leading to small or large hemorrhages.

“This study shows that oral health is important for brain health. People need to take care of their teeth because it is good for their brain and their heart as well as their teeth,” said Robert P. Friedland, MD, co-author of the study and the Mason C. and Mary D. Rudd endowed chair and professor of neurology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

“The study and related work in our labs have shown that oral bacterial are involved in several kinds of stroke, including brain hemorrhages and strokes that lead to dementia,” Friedland said. He also noted that the cnm-negative strain of S. mutans causes tooth decay and is found in approximately 10% of the population. Currently, he is researching how oral bacteria may influence other diseases affecting the brain.

“We are investigating the role of oral and gut bacteria in the initiation of pathology in the neurodegenerative disorders Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with collaborators in the United Kingdom and Japan,” he said.

The study, “Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Deep Microbleeds Associated with cnm-positive Streptococcus Mutans; a Hospital Cohort Study,” was published by Scientific Reports.

- See more at: http://www.dentistrytoday.com/news/industrynews/item/749-oral-bacteria-linked-to-stroke-risk#sthash.EjE28gZ1.dpuf

-DentistryToday

Shark Genes Offer Clues to Tooth Regeneration

Sharks are infamous for their ability to regrow teeth throughout their lifetime, while human beings only get a couple of sets. Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, though, have identified the genes that give sharks their regenerative capacity, with an eye on someday giving people the same ability.

“We know that sharks are fearsome predators, and one of the main reasons they are so successful at hunting prey is because of their rows of backward-pointing, razor-sharp teeth that regenerate rapidly throughout their lifetime and so are replaced before decay,” said Dr. Gareth Fraser of the University of Sheffield.

The researchers have identified how a special set of epithelial cells, known as dental lamina, forms in sharks. These cells are responsible for lifelong tooth development and regeneration in sharks, conserved throughout 450 million years of evolution. Human beings have these cells too, but they only form baby and adult teeth before they are lost.

“The Jaws films taught us that it’s not always safe to go into the water, but this study shows that perhaps we need to in order to develop therapies that might help humans with tooth loss,” said Fraser.

By analyzing the teeth of catshark embryos, the researchers characterized the expression of genes during stages of early shark tooth formation. They found that these genes participate in the initial emergence of the teeth and are redeployed for further tooth regeneration.

At the beginning of the sharks’ evolutionary history, the researchers said, their teeth most likely were continuously regenerated and used a core set of genes from members of key developmental signaling pathways that were instrumental in evolving to redeploying the genes to replace teeth when needed.

Shark dentition is formed and patterned via these highly conserved signals, which are used by all toothed vertebrates, the researchers said. Slight genetic alterations, they added, could be the difference between the limited replacement supply of teeth that mammals have and the unlimited dentition that sharks have.

The study, “An Ancient Dental Gene Set Governs Development and Continuous Regeneration of Teeth in Sharks,” was published by Science Direct. It was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust.

- See more at: http://www.dentistrytoday.com/news/industrynews/item/744-shark-genes-offer-clues-to-tooth-regeneration?highlight=WyJzaGFyayIsInJlZ2VuZXJhdGlvbiJd#sthash.qExoksZ1.dpuf

-DentistryToday