How Your Dentist Can Save Your Life

[Drsumitra]

More dentists need to be checking their patients for mouth cancer, say experts.

Cancer Research UK says oral cancer rates are going up and some dentists are missing an opportunity to spot those at risk.

All dentists should be asking about risk factors like smoking or heavy drinking as well as early telltale signs in the mouth, says the charity.

By 2030 it is predicted there will be 9,200 cases of oral cancer in the UK every year compared with 6,240 in 2009.

Oral cancer affects the lips, tongue, cheek lining, gums, palate and floor of the mouth.
The British Dental Association said dentists examine these areas as part of a routine dental check-up.

Oral cancer rates are continuing to rise in both men and women and in all age groups including the under 50s with more young people developing oral cancer than ever before.

Major risk factors include smoking and alcohol and a virus called HPV (human papilloma virus) which can infect the mouth as a result of oral sex.

Hazel Nunn, Cancer Research UK’s head of health evidence and information, said: "Too often oral cancer is found at a late stage when treatment is devastating and the chances of survival are poor.

"Dental teams are in a unique position to help detect oral cancer in its earlier stages when it’s easier to treat and the outlook is greatly improved.

"If a dentist is looking at someone’s teeth and knows this person smokes 50 cigarettes a day and drinks well above the recommended amount, he might look that extra bit more carefully."

Unusual changes
Early diagnosis and treatment can increase a patient’s chances of survival from just below 50% to about 90%

Mouth cancer kills about 1,700 people in the UK every year.

The most common symptoms include painless ulcers that do not heal, red and white patches and unusual changes in the mouth.

Cancer Research UK, the British Society for Oral Medicine, and the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry are asking the dental profession to make the detection and prevention of oral cancer a compulsory part of dentists’ ongoing training.

In May, the British General Dental Council (GDC) made oral cancer detection a recommended, but not compulsory, subject.

A GDC spokeswoman said the council has no current powers to introduce mandatory topics until new rules and guidelines come into force following an ongoing review.

 

        

[drmithila]

Dentists can help identify patients with diabetes or prediabetes who are unaware of their condition, according to researchers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (Journal of Dental Research, April 29, 2011).

The researchers sought to develop and evaluate identification protocols for high blood sugar levels in dental patients. The study was supported by a research grant from Colgate-Palmolive.

“Periodontal disease is an early complication of diabetes, and about 70% of U.S. adults see a dentist at least once a year,” stated senior author Ira Lamster, DDS, dean of the College of Dental Medicine, in a press release. “Prior research focused on identification strategies relevant to medical settings. Oral healthcare settings have not been evaluated before, nor have the contributions of oral findings ever been tested prospectively.”

For the study, the researchers recruited 601 patients from a New York City dental clinic who were age 40 and older if non-Hispanic white or age 30 and older if Hispanic or nonwhite, and had never been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes.

Of the total patients, 535 patients with at least one self-reported diabetes risk factor (family history of diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, or overweight/obesity) received a periodontal examination and a fingerstick hemoglobin test. To assess and compare the performance of identification protocols, patients returned for a fasting plasma glucose test, which indicates whether the patient has diabetes or prediabetes.

In the at-risk dental population, a simple algorithm composed of only two dental parameters (number of missing teeth and percentage of deep periodontal pockets) was effective in identifying patients with unrecognized prediabetes or diabetes, the researchers found. The addition of the hemoglobin test was of significant value, further improving the performance of the algorithm.

“Early recognition of diabetes has been the focus of efforts from medical and public health colleagues for years, as early treatment of affected individuals can limit the development of many serious complications,” said lead author Evanthia Lalla, DDS, associate professor at the College of Dental Medicine. “Relatively simple lifestyle changes in prediabetic individuals can prevent progression to frank diabetes, so identifying this group of individuals is also important,” she added. “Our findings provide a simple approach that can be easily used in all dental care settings.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four people affected with type 2 diabetes in the U.S. remains undiagnosed. And those with prediabetes are at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and also for heart disease, stroke, and other vascular conditions typical of individuals with diabetes.

        

[Drsumitra]

Data analysis of patients with public health insurance in Taiwan has backed up the claim that oral health and heart disease might be associated later in life. People over the age of 50 who had received at least one tooth scaling showed slightly lower incidence of myocardial infarction, other cardiovascular events and strokes than those who had received none, according to a research paper published in the American Journal of Medicine.
In the study, which took seven years to complete, the records of more than 22,000 patients selected from the country’s National Health Insurance Research Database were analysed. According to the researchers at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University’s Cardiovascular Research Center, the results made public this month revealed less heart disease in those people who had had their teeth cleaned.

The incidence of stroke was 1.1 per cent higher among those whose teeth had not been cleaned, and acute myocardial infarction occurred in only 0.6 per cent more people who had not undergone tooth scaling.

Lead researcher Dr Zu-Yin Chen told Reuters Health in London that the results, although convincing, did not prove that better oral hygiene can lower the risk of heart disease but that dental problems like gum disease most likely increase the risk of these conditions.

Chen said that the new study followed research that suggested that there might be a link between heart disease and oral health.

The association itself and the way in which bacterial inflammation in the mouth contributes to heart disease is still highly debated in the dental community.

 

        

[drmithila]

A new breakthrough in oral cancer detection…..must read….
By Robin Erb

Detroit Free Press Medical Writer
The earliest signs of oral cancer might one day show up in a simple spit test at your dentist’s office.

Delta Dental of Michigan has teamed up in a clinical trial with two university researchers to identify clues in saliva that could give doctors the first hint of the sixth most common cancer — one that was expected to be diagnosed an estimated 40,250 times in 2012, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

“We are very concerned about oral cancer,” said Dr. Jed Jacobson, chief science officer and senior vice president at Okemos-based Delta Dental of Michigan, part of a network of national dental plan administrators. “It’s so deadly.”

Delta and the clinical trial’s cosponsor, Haverton, Pa.-based PeriRx, are seeking 100 to 120 patients with mouth lesions or a heightened risk of oral cancer to give up about a half-teaspoon worth of spit that can be analyzed for cancer markers.

About 25 patients have already participated through Michigan State University; this month, the University of Michigan is expected to begin recruiting, said Dr. Joseph Helman, who heads oral surgery at University of Michigan’s dental and medical schools.

If it works, it would be the first diagnostic salivary test for oral cancer — an important breakthrough because diagnosis is often too late, requiring radical, disfiguring surgery, Delta Dental’s Jacobson said. About 7,850 men and women were expected to die of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx, the part of the throat at the back of the mouth in the U.S. in 2012, according to NCI.

The problem is that cancerous cells in the mouth can masquerade as a canker sore or some kind of trauma — the result of biting the inside of the cheek, for example.

“It’s not something that’s directing immediate attention. It’s not painful,” said Dr. Neil Gottehrer, founder of PeriRx.

Cancer is now confirmed after cells are removed from a patient’s mouth with a scalpel or a specialized brush that can scrape a thin layer of cells from, say, inside the cheek. They then are biopsied in a lab elsewhere.

But on a level that can’t be seen with the naked eye or even a microscope, oral squamous cell carcinoma emits specific proteins — a kind of signature picked up by specialized equipment.

Patients need only to spit in a cup during a regular dental checkup. Under the clinical trial, they also would undergo a traditional biopsy. If the clinical trial proves that the screening is effective, results one day would be available during the same visit to the dentist.

Preliminary results may be about a year away, though final results could take much longer.

In addition to refining tests to identify the biomarkers for cancer, PeriRx is finalizing tests that would identify biomarkers for Type 2 diabetes; a specific kind of lung cancer known as small cell lung cancer; Sjogren’s Syndrome, which is an immune disorder causing dry eyes and dry mouth, and other diseases, said PeriRx’s Gottehre

        

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