OXNARD, CALIF.  – As a leader in infection control products, DUX Dental produces high quality sterilization pouches that fit the everyday needs of the dental office. The new PeelVue⁺ TEAL sterilization pouch measures at 7 1/8” open end by 13 13/16” length, which is ideal for steri-cages, steri-mats, and five instrument cassettes. With this new addition to the PeelVue+ family, there are now 13 different sized pouches to meet a wide variety of sterilization needs. To view all available sizes visit www.duxdental.com.

As with all of the PeelVue+ Sterilization Pouches, the PeelVue TEAL pouch meets CDC Guidelines for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities. PeelVue Pouches feature internal and external chemical indicators. PeelVue are also the only sterilization pouch available that guides the user to the proper close with patent pending ‘Closure Validators’ so you can be sure your pouch is sealed correctly and instruments remain sterilized. PeelVue pouches are easy-to-peel and seal and printed with lead-free inks on medical-grade, virgin, non-recycled paper.

About DUX Dental

DUX Dental has been manufacturing and distributing the highest level of dental products worldwide for more than 50 years. Based in the coastal city of Oxnard, Calif., with additional manufacturing and distribution facilities in Europe, DUX Dental is home to a world-class team of innovators who produce and service a portfolio of hundreds of dental products and supplies. DUX Dental is well-known for its series of industry firsts including Zone Temporary Cement, Identic™ Alginate and Bib-eze™ disposable bib holders, as well as its award-winning PeelVue+ sterilization pouches. Visit www.duxdental.com or contact duxoffice(at)duxdental(dot)com for more information about DUX Dental products.

Only half of Americans identified as ever having had hepatitis C received follow-up testing showing that they were still infected, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of data from a multi-area study published today in the CDC report Vital Signs.

“Many people who test positive on an initial hepatitis C test are not receiving the necessary follow-up test to know if their body has cleared the virus or if they are still infected,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Complete testing is critical to ensure that those who are infected receive the care and treatment for hepatitis C that they need in order to prevent liver cancer and other serious and potentially deadly health consequences.”

Testing for hepatitis C includes a blood test, called an antibody test, to determine if an individual has ever been infected with the virus.  For people with a positive antibody test result, a follow-up test – called an RNA test – should be given to determine whether they are still infected so they can get needed care and treatment. 

A small number of people with antibody-positive tests will have cleared the infection on their own, but most people with hepatitis C (about 80%) remain infected and can go on to develop significant health problems.

For the Vital Signs study, researchers looked at data from eight areas across the nation funded by CDC to conduct enhanced surveillance for hepatitis C virus infection. Of the hepatitis C cases reported in these areas (i.e., those cases with antibody-positive results), only 51% of the cases also included a follow-up (RNA) test result that identified current infection. Without follow-up testing, the other half are likely unaware if they are currently infected and therefore cannot get appropriate medical care.

Data included in this analysis also underscore the severe impact of hepatitis C among baby boomers. In the eight areas studied, 67% of all reported cases of current infection were among those born from 1945 through 1965. Deaths among people with hepatitis C also were more common among those born during these years (accounting for 72% of all reported deaths).

“Hepatitis C has few noticeable symptoms, and left undiagnosed it threatens the health of far too many Americans – especially baby boomers,” said John Ward, M.D., director of CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis. “Identifying those who are currently infected is important because new effective treatments can cure the infection better than ever before, as well as eliminate the risk of transmission to others.”

Overall, approximately 3 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C and up to 3 out of 4 do not know they are infected.  The vast majority of those affected are baby boomers, or those born from 1945 through 1965. Left untreated, hepatitis C can cause serious liver damage, including liver cancer. Hepatitis C is a leading cause of liver cancer and the most common indication for liver transplants. In fact, liver cancer is the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Deaths from hepatitis C have nearly doubled over the past decade, now accounting for more than 15,000 deaths each year. 

In light of increasing evidence that many patients are not receiving the follow-up test, as well as recent changes in testing technologies and the availability of new effective treatments for hepatitis C, CDC is issuing updated guidance for health care providers on hepatitis C testing. These guidelines reinforce the recommended process for hepatitis C testing and underscore the importance of providers conducting follow-up RNA testing for all patients with a positive antibody test result in order to help ensure people infected with hepatitis C are properly tested and identified.

CDC recommends that everyone in the United States born from 1945 through 1965 be tested for hepatitis C. CDC also recommends that other populations at increased risk for hepatitis C get tested, including those who received blood transfusions or organ transplants before widespread screening of the blood supply began in 1992, or those who have ever injected drugs.

This Vital Signs coincides with Hepatitis Awareness Month and National Hepatitis Testing Day on May 19.

More information is available at www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom.

Many baby boomers’ bodies may be harboring a silent killer: hepatitis C. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends testing for anyone born between 1945 and 1965 as early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer and other complications.

In recognition of Hepatitis Awareness month, MedSpring is offering baby boomers, those born between 1945 to 1965, free hepatitis C screenings at any of its 14 centers in Chicago, Austin and Houston during the month of May. In addition, those born after 1965 with tattoos and body piercings are also eligible for free screenings.

The hepatitis C virus is a contagious, bloodborne infection affecting the liver. Baby boomers may have contracted the disease numerous ways, including through a simple blood transfusion, injection drug use, or an organ transplant performed prior to 1992. While baby boomers comprise only 27 percent of the U.S. population, the CDC estimates they account for 75% of the hepatitis C cases and 73% of deaths related to the virus.

“This simple, one-time blood test can mean the difference between life-saving treatment and serious, even deadly, liver disease,” said Dr. Jon L. Belsher, M.D., MedSpring’s Chief Medical Officer. “The hepatitis C virus is dangerous, especially to baby boomers, as it can go unnoticed for years with most people experiencing no symptoms.”

MedSpring centers will administer the complimentary blood test to the first 1000 eligible patients during regular center hours of 9am-9pm daily. For those patients requiring follow-up, MedSpring will provide complimentary consultation and referrals. Walk-ins are welcome, and appointments are also available. For more information, visit the Hepatitis C information page on MedSpring’s website.

MedSpring Immediate Care has three centers in Chicago, six in Austin, and five in Houston.

About MedSpring Immediate Care

MedSpring’s 14 Immediate Care centers focus on delivering quality care and exceptional service. For more information, including patient reviews and savings compared to an ER, please visit https://www.medspring.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Parents use a variety of methods to clean a baby’s pacifier: rising it in tap water, boiling it, or putting it in their own mouth and sucking on it before giving it back to the baby. According to a new study, parents who “clean” their child’s pacifier by sucking on it can also protect their infant from developing allergies.

The study, “Pacifier Cleaning Practices and Risk of Allergy Development,” in the June 2013 issue of Pediatrics (published online May 6), examined 184 infants at 18 and 36 months of age for clinical allergy symptoms and sensitization to food and airborne allergens. Researchers found that children whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them had one-third the risk of developing eczema (the most common early manifestation of allergy), at 18 months of age, compared to children whose parents did not use this cleaning practice. Development of eczema up to 36 months of age was significantly lower in children whose parents sucked on their pacifiers during the first 6 months of life.

Additionally, infants who were vaginally delivered and experienced parental pacifier sucking also had a reduced incidence of eczema at 18 months of age. Study authors conclude that early exposure to parental saliva may help stimulate the baby’s immune system, resulting in a reduced risk of allergy development.

WASHINGTON, DC – Word on the street has it you should replace your toothbrush after suffering from a cold, the flu or a bout of strep throat. That may not be necessary — at least when it comes to sore throats, according to a study presented Saturday, May 4, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC.

Some health care professionals advise children to toss their toothbrushes if they have been diagnosed with strep throat. Researchers from University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston wanted to determine if that advice is warranted.  

First, they tried to grow group A Streptococcus(GAS), the bacteria that causes strep throat, on toothbrushes that had been exposed to the bacteria in a laboratory. The bacteria did in fact grow and remained on the toothbrushes for at least 48 hours.

Surprisingly, two new toothbrushes that were not exposed to GAS and served as controls also grew bacteria even though they had been removed from their packaging in a sterile fashion. An adult-size toothbrush grew gram-negative bacilli, and a child-size toothbrush grew gram-positive cocci, which was identified as Staphylococcus. Since this was not the main focus of the study, the researchers did not investigate this finding further.

Next, they investigated whether GAS would grow on toothbrushes used by children who had strep throat. Fourteen patients who were diagnosed with strep throat, 13 patients with sore throats without strep and 27 well patients ages 2 to 20 years were instructed to brush their teeth for one minute with a new toothbrush. Afterwards, the toothbrushes were placed in a sterile cover and taken to a lab where they were tested for GAS bacteria growth. 

GAS was recovered from only one toothbrush, which had been used by a patient without strep throat. The other study toothbrushes failed to grow GAS but did grow other bacteria that are common in the mouth.

“This study supports that it is probably unnecessary to throw away your toothbrush after a diagnosis of strep throat,” said co-author Judith L. Rowen, MD, associate professor of pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at UTMB.

Study co-author Lauren K. Shepard, DO, a resident physician in the Department of Pediatrics at UTMB, noted that the study was small. Larger studies with more subjects need to be conducted to confirm that group A Streptococcus does not grow on toothbrushes used at home by children with strep throat, she said.

To view the abstract, “Group A Streptococcus on Toothbrushes,” go to https://www.abstracts2view.com/pas/view.php?nu=PAS13L1_1533.464.

Geneva - On Hand Hygiene Day (May 5), the World Health Organization (WHO) is encouraging patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections. These lead to significant physical and psychological suffering and sometimes death of patients, and financial losses for health systems. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

Healthcare-associated infections usually occur when germs are transferred by healthcare providers’ hands touching the patient. The most common infections are urinary tract and surgical site infections, pneumonia and infections of the bloodstream. Of every 100 hospitalized patients, at least 7 in developed and 10 in developing countries will acquire a health care-associated infection. Among critically ill and vulnerable patients in intensive care units, that figure rises to around 30 per 100.

Practicing good hand hygiene during healthcare by using alcohol-based hand rubs or washing hands with soap and water if visibly dirty reduces the risk of these infections.

"Healthcare-associated infections are a major burden around the world and threaten the safety and care of patients,” says Sir Liam Donaldson, WHO Envoy for Patient Safety and former Chief Medical Officer for England. “I urge the health care and patient communities to take firm and decisive action to save lives from this preventable harm.”

"Save Lives: Clean Your Hands" global campaign

More than 15 700 health facilities with more than 9 million health workers in 168 countries have registered their commitment to good hand hygiene as part of the WHO global campaign: “SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands”. The campaign has been running since 2009 and 12 new countries joined in the last year.

According to the WHO Clean Care is Safer Care Programme, when working with patients, hand hygiene should be performed at 5 key moments, preferably by using an alcohol-based rub or by handwashing with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty. The five moments for hand hygiene are:

• before touching a patient

• before clean and aseptic procedures (e.g.inserting devices such as catheters)

• after contact with body fluids

• after touching a patient

• after touching patient surroundings.

Patient participation

Generating public awareness and patient participation are key to enhancing opportunities for patient safety. Many health facilities educate and encourage patients and their families to participate in hand hygiene. According to a new survey conducted by WHO and its Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, the University of Geneva Hospitals, patient participation is considered a useful strategy for improving hand hygiene and creating a positive patient safety climate in the facilities implementing it.

“Patient participation can be a powerful tool to achieve improvements in health care,” says Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, team lead in the WHO Patient Safety Clean Care is Safer Care programme. “Although the ability of patients to be involved will vary in different cultures and situations, family members of patients often help with caregiving and they are some of the best advocates for their loved ones. That makes them good allies in this process.”

Patients and their family members can participate by:

• asking for information about any existing initiatives that involve patients at the health facility

• asking health workers who are about to touch them to clean their hands, and thanking them when they do.

“To be successful, activities to empower patients should ensure the buy-in of health workers and respect the local culture,” recommends Professor Didier Pittet, lead advisor to WHO’s Clean Care is Safer Care programme and Director of Infection Control at the University of Geneva Hospitals.

On and around May 5 this year, WHO also invites health facilities to take action on monitoring hand hygiene practices and providing feedback to health workers. These are essential elements of successful strategies to reduce healthcare-associated infections.

CHICAGO –Oral Health America (OHA) is pleased to announce its 12th Annual NSTEP® (National Spit Tobacco Program) Slogan Contest. Teaming up with Little League Baseball and Softball, the program calls on players ages 8-14 to create a ten-word phrase describing the dangers of spit tobacco for a chance to win a trip to the Little League Baseball World Series! Each year, anywhere from 10 to 16 million Americans put their health at risk by using spit tobacco products. Tobacco use is linked to cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, and pancreas. Together, NSTEP and Little League educate families about the risks of spit tobacco use, including oral cancer, gum disease, tooth decay, and nicotine addiction. “Little League always has and always will have the utmost concern for the health and well-being of all children,” Stephen D. Keener, President and CEO of Little League Baseball and Softball, said. “This is why we are proud to partner with Oral Health America in promoting the NSTEP Slogan Contest to make sure all young children understand the risks associated with using smokeless tobacco.” Last year, NSTEP joined a coalition of organizations in limiting the use of smokeless tobacco products in Major League ballparks. The program seeks to continue to create conversations around the dangers of tobacco and help those who currently chew to quit. “This contest provides an opportunity for Little League athletes to create a dialogue about the harms of tobacco use on and off the field,” said Beth Truett, President and CEO of Oral Health America. “We are truly amazed and extremely proud of the creative and passion these children bring in promoting a tobacco-free lifestyle amongst their peers.” The participant with the most creative slogan will receive an all-expense paid trip to the Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., and a $500 cash prize! Plus, Oral Health America will also make a $500 donation to the player’s Little League organization. For more information about the contest, please visit www.oralhealthamerica.org/programs/nstep. About Oral Health America OHA’s mission is to change lives by connecting communities with resources to increase access to oral health care, education and advocacy for all Americans, especially those most vulnerable. For more information about Oral Health America, please visit www.oralhealthamerica.org or like Oral Health America on Facebook, Facebook.com/OralHealthAmerica and follow Oral Health America on Twitter, @Smile4Health. Follow the conversation with #NSTEP

PITTSBURGH—It's no secret that stress increases your susceptibility to health problems, and it also impacts your ability to solve problems and be creative. But methods to prevent associated risks and effects have been less clear – until now.

Published in PLOS ONE, new research from Carnegie Mellon University provides the first evidence that self-affirmation can protect against the damaging effects of stress on problem-solving performance. Understanding that self-affirmation — the process of identifying and focusing on one's most important values — boosts stressed individuals' problem-solving abilities will help guide future research and the development of educational interventions.

"An emerging set of published studies suggest that a brief self-affirmation activity at the beginning of a school term can boost academic grade-point averages in underperforming kids at the end of the semester. This new work suggests a mechanism for these studies, showing self-affirmation effects on actual problem-solving performance under pressure," said J. David Creswell, assistant professor of psychology in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Because previous research indicated that self-affirmation may be an effective stress management approach, Creswell and his research team had college students rank-order a set of values (e.g., art, business, family and friends) in terms of their personal importance, and indicate their levels of chronic stress. Participants randomly assigned to a self-affirmation condition were asked to write a couple of sentences about why their number one ranked value was important (a standard self-affirmation exercise). All participants then had to complete a challenging problem-solving task under time pressure, which required creativity in order to generate correct solutions.

The results showed that participants who were under high levels of chronic stress during the past month had impaired problem-solving performance. In fact, they solved about 50 percent fewer problems in the task. But notably, this effect was qualified by whether participants had an opportunity to first complete the self-affirmation activity. Specifically, a brief self-affirmation was effective in eliminating the deleterious effects of chronic stress on problem-solving performance, such that chronically stressed self-affirmed participants performed under pressure at the same level as participants with low chronic stress levels.

"People under high stress can foster better problem-solving simply by taking a moment beforehand to think about something that is important to them," Creswell said. "It's an easy-to-use and portable strategy you can roll out before you enter that high pressure performance situation."

In addition to Creswell, the research team consisted of Janine M. Dutcher, who participated as a Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student and is now at UCLA; William M. P. Klein of the National Cancer Institute; Peter R. Harris of the University of Sheffield; and John M. Levine of the University of Pittsburgh.

The National Science Foundation and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse Opportunity Fund supported this research.

For more information, visit https://www.psy.cmu.edu/people/creswell.html.  

Registration is now open for the Successful Women in Dentistry conference, which is June 22 in Irvine, California. This one-day conference will highlight the inspiring achievements women have made in dentistry - how women are positively influencing the dental industry today and creating opportunities for the future. Attendees can earn 5 CE credits from Pacific Dental Services.

Registration is $145 with all proceeds going toward the National Children's Oral Health Foundation. For information, click here.