CHICAGO, June 25, 2014   — The American Dental Association (ADA) is offering a course that will teach dentists how to recognize and treat patients who might experience a breathing emergency while undergoing minimal or moderate sedation. Dentists interested in refreshing their airway management emergency skills should register for the ADA’s “Managing Sedation Complications, Part 2” course, which will take place Aug. 22 at ADA Headquarters, 211 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago.

The course is available at 7:30am to 12:15pm or at 12:30pm to 5:15pm. The cost is $1,359 for ADA members and $2,039 for others. This course is sponsored in part by a grant from the ADA Foundation.

The managing sedation complications course emphasizes patient monitoring and airway management, offers hands-on training in the use of airway devices and monitoring techniques, and reviews protocols for drug therapy to manage complications. Participants work in teams to apply these techniques using scientifically advanced human simulation equipment. Participants will earn five continuing education (CE) credits upon completion of the course. Visit www.ADA.org/sedationmgmt to register.

Registrants for Part 2 must have completed Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers prior to Aug 22, 2013, and “Managing Sedation Complications, Part 1,” by Aug. 15, 2014. For more information about Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers, please visit www.heart.org/bls or www.redcross.org/take-a-class. For more information about Managing Sedation Complications, Part 1, please visit www.adaceonline.org. Participants will earn four CE credits upon completion of Part 1. 

For more information about anesthesia and sedation, please visit MouthHealthy.org.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The American Dental Education Association (ADEA), the premier association serving the dental education community, is hosting two meetings for today’s globally-minded dental education and research communities: the 5th ADEA International Women’s Leadership Conference (IWLC) and ADEA International Workshop. Both events—being held at the Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel on Sept. 14–16, 2014, in Barcelona, Spain—will focus on professional development, leadership strategies, cross-cultural connections and curricular reform to help chart dentistry’s future course.

Hundreds of dental educators, leaders and practitioners from around the world will come together with ADEA experts, other thought leaders and emerging pioneers in dental education and research for the ADEA international conferences, which are separate in theme and focus.

“Improving oral health in communities throughout the world requires a global community of leadership to produce better health outcomes for the public,” says ADEA President and CEO, Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H. “Our ultimate goal through these events is for participants to learn common interests, share perspectives, foster alliances and collaborate across professions. We have much to learn from each other.”

For the fifth time, with the theme of “Global Health Through Women’s Leadership,” the ADEA IWLC is a three-day conference providing fresh insight and perspectives on how women are forging new pathways to help advance future generations as well as to produce better health outcomes globally. Participants—including both men and women—will explore research-based and practical strategies related to gender and the roles of women leaders in dentistry worldwide through plenaries, working groups and skills-building sessions.

Building on a longstanding collaboration with the Association for Dental Education in Europe, the ADEA International Workshop is a one-day workshop discussing change and innovation in dental education. With the theme “A Global Perspective on Leading Change and Innovation in Dental Education,” this meeting also represents an opportunity to further engage on efforts through the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education, which was created in 2005 to facilitate transformation in the education of dental professionals so they graduate with the competences required to meet the oral health needs of the public throughout the 21st century.

Support for the ADEA IWLC is provided from the Colgate-Palmolive Company, DENTSPLY International, Inc., and the Procter & Gamble Company.

More information regarding the 5th ADEA International Women’s Leadership Conference and ADEA International Workshop is available at www.adea.org/Barcelona. Follow on Twitter at @ADEAweb using #ADEASpain14 and #IWLC14.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 23, 2014—Scientists have applied a new technique to comprehensively analyze the human oral microbiome—providing greater knowledge of the diversity of the bacteria in the mouth. For the first-time, scientists can provide high-resolution bacterial classification at the sub-species level. This work will enable researchers to more closely examine the role of bacterial communities in health and disease.

The study, "Oligotyping analysis of the human oral microbiome," will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and available online the week of June 23rd. For this project, Gary Borisy, Senior Research Investigator, Department of Microbiology at Forsyth collaborated with Drs. A. Murat Eren and Jessica L. Mark Welch at Marine Biological Laboratory and Dr. Susan M. Huse at Brown University.

The human body, including the mouth, is home to a wide range of microbial organisms. In fact, there are ten times more bacterial cells in the human body than human cells. Bacteria in nature live in complex, multi-species communities in which bacterial cells in close proximity to each other can exchange metabolic products and signals. "Knowing who is living there and who their neighbors are is essential to understanding how they work together," said Borisy. "We now have the opportunity to truly classify the bacteria and know what the distinct species are within these communities."

Overview of Study

The Human Microbiome Project, an effort of the National Institutes of Health, produced a census of bacterial populations from 18 body sites in more than 200 healthy individuals. DNA in these samples was sequenced from the gene in bacteria that encodes ribosomal RNA, called the 16S rRNA gene, or 16S. The 16S gene serves as a "barcode" for the identity of the organism. Although the Human Microbiome Project was groundbreaking in scope, a big problem has been interpreting the enormous numbers of barcodes obtained and distinguishing real barcodes from errors. A general practice has been to collect similar barcodes together and put them into bins. But this risks lumping together species that shouldn't be lumped, such as pathogens and non-pathogens. "The Post Office knows my name and address, but imagine," said Borisy, "how it would respond to receiving letters (without addresses) for Borisi, Barisy, Borisey or Borisky. Are these misspellings or real differences? That's a big problem facing the barcoders."

A new high-resolution method termed oligotyping overcomes this problem by evaluating individual positions in the barcode using Shannon entropy to identify the most information rich nucleotide positions, which then define oligotypes. The team has applied this method to comprehensively analyze the oral microbiome.

Source: EurekaAlert!

Natick, MA – June 13, 2014 — Convergent Dental Inc., a privately held dental device and technology company, announced that Solea™ was chosen as the Gold winner in the 17th Annual Medical Design Excellence Awards competition’s “Dental Instruments, Equipment and Supplies” category. Winners were announced at the 2014 MDEA Ceremony held in conjunction with the MD&M East event at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. Winners were chosen based on five criteria: manufacturing and technological innovation; design and engineering advancements; patient benefits; business benefits; and overall improvement to healthcare industry.

Solea is a dental laser that is completely changing what it means to go to the dentist. Solea dentists report performing over 95 percent of their procedures without anesthesia and over 98 percent of those patients report feeling no pain. Furthermore, 100 percent of the patients preferred Solea over the drill.

Solea is the world’s first-ever computer-aided CO2 laser to be cleared by the FDA for both hard and soft tissue procedures. The dental laser’s unique 9.3 μm wavelength is fast, virtually noiseless and enables Solea dentists to provide their patients with a virtually soundless procedure that bears little resemblance to traditional dental experiences.

Convergent Dental has made laser dentistry accessible to dentists with no prior laser experience. Solea’s unique combination of computer guided control and innovative technology enables dentists to become proficient with Solea after only one day of training. This combination, along with the 9.3 μm laser wavelength, allows anesthesia-free, drill-free dentistry for the vast majority of dental procedures

“We are delighted that Solea’s unique combination of innovative technology and intuitive design is being honored by the Medical Design Excellence Awards,” said Convergent Dental CEO Michael Cataldo. “Receiving the Gold Award recognizes Convergent Dental’s success in creating a product based on clinical research and our exceptional product development team that has made this technology a reality. This is no small feat and is one of many reasons for Convergent Dental’s immediate impact on the dental industry.”

The MDEA is the medtech industry’s premier design competition committed to searching worldwide for the highest caliber finished medical devices, products, systems, or packaging available on the market. The awards program celebrates the achievements of the medical device manufacturers, their suppliers, and the many people behind the scenes—engineers, scientists, designers, and clinicians—who are responsible for the cutting-edge products that are saving lives; improving patient healthcare; and transforming medtech—one innovation at a time.

MIDVALE — Dentists now have a new revolutionary way to correct gum recession with no cutting or stitches, and virtually no downtime, according to a report in the Deseret (Utah) News. It’s called the Chao Pinhole Surgical Technique or Pinhole Gum Rejuvenation, and it could be used in 95 percent of the cases that typically would use painful tissue grafting.

Read the full article here.

Tulsa, Okla. (June 11, 2014) – DENTSPLY Tulsa Dental Specialties announced the winners of its GuttaCore^® University Challenge on June 10. The Challenge, which began on April 1, invited endodontic residency programs, residents, and alumni to share their best GuttaCore cases with DENTSPLY Tulsa for the chance to win cash prizes and gain national exposure.

“GuttaCore is the first obturator with a cross-linked gutta-percha core. Since its initial launch in 2010 we’ve seen wide spread acceptance and adoption of GuttaCore among general dentists and a growing number of specialists.

It’s exciting to see the doctor’s expression after filling with GuttaCore. They light up and smile when they see the complex apical anatomy open up and GuttaCore fill in areas where traditional cold gutta-percha stops,” said Scott Williams, Sr. Brand Manager for DENTSPLY Tulsa. 

Two endodontic residency programs were selected as winners, based on the largest percentage of residents who submitted a case. A cash prize of $10K was awarded to the first place program and a representative from the first place program is invited to join DENTSPLY Tulsa along with many prominent endodontic opinion leaders at the 2014 Endodontic Opinion Leaders Forum in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The second place program will receive a cash prize of $5K.

In addition to the residency program awards, residents were recognized for their individual submissions. Finalists were selected by a panel of judges and winners were determined via voting on DENTSPLY Tulsa Dental Specialties’ Facebook page. The first place resident received $3K and is invited to present the winning case at the 2014 Endodontic Opinion Leaders Forum. The remaining top five residents all received cash prizes of $1K. In addition, the top two alumni submissions also received $1K.

1^st Place Program - University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry

2^nd Place Program - University of Michigan School of Dentistry

Grand Prize Winner - Dr. Brian Royle

Top Four Residents - Dr. Sheena Howell; Dr. Michael Shapiro; Dr. Mahshid Majlessi; Dr. Diego Andrade

Top Two Alumni - Dr. Antonio Berto; Dr. Oscar Vega

“We wanted to share the GuttaCore experience with not only practicing dentists and endodontists, but endodontic residency programs and their residents. The GuttaCore University Challenge was a great and fun way to accomplish that. Hosting the challenge on social media just made sense. It was a perfect way for clinicians to post, share and comment on their cases in a way that respects and maintains patient confidentiality,” Williams said.

The winning entries as well as more information on GuttaCore, including a demonstration video library, can be viewed on DENTSPLY Tulsa Dental Specialties’ Facebook page.

Anesthesia Progress – Despite the dosage recommendations that come with all drug packaging, not all recommendations are safe for everyone. The same is true of drugs administered during dental procedures, particularly for sleep apnea patients.

As an editorial in the current issue of the journal Anesthesia Progress explains, dentists must consider a specific patient’s health before sedating the patient. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), particularly those who are morbidly obese, can become short of breath, fall unconscious, or even stop breathing if they are given the normal doses of a sedative before dental surgery.

While they sleep, patients suffering from OSA can cycle through periods when they don’t breathe in enough oxygen and retain too much carbon dioxide. When the levels become life threatening, a primitive instinct kicks in and the patient awakens briefly, takes several breaths, and then falls back asleep. But sedatives can override this arousal impulse. OSA patients who don’t wake up to open their airway and breathe can die, either in the dentist’s chair or after returning home if a sufficient amount of the drug is still in their system.

It is important but difficult to recognize who is likely to suffer from OSA. More than 18 million Americans are affected by the disorder, according to the National Sleep Foundation. However, researchers have found that relatively few patients are diagnosed by primary-care doctors and tested in a sleep study laboratory. For undiagnosed patients, dentists can complete a questionnaire that considers the likelihood of OSA based on a patient’s gender, age, body mass index, and several sleep-related factors.

The patients with the most severe OSA are at the greatest risk. Patients known to have the condition are typically graded by the Apnea-Hypopnea Index. Those suspected by the dental surgeon of having OSA can be considered high or low risk depending on their questionnaire results. A thorough medical history and evaluation are necessary, perhaps with the assistance of the patient’s physician and any other medical providers.

It can be risky to sedate any OSA patient. These patients, as well as those who are elderly, debilitated, or severely affected by disease, should be given sedatives with extreme caution.

Full text of the article “Editorial: When can a normal dose be an overdose? Who is at risk?”Anesthesia Progress, Vol. 61, No. 2, 2014, is now available at https://anesthesiaprogress.org/doi/full/10.2344/0003-3006-61.2.45.

Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) received the 5th worldwide Tree of Peace in honor of Dr. Walter C. Guralnick, Professor Emeritus of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, at an official installation on the School’s campus on Monday, June 16, 2014. This bronze sculpture symbolizes the pioneering partnership of medicine, dentistry, and education, as well as the enduring desire to achieve peace within the global community.

The Tree of Peace at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, created by well-known French sculptor, painter and UNESCO Artist for Peace Hedva Ser, joins others installed, including the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine and Al-Quds University in Israel, A.T. Still University – Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Mesa, Arizona and Temple University Kornberg School of Dentistry in Philadelphia, PA.

“The sculpture not only honors Drs. Guralnick and Donoff for their service to the profession and to creating peace through oral health,” said Nancy L. Jones, Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations, “it also commemorates the School’s student and faculty involvement in global programs designed to create collaboration and partnerships with schools around the world.”

The Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity and Dr. Allen Finkelstein, CEO of Bedford HealthCare Solutions spearheaded the effort to bring a Tree of Peace to HSDM to honor Dr. Guralnick, who participated for decades in global dental health efforts, including many years serving with Project HOPE in China. The Tree also honors the global oral health work of a mentee of Dr. Guralnick, Dr. Bruce Donoff, Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, who has been involved in the Bridge to Peace Program for 10 years as well as the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders since its inception in 2011.

“It isn’t just the honor, it’s the privilege of having my name connected to the movement for peace,” said Dr. Guralnick, while also reflecting on the contributions to peace made by Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

The gift to the Harvard School of Dental Medicine was made possible by a group of private donors including Henry Schein, Inc., the world’s largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental, animal health and medical practitioners.  Mr. Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Henry Schein, Inc., spoke about the importance of the public-private partnerships with institutions of higher education.  Several Deans of other dental schools were represented, including Dr. Musa Bajali, Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, Al-Quds University (Israel), Dr. Jack Dillenberg, Dean, Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (Mesa, AZ), Dr. Walter Cohen, Former Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) and Dr. Adam Stabholz, Former Dean, Hadassah School of Dental Medicine (Israel).

“The Tree of Peace represents optimism; optimism that the world can be a better place,” said Dr. Donoff.

Source: Harvard School of Dental Medicine

A new study suggests that drinking black coffee may also help people maintain a healthy set of teeth. For the study "Antibacterial effect of coffee: calcium concentration in a culture containing teeth/biofilm exposed to Coffea Canephora aqueous extract," which was published in Letters in Applied Microbiology June 7, researchers from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil found that coffee that contains high amounts of caffeine can destroy bacteria that cause dental plaques.

"Dental plaque is a classic complex biofilm and it's the main culprit in tooth decay and gum disease," said study researcher Andrea Antonio, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Unfortunately, coffee drinkers may not be able to enjoy the dental health benefit of coffee if they add sugar, milk, or cream because these will give teeth the opposite effect. Coffee should be black, strong, and unsweetened in order to have a positive effect on oral health.

For their study, Antonio and colleagues used bacteria in the saliva to cultivate biofilms in fragments of milk teeth that were donated by children. They then treated the teeth daily with an extract of the coffea canephora. Also known as Robusta coffee, this particular variety of coffee, which makes up about 30% of the coffee produced worldwide, is mostly grown in Vietnam, Brazil, and Africa. Earlier studies showed that Robusta coffee contains high amounts of polyphenols, compounds that are known to prevent and treat oral diseases.

The researchers observed that the fragments that were treated with Robusta coffee extract appeared to have been lysed, a process wherein the polyphenols destroy the bacteria on the teeth by bursting them open. After a week, the researchers also observed that the teeth that were exposed to coffee extracts appeared to be in better condition compared with those that were treated only with filtered water.

Despite the study finding association between strong coffee and dental health, Antonio warned against drinking too much coffee. Although coffee can help destroy plaque-causing bacteria, she said that excessive coffee consumption may also cause staining and the coffee's acidity may negative impact the tooth enamel.

Other food products that are known to have a positive effect on dental health include cheese and yoghurt because of their calcium content, as well as green tea, grapes and coffee because of their antibacterial properties.

OXNARD, Calif., June 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Well-known dentists, hygienists, and dental assistants in the United States have come together, with support from DUX Dental, to form a new coalition called Support Clean Dentistry. The coalition's goal is to promote infection control and prevention in the dental environment, make the concept of infection control more understandable for patients, and encourage communication between dental patients and professionals. Support Clean Dentistry recently introduced its first social media campaign with the release of three humorous web videos created to generate awareness and get dental professionals and patients talking to each other. The videos are available on www.SupportCleanDentistry.com and the coalition's social media sites Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

"During the last year 'dirty dentists' have been in the news more and more – when in fact these cases are rare exceptions to the care most professionals deliver. The advisory board members came together with the support of DUX Dental to think of ways we could get patients and dental professionals talking about infection control and keeping it clean at the dentist office," said Dr. Sheri B. Doniger, Support Clean Dentistry advisory board member. "The outcome was relatable, shareable, funny videos that we hope will be a conversation starter between patients and their dental care providers."

The "Cold-Hearted Bib Chain" campaign is a multi-faceted social media campaign that includes three web videos, animated gifs and other visuals optimized for online sharing. In a funny and exaggerated way, the video series portrays interactions between patients and a hygienist as the hygienist tries to attach a dental napkin around the patient's neck using a traditional bib chain. Each character, played by improvisational comedians, highlights emotions commonly seen among dental patients and the somewhat challenging situations dental professionals have to handle on a daily basis. The reactions range from sheer fear, to relentless squirming, to the sharing of too much information.

"The message of the video is to encourage patients to ask their dentist for a disposable bib clip to avoid the cross contamination of germs," says advisory board member Noel Kelsch, RDHAP. "But the point is that the patient can, and should, ask the dentist or hygienist about anything that concerns them. Whether you want to request they change gloves after touching a counter or to ask about how something was cleaned, the patient should feel empowered to talk about it."

Support Clean Dentistry is currently made up of five advisory board members: Shannon Pace Brinker, CDA, Sheri B. Doniger, DDS, Noel Brandon Kelsch, RDHAP, Frank J. Milnar, DDS, AAACD, and Kara Vavrosky, RDH. The mission of the coalition is to:

- translate dental care standards into easy to understand information for patients.

- teach patients about infection control standards and what to expect during a dental visit.

- empower dental patients to communicate with their dental care professional and express their expectations about their dental visit.

- encourage dental professionals to outline and explain the infection prevention and control practices they use and invite the patient to ask questions and participate in the process.

"Infection control" practices are the protocols medical professionals undertake to prevent potential infection and control of infection in the rare cases when it arises. Infection control includes procedures such as washing hands, wearing gloves, using disposable supplies and disinfecting reusable ones properly.

About Support Clean Dentistry  

Support Clean Dentistry is a coalition of dentists and hygienists who have a common interest in promoting infection control and prevention in the dental environment and to encourage communication between dental patients and professionals. Support Clean Dentistry provides public education opportunities, best practice sharing and up-to-date information to inform the public and help dental professionals continually provide excellent patient care. DUX Dental currently supports the coalition's operational costs yet all advisory board members volunteer their time. For more information visit https://www.SupportCleanDentistry.com.