Hatfield, PA, May 14, 2015, i-CAT, a brand of the KaVo Kerr Group, is pleased to release its new and enhanced Tx STUDIO 5.4 treatment planning software at the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) Annual Session, San Francisco, CA. Fully integrated and exclusively for the award-winning family of i-CAT cone beam 3D imaging products, Tx STUDIO delivers a host of new and powerful treatment tools for dentists and specialists working with implants, airway, TMD, orthodontics, and surgical procedures.

In addition to its already existing capabilities for accurate implant planning and extraordinary restorative planning capabilities, Tx STUDIO 5.4 also offers new and improved tools. Useful for treatment planning and patient communication, these new features include an enhanced abutment design that allows the crown to be placed onto the abutment and prepped teeth, as well as simulation of pontics and bridges.

For airway analysis, more comprehensive and exclusive tools allow for 2D analysis of the airway with quantitative information on the anterior posterior distance and left and right distance. The airway can now be created and visualized in the variable quadrant. Changes in the parameters and area of the cross-sectional area along the airway are displayed graphically. Other helpful tools now available with Tx STUDIO 5.4 offer the opportunity to:

• Simulate a sinus bone graft in two clicks while gaining the approximate graft volume.

• Create bitewing radiographs from 3D data and evaluate those bitewings in all three dimensions.

• Replicate jaw articulation as well as offer control of the translation and rotation.

• Provide 3D analysis using orthognathic advanced cuts and movement that also show tissue change in profile.

“At i-CAT, we continually strive to create innovations to our products and software,” says Yena Chokshi, Product Manager for i-CAT. “The launch of Tx STUDIO 5.4 adds even more efficient planning and treatment tools to our already award-winning 3D imaging modality. As dentistry continues to evolve and offers more options to patients, these new tools show that we listen to our customers and respond to their increasing imaging needs.”

Tx STUDIO treatment software is included with new i-CAT cone beam 3D scanners, giving general dentists and specialists the tools to place and restore implants, perform oral surgery, periodontics, prosthodontics, orthodontics, utilize CAD/CAM applications, and analyze TMJ and airway with greater confidence and lower radiation options.

Indications for Use: www.i-cat.com/ifu

About i-CAT

Serving the dental industry since 1992, i-CAT is at the global forefront in the development and manufacturing of the computer-controlled dental and maxillofacial radiography products, and internationally recognized by highly regarded dentists and radiologists as one of the most innovative companies in dental imaging. i-CAT systems offers clinicians enhanced features for highly effective treatment planning and surgical predictability. i-CAT is exclusively distributed by Henry Schein Dental. To learn more, visit www.i-cat.com.

i-CAT is a member of the KaVo Kerr Group. KaVo Kerr Group is a global portfolio of leading dental brands that share common values of Trust, Experience, Choices, Quality and Smart Innovation. Brands include KaVo, Kerr, Kerr Total Care, Pentron, Axis|Sybron Endo, Orascoptic, Pelton & Crane, Marus, Gendex, DEXIS, Instrumentarium, SOREDEX, i-CAT, NOMAD, Implant Direct and Ormco. With over 500 years of combined experience and proven solutions, KaVo Kerr Group uniquely serves 99% of all dental practices. Visit www.kavokerrgroup.com for more information.

Clinical minimally invasive treatments require the elimination of dental caries-infected tissues in order to stop the progression of bacteria to the pulpal chamber and maximize the reparative potential of the remaining partially demineralized tissues.

In order to encourage the remineralization of the remaining partially demineralized dental tissues after caries removal, glass-ionomer cements are currently used to favor the diffusion of the specific ions into mineral-depleted dentin. Nevertheless, these cements have no therapeutic ability to bio-remineralize the partially demineralized caries-affected dentine, accurately. It means that glass-ionomer cements, along with most of the restorative materials currently used in minimally invasive dentistry, do not induce nucleation of new hydroxyapatite crystals within the demineralized dentine collagen at intra-fibrillar level.

Salvatore Sauro, Professor of Dental Biomaterials and Minimally Invasive Dentistry at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, has led a research project which focused first on the use of phosphoproteins' biomimetic analogues in combination with experimental bioactive resin-based dental adhesives to remineralize the mineral-depleted dentin at the bonding interface of teeth filled with common restorative dental composites. The biomimetic analogues used in this study permitted the remineralization of collagen fibrils through precipitation of hydroxyapatite at intra-fibrillar level, so that the biomechanical properties of the demineralized dentin, such as the elastic modulus and hardness, were completely recovered. The results of this recent study have been published in Dental Materials.

According to professor Sauro, "The most important problem related to dental fillings in demineralized dental tissues, such as caries-affected dentine, is the lack of therapeutic bio-remineralization which can extend the durability of the resin-dentine bonding interface created with dental adhesives and resin composites."

Biomimetic Remineralization

Professor Sauro and collaborators have also shown that by using analogues of phosphoproteins in combination with bioactive adhesive resin-based materials doped with calcium and phosphates, it is possible to improve the longevity of the adhesion of dental composite restorations to dental tissues due to the biomimetic remineralization of mineral-depleted dentine at the bonding interface.

According to Salvatore Sauro, this study has demonstrated that the use of resin- adhesive doped with bioactive micro-fillers applied onto demineralized dentine pre-treated using biomimetic analogues of the phosphoproteins, such as polyaspartic acid (PLA) or sodium trimetaphosphate (TMP) represents an efficient and innovative therapeutic strategy to trigger biomimetic remineralization processes at the bonding area between dentine and restorative materials. This result is a further step to the prolific research activity of Professor Sauro, who is currently focusing the energy of his entire group of research on the development of innovative bioactive and biomimetic restorative materials for therapeutic and aesthetic restorations of teeth affected by large caries lesions.

Source: Science Daily

Panthera Dental announced the launch of 4 new products at the grand-opening celebration for its new US office in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Canadian company’s first American location. The event was at Vizstara Professional’s facility in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with both dentists and technicians in attendance.

“Today, everything will change,” said Panthera President and Cofounder Gabriel Robichaud. Panthera is hiring salespeople across the country as part of a US push.

At the grand opening event, T&S Laboratory CEO Sonnie Bocala and Michael Gelb, DDS, MS, made presentations about the Panthera Anti-Snoring Device.  Gelb called the device “transformative.”

Then, Cofounder Bernard Robichaud introduced the new products:

·      A chip in the anti-snoring device that will track usage, allowing employers to prove to insurance providers that employees are being treated for sleep apnea.

·      A new pink version of the popular REBourke bar called the REBourke Pink, with $100 of the proceeds from each bar donated to breast cancer-awareness organizations. 

·      Milled PEEK bars that are flexible, wear resistant, and 3 times lighter than titanium.

·      A new implant bar attachment called the Dolder ++.

For more information, visit pantheradental.com. 

CHICAGO, May 22, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children (HSHC), the Foundation of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), announced today from its AAPD 2015 meeting in Seattle that it will partner with 22 organizations this year and provide an unprecedented $1.1 million grant dollars for underserved children to have a Dental Home. Since 2010, HSHC has donated more than $3 million in support of access to care initiatives helping more than 290,000 children in 26 states.

"We are pleased to award another $1 million-plus in new HSHC grants this year," said HSHC President Dr. Beverly Largent. "These deserving organizations are doing great things for kids in their communities and HSHC is proud to support them."

Congratulations to the HSHC's 2015 Grantees listed below:

• Eastman Institute for Oral Health University of Rochester: Rochester, N.Y. 

• Community Health Centers of Burlington: Burlington, Vt.

• The Floating Hospital: Long Island, N.Y. 

• SmileHealthy: Champaign, Ill.

• The Dental Foundation of Oregon: Wilsonville, Ore.

• Children's Hospital Colorado: Aurora, Colo.

• First Choice Health Centers, Inc.: East Hartford, Conn.

• Kids Smiles: Philadelphia, Pa.

• Cincinnati Health Department: Cincinnati, Ohio.

• Petaluma Health Center: Petaluma, Calif.

• Children's Dental Services: Minneapolis, Minn.

• KidSMILES Pediatric Dental Clinic: Dublin, Ohio.

• Yale New Haven Hospital Department of Pediatric Dentistry: New Haven, Conn.

• Hennepin Health Foundation: Minneapolis, Minn.

• Caridad Center, Inc.: Boynton Beach, Fla.

• Family Healthcare: Fargo, N.D.

• CASS Community Health Foundation: Kansas City, Mo.

• Charles Henderson Child Health Center: Troy, Ala.

• St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation: Billings, Mont.

• Neighborcare Health: Seattle, Wash.

• University of Washington: The Center for Pediatric Dentistry: Seattle, Wash.
  

  *HSHC Dental Home Day Site

In addition, HSHC has identified two outstanding organizations to be awarded Multi-Year HSHC Grants of $375,000 over five years:

• Kids' Community Dental Clinic: Burbank, Calif.

• Waukesha County Community Dental Clinic: Waukesha, Wis.

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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine have unraveled one of the mysteries of how a small group of immune cells work, according to Science Daily: That some inflammation-fighting immune cells may actually convert into cells that trigger disease.

Their findings, recently reported in the journal Pathogens, could lead to advances in fighting diseases, said the project's lead researcher Pushpa Pandiyan, an assistant professor at the dental school.

To read the full Science Daily article, click here.

Spokane, WA – The management and staff at the Aurum Group announced that Dr. Brent Davis of Cranbrook, British Columnbia, has won the grand prize in the “Trip to the Summit” Draw at the recent Pacific Dental Conference Meeting in Vancouver.

Davis received a package of registration fees and accommodations for two at The Dental Technology and Business Growth Summit 2015, which will be held October 1-3 at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta.

The summitt will feature Chris Hadfield (Astronaut and First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station) and Arlene Dickinson (CEO of Venture Communications and YOUINC.COM and "Dragon" on TV’s Dragons’ Den) as keynote speakers. They will be joined by a diverse group of opinion leaders on applied dental technology and the art and discipline of entrepreneurism.

WASHINGTON — States are driving up health care costs for families and taxpayers by not doing enough to use dental sealants, according to States Stalled on Dental Sealant Programs, a new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, reveals that most states are failing to enact policies that ensure low-income children receive dental sealants—clear plastic coatings applied to the chewing surfaces of molars that are a proven strategy for preventing tooth decay. Applying a sealant is one-third of the cost of filling a cavity. 

The report grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia on their efforts to prevent decay by improving access to sealants for low-income children, and updates Pew’s 2013 research on sealant programs. In the years since the 2013 report, only 12 states improved their grades, while seven states lost ground; most fail to reach even half of eight-year-olds with this preventive service. The majority of states continue to lack sealant programs in most of their “high-need” schools, which most states define as where at least half of the students participate in the National School Lunch Program.

Pew’s report finds that:

• Only five states earned an A or A- for their sealant performance, of which just three (Maine, New Hampshire, and Oregon) received the maximum possible points. 

• Nine states earned a B or B-. Of these states, five continue to reach fewer than half of high-need schools with their sealant programs, and four failed to provide at least half of their 8-year-olds with sealants. 

• Nineteen states received a C or C-. 

• Fifteen states earned a D or D-. 

• Three states (New Jersey, Hawaii and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia earned F’s, the same grade they received in 2013.

Sealants are typically first applied to children’s molars shortly after permanent teeth begin to appear, usually by age eight. Molars are the most cavity-prone teeth, and sealants act as a barrier against decay-causing bacteria. Research shows that providing sealants through school-based programs is a cost-effective way to reach low-income children, who are at greater risk for cavities. Pew’s report offers profiles of the progress and challenges in two states—Ohio and Washington—that sought to eliminate the racial and income disparities among children receiving sealants in school-based programs..

School sealant programs have been found to reduce the incidence of tooth decay by an average of 60 percent, yet Pew’s report reveals that most states are underperforming on this critical opportunity to improve children’s health. Left untreated, dental disease can lead to emergency room visits, hospitalization, and even death. Despite the compelling evidence on cost efficiency and prevention effectiveness, a survey conducted between 2011 and 2012 found that only four out of ten U.S. children aged six to 19 had even one sealant.

"It's a cost-effective, evidence-based prevention program that every state should make a priority," said Jane Koppelman, research director for children’s dental policy at the Pew Charitable Trusts. "But unfortunately, they are not doing so. The results, in addition to higher health care costs, are needless pain and infection among children who do not receive care."

This report focuses solely on the performance of sealant programs and the degree to which states can improve access to this treatment for at-risk children. However, many other factors affect a state’s overall performance on oral health, such as health insurance coverage, the availability of Medicaid providers, and access to fluoridated water. Therefore, even states that received high grades on sealants may have room for improvement in other areas. 

In exactly four weeks, the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) will kickoff its Center for Lifelong Learning at the 92nd Annual Session (CLL/AS) in Nashville, Tenn. (#ADHANashville)! More than 2,000 dental hygiene professionals will enjoy a wide array of exciting events, networking opportunities, continuing education courses and fun in the Music City June 17-23, 2015! At the 2015 Exhibits, there will be more than 100 companies in attendance, giving dental hygienists the chance to stock up on items for their dental office or oral health program while supporting the ADHA. The exhibit hall will be open on Friday, June 19, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The first 200 attendees to enter the exhibit floor on Friday morning will receive a free gift! In addition, all exhibit hall attendees can receive a free lunch courtesy of the Wrigley Oral Healthcare Program by picking up a $15 food voucher each day from the Wrigley Booth (number 410) to be used in the Exhibit Hall Restaurant. New for this year’s event is the ADHA/Henry Schein Innovation Center, which features new equipment, products and technologies! Don’t forget to register in advance for ADHA’s Institute for Oral Health (IOH) online Silent Auction, where interested participants can bid online for the items available at the IOH Benefit/President’s Reception on Friday, June 19. Register today and support the ADHA’s foundation! Have you registered for 2015 CLL/AS?

NEW YORK – May 20, 2015 – As students across North America prepare for a busy summer, Projects Abroad is pleased to report that internship programs in the field of Medicine & Healthcare are becoming increasingly popular, especially among pre-med and high school students. This year, hundreds of students are choosing to spend their summer break abroad as interns, working toward adding valuable experience to their resumes and broadening their clinical, procedural, and cultural skills. For pre-med and high school students, the experience of interning in medical facilities abroad is invaluable and helps gives them the confidence to pursue a career in medicine. Not only do they have the opportunity to learn new methods of diagnosis and treatment from local medical professionals, they get to observe illnesses and conditions not seen in North America. They also experience an environment where doctors and nurses work with limited resources and equipment. "All in all, I had many life changing experiences in the hospital and expanded upon my current medical knowledge, learning things that I can bring back to America and help me tremendously. To be able to have had these experiences before I even graduate college is amazing and I am certain that I want to pursue a career in medicine," shares Jenna C, a pre-med student and former intern at a hospital in the Philippines. Rebecca K, a high school senior who volunteered on a summer program in Argentina, says "I learned more about medicine in the two weeks I lived in Cordoba than I could have ever imagined. I saw many surgeries including brain surgery, tumor removal, and even part of a long open heart surgery. The surgeons almost always offered to explain what they were doing and encouraged all of the students to have a closer look. It was amazing to be so close to such intricate procedures." The organization offers a variety of Medicine & Healthcare programs for interns in the fields of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Midwifery, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Nutrition, and Public Health, in more than 25 destinations across the developing world. These internships are built to suit varying levels of experience and interns can choose to join at any time, from one to four weeks or more. Projects Abroad also has an extensive range of worthwhile medical programs specifically designed for high school students. For more information about Medicine & Healthcare internships with Projects Abroad, please visit www.projects-abroad.org/volunteer-projects/medicine-and-healthcare. For information about medical programs for high school students, visit www.projects-abroad.org/volunteer-projects/high-school-specials/medicine-and-healthcare.

The International Association of Dental Students (IADS), FDI World Dental Federation, and Young Dentists Worldwide are organizing the IADS Annual Congress in Bangkok, Thailand this September. Students from around the world will meet with dentists, creating new bonds and experiences.

The Pre-Congress will take place September 19-20. The Congress will be September 22-26, and the Post-Congress will be September 26-28.

The event will feature various clinical/research activities, a worldwide dental student parliament, FDI speaker sessions, and exhibitions.

Registration will open soon. For more information and updates, visit www.iadsthailand.wix.com/iads2.