If you snore at night or suffer from symptoms like irritability, difficulty concentrating, morning headaches, or daytime drowsiness, you may have sleep apnea.
An under-diagnosed condition, sleep apnea can disrupt your (and your partner’s) sleep and have a detrimental effect on your overall health, putting you at risk for a wide spectrum of serious conditions ranging from heart attack to stroke, high blood pressure, heartburn, depression, and even memory loss.
Researchers suspect antimicrobial molecules contained within green tea helps preserve teeth (as long as you don’t add sugar).
A cup of green tea a day may keep the dentist away.
That’s the finding of new research published in Preventive Medicine. The findings show that drinking at least one cup of green tea a day increases the odds of keeping your teeth as you age.
The researchers suspect that antimicrobial molecules called catechins present in green tea and in lesser amounts in oolong tea provide the benefit. But be careful if you like your tea with sugar: sweetener may negate the effect, the team found.
“Green tea may have bacteriocidal effects, which would affect teeth, but only if you drink it without sugar,” said Alfredo Morabia, of Columbia University in New York and editor of Preventive Medicine, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new research.
“They also reported that drinking sweet coffee was actually deleterious,” he added. “Coffee alone had no problem, but sweet coffee would actually make you lose your teeth.”
Yasushi Koyama of the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and colleagues looked at more than 25,000 Japanese men and women between age 40 and 64 in making the determination.
They found that men who drank at least one cup of tea a day were 19 percent less likely to have fewer than 20 teeth (a full set including wisdom teeth is 32) than those who did not drink green tea. Tea-drinking women had 13 percent lower odds.
One possible explanation for the benefits of tea drinking is that warm drinks wash out your mouth. But coffee, which also provides a mouth rinse, had no benefit, suggesting something else is going on.
Catechins have been shown to kill mouth bacteria associated with tooth decay and gum disease, so the researchers suspect this is what gives green tea its dental benefits.
“Previous research has indicated that regular consumption of green tea may lead to a lower instance of periodontal disease, a leading cause of tooth loss in adults,” said Samuel Low of the University of Florida College of Dentistry and President of the American Academy of Periodontology in a statement to Discovery News.
Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is part of maintaining a healthy body, Low said. “That is why it is so important to find simple ways to boost periodontal health, such as regularly drinking green tea — something already known to possess certain health-related benefits.”
By, Jessica Marshall at dentist.net
People who sleep either more or fewer than seven hours a day, including naps, have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study.
Sleeping fewer than five hours a day more than doubles your risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke. And sleeping more than seven hours also increases your risk of cardiovascular disease; more than nine hours of sleep results in a 50 percent increase in risk.
The Daily Telegraph reports:
“The most at-risk group was adults under 60 years of age who slept five hours or fewer a night. They increased their risk of developing cardiovascular disease more than threefold … Women who skimped on sleep … were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease.”
In related news, researchers have also found that sleeping in after a few days of missed sleep can help restore you after missed sleep, nearly erasing any lingering sense of fatigue and mental fuzziness.
How much recovery sleep you need to feel recharged depends on how much sleep you’ve lost.
In the study, volunteers deprived of about three hours of sleep a night for five nights felt nearly, but not quite, back to normal after ten hours of sleep.
To help you get the optimal amount of sleep each night, U.S. News & World Report suggests:
“… [T]ry removing all electronic media devices — BlackBerry, TV, computer — from your bedroom. These distractions … are a prime reason many of us turn out the lights an hour or two later than we originally intended.”
The following link is to a video from Health Day TV. It shows the results of a study following patients for 8 years and compares the rate of teeth brushing against the incidence of cardiac problems. Taking the time to brush has benefits beyond fresh breath.
Patients with chronic gum disease who quit smoking in addition to undergoing nonsurgical therapy not only demonstrated a lower abundance of harmful oral pathogens, but also an increase in health-associated bacteria. The researchers from The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio, and Newcastle University, United Kingdom report their findings in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
It is well established that oral bacteria play an important role in the origin of chronic gum disease and that smoking tobacco contributes to a pathogen rich environment. Although prior studies indicate that quitting smoking can alter the oral microbial community, it is unknown if pathogenic colonization can actually be reversed.
In order to determine the effect of quitting smoking on select oral bacteria researchers launched a long-term study, at the beginning of which, plaque samples were collected from 22 initial smokers. Twelve months following nonsurgical periodontal therapy and counseling samples were again taken from all 22 participants, however, 11 were quitters and 11 still smoked. Results showed decreased levels in various bacterial pathogens as well as an increase in health-associated species in those patients who no longer smoked.
“Following nonsurgical periodontal therapy and smoking cessation, the subgingival microbiome is recolonized by a greater number of health-associated species and there are a significantly lower prevalence and abundance of putative periodontal pathogens,” say the researchers. “These results indicate a critical role for smoking cessation counseling in periodontal therapy for smokers in order to effectively alter the subgingival microbiome.”
(S.L. Delima, R.K. McBride, P.M. Preshaw, P.A. Heasman, P.S. Kumar. 2010. Response of subgingival bacteria to smoking cessation. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 48. 7: 2344-2349.)
Did you know that some of the most common dental injuries seen in patients under the age of 18 are from contact sports? And adults should protect their teeth as well when participating in any sport where injury to your face may be a factor. Whether you, or your children, participate in rollerblading, soccer, or football, mouthguards help prevent these injuries. The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends mouthguards for any activity that could result in a blow to the face or mouth.
Made of easy-to-clean, flexible acrylic material, an athletic mouthguard covers teeth and protects faces, lips, gums, and jaws from injury. Various types of mouthguards exist, including store bought, mouth-fit, and custom-made mouthguards. All of these appliances will help you avoid facial injuries, but custom-made mouthguards are superior to the other options, because they fit better, allow you to speak easier, and don’t fall out. If you decide on a custom-made mouthguards, we will take molds of your teeth and send the impressions to a dental lab for fabrication. And we can make them in your team colors. Call us to find out more about how to prevent injuries to your mouth and teeth.
In our office we do not use amalgum fillings. We think there are more aesthetic materials available today. However, some of our patients do not want to keep amalgum fillings in their teeth. Dr. Hornstein removes the old fillings safely. We use lots of water and a high suction evacuation system. We isolate the affected tooth with a rubber or latex dam so the patient is minimally exposed to any residual materials when removing the filling. The patient may choose to breathe oxygen and eye protection is always used. Some of the local physicians who practice medicine utilizing traditional and complementary treatments refer their patients to our office when they suspect that mercury levels are having an adverse effect on their patient’s health. This link from Wikipedia has a balanced approach in its review of this controversial subject.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy
Please call our office if you have any questions about mercury fillings and their safe replacement with tooth colored materials.
Snoring…Sleep Apnea… High Blood Pressure…Heartburn…Stroke…Heart Attack…Death. There is a statistical corralation between sleep apnea and heart attack. A person has 7 times the normal risk for heart attack if they are overweight, 7.8 times higher with hypertension, 11 times higher with smoking and a 23.3 times higher chance of having a heart attack if you have sleep apnea. Apnea means “without breath”. If you do not breathe for a period of 10 seconds, this is defined as “apnea” or an apneic episode. If you average 5-15 of these episodes in an hour of sleep, you are diagnosed with “mild” sleep apnea. 16-30 episodes per hour is moderate sleep apnea and over 30 episodes is considered severe. The average age of death for a person that has untreated sleep apnea is 55. Think of all the famous people who died in their sleep. You do not have to snore to also have sleep apnea. Taking this simple test can help determine your risk for sleep apnea. If you score higher than 10, then call our office for a consultation. Your life may depend upon it.
Sitting and Reading ______
Watching television ______
For more information, visit https://www.cfad.net/sleep-apnea-treatment.html .
by PRWeb
“The action of sugarless gum and candy containing xylitol has been a happy surprise to the healthcare community,” said Dr Allan Melnick, a clinical dentist from Encino, CA, USA. “This therapeutic sweetener substantially reduces the bacteria streptococcus mutans in the mouth. It lowers oral acid levels, adjusts pH and reduces tooth plaque, resulting in less tooth decay and gum disease.”
Xylitol is a sugar alcohol found in plants such as berries, corn and plums. It also is produced in humans during normal metabolism. Dental effects include inhibiting decay-causing bacteria from multiplying in the mouth, research shows. These bacteria, which love to feed on sugar, produce sticky acids that adhere to teeth. The acids damage tooth enamel by dissolving calcium on the tooth’s surface. Frequent use of xylitol — whether in the form of gum, mints, toothpaste or oral wash — appears to break this cycle.
“A yearlong study in Finland showed an 85 percent reduction in caries rates for subjects who chewed gum containing 6.7 grams of xylitol each day,” said Dr Melnick. “The same reduced decay rate was found in subjects who followed strict diet guidelines and used xylitol as a sugar substitute. In other short-term Finnish studies at Turku University, dental plaque accumulation was reduced by about 50 percent in less than a week of xylitol use.”
Similar results were found in more recent studies in Russia, the United States, New Zealand, Thailand and Canada. A Danish researcher has even correlated xylitol use by mothers with decreased tooth decay in babies. Decay in small children can have a devastating effect on the development of their adult teeth and urgently needs to be prevented, say dental experts.
“A 40-month, multi-national chewing gum study published in the Journal of Dental Research showed decreased tooth decay for children chewing xylitol gum in comparison to those who chewed none or had gum sweetened with other substances,” said Dr Melnick. “In a follow-up study five years later by the University of Washington, xylitol subjects showed a 70 percent reduction in tooth decay – evidence of long-term benefits. That’s huge, especially for high-risk groups.”
The sweetener has been linked to tooth self-repair, reduction in bacterial levels, improved saliva levels in dry mouth patients and reduced ear infection cases in children, says Trisha O’Hehir of Arizona, a dental hygienist, educator and a well-known xylitol expert. She notes that there is no aftertaste and xylitol has only half the calories of sucrose. Xylitol also has a slower rate of absorption than sugar — 88 percent slower — which helps to keep blood sugar levels stable.
Additional research has shown that xylitol — like bacteria — has the ability to adhere to body tissues. In a controlled study, solutions of xylitol were able to reduce the presence of staph bacteria. Lab animals given xylitol also exhibited an increase in white blood cells, which are part of a body’s natural defense against bacterial infections.
Animal studies in Finland indicate xylitol in the diet promotes the intestinal absorption of calcium and has the potential to reduce or reverse bone loss in humans. Its use is being considered as a preventive measure to deal with osteoporosis, which affects more than 10 million people in the United States.
The U.S. Army promotes the use of this sweetener in its “Look for Xylitol First” initiative, and in the last two years dental associations in Wisconsin, Hawaii, California and Arizona have endorsed xylitol for its preventive benefits. Several other state dental associations are planning the same endorsement shortly.
“The average American consumes half a cup of sugar a day in some form or other. It’s having a devastating effect on our teeth and overall health,” said Dr Melnick. “So, it’s crucial that we make changes. While diet modification, brushing and dental office visits are obvious, something as simple as chewing xylitol gum a couple times a day can help dramatically. It tastes good, it’s something you can carry in your pocket, and you don’t have to make an appointment. I recommend it to all my patients.”
(Edited by Fred Michmershuizen, DTA)
The Scottish Health Survey ( which draws a nationally representative sample of the general population living in households in Scotland) had an objective to see if self reported tooth brushing behaviour is associated with cardiovascular disease and markers of inflammation.
The study concluded that poor oral hygiene is associated with higher levels of risk of cardiovascular disease and low grade inflammation, though the causal nature of the association is yet to be determined.
Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the possible link between dental disease, specifically periodontal disease, and cardiovascular disease. Inflammation plays an important role in causes of atherosclerosis, and markers of low grade inflammation have been consistently associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Consequently, contributing factors associated with inflammation and chronic infections, including oral infections such as periodontal disease, have been investigated to explain the relationship between dental disease and cardiovascular disease. Poor oral hygiene is the major cause of periodontal disease, a chronic infection of the tissue surrounding the teeth. It is one of the most common chronic infections and is associated with a moderate systemic inflammatory response. Systemic inflammation could represent the underlying mechanism that links oral health and cardiovascular disease. Thus, oral infections might add to the inflammatory burden of the individual and result in increased levels of cardiovascular risk. In this study, participants who brushed their teeth less often had a 70% increased risk of a cardiovascular disease event in fully adjusted models.
Infrequent tooth brushing is associated with cardiovascular disease, even after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic group, smoking, visits to dentist, BMI, family history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diagnosis of diabetes. These results largely confirm those of previous studies. The role of oral health in the etiology of cardiovascular disease has received considerable attention. Periodontal disease is a complex chronic inflammatory disease, resulting in a loss of connective tissue and bone support of the teeth. It is a major cause of tooth loss in adults aged over 40, and, according to the World Health Organization, affects people worldwide at prevalence rates of up to 10-20% for the most severe forms. Periodontal disease is highly prevalent, especially in late middle age when coronary artery disease is also most common, and it is caused mostly by poor oral hygiene.
Given the high prevalence of oral infections in the population, doctors should be alert to the possible oral source of an increased inflammatory burden. In addition, educating patients in improving personal oral hygiene is beneficial to their oral health regardless of the relation with systemic disease.
This study may be found in it’s entirety at http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c2451.full
