Wednesday, November 09, 2011

The Morning Drill: November 9, 2011

A collection of dentistry and health related links/comments for your day.
Kool Smiles is proud to announce that so far this year it has donated over $12.5 million in free dental services to underserved communities. In celebration, they are launching a new Facebook page. In addition to keeping the community engaged in its vision and efforts to increase accessible dental health nationwide, the page allows individuals to have an impact on the wellbeing of children in need. For every "Like" the Kool Smiles Facebook page receives, a toothbrush will be donated to an underserved child.
Quality dental care at a young age plays an important role in both the physical and psychological well-being of children and adults. Now, Kool Smiles is empowering every person who "likes" its efforts by donating a free toothbrush and is prepared to provide up to a million toothbrushes for a million healthy smiles.
Dr. Polly Buckey, DDS, MS, a board certified Pediatric Dentist who serves as a spokesperson for Kool Smiles, conveyed the company's motivation for its new social media outreach: "At Kool Smiles, we're glad to be able to provide an avenue for communication regarding the dental health of America's youth. We're also excited to provide Facebook users that support our vision with the opportunity to reach out to a child in need with a simple click of the mouse. The more people become aware of the oral health crisis facing the children in the United States, the closer Kool Smiles will grow to its goal of accessible dental care for every child."
The University of Central Florida has withdrawn its request to open a dental school in Lake Nona's emerging Medical City, the university announced Tuesday evening.
The proposal faced mounting criticism from leaders in the industry and members of the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state's 11 public universities.
UCF announced its decision only a day before a key committee was scheduled to vote on its proposal to open Florida's fourth dental school.
Just last week, the Florida Dental Association sent a letter to the Board of Governors saying the university had failed to show a need for another dental school and questioning its repeated assertions that the program would never need state funding.
UCF released a brief statement Tuesday but offered no details about what prompted the last-minute withdrawal or when college officials might bring the plan back for a review. UCF officials could not be reached for further comment.
"We have asked that the Board of Governors withdraw our proposal for consideration at this time," UCF spokesman Grant Heston said in the statement. "Although this innovative project does not require state appropriations, we are not moving forward at this time. We look forward to continuing to work on this project in the future."
It was still unclear late Tuesday how UCF's action would affect the Board of Governors' plan to review the dental school bid this week. A committee was scheduled to discuss two dental school plans today — one from UCF and a joint proposal from University of Florida and Florida A&M University.
The committee was slated to vote on the two plans and then forward a recommendation to the full board, which was expected to take a vote Thursday.
Board member Tico Perez, who once served on UCF's board of trustees, said UCF decided to postpone the plan so it would have more time to answer questions and address concerns raised by some board members.
"I just think this meeting wasn't going to work — the timing wasn't going to work," said Perez, who has been supportive of UCF's plan. "I think it was just prudent to answer the questions of individual board members and come back in a month or two."
The first time the board reviewed UCF's plan, it was rejected. In September, a committee directed UCF to consider teaming up with UF, home to a nationally recognized dental school in Gainesville, and to revamp its plan.
That revised plan, which was supposed to come back for a second review today, included an agreement with UF to provide consulting work.
Alan Haroian hopes to raise money with a series of photos of a family of robins in his back yard.
"I'm fortunate I have a tree nearby home," he said. "I trimmed back the branches so I would get a better shot of them nesting."
Haroian, 54, is a dentist and an amateur nature photographer. He put together a 2012 calendar of his own wildlife and nature photographs. He is selling the calendars for donations of between $15 and $20 apiece.
But he won't be making a profit.
"All of the proceeds go to Disabled American Veterans," he said. "I don't know if their efforts are appreciated enough by the entire population. The extraordinary sacrifice they've given their country sometimes gets forgotten."
Haroian was also a career Army officer, who served for 20 years, and had close family members in the military, making it more of a personal issue.
"My uncle was a disabled veteran from World War II," he said. "He was a B-17 bomber and was shot down, but survived. My heart goes out to these folks."
The calendar sits on the counter at Haroian's business, Hampstead Family Dental, but he said it doesn't promote his business.
But his patients did help him come up with the idea for it.
"My patients see my work hung around the office and always say, 'You've got to make a calendar,'" he said. "I thought even if I didn't sell a lot of prints, I would at least bring awareness to the issue."
An Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) vaccine in the early phases of development may prove able to prevent infectious mononucleosis and EBV-associated cancers, without necessarily preventing the EBV infection itself. The vaccine targets the EBV glycoprotein gp350, which is the most abundant glycoprotein on the virus and on virus-infected cells.
Success in the phase 2 gp350 vaccine trial has led to the recommendation that a phase 3 trial of the EBV vaccine be designed and conducted. Other vaccines are also under development to treat EBV-associated malignancies.
EBV infects more than 90% of the human population and is associated with several human cancers including Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Infections in early childhood often cause no disease symptoms, but people infected during adolescence or young adulthood may develop infectious mononucleosis, which is characterized by swollen lymph nodes, fever, and severe fatigue. EBV-associated lymphomas occur in 1% to 20% of recipients of bone marrow and organ transplants. Prevention of these diseases through EBV vaccination would have a substantial public health and economic effect.
Enjoy your morning!

No comments:

Post a Comment