The Morning Drill: November 18, 2011

While visiting a rural hospital in the Belgorod Region, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made Belgorod Region Governor Yevgeny Savchenko sit in a dentist's chair and told him he would work on his teeth himself if the equipment was not upgraded in the nearest future

Good Morning!

A collection of dentistry and health related links/comments for your day.

4-year-old Stockton boy dies during dental procedure in Oakland

A Stockton mother is demanding answers after her four-year-old son died during a dental procedure at Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland on Friday.

According to a recordnet.com article, Dominque Smith said she took her son Jermaine Harrison to the dentist to remove some rotten teeth and cap some others. But, something went horribly wrong when the dentist administered an oral anesthetic to calm the boy and reduce any pain from the procedure.

Doctors tried unsuccessfully to revive the boy for about 45 minutes, said his family.

Harrison was born with a hole in the wall separating the left and right ventricles of his heart. The condition required open-heart surgery about a year later, at which time surgeons installed a pacemaker.

Calif. dentists can now perform Botox

California dentists can now perform Botox and dermal filler procedures, the American Academy of Facial Esthetics announced.

The process began in earnest when Louis Malcmacher, DDS, president of the academy, presented to the Dental Board of California in August an overview of the use and integration of Botox and dermal fillers in dentistry. From there, the scope of dental practice in California as defined by the dental board's dental practice act was debated.

Oral bacteria linked with pneumonia risk

Oral microbiota could play a role in identifying patients at risk for healthcare-associated pneumonia, according to a study presented October 22 at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting in Boston.

"The bodies of healthy individuals are cohabited by an incredible number of bacteria, where bacterial cells outnumber human cells 10 to 1," said study author Samit Joshi, DO, MPH, from the department of internal medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, in an interview with DrBicuspid.com.

Scientists are now learning how different communities of bacteria reside in different parts of the body and how they can directly or indirectly influence states of health or disease, including pneumonia.

Lose the Fat and Improve the Gums, Dental Researchers Find

Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers found the human body is better at fighting gum disease when fat cells, which trigger inflammation, disappear.

Findings come from a pilot study of 31 obese people with gum disease. Half of the group with an average body mass index (BMI) of 39 had gastric bypass surgery and had fat cells from the abdomen removed. That half fared better than a control group of obese people with a BMI of 35 who also were treated for gum disease but did not have the gastric bypass surgery or fat removed.

What intrigued the researchers is that the majority of those who underwent surgery had a drop in their glucose levels after the procedure, a result that bodes well for overweight people predisposed to diabetes and insulin-related problems.

All study participants underwent nonsurgical periodontal treatments of scaling/root planing and oral hygiene instructions for home care. While both groups showed improvement, the surgery group did even better on the measures for periodontal attachment, bleeding, probing depths and plaque levels.

Enjoy your morning!