The Morning Drill: April 4, 2012

Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures

Good Wednesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® Unveils Mobile Dental Van to Benefit Florida Children

Today, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® oral health education program held a special event at the Fienberg Fisher School in Miami Beach to dedicate one of its mobile dental vans to provide free dental screenings, oral health education and treatment referrals to children in need throughout Florida.

Against a backdrop of music and costumed characters, more than 400 elementary school students joined former Miami Dolphin Jason Taylor to celebrate the unveiling of Colgate’s mobile dental van for the state of Florida. As part of the festivities, students on-site received free dental screenings aboard the van and participated in a mass “brush-a-thon” led by Taylor. Mayor Matti Herrera Bower was also in attendance alongside civic leaders, members of the dental profession and the Fienberg Fisher cheering squad to help promote healthy habits among the children.

“For more than 20 years, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® has focused on improving children’s oral health across the country,” explained Dr. Marsha Butler, Vice President, Global Oral Care and Professional Relations, Colgate-Palmolive. “With staggering cavity rates and increased school absences, we recognized Florida as an area where we could make a big difference. With support from our professional and community partners, we are confident that we can provide a valuable service in Florida by providing free education materials and dental screenings to children in need.”

Dental care is the single greatest unmet need for health services among U.S. children. According to the Pew Charitable Trust 2011 report “The State of Children’s Dental Health: Making Coverage Matter”, the state of Florida performed the worst with regard to ensuring low-income children’s access to care; receiving a grade of “F” for the second consecutive year.

Implantology group issues CBCT use guidelines

All cone-beam CT (CBCT) examinations in implant dentistry should be justified on an individualized needs basis, and the benefits must outweigh the risks, according to a consensus report issued by the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI) in the April issue of Implant Dentistry.

The ICOI supported the development of this report to provide scientifically based guidance to clinicians regarding proper use of CBCT in implant dentistry (ID, 2012, Vol. 21:2, pp. 78-86). For the report, ICOI members conducted a PubMed search that included studies published between January 1, 2000, and July 31, 2011. They also gave oral presentations on the top at a 2011 meeting of the ICOI in Seoul, South Korea.

They found that the literature supports the use of CBCT in dental implant treatment planning, particularly in regards to linear measurements, 3D evaluation of alveolar ridge topography, proximity to vital anatomical structures, and fabrication of surgical guides.

Obesity rate may be worse than we think

Doctors and health officials have relied for decades on body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height to weight, to categorize people as overweight and obese.

A new study, however, suggests the use of BMI may be leading us to underestimate the already sky-high obesity rate.

BMI, the researchers say, is an overly simplistic measure that often misrepresents physical fitness and overall health, especially among older women. Nearly 4 in 10 adults whose BMI places them in the overweight category would be considered obese if their body fat percentage were taken into account, according to the study.

"Some people call it the 'baloney mass index,'" says lead author Eric Braverman, M.D., president of the Path Foundation, a nonprofit organization in New York City dedicated to brain research.

Bodybuilders can be classified as obese based on their BMI, he says, while "a 55-year-old woman who looks great in a dress could have very little muscle and mostly body fat, and a whole lot of health risks because of that -- but still have a normal BMI."

Based on their findings, Braverman and his coauthor, New York State Commissioner of Health Nirav Shah, M.D., say the BMI threshold for obesity, which now stands at 30, should be lowered to 24 for women and 28 for men.

By that standard, a 5-foot 6-inch woman and a 5-foot 11-inch man would be considered obese at about 150 and 200 pounds, respectively.

62% of Men and 37% of Women Over the Age of 65 Are Sexually Active, Spanish Study Shows

A study based on the National Health and Sexuality Survey, involving nearly 2000 people, describes the sexual practices of senior citizens in Spain. The most common are kisses, caresses and vaginal penetration. The main causes of sexual inactivity are physical illness and widowerhood.

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine analyses the factors that influence sexual activity amongst elderly people in Spain.

"This research lets us know the reality of a social phenomenon which is not tackled enough in Spain: sexuality and the elderly," Domingo Palacios, a researcher at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid and main author of this study, explained.

The results, based on the National Health and Sexuality Survey, in which 1,939 heterosexual elderly people participated in 2009, show that 62.3% of men and 37.4% of women are sexually active. The most common practices are kisses, caressing and vaginal penetration. On the other hand, the least practised are masturbation and oral sex.

Furthermore, there are other factors that limit sexual activity in both sexes: being older than 75, not having a partner, having a low level of education, a poor perception of their own health and sexuality, suffering from two or more chronic illnesses and taking two or more types of medication.

This is not the first time that sexual health amongst the elderly has been measured. In 2006, a study published during the XXVI Spanish Family and Community Medicine Society (SEMFYC) Conference showed that 60% of people over the age of 65 said they had sex on average four times a month.

In that project, which was carried out with over 100 people by family doctors in Catalonia, the majority said that although their sexual intercourse had changed as a result of age, they were not "less satisfying."

Furthermore, new data backs up a survey carried out in the USA and published in New England Journal of Medicine in 2008, in which 73% of Americans between 57 and 64 years of age had sex. The number dropped to 53% for those aged between 65 and 75, and dropped to 26% for those aged 85.

Enjoy your morning!