The Morning Drill: November 17, 2011

Good Morning!

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

Vladimir Putin Tries His Hand At Dentistry

Really?

Connecticut’s Teeth-Whitening Rules Challenged In Suit To Allow Non-Dentists To Provide Service

“A libertarian law firm has filed a civil rights lawsuit to block Connecticut health regulations that ban teeth whitening not supervised by a dentist. The Institute for Justice filed the lawsuit in federal court in Hartford Wednesday,” according to an AP report.

“The Arlington, Va., law firm says the state Dental Commission’s regulations promote a monopoly for dentists by banning certain teeth whitening at salons and shopping malls. A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health said officials have not read the lawsuit and would not comment. Regulations imposed in June cited inherent risks in teeth whitening and said whitening involves the practice of dentistry when it involves diagnosing causes of discoloration, customizing treatment and other work. The Institute for Justice says the regulations have put several practitioners out of business.”

New Mouthwash Targeting Harmful Bacteria May Render Tooth Decay a Thing of the Past

A new mouthwash developed by a microbiologist at the UCLA School of Dentistry is highly successful in targeting the harmful Streptococcus mutans bacteria that is the principal cause tooth decay and cavities.

In a recent clinical study, 12 subjects who rinsed just one time with the experimental mouthwash experienced a nearly complete elimination of the S. mutans bacteria over the entire four-day testing period. The findings from the small-scale study are published in the current edition of the international dental journal Caries Research.

Dental caries, commonly known as tooth decay or cavities, is one of the most common and costly infectious diseases in the United States, affecting more than 50 percent of children and the vast majority of adults aged 18 and older. Americans spend more than $70 billion each year on dental services, with the majority of that amount going toward the treatment of dental caries.

This new mouthwash is the product of nearly a decade of research conducted by Wenyuan Shi, chair of the oral biology section at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Shi developed a new antimicrobial technology called STAMP (specifically targeted anti-microbial peptides) with support from Colgate-Palmolive and from C3-Jian Inc., a company he founded around patent rights he developed at UCLA; the patents were exclusively licensed by UCLA to C3-Jian. The mouthwash uses a STAMP known as C16G2.

The Pill and Prostate Cancer: Is There a Link?

Countries where oral contraceptive use among women is high appear to have correspondingly higher rates of prostate cancer, according to a study published online November 14 in BMJ Open.

Several recent studies have suggested that estrogen exposure increases the risk for prostate cancer, David Margel, MD, from the Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.

This could be because the residue of estrogen ends up in the water supply and the food chain, he said.

"We believe that this is due to an environmental effect," Dr. Margel said. "These oral contraceptives contain a small amount of estrogenic compounds, which are not biodegradable and are excreted in the urine. Although each woman takes these compounds at very minimal doses, when millions of women take them, and for a long period of time, there may be some effect on the environment."

Together with coauthor Neil E. Fleshner, MD, head of the division of urology at the University of Toronto Health Sciences Center, Dr. Margel decided to examine this association in an ecological study.

Enjoy your morning!