Stem Cells From Monkey Teeth Can Stimulate Growth And Generation Of Brain Cells

Nov. 12, 2008 — Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have discovered dental pulp stem cells can stimulate growth and generation of several types of neural cells. Findings from this study, available in the October issue of the journal Stem Cells, suggest dental pulp stem cells show promise for use in cell therapy and regenerative medicine, particularly therapies associated with the central nervous system.

Dental stem cells are adult stem cells, one of the two major divisions of stem cell research. Adult stem cells have the ability to regenerate many different types of cells, promising great therapeutic potential, especially for diseases such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s. Already, dental pulp stem cells have been used for regeneration of dental and craniofacial cells.

Yerkes researcher Anthony Chan, DVM, PhD, and his team of researchers placed dental pulp stem cells from the tooth of a rhesus macaque into the hippocampal areas of mice. The dental pulp stem cells stimulated growth of new neural cells, and many of these formed neurons. “By showing dental pulp stem cells are capable of stimulating growth of neurons, our study demonstrates the specific therapeutic potential of dental pulp stem cells and the broader potential for adult stem cells,” says Chan, who also is assistant professor of human genetics in Emory School of Medicine.

Because dental pulp stem cells can be isolated from anyone at any age during a visit to the dentist, Chan is interested in the possibility of dental pulp stem cell banking. “Being able to use your own stem cells for therapy would greatly decrease the risk of cell rejection that we now experience in transplant medicine,” says Chan.

Chan and his research team next plan to determine if dental pulp stem cells from monkeys with Huntington’s disease can enhance brain cell development in the same way dental pulp stem cells from healthy monkeys do

---

How does periodontal disease affect overall health.mp4

Nanomedicine
The field of "Nanomedicine" is the science and technology of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and traumatic injury, of relieving pain, and of preserving and improving human health, using nanoscale structured materials, biotechnology, and genetic engineering, and eventually complex machine systems and nonorobots. It was perceived as embracing five main subdisciplines that in many ways are overlapping by common technical issues

Nanodiagnostics
It is the use of nanodevices for the early disease identification or predisposition at cellular and molecular level. In in-vitro diagnostics, nanomedicine could increase the efficiency and reliability of the diagnostics using human fluids or tissues samples by using selective nanodevices, to make multiple analyses at subcellular scale, etc. In in vivo diagnostics, nanomedicine could develop devices able to work inside the human body in order to identify the early presence of a disease, to identify and quantify toxic molecules, tumor cells.

Regenerative medicine
It is an emerging multidisciplinary field to look for the reparation, improvement, and maintenance of cells, tissues, and organs by applying cell therapy and tissue engineering methods. With the help of nanotechnology it is possible to interact with cell components, to manipulate the cell proliferation and differentiation, and the production and organization of extracellular matrices.

Present day nanomedicine exploits carefully structured nanoparticles such as dendrimers, carbon fullerenes (buckyballs), and nanoshells to target specific tissues and organs. These nanoparticles may serve as diagnostic and therapeutic antiviral, antitumor, or anticancer agents. Years ahead, complex nanodevices and even nanorobots will be fabricated, first of biological materials but later using more durable materials such as diamond to achieve the most powerful results.

The human body is comprised of molecules, hence the availablity of molecular nanotechnology will permit dramatic progress to address medical problems and will use molecular knowledge to maintain and improve human health at the molecular scale.

Applications in medicine
Within 10-20 years it should become possible to construct machines on the micrometer scale made up of parts on the nanometer scale. Subassemblies of such devices may include such as useful robotic components as 100 nm manipulater arms, 10 nm sorting rotors for molecule by molecule reagent purification, and smooth super hard surfaces made of automically flawless diamond.

Nanocomputers would assume the important task of activating, controlling, and deactivating such nanomechanical devices. Nanocomputers would store and execute mission plans, receive and process external signals and stimuli, communicate with other nanocomputers or external control and monitoring devices, and possess contextual knowledge to ensure safe functioning of the nanomechanical devices. Such technology has enormous medical and dental implications.

Programmable nanorobotic devices would allow physicians to perform precise interventions at the cellular and molecular level. Medical nanorobots have been proposed for genotological applicatons in pharmaceuticals research clinical diagnosis, and in dentistry, and also mechanically reversing atherosclerosis, improving respiratory capacity, enabling near-instantaneous homeostasis, supplementing immune system, rewriting or replacing DNA sequences in cells, repairing brain damage, and resolving gross cellular insults whether caused by irreversible process or by cryogenic storage of biological tissues.

Feynman offered the first known proposal for a nanorobotic surgical procedure to cure heart disease,  "A friend of mine (Albert R. Hibbs) suggests a very interesting possibility for relatively small machines. He says that, although it is a very wild idea, it would be interesting in surgery if you could swallow the surgeon. You put the mechanical surgeon inside the blood vessel and it goes into the heart and looks around. It finds out which valve is the faulty and takes a little knife and slices it out, that we can manufacture an object that maneuvers at that level, other small machines might be permanently incorporated in the body to assist some inadequately functioning organs".

Many disease causing culprits such as bacteria and viruses are nanosize. So, it only makes sense that nanotechnology would offer us ways of fighting back. The ancient greeks used silver to promote healing and prevent infection, but the treatment took backseat when antibiotics came on the scene. Nycryst pharmaceuticals (Canada) revived and improved an old cure by coating a burn and wound bandage with nanosize silver particles that are more reactive than the bulk form of metal. They penetrate into skin and work steadily. As a result, burn victims can have their dressings changed just once a week.

Genomics and protomics research is already rapidly elucidating the molecular basis of many diseases. This has brought new opportunities to develop powerful diagnostic tools able to identify genetic predisposition to diseases. In the future, point of care diagnosis will be routinely used to identify those patients requiring preventive medication to select the most appropriate medication for individual patients, and to monitor response to treatment. Nanotechnology has a vital role to play in realizing cost-effective diagnostic tools.

Chris Backous developing Lab-on-Chip to give doctor immediate results from medical tests for cancer and viruses, it gets its information by analyzing the genetic material in individual cells. Advances in gene sequencing mean this can now be done quickly and sequencing with tiny samples of body fluids or tissues such as blood, bone marrow, or tumors. The device can also detect the BK virus, a sign of trouble in patients who have had kidney transplants. Ultimately (Pilarski thinks,) chip technology will be able to detect what kind of flu a person has, or, even if they have SARS or HIV.

Nanotechnology has the potential to offer invaluable advances such as use of nanocoatings to slow the release of asthma medication in the lungs, allowing people with asthma to experience longer periods of relief from symptoms after using inhalants. Thus, what nanotechnology tries to do is essentially make drug particles in such a way, that they don't dissolve that fast, done this with.

Nanosensors developed for military use in recognizing airborne rogue agents and chemical weapons to detect drugs and other substances in exhaled breath.  Basically, you can detect many drugs in breath, but the amount you detect in breath is going to be related to the amount that you take and also to whether it partitions well between the blood and the breath. Drug abuse like marijuna (and things like), concentration of alcohol, testing of athletes for banned substances, and individual's drug treatment programs are two areas long overdue for breath detection technologies. We see this in future totally replacing urine testing.

Currently, most legal and illegal drug overdoses have no specific way to be effectively neutralized, using nanoparticles as absorbents of toxic drugs, is another area of medical nanoscience that is rapidly gaining momentum. Goal is design nanostructures that effectively bind molecular entities, which currently don't have effective treatments. We are putting nanosponges into the blood stream and they are soaking up toxic drug molecules to reduce the free amount in the blood, in turn, causes a resolution of the toxicity that was there before you put the nanosponges into the blood.

French and Italian researchers have come up with a completely new approach to render anticancer and antiviral nucleoside analoges significantly more potent. By linking the nucleoside analoges to sequalene, a biochemical precursor to the whole family of steroids, the researchers observed the self-organization of amphiphilic molecules in water. These nanoassemblies exhibited superior anticancer activity in vitro in human cancer cells.

Laurie B Gower, PhD, has been researching bone formation and structure at the nanoscale level. She is examining biomimetic methods of constructing a synthetic bone graft substitute with a nanostructured architecture that matches natural bone so that it would be accepted by the body and guide the cells toward the mending of damaged bones. Biomineralization refers to minerals that are formed biologically, which have very different properties than geological minerals or lab-formed crystals. The crystal properties found in bone are manipulated at nanoscale and are imbedded within collagen fibers to create an interpenetrating organic-inorganic composite with unique mechanical properties. She foresees numerous implications of the material in the future of osteology.

Hichan Fenniri, a chemistry professor, tried to make artificial joints act more like natural ones. Fenniri has made a nanotube coating for titanium hip or knee, is very good mimic of collagen, as a result of coating attracts and attaches more bone cells, osteoblasts, which help in bone growth quickly than uncoated hip or knee.

There is ongoing attempts to build 'medical microrobots' for in vivo medical use.  In 2002, Ishiyama et al ,  at Tohku University developed tiny magnetically driven spinning screws intended to swim along veins and carry drugs to infected tissues or even to burrow into tumors and kill them with heat. In 2005, Brad Nelson's  team reported the fabrication of a microscopic robot, small enough (approximately 200 µm) to be injected into the body through a syringe. They hope that this device or its descendants might someday be used to deliver drugs or perform minimally invasive eye surgery. Gorden's group at the University of Manitoba has also proposed magnetically controlled 'cytobots' and 'karyobots' for performing wireless intracellular and intranuclear surgery.

'Respirocytes', the first theoreotical design study of a complete medical nanorobot ever published in peer-reviewed journal described a hypothetical artificial mechanical red blood cell or 'respirocyte' made of 18 billion precisely arranged structural atoms. The respirocyte is a bloodborne spherical 1 µm diamondedoid 1000 atmosphere pressure vessel with reversible molecule selective surface pumps powered by endogenous serum glucose. This nanorobot would deliver 236 times more oxygen to body tissues per unit volume than natural red cells and would manage carbonic acidity, controlled by gas concentration sensors and an onboard nanocomputer.

Nanorobotic microbivores
Artificial phagocytes called microbivores could patrol the bloodstream, seeking out and digesting unwanted pathogens including bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Microbivores would achieve complete clearance of even the most severe septicemic infections in hours or less. The nanorobots do not increase the risk of sepsis or septic shock because the pathogens are completely digested into harmless sugars, amino acids, and the like, which are the only effluents from the nanorobot.

Surgical nanorobotics
A surgical nanorobot, programmed or guided by a human surgeon, could act as a semiautonomous on site surgeon inside the human body, when introduced into the body through vascular system or cavities. Such a device could perform various functions such as searching for pathology and then diagnosing and correcting lesions by nanomanipulation, coordinated by an onboard computer while maintaining contact with the supervising surgeon via coded ultrasound signals.

The earliest forms of cellular nanosurgery are already being explored today. For example, rapidly vibrating (100 Hz) micropipette with a <1 µm tip diameter has been used to completely cut dentrites from single neurons without damaging cell viability.  Axotomy of roundworm neurons was performed by femtosecond laser surgery, after which the axons functionally regenerated. Femtolaser acts like a pair of nanoscissors by vaporizing tissue locally while leaving adjacent tissue unharmed. Femtolaser surgery has performed the individual chromosomes.

Nanogenerators'
They could make new class of self-powered implantable medical devices, sensors, and portable electronics, by converting mechanical energy from body movement, muscle stretching, or water flow into electricity.

Nanogenerators produce electric current by bending and then releasing zinc oxide nanowires, which are both piezoelectric and semiconducting. Nanowires can be grown on polymer-based films, use of flexible polymer substrates could one day allow portable devices to be powered by movement of their users.
"Our bodies are good at converting chemical energy from glucose into the mechanical energy of our muscles," Wang (faculty at Peking University and National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China) explained "these nanogenerators can take mechanical energy and convert it to electrical energy for powering devices inside the body. This could open up tremendous possibilities for self-powered implantable medical devices."

Future impact of nanotechnology on medicine and dentistry

Nanodentistry will make possible the maintenance of comprehensive oral health by employing nanomaterials, biotechnology, including tissue engineering, and ultimately, dental nanorobotics. New potential treatment opportunities in dentistry may include, local anesthesia, dentition renaturalization, permanent hypersensitivity cure, complete orthodontic realignments during a single office visit, covalently bonded diamondised enamel, and continuous oral health maintenance using mechanical dentifrobots.

When the first micro-size dental nanorobots can be constructed, dental nanorobots might use specific motility mechanisms to crawl or swim through human tissue with navigational precision, acquire energy, sense, and manipulate their surroundings, achieve safe cytopenetration and use any of the multitude techniques to monitor, interrupt, or alter nerve impulse traffic in individual nerve cells in real time.

These nanorobot functions may be controlled by an onboard nanocomputer that executes preprogrammed instructions in response to local sensor stimuli. Alternatively, the dentist may issue strategic instructions by transmitting orders directly to in vivo nanorobots via acoustic signals or other means.

Inducing anesthesia
One of the most common procedure in dental practice, to make oral anesthesia, dental professionals will instill a colloidal suspension containing millions of active analgesic micron-sized dental nanorobot 'particles' on the patient's gingivae. After contacting the surface of the crown or mucosa, the ambulating nanorobots reach the dentin by migrating into the gingival sulcus and passing painlessly through the lamina propria or the 1-3-micron thick layer of loose tissue at the cementodentinal junction. On reaching dentin, the nanorobots enter dentinal tubules holes that are 1-4 microns in diameter and proceed toward the pulp, guided by a combination of chemical gradients, temperature differentials, and even positional navigation, all under the control of the onboard nanocomputer as directed by the dentist.

There are many pathways to choose from, near to CEJ, midway between junction and pulp, and near to pulp. Tubules diameter increases as it nears the pulp, which may facilitate nanorobot movement, although circumpulpal tubule openings vary in numbers and size (tubules number density 22,000 mm DEJ, 37,000 mm square midway, ans 48000 mm square near to pulp). Tubules branching patterns, between primary and irregular secondary dentin, regular secondary dentin in young and old teeth (sclerosing) may present a significant challenge to navigation.

The presence of natural cells that are constantly in motion around and inside the teeth including human gingival and pulpal fibroblasts, cementoblasts of the CDJ, bacteria inside dentinal tubules, odontoblasts near the pulp dentin border, and lymphocytes within the pulp or lamina propria suggested that such journey should be feasible by cell-sized nanorobots of similar mobility.

Once installed in the pulp and having established control over nerve impulse traffic, the analgesic dental nanorobots may be commanded by the dentist to shut down all sensitivity in any particular tooth that requires treatment. When on the hand-held controller display, the selected tooth immediately becomes numb. After the oral procedures completed, the dentist orders the nanorobots to restore all sensation, to relinguish control of nerve traffic and to engress, followed by aspiration. Nanorobotic analgesics offer greater patient comfort and reduced anxiety, no needles, greater selectivity, and controllability of the analgesic effect, fast and completely reversible switchable action and avoidance of most side effects and complications.

Tooth repair

Nanorobotic manufacture and installation of a biologically autologous whole replacement tooth that includes both mineral and cellular components, that is, 'complete dentition replacement therapy' should become feasible within the time and economic constraints of a typical office visit through the use of an affordable desktop manufacturing facility, which would fabricate the new tooth in the dentist's office.

Chen et al took advantage of these latest developments in the area of nanotechnology to simulate the natural biomineralization process to create the hardest tissue in the human body, dental enamel, by using highly organized microarchitectural units of nanorod-like calcium hydroxyapatite crystals arranged roughly parallel to each other.

Dentin hypersensitivity
Natural hypersensitive teeth have eight times higher surface density of dentinal tubules and diameter with twice as large than nonsensitive teeth. Reconstructive dental nanorobots, using native biological materials, could selectively and precisely occlude specific tubules within minutes, offering patients a quick and permanent cure.

Tooth repositioning
Orthodontic nanorobots could directly manipulate the periodontal tissues, allowing rapid and painless tooth straightening, rotating and vertical repositioning within minutes to hours.

Tooth renaturalization
This procedure may become popular, providing perfect treatment methods for esthetic dentistry. This trend may begin with patients who desire to have their (1) old dental amalgams excavated and their teeth remanufactured with native biological materials, and (2) full coronal renaturalization procedures in which all fillings, crowns, and other 20 ^th century modifications to the visible dentition are removed with the affected teeth remanufactured to become indistinguishable from original teeth.

Dental durability and cosmetics
Durability and appearance of tooth may be improved by replacing upper enamel layers with covalently bonded artificial materials such as sapphire or diamond, which have 20-100 times the hardness and failure strength of natural enamel or contemporary ceramic veneers and good biocompatibility. Pure sapphire and diamond are brittle and prone to fracture, can be made more fracture resistant as part of a nanostructured composite material that possibly includes embedded carbon nanotubes.

Nanorobotic dentifrice (dentifrobots) delivered by mouthwash or toothpaste could patrol all supragingival and subgingival surfaces at least once a day metabolizing trapped organic mater into harmless and odorless vapors and performing continous calculus debridement.

Properly configured dentifrobots could identify and destroy pathogenic bacteria residing in the plaque and elsewhere, while allowing the 500 species of harmless oral microflora to flourish in a healthy ecosystem. Dentifrobots also would provide a continous barriers to halitosis, since bacterial putrification is the central metabolic process involved in oral malodor. With this kind of daily dental care available from an early age, conventional tooth decay and gingival deseases will disappear into the annals of medical history.

Potential benefits of nanotechnology are its ability to exploit the atomic or molecular properties of materials and the development of newer materials with better properties. Nanoproducts can be made by: building-up particles by combining atomic elements and using equipments to create mechanical nanoscale objects.

Nanotechnology has improved the properties of various kinds of fibers.  Polymer nanofibers with diameters in the nanometer range, possess a larger surface area per unit mass and permit an easier addition of surface functionalities compared to polymer microfibers.  Polymer nanofiber materials have been studied as drug delivery systems, scaffolds for tissue engineering and filters. Carbon fibers with nanometer diamensions showed a selective increase in osteoblast adhesion necessary for successful orthopedic/dental implant applications due to a high degree of nanometer surface roughness.

Nonagglomerated discrete nanoparticles are homogenously manufactured in resins or coatings to produce nanocomposites. The nanofiller used include an aluminosilicate powder having a mean particles size of about 80 nm and 1:4 M ratio of alumina to silica. Advantages - superior hardness, flexible strength, modulus of elasticity, translucency and esthetic appeal, excellent color density, high polish, and polish retention, and excellent handling properties.  (Filtek O supreme Univrasl Restorative Pure Nano O).

Heliometer, microfilled composite resin, a close examination of this composite suggests that a form of nanotechnology was in use years ago, yet never recognized.

Nanosolutions produce unique and dispersible nanoparticles that can be added to various solvents, paints, and polymers in which they are dispersed homogenously. Nanotechnology in bonding agents ensures homogeneity and so the operator can now be totally confident that the adhesive is perfectly mixed every time.
Nanofillers are integrated in the vinylsiloxanes, producing a unique addition siloxane impression material. Better flow, improved hydrophilic properties, hence fewer voids at margin and better model pouring, enhanced detail precision

Your child's milk tooth can save her life

IANS Mar 30, 2012, 01.43PM IST
 
Is your child about to lose her milk tooth? Instead of throwing it away, you can now opt to use it to harvest stem cells in a dental stem cell bank for future use in the face of serious ailments. Now that's a tooth fairy story coming to life.
Still relatively new in India, dental stem cell banking is fast gaining popularity as a more viable option over umbilical cord blood banking.                                                                                                                        

•  

Stem cell therapy

Stem cell therapy involves a kind of intervention strategy in which healthy, new cells are introduced into a damaged tissue to treat a disease or an injury.
"The umbilical cord is a good source for blood-related cells, or hemaotopoietic cells, which can be used for blood-related diseases, like leukaemia (blood cancer). Having said that, blood-related disorders constitute only four percent of all diseases," Shailesh Gadre, founder and managing director of the company Stemade Biotech, said.
"For the rest of the 96 percent tissue-related diseases, the tooth is a good source of mesenchymal (tissue-related) stem cells. These cells have potential application in all other tissues of the body, for instance, the brain, in case of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; the eye (corneal reconstruction), liver (cirrhosis), pancreas ( diabetes), bone (fractures, reconstruction), skin and the like," he said.
Mesenchymal cells can also be used to regenerate cardiac cells.
Dental stem cell banking also has an advantage when it comes to the process of obtaining stem cells.
"Obtaining stem cells from the tooth is a non-invasive procedure that requires no surgery, with little or no pain. A child, in the age group of 5-12, is any way going to lose his milk tooth. So when it's a little shaky, it can be collected with hardly any discomfort," Savita Menon, a pedodontist, said.
"Moreover, in a number of cases, when an adolescent needs braces, the doctor recommends that his pre-molars be removed. These can also be used as a source for stem cells. And over and above that, an adult's wisdom tooth can also be used for the same purpose," Gadre added.
Therefore, unlike umbilical cord blood banking which gives one just one chance - during birth - the window of opportunity in dental stem cell banking is much bigger.
"Of course, age is still a big factor," added Menon. "A child's milk tooth has more potency than a wisdom tooth. The ability of a young one's cells to multiply is twice as higher as anyone else."
Pankaj Kala is one of those who opted for dental stem cell banking for his child.
"I lost my mother to cardiac arrest when she was just 45. She was also a diabetic. After that I decided that I will do everything possible to protect my family from harm. I missed the opportunity of umbilical cord blood banking in the case of my daughter when she was born; so when she was six, we went for dental stem cell banking," Kala, who is in the jewellery business in Mumbai, said.
"It's been two years now and I have decided to go for the procedure for the second child too. Even my wife will go for stem cell banking using her wisdom tooth. In my case, however, it will be difficult since I had gone for root canal treatment in my wisdom tooth and therefore it's not healthy," he added.

Preventive tips for children...................

Infants

Infants should be seen by our office after the first six months of age, and at least by the child's first birthday. By this time, the baby's first teeth, or primary teeth, are beginning to erupt and it is a critical time to spot any problems before they become big concerns.

Conditions like gum irritation and thumb-sucking could create problems later on. Babies who suck their thumbs may be setting the stage for malformed teeth and bite relationships.

Another problem that can be spotted early is a condition called "baby bottle tooth decay," which is caused by sugary substances in breast milk and some juices, which combine with saliva to form pools inside the baby's mouth.

If left untreated, this can lead to premature decay of your baby's future primary teeth, which can later hamper the proper formation of permanent teeth.

One of the best ways to avoid baby bottle tooth decay is to not allow your baby to nurse on a bottle while going to sleep. Avoid dipping pacifiers in sweet substances such as honey, because this only encourages early decay in the baby's mouth. Encouraging your young child to drink from a cup as early as possible will also help stave off the problems associated with baby bottle tooth decay.

Teething, Pacifiers and Thumb-Sucking

Teething is a sign that your child's gums are sore. This is perfectly normal. You can help relieve this by allowing the baby to suck on a teething ring, or gently rubbing your baby's gums with the back of a small spoon, a piece of wet gauze, or even your finger.

For babies under the age of 4, teething rings and pacifiers can be safely used to facilitate the child's oral needs for relieving gum pain and for suckling. After the age of 4, pacifiers are generally discouraged because they may interfere with the development of your child's teeth.

Moreover, thumb-sucking should be strongly discouraged because it can lead to malformed teeth that become crooked and crowded.

Primary and Permanent Teeth

Every child grows 20 primary teeth, usually by the age of 3. These teeth are gradually replaced by the age of 12 or so with a full set of 28 permanent teeth, and later on, four molars called "wisdom teeth."

It is essential that a child's primary teeth are healthy, because their development sets the stage for permanent teeth. If primary teeth become diseased or do not grow in properly, chances are greater that their permanent replacements will suffer the same fate. For example, poorly formed primary teeth that don't erupt properly could crowd out spaces reserved for other teeth. Space maintainers can sometimes be used to correct this condition, if it is spotted early enough.

Brushing

Babies' gums and teeth can be gently cleaned with special infant toothbrushes that fit over your finger. Water is suitable in lieu of toothpaste (because the baby may swallow the toothpaste). Parents are advised to avoid fluoride toothpastes on children under the age of 2.

Primary teeth can be cleansed with child-sized, soft-bristled toothbrushes. Remember to use small portions of toothpaste (a pea-sized portion is suitable), and teach your child to spit out, not swallow, the toothpaste when finished.

Fluoride

Fluoride is generally present in most public drinking water systems. If you are unsure about your community's water and its fluoride content, or learn that it has an unacceptable level of fluoride in it, there are fluoride supplements your dentist can prescribe. Your child may not be getting enough fluoride just by using fluoride toothpaste.

Toothaches

Toothaches can be common in young children. Sometimes, toothaches are caused by erupting teeth, but they also could indicate a serious problem.

You can safely relieve a small child's toothache without the aid of medication by rinsing the mouth with a solution of warm water and table salt. If the pain doesn't subside, acetaminophen may be used. If such medications don't help, contact your dentist immediately.

Injuries

You can help your child prevent oral injuries by closely supervising him during play and not allowing the child to put foreign objects in the mouth.

For younger children involved in physical activities and sports, mouth guards are strongly encouraged, and can prevent a whole host of injuries to the teeth, gums, lips and other oral structures.

Mouth guards are generally small plastic appliances that safely fit around your child's teeth. Many mouth guards are soft and pliable when opened, and mold to the child's teeth when first inserted.

If the tooth has been knocked out, try to place the tooth back in its socket while waiting to see our office. Remember to hold the dislocated tooth by the crown-not the root. If you cannot relocate the tooth, place it in a container of cold milk, saline or the victim's own saliva. Place the tooth in the solution.

First, rinse the mouth of any blood or other debris and place a cold cloth or compress on the cheek near the injury. This will keep down swelling.

For a fractured tooth, it is best to rinse with warm water and again, apply a cold pack or compress. Ibuprofen may be used to help keep down swelling.

If the tooth fracture is minor, the tooth can be sanded or if necessary, restored by the dentist if the pulp is not severely damaged.

If a child's primary tooth has been loosened by an injury or an emerging permanent tooth, try getting the child to gently bite down on an apple or piece of caramel; in some cases, the tooth will easily separate from the gum.

Irritation caused by retainers or braces can sometimes be relieved by placing a tiny piece of cotton or gauze on the tip of the wire or other protruding object. If an injury occurs from a piece of the retainer or braces lodging into a soft tissue, contact our office immediately and avoid dislodging it yourself.

Sealants

Sealants fill in the little ridges on the chewing part of your teeth to protect and seal the tooth from food and plaque. The application is easy to apply and typically last for several years.

Women's Teeth

Women have special needs when it comes to their oral health. That's because the physical changes they undergo through life-things like menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth, breast-feeding and menopause-cause many changes in the body, some harmful to teeth and gums.

Lesions and ulcers, dry sockets, as well as swollen gums, can sometimes occur during surges in a woman's hormone levels. These periods would be a prime time to visit the dentist. Birth control pills have been shown to increase the risk of gingivitis, and hormone replacement therapy has been shown to cause bleeding and swollen gums. Gum disease can also present a higher risk for premature births.

Some research has shown that women may be more likely to develop dry mouth, eating disorders, jaw problems such as temporomandibular joint disorders, and facial pain-all of which can be difficult from a physical and emotional standpoint.

Taking care of your oral health is essential, and can go a long way to helping you face the physical changes in your body over the years.

Tooth Care.....................

Nutrition and Your Teeth

 It has long been known that good nutrition and a well-balanced diet is one of the best defenses for your oral health. Providing your body with the right amounts of vitamins and minerals helps your teeth and gums-as well as your immune system-stay strong and ward off infection, decay and disease.

Harmful acids and bacteria in your mouth are left behind from eating foods high in sugar and carbohydrates. These include carbonated beverages, some kinds of fruit juices, and many kinds of starch foods like pasta, bread and cereal.

Children's Nutrition and Teeth

Good eating habits that begin in early childhood can go a long way to ensuring a lifetime of good oral health.

Children should eat foods rich in calcium and other kinds of minerals, as well as a healthy balance of the essential food groups like vegetables, fruits, dairy products, poultry and meat. Fluoride supplements may be helpful if you live in a community without fluoridated water, but consult with our office first. (Be aware that sugars are even found in some kinds of condiments, as well as fruits and even milk.)

Allowing your children to eat excessive amounts of junk food (starches and sugars)-including potato chips, cookies, crackers, soda, even artificial fruit rollups and granola bars-only places them at risk for serious oral health problems, including obesity, osteoporosis and diabetes. The carbonation found in soda, for example, can actually erode tooth enamel. Encourage your child to use a straw when drinking soda; this will help keep at least some of the carbonated beverage away from the teeth.

Adult Nutrition and Teeth

There's no discounting the importance of continuing a healthy balanced diet throughout your adult life.