Most U Want Dental Lab Supplies

Lessons learned from the first facial transplant and dental applications for Botox injections are on the agenda for the American Academy of Implant Dentistry (AAID) annual scientific conference, Oct. 20-23 in Boston.

AAID’s meeting is highly regarded in the dental supplies profession as an innovative forum and valuable resource for continuing education, product demonstrations and networking. More than 1,600 dentists, allied staff and exhibitors are expected to attend. The theme for the conference, to be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, is “Navigate Zones of Implant Dentistry: Complications, Confidence, Comfort.” As always, the scientific program will showcase an international cast of speakers and offer comprehensive continuing education credit.

The major highlight of the meeting is the main podium presentation on Oct. 22 by Daniel Alam, MD, chief, facial and reconstructive surgery, Cleveland Clinic, titled “Technical and Anatomical Considerations of the First Human Maxillo-facial Transplant.” In 2008, Dr. Alam made history in performing the first near-total facial transplant in the United States on a woman whose face had been mutilated by a shotgun blast. For the AAID audience, Dr. Alam will show footage of the surgery and relate its significance for future use of human face transplantation in treating severely disfigured facial structures.

Later in the day, noted plastic surgeon Joe Niamtu III, DMD, will provide a multimedia presentation on contemporary facial rejuvenation procedures, such as Botox, injectable fillers, laser treatments and facial implants. AAID attendees will learn treatment options for facial aging that can be applied to their practices.

There is no apparent link between asthma and tooth decay, according to a study published in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

“Is There a Relationship between Asthma and Dental Supplies Caries?: A Critical Review of the Literature” examined the 27 separate studies which looked for a link between asthma and cavities that were reported in 29 papers published between 1976 and March 2010.

“The notion that there is a link between asthma and tooth decay may have its origin in anecdotal statements by emergency room workers who see children with poorly managed asthma. These children could also be more likely to have poorly managed dental conditions, and therefore tooth decay. It’s reasonable to believe that poor clinical management may be associated with both conditions, not the asthma that is causing the cavities,” said Gerardo Maupomé, B.D.S., M.Sc., Ph.D., professor of preventive and community dentistry at the Indiana University School of Dentistry and a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist. He is the first author of the new JADA study.

“We found little evidence to suggest that asthma causes tooth decay. In fact, the two largest studies we reviewed found that children with asthma appear to have fewer cavities than others. This may be because their parents are used to taking them to health-care providers, and routinely bring them to the dentist,” said Dr. Maupomé.

The large number of variables involved, including severity of asthma symptoms and the variety of types of treatment for the disease, has made it difficult to unequivocally determine whether there is a causal link between the two.

While not apparently associated, tooth decay and asthma are the two most prevalent chronic childhood diseases in the United States.

Routine home and professional dental care are critical for all children. Parents of children with asthma do not need to be concerned about an increased risk of tooth decay but Dr. Maupomé points out that children who use nebulizers to control their asthma may be inadvertently increasing their frequency of exposure to sugars because these nebulizers use fructose to deliver therapy. The frequency and the amount of certain sugars consumed are major factors leading to cavities.

He also recommends that children who are mouth breathers or who have mouth dryness be checked periodically by their dentists. These conditions may be associated with asthma but they are also found in children who do not have asthma. Many medications used for the long term (such as asthma medications) have been found to reduce the amount of saliva, which is the first protection of teeth.

In addition to Dr. Maupomé, the study was authored by Jay D. Shulman, D.M.D., M.A., M.S.P.H. of Baylor College of Dentistry; Carlo Eduardo Medina-Solis, B.D.S., M.C., of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo in Mexico; and Oyebola Ladeinde, B.D.S., M.S. of the IU School of Dentistry.

The study was funded by the Oral Health Research Institute of the Indiana University School of Dentistry. Both are located on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Oral surgeons may one day have an easier, less costly approach to one important aspect of dental restoration, thanks to a newly patented process developed by researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T).

The process computerizes the method for creating a dental supplies bar, also called an over-denture. For dental restoration procedures, the device is the bridge connecting dental implants to dentures.

The computerized approach was developed by Dr. Ming Leu, the Keith and Pat Bailey Missouri Distinguished Professor of Integrated Product Manufacturing at Missouri S&T, and one of Leu’s former students, Amit Gawate, who received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Missouri S&T in 2005. Leu and Gawate were recently awarded a patent for their process.

Typically, a dental technician creates the device through a laborious manual process that involves molding and casting. But Leu’s approach is entirely digital and automated.

“This method can reduce the cost as well as the time involved” in fabricating dental bars, Leu says.

The conventional approach involves first making an impression of the area of the mouth where a denture would be placed, then casting a model of the gums and implants. From there, technicians design and fabricate the dental bar from a metal material.

Rather than making a physical model, Leu’s process uses digital imaging technology to take a picture of a patient’s mouth. From there, computer algorithms developed by Leu and Gawate crunch the image data to create a computer-aided design model of the actual dental bar. That model can then be fabricated using either an “additive manufacturing” or a computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machining process.

“Additive manufacturing is a way of making a part by adding material, one layer at a time, rather than removing material, as you would do with machining,” he says. The process uses less material than machining or other processes and can be easily tailored to individualized parts of different geometries, Leu adds.

An expert in manufacturing, Leu first became interested in dental surgery after a prosthodontist contacted Leu about some previous research with additive manufacturing. In 2000, Leu developed a way to create prototypes of manufactured parts out of ice, a method he called “rapid freeze prototyping,” and the prosthodontist thought the approach would be a cost-effective way to make models for dental surgery. Together, they obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to investigate the approach. From there, Leu developed the computer-aided method for dental bar design.