Gregory Davis

'Living' Article March 2012- Is your dental implant at risk?

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:36:03 EST

Landen Living

March 2012

One of the most significant elements to rise on the dental horizon during my career has been the predictable, versatile and game-changing availability of titanium dental implants. Implants can be utilized to anchor and stabilize dental prosthesis like dentures and partial dentures. Bridges can be built between a pair of dental implants. But in my office they are far and away most frequently used to replace a single missing tooth.

Dental implants are extremely successful but like a natural tooth they are susceptible to inflammation in the gum tissue and bone that surrounds and supports the implant. When bone is lost around an implant there can be a number of factors that contribute to the pathology. With poor dental hygiene implants can fall victim to plaque-based periodontal/gum disease just like we see with natural teeth. Bone loss and implant failure can also occur if too much biting pressure is routinely loaded onto the implant.

Within the past two or three years however, multiple studies have surfaced that expose the single biggest contributor to bone loss surrounding dental implants. The offender we now clearly understand is often dental cement. Dental cement? Yes, dental cement.

Typical dental implants are shaped and sized somewhat like a tooth root and are threaded into the bone that typically supports teeth. At the time of surgical placement the top of the implant is intentionally positioned below the gumline level. In most cases a tall healing cap is screwed into the implant to extend it through the gum tissue which allows for proper healing. At roughly three months the supporting bone has literally grown or integrated to the surface of the implant and it is ready to be used. The healing cap is replaced by a tapered screw-retained piece called an abutment and in most cases a dental crown is cemented to the abutment. What we now know is that all too often excess dental cement is squished below the gumline at the time of crown placement and never fully cleaned up. Don’t get me wrong. We dentists are not generally careless or sloppy. The cement gets hidden below the gum level and often goes undetected.

Now that these cement-based problems are understood there have been a number of responses that responsible dentists have made. Today it is clear that the abutment piece may be the key. If the abutment used is a stock piece purchased from the implant supplier the margin where the crown joins the abutment will often be too far beneath the gumline. It may take more time and money but we now clearly understand that a custom made abutment provides for margins at or just beneath the gumline and is highly preferred. Under these circumstances it is much easier to find and remove excess cement residue.

For our implant cases there is a way to completely eliminate the use of dental cements within the mouth. Crowns can be cemented or bonded to the abutment outside the mouth where all of the excess cement can easily be identified and removed. For this to work there has to be a hole in the biting surface of the crown that allows for attachment of the crown and abutment with a screw into the dental implant. The hole is ultimately filled with a tooth colored filling material. As dental materials continue to improve this safest technique may become the new norm.

tags: implant dentistry

'Living' Article February 2012- "MATCHBOX" memories

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:59:52 EST

What better time than the frigid days of February for collectors like you and me to get in touch with our collections? My wife will confirm that I have been in regular contact with my “MATCHBOX” Toys friends in recent weeks. The reference books are out and open and the ebay button within my ‘favorites’ file is working overtime these days.

Back in 1958 the Lesney Corporation added an odd little British sedan called the Vauxhall Victor to the “MATCHBOX” Toys range. Today that toy in perfectly mint condition with its original box might sell for $75.00 at a local toy show and sale. A couple of weeks back I enthusiastically followed an ebay auction that offered an early example of the “MATCHBOX” Vauxhall Victor. The model had several paint flaws and the original box was nowhere to be found. When the dust settled and the auction ended the diminutive Vauxhall sold for $3025.00! Why so much? Across the seven years that the Vauxhall Victor was included within the “MATCHBOX” range it always featured a soft yellow body color. Always that is, except for a tiny handful of initial Vauxhall Victor castings that were coated in a trial run of lovely red paint. And this model in spite of its abundant flaws and missing box was decked out in that ultra rare red paint.

Stories like this leave most people with shaking heads. How on earth could or would anyone pay so much for a tiny old toy in poor condition? The story of the little red Vauxhall stands as a testimony to the Lesney Corporation’s success at blanketing the Western World with pocket-sized pieces of joy on wheels. And so it is that my two brothers and I were among those millions of children of the 1950s who lived and breathed “MATCHBOX”.

I know I’m not alone. I know there is a multitude of you out there who have a box or collector’s case of “MATCHBOX” Toys tucked away in a closet or the basement. I know there are many of you for whom “MATCHBOX” memories still bring warmth to your heart. My friends Bob and Calvin and I have tossed around the idea of taking a crack at starting a local southwestern Ohio gathering of “MATCHBOX” lovers. So during this cold month of February I’m inviting you closet “MATCHBOX” fans to reach out and give me a shout (newcomerdavis@roadrunner.com). Let’s get together and play! Perhaps you’ve got a red Vauxhall Victor in that box in the basement. I guarantee you those boxes are full of stories and smiles and what dentist isn’t a softy for a great smile. It’s hard to put a price on genuine joy!

tags: "MATCHBOX" Toys

'Living' Article January 2012- Combating Caries

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:08:38 EST

Landen Living

January 2012

What better way to start the New Year than with a piece of very promising news on the dental health front? Dental caries, the process that ends in tooth decay, is one of the most common and expensive of America’s infectious diseases. More than 50% of children and an even larger majority of adults are impacted by dental caries. The majority of the $70+ billion American’s spend on dental services each year goes toward the treatment of woes rooted in dental caries.

The November 2011 edition of the international dental journal Caries Research reports on a small scale clinical study conducted by the UCLA School of Dentistry in which a newly developed mouthwash demonstrated noteworthy success in specifically targeting and killing the Streptococcus mutans species of bacteria that primarily are responsible for tooth decay. Subjects within the study rinsed one time only with the experimental rinse and experienced a nearly complete elimination of oral Streptococcus mutans bacteria over the course of the entire four-day study period.

This potentially revolutionary rinse is the product of nearly ten years of research conducted by Wenyuan Shi, chair of the oral biology department at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Shi in fact has developed an entirely new antimicrobial technology called ‘STAMP’, Specifically Targeted Anti-Microbial Peptides.

The human body is home to a myriad of species of bacteria, most of which perform vital services in maintaining optimum health. Traditional broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents kill without regard both harmful and helpful microorganisms and typically remain effective for twelve hours or less. Shi’s STAMP products are designed to serve as a ‘smart bomb’ that specifically targets harmful bacteria while leaving other strains alive and well. In addition these products remain active for periods significantly longer than traditional antibiotic dosages.

While the UCLA study was very limited, the results were noteworthy. Indeed a New Investigational Drug application was been filed and more extensive clinical trials are likely to begin in March of this year. If UCLA’s rinse ultimately is approved for general use it would be the first anti-dental caries drug since fluoride was licensed nearly six decades ago.

“With this new antimicrobial technology,” said Shi, “we have the prospect of actually wiping out tooth decay in our lifetime.” Wow! That really is potentially game changing news within the dental health arena. I’m excited to watch this research and this potential unfold.

tags: Dental Caries- Tooth decay

'Living' Article December 2011- Christmas Traditions

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:09:23 EST

Living

December 2011

My wife is a militant defender of the notion that each holiday deserves its due time. She resents it when the American commercial machine forces upcoming holidays on us before their true season. Never is she more disgusted than throughout the month of November when television advertisements, daily mailbox fillers, and store displays totally bury Thanksgiving beneath drifts of premature Christmas content.

Across the years this reality has at times placed a temporary strain on our marital bond. My mother claims I emerged from the womb on December 1, 1957 crying to the tune of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. The Christmas season has always been my absolute favorite time of year and my car radio quite often is tuned to Christmas music the very day it is first available for my listening pleasure. It is my mom’s fault. I grew up with Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Arthur Godfrey, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mitch Miller, the Ray Conniff Singers and her ultimate heart throb, Perry Como. Through ten months of the year our record player gathered dust but during the months of November and December our house was filled with Christmas music. The albums were always stacked a half dozen deep awaiting their next tour of the turntable.

Over the years new Christmas songs and emerging artists have caught my ear. There was that classic John Denver and the Muppets album. Who doesn’t feel compelled to head south each year when Amy Grant recalls her ‘Tender Tennessee Christmas’? And you’ve got to admit that Celine Deion can put a chill up your spine when she hits those high notes in her rendition of “O Holy Night”.

Of all the Christmas songs across all the years my favorite surfaced back in the late 1990s when I paused long enough to listen to the story told through a gravel-voiced artist from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The song, ‘Old City Bar’ shares the miraculous tale of a mythical Christmas Eve in which the grizzled old bartender empties the cash register to buy a ticket home for a cold and lonely girl. From the midst of the feel good story the lyrics go on to challenge the listener:

If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger

And to know who needs help

You need only just ask

Here’s wishing you and your family a Christmas season that bites you with a bug, lifting you above Black Friday, gaudy sweaters and the Ray Conniff Singers, leaving you looking for ways to keep the true spirit alive throughout the New Year.

tags: Christmas tradition

'Living' Article November 2011- Thanksgiving history

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:16:11 EST

Living Article

November 2011

Most of us know at least the basic details that define America’s Thanksgiving holiday traditions. A group of people that we’ve come to know as the Pilgrims boarded a small ship called the Mayflower back in September of 1620. Many of them were in search of a place in which they could freely practice their faith. Others were drawn by a picture that had been painted of potential prosperity and land ownership in a different world. After 66 days at sea they dropped anchor off Cape Cod and ultimately settled a village on the other side of Massachusetts Bay that they named Plymouth. We’ve heard about a rough first winter, a budding acquaintance with the local Wampanoag Native Americans, a successful first corn harvest and a call by their Governor William Bradford for a celebratory feast of thanksgiving.

Some have heard that it was Abraham Lincoln who finally cemented Thanksgiving as an American national holiday after more than two centuries in which the notion of intentionally pausing to give thanks had received tepid respect in isolated pockets of our nation.

But who among us recognizes the name of Sarah Josepha Hale and recognizes her significant place among American Thanksgiving holiday lore? Sarah’s husband died without warning in 1822 leaving her and her five children without a means of financial support. The next year a group of her friends backed an anonymous publication of her poetry, The Genius of Oblivion. She started submitting stories and poems to assorted literary periodicals and quickly earned a cadre of followers. She edited Ladies’ Magazine, America’s first publication targeting women. Sarah’s most timeless literary effort has been Mary Had a Little Lamb, the nursery rhyme that has been a staple across each succeeding generation.

But it was 1827, five short years after the loss of her husband, when Sarah Hale launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For the next 36 years Sarah hammered away with published editorials and countless letters to governors, senators and presidents. In large part it was Sarah who moved Abraham Lincoln, at the height of America’s Civil War, to finally run with her dream. It was 1863 when Lincoln in a classic proclamation entreated all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife”. Somehow he saw in Sarah’s concept the potential to “heal the wounds of the nation”.

The current chapter of American history is still being authored, one that is highlighted by economic darkness, insufficient employment opportunities, political grid-lock and a media driven climate of fear. Like it or not friends, this is our chapter. But surely this is merely a page or two within a larger work. And now we have again entered Sarah’s season in which we each have the choice to see beyond a blemished surface and toward an abundant core of blessings for which we each can pause to genuinely and sincerely give thanks. Here’s to life, and light, and love! Happy Thanksgiving!

tags: History