Health, Fashion, Parenting and Women Related Issues

With impending re-organization of health care, dentists can and should play a more significant role in overall health care. They cannot continue to be isolated from other mainstream health care professionals who are responding to the physical and mental health needs of our community especially in relatively underserved Western Massachusetts

Yes, dentists still need to restore, replace, or straighten teeth, in addition, to increasing awareness of the role of oral inflammatory conditions, such as periodontitis (gum disease) associated with diabetes and other disorders which lead to heart disease and stroke.

Evolving from barber surgeons, those who treated the teeth and surrounding structures have been called dentists for more than 400 years, but as early as 500 BC they were considered physicians of the mouth (Herodotus). In addition to hospital-based training in medicine and surgery, modern dentists study the development and treatment of several hundred diseases, many of which can affect the rest of the body. Read more

Studies have suggested that redheads may be more sensitive to pain and may require more anesthetics.

This month’s Journal of the American Dental Association published new research findings that the expectation of painful experiences at the hand of a dentist might incite greater trepidation for redheads. They proved to be twice as likely to avoid the dentist as those with dark hair.

“Redheads are sensitive to pain,” said co-author Dr. Daniel Sessler, an Outcomes Research Department chair at The Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.

“They require more generalized anesthesia, localized anesthesia. The conventional doses fail. They have bad experiences at the dentist and because of the bad experiences, they could avoid dental care.” Read more