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Dawson Academy Offers 2-Day Course on How to Play a Bigger Role in Patient Health

Posted on Friday, July 31, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla July 31, 2015 -- The Dawson Academy will be teaching dentists and dental team members how they can play a bigger role in the total health of their patients in the 2-day course, The Total Wellness Dental Practice in St. Paul, Minn. October 15-16, 2015 and in St. Petersburg December 4-5, 2015.

It is general knowledge that the United States is facing a national health care crisis. There is a trend of ever-rising systemic risk factors including high blood pressure, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, gastric reflux, Alzheimer’s disease and more.

Despite this rise in risk factors, the average patient visit with their medical doctor is only about seven minutes, occurring once every two years. With the little time patients spend at their doctor’s office, there is a major need for other health professionals to identify and treat these major health issues; no health professionals spend more quality time influencing patients than dental teams.

What’s more, Dr. Michael Roizen, Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, recently challenged dentists and dental teams to become the gatekeepers of both oral and systemic health.

“Now more than ever, the well-trained dental team can change and save lives,” DeWitt Wilkerson, D.M.D., Director of Dental Medicine Curriculum at The Dawson Academy shared.

The Dawson Academy is committed to teaching dental teams how to diagnose and treat systemic inflammation created by oral pathogens, sleep apnea, physical inactivity, stress, toxins, Type 2 diabetes, and pro-inflammatory diets. Understanding the dental practice’s role in both diagnosis and therapy of these great risk factors can create a future for both patient and practice health like never before.

To learn more about this course, visit The Dawson Academy website at www.TheDawsonAcademy.com or call 1-800-952-2178.

About The Dawson Academy

The Dawson Academy is an international provider of science-based dental continuing education, teaching dentists to comprehensively diagnose and treat dental problems with excellence and integrity. The Academy has taught dental courses to the dental industry for over 30 years and is dedicated to teaching the principles and skills necessary for the successful practice of complete, quality, and predictable dentistry. The Dawson Academy’s goal is to make good dentists even better.

 







Zest Anchors, Implant Direct Reach Settlement

Posted on Friday, July 31, 2015

Escondido, CA – Zest IP Holdings, LLC and Zest Anchors, LLC (Collectively, “Zest”) announced that they have settled the patent and trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Zest against Implant Direct Mfg. LLC, Implant Direct LLC, and Implant Direct Int’l (Collectively, “Implant Direct”), Implant Direct Sybron Manufacturing LLC, and Implant Direct Sybron International LLC (Collectively, “IDSI”). 

Within the agreement, IDSI will manufacture and sell the GoDirect® products under a license from Zest. IDSI will also phase out the GPS® abutments and males and begin selling the Locator® Attachment System under a distribution agreement with Zest. The wide-ranging settlement was designed to provide IDSI’s customers a seamless experience transitioning back to the Locator Attachment System.







Sterngold’s New TRU Implant System

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2015

Attleboro, MA – Sterngold Dental, LLC, is pleased to announce that they have received FDA Market Clearance for the New TRU Implant System.  The TRU Implant System implant body design promotes self-tapping and initial stability during placement.  Its simple and predictable surgical process makes it ideal for all fixed and removable indications.  The TRU Implant is substantially equivalent to the Nobel Biocare® Internal Conical connection.  For more information, call 800-243-9942. 

About Sterngold Dental LLC

Founded in 1897, Sterngold Dental, LLC is a world leader in dental products and specializes in alloys, attachments, implants, and restorative systems. Examples are the Stern ERA family of resilient dental attachments and the Natural Profile Abutment System for aesthetic restoration of osseointegrated implants.  

Sterngold Dental, LLC is EN ISO 13485:2012+AC:2009 and ISO 13485:2003 (CMDCAS) certified and we also comply with the European Medical Device Directive (93/42/EEC), FDA Quality System Regulations and MHLW Ministerial Ordinance No. 169.  All products and procedures are closely monitored under these quality systems. Sterngold Dental, LLC's Implant products have full approval to market in the United States, Sweden, and more than 20 other countries. For more information, visit www.sterngold.com

 







Nova Southeastern Receives $3.4 Million to Enhance Dental Care for People with Autism

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2015

FT. LAUDERDALE-DAVIE, Fla. – Dentists and other health care providers who treat patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require special training to understand the skills and techniques needed to care for this growing population.

Romer Ocanto, D.D.S., M.S., CAGS, chair of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) College of Dental Medicine, has secured a $3,398,452 grant from the Health Resource and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide this training to pediatric dentistry and advanced education in general dentistry residents over a five-year period. This is the third grant Dr. Ocanto has received from HRSA. Previous funding totaled approximately $3.5 million.

The program will include the development of a curriculum addressing the transition of children and adolescents with ASD to adult dental care and aims to increase access to dental care for children and adolescents with special health care needs such as ASD.

“Nova Southeastern University is committed to researching and implementing new techniques to help patients with special needs,” said Dr. Ocanto. “We are excited about this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many people. This funding will allow us to partner with community organizations and general dentists in Florida and throughout the Southeastern U.S. to enhance dental services available to patients with autism.”

“In its short history, NSU’s College of Dental Medicine has developed a strong tradition of caring for children and adults with special needs,” added Linda Niessen, D.M.D., M.P.H., M.P.P., dean of the college.

Currently NSU’s College of Dental Medicine has pediatric special needs dental clinics at NSU’s Mailman Segal Center for Human Development in Davie, Florida; NSU Dental Care at KID in Fort Lauderdale; and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida; along with an adult special needs dental clinic in North Miami Beach, Florida. NSU has existing relationships with Broward Health Medical Center, the South Florida Autism Charter School and the Autism Consortium/Broward County Public Schools to provide additional dental services to the special needs community.

Approximately one in 68 children has been diagnosed with ASD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Average medical expenses for children and adolescents with ASD are $4,100-$6,200 higher per year than children without ASD.

This project is 100% financed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number D88HP20126 and Postdoctoral Training in General, Pediatric and Public Health Dentistry and Dental Hygiene for $3,398,452. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.







Bluestone Center Receives High Priority, Short-Term Project Award

Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Drs. Yamano and Schmidt have developed a novel non-viral gene delivery method, and the proposed studies are designed to test whether this could be used to treat cancer pain effectively and safely.

Up to 90% of cancer patients suffer from pain, with oral cancer ranked consistently as one of the most painful cancers. The quality of life for oral cancer patients is the lowest of any patients suffering from cancer because the intense uncontrolled pain interferes with necessary oral functions including eating, talking and swallowing. 

“Oral cancer pain is more severe, and the opioid requirement is higher, than pain from any other cancer,” said Dr. Brian L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and director of NYU’s Bluestone Center for Clinical Research and the NYU Oral Cancer Center. “And in the end, pharmacological agents used to treat cancer pain often lack anatomical specificity and produce off-target effects that create additional suffering.”

“Gene therapy is emerging as an exciting prospect and alternative to opioids for the treatment of cancer pain,” said Dr. Seiichi Yamano, DDS, PhD, DMD, MMSc, assistant professor of prosthodontics at NYU College of Dentistry. “We seek to eliminate oral cancer pain by reversing epigenetic changes using gene therapy and set the stage for a new class of medicines that selectively disrupt nociceptive signaling with limited off-target effects.” 

To further their research, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded Drs. Schmidt and Yamano a one-year, $369,250 High Priority, Short-Term Project Award (R56) to study the efficacy of a novel non-viral gene delivery method. The proposed studies are designed to test whether nonviral gene delivery into the oral cancer could be used to treat cancer pain effectively and safely.

“Viral vector-based treatment of cancer pain has been evaluated in preclinical studies but problems with immune response, limited DNA carrying capacity, recombination and high cost have been encountered,” said Dr. Schmidt. “Synthetic, non-viral vectors are potential alternatives to viral vectors that preclude these obstacles.” 

To improve non-viral gene transfer efficiency, Dr. Yamano recently created two novel nonviral hybrid vectors: a cell-permeable peptide (CPP) combined with either a cationic lipid (CPP/lipid) or a cationic polymer (CPP/polymer). These nonviral vectors have excellent transfection efficiency with little cytotoxicity across a range of cell lines including different types of cancer cells. 

The researchers also found that the transfection efficiency using the nonviral vector in oral cancer cells has a significantly higher expression (~8-fold) than normal cells and has a higher expression (~65%) than an adenoviral vector (~50%). In vivo transfection with either of these nonviral vectors leads to high and long-term transgene expression (~7 months) after intramuscular injection of the vectors. 

“We recently demonstrated that OPRM1 (the gene for the µ-opioid receptor) is methylated and down regulated in oral cancer compared to matched normal tissues in the same patients; these patients reported pain at the site of cancer,” said Dr. Schmidt. “We further demonstrated that OPRM1 re-expression with viral transduction significantly reduced cancer pain in a mouse model.”

Based on their preliminary work, the researchers hypothesize that re-expression of the OPRM1 gene within oral cancer using our non-viral vectors will attenuate cancer pain and restore orofacial function without excessive toxicity. Their research has three specific aims:

- 1. To determine the efficacy of ex vivo OPRM1 gene transfer with non-viral vectors to attenuate cancer-induced pain, with the goal to move their method of non-viral transfection to the clinic, with the goal of clinicians directly inoculating their non-viral vector into an oral cancer; 

- 2. To determine the feasibility and efficacy of in vivo OPRM1 gene transfer (i.e. directly into the tongue cancer) with non-viral vectors for attenuation of cancer-induced pain; and

- 3. To analyze toxicity and immune response in the cancer mice treated with non-viral OPRM1 gene delivery. 

“The proposed research is significant because we will use a local delivery technique directly into the cancer to reduce the potential side effects of systemic drugs,” continues Dr. Yamano. “Our approach is innovative because we will transduce the cancer cells for the treatment of cancer pain and our non-viral vector more efficiently targets oral cancer cells relative to normal cells. Ultimately, these studies might facilitate the development of an effective therapy to treat cancer pain.”

The researchers note that, tragically, approximately half of all oral cancer patients will not be cured with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the US; more patients are afflicted with oral cancer than with melanoma, cervical cancer, or ovarian cancer. The intensity of oral cancer pain escalates with disease progression, and terminal patients generally experience debilitating pain during their final months of life. 

About the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research--The Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, in conjunction with the NYU Oral Cancer Center, is an academic research organization located at the NYU College of Dentistry. Bluestone's mission is to take a creative scientific approach to transform world health. Bluestone is dedicated to conducting research in oral cancer, cancer symptomology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, emerging biotechnology, periodontics, implants, and oral health products.

About New York University College of Dentistry

Founded in 1865, New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) is the third oldest and the largest dental school in the US, educating more than 8 percent of all dentists. NYUCD has a significant global reach and provides a level of national and international diversity among its students that is unmatched by any other dental school.

 







New Virtual Dental Museum Highlights Dental History Online

Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Five new exhibits showcasing fascinating artifacts of dental history can now be viewed on a newly launched website,dentalmuseum.pacific.edu, created by University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry. The exhibits are also on display on digital kiosks located on the first and fourth floors of the school. The digital exhibits are part of the ongoing Virtual Museum Project, which began in 2012 as a creative way to present the school's A. W. Ward Museum collection. For the past two years, Dr. Dorothy Dechant, curator of the A.W. Ward Museum, has been working closely with school photographer Jon Draper to carefully photograph artifacts of all shapes and sizes - from tiny dental burs to heavy antique dental chairs.

For more details, visit the website here







NYU’s Bluestone Center Receives High Priority Project Award from NIDCR to Study Oral Cancer Pain

Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Drs. Yamano and Schmidt have developed a novel non-viral gene delivery method, and the proposed studies are designed to test whether this could be used to treat cancer pain effectively and safely.

Up to 90% of cancer patients suffer from pain, with oral cancer ranked consistently as one of the most painful cancers. The quality of life for oral cancer patients is the lowest of any patients suffering from cancer because the intense uncontrolled pain interferes with necessary oral functions including eating, talking and swallowing. 

“Oral cancer pain is more severe, and the opioid requirement is higher, than pain from any other cancer,” said Dr. Brian L. Schmidt, DDS, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and director of NYU’s Bluestone Center for Clinical Research and the NYU Oral Cancer Center. “And in the end, pharmacological agents used to treat cancer pain often lack anatomical specificity and produce off-target effects that create additional suffering.”

“Gene therapy is emerging as an exciting prospect and alternative to opioids for the treatment of cancer pain,” said Dr. Seiichi Yamano, DDS, PhD, DMD, MMSc, assistant professor of prosthodontics at NYU College of Dentistry. “We seek to eliminate oral cancer pain by reversing epigenetic changes using gene therapy and set the stage for a new class of medicines that selectively disrupt nociceptive signaling with limited off-target effects.” 

To further their research, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded Drs. Schmidt and Yamano a one-year, $369,250 High Priority, Short-Term Project Award (R56) to study the efficacy of a novel non-viral gene delivery method. The proposed studies are designed to test whether nonviral gene delivery into the oral cancer could be used to treat cancer pain effectively and safely.

“Viral vector-based treatment of cancer pain has been evaluated in preclinical studies but problems with immune response, limited DNA carrying capacity, recombination and high cost have been encountered,” said Dr. Schmidt. “Synthetic, non-viral vectors are potential alternatives to viral vectors that preclude these obstacles.” 

To improve non-viral gene transfer efficiency, Dr. Yamano recently created two novel nonviral hybrid vectors: a cell-permeable peptide (CPP) combined with either a cationic lipid (CPP/lipid) or a cationic polymer (CPP/polymer). These nonviral vectors have excellent transfection efficiency with little cytotoxicity across a range of cell lines including different types of cancer cells. 

The researchers also found that the transfection efficiency using the nonviral vector in oral cancer cells has a significantly higher expression (~8-fold) than normal cells and has a higher expression (~65%) than an adenoviral vector (~50%). In vivo transfection with either of these nonviral vectors leads to high and long-term transgene expression (~7 months) after intramuscular injection of the vectors. 

“We recently demonstrated that OPRM1 (the gene for the µ-opioid receptor) is methylated and down regulated in oral cancer compared to matched normal tissues in the same patients; these patients reported pain at the site of cancer,” said Dr. Schmidt. “We further demonstrated that OPRM1 re-expression with viral transduction significantly reduced cancer pain in a mouse model.”

Based on their preliminary work, the researchers hypothesize that re-expression of the OPRM1 gene within oral cancer using our non-viral vectors will attenuate cancer pain and restore orofacial function without excessive toxicity. Their research has three specific aims:

1. To determine the efficacy of ex vivo OPRM1 gene transfer with non-viral vectors to attenuate cancer-induced pain, with the goal to move their method of non-viral transfection to the clinic, with the goal of clinicians directly inoculating their non-viral vector into an oral cancer; 

2. To determine the feasibility and efficacy of in vivo OPRM1 gene transfer (i.e. directly into the tongue cancer) with non-viral vectors for attenuation of cancer-induced pain; and

3. To analyze toxicity and immune response in the cancer mice treated with non-viral OPRM1 gene delivery. 

“The proposed research is significant because we will use a local delivery technique directly into the cancer to reduce the potential side effects of systemic drugs,” continues Dr. Yamano. “Our approach is innovative because we will transduce the cancer cells for the treatment of cancer pain and our non-viral vector more efficiently targets oral cancer cells relative to normal cells. Ultimately, these studies might facilitate the development of an effective therapy to treat cancer pain.”

The researchers note that, tragically, approximately half of all oral cancer patients will not be cured with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the US; more patients are afflicted with oral cancer than with melanoma, cervical cancer, or ovarian cancer. The intensity of oral cancer pain escalates with disease progression, and terminal patients generally experience debilitating pain during their final months of life. 

NIH NIDCR R56 grant number: R56DE025393 (Schmidt/Yamano)







DENTSPLY Implants Hosts Exclusive Event

Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2015

In May, DENTSPLY Implants hosted a 2-day educational program for 15 dental laboratory owners and technicians from across the US. Participants were provided with corporate updates and presentations and discussed various topics including ATLANTIS products and services. A general forum also allowed attendees to interact and discuss related topics of interest.

A tour of the ATLANTIS manufacturing facility was provided, giving participants the opportunity to gain exclusive insight of the design and engineering process that drives the production of ATLANTIS abutments and ATLANTIS ISUS suprastructures.

Participants

Lars Hansson

Deron Blaylock

Jeff Sparks

Ben Berting

Steve Koo

Munik Jang

Hyon Joon Hong

Linda Downing

Dominic (Sangdon) Kim

Chris Halke

Diona Brennan

Alan O'Connor

Mo Bashabsheh

Jun Salsango

Heather Brown

Karl Wagner

Participants from DENTSPLY Implants

Matt Gassel

Darin Lockaby

Fred Senne

Jeff Vaught







Oral Cancers Associated with HPV Increasing in the Americas

Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Washington, D.C., 4 June 2015 (PAHO/WHO) - Although oral and pharyngeal cancers are usually associated with tobacco and alcohol use, the incidence of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers has increased by 225% in the past two decades in the United States, according to data published in the Journal of the American Dental Association. The evidence suggests that in particular, cancers located on the base of the tongue and the tonsils are associated with HPV infection.

Cancers of the oral cavity and oropharynx are among the most common cancers worldwide, with an estimated 443,000 cases and 241,000 deaths occurring globally in 2012. While individuals with HPV-associated oral cancers tend to have better prognoses than individuals with non-HPV-associated oral cancers, HPV-associated cancers are more likely to develop in people without traditional risk factors, like tobacco and alcohol use.

“Cancer is a major threat to public health worldwide, and oropharyngeal cancer is an important component of the global cancer burden with significant costs to the healthcare system,” said Dr. Saskia Estupinan-Day, head of the oral health program at the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). “Cancer in the oropharynx is especially threatening because in its early stages it might be overlooked, as it usually develops without producing any pain or symptoms the individual could recognize.”

More than 190 types of HPV have been identified and classified according to their potential to induce cancer, with more than 15 of these having been linked to human cancers. One specific type – known as high-risk HPV-16 – is associated with 85-95% of the oral cancers linked to HPV. As HPV-16 and other strains associated with oropharyngeal cancers become more prevalent, the frequency of these cancers grows. In addition to the surge of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers over the past 20 years, the risk for tonsillar and oropharyngeal cancers have increased at least by two-fold among individuals with HIV/AIDS due to impairment of the immune system.

Despite this, scientific gaps exist regarding HPV infections, its persistency and its associated oropharyngeal cancers in the general population and in HIV-infected individuals. Additionally, evidence on the efficacy of HPV vaccines to prevent HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer – which could prove to be an important tool for prevention - is lacking.

To address these gaps, PAHO/WHO, through the Regional Oral Health, Cancer, and Non Communicable Diseases programs with the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), the American Dental Association (ADA), and the American Dental Association Foundation (ADAF), has issued a call to action and organized an international consultation meeting that will be held from July 27-28, 2015 at PAHO Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to assess the state-of-science on HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer research, address the existent technical gaps, and outline future directions for research, practice, and policies in the Americas and other regions of the world.

“The increase in HPV oral infections, persisting infections, and the development of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer globally is an emerging public health problem in the general population that is exacerbated in individuals infected with HIV,” said Dr. Isaac Rodriguez-Chavez, Director of the AIDS and Immunosuppression Program at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. “The international consultation meeting at PAHO/WHO will help us understand current state-of-the science, gaps, needs, and trends to inform the development of public health policy on HPV for the Americas. This is also a unique opportunity to harmonize global health efforts to address HPV-associated infections, persisting infections and oropharyngeal cancer.”

“Having a regional plan will be crucial in moving forward to prevent and treat oropharyngeal cancers associated with HPV,” said Dr. Estupinan-Day.







i-Gen Titanium Mesh Membrane

Posted on Tuesday, July 28, 2015

integrated dental systems (ids) introduces i-Gen Titanium Mesh Membranes, which are manufactured in 9 different configurations to allow users to graft sites where a stable implant has been placed but surrounding bone is insufficient.

i-Gen designs incorporate up to 100 degree bend to provide space for GBR, wider titanium mesh for more buccal bone growth and can be used with most of the popular implant systems. i-Gen kits include membranes, flat abutments, cover screws, healing abutments and a hand hex driver.

ids was formed to provide a full suite of innovative tooth replacement products that will help achieve better outcomes for dentists and patients alike. Their products feature designs and technologies that provide shorter and more precise procedures, less recovery time, and enhance the relationships between dentists and their patients — all at more cost-effective price points. Their commitment to developing more solutions that help dentists provide more profitable and better results is the focus of everything they do. Innovation that delivers more for you and your patients. For more information, visit idsimplants.com or call 866.277.5662.







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