Myth That Snuff Users Today Have Fewer Dental Caries

It is a myth that snus (Swedish snuff) users today have fewer dental caries. On the contrary, some types of nicotine-free snus contain both carbohydrates and starch that increase the risk of cavities. Those are the findings of a thesis from Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

A common notion is that people who use nicotine-containing snus have fewer cavities. But that notion is a myth. A fact proven by Lena Hellqvist, a doctoral student at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg and a member of staff at Karlstad University, who studied oral health among snus users for her thesis.

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The Roles Parents Play In The Transmission Of Dentist Fear In Their Family

Fear of visiting the dentist is a frequent problem in paediatric dentistry. A new study confirms the emotional transmission of dentist fear among family members and analyses the different roles that mothers and fathers might play.

A new study conducted by scientists at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid highlights the important role that parents play in the transmission of dentist fear in their family.

Previous studies had already identified the association between the fear levels of parents and their children, but they never explored the different roles that the father and the mother play in this phenomenon.

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Obesity, Dental Health And Homeless Children

Obesity and dental cavities increase and become epidemic as children living below the poverty level age, according to nurse researchers from the Case Western Reserve University and the University of Akron.

"It's the leading cause of chronic infections in children," said Marguerite DiMarco, associate professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

Researchers Sheau-Huey Chiu, assistant professor, and graduate assistant Jessica L. Prokp, from the University of Akron's College of Nursing, contributed to the study.

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Tumor Growth May Be Slowed Or Halted By Common Food Preservative

Nisin, a common food preservative, may slow or stop squamous cell head and neck cancers, a University of Michigan study found.

What makes this particularly good news is that the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization approved nisin as safe for human consumption decades ago, says Yvonne Kapila, the study's principal investigator and professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.

This means that obtaining FDA approval to test nisin's suggested cancer-fighting properties on patients in a clinical setting won't take as long as a new therapy that hasn't been tried yet on people, she says.

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Half A Billion People Exposed To Direct Carcinogens By Chewing Betel Quid

Chewing betel quid - the fourth most popular psychoactive substance in the world after tobacco, alcohol and caffeine - exposes its 600 million users to substances that act as direct carcinogens in the mouth, scientists are reporting in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Mu-Rong Chao and Chiung-Wen Hu explain that betel quid (BQ) consists of nuts from the arcea tree, sometimes combined with spices, such as cardamom or saffron, and other ingredients. Available in commercial forms, BQ is popular among people in China, India and other Asian countries, and people of Asian heritage living in the U.S. and other countries. Scientists have known for decades that chewing BQ can lead to oral cancer, and showed recently that the substances in BQ could be changed into carcinogens in the body. The authors of this study explored whether there were any substances in the arcea nut that can cause cancer directly, without any need for the body to change or "activate" them.

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Cancer Survivors With Chronic Dry Mouth Benefit From First Human Gene Therapy Study In Human Salivary Glands

Gene therapy can be performed safely in the human salivary gland, according to scientists at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health.

This finding comes from the first-ever safety, or Phase I, clinical study of gene therapy in a human salivary gland. Its results, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also show that the transferred gene, Aquaporin-1, has great potential to help head and neck cancer survivors who battle with chronic dry mouth. Aquaporin-1 encodes a protein that naturally forms pore-like water channels in the membranes of cells to help move fluid, such as occurs when salivary gland cells secrete saliva into the mouth.

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