In its fourth year, the Connecticut Mission of Mercy dental clinic provides two days worth of free dental care to those in need around the state, including teeth cleanings, extractions and fillings.

The dental programme is so popular that would-be patients queue up outside in their cars overnight before the clinic begins, hoping to get one of the coveted 2000 available places up for grabs.

The need is great since so many Connecticut residents are unable to afford dental care and do not have insurance. The goal of the project is for there no longer to be a need for the service, says Michael Perl, Mission of Mercy’s co-chair.

But as the years progress, there are patients who use the clinic as a regular dental service. The clinics have helped to raise awareness of the need for better access to dental care, but organisers are less optimistic of achieving their biggest goal: eliminating the need for the free service.

In fact, the need for the service has increased. In Connecticut, an estimated 600,000 to 1 million people do not have access to dental care and many people who get health coverage through work don’t get dental insurance. Those who are fortunate to have dental insurance, can still feel up against it, as many insurance policies cap coverage limits to about $1,500.

The need is so great in the northeastern American state that many dentists worry that the rates will increase and the need for free dental care services will be greater by 2013. “It really isn’t getting better, not that I can see,” Perl said.

But the thousands of patients waiting 12 hours and longer to receive the free dental care are extremely grateful for the effort and services provided by Mission of Mercy. It just leaves one question: Is this really the best American can do for its people? This type of volunteering doesn’t solve the problem, Perl said, but it does raise awareness.

Tooth loss happens. Whether as the result of an accident or the result of poor oral hygiene, but if you are the culprit, you should aware that there are a variety of solutions available to you to remedy this problem, thanks to technology.

Dental implants have several advantages to other tooth replacement options and can allow patients to have the look, feel and function of natural teeth. There are three types of dental implants:

1. A titanium implant surgically placed into the jawbone, which fuses into place through a process called “osseointegration”.
2. An abutment fits over the portion of the implant that protrudes from the gum line.
3. A replacement tooth created by your dentist and fitted onto the abutment for a natural appearance.

Dental implants can replace a single tooth or an entire set of teeth. They are appropriate for anyone except children and teenagers whose jaws are still growing or who have other medical issues.

A case study from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic has confirmed that there more is needed to prevent tooth loos in postmenopausal women than the typical brushing, flossing and bi-annual dental check ups.

According to researchers, who split postmenopausal women into two groups, found that both those on medication for osteoporosis and those with regular bones had unusually elevated levels of dental plaque.

Dental plaque is a sheath of bacteria, its waste and food particles which cling to the teeth. Plaque, because it sticks to teeth, has been known to initiate the circumstances that lead to gum disease, which erodes the sockets that secure teeth and can therefore result in the loss of teeth.

All of the women who took part in the study carried on with the basic care of their teeth including brushing twice a day, flossing and attending regular dental check ups. Even with all of that involvement, dental plaque continued to plague women’s teeth.

Women who wish to avoid tooth loss after menopause should never finish a meal with any sweet or sugary substance without cleaning your teeth immediately afterwards. It is also recommended that you increase your check ups to four times a month and ensure that each check up includes deep periodontal cleaning to control plaque.

The Indian Dental Association held the first Continued Dental Education programme on Sunday in Patna, India. During the programme, Narenda Singh, the country’s agriculture minister stressed the need for the development of the dental industry.

“Dentistry has become an important and integral part of medical science,” Singh pointed out, mentioning that in the past, precedence was given to teeth and gums. According to Singh, the position government was instrumental in giving dental surgeons identical status and income on the same level as MBBS doctors.

The area where the programme was held is one of the areas prone to periodontitis due to the chewing of tobacco and bad oral hygiene. Periondontitis is a disease in which the teeth become inflamed with bad breath and loose gums and can lead to cardiac troubles and have an influence on the health of lungs. Staggeringly, 99 percent of the world’s population is suffering from various manifestations of peridontia.

Thirty-two thousand five to 14 year old children will be part of a comprehensive study performed in Australia to determine why children’s oral health has been deteriorating. According to 2006 statistics, more children ages 5 to 14 were admitted for hospital for teeth removal or dental work than any other cause.

Nearly 27,000 children were admitted in 2006 with 8,114 under the age of five. Although the figures are dramatic, the trend of deteriorating teeth in Australia’s children isn’t new, says John Spencer, a representative of Adelaide University’s Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health. In fact, Spencer says that children’s oral health has been on the decline since 1999.

What were the culprits? Dietary changes and a decrease in the consumption of fluoridated water, according to Spencer. Specifically, “We think it’s the increased use of rainwater tanks, the increased use of filtered water and the increase in bottled water,” he said.

Spencer also pointed out that since, for the past 20 years, dental clinics have not been mandatory components of school clinics that tooth brushing may have decreased as well. This accounts for a significant change in trend since the school dental service used to be a primary source of dental care, now only some 30 percent of care is given in schools.

Visiting a dentist regularly is something that a lot of people struggle with. Given our busy lives and the difficulty in finding an NHS dentist, or the astronomical costs that can be associated with private dentistry, it is easy to neglect visiting the dentist. Similarly, many pet owners forget that visiting a dentist is necessary for their pets as well.

Just like with dentists for humans, ensuring that your pet has regular checkups will enable you to prevent underlying problems that might become difficult to correct if allowed to fester untreated.  Neglecting the oral care of your pets can lead to harmful substances such as bacteria and inflammatory material from diseased teeth and gums entering into your pet’s bloodstream and damaging internal organs, particularly the kidneys and hearts, veterinarians say.

Dental disease in pets starts the moment plaque begins to build up on their teeth and, just like with humans, can lead to gingivitis and bone loss. Although gingivitis is treatable and reversible, bone loss is not. While it is true that regular brushing is ideal for preventing dental maladies in your pets, there are other preventative measures that you could take including chew toys and specially-formulated dental diets.

Technological advancements mean that cosmetic dentists are able to treat severe dental problems more comfortably and in less time than in the past. Some of the things cosmetic dentists are capable of correcting are misaligned jaws and preventing and treating teeth erosion.

A poorly aligned jaw could be causing you serious muscle tension, headaches and earaches. Neuromascular dentistry, the branch of dentistry dealing with the alignment of the jaw, aims to eliminate pain experienced as a result of a poorly aligned jaw.

Many times people who have crooked teeth corrected by a dentist report to having them go back to the way they were before treatment, this is because a misaligned jaw can damage any smile restoration performed by your dentist if it is left untreated. In order for this not to happen, there needs to be a balance between the teeth and jaw bones and muscles.

Tooth erosion can occur from a damaged tooth that is left untreated and is allowed to fester with infection. When prevention is no longer an option, cosmetic dentistry offers a range of option for treatment including extractions or implants.

The high cost of dental care in Jamaica means hundreds and thousands have to go without basic dental care, according to area dentists. Dr. Irving McKenzie, director of dentistry in the Ministry of Health says that the expensive composites and materials dentists use contribute to the high costs. In addition to these materials, Dr. McKenzie mentioned the dental chair as a contributing factor to escalated costs, calling it one of the “most costly” items in the dentists’ repertoire.

Jamaica’s escalated dental costs mean that an increasing number of residents have poor dental hygiene and poor overall health. Since, Dr. McKenzie said, a large amount of research suggests that there is a direct link between a person’s oral health and their overall health.

So, Dr. McKenzie is working with local newspapers to educate the people of Jamaica on dental issues that they may not be aware of including those effecting healthy pregnancies and HIV/AIDS. In one such interview, Dr. McKenzie cautioned expectant mothers that gum disease can lead to preterm, low birth-weight babies. He continued to explain that the HIV/AIDS virus is manifested in oral cavities in the early stages. As a result, a dentist could be “a serious adjunct in terms of diagnosing HIV and other diseases”.

“Rotten teeth is the most prolific and prominent disease on the face of the earth, and to have poor oral health is going lead to a myriad problems,” Dr. McKenzie said.

BiteBank Websites is an innovative leader in the dental industry, providing dental website design and online marketing, and at the Henry Schein Dental National Sales Meeting held in Toronto earlier in the month, it was awarded the prize for being the most innovative new product at the event.

BiteBank, was the winner of the prize after a hat trick of awards in each of the three categories. Co-founder of the website, Dr. Atul Joshi said, “We are extremely pleased to be honored by such a leading company as Henry Schein. They have always been at the forefront of technological innovations that meet the needs of today’s dentists, so to get this acknowledgment from them is indeed a very high praise for our online product.”

Atul continued to say, “Our application and service is designed to effectively provide control, content and better value for dentists to establish and maintain their online practice presence. We are committed to providing them with a best in class service for dental websites and online marketing and patient communication strategies.”

BiteBank provides customized solutions to dentists to be able to create, manage and publish dental websites. In addition, the company provides online marketing and content services that facilitate dentists’ ability to promote their services.

Palm Beach dentists are offering free dental care to mothers-to-be as part of the Adopt-a-Mom scheme, a volunteer health programme. The scheme provides free care at a local clinic while the mums-to-be are pregnant. Once they give birth, they are paired with a dentist who will help them maintain their oral hygiene for the next two years.

Mary Pagana, a representative of the scheme said, “There was nowhere to service pregnant mothers before this. There is so much need for them to learn about hygiene in pregnancy, taking care of their baby’s teeth and taking care of their own teeth.”

According to providers, the programme seeks to target pregnant women who have left dental maladies to fester and are in need of dental attention. The importance of one such scheme targeted at expectant mothers is increasingly important as periodontal disease has been linked with pre-term births and low-birthweight babies.

The scheme has progressed with several dentists in the area and surrounding areas citing their interest in participating in the programme. As well, dental hygiene students have also been taking part and helping to staff the clinic.