Vision and Dental Health - News
Nine-year-old Corey Haas can ride his bike alone now, thanks to an experimental gene therapy that has boosted his fading vision with a single treatment. The gene therapy helped improve worsening eyesight caused by a rare inherited disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, which makes most patients blind by age 40.
Eye drops containing a prescription drug called a beta-blocker, which lowers blood pressure, can be used in pregnant women with glaucoma, according to researchers from Taiwan. Glaucoma is characterized by increased pressure within the eyeball, which can lead to vision loss or even blindness if it's left untreated.
Nerve stem cell transplants may help slow the progression of macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the developed world, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said putting nerve stem cells from StemCells Inc near the retinas of rats with a form of macular degeneration helped keep the disease from advancing to blindness for several months.
For sparkling-clean dentures, brushing may be best, the authors of a new review of the medical literature say. But because there were actually very few published studies of denture cleaning methods, and those that they found were likely biased, the reviewers say it's hard to draw any firm conclusions.
Poor vision is enough a hardship for the elderly. But such vision problems, when they can't be corrected, also appear to be tied to a shorter lifespan, according to a new study. Previous studies have suggested a link between poor vision and death, but researchers wanted to know what might explain the association.
Are you concerned that the photorefractive keratectomy your doctor recommended to fix your eyesight won't be as effective as LASIK surgery? You can rest easier: A new study suggests that people who have their nearsightedness corrected with either LASIK or photorefractive keratectomy, a slightly older laser technique, typically fare well long term.
People who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in more-recent decades may be less likely to suffer vision loss than their predecessors. In a study of nearly 1,000 Wisconsin residents with type 1 diabetes, researchers found that visual impairment was less common among those diagnosed in the 1970s compared with those diagnosed in earlier decades.
If you feel as though you drool too much, studies suggest you should seriously consider surgery to take care of it, say researchers. Drooling is tough to treat, point out authors of a paper from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.
Chapped lips are a common but neglected side effect of chemotherapy, according to data reported here at the ECCO-ESMO European cancer congress. "Patients are often hesitant to report chapped lips when they have more pressing chemotherapy-related complaints like diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and hair loss, among others," Madeleine Williams, a nurse with Bedford Hospital in Bedford, UK, said.
Injections with a steroid improved the eyesight of more than one-quarter of patients suffering from vision-robbing blood clots, a leading cause of blindness, researchers said on Monday. The incurable condition, called central retinal vein occlusion, is believed to affect about half of 1 percent of the world's population and is the second-leading cause of vision loss after macular degeneration.
The health hazards associated with chronic periodontitis (gum disease) extend way beyond the mouth. For years people have been warned that persistent periodontitis can cause heart disease. Now a new study suggests that gum disease may also be a risk factor for cancers of the head and neck.
Patients with dry mouth caused by medications they are taking can safely use 10% hydrogen peroxide whitening strips, researchers report online by the journal Gerontology.
Patients with dry mouth caused by medications they are taking can safely use 10% hydrogen peroxide whitening strips, researchers report online by the journal Gerontology. Reduced production of saliva is thought to make people poor candidates for tooth whitening, said Dr.
People who suffer from vision-impairing glaucoma can exercise without fear of making the condition worse, according to a new study. Glaucoma arises from abnormally high fluid pressure within the eyes, a situation that can damage the optic nerve and lead to vision loss.
Chewing on some sugarless gum may be a low-tech way to help new moms get their bowels moving again after a cesarean section. In a study of women who had a C-section, Egyptian researchers found that giving the women chewing gum afterward seemed to help them recover normal bowel function and shorten their time in the hospital.
Spanish doctors completed the first ever transplant of a tongue and jaw on Tuesday, surgeon Pedro Cavadas said on Friday. The 43-year-old patient, who lost the lower half of his face during treatment for a malignant tumour 11 years ago, is recovering well and could be released in 10 days, Cavadas told a news conference in Valencia.
People with red hair seem particularly nervous about visiting the dentist, and genetics may explain why, according to a new study. A few studies in recent years have found that redheads tend to be less responsive to local pain-blockers like Novocain and may need larger doses to get the same pain relief as people with darker coloring.
A year after receiving gene therapy for a condition that causes total blindness by age 30, three people continue to see better and one has improved enough to read the digital numbers on the clock in her parents' car, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
A contact lens that gradually dispenses a steady stream of medication to the eye could ease treatment for glaucoma and other eye ailments if it advances through animal and human testing, according to new research. For people who need eye drops for conditions such as glaucoma -- damage to the nerve that connects the eye to the brain -- using them several times a day is burdensome and inefficient.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said silver-colored dental fillings that contain mercury are safe for patients, but added they are considered "moderate risk" devices. In final regulations issued as part of an earlier legal settlement, the FDA also said the fillings must now include details about the benefits of the products as well as warnings against their use in patients with mercury allergies or in poorly ventilated areas.
Glaucoma patients are likely to lose more of their vision if they suffer minor strokes, a three-year study in Hong Kong has found. Glaucoma, or damage to the optic nerve, is the second leading cause of blindness and experts estimate that more than 60 million people in the world will suffer from it by 2010.
Our modern dental woes have a lot do to with modern whole-body ills like heart disease and diabetes, according to the author of a review of decades' worth of studies on diet and health. The culprit in both cases? The so-called fermentable carbohydrates forming the foundation of the modern diet, says Dr.
A therapy that helps regenerate receding gum tissue seems to hold up over the long term -- and may offer patients an alternative to more-extensive dental surgery, a small study finds. One option for treating severe gum disease is surgery to replace tissue lost from around the teeth and their roots.
In a report released Monday, US researchers say they have "compelling evidence" that three infants became infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by eating food prechewed by their HIV-infected caregivers. The mothers of two of the three children were known to be infected with HIV, but the mothers had not breastfed their babies and mother-to-child transmission of HIV had been ruled out.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.3 million to an interdisciplinary team that will investigate how people's oral health might affect their memory, and vice versa. Dr. Bei Wu, a gerontologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will lead the research, which will examine existing national and regional studies of thousands of people.
Young children given syrup containing the naturally occurring sweetener xylitol may be less likely to develop decay in their baby teeth, results of a study hint. Early childhood cavities, also called baby bottle tooth decay or nursing cavities, are characterized by severe tooth decay early in life and remain a problem, Dr.
Although more than 90 percent of patients taking ocular medication reported feeling confident about their eyedrop instillation technique, less than one third actually demonstrated adequate skills, researchers report in the Archives of Ophthalmology.
Monthly injections of Lucentis can significantly improve sight in people with retinal vein occlusion, which leads to vision loss, according to research released by Roche Holding AG's Genentech unit on Thursday. The condition, which primarily affects older people, is characterized by blockage of the blood supply from the retina -- the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye -- causing fluid to build up and vision to cloud.
Phase III clinical testing of an experimental drug against onchocerciasis called moxidectin is set to begin in three African countries, the World Health Organization announced this week. Also referred to as "river blindness," the disease is caused by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus, which is transmitted to people by biting blackflies (buffalo gnats) that breed in fast-flowing rivers.
A minority of patients with recurrent mouth sores (aphthous stomatitis) have gluten-sensitive enteropathy, making evaluation for celiac disease appropriate in this population, according to a new study in BMC Gastroenterology.
