Forever Young: Anti-aging With Botox at the Dentist?

By Leslie Iverson, LDA

Almost everyone wants to look their best. Cosmetic alternatives range from very minimal to extreme makeovers.  

The most common non-surgical procedures in 2010 were Botox and hyaluronic acid injections according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS).

Dentists are adding Botox injections to their practices to remove wrinkles as well as a therapeutic tool to treat TMJ disorders, dermal fillers can also be used in dental offices to treat angular cheilitis when other treatment avenues have not been successful. 

Other anti-aging minimal invasive dental procedures are teeth whitening, bonding or teeth reshaping.

Is it wrong for dentists to use Botox? Controversy has been raised due to some of the opinion that Botox procedures should be done only by specialists.

How does Botox work? Botox works by temporarily inhibiting acetylcholine neurotransmission at the neuromuscular junction, in other words, a temporary muscle paralysis. Results last 3 to 4 months.

Botox is used mainly on the forehead and around eyes, for the lower portion of the face there are other dermal fillers used instead. 

 

Is Botox safe? Botox could be lethal, but so can be fire and water. Botox has been used for decades now, starting with ophthalmologist Alan Scott to treat human strabismus in 1980.

The main risk with Botox is that the person applying botox, place it on the wrong muscle, thus creating temporal paralysis on the wrong place.

Are dentists qualified to use Botox? Dentists study for a whole semester or two head and neck anatomy as well as gross anatomy during their training.

Oral surgeons spend a little less than half their lives with a body in a lab, where muscle words like: Masseter, temporalis, frontalis, procerus, corrugator, orbicularis oris, orbicularis oculi, mentalis, depressor anguli oris and pterygoid  are seen even on their soup, --like they say in my native Colombia-- and many of them have considered even naming their kids after one of them too.

With the right training nobody in the health field would be as qualified as a dentist.

Is "Botoxing" practicing dentistry beyond its scope? I'm not really worried that dentists would practice beyond their scope, good practitioners recognize their limits.

Consider general dentists who perform some dental specialty procedures in their offices like endodontia or oral surgery: They undertake the ones that they know are going to be successful and refer the "tough" ones.

In the end, if patients want Botox to get rid of wrinkles, or as an alternative treatment, they are going to get it.

I hope patients would think about their dentist as a very good option to get help, they probably got some wrinkles themselves thinking about going to the dentist in the first place anyway, why not have the dentist himself erased them? That's a thought. I have some volunteering wrinkles on myself.

Here are the dentists in Minnesota who offer Botox that I'm aware of:
O'Brien Dental Care in Shakopee
Four Season Family Dentistry in Plymouth
Minneapolis Dental
Institute of Facial Surgery in Maplewood
Point family dentistry in Bloomington and
Pleasant Avenue Dentistry in Park Rapids.

To see the educational document from the Minnesota Dental Board Click Here.

To read more controversial views from dentists about this subject go to: Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry.

Dental Assistant Tales is a blog for dental assistants by a dental assistant.
This dental assistant blog is also aimed to answer some general questions that sometimes dental patients have. Have a question? Contact me.

Other posts you might enjoy: 

10 Things You Should Do To get A Dental Assistant Job.

What Exactly Does a Dental Assistant Do?
 
How Much Were Dental Assistants Paid in 2010?

Online Dental Assistant Training in MN 

Holy Halitosis, How To Get Rid of Bad Breath
  

Medical Emergencies for Dentists and Dental Profesionals

By Leslie Iverson, LDA

I had the chance to take a couple of videos while getting some dental continuing education credits at the Minnesota Star of the North dental convention a couple of weeks ago.

This particular one is about a mannequin used to train dentists and other health professionals on how to manage medical emergencies.

His name is "Hal," but when I pronounce it, it sounds like "hell," a more appropriate name for many when a medical emergency arises.

 

Every year the CPR people update something when training, or so it seems.

The latest update I'm aware of, was that you do not need to take a pulse anymore, since they observed that it was taking too much time for individuals to find one --up to 4 minutes--. A critical challenge when every precious minute counts when saving a life on a medical emergency. 

They decided that you can safely start compressions, if the unconscious patient did not need his heart massaged, he will wake up shortly after, let you know--while punching you on the face--and probably thank you later on, after further recovery. Fair enough.

To go to the American Heart Association Click Here

 

Dental Assistant Tales is a blog for dental assistants by a dental assistant.

This dental assistant blog is also aimed to answer some general questions that sometimes dental patients have. Have a question? Contact me.

Other blog posts you might enjoy:

10 Things You Should Do To get A Dental Assistant Job.

What Exactly Does a Dental Assistant Do?

 

How Much Were Dental Assistants Paid in 2010?

Online Dental Assistant Training in MN 

  

 

Dentists Can Give You Peace of Mind in Two Easy Minutes With An Oral Cancer Screening

 By Leslie Iverson, LDA

When it comes to the word Cancer nobody wants to hear it.
Add the words "oral" and "dentist" to it, and now you have a perfect horror movie on your head.

Thanks to smart, yet simple and quick tools available to dentists, patients can sleep a little better knowing that they are healthy after an oral cancer screening.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation: "Close to 37,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year. It will cause over 8,000 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of those 36,000 newly diagnosed individuals, only slightly more than half will be alive in 5 years."

Smoking and drinking are not the only factors to consider when determining if a patient needs an oral cancer screening or not, but other factors like --gasp-- being Hispanic, since according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research: Hispanics and Blacks have higher oral cancer rates.  

Pretty much if you are breathing you are a candidate for an oral cancer screening. HPV the silent virus has also been linked to oral cancer. 

An oral cancer screening is not designed to detect cancer, but to determine if an area needs further investigation. If after further research the area ends up being malignant, the advantage is that when detected early, chances of survival are higher.

I get an oral cancer screening once a year, and since April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, why not share my experience so you can see what happens during an oral cancer screening. Yes, dental assistants have bad hair days too; but stick with the video and you might learn something.

There are mainly four systems that I'm aware of, dentists can choose from when performing an oral cancer screening:

A brush test which the dentist sends to a lab.
ViziLite, which uses a rinse and a chemiluminescence light.
VELscope with a fluorescence light and
Identafi 3000 which is a wand like tool that uses 3 light wavelengths.
I got mine with ViziLite since is the one my dentist uses.

After rinsing for 30 seconds with a liquid that tastes like salad vinaigrette, the dental assistant darkens the room for better contrast, the dentist activates a little "Star Wars" like wand that glows in the dark. Cheeks, lips, throat, tongue, and palatal tissues are checked. 

A suspicious spot on the tissue will "glow" when looked under this light. If the area still glows after two weeks from when the initial oral cancer screening was done, the patient is then sent to get a biopsy with local anesthetic at the oral surgeon or to the ENT--Ears, Nose and Throat doctor-- to look more into it, determining if it is something to worry about or not.

How much should you expect to pay for an oral cancer screening? Depends on what method your dentist uses, mine was in the mid $60, an average here in MN. Not bad for having the peace of mind of just knowing. 
I did not glow with my oral cancer screening today, yippee! See you again next year little Star Wars wand!

Other posts you might enjoy:

The Answer To The Tooth Fairy Question

How To Save Money At The Dentist 

Holy Halitosis, How To Get Rid of Bad Breath

11 Interview Questions That Can Make you Money.

Dental Assistant Tales is a blog for dental assistants by a dental assistant.
This dental assistant blog is also aimed to answer some general questions that sometimes dental patients have. Have a question? Contact me.