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Pathogen Linked to Early Childhood Caries Identified
NEWS
RELATIONSHIP FOUND BETWEEN CHEWING ABILITY, MUSCLE STRENGTH IN ELDERLY PEOPLE
hewing ability may be related to handgrip strength, say researchers in an article published online ahead of print Feb. 22 in Journal of Oral Rehabilitation. Researchers in Japan studied whether self-assessed masticatory ability was significantly related to bodily muscle strength, evaluated as handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass of the whole body (SMM), after adjusting for confounding variables such as age, sex, height, weight, employment status, type of household, educational background, social interaction, chronic medical conditions, smoking habit, drinking habits and dentition status in elderly people. The research team, led by Dr. Shingo Moriya, Department of Oral Health, National Institute of Public Health, Saitama, Japan, recruited 381 participants aged 67 to 74. They classified the participants’ masticatory abilities into one of three groups: ability to chew all kinds of food, ability to chew only slightly hard food, or ability to chew only soft or pureed food. They measured the participants’ handgrip strength and used bioimpedance analysis to estimate SMM. They used oneway analysis of variance and Bonferroni methods to examine differences in handgrip strength and SMM among the three groups and used an ordinal regression model with masticatory ability as the dependent variable and handgrip strength as the principal independent variable. The researchers found that handgrip strength was significantly lower in participants who could chew only soft or
C
pureed food than in those who could chew all kinds of food. They found no significant difference in SMM among the three masticatory ability groups. They concluded that chewing ability was significantly related to handgrip strength after adjusting for SMM, dentition status and background factors. PATHOGEN LINKED TO EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES IDENTIFIED
cientists have identified a new pathogen connected to severe early childhood caries, according to an article published in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Boston-area researchers led by Anne Tanner, BDS, PhD, senior member of the staff, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Mass.; and an associate professor, Department of Oral Medicine Infection and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, compared the microbial composition of dental plaque from 42 children who had severe early childhood caries (ECC) with that of the plaque of children with no caries. They found that the major bacterial species associated with severe ECC were Streptococcus mutans, Scardovia wiggsiae, Veillonella parvula, Streptococcus cristatus and Actinomyces gerensceriae. They also found that S. wiggsiae was present in the mouths of children with severe ECC when other known caries-causing pathogens such as S. mutans were not detected. The bacterial species S. mutans is widely recognized as the primary pathogen in ECC. However, it also is present in people without ECC and is not detected in all cases of child-
S
JADA 142(4)
hood caries. This finding suggests that other species such as S. wiggsiae also are diseasecausing pathogens. “Understanding the causes of severe dental decay in young children is the first step in identifying an effective cure,” said Dr. Tanner. CORRECTION
here was an error in the February JADA article titled “A Summary of the Update on Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Device Infections and Their Management: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association” (Baddour LM, Epstein AE, Erickson CC et al., on behalf of the American Heart Association Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease Committee of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, Council on Clinical Cardiology; and the Interdisciplinary Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. JADA 2011;142[2]: 159-165). dThe abbreviation key on page 160 expands the abbrevia-
T
JADAPreview COMING IN MAY
dOsteonecrosis of the jaws in patients receiving zoledronic acid and bevacizumab dUse of patient communication techniques by dentists in the United States dTrigeminal nerve injury associated with injection of local anesthetics Look for this and more in the May issue of JADA.
http://jada.ada.org
Copyright © 2011 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.
April 2011
375
RELATIONSHIP FOUND BETWEEN CHEWING ABILITY, MUSCLE STRENGTH IN ELDERLY PEOPLE
hewing ability may be related to handgrip strength, say researchers in an article published online ahead of print Feb. 22 in Journal of Oral Rehabilitation. Researchers in Japan studied whether self-assessed masticatory ability was significantly related to bodily muscle strength, evaluated as handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass of the whole body (SMM), after adjusting for confounding variables such as age, sex, height, weight, employment status, type of household, educational background, social interaction, chronic medical conditions, smoking habit, drinking habits and dentition status in elderly people. The research team, led by Dr. Shingo Moriya, Department of Oral Health, National Institute of Public Health, Saitama, Japan, recruited 381 participants aged 67 to 74. They classified the participants’ masticatory abilities into one of three groups: ability to chew all kinds of food, ability to chew only slightly hard food, or ability to chew only soft or pureed food. They measured the participants’ handgrip strength and used bioimpedance analysis to estimate SMM. They used oneway analysis of variance and Bonferroni methods to examine differences in handgrip strength and SMM among the three groups and used an ordinal regression model with masticatory ability as the dependent variable and handgrip strength as the principal independent variable. The researchers found that handgrip strength was significantly lower in participants who could chew only soft or
C
pureed food than in those who could chew all kinds of food. They found no significant difference in SMM among the three masticatory ability groups. They concluded that chewing ability was significantly related to handgrip strength after adjusting for SMM, dentition status and background factors. PATHOGEN LINKED TO EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES IDENTIFIED
cientists have identified a new pathogen connected to severe early childhood caries, according to an article published in the April issue of Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Boston-area researchers led by Anne Tanner, BDS, PhD, senior member of the staff, Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Mass.; and an associate professor, Department of Oral Medicine Infection and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, compared the microbial composition of dental plaque from 42 children who had severe early childhood caries (ECC) with that of the plaque of children with no caries. They found that the major bacterial species associated with severe ECC were Streptococcus mutans, Scardovia wiggsiae, Veillonella parvula, Streptococcus cristatus and Actinomyces gerensceriae. They also found that S. wiggsiae was present in the mouths of children with severe ECC when other known caries-causing pathogens such as S. mutans were not detected. The bacterial species S. mutans is widely recognized as the primary pathogen in ECC. However, it also is present in people without ECC and is not detected in all cases of child-
S
JADA 142(4)
hood caries. This finding suggests that other species such as S. wiggsiae also are diseasecausing pathogens. “Understanding the causes of severe dental decay in young children is the first step in identifying an effective cure,” said Dr. Tanner. CORRECTION
here was an error in the February JADA article titled “A Summary of the Update on Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Device Infections and Their Management: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association” (Baddour LM, Epstein AE, Erickson CC et al., on behalf of the American Heart Association Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease Committee of the Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, Council on Clinical Cardiology; and the Interdisciplinary Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. JADA 2011;142[2]: 159-165). dThe abbreviation key on page 160 expands the abbrevia-
T
JADAPreview COMING IN MAY
dOsteonecrosis of the jaws in patients receiving zoledronic acid and bevacizumab dUse of patient communication techniques by dentists in the United States dTrigeminal nerve injury associated with injection of local anesthetics Look for this and more in the May issue of JADA.
http://jada.ada.org
Copyright © 2011 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.
April 2011
375