Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Oct. 23, 1997, edition 1 / Page 13
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13A HEALTH/The Charlotte Post Thursday October 23, 1997 Pain free dental work? tShe associated press j. WASHINGTON - Dentists are “Jiying to coax 40 million fright- ■“ jned Americans back into the chair with a mix of technology and psychology designed to take most of the pain out of tooth care. Among the new tools: fnendlier drills and needle-free anesthesia to muscle relaxation and virtual reality. “Years ago, dentists were trained to treat teeth and they forgot there was a patient attached to them,” said Dr. Kimberly Harms, an adviser to .‘the American Dental Association who practices in Farmington, Minn. In modem America, comfort is •critical, she said, “and the mar- 'Icetplace is taking hold of that.” At the recent annual meeting of the ADA, 35,000 dental workers ! are getting firsthand knowledge ; of new pain-reducing products i like Noven Pharmaceuticals’ ' DentiPatch, a Bandaid-hke patch that sends numbing lidocaine j into the gums without a needle. ; But fighting fear can require more than gadgets. About 50 spe cialized “dentophobia clinics” I 'have sprung up nationwide, and ; dental schools are teaching den- i tists to become therapists, cheer- I ;Jeaders and doctors all in one. i Phobia dentists spend months ; helping patients conquer fear I before touching a tooth. They I administer Valium to patients too ; shaky to walk into the office. ; They teach patients muscle relax- j ation and guided imageiy - some- ] times even resorting to hypnosis I - because tense muscles feel more A MAM MO WHAT? A MAMMoqRAM. AlilHOLqii if souivds lil( A nliqRAM [rom mom, ir’s RiAlly jusi an x-RAy of yooR Itriasis. Now I kNOw you RE noi CRAzy Aboui clocTORS. But even if you dink youR Itriasts (vfRy moniIi foR cIianejis, A MAMMOqRAM is jUl ONE llliNq iflAT CAN fiNc) A luMp loNq 1)[ foRt yOU CAN fill if. So ON( I yOU RIAcIl foRiy, qET A MAMMoqRAM EVFRy yF.AR, b(CAUSE lAkiNq CARE of busiNESS biqiNS wirll lAkiNq (ARI of yOURSlIf. Get a Mammoqram TeII a pRiENcJ. pain, and muscles relax as the mind does. Only after patients become treatable do the phobia dentists pull out their new arsenal; anes thetics with less or even no needle pain, an air drill that sandblasts cavities without the usual terrify ing whine, a new pain-free laser drill, even virtual-reality glasses to distract patients. Stephen Diana says if he had knovm about the new approach, he might not have avoided den tists for 20 years and lost half his teeth to gum disease. “I’m an educated person, and I did not realize that this stuff was available now,” said Diana, of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., who needed three months of phobia therapy, a tranquilizer and the DentiPatch to conquer his fear of dental nee dles. ‘T had 13 teeth extracted emd got through it without turning into a gibbering idiot.” An estimated 40 million Americans are so afraid of den tistry that they avoid or postpone dental visits. As many as half are what dental phobia expert Dr. Mark Slovin calls extreme cases - avoiding dentists at aU costs for years. “We have to make ourselves known” so that phobia sufferers can be treated, said Slovin, head of the State University of New York’s Stony Brook dental phobia clinic. Dentists say they’re still fight ing the stereotype of Steve Martin’s sadistic tooth-driller in “Little Shop of Horrors.” Doctors optimistic about Crohn’s THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON - Injections of an antibody that targets a natural human protein are showing Ij promise in hard-to-treat cases ii of Crohn's disease, a chronic .^digestive illness. 1 ; The treatment involves injec tions of an antibody called cA2. It neutralizes a protein known as tumor necrosis factor that is tiiought to play a role in caus- ijig Crohn’s disease. I The Associated Press first ijeported the development last ^ear when it was presented at a medical conference in San Francisco. The study is now lieing published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The treatment, which is not' yet approved for routine use, was developed by Centocor Inc. of Malvern, Pa. The company financed the study, which was conducted on 108 patients by Dr. Stephen R. Targan and col leagues from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Crohn’s disease is an inflam mation of the digestive tract. Symptoms can include diar rhea, pain, fever and weight loss. Some patients need surgery to remove damaged parts of their intestines. All of the patients in the study had moderate to severe disease and had failed to respond to standard medicines. A month after treatment, two- thirds getting cA2 showed con siderable improvement, and half of those who improved got so much better that doctors considered them to be in remis sion. After three months, the effects had begun to wear off, but 41 percent of the patients were still significantly better. The treatment appears to carry no significant side effects. The I researchers caution that mord testing will be necessary to see how long improvements last and to study the effects of repeat injections. Beef bacteria meets match By Tara Meyer THE ASSOCIATED PRESS I GRIFFIN, Ga. — The bad bug of beef may have met its extermina tor. I Michael Doyle, one of the nation’s top experts on E. coh 0157:H7, has foimd that bacteria from a cow’s own gut can stop it Olid - a discoveiy that may lead to a product that eliminates the bug ikfore cattle are sent to slaughter. “If we could give cows a dose of a product to clear out their systems of E. coh 0157, there should be less meat contaminated that goes into the retail market,” said Michael Doyle, a food scientist at die University of Georgia. lE. coli 0157:H7 is a rare type of die common E. coli bacteria that live in human and animal intestines. Undercooked beef tainted with pathogen has sick- fflied hundreds of people since it was identified in 1982. An outbreak in Colorado prompted a historic recall of 25 miUion pounds of ground beef in August and forced the govern ment to re-examine ways to keep meat safe, including radiation. E. coli lives in a cow's stomach, so the man who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm had a sim ple strategy: He discovered that several types of bacteria inside the cow make their own repellent against E. coli 0157. He isolated them from cattle droppings and tissue, grew them and fed the bacteria to calves. The bacteria not only wiped out the pathogen in one group of calves within three weeks, they also kept E. coli 0157 from invad ing a second group that didn't have it, said Doyle, who runs the Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement in this town 35 miles south of Atlanta. Food safety experts have taken notice of Doyle's work. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees veterinary medicine, met with him last month to dis cuss its potential, he said. “This type of technology is exact ly what we need if we are going to keep the bacteria out of the food supply,” said Caroline Smith Dewaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “We need to have farmers address the bacteria before the cattle go to slaughter.” Dale Hancock, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at Washington State University who has studied E. coh 0157 since 1989, said cattle producers may have no choice but to try a novel approach. “There are a lot of cattle produc ers who don’t perceive themselves to be part of the problem,” said Hancock. “Right now, there’s nothing to tell them.” Neighborhoods key to health THE ASSOCIATED PRESS i RALEIGH - Safe neighbor- Koods, and not just access to good lEedical care, would improve the Health of North Carolina's minor- i£y commimities, a group of resi dents told state officials. IThe state Office of Minority Health had asked community leaders for input on how the dgency could do a better job. SMore than 300 people accepted the offer Saturday, but they didn’t talk much about medicine. Instead, they spoke long and loud about social, economic and spiri tual pathologies that threaten health. “‘In every single neighborhood there is drug dealing going on,” said Luis Alvarenga, director of La Casa Multicultural. ‘That is bringing this viciousness in.” Alvarenga said the recent increase in robberies of Latinos in Durham is connected to other problems in the irmer city. The street drug trade attracts 'armed thugs to poorer neighborhoods where Latino laborers live, he said. The conference participants filled page after page of bright orange sheets with ad-vice on how state officials could better help people. When they were done, they demanded action. “I suggest we do this annually and check to see if the state fol lows up on the recommenda tions,” Mary Beamon of the Wake County chapter of North Carolina Fair Share suggested near the end of the day. “If they don’t, we can reiterate them.” Participants from across the state suggested everything from eliminating the food tax to putting counseling stations next to police substations in poor neighborhoods. Doctors must view violence as a public health threat, said Dr. Paul R. G. Cunningham, a sur geon and trauma director at the East Carolina University School of Medicine. 2115 E. Seventh Street Suite 102 Charlotte, N.C. 28204 (704)372-3126 ■A 701 E. Roosevelt Boulevard Suite 200 A Monroe, N.C. 28112 (704)282-8276 CAROLINA MEDICAL ASSOCIATES and Dr. AVINASH D. SHAH are pleased to welcome Dr. VIJAY K. JUNEJA to our medical practice ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS Participating in Medicare and 30 Managed Care Plans Specializing in Oncology/Hematology and Internal Medicine STAY HEALTHIER THIS FALL. STOP BY MY PHARMACY FOR YOUR FLU SHOT and a FREE PRIMETIME'^ GIFT PACK FLU SHOTS OCTOBER 23,10:00am 2:00pm OCTOBER 29,12:00pm - 4:00pm COST: $10.00* *FLU shots are free to Medicare Part B recipients. You must show your Medicare Part B card to be eligible. HOWARD GAINES, Jr. R.Ph. °^^^edicme Shoppe"^ 602 l-C The Plaza (704)537-0191 BIG LEAGUE SPORTS ARE HERE WHICH WILL COME FIRST? SUPERBOWL? WE’RE ON OUR WAY CHARLOTTE HASN’T HAD EITHER ONE N.B.A. CHAMPIONSHIP? YOU CAN COUNT ON US BUX WE’VE ALREADY HAD A WORLD CHAMPION BOXER, KELVIN SEABROOKS, and HIS CHIROPRACTOR DR. WATTS KELVIN SEABROOKS COMMUNITY RELATIONS DIRECTOR OFA&W CUNIC, HELPS KEEP KELVIN’S BACK IN SHAPE IF YOUR BACK OR NECK IS INJURED 3S>3-3333 DR, DENNIS WATTS, D.C. WITH 3 OFFICES ON: BEATTIES FORD • WILKINSON • 901-B Wendover OUR STAFF WILL TREAT YOU LIKE A WORLD CHAMPION
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Oct. 23, 1997, edition 1
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