Dental antibiotic prescribing in the UK during the pandemic: “I feel horribly compromised”
Following widely reported dental service delivery impacts across England during the pandemic, a small survey of dentists found that 60% had prescribed “many more” antibiotics for reasons including the fact that some urgent dental centers required antibiotics before accepting referrals regardless of clinical appropriateness, and that antibiotics were used to delay aerosol generating-procedures and fill gaps in services. Dentists reported widespread frustration about the situation: “I feel horribly compromised as I feel this is far from ideal and I worry about antibiotics.”
Oral supermicrobes that "crawl" on teeth: Fact or fiction?
A “very simple, almost accidental discovery” sounds like the stuff of science fiction but is a real phenomenon: a cavity-causing superorganism found in the saliva of toddlers with severe tooth decay that can “crawl” on teeth. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine describe the bacteria and fungi that form these assemblages as “developing motions we never thought they would possess: a 'walking-like' and 'leaping-like' mobility.”
For many, after resignation comes remorse
Is the Great Resignation, after nearly two years, finally cooling off? In a reversal that Fortune is calling “the Great Remorse,” a poll of some 2,000 US job seekers’ recent experiences with the labor market found that more than 70% of them said it’s been harder than they expected to land a good position after leaving their previous role.
A COVID nasal spray
Vaccines protect against severe COVID-19 infection, but they’re less adept at preventing it. But multiple teams of researchers have shown that fast-acting, frequently applied nasal sprays are effective at staving off SARS-CoV-2 infection in animals, and Nature reports on a specific nasal spray in development at Columbia University.
Patients with Parkinson's receiving "irregular" dental care
A study in Denmark showed that dental care often is irregular in people with Parkinson’s disease, a population that also requires more dental treatments that those without the disease. The study noted a higher prevalence of caries, gingivitis, periodontitis, and tooth loss, due to factors that include a disease-induced increase in motor symptoms and depression and cognitive issues that affect oral hygiene.
