Dear Cosmetic Dentistry Insider,
Studies have shown that oral piercings can cause chipped, fractured, or cracked teeth, gingival recession, and even more serious health complications. And yet they remain popular with many patients, especially teens.
Although dentists would prefer patients to not get a piercing at all, if the patient insists you can at least recommend plastic jewelry instead of metal because it appears to be less harmful to the oral cavity, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Find out why plastic is preferable to metal when it comes to oral piercings in our latest Cosmetic Dentistry Insider Exclusive.
In other Cosmetics Community news, the new year dawned with Allcare Dental & Dentures creating quite a stir by shutting down all of its U.S. offices without warning. Already the subject of numerous lawsuits and complaints, the chain -- which at one point had 52 locations in 15 states -- now has state officials mulling legal action against it.
Meanwhile, some former patients have already taken matters into their own hands with a class-action lawsuit that claims Allcare knowingly took money from them and potentially thousands of other patients for services it never intended to deliver. Click here for details.
In other legal news, the teeth-whitening firm Go Smile has filed two lawsuits against its founder, celebrity dentist Dr. Jonathan B. Levine, alleging that his use of trademarks are "confusingly similar" to Go Smiles' and that he violated a noncompete agreement. Read more.
On the clinical front, in only the second such surgery of its kind, California doctors helped a 12-year-old with chondromyxoid fibroma return to a normal quality of life, using part of the boy's rib to reconstruct his mandible. Click here.
Also, a new study found a limited number of reported cases of inhalation and ingestion of orthodontic objects, prompting speculation that dental practitioners may not be willing to volunteer information about such incidents out of concern for their reputation. Read more.
Meanwhile, the authors of a study to be presented at the upcoming International Association for Dental Research meeting in San Diego recommend that conservative treatment is needed for bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw in early disease stages, while a surgical approach is supported for later stages.
Finally, in some heart-warming news, dental students at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center donated mouthguards to a financially struggling inner city football team, and a 6-year old Cambodian boy born with his jaw fused shut uttered his first word after a medical team performed five hours of corrective surgery on him. Click here and here to read both of these compelling stories.
