If you’re at all interested in the health
of your teeth and mouth (and if you’re not, boy! Are you making a huge, huge
mistake that will very likely come back to bite you – if I can put it like
that), a couple of recent studies about dental health should interest you.
The one that determined that people who get
frequent dental Xrays are at significantly higher risk of being diagnosed with
a meningioma, a growth on the meninges or lining of the brain (strictly speaking,
these are not “brain cancers” but that’s how everyone refers to them anyway.
Before anyone who’s had a few dental Xrays
(and which one of us hasn’t?) panics about being diagnosed with brain cancer,
though, a few things to note in this study.
First, happily, the large majority of
meningiomas are benign, although even a benign tumour in that area can pose
large health risks, of course.
Second, the researchers noted this
increased risk in relation to two specific types of Xrays, particularly the
Panorex kind, which is an Xray of all the teeth, and it was more frequent use
of these, not a single one-off that linked to this higher risk of meningioma.
Also, age had a role to play in this in
that the younger the regular exposure to these films, the higher the risk.
Plus, several dentists remarked that
today’s Xrays offer much radiation exposure than Xrays did just a few years
ago, when this data was accumulated.
Bottom line, though (and I apply this
pretty strongly myself when dealing with my own dentists) is that there is no
such thing as a “routine” Xray, so when a dentist – or a doctor or a
chiropractor – tells you that you “need” an Xray, always ask, “why?”
What’s the deal if we don’t do it? Why will
it be harder to fix a cavity, for example, which we don’t even know is there,
years from now when it finally becomes symptomatic instead of doing it today?
Etc, etc:
To balance that one, though, the second
study was much kinder to dentists by pointing out that dentists are other
dental professionals are a terrific resource to diagnose early malignancies in
the mouth and head and neck area.
So by all means, get regular dental
check-ups, but just be more hesitant about submitting to too many Xrays.
Finally, if you’re interested in oral
health, especially in the earlier detection of oral malignancies, an area of
medicine that needs much more emphasis, check out the links to this blog.
BC Cancer Foundation presents "An Evening to Conquer Oral Cancer"
Date: Thursday April 26th
Time: 6:30pm Champagne Reception - 7:30 Dinner
Place: Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
Contact: blcurri@shaw.ca
This is the inaugural event and the first ever event specifically for oral cancer research!
A great evening will be had with several "special guests" including a special performance by a Juno Award winning guest artist"! As well, there will be raffle of a painting from well known BC artist Robert Genn, door prizes and a live and silent auction!
