Vexillum II

This was the reply I sent back to them.

Dear Ms. Au,
 
It is the consensus amongst dental professionals that there is no evidence of the possibily of mercury toxicity from dental amalgams. A member of the public reading the article would believe that the mercury in the dental amalgam placed would be toxic and hence seek the removal of the material should he or she be convinced. It is known that mercury vapour generated during this removal may be toxic while the mercury within the filling is not, thus exacerbating the issue.
 
It would be most prudent to check one’s sources and the quality of information provided by these sources. Newspapers should be responsible or be held responsible for wilfully publishing factually inaccurate information. Both the American and British Dental Association together with American Medical Academy hold the view that dental amalgams are not toxic and it is not something that is “an evolving issue that researchers and health bodies, like the FDA, are still undecided upon, naturally there will be different views and studies on it.” One would be hard pressed to find good evidence that there is a resonable chance of mercury poisoning from the placement of dental amalgams.
 
In Singapore’s context, the Singapore Dental Association and Council, together with MOH all hold the well justified and researched position that dental amalgams are not toxic. It would be undermining the credibility and authority of these agencies should one decide to quote a badly researched article and blame it for one’s own inertia to check one’s facts.
 
A written retraction of the article would be the most prudent course of action to rectify the error in quoting the FDA too as I believe you, too are able to discern the difference between “can” and “may”.
 
Kind regards,
Edgar Kieu

Anybody interested in the forum below can drop me an email at edkieu@ gmail.com and 5 seats are available to friends and readers of the blog.

Be engaged in issues and topics revolving around dual citizenship and express your views if dual citizenship is an effective mean to retain local talent?
Is it the mentality that grass is greener over the other side?
Or is it an issue of opportunities?

Topic: Dual Citizenship - Retaining Local Talents?
Date: Saturday, 19 July 2008
Time: 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Venue: The Pod @ National Library (Located at Level 16)
Panellists: Mr Sin Boon Ann (MP for Tampines GRC & Adviser to Tampines GROs)
Dr Gillian Koh (Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Policy Studies)
Mr Colin Low (President [Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia] & Regional Executive [Growth Initiative, South East Asia], General Electric)

Admission is Free! Drinks and Light refreshments will be provided.

Is anyone satisfied with this reply from MyPaper? I’m not. However, I’ve a clinical endodontics test tomorrow and I’ve hardly read much and thus shall scoot off to study first.

Dear Mr Kieu,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I apologise for our delay in responding. The writer missed your e-mail and the other e-mail address you used is actually the one for our my paper Chinese newsroom. In the future, you may wish to e-mail us at myp@sph.com.sg.

With regards to the article that you were writing to us about, it was actually a story based on a report written in The Independent (a UK newspaper).
We have attributed accordingly, in our article.

However, it has also come to our attention that the FDA has since qualified its remarks to read: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses.”

As this is an evolving issue that researchers and health bodies, like the FDA, are still undecided upon, naturally there will be different views and studies on it.
We reported the fact that FDA has highlighted these amalgam fillings and its possible risks, as reported by The Independent.

As such, we will be attaching a note to our files on the above qualification by the FDA.

Once again, thank you for your comments.

Best regards,
Esther
Esther Au Yong

News Editor
my paper (English)
Singapore Press Holdings Ltd
1000 Toa Payoh North
Podium Level 2
Singapore 318994

P.S. Angrydoc, I shall attempt to get the videos up, or at least the one by Leng Hiong up soon, my desktop is cranky and my laptop cant read that DVD.

Okie for those who cannot stand shameless advertisements, just ignore this post.

As part of my clinical requirements, I am supposed to assist in a minimum of two Local Anasthesia Operations before starting on my own LA Ops.

Therefore I will need to find people who wish to have their wisdom teeth removed by a specialist and assist the specialist during the operation.

If you want or know people who want to have their wisdom teeth removed by a specialist at a discounted price of around 200 to 300 dollars (their wisdom teeth should be partially erupted or impacted), kindly leave me a comment or email me at edkieu@gmail.com. I have limited slots and all these operations will take place in the week of 11 August to 18 August 2008 subject to availability of slots in the oral surgery clinics. I will NOT be performing the operation as I am only assisting but perhaps may be tasked to give you one of my nice almost painless LA jabs before we start.

Flood my email now.

For more info, go wiki wisdom teeth.

With reference to an article on MyPaper on Friday:

Dear Mr. Nanayakara,
 
I object to your insinuations in your article dated July 11 2008, especially your paragraph, quoted below:

“Mercury, which by itself is a highly poisonous metal, makes up almost half of an amalgam filling, which also contains silver and a small amount of copper and tin. When introduced to the body via such amalgams, mercury can have neurotoxic effects on growing children and foetuses.”
 
This is a very damning and highly scientifically inaccurate statement to make.
 
Two very good studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association have shown no neuropsychological, renal or neurobehavioural effects of dental amalgam in children. Moreover, elemental mercury itself has a different toxicity profile in the form of vapour, liquid or as part of a restoration.

Neuropsychological and Renal Effects of Dental Amalgam in Children, A Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA.
2006;295:1775-1783. David C. Bellinger, PhD, MSc; Felicia Trachtenberg, PhD; Lars Barregard, MD, PhD;
Mary Tavares, DMD, MPH; Elsa Cernichiari, MS; David Daniel, PhD; Sonja McKinlay, PhD Neurobehavioral Effects of Dental Amalgam in Children, A Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA.
2006;295:1784-1792. Timothy A. DeRouen, PhD; Michael D. Martin, DMD, PhD; Brian G. Leroux, PhD;
Brenda D. Townes, PhD; James S. Woods, PhD, MPH; Jorge Leitão, MD, MS;
Alexandre Castro-Caldas, MD, PhD; Henrique Luis, MS; Mario Bernardo, DMD, PhD; Gail Rosenbaum, MS;
Isabel P. Martins, MD, PhD

Your article is unduly alarmist, badly researched, irresponsible and potentially misleading to dental patients.
 
There are many indications to use other types of restorative materials such as composites, glass ionomers or ceramics but there are still very good reasons to use dental amalgams.
 
It is indeed disappointing and sad that a newspaper such as yours with a broad public reach would have such poorly researched information thinly veiled as news.
 
I look forward to either an explaination, retraction or clarification of your article, preferably quoting good research to substantiate your claims.
 
Kind regards,
Edgar Kieu

I think its common courtesy to cancel appointments at least a few days in advance.

Especially dental appointments.

When a dental student arranges to see a patient, it takes more than just making sure a chair is there. You have to ensure the correct instructor/doctor is on duty, the nurses are prepared and ready with the equipment, the receptionist is aware of the patient’s arrival, the patient is booked into the computer system and your lab partner doesnt have any other patient waiting for him too.

So when a patient cancels last minute, he/she inconveniences many, many people. Poor dental students like myself have very few clinic slots to accomplish a fixed number of fillings/dentures/crowns/bridges and other types of treatment and cancelling means that he/she is firstly depriving another patient of the chance to be treated at the ridiculously low prices under undergraduate treatment and he/she is also depriving me of a learning opportunity. My partner who specially reserved his time just to suit your whim now has to find someone else to occupy his time with or just sit around and waste his time.

This is not the first time XXXXXXX. I am highly displeased and upset with you. 

I stumbled upon this piece of article from the Institute for Psychological Therapies on the Dark Tunnels of McMartin. Here is an abstract:

ABSTRACT: Recent revisionist articles and book citations have challenged the view that the McMartin child sex abuse scandal, and other multi-victim/perpetrator/ritual abuse cases, were conceived and prosecuted without “a shred of evidence.” The main basis for this claim is the 1990 “discovery” of a “tunnel” and “possible secret room” underneath the McMartin Preschool that once existed in Manhattan Beach, California. How the concept of secret tunnels became an obsession with various parents of McMartin students, the course of the development and parental acting out of this obsession, and the present — but by no means final — outcome of the obsessive parental behavior are the central issues under study in this account of the McMartin witch hunt.

Do go check the site and read about this story about how parental obsession became one of the costliest and longest criminal trial in the US. Its a real facinating read.
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume7/j7_2_1.htm

I’ve gotten the DVD of the videos taken at Touche but havent had the time to upload them or to edit them yet. My students have been keeping me busy and tired and my resolve to enjoy and relax during the holidays have not waned. I’ve an article for Renotalk (yes, I do Interior Design reviews on www.renotalk.com ) to be written and once I’m done with that and other task on my list I shall get down to try my hand at video editing. (Volunteers to help me edit the videos welcome, I’ll even deliver the DVD to your house)

Dental Grouse of the week/month/year:
Have you seen some commercials lately showing the edges of teeth as translucent and claiming that is due to acid erosion? Well take a close look at your incisors (Front 4 teeth). And your family member’s. Almost everyone’s teeth edge is translucent. Even when restoring front teeth, we try to replicate that effect to make teeth look more realistic. Why is it translucent? Well, its because the more opaque dentine is not there and all you have there is translucent enamel all the way through. It is not a sign that you teeth are wearing off due to acid.

In fact, if your teeth have been constantly eroded by acid, you should see a rather frosted appearance. And if your teeth have been abraded away, this layer would have been ground down and all you see is an opaque layer at the edge.

Food for thought eh?

From British Dental Journal News:

Men with a history of gum disease are at increased risk of developing cancer, according to a follow up study of health professionals in The Lancet Oncology.

The study, led by Dominique Michaud, Reader in Cancer Epidemiology at Imperial College, London, used data from the US Health Professionals Follow-Up study which was started in 1986 at Havard. The cohort comprised 48,375 men, including 29,683 dentists.

Follow up questionnaires were sent to all living participants every two years. Baseline gum disease with bone loss, number of natural teeth and tooth loss in the previous two years were recorded, with smoking history and food intake. The median follow up in the study was 17.7 years.

After adjustment for known risk factors, including detailed smoking history and dietary factors, participants with a history of gum disease had a 14 per cent higher risk of cancer compared with those with no history of gum disease. The most common cancers were colorectal, melanoma of the skin, lung, bladder and advanced prostate cancer.

‘Periodontal disease might be a marker of a susceptible immune system or might directly affect cancer risk,’ the authors conclude. The full paper, ‘Periodontal disease, tooth loss, and cancer risk in male health professionals: a prospective cohort study’ appears in Lancet Oncology volume 9, pages 550-558.

More reason to see your dentist and to bother about the health of your gums.