DENTAL TRIBUNE The World’s Dental Newspaper India Edition PUBLISHED IN INDIA News in brief Calcium plays role in taste perception A new study, published in the www.dental-tribune.com Technology The CAD/CAM evolution Clinical Implant aesthetics VOL. 2 NO. 1 Trends & Applications Miniscrews —a focal point in practice Journal of Biological Chemistry, says that various extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) agonists enhance sweet, salty, and umami taste, although they have no taste of their own. These characteristics are known as “kokumi taste” and it often appears in the Japanese cuisine. The researcher Yuzuro Eto and his colleagues found that calcium and certain calcium channel activators trigger calcium channels located on the tongue, enhancing a specific taste. Further, it was found that glutathione (a common kokumi taste element) has no taste of itself but can enhance the basic taste sensation by interacting with these channels. The researchers believe that their study will pave the way in creation of healthy foods with minimal sugar or salt but, can still elicit strong taste. 4Page 6 4Page 9 4Page 22 First vaccine for treating gum disease “Periodontitis is a serious disease and dentists face a major challenge in treating it, because most people will not know they have the disease until it’s too late and the infection has progressed to advanced stages,” says Prof. Eric Reynolds, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Oral Health Science and the Head of the University of Melbourne’s Dental School. “This new approach will provide dentists and patients with a specific treatment.” Traditional periodontal therapy involves manual scaling and cleaning, and even surgery A new vaccine could help to replace traditional periodontal treatment methods. (DTI/Photo Dmitry Naumov) with instruments or dental lasers in an effort to contain the bacterial infection. Reynold said that their new line of vaccine products will possibly prevent the progression of the disease, rather than managing its symptoms and damaging consequences. Sanofi Pasteur has an option, to an exclusive worldwide licence, to commercialise the intellectual property associated with these products. DT Daniel Zimmermann DTI ment, involves bacterial peptides and proteins that trigger the immune response to periodontal inflammation. The vaccine is currently being tested in mouse models and is expected to progress to clinical trials soon, the researchers said. The new vaccine approach is targeting the ‘ring leader’ of a group of pathogenic bacteria called P. gingivalis that cause periodontitis. According to a US- based consortium for P. gingi- valis research, elevated levels of the organism were found in the majority of periodontal lesions, as well as in low levels in healthy sites. In addition, the organism also produces a number of enzymes that have been shown to interact with and degrade host proteins. Although the bacterium can be eliminated through periodontal therapy, it is often found in recurrent infections. HONG KONG/LEIPZIG, Germany: Scientists, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, have announced that they have part- Combination remedies are best for smoking cessation A study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, says that the combined therapy with bupropion and nicotine lozenges, for smoking cessation, is better than any monotherapy. The study compared six-month abstinence rates among 1,346 smokers after treatment with five active pharmacotherapies-bupropion alone, lozenge, nicotine patch, nicotine patch & lozenge, and bupropion & lozenge. Combined pharmacotherapy of bubropion & lozenge was found to be superior with the abstinence rate of 29.9% followed by nicotine patch & lozenge combination with the abstinence rate of 26.9%. The nicotine patch alone was found to be least effective. These results reinforce the conclusion drawn from previous studies on efficacy of such a combined approach. nered with CSL Limited and Sanofi Pasteur, the country’s largest biopharmaceutical companies, to further develop and commercialise a vaccine for the treatment of gum disease. The programme, which has been for ten-years in develop- Painless plasma jets could soon replace dentist's drill Claudia Salwiczek DTI Institute of Surface Modification, Leipzig and dentists from the Firing Saarland University, Homburg, Germany, tested the effectiveness of plasma against common oral pathogens. The researchers infected dentin from extracted human molars with 4 strains of bacteria and then exposed it to plasma jets for 6, 12 or 18 seconds. The longer the dentin was exposed to the plasma the greater the amount of bacteria that were eliminated. Dr Stefan Rupf from Saarland University, who led the research, said that the recent development of cold plasmas showed great promise for use in dentistry. “The low temperature (around 40 degrees Celsius) means they can kill the microbes while preserving the tooth. The dental pulp at the centre of the tooth, underneath the dentin, is linked to the blood supply, and nerves and heat damage to it must be avoided at all costs.” Plasmas have an increasing number of technical and medical applications. Hot plasmas are already used to disinfect surgical instruments. “Presently, there is huge progress being made in the field of plasma medicine and a clinical treatment for dental cavities can be expected within 3 to 5 years,” Dr Rupf added. DT LEIPZIG, Germany: low temperature plasma beams at dentin reduces the amount of dental bacteria by up to 10,000fold, according to a new study published in the February issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology. Plasma technology could thus be an effective and less painful alternative to the dentist’s drill. Scientists at the Leibniz