Dental Technology  

There are several recent developments in dental technology that can give us all something to smile about. New tools and techniques are making dental procedures much more comfortable, safe, and convenient for the patient, and considerably less of an intrusion into their lives outside of the dentist's office.

Dentistry is a very different experience for the patient today than it was just a few years ago. Here are a few key examples:

Dental Digital Radiography

Dental X-rays were once uncomfortable and time-consuming, exposing patients and dentists to levels of radiation that were higher than anyone wished. An uncomfortable photographic film was placed into the patient's mouth, bulky radiation shielding was used to cover the patient's body, and the person operating the equipment stood behind a radiation shield. Then there was a delay as the film was developed.

With today's technology, a soft, comfortable sensor is placed in the patient's mouth, and a hand-held X-ray projector is used. The sensors detect a much weaker level of X-ray radiation, making them safer for everyone. They relay the information to a computer, which shows the results on-screen in a few minutes, showing higher accuracy and detail than ever before.

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CAD/CAM Technology

The previous procedure when a patient needed a crown was that the dentist would make an impression (mold) of the tooth and install a temporary crown. The impression would be sent to a dental lab, which would make the crown. The crown would then be delivered to the dentist, who would install it at the patient's next visit.

With Computer Aided Design (CAD), an image is taken of the tooth and interpreted by the computer, and this data is used by the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) program to 3-D print the crown in the dentist's office for installation the same day. What once took weeks can now be done in an hour or two with porcelain or resins. With ceramics, a laboratory is still used, and two visits are still necessary, while accuracy and quality are still improved by the use of CAD/CAM.

This technology is useful for more than crowns; it can be used for bridges, veneers, and other dental appliances as well. Additionally, this procedure is common practice from dentists in Florida, USA; all the way to Dentist Calgary sw.

Air Abrasion

Air abrasion performs the same function as the dentist's drill, but does so quietly and painlessly, so there is no need for an anesthetic injection.

Instead of a drill bit, air abrasion uses a narrow stream of aluminum oxide particles that 'puff away' decayed tooth tissue. Blown in with compressed air or inert gasses, a dentist can do much more accurate and delicate work with this method. If a tongue gets in the way, all that the patient will feel is a puff of air on it.

The one negative factor is that this does blow the aluminum oxide grit into the patient's mouth. Most people don't mind the feeling, and it does rinse out easily.

Composite Resins

Sometimes called 'white fillings', composite resins can replace gold or amalgam for fillings and veneers. Composite material is blended to match the color of the tooth for fillings, or to be brighter yet still natural-looking for veneers.

Composite resins can be attached to a tooth without removing as much healthy tooth material as can be needed to anchor amalgam or gold. It is applied, and then cured to hardness (sometimes in layers) with a special light. When fully cured, it is shaped by the dentist for a completely natural appearance.

When used as a veneer, the enamel of the tooth is prepared by the same process that creates custom designs on glass interior doors, so a remarkably strong bond is formed. Glass and tooth enamel are both etched with an acid, which leaves a rough but fine-grained texture on the surface.

All in all, with recent technological advances in dentistry you are able to get great care for your teeth better than ever before. Additionally, the recent advances create less discomfort for the patient so they don’t have to put off the next dentist visit for fear of pain. This gives everyone a reason to smaller brighter than ever before!

By  Kevin Faber	Embed
Kevin Faber is the CEO of Silver Summit Capital. He graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Business/Managerial Economics. In his free time, Kevin is usually watching basketball or kicking back and reading a good book.

 Imaging  

Researchers have captured the first X-ray portraits of living bacteria, detecting signals from features as small as 4 nanometers, or 4 billionths of a meter.  This milestone sets the stage for X-ray explorations of the molecular machinery at work in viral infections, cell division, photosynthesis and other processes that are important to biology, human health and our environment.

Researchers working at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Uppsala University have taken the first X-ray portraits of living bacteria.

This milestone, reported in the journal Nature Communications, is a first step toward possible X-ray explorations of the molecular machinery at work in viral infections, cell division, photosynthesis and other processes that are important to biology, human health and our environment. The experiment took place at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

“We have developed a unique way to rapidly explore, sort and analyze samples, with the possibility of reaching higher resolutions than other study methods,” said Janos Hajdu, a professor of biophysics at Uppsala University in Sweden, which led the research. “This could eventually be a complete game-changer.”

The experiment focused on cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, an abundant form of bacteria that transformed Earth’s atmosphere 2.5 billion years ago by releasing breathable oxygen, making possible new forms of life that are dominant today. Cyanobacteria play a key role in the planet’s oxygen, carbon and nitrogen cycles.

Researchers sprayed living cyanobacteria in a thin stream of humid gas through a gun-like device. The cyanobacteria were alive and intact when they flew into the ultrabright, rapid-fire LCLS X-ray pulses, producing diffraction patterns recorded by detectors.

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The diffraction patterns preserved details of the living cyanobacteria that were compiled to reconstruct 2D images. Researchers said it should be possible to produce 3D images of some samples using the same technique.

The technique works with live bacteria and requires no special treatment of the samples before imaging. Other high-resolution imaging methods may require special dyes to increase the contrast in images, or work only on dead or frozen samples.

The technique can capture about 100 images per second, amassing many millions of high-resolution X-ray images in a single day. This speed allows sorting and analysis of the inner structure and activity of biological particles on a massive scale, which could be arranged to show the chronological steps of a range of cellular activities.

In this way, the technique merges biology and big data, said Tomas Ekeberg, a biophysicist at Uppsala University. “You can study the full cycle of cellular processes, with each X-ray pulse providing a snapshot of the process you want to study,” he said.

"We have developed a unique way to rapidly explore, sort and analyze samples, with the possibility of reaching higher resolutions than other study methods. This could eventually be a complete game-changer."

Hajdu added, “One can start to analyze differences and similarities between groups of cellular structures and show how these structures interact: What is in the cell? How is it organized? Who is talking to whom?”

While optical microscopes and X-ray tomography can also produce high-resolution 3D images of living cells, LCLS, researchers say, could eventually achieve much better resolution – down to fractions of a nanometer, or billionths of a meter, where molecules and perhaps even atoms can be resolved.

LCLS is working with researchers to improve the technique and upgrade some instruments and the focus of its X-rays as part of the LCLS Single-Particle Imaging initiative, formally launched at SLAC in October in cooperation with the international scientific community. The initiative is working toward atomic-scale imaging for many types of biological samples, including living cells, by identifying and addressing technical challenges at LCLS.




SOURCE  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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 Imaging  

Phase contrast X-ray imaging has enabled researchers to perform mammographic imaging that allows greater precision in the assessment of breast cancer and its precursors. The technique could improve biopsy diagnostics and follow-up.

Researchers have succeeded in advancing an emerging imaging technique for breast investigations: the X-ray phase-contrast mammography. The new developments enable distinguishing between the different types of microcalcifications observed in breast tissue and help assigning them to malignant lesions. The study has just been published in Nature Communications.

One of the advantages of the phase contrast technique is its ability to provide images of high contrast. In the future, this technique can aid physicians to determine in a non-invasive way where pre-malignant and malignant breast lesions are most likely located.

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One goal of breast cancer screening is to detect groups of microcalcifications in the breast, because these may be associated with early stages of breast cancer. Microcalcifications often occur in connection with cancer cell death. Mammographic screening does not allow definite conclusions regarding the underlining conditions that cause these calcifications. Only tissue biopsies that are examined under the microscope by pathologists can determine which lesions have caused the calcareous deposits.

"My observation could be very interesting for breast cancer diagnosis, since it could distinguish between the different types of microcalcifications."

At the ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the use of phase contrast for medical X-ray imaging has been investigated for several years. X-ray radiation as used in conventional mammography was long considered not suitable for phase contrast procedures because of its incoherence and mixture of multiple wavelengths.

“The fact that we have now managed to use these X-ray sources for the phase contrast method in order to develop a new and improved imaging method is a considerable step towards application in daily clinical practice,” says Marco Stampanoni, Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at ETH Zurich and Head of the X-ray Tomography Group at the PSI.

In X-ray phase contrast, the extent in which tissue absorbs X-rays is not the only quantity that is being measured but also how tissue deflects radiation laterally (refraction) and consequently how it influences the sequence of oscillation peaks and valleys of X-ray waves – the so-called phase.

Depending on the tissue type, the overall scattering also varies. To be able to measure the phase shift, researchers use three very fine grids. The first one is located directly at the source. It ensures that the object is illuminated with the required coherence. Another grid is placed behind the object and generates an interference signal that is analysed by a third grid downstream. Using suitable algorithms, the researchers calculate the absorption, phase and scattering properties of the object from the interference signal. This information can be used to generate sharp and high-contrast images that show very detailed soft tissue properties.

A discovery by Zhentian Wang, PostDoc in Prof. Stampanoni’s team, initiated this development: “During my trials with the phase contrast method, I noticed that there are microcalcifications with different absorption and scattering signals. That indicated that the new method might identify different types of calcifications,” he says. Wang subsequently reviewed through medical literature and found studies that showed that a certain type of calcification is more frequently associated with breast cancer precursors. “I was persuaded that my observation could be very interesting for breast cancer diagnosis, since it could distinguish between the different types of microcalcifications”, says the researcher.

To date, the researchers have worked with a prototype. They examined breast tissue samples, but no patients have been involved yet. “One of our next aims will be to develop a device for clinical use,” says Marco Stampanoni.


SOURCE  ETH Zurich

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