January 17, 2020 | News

DUNEDIN, New Zealand: Many of the issues around oral health in New Zealand are related to the cost of care. People at the lower end of the socio-economic scale are often worst affected, and for this reason, University of Otago dental student Jamie Marra and Gore-based dentist Dr Haneen Alaynan organised a free community dental clinic to help patients get their oral health back on track.

January 15, 2020 | News

SEOUL, South Korea: Dental implants are a key treatment for tooth loss, but can cause a variety of complications. One such complication is osteonecrosis, which can result from patients taking medications such as bisphosphonates for bone disease. Current treatments for osteonecrosis are not always effective. However, researchers from Yonsei University College of Dentistry in Seoul have reported their successful treatment of a patient using a new regimen.

January 10, 2020 | Business | News

HONG KONG: The American tele-orthodontics company SmileDirectClub has expanded into Asia by opening two of its flagship SmileShops in key Hong Kong shopping districts. The company says that its own research shows that the cost of orthodontic care is one of the main barriers preventing Hong Kong residents from having their teeth straightened and that it will offer an affordable and safe treatment option to them.

January 8, 2020 | News

SYDNEY, Australia: Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders who were, as children, forcibly taken from their families between 1910 and 1970 are known as the Stolen Generations. Those who are still alive today can struggle with the trauma of their experience, often neglecting their oral health owing to fear and anxiety of dental practices. To help combat this, a new set of helpful guidelines was recently launched by the Healing Foundation to help dental practitioners, doctors and aged-care workers better communicate with the remaining survivors in a practice setting.

January 3, 2020 | News

SYDNEY, Australia: Most often, the images associated with the word dentistry are a chair in a room, bright lights and two or three sets of eyes peering into the mouth of a patient. However, as the industry grows, so too do the career options. A recent article from the University of Sydney featured staff and alumni who have forged interesting careers outside the clinic.

December 31, 2019 | News

BRISBANE, Australia: In an exciting advancement in the health education field, dental students and medical nurses have been experimenting with augmented reality to help build their skills and knowledge. Different to virtual reality (VR), which provides a fully artificial environment, augmented reality is an overlay of computer-generated content onto the physical surroundings.

December 30, 2019 | News

ADELAIDE, Australia: A recent study, led by the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) at the University of Adelaide, aimed to describe the oral health status of the Australian population. The findings showed that the prevalence of dental caries continues to increase in the country, and a third of Australian adults are left with untreated caries.

December 18, 2019 | News

DUNEDIN, New Zealand: The goal of improving the oral health standards of people from the Pacific Islands has been given a boost with the recent graduation of the Fijian national Dr Oripa Waqa with a doctorate in clinical dentistry from the University of Otago. Waqa is the first female specialist in oral surgery not only in Fiji but also in the wider Pacific Islands.

December 17, 2019 | News

MELBOURNE, Australia: A major contributor to quality oral health is awareness and education. With this in mind, the Australian Dental Association (ADA) has been partnering with Rethink Sugary Drink to help inspire school students across the country to reduce their sugar intake and become more informed about topics such as diet and nutrition. In a recent initiative, school students were asked to critique nine different public health TV commercials on the dangers of sugar and pick the one they believed was the most thought-provoking and the most effective at getting its message across to audiences. The programme, known as Critics’ Choice, has been running for three years.

December 16, 2019 | News

TOKYO, Japan: The Japanese government has recently honoured Makoto Nakao, the former president of GC Corporation and present chairman of the board of GC International, for his distinguished accomplishments in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry. Nakao received his award, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, at a conferment ceremony on Friday, 13 December, and was subsequently invited to the Imperial Palace for an audience with the emperor.

December 12, 2019 | Business | News

AUCKLAND, New Zealand: After a number of offers, the directors of Abano Healthcare Group have capitulated to a bidder and entered into a scheme of arrangement for a takeover of its extensive network of dental offices across Australia and New Zealand. If approved, the takeover bid would see an entry into the dental market in Australasia by the former majority shareholder in the largest dental support organisation (DSO) in the US.

December 9, 2019 | News

SEOUL, South Korea: Previous research has suggested that poor oral hygiene leads to bacteria in the blood, causing inflammation in the body. This increases the risks of atrial fibrillation and heart failure. A recent study, conducted by researchers from Ewha Womans University College of Medicine in Seoul, examined the connection between oral health status and the occurrence of these two conditions. They found that frequent toothbrushing was associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

December 5, 2019 | News

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Up to now, clear aligner technology has been dominated by two American brands that offer their products at different prices and in different qualities. Smilii, the first New Zealand brand of clear aligners, will soon be selling similar technology at an affordable price and providing quality treatment to its clients to make tooth straightening procedures more available to New Zealanders.

December 4, 2019 | Business

LEIPZIG, Germany: By this point, the benefits of employing CAD/CAM technologies in the dental practice and laboratory have been well documented. CAD/CAM was developed for commercial use in the 1980s at the University of Zurich in Switzerland by Prof. Werner H. Mörmann and Dr Marco Brandestini, and its usefulness for creating dental restorations and orthodontic appliances has grown in the decades since, as has its reputation. FDI World Dental Federation, the principal representative body for more than one million dentists worldwide, went so far as to issue a policy statement in 2017 declaring that it supports “the research and development of CAD/CAM dentistry to improve the quality of the final product and allow for cost reduction”.

November 29, 2019 | Advertorial

KOBE, Japan: In November, the Japanese branch of Dürr Dental officially opened a new building in Kobe. According to the company, the new premises will allow Dürr Dental Japan to operate a local service and repair shop, and to offer trainings for various products.

November 25, 2019 | News

MELBOURNE, Australia: Australia is facing several challenges when it comes to oral health. Access and education are among some of the most significant issues, not to mention cost, and a more modern health system might be the way forward. In an interview with Dental Tribune International, Grattan Institute Health Program Director Dr Stephen Duckett spoke about a recent proposal his team developed for a universal dental care scheme for Australia.

November 22, 2019 | News

AUCKLAND, New Zealand: New Zealand has an oral health problem. Expense is one of the main factors that prevent people from visiting the dentist, and this results, in some instances, in oral health conditions similar to those of developing countries. However, sugar is another major issue, and in a recent statement, the New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA), Te Ao Mārama (the New Zealand Maori Dental Association) and Hāpai te Hauora (Maori Public Health) have criticised the use of the Maori language on Coca-Cola products.

November 20, 2019 | News

AUCKLAND, New Zealand: In a recent statement, the New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA) said it would like to see more cross-party support in parliament for the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Bill. The bill was introduced when the National party was in power. Now sitting on the opposition side of parliament, National has been encouraged by the NZDA to take a similar approach to the one taken for the Zero Carbon Bill, which had bilateral support.