The last bite

02 October 2012
Volume 28 · Issue 9

Famous teeth

Not surprising, I suppose, that our current obsession with all things celebrity extends to teeth, not least in terms of money. A recent auction of one of John Lennon's teeth realised over £19k for the molar which he had had extracted (pre-fluoride toothpaste days in Liverpool) and apparently gave to his housekeeper (as you do). Bought by a Canadian dentist, one wonders if there is a hope of culturing the DNA in the future to recreate the songster. Imagine.

Meanwhile, West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison's teeth are reported to be in such a bad way that he has been advised to have up to seven of them removed. The treatment plan also includes implants costing around £28k (there's a surprise). Based on the newly established Lennon-rate, selling all seven could net him in the region of £140K which would easily pay for the titanium piers as well as a power toothbrush or two.

Ideas from where?

It is always fascinating to speculate on where ideas and connections first start. The plethora of weird and wonderful remedies, techniques and materials advocated for use in oral hygiene never ceases to amaze, with recent entrants in the field including seaweed and coconut oil.

In the case of the former, a group of scientists at Newcastle University had been studying Bacillus licheniformis to see if it could clean ships' hulls. The next logical step was, of course to test whether it worked on teeth. Based on enzymes from the microbes, the research proposes to include them in toothpaste and mouthwash as anti-plaque agents. As far as coconut oil is concerned the starting point was the observation inspired by previous research showing that partially digested milk made Streptococcus mutans less likely to stick to tooth enamel.

Doubtless if either of these ingredients ever made it to mainstream toothpaste tubes the taste would be entirely altered. Which is just as well because early morning brushing compliance faced with a combination of seaweed and coconut would take a complete dive. Although on reflection, 'Foreshore pina colada' could just swing it.

By any other name

Why do we keep returning to the angst of what we should call ourselves? I see that the Royal College of Surgeons has now called for the title of 'surgeon' to be given legal protection in order to avoid patients being misled by unqualified practitioners. The college is seeking to restrict the use of the title to those with a medical degree and surgical training. This follows a survey of 2,000 people, 95 per cent of whom felt that someone using the title 'surgeon' should be medically qualified.

Maybe I missed a chapter but it was only a few years ago that dentists lobbied hard to be called 'doctor' instead of 'mister' as the latter title was reserved for doctors who'd originally been misters, qualified to become doctors and then specialised to become misters again. Frankly, the patient could have died in the interim.

There was no winner for the July/August issue.