The tooth's connected to the jaw bone....At least, that's how dentists would amend the old ditty dit·ty n. pl. dit·ties A simple song. [Middle English dite, a literary composition, from Old French dite, from Latin dict . Two connective tissues-the periodontum and the cementum-hold the pearly whites in place. When periodontal disease Periodontal Disease Definition Periodontal diseases are a group of diseases that affect the tissues that support and anchor the teeth. Left untreated, periodontal disease results in the destruction of the gums, alveolar bone (the part of the jaws where strikes, those tissues can start to lose their grip. A. Hari Reddi, a biochemist at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, says that he and his colleagues are using a bone growth protein they've just cloned to successfully treat periodontal disease in baboons. Working with Ugo Ripamonti, an oral surgeon Oral surgeon A dentist who specializes in surgical procedures of the mouth, including extractions. Mentioned in: Tooth Extraction at the University of the Witwatersrand Due to the 1959 Extension of University Education Act the school was only allowed to register a small number of black students for most of the apartheid era, even though several notable black anti-apartheid leaders graduated from the university. Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa, Reddi has applied the protein to coax damaged bone and tooth-anchoring connective tissues to repair themselves. Because similar proteins have proved effective in orthopedic surgery, "initially, we thought that the [new protein] would just regenerate jawbone jaw·bone n. The maxilla or, especially, the mandible. ," Reddi says. "Yet we found, to our surprise, connective tissues were repaired too. "This may have important clinical implications, though we have yet to test it in humans," Reddi adds. The researchers are currently preparing clinical trials. They also suggest that the technique may prove useful in treating damaged cartilage. |
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