FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA, ONTARIO (Sept. 23, 2011) - Visiting the dentist's office has long been proven to improve a person's overall health and prevent future dental issues.  With the introduction of Under Armour Performance Mouthwear™, visiting Dr. Joshi's practice can improve an athlete's strength, endurance, reaction time and reduce athletic stress.

As an authorized provider of Under Armour Performance Mouthwear™, Dr. Joshi has begun fitting Ottawa-area athletes with Under Armour's innovative new line of custom mouthpieces and mouthguards designed to improve athletic performance.

Powered by ArmourBite, patented mouthwear technology developed by Bite Tech, Inc., Under Armour Performance Mouthwear™ introduces an entirely new category of sports equipment - ArmourBite®.  ArmourBite® Mouthpieces and ArmourBite® Mouthguards are safe and custom built.  Now, athletes in any sport - from football to golf to running - can capitalize on innovative technology that makes you stronger, faster, better.

As an authorized dental provider, Dr. Joshi is able to equip Ottawa atheletes with the same technology used by hundreds of professionals, Olympic and collegiate athletes.  The easy and completely painless custom-fitting process typically takes less than 20 minutes.

Dr. Joshi will offer both the UA Performance Mouthpiece for non-contact sports, such as baseball, golf, tennis, cycling and running and the UA Performance Mouthguard, which provides superior protection and comfort for contact sports, such as football, hockey, lacrosse, martial arts and wrestling.

Late summer thunderheads build above Garnet Lake....a spectacular picture that just had to be shared!

-Photo by Peter Essick

April is Oral Health Month in Ontario, an important time to become aware of the link between your oral health and your overall health.  The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that 3,400 new cases of oral cancer were diagnosed in Canada in 2010. It is also estimated that 1,150 of those Canadians diagnosed in 2010 will die from the disease.

As oral health experts, dentists are uniquely qualified to help in the early detection of many medical conditions, including cancer.  Being trained in medicine, dentists are able to recognize the relationships between oral and overall health.  Since most people see their dentists regularly, they are often the first health-care professionals to have an opportunity to detect the many health conditions that affect your mouth.  Many patients are not aware of the extent that a dental exam can play in disease prevention.  Without an examination by a dentist, most early signs of oral cancer are difficult to detect.  If you notice a mouth sore or anything out of the ordinary that does not go away or heal after a couple of weeks, discuss it with your dentist.

Risk Factors for oral cancer include:

• Smoking and chewing tobacco - particularly if combined with heavy alcohol consumption
• Heavy alcohol consumption - particularly if combined with smoking
• Excessive sun exposure - particularly to the lip
• Age - people over the age of 40 have a higher risk of developing oral cancer
• Gender - men are more susceptible than women to developing oral cancer.  In the past, men had a 6:1 ratio of incidence of oral cancer compared to women.  However, this ratio is narrowing and is now closer to a 2:1 ratio
• HPV - more research is emerging that connects human papillomavirus infection - especially HPV-16 - with oral cancers
• A diet low in fruits and vegetables - fruit and vegetables have a protective factor that is believed to reduce the risk for oral cancers.

Prevention

• See a dental professional for a regular dental exam
• Quitting (or reducing) your tobacco and alcohol use lowers your risk of developing oral cancer
• When you are outside and exposed to the sun, use lip balm with UV protection and wear a hat
• Eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables
• Brush and floss your teeth daily

The mouth has long been recognized as a mirror reflecting the health of the body.  With regular visits to your dentist and good oral health routines, you will have lots to smile about!:)

Researchers at King's College London, Brunel University, and London South Bank University have pioneered an invention that could remove one of the main factors in many cases of dental phobia- the noise of the drill!

The inventors have developed an innovative device which cancels out the noise of the dental drill, a development that could end the anxiety associated with many patients' fears associated with a trip to the dentist.  Its widely accepted in dental research circles that the sound of the drill is one of the prime causes of anxiety linked to dental treatment.  The device was developed in the hopes of eliminating this source of anxiety, thereby encouraging people to seek out the dental treatment they may require for optimal oral health.

The prototype, which now requires funding to take the development to market, works similarly to noise-cancelling headphones, but is specifically designed to deal with the very high pitched noise of the dental drill.

Talk about slick!....The Word Lens app by Quest Visual uses optical character recognition technology and makes converting text from another language as simple as pointing to the text and the application translates the text instantly!

Currently the application is only setup for English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English...the potential for this one is enormous:)

The teams of Drs. Joshi and Matheson of St. Laurent Dental Centre did there small part to help The Ottawa Mission by donating the fixings and time to help prepare over 400 sandwiches for some of the many homeless and poor of Ottawa that are served daily here.

The Ottawa Mission is a non-profit, faith-based ministry, meeting the needs of the homeless and those at risk of being homeless in the Ottawa region.

Established in 1906 on the foundation of food, clothing and shelter, the demand for The Ottawa Mission's services has increased dramatically in recent years. The Ottawa Mission's programs and services have evolved to meet the ever-changing face of homelessness in our city.

Please take the time to watch the video and if you wish to make a donation to this very worthwhile shelter, please do so by clicking here: https://www.ottawamission.com/index.php?q=Donate

Love these modified 'Gelb' splints:)  Bite Tech (the manufacturer) has done a great job researching this product, and marketing their performance mouthwear to atheletes...stroke of genius!

Maclean's magazine reporting on the comments made by actor Michael Douglas during a David Letterman interview, that his type of throat cancer was due to a combination of alcohol and cigarettes.  Maclean's quoted Dr. Jonathan Irish, Chief of the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital:  "Smoking is by far the most important factor for oropharyngeal cancer, but alcohol alone increases the risk of this type of cancer, and smoking and alcohol together work synergistically." One of the leading theories about this "multiplier effect," says Irish, is that alcohol acts as a solvent, wearing away at the soft, mucosa-lined surface of the oral cavity, and increasing the ability of material-such as carcinogens in smoke-to flow into cells. Irish says, "The risk of a person developing cancer of the head and neck from alcohol alone is two to five times the rest of population, and smoking is 10 to 20 times. But you put the two together, the person will have about 40 times the risk of developing cancer."

For the complete article, click here:  http://lifestyle.ca.msn.com/health-fitness/health/rogers-article.aspx?cp-documentid=25668187

A great interview by David Letterman with Michael Douglas, discussing his journey just after his first chemotherapy session.  His presence and story alone are a compelling argument against the lethal carcinogenic combination of alcohol and smoking.

Please take a look at the interview here: