Dr. Vo graduated with her Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Saigon, Vietnam in 1971, giving her over four decades of experience in her field. Wanting to further her training, when she relocated to the United States she completed additional training with the University of California at Los Angeles. To stay up to date in her field she remains a professional member of the Fresno Madera Foundation. She currently practices within her private practice where she holds an expertise in general dentistry. She attributes her professional success to her experience and knowledge and cares for her patients. She treats them with honesty and respect. When she is not working she enjoys meditation and traveling.

At the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, researcher Olivier Duverger, National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md., USA, presented a study titled Hair Keratins as Structural Organic Components of Mature Enamel: The Link Between Hair Disorders and Susceptibility to Dental Caries. The IADR General Session held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 39th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.Hair and teeth are ectodermal appendages that share common developmental mechanisms. However, the major structural components making up hair and teeth are very distinct. The hair shaft is essentially made of keratin filaments that are highly cross-linked. Tooth enamel matrix is primarily composed of enamel proteins (amelogenin, ameloblastin) that are degraded and replaced by minerals during enamel maturation. Fully mineralized enamel contains a small fraction of cross-linked organic material that has not been fully characterized. In this study, researchers assessed the presence and functionality of a specific set of hair keratins in this organic fraction of enamel.

NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering professors have been collaborating with researchers from Peking University on a new test strip that is demonstrating great potential for the early detection of certain heart attacks.

Kurt H. Becker, a professor in the Department of Applied Physics and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and WeiDong Zhu, a research associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, are helping develop a new colloidal gold test strip for cardiac troponin I (cTn-I) detection. The new strip uses microplasma-generated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and shows much higher detection sensitivity than conventional test strips. The new cTn-I test is based on the specific immune-chemical reactions between antigen and antibody on immunochromatographic test strips using AuNPs.

Compared to AuNPs produced by traditional chemical methods, the surfaces of the gold nanoparticles generated by the microplasma-induced liquid chemical process attract more antibodies, which results in significantly higher detection sensitivity.

cTn-I is a specific marker for myocardial infarction. The cTn-I level in patients experiencing myocardial infarction is several thousand times higher than in healthy people. The early detection of cTn-I is therefore a key factor of heart attack diagnosis and therapy.

The use of microplasmas to generate AuNP is yet another application of the microplasma technology developed by Becker and Zhu. Microplasmas have been used successfully in dental applications (improved bonding, tooth whitening, root canal disinfection), biological decontamination (inactivation of microorganisms and biofilms), and disinfection and preservation of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The microplasma-assisted synthesis of AuNPs has great potential for other biomedical and therapeutic applications such as tumor detection, cancer imaging, drug delivery, and treatment of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers.

The routine use of gold nanoparticles in therapy and disease detection in patients is still years away: longer for therapeutic applications and shorter for biosensors. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the fact that the synthesis of monodisperse, size-controlled gold nanoparticles, even using microplasmas, is still a costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive process, which limits their use currently to small-scale clinical studies, Becker explained.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, looked at 3,166 adults aged 60 or over from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and compared their performance in tests of memory and walking speed. The results showed that the people with none of their own teeth performed approximately 10% worse in both memory and walking speed tests than the people with teeth.

The association between total tooth loss and memory was explained after the results were fully adjusted for a wide range of factors, such as sociodemographic characteristics, existing health problems, physical health, health behaviours, such as smoking and drinking, depression, relevant biomarkers, and particularly socioeconomic status. However, after adjusting for all possible factors, people without teeth still walked slightly slower than those with teeth.

These links between older adults in England losing all natural teeth and having poorer memory and worse physical function 10 years later were more evident in adults aged 60 to 74 years than in those aged 75 and older.

Tooth loss could be used as an early marker of mental and physical decline in older age, particularly among 60-74 year-olds, says lead author Dr Georgios Tsakos (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health). We find that common causes of tooth loss and mental and physical decline are often linked to socioeconomic status, highlighting the importance of broader social determinants such as education and wealth to improve the oral and general health of the poorest members of society.

Regardless of what is behind the link between tooth loss and decline in function, recognising excessive tooth loss presents an opportunity for early identification of adults at higher risk of faster mental and physical decline later in their life. There are many factors likely to influence this decline, such as lifestyle and psychosocial factors, which are amenable to change.

A review of more than a decades worth of research on osteonecrosis of the jawwhen the bone in the jaw is exposed and begins to starve from a lack of bloodpoints to an increased risk for patients taking certain drugs forosteoporosis, anticancer drugs or glucocorticoids, those undergoing dental surgery, and people with poor oral hygiene, chronic inflammation, diabetes, or ill-fitting dentures.

A number of prevention strategies may help protect at-risk individuals, and treatments that are available or under study include the use of antibiotics, surgery, teriparatide, bone marrow stem cell transplantation, and laser therapy.

Patients need to maintain good oral hygiene especially if they are taking antiresorptive therapy in order to reduce their risk, said Dr. Aliya Khan, lead author of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research review.

Van Kim Vo, DDS, is a top dentist who lends her skills and expertise to serve patients at her own private practice in Fresno, California. With forty-nine years of experience as a dentist, she specializes in all facets of her specialty. Dr. Vo is a 1971-graduate of University of Medicine and Dentistry in Saigon, Vietnam. Her postgraduate training includes advanced training at the University of California School of Dentistry in Los Angeles, CA.