SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

That way it matches the color of your teeth

Pixel XL ?

 

When doing root canal procedures they often foist this "dam" thing on you: basically a stretchy latex material with holes for your teeth to protrude through. Might be good for more procedures, during COVID times?

Maybe I shouldn't mention it, some dentist is liable to be reading, think "hey, that's a good idea...".

 

That's how my last RC was done. I actually liked it - debris didn't end up in the bottom of my throat, and didn't have to stop constantly to rinse.

 

That Dam Dentistry . . .

 

The last guy to make a crown for me made it right in the office. He had a little camera on a stick that just got waved around freehand in my mouth for a minute or two to get a bunch of different angles on the original shape. A computer was stitching the images into a 3D model in real time.

For feedback, it plays a little synth piano tune over the speaker, while the camera's being moved around. If it's moved too fast or misses a good angle, the computer throws wrong notes into the tune. It works really well, the human hears the wrong notes and backs up with the little camera and gets another shot.

Then the sound of a little bitty CNC mill in the next room springing to life, and the crown was ready to glue on a little bit later in the same visit.

 

That's interesting as all heck; the future is here lol.

 

I had a dentist who had this. I had a sneaking suspicion that he paid for the machine by always finding excuses to put in a crown. "I definitely recommend a crown for this tooth." "You did that tooth last month!" "Oh, um, let me see...I meant, um, this tooth. Yes this tooth really needs a crown." "That tooth seems fine." "No, I really think that tooth is trouble. It's going to fall apart within months unless we act now. You'll really regret it if you don't put a crown on that tooth. I know I'll regret it."

Needless to say after some very questionable sessions, he's no longer my dentist. Of course, now days I guess no one is my dentist.

 

Local TV news reports a steroid treatment that significantly reduces mortality:
Dexamethasone hailed as 'major breakthrough' in treating coronavirus

We need to find empirical publications describing the facts and data.

Bob Wilson

 

while they are optimistic, the authors said it needs to be peer reviewed, not media reviewed.

 

This is as far as you can get to the facts and data available at this time.
https://www.recoverytrial.net/files/recovery_dexamethasone_statement_160620_v2final.pdf

 

makes sense. pretty much what most experts have been saying all along. i read another article today that said close personal contact for long periods of time was the major driver.
outside of rules and regulations, i think people are just being irresposible, and it is a very difficult thing for government to control, unless they go back to a complete shutdown, which is unlikely.

 

In addition to the aspect of business owners being wiped out due to shuttering from Covid-19, the absolute disruption to most people's routines have been devastating. I attended my gym every morning routinely without fail, but that's been disrupted. Some say that I can "workout" at home, but anyone else with firsthand experience understands that this is not even close to being the same. Haircuts, hanging out at my favorite watering-hole, dining, shows, etc. have been completely take away where I live. This is all understandable to me from a practical standpoint, but still weighs down on my soul.

I, along with my fellow employees, received an email from HR last week reminding us to use our vacation. They've notice that most are not taking their allotted time off. With many venues being closed, and the fear of catching Covid-19 keeping people at home, no one has been compelled to "vacation." I'm also guessing that people are waiting until our state opens everything up (goes to green) before starting to use any available free time from work. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that a second wave will nix that before it can happen, and our misery will continue.

In the grand scheme of things, I realize I've still been very fortunate compared to many others. I remind myself of this regularly. Nonetheless, these are very difficult times right now, and I believe everyone is hoping it will get better (soon).

 

PA is one of three states that has had a consistent, continuous downward trend in viral cases for over 42 days. Yes it has been disruptive but that is real progress, although it might be for naught if folks don't heed the warnings to keep wearing masks, physically distance and avoid large gatherings. Things are opening up, but we need to gauge progress step-by-step so we don't lose those hard-won gains as we buy time for vaccine development.



You have been part of this essential effort. It isn't easy but it is necessary! Be well!

 

FDA finally moving toward pooled testing in US.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Facilitating Diagnostic Test Availability for Asymptomatic Testing and Sample Pooling | FDA

Public health in this country remains very slow to move - this has been practice in some other countries for a while now, and it is a key tool to increasing Covid-19 control.

 

I had not heard of this technique until a month or so ago and it instantly made sense. My first thought was do a binary search of positive samples but a 4-to-1 works too with less 'house keeping.'

Bob Wilson

 

yes - my dentist, running a CNC on rare occasions here at Disney, let me get out of the chair & watch the C&C run. It was like the size of a breadbox. I've watched some on YouTube, & they must be older models, being nearly 3x the size of the one that he uses.
.

 

Since around March, I've been watching South Korean news since they always seem so far ahead of much of the rest of the world in their response to the Covid virus.

They immediately encouraged their biotech industry to come up with tests, which they then used in a very thorough tracking program. (Their data was to first to show that people within a few feet over a period of time of someone infected is the most likely transmission path). They immediately mass produced N95 masks for doctors and simpler, cheaper masks for the rest of the public, available from the government at very low cost from most stores. They heavily criticized doctors in US and Europe for discouraging the public from wearing masks. They very early worked on antibody tests for better tracking.

As a result, even though they are very close to where it all started, and initially had a lot of cases, they were very quick to bring it under control and were one of the first countries to 'flatten the curve'.

Of course, they bared the brunt of the previous Corona virus back in 2003, so they had a better understanding of what to expect and how to react than the rest of the world.

They are still months ahead. Back in April they discussed doing pooling of samples for testing.

 

GWAS study revealed that gene variants in two regions of the human genome are associated with severe COVID-19 and correspondingly carry a greater risk of COVID-19-related death. One region on chromosome 9 contains genes that determine blood types, while other on chromosome 3 is believed to be involved in immune functions. The blood type A COVID-19 patient has 50% greater risk of sever symptom needing oxygen support with a ventilator as opposed to the type O patient who has 50% less risk.

The ABO blood group locus and a chromosome 3 gene cluster associate with SARS-CoV-2 respiratory failure in an Italian-Spanish genome-wide association analysis | medRxiv

Similar observations on blood type link to severe COVID-19 had been reported before, but I think this is the first comprehensive genomic study to correlate the precise loci for the risks.

 

About 10-12 years ago I was a beta tester for something like this. I had to sign an NDA and waiver. And they video taped the whole visit. However, the CNC machine was not in the office, I still had to come back a week later to get it glued in. The plan B was that if I wasn't satisfied the dentist would redo it the traditional way.

I agreed to do it because I wanted to see how it worked

Mike