Carolyn Thomas was covered with a sheet at the scene as evidence was being gathered.  Carolyn refused to die. After reaching out and grabbing an officer’s leg, her three year battle began.  A team of six doctors donated their time and expertise to rebuild Carolyn, the woman without a face.

After seven facial reconstructive surgeries, Dr. Kathy Frazar was faced with restoring Carolyn’s upper left maxilla.  She lost teeth #11-15 after tragically being shot to the face.  Her maxilla was reconstructed with a femur and the skin from her leg.  It was a restorative challenge to custom fabricate impression trays that would actually fit into her reconstructed periorbital tissues.  Her lower lip was slid 1/3 up to make a new upper lip, to lower the oral opening.  The second challenge was gingival collar heights on the implants since the intraoral tissue was not similar to the epithelium once in her mouth.  Dr. Frazar was present in the operating room during the implant placement to assist in angulation of the implants.  All facial and intraoral landmarks were missing or in a new location.  She wore a flipper during the healing phase of six months and the final impressions were taken to restore teeth #9-15.  She will be filled with a permanent removable implant supported structure.  She does not have a vestibule and it is almost impossibly to place screw retained prosthetics due to her restricted oral opening.

Carolyn has told her story of violence all over the country and has been featured on Oprah and The Discovery Health Channel.

          “I just wanted to be able to walk down the street and not have people stare at me.  I am speaking on domestic violence all over the country so this will not happen to other women.”

“It is not everyday I can help change someone’s entire life by giving them a smile!”

-Dr. Kathy Frazar

Imagine having a tooth repaired painlessly without shots for anesthesia.  Originally, these types of spray anesthetics are used by ear, nose, and throat physicians when operating on the nose. Researcher’s at the University of Buffalo’s school of dental medicine are conducting studies to see if the upper teeth can be anesthetized using a similar spray anesthetic for dental visits.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers.  In fact, it is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

According to Harvard research findings, gum disease may increase the risk of developing this deadly cancer.

Dr. Dominique S. Michaud of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston and his colleagues had analyzed 16 years of data from nearly 52,000 male doctors in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.  This team is investigating the relationship between lifestyles and cancer.

A total of 216 men who develped pancreatic cancer were studied.  After clearing out factors like smoking, diabetes, obesity, physical activity, diet etc, men with a history of gum disease were found to have a 63-percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer as compared to men without periodontal disease.

Two previous studies have already reported positive associations between periodontitis (inflammation of the gums around the teeth) and other chronic diseases.

Periodontal disease may boost the risk of pancreatic cancer through “plausible mechanisms,” Michaud points out.

This type of gum disease results in chronic inflammation (infection) that leads to tooth loss.

People with gum disease harbor high levels of harmful bacteria in their mouths and guts.  These people also tend to have higher amounts of nitrosamines, which have been proposed to increase pancreatic cancer risk.

Although the risk was not as high as those with existing periodontal infections, people who lost teeth also showed an increased risk for pancreatic cancer.

Men who reported a history of peridontal disease and tooth loss in the last four years showed a more than 2.5 fold increase in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer as compared to those who reported no history of periodontal disease.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers, largely because it escapes detection until it has spread to other parts.  Only about five percent of pancreatic cancer patients survive the first five years after being disagnosed.

More than 30,000 Americans are expected to die from pancreatic cancer this year.

Gingivitis. Notice the gums are red and swollen

Moderate periodontal disease: notice the accumulation of calculus around the gumline. The gums are red, swollen and tender.