Posted by drgracesun on December 10, 2010 under General Dental Knowledge, Information | 
Believe it or not – dogs really do snore! It’s an unfortunate trait, but the relatively thick / short necks and large tongues of certain breeds (like pit bulls) usually mean excess soft tissue. Lost muscle tone decreases the flow of air, causing an obstruction in which the collapsed airway will vibrate. This results in the snores you’ve come to hate (or tolerate), especially if your dog sleeps in your bed!
Humans and dogs snore for the same reasons – something is blocking their upper airway, due to either a “fat” neck or extra tissue blocking the airway while reclining or laying down. If your dog has consistent loud snoring, or gasps for breath, schedule an appointment with his veterinarian. The following are some of the top associations with snoring:
- Being Overweight: Does your dog have a definable, slim waist? If not, and your dog looks pudgy around the middle, he is most likely overweight. Extra tissue and flabby tissue can push the upper airways closed. Consider using a diet dog food, feeding her less and frequent exercises like jogging or the dog park.
- A Large Neck: If your dog has a large neck (in relation to its head), like a pug or a pit bull, the dog’s airway may be at risk. Similarly, in humans, a woman with a neck larger than 15″ in circumference (or a man with a 17″ or larger neck) may be associated with snoring.
- Sinus Congestion: Does your dog have any kind of cold, allergies or nasal discharge? When the nasal passage is blocked and breathing takes place through the mouth, positive air pressure decreases in the throat, causing the airway to collapse, causing snoring.
- Pain Medication or Tranquilizers: Just as taking muscle relaxants can cause snoring in humans, pain reduction medication will relax your dog’s muscles to the point that they can cause the airway to collapse, causing snoring.
- Having a Flat Face: That cuteness comes with a price. Breeds like Pekinese, Pugs and Boston Terriers often have more nasal infections and easier blocked airways than longer nosed breeds. Consequentially, they almost always snore.
- Smokers: Fictitious dogs love playing poker, but in reality, dogs do not smoke. Humans do. Inflammatory reactions can be caused by smoke irritation, when tissue becomes swollen, blocking the airway which causes snoring. Place his kennel in a clean-air space, and don’t smoke near him.
Posted by drgracesun on October 3, 2009 under Current News Events, Information |
In a story that spread across the news (and the web) in a matter of hours, a revolutionary surgical procedure took place in Florida that essentially used a female patient’s own eye tooth (canine 
) as a base to hold a prosthetic lens inside her eye, which was blinded nine years ago due to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Blind for nine years, Sharron “Kay” Thornton recently regained her vision through a first-in-the-U.S. surgical procedure at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The surgical procedure — modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (MOOKP) — implanted her canine eyetooth in her eye, as a tissue base to hold a prosthetic lens in place.
The disease, which claimed Sharron Thorton’s vision for so many years is an idiopathic condition (read: spontaneous and of unknown-origin) which causes the epidermis to separate from the dermis in what is often a life-threatening battle. The condition destroys the cells on the surface of the eye causing severe scarring of the cornea. Because the eye is such a sensitive part of the body – which rejects foreign material, including plastics and other man-made objects – a piece of hard natural tissue was needed for the implantation of the prosthetic lens. Because the body would normally reject an artificial base, the eye tooth was chosen as a hard, durable tissue which was composed of natural minerals that the body would not reject.
Corneal specialist Dr. Victor Perez said of the procedure, which was developed in Italy, “MOOKP has proven effective as a solution to end-stage corneal disease where severe corneal scarring blocks vision and corneal transplants are no longer an option but the eye’s internal structures and optic nerve remain healthy. For certain patients whose bodies reject a transplanted or artificial cornea, this procedure ‘of last resort’ implants the patient’s tooth in the eye to anchor a prosthetic lens and restore vision,” he explained.
Before the eye-opening procedure, the eyetooth was actually implanted in the patient’s stomach for several months, in order to expose the tooth to other bodily tissues (blood, plasma etc), preparing the tooth for implantation within the eye. Had the tooth not been cocooned by the body before implantation, the chances of bodily rejection would have been rather high. Medical technologies like these (and revolutionary medical procedures) have helped improve our life so much – dental or other bodily implants have been used routinely with great success, but the bottom line is that prevention still is the best answer for our health and quality of life. When tragedy strikes – as it did with Kay Thorton – a combination of science and fortune just might save the day.
Tags: blind, blindness, canine, eye, implant, miami, prosthetic, sight, stevens-johnson, surgery, surgical, syndrome, thorton, tooth, vision
