Two weeks ago I had a root canal done, now lately I been in a lot of pain.  Since I get sinus infections once in a while I thought maybe it was that since it not really the tooth that hurt more of just my mouth in that area and the back of my eyes.  I have a dentist appointment in three more days but I am in a lot of pain yet I am not sure if it has anything to do with the root canal or if it my sinuses acting up.

Answer: If you are in pain I really think you should get to the dentist sooner then three more days.  Regardless of where the infection is you do not want to wait thing out.  Call your dental office up and see if you can get in sooner. Then if need be see your doctor.  Pain is a warning sign that there is an issue that need to be address you should not put it off.

Often times seniors may need to see the dentist more then just twice a year in order to maintain good oral and dental healthcare.  With dental cost on the rise it is even more important to have some dental insurance in place in order to reduce the increasing cost of dental care services.

Does gum disease indicate future joint problems? Although researchers and clinicians have long known about an association between two prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases – periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) – the microbiological mechanisms have remained unclear.

I had a filling done in my back top right molar two days ago and since then I have this dull ache on and off not sure why and if it is normal since this was my first filling.

Answer: It is normal to have a little pain for a day or two after a filling but I would suggest seeing your dentist again if it still continues any longer.

Many of us prefer to drink bottled water, swayed by the belief that it is fresher and better for us. But now, researchers have uncovered an endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) in commercialized bottled water, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. EDCs are man-made compounds that are commonly used in many plastics. The compounds have been found to interfere with the hormonal systems of several organisms, particularly reproductive systems.

Late last month, the Pew Research Center released a major report on broadband adoption. The results were mixed. On the plus side, 70 percent of U.S. adults have now adopted wire-line broadband in the home, which marks a statistically significant rise over the past year. When you factor in smartphone adoption, 80 percent of U.S. households are now connected to the Internet and more than 90 percent of adults under the age of 49 are online at home. That’s all good news. The problem is that means one in five Americans is not connected at home and low-income Americans remain disproportionately on the wrong side of this digital divide. Among families earning less than $30,000/year, one in three is completely offline, and barely half are connected if you remove smartphones from the equation.

Researchers say that efforts to tackle youth obesity rates in the US may be “having some success,” as a new study reveals that teenagers in the US are eating healthier, carrying out more physical activity and watching less TV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2010 more than a third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. The “obesity epidemic,” particularly in children and adolescents, has become an increasing concern, although there have been positive signs of decline.

Getting a good night’s rest can improve our health in many ways. And now, a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is the first of its kind to analyze how patients appear more alert, youthful and attractive after undergoing sleep apnea treatment for 2 months. The treatment, called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, can stop snoring, improve alertness and reduce blood pressure by keeping the airway open through a stream of air delivered by a mask that is worn during sleep.

New research on mice raises hope of a better, more lasting treatment for macular degeneration, which uses a class of drugs known as MDM2 inhibitors to regress the abnormal blood vessels responsible for the vision loss associated with the disease. Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and colleagues write about their findings in a recent online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Researchers in London have identified a mechanism through which vitamin D can significantly reduce the symptoms of asthma and suggest it may offer a new way to treat the debilitating condition, which in the UK alone affects around 5.4 million people and costs the NHS around 1 billion a year.

The US Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act in 2012 allowed states to opt out of the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion. Since that ruling, fourteen governors have announced that their states will not expand their Medicaid programs. We used the RAND COMPARE microsimulation to analyze how opting out of Medicaid expansion would affect coverage and spending, and whether alternative policy options—such as partial expansion of Medicaid—could cover as many people at lower costs to states. With fourteen states opting out, we estimate that 3.6 million fewer people would be insured, federal transfer payments to those states could fall by $8.4 billion, and state spending on uncompensated care could increase by $1 billion in 2016, compared to what would be expected if all states participated in the expansion. These effects were only partially mitigated by alternative options we considered. We conclude that in terms of coverage, cost, and federal payments, states would do best to expand Medicaid.

Frequent heartburn increases the risk of cancers of the throat and vocal cord among nondrinkers and nonsmokers, according to a new study. The research, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also indicated that the use of antacids has a protective effect against these cancers, while prescription medications do not.

Patients with five or more chronic conditions drive most Medicare costs. Organization, ChenMed, developed a scalable primary care–led delivery model that focuses on this population while getting reimbursed through full-risk capitation by Medicare Advantage plans. ChenMed is a primary care–led group practice based in Florida that serves low-to-moderate-income elderly patients, largely through the Medicare Advantage program. The model includes a number of innovations: a one-stop-shop approach for delivering multispecialty services in the community, smaller physician panel sizes of 350–450 patients that allow for intensive health coaching and preventive care, on-site physician pharmacy dispensing, a collaborative physician culture with peer review, and customized information technology. These innovations have improved patient medication adherence, increased the time doctors and patients spend together, and led to high rates of patient satisfaction. Additionally, Medicare patients have substantially lower rates of hospital use than their peers in the Miami Medicare market. Creating chronic disease centers focused on seniors with multiple chronic conditions is a promising delivery system innovation with major potential to improve the cost and quality of care.

With the Affordable Care Act set to expand insurance coverage to millions more Americans next year, existing discretionary health programs that receive federal support might find themselves competing for funds as the health reform law is fully implemented. To assess the implications the Affordable Care Act might have for discretionary health programs, we focused on state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, which provide free medications to low-income HIV patients. We conducted semistructured interviews with program managers from twenty-two states. Many of the managers predicted that their programs will change focus to provide “wrap-around services,” such as helping newly insured clients finance out-of-pocket expenses, including copayments, deductibles, and premiums. Although program managers acknowledged that they must adapt to a changing environment, many said that they were overwhelmed by the complexity of the Affordable Care Act, and some expressed fear that state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs would be eliminated entirely. To remain viable, such programs must identify and justify the need for services in the context of the Affordable Care Act and receive sufficient political support and funding.

Parents of kids with food allergies seem to be complacent about warnings on product labels, regardless of their child’s history of the potentially life-threatening allergic reaction anaphylaxis, a new study revealed.

Thanks to its legs, whose design faithfully reproduces feline morphology, EPFL’s 4-legged ‘cheetah-cub robot’ has the same advantages as its model: It is small, light and fast. Even though it doesn’t have a head, you can still tell what kind of animal it is: the robot is definitely modeled upon a cat.