The role of early dietary habits in dental caries development. Ismail AI.

Source Department of Dental Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Abstract Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a serious dental condition that occurs during the first three years of life and is associated with the early intake of sugary foods, drinks, or snacks. There is now evidence that early malnutrition episodes could lead to delay in the eruption of primary teeth and possibly to increased caries prevalence. Significant correlations are present between the intakes of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats during infancy and several years later in life. Infants' dietary intake is also significantly correlated with the dietary intake of their mothers. Supplementing milk with vitamins during the first several years of life leads to reduction in the prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasia, a condition that may be associated with future development of dental caries. There are equivocal findings concerning the value of using dietary habits to predict caries incidence during the first three years of life. There is a need for development of educational, nutritional, and prevention programs targeting mothers and infants and for research on effective methods to prevent Early Childhood Caries.

Nutrition, tooth development, and dental caries. Alvarez JO. Source Department of International Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham 35294-0008. Abstract Many studies involving small animals have clearly shown that malnutrition affects tooth formation and causes increased dental caries. We have conducted two cross-sectional studies and one longitudinal study among Peruvian children to investigate the effect of early malnutrition on oral health. The cross-sectional studies have shown that in malnourished children the pattern of caries development as a function of age is significantly altered as a result of a delayed eruption and exfoliation of the deciduous teeth. This phenomenon has made difficult the observation by other scientists of a clear effect of nutritional status on total caries experience because the comparison of age-adjusted caries data between populations of children with different nutritional status is inappropriate. The use of peak caries activity has allowed the observation of a strong association between malnutrition and increased dental caries. The longitudinal study has confirmed the results of the cross-sectional studies and has demonstrated that one mild to moderate malnutrition episode occurring during the first year of life is associated with increased caries in both the deciduous and permanent teeth many years later.

The Lady review Though its heart is in the right place, this biopic of Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi never really does justice to its subject

One of those agonisingly well-intentioned films whose heart is in the right place, but everything else is wrong. Michelle Yeoh plays (but ultimately fails to illuminate the enigma of) Aung San Suu Kyi, the calm and dignified Burmese democracy campaigner, who for years was confined to house arrest in Rangoon by a brutal and reactionary military junta, and met their bullying threats with non-violence. David Thewlis plays her British husband, the Oxford academic Dr Michael Aris, who had to leave his beloved wife behind in Burma and was finally reduced, poignantly, to waiting by the phone for news. The central, painful moment of dramacomes when Aris is diagnosed with inoperable cancer, but the junta still refuses to let him come to Burma for a final reunion; instead they cynically attempt to use his illness as a lever to dislodge this troublesome revolutionary figurehead. They offer Aung San Suu Kyi a visa to leave Burma to see him. Aung knows full well they would never allow her back; she chooses instead her political destiny and stays put. Luc Besson's film, with its "TV movie of the week" aesthetic, never does full justice to the heartwrenching agony of this final decision, and the international politics of the matter are passed over pretty lightly. I recommend instead Anders stergaard's 2009 documentary Burma VJ, about the continuing courage of Burma's democracy campaigners. Sign of the Times Published Friday 3 April 2009 at 12:30 by John Thaxter Commissioned by Alan Ayckbourn to write a comedy for a Scarborough lunchtime season, Tim Firth enjoyed early success with his one-act play, A Man of Letters, about two men erecting a huge sign on the top of a tall building in Preston, while the older man spends his breaks dreaming up spy stories that will never be published. Fate has given Frank the ambition to become a man of letters but minus the talent. So instead he earns his crust installing giant display letters, while writing think pieces for a local magazine and pouring out his homespun philosophy to his balky assistant Alan. Firth has added a second act to this slight but amusing piece in which the roles are reversed. Alan is now a sharp-suited boss with the gift of the gab, training Frank for a salesmans job in a chain store flogging white goods. But this potentially interesting idea is not developed beyond the first moments of recognition. Instead, the piece is given over to under-plotted farcical situations which raise the laughs, but lack the character-driven qualities of the original piece. In the first half, Stephen Tompkinson gives Frank a warm and rounded personality, making the most of his rueful comic lines, but he enjoys fewer opportunities to discover more about his character in what follows. The reverse is perhaps true for Tom Shaw as Alan, who amusingly shows us a still gawky young man struggling to come to terms with sudden promotion and the ruthless dishonesty of high pressure salesmanship.