Bruce Lilly DDS

Last Week, our members were asked to bring food for our local Scouting food drive with Troop 201. This was our contribution (most of it, more came in later) off of 1 meeting! "Always so amazed how well our club steps up every time we ask" - Dr Bruce Lilly (Club President 2013-2014)

Welcome Dr Liu !!! 🦷

Changing positions, and continuing a great team!! 😀

Look at Fiona’s smile! She’s just the BEST!

First nylon toothbrush, 1941!

Yep... "Tiger Lilly"!
At the LA Zoo for Family Promise gala. :-D

National Geographic: A change in our diets may have changed the way we speak
For much of the history of various human species, wear from chewing food caused teeth and jaws to align edge-to-edge, as seen in this skull of a Neanderthal male.
(Photograph by LIGHTREIGN, Alamy)

Science & Innovation
A change in our diets may have changed the way we speak
You might be able to thank agriculture for a rise in the use of "f" and "v" sounds, a controversial new study suggests.
6 Minute Read
By Michael Greshko

PUBLISHED March 14, 2019

As the saying goes, we are what we eat—but does that aspect of our identity carry over to the languages we speak?

In a new study in Science, a team of linguists at the University of Zurich uses biomechanics and linguistic evidence to make the case that the rise of agriculture thousands of years ago increased the odds that populations would start to use sounds such as f and v. The idea is that agriculture introduced a range of softer foods into human diets, which altered how humans' teeth and jaws wore down with age in ways that made these sounds slightly easier to produce.

“I hope our study will trigger a wider discussion on the fact that at least some aspects of language and speech—and I insist, some—need to be treated as we treat other complex human behaviors: laying between biology and culture,” says lead study author Damián Blasi.

If confirmed, the study would be among the first to show that a culturally induced change in human biology altered the arc of global languages. Blasi and his colleagues stress that changes in tooth wear didn't guarantee changes in language, nor did they replace any other forces. Instead, they argue that the shift in tooth wear improved the odds of sounds such as f and v emerging. Some scientists in other fields, such as experts in tooth wear, are open to the idea.

“[Tooth wear] is a common pattern with deep evolutionary roots; it’s not specific for humans [and] hominins but also present in the great apes,” University of Zurich paleoanthropologists Marcia Ponce de León and Christoph Zollikofer, who didn't participate in the study, say in a joint email. “Who could have imagined that, after millions of years of evolution, it will have implications for human language diversity?”

While the study relies on various assumptions, “I think the authors build a very plausible case,” adds Tecumseh Fitch, an expert on bioacoustics at the University of Vienna who wasn't involved with the work. “This is probably the most convincing study yet showing how biological constraints on language change could themselves change over time due to cultural changes.”

But many linguists have defaulted to skepticism, out of a broader concern about tracing differences in languages back to differences in biology—a line of thinking within the field that has led to ethnocentrism or worse. Based on the world's huge variety of tongues and dialects, most linguists now think that we all broadly share the same biological tools and sound-making abilities for spoken languages.

“We really need to know that the small [average] differences observed in studies like this aren't swamped by the ordinary diversity within a community,” Adam Albright, a linguist at MIT who wasn't involved with the study, says in an email.

Energy efficient

Teeth might feel solidly embedded in the skull and jaw, but as anyone who's worn braces can tell you, teeth can shift and drift in the jawbone quite a bit as people age. Humans are often born with a slight overbite, but as teeth naturally wear down, they tilt to a more vertical orientation. To compensate, the bottom jaw shifts forward so that the top and bottom rows of teeth are in an edge-on-edge alignment.

For much of our species's history, this edge-on-edge configuration was the norm in adulthood, as seen in many prehistoric skulls studied over the last three decades. But when societies adopted new agricultural techniques, such as the cultivation of cereal grains and raising cattle, diets changed. Once porridge, cheese, and other soft foods dominated ancient menus, people's teeth saw less wear, which let more people keep an overbite into adulthood.

A more common overbite, the thinking goes, set the stage for sounds such as f and v, which you make by tucking your bottom lips beneath their top teeth. If your top teeth jut out slightly more, it's theoretically easier to make these sounds, which linguists call labiodentals.

Blasi and his colleagues aren't actually the first to make this case. Influential linguist Charles Hockett suggested a similar idea in an essay published in 1985. But Hockett's case rested on a particular claim by C. Loring Brace, an influential anthropologist at the University of Michigan. A year after Hockett's essay, Brace replied to say that he had changed his mind—causing Hockett to dismiss his own idea.

For decades, Hockett and Brace's back-and-forth was taken as the final word on the matter. So when Blasi and his colleagues revisited the issue several years ago, it was for demonstrative purposes. But when the team started statistically analyzing databases of world languages and their distribution, they started to see a stubborn relationship they couldn't explain.

“We tried for months to show that this correlation didn’t exist ... and then we thought, maybe there’s actually something there,” says study coauthor Steven Moran, a linguist at the University of Zurich.

The team then conducted follow-up analyses, including some that made use of a computer model of the face's bones and muscles. The models found that it takes about 29 percent less energy to make labiodentals with an overbite than without.

Once f and v became less energetically expensive to make, Blasi's team says, the sounds became more common—perhaps only accidentally at first, as people mis-vocalized sounds made by both lips touching, such as p or b, or what linguists call bilabials. But once labiodentals appeared, they stuck around, presumably because they're usefully distinct. In English, the phrases “fever has gone global” and “Bieber has gone global” have very different meanings.

In English, the phrases “fever has gone global” and “Bieber has gone global” have very different meanings.

When Blasi's team compared language records with data on how different societies acquire food, they found that languages used by modern hunter-gatherer societies use about a quarter of the f sounds that that agricultural societies do, suggesting a possible correlation with diet. And when they looked at the vast family of Indo-European languages, they found that the odds of labiodentals popping up were worse than 50 percent until 4,000 to 6,000 years ago.

The time of labiodentals' rise roughly matches up to when their speakers first started using dairy products and cultivating cereal grains. Blasi's team argues that this is no coincidence.

“The landscape of sounds that we have is fundamentally affected by the biology of our speech apparatus,” says study coauthor Balthasar Bickel. “It's not just cultural evolution.”
Persistent clicks

That said, everything from social structure to short-term fads can also shape language—and the rise of agriculture brought with it profound societal changes. Linguists also stress that even within a single population, people's speech can vary widely. (Does geography influence how a language sounds?)

University of Southern California linguist Khalil Iskarous, who wasn't involved with the study, is willing to entertain the paper's probabilistic arguments. But he points out that human speech organs don't use that much energy relative to movement, and they're so flexible, they often can compensate for differences in bone structure. Sounds made more difficult by an overbite, such as bilabials, might be expected to decline—but many languages clearly keep them around.

What's more, if energy expenditures really play a driving role in languages, many difficult speech sounds would face an uphill climb to adoption. For instance, Iskarous points to the clicks that are still integral to many of the Khoisan languages of southern Africa.

“If extremely small amounts of effort should make a difference between whether you're likely to have a speech sound or not, you would predict, for instance, that no language should have clicks. And clicks not only exist, they've spread into many languages that didn't have them,” he says. “These are extremely effortful, but it doesn't matter: There are cultural forces that decided that clicks would spread.”

But Blasi continues to stress that his team's claims don't preclude culture.

“The probabilities [for making labiodentals accidentally] are relatively low, but given sufficient numbers of trials—and by this, we mean that every utterance you make is a single trial—over generations, that leads to the statistical signal we see,” he says. “But it's not a deterministic process, right?”

As scholars continue to debate, Blasi's team has ideas for where to go next. For instance, they say their methods could help better reconstruct how ancient written languages were spoken aloud and so catalog language's endless phonemes most beautiful.

Michael Greshko is a writer for National Geographic's science desk.
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Winter in SoCal. Beautiful!

A smile in our skies!
Or maybe the Cheshire Cat?! 😄

A very happy, fun Halloween!!

12 Tips for a Healthy Halloween

Halloween is around the corner, which for most children means bags of free candy and a chance to build a stockpile of sweets for the winter. No surprise, Halloween can also present parents with a variety of health and safety challenges. “It’s OK to eat that candy on Halloween but it’s important to have a plan,” says ADA dentist Dr. Ana Paula Ferraz.

Here's how you can help your family stay MouthHealthy on Halloween and year-round.

Time It Right:
Eat Halloween candy (and other sugary foods) with meals or shortly after mealtime. Saliva production increases during meals. This helps cancel out acids produced by bacteria in your mouth and rinse away food particles.

Stay Away from Sweet Snacks:
Snacking can increase your risk of cavities, and it’s double the trouble if you keep grabbing sugary treats from the candy bowl. ”Snacking on candy throughout the day is not ideal for your dental health or diet,” Dr. Ferraz says.

Choose Candy Carefully:
Avoid hard candy and other sweets that stay in your mouth for a long time. Aside from how often you snack, the length of time sugary food is in your mouth plays a role in tooth decay. Unless it is a sugar-free product, candies that stay in the mouth for a long period of time subject teeth to an increased risk for tooth decay.

Avoid Sticky Situations:
Sticky candies cling to your teeth. The stickier candies, like taffy and gummy bears, take longer to get washed away by saliva, increasing the risk for tooth decay.

Have a Plan:
It’s tempting to keep that candy around, but your teeth will thank you if you limit your stash. “Have your family pick their favorites and donate the rest,” Dr. Ferraz-Dougherty says. “Look for organizations that help you donate candy to troops overseas, like Operation Gratitude, or see if your dentist has a candy take-back program.”

Drink More Water:
Drinking fluoridated water can help prevent tooth decay. If you choose bottled water, look for kinds that are fluoridated.

Maintain a Healthy Diet:
Your body is like a complex machine. The foods you choose as fuel and how often you "fill up" affect your general health and that of your teeth and gums.

Stay Away from Sugary Beverages;
This includes soda, sports drinks and flavored waters. When teeth come in frequent contact with beverages that contain sugar, the risk of tooth decay is increased.

Chew Gum with the ADA Seal:
Chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes after meals helps reduce tooth decay, because increased saliva flow helps wash out food and neutralize the acid produced by bacteria. “You might even want to think about giving sugarless gum out as a treat instead of candy,” says Dr. Ferraz. Find one with the ADA Seal.

Brush Twice a Day:
Brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes with an ADA-accepted fluoride toothpaste. Remember, replace your toothbrush every three or four months, or sooner if the bristles are frayed. A worn toothbrush won't do a good job of cleaning your teeth.

Clean Between Your Teeth:
Floss your teeth once a day. Decay-causing bacteria get between teeth where toothbrush bristles can't reach. Flossing helps remove plaque and food particles from between the teeth and under the gum line.

Visit an ADA Dentist:
Regular visits to your ADA-member dentist can help prevent problems from occurring and catch those that do occur early, when they are easy to "treat."

Check out Mouthhealthy.org

This Sunday. :-D

Smile!

Is Va**ng Safer Than Smoking? Threats From Smokeless Ni****ne Are Many
Growing Number Of Studies Point To Negative Health Consequences Of E-Cigarettes.

Medical Daily (3/14, Bharanidharan) states that when “e-cigarettes first emerged in 2004,” they “quickly became a popular, ‘healthier’ alternative for those who wanted the feeling of smoking tobacco.” However, a growing number of studies are suggesting e-cigarettes are associated with negative health consequences. The article highlights some of these studies, noting, for example, that Dr. Irfan Rahman, professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester, studied how e-cigarettes may affect oral health. “We showed that when the vapors from an e-cigarette are burned, it causes cells to release inflammatory proteins, which in turn aggravate stress within cells, resulting in damage that could lead to various oral diseases,” he said. In addition, Dr. Rahman co-authored “a study that examined artificial flavors for inducing tissue damage and having a toxic effect on white blood cells, with the worst impact coming from cinnamon, vanilla, and buttery flavored e-juices.” The article noted that “the Food and Drug Administration has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid.”

The ADA Foundation offers a resource on e-cigarettes. Ongoing investigations at the ADA Foundation Volpe Research Center document the toxic substances and irritants found in e-cigarette aerosol.

Spring in Burbank hills. Hiking today from the Burbank Nature Center. Wild flowers and recovering from the fire. :-)

Not exactly a Sweet Tooth!

Dietary Sensor Fits Right on a Tooth
26 Mar 2018 Dentistry Today Industry News

Researchers at the Tufts University School of Engineering have developed miniaturized sensors that, when mounted directly on a tooth and communicating wirelessly with a mobile device, can transmit information about glucose, salt, and alcohol intake. Potential applications, the researchers note, could include the detection and recording of a wide range of nutrient and chemical intake and physiological status monitoring.

Previously developed wearable monitors require mouth guards, bulky wiring, or frequent replacement. Tufts’ engineers sought a more adoptable technology and developed a sensor measuring 2 x 2 mm that can flexibly conform with and bond to the irregular surface of a tooth. Just as a toll is collected on a highway, the researchers said, the sensors transmit their data wirelessly in response to an incoming radiofrequency (RF) signal.

The sensors comprise three layers. A central “bioresponsive” layer absorbs the nutrient or chemical to be detected. The outer layers consist of two square-shaped gold rings. Together, the layers act like a tiny antenna, collecting and transmitting waves in the RF spectrum. As an incoming wave hits the sensor, some of it is cancelled out and the rest transmitted back, just as blue paint absorbs redder wavelengths and reflects blue back to our eyes.

However, the sensor can change its “color.” If the central layer takes on salt, or ethanol, its electrical properties will shift, causing the sensor to absorb and transmit a different spectrum of radiofrequency waves with varying intensity. That is how nutrients and other analytes can be detected and measured.

“In theory, we can modify the bioresponsive layer in these sensors to target other chemicals. We are really limited only by our creativity,” said Fiorenzo Omenetto, PhD, corresponding author and Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts. “We have common RFID technology to a sensor package that can dynamically read and transmit information on its environment, whether it is affixed to a tooth, to skin, or any other surface.”

The study, “Functional, RF-trilayer sensors for tooth-mounted, wireless monitoring of the oral cavity and food consumption,” was published by Advanced Materials.

5 Reasons Your Smile Is Stronger Than You Think!

The right smile can leave you laughing, fill you with joy or make you melt with emotion. But, ultimately, the best smile is one that is healthy and strong. Here are some of the “tooth truths” about how tough your teeth really are – and how to keep them that way.
1. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the body.
The shiny, white enamel that covers your teeth is even stronger than bone. This resilient surface is 96 percent mineral, the highest percentage of any tissue in your body – making it durable and damage-resistant.
2. Your bite is powerful!
Did you know your teeth can exert an average of 200 pounds of pressure when you bite down? That’s probably what tempts us to use our teeth as tools from time to time – but as your dentist will remind you, that’s one of the worst habits when it comes to preserving healthy teeth.
3. Teeth can last for hundreds of years.
Thanks to the durability of tooth enamel, our teeth actually outlast us. In fact, some of the most fascinating things we know about human history come from the study of our forebears’ dental remains. For example, we know that the first travelers to leave Africa for China set out as many as 80,000 years ago – and that early humans used a simple form of aspirin for pain relief – thanks to teeth!
4. Strong as they are, teeth can’t heal on their own.
All other tissues in our bodies have the power to repair themselves, but our teeth can’t. When damaged, they must be repaired by a skilled dentist using caps, crowns, fillings or veneers. When our teeth fall out, the only options are partial or full dentures or dental implants. (Just one more reason to take great care of your teeth every day!)
5. Healthy teeth have the power to resist decay, but they need our help.
Did you know there are more than 300 kinds of bacteria that can attack your teeth? The good news is that with healthy dental hygiene habits and regular checkups, you can protect your teeth from bacteria and other substances that can weaken teeth and cause decay.

In addition to cleaning and checking your teeth for signs of trouble, your ADA dentist and their team can help you learn what food and drink choices are good for your teeth and which ones to avoid. The professionals in your dental office are also ready to help you create a personalized plan to care for your teeth so you can enjoy good dental health for life.

George Washington Didn’t Have Wooden Teeth—They Were Ivory Washington's teeth were made of a lot of things, but not wood

Then smile!!

After all those cookies....

Nextdoor just published their Neighborhood Favorites.
We are very flattered to be named Favorite Dentist!! 😁
See:
https://nextdoor.com/recommendations/winners/?is=button_low

Nextdoor is the free private social network for your neighborhood community. Over 161,000 communities across the U.S. are using Nextdoor to strengthen their neighborhoods.

Tooth Fairy Tree!! :-)

Keep smiling!!

Remember?!... Go Dodgers! Just wait till next year.
Let's do it in '18!
President Reagan holds a bat in the Rose Garden after Greeting World Series Champion, Los Angeles Dodgers with Nancy Reagan. 10/26/1988

Happy Halloween!!

GO DODGERS GO!!!

Many have already met Dr. Park. We are very happy to have her join our practice! The office is open 6 days a week, so Dr. Lilly , Dr. Marcom and Dr. Park share in caring for our friends and patients. See more at BruceLillyDDS.com