Samantha Wright's Journal: Biology Help Desk: Volume 3^3

As requested by the world's greatest masked mystery person, Anonymous Coward, it may or may not be time for yet another biology help desk thread, after a surprisingly long hiatus of about four years. Feel free to contribute both questions and answers.

Which type of graft is best?

[BarbaraHudson]

My dentist broke my maxillary (upper jaw) last week and yanked a chunk of it out. I'l be referred to a specialist to do a bone graft to repair it, but (1) what type of graft is best, and (2) what am I looking forward to as per the procedure and recovery? The whole experience makes me want to get as many second opinions as I can before I make a decision.

Re:

[Samantha Wright]

That's fairly straightforward; as this [nih.gov] summary article explains, a synthetic allograph (or xenograph; the terms overlap) that maintains bone mineral density is ideal, as it means no harvesting from elsewhere on your body (eek), no risk of rejection, and good bone density. I'd say start a conversation with your dentist about hydrogel-hydroxyapatite composites and mention you're concerned about sustaining bone density long-term.

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

Thanks. I'm not exactly on speaking terms with my dentist at this point, for other reasons.

Gut flora and artificial sweeteners

[Blue23]

Looking for more information on long-term effects on gut flora for moderate/low use of artificial sweeteners and links to obesity.

Re:

[Samantha Wright]

This [utoronto.ca] is probably the most recent, well-cited article on the topic. The authors looked at the effects of saccharin in mice, and were able to determine that there was a significant elevation in blood-glucose level for the mice that were fed saccharin instead of actual glucose over the course of nine weeks. This suggests a mechanism for previous findings that suggest artificial sweeteners cause insulin insensitivity, weight gain, type II diabetes, et cetera. The difference between the two diets went away when