Bisphosphonates for $500, please, Alex

Bisphosphonates are a class of drug used to treat osteoporosis and some cancers. Without getting technical, the drug influences the cells that control bone and that creates problems with medical procedures that require change in the bone, like oral surgery / tooth extraction (when a tooth is taken out, like a wisdom tooth, the bone that surrounded the root reforms to get rid of sharp edges.)

There are oral and IV forms of the medication. One type of IV form was only just approved by the ADA in August of 2008 and Travis has a patient who was on that. Because of it's newness, Travis had to do a lot of research to find what little was available on the subject.

To graduate, the dental school requires a research project to be done. Travis did a poster for research day. Two of his friends, Guy and Aaron, didn't have their research covered yet either, so they joined Travis in doing the presentation.

Yesterday was research day and they won first place, with a prize of $500! Great job guys! Travis also told me of a nice compliment to his research. An orthodontist had written a paper on the subject and submitted it to a Brazilian dental journal. It was returned to him with a request for more research to be done. Seeing the poster, the orthodontist basically said "Wow, this fills in the gaps in my research. Where did you find all this?" Good job, honey!