Bad Hair Day Not unlike World Cup fans worldwide, this month two English prep school students decided to shave replicas of their country's flags into their hair. And although they appreciated the teens' enthusiasm and patriotism, officials at Blacon High School in Chester sent a message of their own: No crazy haircuts on school property.
Peter Sandbach and Adam Dean, both 14, were suspended indefinitely after showing up to school with dyed red-and-white St. George's crosses shaved into the backs of their heads. The boys got their haircuts in advance of England's June 10 tournament opener against Paraguay, which it won 1-0. Despite the weekend win, the boys' spirits were dashed when they returned to school the following Monday. "We felt that the hairstyles were inappropriate for school," headteacher Barry Dykes told the Press Association. "Once (the haircuts) have grown out or been changed, we will welcome back the two pupils."
Meanwhile, the students' parents couldn't help but feel that the school overreacted. "My son has done nothing wrong and he is missing his lessons because of a haircut," said Martin Dean. "Their rules are stupid as far as I'm concerned."
The Tooth Hurts Sports and energy drinks have long been purported to deliver "thirst aid for that deep-down body thirst" - or at least that was the claim of the memorable 1980s Gatorade® jingle. But according to a University of Maryland dental school professor, over time the popular beverages may also give athletes deep-down toothaches.
In a study recently published in General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Academy of General Dentistry, researcher J. Anthony von Fraunhofer asserted that citrus-flavored beverages such as sports and energy drinks are more abrasive on tooth enamel than tea or cola.
Von Fraunhofer exposed enamel from extracted teeth to a variety of beverages. He simulated 13 years of exposure during normal beverage consumption, weighing the teeth before and after exposure to calculate enamel dissolution. While all the drinks produced some enamel damage, von Fraunhofer found the most wear resulted from, in descending order, lemonade, energy drinks, sports drinks, fitness water (often with citrus flavors), ice tea and cola. It's well known that most colas contain acids, but energy and sport drinks also contain other organic acids that can speed up damage to the enamel, the study said.
Sports-drink industry representatives were quick to deny a correlation between their products and dental problems. "The study from Maryland uses an experimental approach (in) a non-real-world situation," Craig Horswill, senior research fellow at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, said in a prepared statement.
Offering a compromise, some dentists encourage athletes to chug, not sip, their favorite sports drinks. "If you are going to drink sports drinks or colas, drink them quickly and then try to rinse your mouth - or use a straw so it gets it past your teeth," Lakeland, Fla., dentist Craig Valentine told HealthDay News in May. "It's that constant acid attack that is causing the problem."
