Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 29, 2012



Good Wednesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Rockdale woman charged in illegal dentist practice

A Rockdale County woman has been arrested and charged with practicing dentistry without a license.

According to the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office, Kessia Shauna Curtis, 34, of 2110 Fairway Court, Unit B, was arrested and charged on Aug. 22, after a complaint came in concerning several illegally parked vehicles and the allegation that an illegal dentist office was operating from that address.

In her incident report, a RCSO deputy said she went to Curtis' home and knocked on the door and Curtis answered the door wearing a surgical mask.

The deputy asked Curtis about the allegations and she said "she was just clipping someone's braces wire, that she was an orthodontic assistant and what she was doing was not illegal," the incident report states.

Though not invited inside, the deputy stated she observed "some type of machine that was plugged up on the left side of the residence and it was covered up with some type of cloth. There was also a table on the right side of the residence as well with different types of items on it."

CDA Cares delivers oral health services to 2,026 people

The California Dental Association Foundation’s free dental clinic, CDA Cares, provided more than $1.3 million in charitable dental services during a two-day event held here Aug. 24-25, 2012.

The California Dental Association Foundation and the California Dental Association was hoste for the clinic to provide oral health services and education to Californians who experience barriers to care.

Presenting sponsors Benco Dental and Carestream Dental--as well as premier sponsors Patterson Dental, Straine Dental Consulting, and Capital Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery with many other supporters--provided supplies and materials to help assemble the event.

“The support we received from our partners has been outstanding,” said Don Rollofson, DMD, chair of the CDA Foundation. "Having their backing is vital to the success of these events, and we truly appreciate it. It shows how dedicated the dental community is to helping people in need of oral health care.”

More than 1,300 volunteers donated their time and services at the event, including more than 600 health professionals--dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, nurses and lab technicians--as well as hundreds of community volunteers who assisted with registration, translation, data entry and escorting patients.

As the final number of procedures provided at CDA Cares is being tallied, preliminary estimates indicate more than 2,000 tooth extractions were necessary.

Rotten teeth, after 11 years in braces, lead Oregon man to sue for $185,100

Devin Bost finally has straight teeth -- but after 11 years of wearing braces, many of them are rotten through.

That's according to a $185,100 lawsuit filed on behalf of the 22-year-old, who claims a Eugene orthodontist treated Bost's crooked teeth with braces from ages 7 to 18. Orthodontists usually treat patients with braces for about two years.

The lawsuit states that Bost has suffered serious tooth decay and periodontal disease from all of the years his teeth were covered.

"What I'm told by the experts is, 'You can't do this. You can't keep them on that long. It's just not done," said Bost's Portland attorney, David Hollander.

Some of Bost's teeth will need to be yanked out and replaced with implants, Hollander said, but that may not be possible in some areas of his mouth because the teeth have rotted through to the jaw. His client has racked up more than $35,000 in dental bills so far. He had to seek the expertise of one of the nation's top dentists in Boston because the damage is so extensive, Hollander said.

The suit, filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, faults Brad Chvatal,  who has been licensed with the Oregon Board of Dentistry since 1997.

NY dentists suffer setback in Small Smiles case

A New York judge has rejected attempts by the dental chain Small Smiles and its owners and some employees to dismiss lawsuits filed by parents of children who were treated at its clinics.

In 2010, Small Smiles, which is owned and operated by Church Street Health Management (formerly Forba Holdings), paid $24 million to settle allegations of Medicaid fraud brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. A total of $3.45 million of that went to the state of New York, where the company operates several clinics.

In 2011, lawsuits were filed by 10 families on behalf of 30 children in Onondaga, Monroe, and Schenectady counties, accusing Small Smiles and its dentists of "unnecessary, inappropriate, unsafe, and excessive dental procedures" performed on young children at various Small Smiles clinics between 2005 and 2009. Battery, false advertising, malpractice, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty also were alleged.

The parties named in those complaints -- which include more than a dozen Small Smiles dentists, the former and current owners and managers of Small Smiles, and the corporate entities under which the clinics operated -- subsequently asked the Onondaga County Supreme Court to dismiss some of the issues, including fraud and battery in the Onondaga lawsuit, claiming the lawsuits did not meet required legal standards.

Enjoy your morning!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Persisent Use of Marijuana Over the Age of 18 Less Damaging to the Brain?



Cannabis (Marijuana) effects

Yes, according to a new study.

Researchers from Britain and the United States found that persistent and dependent use of cannabis before the age of 18 may have a so-called neurotoxic effect, but heavy pot use after 18 appears to be less damaging to the brain.

Terrie Moffitt, a psychology and neuroscience professor at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the scope and length of the study, which involved more than 1,000 people followed up over 40 years, gave its findings added weight.

"It's such a special study that I'm fairly confident cannabis is safe for over-18 brains, but risky for under-18 brains," she said.

Before the age of 18, the brain is still being organized and remodeled to become more efficient and may be more vulnerable to damage from drugs, she added.

Marijuana is a drug and cannot be considered safe for routine teenage use. It is NOT harmless.

Those who had used pot persistently as teens scored significantly worse in most of the tests. Friends and relatives regularly interviewed as part of the study were more likely to report that the heavy cannabis users had attention and memory problems such as losing focus and forgetting to do tasks.

The researchers also found that people who started using cannabis in adolescence and continued for years afterwards showed an average decline in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test scores of 8 points between the age of 13 and 38.

Friday, August 24, 2012

The Daily Extraction: August 24, 2012



Today's extraction tooth number 28, first premolar

Dr. Tommy Murph extracts on a 80 year old lady who has a bad lower premolar tooth that has a crown and existing root canal.

Here is the pre-operative radiograph:



Here is the video of the extraction procedure:




The grand result:



Enjoy your daily extraction!

Dr. Murph is a South Carolina dentist who practices general dentistry and who really excels in extracting teeth.

For patients in the Myrtle Beach area, I can heartily recommend Tommy as YOUR dentist.

For dentists, Dr. Murph has a number of resources for you in extracting teeth, including resource manuals and travel (outside the USA) courses with "hands on" instruction.

Dr. Murph's website is here and his extraction manuals are here on e-Bay.

Previous:

The Daily Extraction Archive

The Morning Drill: August 24, 2012



My Dental Trip.com

Good Friday morning! Are we ready for the weekend?

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Local firm taps dental travel

When Richard Dziurda found out five years ago that he needed thousands of dollars in dental work, he wasn't sure he could afford the procedures or even follow through with his dentist's advice. But the predicament led the Metro Detroiter not only to get the work done for thousands of dollars less than expected but to help create a business that assists consumers in reducing the cost of dentistry.

The now-56-year-old high school teacher-turned adjunct college professor stumbled on a news article about dental travel, a growing trend in which U.S. residents venture outside the country to score a better deal on dental work.

Dziurda spent months researching 10 dentists in Costa Rica before he settled on one that met his needs. A two-week vacation later, the dental work was done and Dziurda saved an estimated tens of thousands of dollars in dental work.

"It was the best $8,000 I ever spent," Dziurda said, noting his bill in the U.S. would have been about $40,000.

Dziurda and Jaime Bellos, 41, who taught high school together and both went on the Costa Rican dental trip in 2007, built on their experience to make it easier for other patients to embrace dental travel.

The pair has created a patient-to-dentist website, mydentaltrip.com, which allows those seeking dental work to upload medical records and other information onto the site and seek bids from dentists.

Patients can solicit one bid free of charge; extra bids cost $25. Dentists have a separate site where they detail their experience and specialties.

Dental services for low-income McLean Co. adults to restart


Adult dental services for about 700 Medicaid-eligible McLean County residents will resume under a new model that involves collaboration of three agencies and increased contribution by some patients.

The adult dental clinic at the McLean County Health Department will reopen 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 7 and will be open each Friday, said health department director Walt Howe.

“This is a program that I believe is so important to the community that it would be a disservice if it was not available,” Howe said.

For years, the health department had a weekly pain relief clinic that offered exams, X-rays and extractions for Medicaid-eligible adults to reduce the number of dental patients who went to emergency departments. Few community dentists regularly treat adults on Medicaid.

But effective July 1, the state — as part of cuts to the state budget — eliminated Medicaid reimbursement for adult dental care, except for extraction of one tooth in an emergency.

“Under those conditions, you couldn’t have a planned dental clinic,” Howe said. McLean County — and other health departments with adult dental services — suspended those services. Children’s dental services remained.

Howe didn’t want county residents with genuine need to ignore their dental problems.

“Dental is one of the main health issues in the county, especially for low-income people,” said Joe Gibson, director of John M. Scott Health Resources Center. “People can’t go to work if they’re in dental pain.”

Health Department staff developed a model with a sliding-scale fee. The four tiers will begin with patients in households that earn 133 percent or less of the federal poverty line and they will pay 25 percent of the Medicaid rate. Patients in households with 165 to 200 percent of the federal poverty line will pay 100 percent of the Medicaid rate, or $63 for an exam, X-ray and extraction.

Board suspends Goffstown dentist

State officials have taken emergency action to suspend the license of a Goffstown dentist after hearing allegations that he wrote numerous prescriptions for himself and at one point appeared impaired when he crashed his car on his way to work.

On Wednesday, the state Board of Dental Examiners suspended the license of Gregory A. Tracy on a 60-day emergency basis. The board ordered a hearing for Sept. 10 to decide his future status as a dentist.

The board claims that Tracy also received prescriptions from nearly two dozen health-care providers. After his car accident, Goffstown police let him off with a warning and a ride home, despite several instances of erratic driving.

According to the board, officials started hearing reports earlier this year about Tracy and prescriptions drugs. In January, a pharmacist informed the board Tracy could be writing prescriptions of Vicodin for personal use, board documents say.

In mid-July, Tracy’s physician warned that drugs could impair Tracy’s ability to safely provide dental care. In August, other pharmacies said he was self-prescribing and filling the prescriptions at multiple pharmacies.

Evidence That New Biomimetic Controlled-Release Capsules May Help in Gum Disease


Scientists are trying to open a new front in the battle against gum disease, the leading cause of tooth loss in adults and sometimes termed the most serious oral health problem of the 21st century. They described another treatment approach for the condition in a report at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia August 20.

"Our technology uses controlled-release capsules filled with a protein that would be injected in the pockets between the gums and the teeth," said Steven Little, Ph.D., who reported on the research. "That's ground-zero for periodontal disease ― 'gum disease' ― the place where bacteria breed and inflammation occurs. The capsules dissolve over time, releasing a protein that acts as a homing beacon. It guides immune cells to the diseased area, reducing inflammation, creating an environment that fights the disease process and even could create conditions favorable for gum tissue to regrow."

Enjoy your morning!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 23, 2012



Joseph Facciolo, a 26-year-old dental student at Temple University

Good Thursday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Temple Dental Student Wins $1M Supermarket Giveaway


A local graduate student is the lucky winner in an Acme Markets sweepstakes game.

Joseph Facciolo, a 26-year-old dental student at Temple University, is a winner in the Acme Summer Sizzlin’ Sweepstakes.  He won at a Bala Cynwyd supermarket.

“It’s a gamepiece type game,” he explains.  “You collect certain type game pieces from some of the random items that you can buy here at Acme.”

Facciolo’s prize is a thirty-year, $1 million annuity (cash value about $800,000), but says that with taxes on his prize estimated at 35 percent, plus dental school loans of over $300,000, a million dollars isn’t as much as it sounds like.

Judge ends lawsuit over Calif. inmate dental care


A federal judge has ended a lawsuit over poor dental care in California prisons, saying that conditions have improved in the seven years since the suit was filed.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate praised the decision Wednesday as another sign of progress in the troubled prison system.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco dismissed the case on Monday at the request of attorneys representing the state and inmates.

"A comprehensive system is now in place to ensure that inmate-patients receive constitutionally adequate dental care," the order says.

Some remaining renovation work should be done by May 2014, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Inspections of dental programs at all 33 adult prisons were completed in June. The department said the programs passed with an average grade of more than 98 percent.

Fluoride May Be Neurotoxic in Kids


Exposure to high levels of fluoride in drinking water may harm children's neurodevelopment, according to a systematic review and metaanalysis of published studies.

Philippe Grandjean, MD, PhD, of the Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues found that children living in highly fluoridated areas had significantly lower IQ scores than their peers living in areas of low fluoridation.

"The results suggest that fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development at exposures much below those that can cause toxicity in adults," they write.

The study was published online July 20 in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Mom's Emotional Health During Child's Early Years Linked to Teen's Oral Health


A mother's emotional health and education level during her child's earliest years influence oral health at age 14, according to a new study from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine.

It was found that mothers with more education beyond high school, with healthy emotional states and knowledge about eating right had children with healthier teeth.

"We cannot ignore these environmental influences and need interventions to help some moms get on track early in their children's lives," Nelson concludes.

Nelson says moms need to care for themselves to help their children. She likens it to the emergency instructions on an airplane that mothers put on the mask first and then their children. "How can a mother help her child if she passes out," asks Nelson. "It's all common sense, but some mothers may need help."

Enjoy your morning!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 22, 2012



Dentist, Dr. James Rawlins

Good Wednesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Dentist celebrates 75th birthday with unicycle ride to work

Commuting to work in Central Florida is a circus. Just consider James Rawlins, who celebrated his 75th birthday Tuesday by riding to his office on a unicycle.

"At 75, I had to do something special," said Rawlins, a dentist who has been in practice for more than 30 years on State Road 434.

Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, Rawlins hopped on his silver unicycle and began the 5.1-mile journey from his home in Maitland to his office in Longwood.

Wearing a bright yellow shirt, black spandex shorts and bike helmet, Rawlins coasted down the driveway and pedaled through his quiet suburban neighborhood about 5 mph. Avoiding cars — both parked and moving — Rawlins made his way toward Oranole Road and then onto Maitland Avenue.

"He likes to do different things," said his wife of 40 years, Nicole Rawlins. "He love challenges."

Free dental services offered Friday, Saturday at Cal Expo

From X-rays to exams, a range of free dental services will be available Friday and Saturday at Cal Expo's Buildings C and D.

A cadre of volunteering dentists and assistants will throw open the doors at 5:30 a.m. to early risers lining up outside 1600 Exposition Blvd.

They're hoping to see a virtual flood of up to 1,500 people arriving to obtain free dental and oral health care services during the two days.

Volunteers will transform Cal Expo's buildings into big-tent-style health care spaces complete with rows and rows of dental chairs, oral care equipment and special lighting.

An estimated 10 million Californians, or about 30 percent of the state's population, experience barriers to oral care, mainly affordability, the California Dental Association says.

The CDA, which is organizing the two-day free clinic called CDA Cares with the CDA Foundation, held a similar event in May in Modesto.

FTC bars Brain-Pad from making mouthguard claims


In a settlement reached with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Brain-Pad and its president, Joseph Manzo, have been barred from making unsupported claims that the company's mouthguards reduce the risk of concussions from lower jaw impacts, reduce the risk of concussions generally, or have been clinically proven to do either.

The settlement also prohibits Brain-Pad and Manzo from misrepresenting the health benefits of any mouthguard or other athletic equipment designed to protect the brain from injury.

According to the FTC, Brain-Pad and Manzo made their claims about the mouthguards' concussion-protecting qualities on product packaging and in Internet and print advertisements. On packaging for the Brain-Pad Pro-Plus Junior mouthguard, the defendants claimed the device "creates new brain safety space!" and "Reduces Risk of Concussions! From Lower Jaw Impacts."

Similarly, packaging for the adult-size Brain-Pad Double Mouth Guard proclaims that the device, "Reduces risk of CONCUSSIONS! Protects Upper AND Lower Teeth!"

Nobel Biocare expects weak dental market for rest of year

Swiss dental implant maker Nobel Biocare said it expected a modest decline in the global dental implant market for the rest of the year, as it posted second-quarter profit in line with expectations.

In the first half of 2012, markets developed less favourably than anticipated at the beginning of the year," the Zurich-based company said in a statement.

"For the remainder of 2012, Nobel Biocare anticipates a continuation of the challenging economic circumstances in many countries and expects the market to develop at the same pace as in the first half."

Net profit in the second quarter fell 12 percent to 14 million euros. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast sales to fall 14.5 percent to 13.6 million euros.

Enjoy your morning!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Dental Health Associated with Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia?



According to a new study: Dentition, Dental Health Habits, and Dementia: The Leisure World Cohort Study.

People who keep their teeth and gums healthy with regular brushing may have a lower risk of developing dementia later in life, according to a new study.

Researchers who followed close to 5,500 elderly people over an 18-year period, found those who reported brushing their teeth less than once a day were up to 65 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who brushed daily.

"Not only does the state of your mind predict what kind of oral health habits you practice, it may be that your oral health habits influence whether or not you get dementia," said Annlia Paganini-Hill, who led the study at the University of California.

Inflammation stoked by gum disease-related bacteria is implicated in a host of conditions including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

And some studies have found that people with Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, have more gum disease-related bacteria in their brains than a person without Alzheimer's, said Paganini-Hill.

It's thought that gum disease bacteria might get into the brain causing inflammation and brain damage, she told Reuters Health.

So she and her team wanted to look at whether good dental health practices over the long term would predict better cognitive function in later life.

Read all of the piece and the abstract which is here.

There are some big holes in the research methodology here, especially how periodontal disease is measured. Also, it is not clear about the relationship between missing teeth, when they went missing and the causation.

I think it is a leap at this time to directly associate Alzheimer's disease or dementia with dental health or lack thereof. However, good dental health for senior citizens is a very good idea on its own.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Medical Boards Worried About FTC North Carolina Dental Ruling



I knew this would happen as the various state boards would recognize the assault by the federal government on their autonomy.

Physicians are urging a U.S. appeals court to overturn a Federal Trade Commission ruling that doctors say strips medical boards of their right to regulate medicine.

The appeal comes after a North Carolina dental board was found to have violated federal antitrust regulations by attempting to stop nondentists from operating teeth-whitening centers. The FTC said the board is not exempt from antitrust scrutiny because its members are private professionals who compete with others in the marketplace.

If the FTC decision stands, the ruling would significantly imperil state regulation of medicine and put the public’s health at risk, doctors said.

“It would be disruptive to the proper regulation of medicine nationwide,” said Stephen Keene, general counsel for the North Carolina Medical Society. “The notion of having government agency bureaucrats regulate a learned profession is not good for the public. There would be no meaningful oversight of practitioners to deliver safe medicine.”

The case started when the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners received a complaint that unlicensed teeth whiteners were providing services at malls amid unsanitary conditions. From 2006 to 2009, the board issued cease-and-desist letters to the teeth whiteners, warning them about a state ban against stain removal by unlicensed practitioners.

The teeth whiteners complained to the FTC, saying the board’s actions were anti-competitive. An FTC administrative law judge found the board’s conduct constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade and ordered the dental board to stop.

The board argued that its conduct was protected from antitrust oversight by a legal doctrine that applies to some state board conduct. The doctrine exempts from antitrust scrutiny state agencies that are actively supervised by the state.

However, in a 2011 decision, the FTC said the dental board was not covered under the doctrine. The board falls outside such protections because it is made up of market participants and is not actively supervised by a sovereign part of the state government, the FTC said.

The dental board appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are expected in the fall. The North Carolina Medical Board said it is monitoring the case.

As I said at the time, this FTC decision is an overreach and would eventually be overturned by the appeals courts. The case has dragged on so long that it is likely that there will be a new President and new FTC composition before the matter is finally adjudicated - probably by the United States Supreme Court.

My category of posts on the issue is here.

Friday, August 17, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 17, 2012



Dr. John S. Paffrath, of Erin, Tennessee

Good Friday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Erin dentist enters plea on drug charges

Dr. John S. Paffrath entered a no-contest plea to three counts of unlawful dispensing of a controlled substance on Monday in Humphreys County Circuit Court.

Paffrath, 56, of 71 East Market St., Erin, was indicted on the charges on March 5, as the result of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation case that began in June of 2011. He worked as a dentist at the Hillcrest Dental Clinic on East Main Street in Erin.

Assistant District Attorney Sarah Wojnarowski said because the no-contest plea is a conditional guilty plea, in which Paffrath declines to dispute the charges, the state could not question him about the case. As part of his plea, Paffrath asked the court to grant him a judicial diversion, which means if he qualifies and meets all the conditions of his sentence, his criminal record could be expunged.

Judge Larry Wallace, of the 23rd Judicial District, sentenced Paffrath to 30 months of supervised probation, a $6,000 fine and court costs, and his Drug Enforcement Administration license to prescribe drugs would be revoked and his general license to practice dentistry would be suspended for 18 month.

“It will be up to the state if he gets his general practice license back, but he will never get the DEA license back,” Wojarowski said.

Who's Legally Liable in State's Dental Drama?

The state's sweeping Medicaid fraud investigation into dentists and orthodontists accused of giving unnecessary treatments to poor children has left Texas attorneys with lots of questions.

Who’s accountable for the Texas orthodontic patients abandoned mid-treatment when the state pulled the plug on their doctors? Could the state be held legally liable for giving doctors permission to perform medically unnecessary dental procedures in the first place? And ultimately, does the state’s method of cracking down on providers — halting funding the moment an investigation is opened — grant sufficient due process to the accused, or could the government be counter-sued for destroying the businesses of providers later found innocent?

Looking for ways to curb the state's budget woes, lawmakers have directed health investigators to amp up their pursuit of fraud and to oust providers who purposefully filed medically unnecessary or fraudulent Medicaid claims. Many of the accused providers have their funding frozen, and can't treat Medicaid patients in the meantime. In the words of Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, “using patients to game the system – and then abandoning those patients when you get caught – is shameful abuse.”

Sixth Medicaid dental victim comes forward, police investigate

Police are now investigating what's been happening with Medicaid dentistry in southeast Dallas.

Over a period of six months, six children each said they were paid $10 to get into an unmarked vans, taken to a southeast Dallas dental clinic called All About Dentistry, and drilled without their parents' permission.

The focus of this "recruiting" is a convenience store on St. Augustine, near a school bus stop where kids hang out during the summer and after school. There, the kids say, they were approached by a recruiter from All About Dentistry.

Keke Gray, 17, took the $10 offer and was driven to the clinic in July. She said she was one of many.

"I had some friends who went to the convenience store before," she said. "And they picked them up at the store and went up there [to the clinic] and they got the ten dollars."

The clinic admits it employs recruiters to bring in new Medicaid patients, but will not reveal how much it pays for each new patient a recruiter brings in.

Gray already had braces on her teeth from another dentist when she said she was solicited by an All About Dentistry recruiter and taken to the clinic. Once there, she said, she was given gas, an injection, and then seven fillings in her teeth.

She said the receptionist at the clinic seemed to want to keep the Medicaid dental work a secret from Keke's parents.

Poor Oral Health Can Mean Missed School, Lower Grades


Poor oral health, dental disease, and tooth pain can put kids at a serious disadvantage in school, according to a new Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC study.

"The Impact of Oral Health on the Academic Performance of Disadvantaged Children," appearing in the September 2012 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, examined nearly 1500 socioeconomically disadvantaged elementary and high school children in the Los Angeles Unified School District, matching their oral health status to their academic achievement and attendance records.

Ostrow researchers had previously documented that 73 percent of disadvantaged kids in Los Angeles have dental caries, the disease responsible for cavities in teeth. The new study shines light on the specific connection between oral health and performance in school for this population, said Roseann Mulligan, chair of the school's Division of Dental Public Health and Pediatric Dentistry and corresponding author of the study.

Children who reported having recent tooth pain were four times more likely to have a low grade point average -- below the median GPA of 2.8 -- when compared to children without oral pain, according to study results.

Poor oral health doesn't just appear to be connected to lower grades, Mulligan said, adding that dental problems also seem to cause more absences from school for kids and more missed work for parents.

Enjoy your day and the weekend!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 16, 2012



Goodwin Orthodontics Website

Good Thursday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Dentist Indicted for Health Care Fraud in State and Federal Probe


Dr. Michael David Goodwin, 63, an orthodontist who practices in Amarillo, Texas, and Crown Point, Indiana, has been charged in a federal indictment with 11 counts of health care fraud, alleging that he defrauded the Texas Medicaid program of approximately $1.5 million, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to the indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury today, approximately 90 to 95 percent of Goodwin’s orthodontics’ patients were Medicaid beneficiaries. The Texas Medicaid program provides orthodontic services for Medicaid beneficiaries who fit the following criteria: 1) children who are 12 years old and older with severe handicapping malocclusions; 2) children who are up to 20 years old with cleft palate; or 3) other special medically necessary circumstances, including crossbite therapy and head injury involving severe traumatic deviation.

The indictment alleges that from January 2008 through March 2011, Goodwin devised a scheme to defraud the Texas Medicaid program by billing the program more than $2 million for services he claimed he provided, when in fact, as he well knew, some of the services were not medically necessary, or dental assistants provided those services when no dentist or orthodontist was present to supervise, and even when present, did not directly supervise or provide any services. As a result of this scheme, Medicaid paid more than $1.5 million for claims filed by Goodwin.

As part of his scheme, according to the indictment, Goodwin practiced orthodontic dentistry approximately two weeks each month at Goodwin Orthodontics in Amarillo and approximately two weeks each month at his Indiana office. In order to maximize the number of Medicaid patients seen, employees regularly scheduled more than 100 patients per day and intentionally scheduled large numbers of Medicaid patients for days when Goodwin was scheduled to be out of town. To accommodate the large volume of patients, Goodwin directed dental assistants to perform impermissible acts, including comprehensive examinations, diagnoses and treatment planning for Medicaid patients when he knew that only licensed dentists were permitted to perform those acts. In many cases, dental assistants installed Medicaid patients’ braces before Goodwin had ever examined the patients, yet his instructed employees and billing staff to falsely state on Medicaid claims that he was the performing provider for all services impermissibly delegated to and performed by dental assistants.

Alumni donate $1M to Marquette dentistry school expansion


A Marquette University alumni couple have donated $1 million toward expansion efforts at Marquette’s dentistry school, according to a news release.

Dr. Jeff Moos and his wife, Beth, donated the money to the Marquette University School of Dentistry Building for the Future campaign. Jeff Moos is a 1983 graduate of the dental school and part owner and CEO of Midwest and Mountain Dental. Beth Moos graduated from Marquette in 1979 with a physical therapy degree and practices at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire. They live in Mondovi.

Their oldest son is in his third year at the dental school, and another son will start dental school this fall.

The dental school will name the faculty practice clinic in Jeff and Beth’s honor, the release said.

Woman runs dental practice without license in her trailer

According to a report from the Gwinnett County Police Department, a 37-year-old woman, who used to be a dental assistant, has been charged for practicing dentistry without a license out of her trailer. On inspecting the case, police officers found a fully equipped dental office in the woman's mobile home.

According to the incident report from Aug. 3, the police department was alerted to the illegal practice when an anonymous caller informed the department that a Norcross resident was operating a dentist's office out of her trailer. A police officer visited the location specified by the caller and confronted Martina Ramirez-Villa with the charge.

The officer put on record that although Ramirez spoke little English she seemed to understand his questions. She first denied that there was a dentist's office on the premises but she suddenly got choked up and stated, "I'm sorry I'll stop doing it." The officer asked her what she would stop doing and she replied, "working on teeth."

Further inquiry revealed that she had treated people's teeth in the bedroom of her trailer. On inspecting the room, the officer discovered dental office equipment, including a dental chair, lamp and a number of dental tools. In some small drawers next to the dental chair, the officer found several small vials of clear liquid, which was later identified as Octocaine, a lidocaine hydrochloride and epinephrine injection. In addition, several large bottles of pills labeled ibuprofen (800 mg) and amoxicillin (500 mg) were found in other drawers.

Is eating egg yolks as bad as smoking?

A new study suggests eating egg yolks can accelerate heart disease almost as much as smoking.

The study published online in the journal Atherosclerosis found eating egg yolks regularly increases plaque buildup about two-thirds as much as smoking does. Specifically, patients who ate three or more yolks a week showed significantly more plaque than those who ate two or less yolks per week.

It may seem harsh to compare smoking with eating egg yolks, but lead study author Dr. David Spence says researchers needed a way to put it into perspective since both eating cholesterol and smoking increase cardiovascular risks - but the general public believes smoking is far worse for your health.

The issue is with the yolk, not the egg, says Spence, who is also a professor of neurology at the University of Western Ontario's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "One jumbo chicken egg yolk has about 237 milligrams of cholesterol."

Keeping a diet low in cholesterol is key, says Spence. Even if you are young and healthy, eating egg yolks can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases later.

"Just because you are 20 doesn't mean egg yolks aren't going to cause any trouble down the line," he says.

For those patients with increased coronary risk, such as diabetics, eating an egg yolk a day can increase coronary risk by two to five-fold, he adds.

Atherosclerosis, also called coronary artery disease, occurs when plaque builds up in the blood vessels leading to the heart, specifically the inner arterial wall, and limits the amount of blood that can pass through.

Doctors write a prescription for fresh produce

In the study, researchers looked at 1,231 patients of the vascular prevention clinics at London Health Sciences Centre's University Hospital, with a mean age of 61.5. Each patient had already experienced a small stroke or had high blood pressure, hypertension or a family history of cardiovascular disease. Spence says researchers chose to use patients with a higher likelihood of cardiovascular issues because it would have been harder to get visible results using the general population with a lower risk.

Patients were asked to fill out questionnaires about their diet, lifestyle and medications, including how much they smoked and the number of egg yolks they ate. An ultrasound was performed to examine their plaque buildup. Researchers took into account sex, cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, body mass index and diabetes.

In addition to relying completely on the recollection of patients as to what they ate, the study did not account for waist circumference and it did not account for a patient's exercise program. And perhaps most notably, it only looked at patients with existing cardiovascular issues.

The study confirms what doctors already know about eating cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, says Dr, Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the former president of the American Heart Association. "Cholesterol intake should be limited to 300 milligrams a day, particularly in people who have underlying heart disease," he says.

Enjoy your morning!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 15, 2012



John Bassett, D.M.D.

Good Wednesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Salem dentist accused of slapping boy

A local dentist is accused of slapping an 8-year-old boy on the back after he opened a jar containing gauze.

Dr. John Bassett, 63, of Windham turned himself in to police Monday after detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest on a simple assault charge.

Police said the incident happened on May 18 at the dentist's office at 32 Stiles Road.

The boy's mother brought her son to Bassett's office for a follow-up appointment. While there, the child touched some glass jars on a counter that held Bassett's dentistry equipment. The boy then opened the lid on a jar and started taking out some gauze.

“We don't do that here!” the dentist yelled, according to the mother, and then he allegedly slapped the boy on the back with an open hand.

No yolk: eating the whole egg as dangerous as smoking?

Just as you were ready to tuck into a nice three-egg omelet again, comforted by the reassuring news that eggs are not so bad for you, here comes a study warning that for those over 40, the number of egg yolks consumed per week accelerates the thickening of arteries almost as severely as does cigarette smoking.

Server, can you make that an egg-white omelet instead, please?

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Atherosclerosis, measured the carotid wall thickness -- a key indicator of heart disease risk -- of 1,231 patients referred to a vascular prevention clinic, and asked each to detail a wide range of their health habits, from smoking and exercise to their consumption of egg yolks. Just as smoking is often tallied as "pack-years" (the number of cigarette packs smoked per day for how many years), egg-yolk consumption was tallied as "egg yolk years" (the number of egg yolks consumed per week times the number of years they were eaten).

The study subjects were typically referred to the clinic after having suffered a clot-induced stroke or a transient ischemic attack -- a "mini-stroke" in which symptoms may disappear quickly but which often presage a more serious stroke to come.

Dental poison case suspect in court

A 33-year-old woman has appeared in court charged with poisoning two of her colleagues at a dental practice in Bedfordshire.

Ravinder Kaur appeared at Luton Crown Court charged with two counts of administering poison with intent to annoy, injure or aggrieve at a dental practice in Shefford.

The charges relate to two separate incidents in March, in which two female colleagues suffered stomach upsets, said to have been caused by dental mercury poisoning, Bedfordshire Police said.

A force spokeswoman confirmed that the accused, who is currently suspended from work, was not a dentist but worked at the practice.

Army dentist receives Legion of Merit medal

Col. Eric Wagner, a dentist who practices in Hampton and Sheffield, was recently awarded the Legion of Merit Medal for 38 years of service in the armed forces.

Brig. Gen. Orlando Salinas presented the medal July 26 at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

The ceremony marked the conclusion of Wagner's 38 years in the service that included active duty tours in the Army and Navy, mobilization for the Iraq War and 25 years in the Army Reserve.

The medal was awarded to Wagner for 10 years of service during the global war on terror. Wagner was called to active service in 2003 and served as the drilling individual mobilization augmentee commander for the Western Regional Dental Command from 2004-07 and for the Great Plains Regional Dental Command from 2007-08. He was chief of staff from 2008-12, directing activities of 70 dentists who make up the Dental Corps of the Army Reserve.

The Legion of Merit is awarded for meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.



Col. Eric Wagner

Enjoy your morning!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 14, 2012



The awning reads Brooklyn Family Care, but Dr. Lawrence Bruckner operated Premier Dental, one of his two clinics under investigation for a Medicare bilking scheme, out of this Broadway location

Good Tuesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

B'klyn dentist pleads guilty to bilking Medicaid out of $700G by using homeless people

This dentist was more crooked than the teeth he was supposed to fix.

A devious Brooklyn dentist who used homeless people to scam Medicaid and state taxes out of almost $700,000 faces up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud today, authorities said.

Lawrence Bruckner, 62, paid recruiters to bring vagrants to his two dental offices – where he would fake a glance at their mouths before billing Medicaid for extensive work he never performed.

The scheme took place between 2007 and 2011 in Bruckner’s offices in Canarsie and Bushwick, according to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Bruckner and his colleagues were paid $6.3 million by Medicaid during those years – and more arrests are possible, authorities said.

“Bruckner exploited the homeless to get rich at taxpayer expense,” said DiNapoli. “Taxpayer money should never be spent on shoddy or non-existent care.”

Bruckner paid his recruiters $25 for each homeless person they rounded up outside shelters and soup kitchens. The vagrants themselves received $15 after their visit.

Brushing Their Teeth Until Scooby-Doo Says Time’s Up


THE Advertising Council wants to encourage children to brush their teeth — by giving them something to watch while they do it.

The plan is part of a new multimedia public service campaign to promote oral health among children, with support from the council and a coalition of over 30 dental organizations.

The campaign is directed primarily at parents and caregivers in low-income families, and stresses how important it is for their children to brush their teeth for two minutes twice daily.

To make this activity appealing to children, the campaign offers two-minute videos, provided by the Cartoon Network and My Kazoo, that children can watch on a smartphone or other mobile device while they brush.

The videos — which include Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry stories, and entertainment by Dream Jam Band — are not directly related to healthy teeth. The idea is to offer videos to parents, who can use them to entice their children to spend a full two minutes brushing their teeth.

The campaign — which was created by Grey New York and Wing, both part of the Grey Group unit of WPP — is intended to help low-income children in particular, with ads appearing in both English and Spanish.

Missouri Supreme Court Strikes Down Malpractice Cap

The Missouri Supreme Court yesterday struck down a state law that caps noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $350,000. It declared that the law infringed on a person's right to trial by jury, which includes the right to have a jury set damages.

The ruling, one of several recent setbacks for proponents of tough tort reform measures, illustrates the risk inherent in passing a federal law that would limit what a victorious plaintiff can receive in noneconomic (pain and suffering) damages. Such a law, supported by organized medicine and Congressional Republicans to curb supposedly frivolous suits and extravagant jury awards, theoretically could be overturned by the US Supreme Court.

To buttress its ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court went back almost 200 years to the laws that governed prestatehood Missouri when an elderly Daniel Boone, pioneer par excellence, was trapping beaver there. In the process, the court overturned a state high court ruling in 1992 that upheld the constitutionality of limiting noneconomic damages.

AAPHD criticizes ADA midlevel provider analysis

The ADA reports on the economic feasibility of midlevel dental providers (MLPs) used unrealistic assumptions and should have included data from Alaska and Minnesota, where such providers are now working, according to the American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD).

"Unfortunately, the ADA report has several limitations and methodological flaws and does little to advance our understanding of the actual economic impact of midlevel providers on practices or within a delivery system," the AAPHD wrote in a statement. "The practice assumptions used in this report are unrealistic and illustrate the issue of low Medicaid rates -- which most agree are problematic -- but would not be a factor that would impact midlevels any more than it would impact dental practices."

The AAPHD questioned why the report did not include information from the two states where MLPs are working.

"It is unclear why information from dental practices in both Minnesota and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium that currently employ midlevel providers was not included in this report," the association said. "Efficiency and effectiveness can only truly be assessed in areas where the MLPs are actually employed. Whenever possible, actual data rather than hypothetical assumptions should be used to frame public policy."

Enjoy your morning!

Monday, August 13, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 13, 2012



Good Monday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Dental Radiographs and Risk for Meningioma

A recent article by Claus and colleagues[1] reporting an association between dental radiographs and meningiomas has led to renewed concern about the safety of dental x-rays. We will first consider this reported association between dental radiograph and meningiomas, then explore the risks from dental imaging, and finally discuss appropriate use of dental radiographs.

These researchers identified 2228 eligible patients with intracranial meningioma and recruited 2604 matched controls. Participation was 65% for meningioma patients and 52% for controls. Subjects were asked to report their history of bitewing, full-mouth, or panoramic radiographic examinations. The association of meningioma odds with the odds of dental radiographs was calculated by conditional logistic regression for maximum-likelihood estimation of odds ratio, adjusted for age, sex, race, education, and history of head CT.

The researchers reported an association between intracranial meningioma and bitewing radiographs obtained at 10-19 and 20-49 years of age, as well as for all ages combined. Additionally, an association between meningioma and panoramic radiographs at younger than 10 and 10-19 years of age is identified. Finally, an association between meningioma and frequency of panoramic radiographs across all groups, for those with yearly or more frequent radiographs is described. Of note, there was no significant association between intracranial meningioma and full-mouth series. The manuscript concludes that "exposure to some dental x-rays performed in the past, when radiation exposure was greater than in the current era, appears to be associated with an increased risk of intracranial meningioma."

This manuscript, studying the largest cohort of subjects to date, is a significant contribution to existing literature reporting a potential association of intracranial meningioma and dental radiographs.[2-7] However, methodologic details are difficult to evaluate, thus creating ambiguities when performing detailed analysis of the data. For example, although controls were matched for state of residence, local differences do not appear to have been considered. Thus, controls with significantly different dental awareness or access to dental care could have been recruited. No distinction is made between bitewing and selected periapical radiographs. No adjustment for income between patients and controls was performed. The ability of patients and controls to accurately recall history of dental radiographs in a way that would not influence the study findings was not assessed. Finally, the prevalence of dental disease that might affect need for dental radiographs was not evaluated.

Notwithstanding such shortcomings, we believe that a weak association between intracranial meningiomas and dental radiographs may exist.[8] However, current understanding of radiation biology and radiation-induced tumorigenesis (see Radiation Risk From Dental Radiography section below) suggests that an additional 0.02-0.07 mGy to the brain from dental bitewing and panoramic radiography is highly unlikely to contribute measurable risk. Other explanations for such a risk should be considered. An obvious possibility is that patients with intracranial meningiomas have increased odds to receive bitewing or panoramic radiographic examinations.

Radiation Risk From Dental Radiography

The amount of radiation received from dental radiography is so low that it is highly unlikely that it results in a measurable risk. Dose reconstructions using techniques commonly used during the last decades of the last century show that the exposure to the brain from 4 bitewings is approximately 0.07 mGy, and from a panoramic examination about 0.02 mGy. A full-mouth examination (typically consisting of 12 periapical and 4 bitewing exposures) results in a brain dose of approximately 0.24 mGy.

However, even though the brain exposure from a full-mouth examination is higher than from bitewings or a panoramic, the study from Claus and colleagues found associations with the 2 low-dose examinations and meningiomas but not the relatively high-dose full-mouth examination. The resolution of this inconsistency is not clear if radiation is causing the meningiomas.

Further, there are no research reports that support the premise that doses as low as those received by the brain from dental radiography, including from a full-mouth examination, are sufficient to cause meningiomas. We know that brain exposure from dental imaging is much smaller than from head CT examinations. Brain exposure from head CT examinations is typically in the range of 43-75 mGy, far more than from dental radiography.[22] Head CT exposures contribute 4.3% of the collective effective dose from all diagnostic sources, 15 times more than from dental radiography.[23]

What Should the Dentist Do?


Dental radiographs provide a very useful tool in the dentist’s diagnostic armamentarium. Although radiograph benefits outweigh radiation risk,[27] a reasonable and prudent dentist should be cognizant of such a risk.[28,29] It is the dentist's responsibility to consider carefully and justify every radiograph[26] and to employ the means and procedures to optimize radiographic imaging to gain maximum diagnostic information with the minimum radiation.[30]

  • Avoid preset intervals for radiographs
  • Choose necessary radiographs carefully
  • Minimize radiation exposure

Dentist charged with lewd conduct

A Johnson County dentist is charged for doing something lewd while driving.

The woman wants people to know about a man she said exposed himself to her in her Olathe, KS, neighborhood. The man she's talking about is a dentist. Now he's charged with lewd and lascivious conduct, and it was later found out he had been fired from his job after news of the charges.

"On Tuesday night my 3-year-old son and I were out for a jog," the woman, who wished to not have her identity revealed, said.

The woman said she was in an Olathe neighborhood near West 161st Street and South Sunset.

"I saw a silver Honda circling us several times. I thought the guy was lost. Pretty standard in a confusing neighborhood like this," the woman said.

Circling around her, she said was Dr. Wylie Bell.

"I was three houses down from mine, the guy pulls over to the curb, honks his horn," the woman said.

She said what happened next was inexcusable. Bell, a dentist at the time with Arbor Creek Dentistry in Olathe, allegedly exposed himself. When he saw that she wasn't happy about what had just happened, Bell drove off.

"He peeled off and I was able to get his plates, I called the cops and they tracked him down about 45 minutes later," the woman said.

Now Bell is charged with lewd and lascivious conduct, a misdemeanor.

When a KCTV5 crew went to the address listed for Bell, a silver Honda matching the woman's description was parked outside.

"And I learned that he was a professional man. This isn't something you'd expect in a community like this. This isn't something you'd expect with a profession where you're trusting him with your children. It's disgusting," the woman said.

Enjoy your morning!

Friday, August 03, 2012

Smokers Go for the Less Taxed Tobacco



Loose Tobacco for Sale


The good news is that cigarette smoking is down, but the bad news is that overall smoking tobacco use is about the same.

Why?

Smokers are changing to other forms of tobacco smoking than cigarettes in order to avoid federal excise taxes.

Fewer Americans are smoking cigarettes, but a growing number are turning to cigarettelike cigars that can sell for as little as seven cents apiece or to making cigarettes from inexpensive loose tobacco labeled for pipe use, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Sales of these other forms of tobacco — which are taxed at significantly lower rates than both cigarettes and tobacco specifically labeled “roll your own” — have soared in recent years, the C.D.C. said. The amount of loose pipe tobacco sold in 2011 was enough to make 17.5 billion cigarettes, a sixfold increase over the amount sold in 2008.

Meanwhile, sales of loose tobacco specifically labeled for roll-your-own use and taxed at higher rates dropped by 75 percent during the same four-year period.

“While consumption patterns of traditional cigarettes have continued to decline, when we take into account these alternative cigarettelike products, we’re seeing a lack of change in the overall consumption of burned tobacco that is being inhaled,” said Terry Pechacek, associate director for science with the C.D.C. Office on Smoking and Health in Atlanta and one of the report’s authors.

Overall consumption dropped by less than 1 percent in 2011 from 2010, he said.

And, the loose type of tobacco can be flavored and made more attractive to younger smokers.

What is the federal government's response?

The Obama Administration wants to tighten up the taxation laws.

But, where have they been the past few years?

Thursday, August 02, 2012

The Morning Drill: August 2, 2012



From Stephen Stein, D.D.S.'s website

Good Thursday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Dr. Stephen Stein, Denver-Area Dentist May Have Infected 3 Patients According To Health Department

Three former patients of suspended Denver-area oral surgeon Dr. Stephen Stein have tested positive for infection according to state public officials.

Just last month the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sent out 8,000 letters to former patients of Dr. Stein encouraging them to get tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C after learning that he'd reused needles and syringes.

Since that notification, the department says it has identified three people who have tested positive for some infection, but also cautions that their infection may not be positively linked to the unsafe injection practices in Dr. Stein's offices.

"It would be difficult if not impossible to conclude definitively whether the dental practice was the actual source of transmission for any of these positive test results," the department confirmed Wednesday.

Lohmann: Mother, son reunited in Afghan war zone


Marine Capt. Wilson Nance visited Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan last week on official business, but he also stopped by the hospital to hug an Army dentist.

His mother.

"Even in uniform, I couldn't stop being a mom," said Army Maj. Elizabeth T. Nance, 60, a dental officer with the Virginia Army National Guard and a grandmother , in an email interview.

"Wilson is embarrassed each time I call him 'sweetie' in front of his fellow Marines. I told him it was too bad, since I outrank him."

Wilson Nance takes it in good-natured stride, even if, he said, it is a little "awkward" and doesn't do much for his "tough Marine" persona.

"I have gotten some very funny responses from people," said Wilson Nance, who graduated from James River High School in 2002 and from Virginia Military Institute in 2006.

"One time this female doctor, when I told her I was there to see my mom, looked at me strangely and said, 'What does that mean? Is that slang?'

"I told some Marines I was going to Kandahar and while I was there I would stop by to visit my mom. One tried to correct me and said, 'You mean your dad, right?' No one has ever heard of a mother and a son deploying at the same time."

Dr. Mary Tope closes longtime Aiken dental practice

Dr. Mary Tope has closed the family business - a dental practice on Pawnee Street that she and her sister have operated for 28 years.

Tope opened the office at 1907 Pawnee St. in 1984, with her sister Cathy Tope as dental hygienist, mother Mary Stone Tope as receptionist, and her grandmother as insurance clerk.

The business closed to patients on June 14, and the staff is working on packing up and storing patient records through August.

Tope, an Aiken native, studied dentistry at the Medical College of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina in the early 1970s, and had a lengthy career with the U.S. Public Health Service's Dental Corps before returning to open her practice in Aiken.

"We opened up this practice June 25, 1984," Tope said. "It was the first day we were open, and we didn't think we were going to have anybody come in. My sister and I were the staff. A car pulled up into the parking lot, four doors opened and four doors closed, and we had five patients sitting in the waiting room, and they were helping us unload our equipment! They stayed our patients for years and years."

As the practice grew, they added to the staff, and Tope estimated they employed some 70 people over the years, including classmates of Cathy Tope's. The Topes' father also helped out in the office after he left the Savannah River Site in 1983 until his death last year.

"Mother's Day of this year, I think, is when the Lord put it on our hearts that it was time to let him lead and guide us after 40 years, in essence, of being in the dental field. Everybody in my office, it's been a blessing to work together. Everybody who came in here, we were so privileged - they were actually helping me," Tope said. "We saw three and four generations of patients. It's amazing to me."

The Topes plan to settle into retirement, enjoy their family farmhouse, their many pets and each other's company, and travel, they said.

Dentist accused of insurance fraud

A Lincoln County dentist was arrested Monday on charges of insurance fraud.

According to the North Carolina Department of Insurance, Daniel Owen Carson, 54, of 7777 Rock Meadows Trail Court in Denver did not pay group insurance premiums from June to September 2011.

By not paying, Carson caused a lapse in coverage for his employees, according to a press release from the Department of Insurance. Carson is accused of continuing to take out insurance premiums from his employees’ paychecks without providing coverage.

In a written statement to The Gazette, Carson denied any wrongdoing on his part.

“Apparently, clerical mistakes were made by the staff member who handles account payables and employee health insurance matters. This was an administrative employee issue and did not involve patient care, records or patient insurance at all,” Carson said in the statement.

Enjoy your morning!

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

The Daily Exraction: Why Use Grooved Forceps?



Tooth number 8, our candidate for extraction today

Dr. Tommy Murph explains why in extracting certain teeth a "grooved" or apical retention type forceps is preferable.

Here is an example of a non-grooved 151 forcep:



And, here is the apical retention "grooved" 151 forcep:



In the video embedded below, Dr. Murph demonstrates:




Enjoy your daily extraction!

Dr. Murph is a South Carolina dentist who practices general dentistry who really excels in extracting teeth.

For patients in the Myrtle Beach area, I can heartily recommend Tommy as YOUR dentist.

For dentists, Dr. Murph has a number of resources for you in extracting teeth, including resource manuals and travel (outside the USA) courses with "hands on" instruction.

Dr. Murph's website is here and his extraction manuals are here on e-Bay.

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The Daily Extraction Archive

The Morning Drill: August 1, 2012


Good Wednesday morning!

On to today's dentistry and health headlines:

Ariz. updates rules for dentists and Botox

Dentists in Arizona can administer Botox and dermal fillers as long as it is part of a dental treatment plan, according to a Substantive Policy Statement update issued in June by the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners.

According to the updated statement, "a dentist may inject pharmacological agents such as Botulinum, Toxin Type A, or dermal fillers as supportive therapy in conjunction with a dental treatment plan consistent with the scope of practice."

The statement also makes it clear that such agents cannot not be administered outside a dental treatment plan.

"The bottom line is that Botox and dermal fillers are allowed within the scope of dental practice for use by general dentists for dental aesthetic and dental therapeutic uses with appropriate training," stated Louis Malcmacher, DDS, president of the American Academy of Facial Esthetics (AAFE), in a press release.

Fake Dentist to Be Arraigned for Practicing Without a License in California

A man in possession of a large cache of dental narcotics and controlled substances will be arraigned tomorrow for falsely representing himself and working as a dentist without a valid license. Esteban Campos, 46, Buena Park, is charged with two felony counts of the sale or transportation of a controlled substance, two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, and one misdemeanor count each of furnishing dangerous drugs without a prescription, dispensing or furnishing a dangerous drug or device, and practicing dentistry without a valid license. If convicted, Campos faces a sentence ranging from probation up to eight years in state prison. He is expected to be arraigned tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. in Department N-12, North Justice Center, Fullerton.

Campos is accused of previously being a Registered Dental Assistant in California, but his accreditation expired in 2007. The defendant is accused of operating Steven’s Dental Lab on Western Avenue in Buena Park and illegally representing himself as a dentist and practicing dentistry without a valid license.

In December 2011, the Department of Consumer Affairs Dental Board of California received a complaint regarding Campos and the unlicensed practice of dentistry.

On two occasions in February and March 2012, undercover investigators went to Steven’s Dental Lab under the pretense of being patients in need of dental work. Campos is accused of fraudulently representing himself as a dentist to the investigators. He is accused of performing dental exams, rendering diagnoses, recommending oral surgery and braces, and making a return dental appointment. He is accused of quoting prices ranging from $65 to $2,000, depending on the procedure.

Law enforcement conducted a subsequent search of the defendant’s fraudulent dental office. In the office, Campos is accused of being in possession of a large inventory of controlled substances and narcotics including Morphine Sulfer, Roxicet, Vicodin, and Soma, as well as boxes of dangerous drugs without prescriptions  including omeprazole, naproxen, theramine, glucotrol, warafin, napoxen, sertraline, cyclobenzaprine, tramadol, ketogel cream, and lodocaine. He is accused of possessing these drugs and administering them to patients without a license or a prescription in his illegal practice of dentistry.

ADHA responds to ADA MLP reports

The American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) is questioning the methodology used in the ADA's midlevel provider (MLP) economic viability reports, contending that the reports excluded key information and do not accurately reflect the MLP models being proposed in some states.

After reviewing the six studies released by the ADA on July 25, the ADHA found that "the methodology utilized to conduct the study impacts the validity of the conclusions drawn by the research," according to an ADHA press release.

The research, conducted by ECG Management Consultants, views the access-to-care crisis "through the lens of economic viability and makes assumptions about midlevel providers that may not be accurate," the ADHA stated.

Appeals court upholds license suspension of dentist after child died in his care

A state appeals court today upheld a state board’s suspension of a dentist’s license after a 6-year-old girl with multiple disabilities died during a routine procedure in Perth Amboy eight years ago.

The pediatric dentist, Patrick Bamgboye, 64, has also been under investigation in connection with the death of a second child during similar circumstances in his care at an office in Irvington in February.

The girl who died in 2004, Kyneicha Pagan, suffered from cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, liver disease and several other chronic conditions and could not speak, walk, or control her movements, according to the appeals court decision.

Kyneicha had five cavities and Bamgboye determined that three of the teeth required crowns and a procedure involving nerve removal, the court said. Bamgboye used a restraining papoose because the child had trouble remaining still. He gave her a local anesthetic but as he was preparing the crowns for insertion, the child’s lips turned blue and she stopped breathing. She died in a hospital later that evening, the court said.

Enjoy your morning!