Senator Byrd should just retire and get the HELL out of the way! Former KKK member indeed!
Friday, January 21, 2005
Get The Nuclear Option Ready
Captain Ed has an excellent piece here about the Democrats in the U.S. Senate delaying the confirmation of Secretary of State designate Condoleeza Rice.
Senator Byrd should just retire and get the HELL out of the way! Former KKK member indeed!
Senator Byrd should just retire and get the HELL out of the way! Former KKK member indeed!
Mauty, HMO Bashing and Cerec Praising - Oh My!
Here is the latest from Dr. Stephen F. Johansen D.D.S. of Sandy, Utah from Dental Town:
On January 21, 2005 at 10:07:50 AM 'sfjdds' posted....
Jawbreaker,
Mauty may be a great guy, I've never met him, but I judge him based on what he writes. Let me tell you a little story so you know where I'm coming from.
When I graduated in 2000 I went to Phoenix to work for one of the big HMO dental companies. I was wet behind the ears and niave to the ways of the real world outside of school. I held dentists and dentistry in high reguard. My instructors in school where mostly ex-military and were top notch honest guys. So I go to AZ and enter a whole different world. In a little over a year I worked in 7 offices. (Sometimes I was a temp for someone on vacation). So I saw a lot and met a lot of dentists. I also had 3 friends from school who were doing basically the same thing I was so I heard their experiences to. HMO dentistry was extremely aggressive and dishonest. Yes it is true that SOME of the patients who have HMO dental insurance would not be able to afford standard UCR fees. The problem is that we had numerous, in fact I would say the majority of our patients could have afforded UCR fees. My first office was in Scottsdale. There's a bit of money there! The main problem I have with HMOs is that in the minds of patients they don't know that there is a huge difference from traditional or even PPO plans. And they don't know that the type of care that is economically feasible in these systems is radically different from traditional plans. THE PATIENTS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE GETTING! It's sold to them by their employers as "Insurance". Let me give you some examples of what I saw. A few of the dentists I met had a no 3 surface filling rule. If it went to 3 surfaces it was a crown. I learned the terms "prophylactically crowned or root canaled tooth". And that was said with a wink and a grin. I listed to dentists brag about how many crowns they cut. I saw competitions between 2 dentists at one office to see who could cut the most crowns in a month. Most guys were paid of percentage of production. So if you were going to get 30% of $38 for a 3 surface filling, or 30% of a $380 crown and $40 BU.............well now that's a tough one????? Did the patient get his/her tooth fixed....yep..... did they generally get the best care....... no........... did they know what was going on........HELL NO! They still trust us! What idiots! I knew of guys right out of school making $200K + their first year in these systems. They were crowning more teeth than you can possibly imagine. I remember temping at a office and sat down with this old guy to crown #13. It had a MO amalgam in it that looked to have been placed withing the last 5yrs. TX plan. BU and crown. I asked the guy if this tooth had been bothering him.....no....."Dr. so and so said I need a crown" . No decay. No fracture. No pain. Slow day.....crown it! It made me sick. Now if your thinking I'm exaggerating....I'm only giving you the tip.
Then there is the speed factor. I have never claimed to be fast at dentistry.... infact I'm probably on the slow side. But it gets to a point in which quality suffers as speed increases. Most of these offices had me and my friends seeing 40 to 50 people a day. One of my bosses gave me a time alotment for procedures. 5 min for a prophy. 15 min for a crown. 30 min for RCT. Ect ect..... You were done when the clock told you you were done. Quality, details, who cares! (I have read Mauty post that "we need to stop worrying about the little details that slow us down") I had a flash back to the type of dentistry I was seeing.....short fill endos, sloppy crown preps with undetectable sub g feather edge 2 second margins, overhangs all over the place. I not saying that my dentistry is perfect. It can happen to anyone. But under this system..... it's too frequent and people don't care. I didn't fit in and finally found a little office run by a great family in which I treated kids who were in shelters and care of the state. They let me run at my own pace and I loved it there.
What upsets me is that I believe that ADA knows what is going on and yet they do nothing about it. See HMOs cut fees so low that dentists are forced to be super aggressive in order to make money. So when I hear Mauty talk about how much he makes I know what is going on.... I've been there. The ADA can't come out and say what really happens in HMO offices because that will impugn the dentists that work there and give the profession a black eye. I would have no problem with HMO dentistry if it was only sold for what it is and that patients knew that the type of treatment that is available to them is different from other patients. In our offices we knew if someone wasn't an HMO patient and treatment changed accordingly.
I do have some funny HMO stories like the lady that was left waiting in a chair for over 3 hrs. They forgot about her and were getting ready to leave until they heard her call out as they turned the lights off! Could that ever happen in your office??
I come from a lower to middle class family and I know how expensive dentistry can be. I have a Cerec but my fees compared to a recent national poll were in the low 25%. My Cerec has sat dormant for the last two weeks. I don't manufacture a need for it. It's used when I think it's appropriate. Yesterday I had one scheduled but after prepping it I felt a PFM would be a better choice. The machine was turned off and out came the impression material. It's calming to cut a crown prep.
Mauty hits a live wire with me. I just don't see the need to bash. Funny is once or twice....but continually.... oh ya.... his view of Cerec brings us all back to proper perspective and makes us realize that we don't need evey gadget to do good dentistry?????
Cerec let's you do things that can't be done in any other way. There is now way to restore severly broken down teeth in a more conservitive manner. Cerec uses know what I'm saying. It's all in the prep. You can do onlays on teeth with big amalgams and you don't have to flare the preps. Even if you used lab fabricated onlays in your practice in many situations you have to cut a lot more tooth structure away. It's a great technology and if it fits your practice style and philosophy then great... it not..... that is great too.
Anyway, I need to go do something with my day off. It's been fun. Mauty....if you're out there.... I hope have a good day too.
An interesting perspective on HMO dentistry and the Cerec 3D. I disagree with him on the fact that the Cerec 3D is a more conservative manner of restoring teeth than laboratory fabricated restorations. Those are simply not the facts and I wish he would support his argument with some evidence based papers.
With regards to the American Dental Association vis a vis dental HMO's they know about this now and so do the patients!
Mauty? He can take care of himself!
On January 21, 2005 at 10:07:50 AM 'sfjdds' posted....
Jawbreaker,
Mauty may be a great guy, I've never met him, but I judge him based on what he writes. Let me tell you a little story so you know where I'm coming from.
When I graduated in 2000 I went to Phoenix to work for one of the big HMO dental companies. I was wet behind the ears and niave to the ways of the real world outside of school. I held dentists and dentistry in high reguard. My instructors in school where mostly ex-military and were top notch honest guys. So I go to AZ and enter a whole different world. In a little over a year I worked in 7 offices. (Sometimes I was a temp for someone on vacation). So I saw a lot and met a lot of dentists. I also had 3 friends from school who were doing basically the same thing I was so I heard their experiences to. HMO dentistry was extremely aggressive and dishonest. Yes it is true that SOME of the patients who have HMO dental insurance would not be able to afford standard UCR fees. The problem is that we had numerous, in fact I would say the majority of our patients could have afforded UCR fees. My first office was in Scottsdale. There's a bit of money there! The main problem I have with HMOs is that in the minds of patients they don't know that there is a huge difference from traditional or even PPO plans. And they don't know that the type of care that is economically feasible in these systems is radically different from traditional plans. THE PATIENTS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE GETTING! It's sold to them by their employers as "Insurance". Let me give you some examples of what I saw. A few of the dentists I met had a no 3 surface filling rule. If it went to 3 surfaces it was a crown. I learned the terms "prophylactically crowned or root canaled tooth". And that was said with a wink and a grin. I listed to dentists brag about how many crowns they cut. I saw competitions between 2 dentists at one office to see who could cut the most crowns in a month. Most guys were paid of percentage of production. So if you were going to get 30% of $38 for a 3 surface filling, or 30% of a $380 crown and $40 BU.............well now that's a tough one????? Did the patient get his/her tooth fixed....yep..... did they generally get the best care....... no........... did they know what was going on........HELL NO! They still trust us! What idiots! I knew of guys right out of school making $200K + their first year in these systems. They were crowning more teeth than you can possibly imagine. I remember temping at a office and sat down with this old guy to crown #13. It had a MO amalgam in it that looked to have been placed withing the last 5yrs. TX plan. BU and crown. I asked the guy if this tooth had been bothering him.....no....."Dr. so and so said I need a crown" . No decay. No fracture. No pain. Slow day.....crown it! It made me sick. Now if your thinking I'm exaggerating....I'm only giving you the tip.
Then there is the speed factor. I have never claimed to be fast at dentistry.... infact I'm probably on the slow side. But it gets to a point in which quality suffers as speed increases. Most of these offices had me and my friends seeing 40 to 50 people a day. One of my bosses gave me a time alotment for procedures. 5 min for a prophy. 15 min for a crown. 30 min for RCT. Ect ect..... You were done when the clock told you you were done. Quality, details, who cares! (I have read Mauty post that "we need to stop worrying about the little details that slow us down") I had a flash back to the type of dentistry I was seeing.....short fill endos, sloppy crown preps with undetectable sub g feather edge 2 second margins, overhangs all over the place. I not saying that my dentistry is perfect. It can happen to anyone. But under this system..... it's too frequent and people don't care. I didn't fit in and finally found a little office run by a great family in which I treated kids who were in shelters and care of the state. They let me run at my own pace and I loved it there.
What upsets me is that I believe that ADA knows what is going on and yet they do nothing about it. See HMOs cut fees so low that dentists are forced to be super aggressive in order to make money. So when I hear Mauty talk about how much he makes I know what is going on.... I've been there. The ADA can't come out and say what really happens in HMO offices because that will impugn the dentists that work there and give the profession a black eye. I would have no problem with HMO dentistry if it was only sold for what it is and that patients knew that the type of treatment that is available to them is different from other patients. In our offices we knew if someone wasn't an HMO patient and treatment changed accordingly.
I do have some funny HMO stories like the lady that was left waiting in a chair for over 3 hrs. They forgot about her and were getting ready to leave until they heard her call out as they turned the lights off! Could that ever happen in your office??
I come from a lower to middle class family and I know how expensive dentistry can be. I have a Cerec but my fees compared to a recent national poll were in the low 25%. My Cerec has sat dormant for the last two weeks. I don't manufacture a need for it. It's used when I think it's appropriate. Yesterday I had one scheduled but after prepping it I felt a PFM would be a better choice. The machine was turned off and out came the impression material. It's calming to cut a crown prep.
Mauty hits a live wire with me. I just don't see the need to bash. Funny is once or twice....but continually.... oh ya.... his view of Cerec brings us all back to proper perspective and makes us realize that we don't need evey gadget to do good dentistry?????
Cerec let's you do things that can't be done in any other way. There is now way to restore severly broken down teeth in a more conservitive manner. Cerec uses know what I'm saying. It's all in the prep. You can do onlays on teeth with big amalgams and you don't have to flare the preps. Even if you used lab fabricated onlays in your practice in many situations you have to cut a lot more tooth structure away. It's a great technology and if it fits your practice style and philosophy then great... it not..... that is great too.
Anyway, I need to go do something with my day off. It's been fun. Mauty....if you're out there.... I hope have a good day too.
An interesting perspective on HMO dentistry and the Cerec 3D. I disagree with him on the fact that the Cerec 3D is a more conservative manner of restoring teeth than laboratory fabricated restorations. Those are simply not the facts and I wish he would support his argument with some evidence based papers.
With regards to the American Dental Association vis a vis dental HMO's they know about this now and so do the patients!
Mauty? He can take care of himself!
Cerec 3D Bashing!
From Dental Town and the Internet:
On January 20, 2005 at 11:58:10 PM 'sfjdds' posted....
Mauty left in part because I drop kicked him on another thread. He is still hurting. Mauty's (or anyone else's) obsession with a product he/she doesn't own is disturbing. A few of you might miss him but I for one do not. I have never understood that type of mentality. He is like the atheist that can't stop talking about religion (pathetic and annoying). I don't own a Waterlase....... I don't see why I need one right now....... but I can't image spending one second of my life on a Waterlase thread trying to convince owners that they made a mistake. Why would I care??? I don't. I value my time too much and frankly have better things to do. The fact that Mauty has posted hundreds of negative posts about Cerec is quit revealing. I'll tell you why Mauty cares. I, unlike many of you, have personal experience with the toilet of dentistry know as HMOs. I worked with them in AZ. You know deep down that your patients are getting the shaft most of the time. It's a deceptive and dishonest system. Mauty bashes Cerec to somehow justify the way he practices dentistry. He is threatened somehow. Fact is dentists can do great dentistry without ever touching a Cerec. It's not the standard of care. I don't recall anyone ever saying that it was. But for some reason basers tend to be threatened by it. It's as if they feel someone is accusing them of practicing at a lower level of care. Maybe if they had a valid reason to bash. The problem is that Cerec is a pretty damn good machine. It's not perfect, but it sure as heck works. So if you are a basher do yourself a favor and go find a new hobby that doesn't make you look so pathetically bored with your life. Go outside and look at the sun, crawl out of your little cave of hate and envy and go crown some teeth or whatever the crap makes you feel good. Let me share a little secret.... You'll never hear a beautiful women tell a ugly women that "I'm as good as you". You'll never hear an employable man tell a bum "I'm as good as you". They don't need to, because they and everyone else already knows they are. When you hear someone clammering on and on about how they are just as good........ it tells you a lot about how they see themselves.
****I apologize for sounding like Dr. Freaking Phil*************[;)]
And from Stephen F. Johansen D.D.S. of Sandy, Utah's website:
On January 20, 2005 at 11:58:10 PM 'sfjdds' posted....
Mauty left in part because I drop kicked him on another thread. He is still hurting. Mauty's (or anyone else's) obsession with a product he/she doesn't own is disturbing. A few of you might miss him but I for one do not. I have never understood that type of mentality. He is like the atheist that can't stop talking about religion (pathetic and annoying). I don't own a Waterlase....... I don't see why I need one right now....... but I can't image spending one second of my life on a Waterlase thread trying to convince owners that they made a mistake. Why would I care??? I don't. I value my time too much and frankly have better things to do. The fact that Mauty has posted hundreds of negative posts about Cerec is quit revealing. I'll tell you why Mauty cares. I, unlike many of you, have personal experience with the toilet of dentistry know as HMOs. I worked with them in AZ. You know deep down that your patients are getting the shaft most of the time. It's a deceptive and dishonest system. Mauty bashes Cerec to somehow justify the way he practices dentistry. He is threatened somehow. Fact is dentists can do great dentistry without ever touching a Cerec. It's not the standard of care. I don't recall anyone ever saying that it was. But for some reason basers tend to be threatened by it. It's as if they feel someone is accusing them of practicing at a lower level of care. Maybe if they had a valid reason to bash. The problem is that Cerec is a pretty damn good machine. It's not perfect, but it sure as heck works. So if you are a basher do yourself a favor and go find a new hobby that doesn't make you look so pathetically bored with your life. Go outside and look at the sun, crawl out of your little cave of hate and envy and go crown some teeth or whatever the crap makes you feel good. Let me share a little secret.... You'll never hear a beautiful women tell a ugly women that "I'm as good as you". You'll never hear an employable man tell a bum "I'm as good as you". They don't need to, because they and everyone else already knows they are. When you hear someone clammering on and on about how they are just as good........ it tells you a lot about how they see themselves.
****I apologize for sounding like Dr. Freaking Phil*************[;)]
And from Stephen F. Johansen D.D.S. of Sandy, Utah's website:
Because your SMILE is one your greatest assets!
A smile is one of our greatest personal assets. It expresses who we are and how we feel about ourselves. A smile is a reflection of happiness and good health. Yet many people avoid smiling because they are concerned about the condition of their teeth. Many times, we underestimate the value of investing in improving our smile. At the office of Dr. Stephen Johansen we are dedicated to the pursuit of providing the best that dentistry has to offer. We hope that this web site will be informative and helpful in choosing your dentist. Deciding where to receive dental care for you and your family can be a confusing and intimidating process. After seeing how we practice dentistry, we hope that you will give us the opportunity to care for you and your family for years to come.
|
| Click here for a preview of the most exciting innovation in dentistry today! |
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Utilizing state of the art technology and equipment makes for less invasive, more convenient patient care. The CEREC 3D is the most cutting edge instrument available in dentistry today. CEREC 3D allows us to complete a ceramic restoration in a single visit, rather than a series of visits. By investing in such advanced equipment, Dr. Johansen is able to provide excellent care to the patient with the least inconvenience on their time.
In addition, all restorative work is backed by a 5 year warranty as long as the patient maintains his/her 6 month recall visits within 30 days of being due. (Restorative work includeds: Crowns, bridgework, veneers, ceramic onlays and inlays, composite and amalgam fillings)
Oh! Dr. Johansen....those that live in glass houses......should not throw stones at Mauty!
False Teeth Extraction the Silent Killer of Many Bagisu Children
A medical doctor writes about an African ritual which is killing many Ugandan children.
Mubezi Micah
Kampala
FOR all the time I have worked in Mbale, I have seen numerous traditional practices ranging from circumcision (Imbalu) to the removal of "bones" from the abdomen. None of these, however, has led to more deaths than "False teeth extraction" FTE.
It involves cutting of the upper and lower canine regions of a baby usually between the age of one week to nine months.
Peak incidence is between three and four months of life. The practice is done once the infant develops her first episode of diarrhoea. It is believed "false teeth" cause diarrhoea and must be removed otherwise the child would die.The "Dental surgeon" tries to control bleeding after the procedure by sucking out blood from the bleeding gums of the baby using his/ her mouth. Local herbs are then applied to the bleeding area. The parents and the child are then sent home or to hospital to complete treatment.
Over 80% of parents admit having done FTE on their children. The few who never do it have never lost a child after to FTE or their religion does not permit it among other reasons.
A teeth extractor I visited about one month ago in Bukonde village, Mbale district, showed me sharp bicycle spokes, razor blades and nails used for the cutting process.
Read the remaining article.
Wow, I have never heard of this!
Wyoming. launches campaign to curb chewing tobacco use
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - After years of swallowing her chewing tobacco so she could hide her addiction from her fellow nurses, Kevin Dager decided that she no longer wanted to be one of the 5 percent of Wyoming women who chew.
"I was tired of the deceit in my life," Dager said Wednesday at a news conference to rally support for Wyoming's statewide campaign to end smokeless tobacco addiction.
Wyoming has more chewing tobacco users per capita than any other state besides West Virginia, speakers said. One of five adult males uses snuff here, putting a significant portion of the population at risk of mouth cancer and other nasty oral afflictions.
The reason chew is so prevalent in Wyoming is a mixture of cowboy culture and marketing, said Niki Sue Mueller, program coordinator for Wyoming's Through With Chew Week, Feb. 13-19......
Read the rest here.
"I was tired of the deceit in my life," Dager said Wednesday at a news conference to rally support for Wyoming's statewide campaign to end smokeless tobacco addiction.
Wyoming has more chewing tobacco users per capita than any other state besides West Virginia, speakers said. One of five adult males uses snuff here, putting a significant portion of the population at risk of mouth cancer and other nasty oral afflictions.
The reason chew is so prevalent in Wyoming is a mixture of cowboy culture and marketing, said Niki Sue Mueller, program coordinator for Wyoming's Through With Chew Week, Feb. 13-19......
Read the rest here.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
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