East End Dental Study Club

Caulk / Dentsply

SMILE KENTUCKY

NEW BUSINESS

http://www.eedsc.org/

Dr. Brett DiSalle

FEE SURVEYS

FEE SURVEYS

RENEW YOUR LICENSE !http://dentistry.ky.gov/NR/exeres/D80F01B9-F678-41FA-98C8-F77DD3368D67.htm

IN THE NEWS

FLUORIDE

http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/fluoride-who-needs-it/

Over 1,100 professionals (so far) have signed a statement urging Congress to stop water fluoridation nationwide and to hold Congressional hearings about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of new scientific evidence that fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. ( http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html )Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three NRC fluoride panel members, two officers in the EPA Union representing 1500 EPA professionals; and hundreds of medical, dental, academic, scientific and environmental professionals, worldwide. Local signers include Long Island dentists Drs. Norman Bressack, Leonard Fazio, Theodore Kastenbaum, Krystna Wolski and physician Richard Carlton. Signer Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, says, Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianopinion/2007/11/sandra_duffy_deja_vu_on_tooth.html

http://ukagainstfluoride.blogspot.com/2007/11/canada-critics-raise-red-flag-over.html

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=5750692

http://newsminer.com/2007/11/04/9701

http://blogs.laweekly.com/judith_lewis/la-water/just-when-you-thought-it-was-s/

http://blogs.laweekly.com/judith_lewis/la-water/just-when-you-thought-it-was-s/

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/11/22/2003388990

According to Tzuchi's study, Tibetans drink large amounts of butter tea, sometimes up to 40 to 50 cups a day. "They drink it like water, so it causes many health problems, like dental or skeletal fluorosis, yellow teeth, tooth decay and stooping of the back," Tzuchi's Wang said. According to the WHO, a safe fluorine intake is 2mg for a child and 4mg for an adult, but the fluorine content of a kettle of butter tea made from the traditional Tibetan brick-tea is around 6mg to 10mg.

UNDERSERVED

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2007/11/19/story7.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/ohs-nss112907.phplack of insurance coveragepoor access to servicesunaffordable costs

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2007/11/05/special/295781.txt

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/534929

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/534929

MISDEEDS

http://www.turnto10.com/northeast/jar/news.apx.-content-articles-JAR-2007-11-20-0020.html

Some patients told NBC 10's I-Team they ended up in thousands of dollars in debt for dental work that was never finished. Michael D'Ippolito went to Broadway Dental in Pawtucket in 2006. The dentist was Dr. William Salisbury. "They took me in and took X-rays of my bottom teeth," he told NBC 10's Audrey Laganas. D'Ippolito, 78, needed dentures but couldn't afford them.Broadway Dental arranged $3,500 in financing for D'Ippolito, most of which came from a company called CareCredit. A subsidiary of GE Money, CareCredit offers loans to patients all over the country for health services, including dentistry. The loans are set up at the health care provider's office. Laganas: "They (Broadway Dental) charged you this money on the financing deal right up front?" D'Ippolito: "Right up front." Laganas: "Before finishing all the work?" D'Ippolito: "Yes." D'Ippolito said he never got his dentures. "I went in there all the doors were locked," he said. "Nobody there." Shortly after he had his teeth pulled, D'Ippolito learned Salisbury closed Broadway Dental and moved to another building in Fall River, where Salisbury began practicing under the name Coast Dental.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1107/474345.html

Small Smiles' parent company flat out denies having any such policy that children be separated from their parents. But the I-Team has heard just the opposite from dozens of parents, and former Small Smiles dentists and assistants.

Former Small Smiles dental assistants told us first hand what happens to children in the back. Trina Crosby: "It's terrifying for them. They cry. They scream. They want their mommies." Roberta Baskin: "Can any of the parents go back there? Trina: No. They tell them that it's the law, that they're not allowed back there, which is totally false." The lead dentist in the Small Smiles clinic in Langley Park told us separating parents and children is not only company policy, but a federal regulation. Dr. Aldred Williams: "If you can imagine a clinic seeing 80, 85 patients in a day, and all of their parents are back, roaming around, all over the clinic, it is a violation of HIPAA regulations."

This statement from company headquarters to the I-Team says its dentist misspoke: "Small Smiles has NO policy that prohibits parents in the treatment area." And goes on to say its: "family-friendly policy encourages our dentists to allow parents in the treatment area" But the I-Team obtained: the "Small Smiles Dental Clinic Manual (of) Policies and Procedures." Right there on page 4 under "Parental Management" it outlines why parents should NOT be allowed in the roomwith the only exceptions to the rule: the Severely Handicapped and Deaf children needing a translator.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11192007/news/regionalnews/75m_suit_vs__spitzer_has_teeth_492441.htm

November 19, 2007 -- A Park Slope dentist has filed a $75 million lawsuit, claiming Eliot Spitzer used the Attorney General's Office to trump up politically convenient charges of Medicaid fraud against him in 2006. The lawsuit, filed last week in Brooklyn federal court, charges that Spitzer, who in 2006 was the attorney general and the Democratic front-runner in the primary battle for governor, was getting slammed as being soft on Medicaid fraud - and found a convenient fall guy. "I had it all, and overnight I lost it all for no good reason, other than for the governor to have a nice headline," said the dentist, Leonard Morse. "If that's what they'll do to a professional, imagine what they could do to the everyday citizen." In 2002, when the Attorney General's Office demanded records, he expected another routine audit. He'd already had four such audits, with no findings of wrongdoing. More than four years later, authorities told him he'd be charged with allegedly ripping off $1 million from the program. It happened in April 2006, just as the New York Times was running a major series of stories on Medicaid fraud and Spitzer's primary opponent, Tom Suozzi, was slinging accusations that Spitzer was soft on the issue. "We're alleging that he was falsely accused of committing a crime that he absolutely didn't commit and that these charges were filed for political reasons," said lawyer Jon Norinsberg. The charges collapsed at trial after reams of records were ruled inadmissible. In the end, prosecutors asked Justice John Walsh to consider charges that Morse stole just $3,000. The judge found the dentist not guilty on that charge. But today, Morse's patients are long gone - scared off, he says, by the barrage of press releases calling their dentist a thief. Copies of those press releases, in a variety of languages, are still posted on the Web site of the current attorney general, Andrew Cuomo. Both Spitzer and Cuomo declined comment. "I think I want beyond money," said Morse. "I want justice. I want my good name back. I want all those thousands of patients back who I treated for 30 years. I want all my friends and neighbors and relatives to see that I didn't do anything. I became a political pawn."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-ucla14nov14,1,5609807.story?coll=la-editions-orange

The Daily Bruin article, which it said was based on examinations of hundreds of pages of e-mails and internal documents, said the program's high admissions standards were relaxed for children or relatives of donors who pledged hefty financial gifts, one as high as $1 million. Amid a university probe, John Beumer III in February resigned as chairman of the faculty executive committee of the School of Dentistry. "The selection process for residents in orthodontics amounts to nothing less than an affirmative action program for the wealthy and well-connected," he wrote in a resignation letter posted Tuesday on the Daily Bruin's website. "Preferential treatment has been given to children of donors and students who have worked in the research laboratories of orthodontics faculty."

As for the investigation by the American Dental Assn., Lokman declined to elaborate. However, two members of the School of Dentistry who asked that their names not be used out of fear of retribution, said the alleged cheating involved the sharing of compact discs that contained improperly obtained questions that appear in American Dental Assn.'s National Board Dental Examinations.

http://www.topix.net/content/cbs/2007/11/parking-rage-caught-on-tape-2

SCIENCE

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/fashion/15SkinSide.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/fashion/15SkinSide.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.nbc4.com/health/14704332/detail.html

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-to.hs.tooth15nov15,0,2703329.story

He didn't set out to be a dental engineer - almost no one does. His original specialty was aerospace engineering - studying how manufacturing techniques introduce imperfections in aircraft parts, and how those defects lead to failures. He moved east from the state of Washington to take advantage of Maryland's strong aerospace engineering sector. All that changed in 1998, when he cracked a tooth on a piece of bone hidden in an Italian sausage sub. It was the second time he'd broken a tooth biting down on something hard. "The dentist told me it was pretty common," he said. "I started thinking, 'I'm going to figure out why ... this is what I'm going to study.'" And so he reengineered his engineering lab at UMBC to apply the same techniques he used on aircraft parts to studying why teeth split. "Your teeth see as much physical activity as anywhere else in your body," Arola said. "The magnitude of forces put on them are far greater than those put on other parts of the body."

Arola discovered that fractures in the dentin of elderly Chinese people grow about 50 percent faster than American fractures. In the United States, cracks grow about 100 times faster in the teeth of patients older than 60 than in those of younger patients. It's still unclear why Chinese teeth are more brittle, but diet and genetics might play a role. Arola said the Chinese thirst for tea might cause their teeth to absorb more minerals and harden more than nontea drinkers. High levels of fluoride introduced to Shanghai's tap water might be another culprit. Although fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, Arola said, over a lifetime it might clog microscopic, fluid-filled tubules that run through the dentin.

http://www.sunherald.com/160/story/196912.html

EVERYTHING ELSE

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article2926268.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article2926268.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084A womans teeth looked as though they had been dipped in acid after she had whitening treatment aboard a cruise ship, a dentist said yesterday. Carla Regan, 47, was on a two-week cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean with her husband and two children when she decided to treat herself to the 130 treatment. But she was left with yellowing, easily stained and dry teeth after a chemical typically used for disinfecting swimming pools stripped away the top layer of tooth enamel on her front eight teeth. The treatment, using chlorine dioxide, was of a kind increasingly being offered to consumers wishing to brighten up their smile, despite evidence that it causes harm. Mrs Regan is now facing a 5,000 bill to restore her mouths appearance. The General Dental Council has determined that only a registered dentist can carry out teeth whitening, yet the cruise ship treatment was provided by beauticians in an onboard spa, with no dentist even to supervise, she said. Mrs Regan said yesterday: The beauty salon on the ship was offering teeth whitening and I thought to myself, why not? It seemed like an appropriately indulgent thing to do on holiday they promoted it as nontoxic and safe. However, a week later I noticed my teeth were starting to look stained, and with time they only got darker. I also constantly had a dry mouth feeling, so I decided to see a dentist to tell me what could be wrong.

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/373167.html

1ST PERSON

http://www.thestar.com/article/278227

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/12/hitchens200712

Gallows humor is inseparable from dentistry: at one point I heard the good doctor say, as he plowed through the layers of plaque and tartar, Good news. Ive found some of your teeth.

The clever thing about this treatment (known as JK Veneers) is that it takes away the stains and the shame, without making you look like a game-show host or a candidate claiming that he likes being back in Iowa.

http://www.physorg.com/news115463183.htmlWe've already seen medical students operate on robots that bleed, yap and flat-line, but it's about time dental students underwent the same kind of scrutiny, don'tcha think? If things go as planned, future dentists in Japan could soon be practicing on Simroid, a humanoid that resembles a young woman and can talk back when students hit a nerve. Reportedly, the bot can exclaim "it hurts" and move her eyes / hands whenever discomfort is felt, but best of all, engineers included a "breast sensor" to determine if that area has been touched inappropriately during training. Nothing wrong with ensuring the ethical treatment of robots, we suppose.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=496309&in_page_id=1774&ito=1490

This story comes as cold comfort to millions of U.K. citizens who are denied even the most basic dentistry thanks to our useless Government. - Glyn, Southampton, U.K.

DR. HENRY GREENWELL