Dentistry News Archives

The process of dental implant integration into the mouth involves multiple steps. First, an entrance hole is drilled in the bone where the implant is to be placed (unless a hole already exists due to a recently extracted tooth). Then, the titanium implant is carefully screwed into the hole to act like a natural tooth root. The natural bone will eventually grow around the implant, a process called osseointegration. Osseointegration can also be assisted using a bone graft, or ground up bone that can be purchased to help the implant integrate. Once properly placed and supported by bone, a crown can be placed on the dental implant. When completed, the dental implant and crown act in the same way a natural tooth would in regard to eating, aesthetics, and comfort..

A lawsuit by health industry groups and lobbying efforts have done nothing to stop the 10 percent cuts in Medi-Cal reimbursements for physicians, hospitals and dentists. In addition, pharmacies will receive smaller payments for filling prescriptions for patients covered by Medi-Cal, the state's health program for the poor.

Some argue that water fluoridation does not actually improve dental health. "If you want fluoride to work, rub it on the teeth, don't ingest it. If you want to prevent skin cancer, do you put SPF 30 in the water supply?" asked a New Jersey dentist. "Fluoride is okay topically, but no study shows that ingesting fluoride reduces decay," agreed a Wisconsin dentist.

The issue of "forced medication" is central to some. "It's been shown to be effective, but we shouldn't be medicating the whole population," said a Colorado dentist. "It's a travesty that this is placed in our water supplies," agreed an orthodontist. "Dentists need to step back and stop forcing fluoride on the public," opined an Idaho dentist. "History will be unkind to dentistry on the subject of fluoridation," offered a dental office worker

Maryland also is raising Medicaid reimbursement rates for dentists to create higher incentives for treating low-income children. For each of the next three years, the state has provided $7 million, which will trigger $7 million in federal matching money, to boost Medicaid rates

“I don’t remember there ever being this level of apathy and number of people not being served,” Mills said. “I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just that there isn’t as much emphasis on community health these days

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1,300 people came to the hospital last year for “emergency” dental care. Most of the patients were low-income people in severe pain from dental problems and had no place else to go because dentists would not see them

63% of Kitsap County, Washington, is fluoridated

It may seem contrary to what we've been told, but Kugel agrees. He says it's not the food that causes the problems -- it's the bacteria, and that takes 24 hours to build up on your teeth. "If you did a two minute brushing, you did it once a day and you did it correctly, that would actually be enough.

Supported heavily by corporations that profit from tooth decay, the International Association of Dental Research will hold its annual meeting in Toronto, July 3-5..

The last legislation of NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno 's 32-year Albany career was a hastily drafted measure benefiting dentists that he abandoned mid-vote after it sparked an extraordinary revolt

A three-month drug-related investigation by Louisiana State Police has resulted in the arrest of Dr.

Low-income dental patients in central Wisconsin and the Northwoods will have enhanced access to care through a new partnership.

An Iranian refugee who admitted he hates Muslims has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for slashing a dentist with broken glass.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two men armed with a gun and mace helped 17-year-old inmate escape from custody late Friday morning, police said.

A Central Florida woman is filing a civil lawsuit against a dentist accused of dropping a screwdriver and another medical tool down her father's throat that she claims led to his death.

Tel Aviv University researchers say about 15 percent to 20 percent of teens with oral piercings are at high risk for tooth fractures and gum disease.

This is a parable about power and money and fear and influence and secrecy - in other words, about how a bill becomes law in Albany.

After years of recommending preventive antibiotics, in 2007 the American Heart Association changed its' guidelines.

With American Dental Association funding, the Louisiana Dental Association (LDA), hired public relations and lobbying firms to promote the fluoridation bill. The LDA boasts that they have huge access to legislators. On their website they state that their activities include "the use of staff and contract lobbyists, governmental publications, legislative reporting service,dinners for legislators, Dentists' Day at the Legislature, and VoterVOICE!"

"Following audits by private insurance companies discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary dental work. One company reported finding "teeth may have been pulled unnecessarily."

The world of dentistry is going 3-D. X-rays now have the ability to show a dentist much more than just your teeth. It costs more and delivers more radiation that conventional X-rays; but isn't used routinely - only in special cases

The vogue for veneers may be lining dentist' pockets, but this procedure is not the quick fix it seems to be – and is far from risk-free. Jane Feinmann reports

Something that is unusual is an office that accepts Medicaid patients at all in a state where Medicaid doesn’t pay for dental care for adults unless they’re blind, pregnant or disabled and doesn’t pay enough for children’s dental care to come close to covering what it costs dentists to treat them. But some hope that, by emphasizing the importance of dental health and how difficult it is for low-income Missourians to maintain it, this situation might eventually improve.

Just because kids need to see dentists doesn't mean dentists have to see Medicaid patients.

This was the situation Deamonte Driver's mother faced [Deamonte died from untreated tooth decay]. She was on Medicaid and searched in vain for weeks for a dentist who would see her children.

Nationally, only a fraction of licensed dentists regularly accept Medicaid patients.

About 1.2 million Ohioans lack medical insurance; an estimated 4 million lack dental coverage.

Most of those who show up at Ohio State University Medical Center with emergency dental problems could have prevented them with routine care, such as cleanings, said Dr. Richard Nelson, vice chairman of emergency medicine. "The tooth is so decayed that it has to be pulled … but generally, we don't pull teeth in the emergency department," he said.

Fluoride, in the form of silicofluorides, injected into 2/3 of U.S. public water supplies, ostensibly to reduce tooth decay, was never safety-tested.

There is clear evidence, now, that small amounts of fluoride, at or near levels added to U.S. water supplies,present potential risks to the thyroid gland, according to the National Research Council's (NRC) first-ever published review of the fluoride/thyroid literature.

The people who brought you the housing market collapse may be about to do the same thing for health care financing.

A pilot program is established to provide tax credits to encourage dentists to practice in these areas for five years. At the conclusion of the pilot, the Legislature will determine whether to continue, alter or suspend the program.

State senators of both parties angrily challenged a top corrections official Wednesday over a controversial policy that has prompted female inmates to have their teeth removed in order to live in a special housing program with their small children.

With news that bisphenol-A may be linked to health problems have left dentists somewhat concerned about the chemical's presence in dental sealants and composite.

Some dentists intentionally perform unnecessary dental work just to be able to bilk the government?

The Department of Justice recently settled a case with a chain of dentists that were performing baby root canals on children who didn't need them, just so they could bill Medicaid for a more expensive procedure. (The technical name for this work is "pulpotomy." It's used when the infection from a cavity spreads into the pulp chamber around the tooth and requires removal of the pulp. Ouch!)

The National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of water fluoridation citing the 2006 National Research Council (NRC) report indicating that kidney patients are more susceptible to fluoride's bone and teeth-damaging effects.

Three years ago, members of a nonprofit group conducted dental health screenings at Mt. Hope-Nanjemoy Elementary School, which is in the lowest-income part of the county. They found that a large percentage of children needed dental care, but they did not return to treat the students.

After Merida was hired in April, she and other clinic staff members visited Head Start programs and Judy Centers at schools across the county to conduct additional screenings. Of the 123 children examined, 14 percent were found to have urgent dental needs, Webb said. An additional 23 percent had non-urgent needs.

THE number of people seeing an NHS dentist in Suffolk and Essex has tumbled despite the introduction of government contracts aimed at improving accessibility, new figures have revealed.

Dubbed "the United Nations of dental clinics,'' St. Paul's Community Dental Care has expanded into Maplewood, offering dental care to immigrants and low income patients from around the globe.

After years of asserting that mercury in fillings was safe, the Food and Drug Administration now says it may be harmful to pregnant women, children, fetuses, and people who are especially sensitive to mercury

Almost a million fewer people are now seeing an NHS dentist than before the Government's reforms, figures revealed today. A total of 800,000 fewer people saw a dentist in the two years to December 2007 than in the two years to April 2006, data from the Information Centre for health and social care showed.

In fluoridated Yakima County, where poverty is often accompanied by poor nutrition and dental hygiene, there's still an ample supply of children and low-income adults in need of a dentist.

"Oral decay in kids is rampant and it's getting worse," Thompson said.

Some dentists, Smith said, don't want poor people in the same waiting room as paying patients.

Many children 'brush teeth alone' Parents have been accused of failing to help their children look after their teeth properly.

The results also showed that 23% of those surveyed thought there was no need for children to avoid fizzy drinks, even though they have been linked to dental damage.

Ignoring scientific evidence of harm, the Louisiana State Senate passed a fluoridation mandate bill which, if approved by the House, will require fluoride chemicals be added to most of Louisiana's public water supplies, ostensibly to reduce tooth decay.

However, a 2006 review of fluoride toxicology literature conducted by the prestigious National Research Council (NRC) reveals that ingested fluoride, even at low levels used for fluoridation, poses risks to infants, diabetics, kidney patients, high water drinkers and those with low thyroid function. Many cities are stopping fluoridation.

"I have memories of 10 or 12 times when I panicked when I saw the child," said Dr. Beverly A. Largent, a dentist specializing in children's teeth for 23 years in the rural Kentucky town of [fluoridated] Paducah. Especially in poor urban and rural areas nationwide, children often only get dental care when the pain and swelling are too much to bear, she said.

"I have seen children with their eyes swollen shut," said Largent, president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. A week ago she was in the hospital treating a child with multiple cavities when she got an emergency call from a mother whose child's face was swollen and had to be taken to the emergency room.