CareCredit has awarded a $10,000 grant to Oral Health America to help the Smiles Across America program include oral health services for adolescents. The grant will be given to the Huntridge Teen Clinic in Las Vegas to provide dental care to uninsured and at-risk adolescents who are 12 to 18 years old and unable to obtain services through local agencies, according to a company press release. One of the clinic’s
As part of Oral Cancer Awareness Month this month, the California Dental Association (CDA) is recommending regular dental checkups for oral cancer screening. Dental professionals can act as a first line of defense in the early detection of oral cancer, the CDA emphasized in a press release. Oral cancer often goes unnoticed until it has spread to other parts of the body, noted CDA President Lindsey Robinson, DDS, and dentists
A $500 prize will be awarded to Mason Gray, a third-grade student at Linglestown Elementary in Dauphin County, for winning first place in the Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) 2013 National Children’s Dental Health Month statewide poster contest. With a shiny white tooth proudly positioned between a red-caped toothbrush and toothpaste, Mason’s superhero-themed “Fighting Every Day to Defeat Tooth Decay” poster delivers a powerful message encouraging good oral health, the PDA
Dentsply Implants has appointed Lars Henrikson, former group vice president, as its new group president. Henrikson replaces Jim Mosch, who has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer of Dentsply International. Henrikson will assume leadership of the global business, consisting of 18 subsidiaries and operations in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and the U.S. He joined Dentsply as part of the company’s 2011 acquisition of Astra Tech, where for
Tom’s of Maine is awarding $10,000 each to 10 dental clinics as part of the company’s Be a Tooth Fairy Hero initiative. The contest encouraged children to submit drawings and recommendations to nominate nonprofit dental clinics in their states, part of a Tom’s of Maine program to raise awareness about the need for greater access to dental care, the company noted in a press release. Tom’s of Maine also donated
The Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation has awarded $300,000 to the state health department to create a data system that will provide information about oral health trends. The Minnesota Oral Health Surveillance System will help public health workers and private providers deliver oral care to the public, Delta Dental noted in a press release. The state health department reported in February that more than half of the state’s third-graders have
Less than one-third of Medicaid patients were diagnosed with head and neck cancer (HNC) at an early stage, and black patients were less likely to receive surgical treatment and more likely to die than white patients, according to a new study in JAMA Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery (April 18, 2013). Researchers from RTI International and the Emory University School of Medicine examined the factors associated with receiving treatment
Spanish researchers have confirmed the effectiveness of a spray containing 1% malic acid, which improves xerostomia caused by antidepressant drugs, according to a study in Depression and Anxiety (February 2013, Vol. 30:2, pp. 137-142). The product, combined with xylitol and fluorides in a spray format, stimulates saliva production in patients with xerostomia, improving their quality of life, according to the researchers from the University of Granada. One of the main
Biolase has entered into a royalty agreement with European laser manufacturer Lambda related to intellectual property that Biolase owns in connection with Er:YAG (erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) lasers. The agreement has already resulted in a payment from Lambda for past royalties and established a royalty rate for Lambda to pay on future sales, the company noted in a press release. Biolase also has royalty agreements related to the sales of
Oklahoma health officials say more than 60 patients have tested positive for hepatitis and HIV since their investigation began last month into a Tulsa oral surgeon’s practice. But it is unclear whether the patients contracted the diseases from the Owasso or Tulsa practices of W. Scott Harrington, DMD, according to a story by KTUL TV Channel 8. Public health officials have been advising current and former patients of Dr. Harrington that
Nobel Biocare will reportedly pay up to $1.3 million to settle a $450 million lawsuit brought against it three years ago by a California dentist who said the company had misrepresented the safety of its NobelDirect implants. The lawsuit, which was filed in June 2010 by Jason Yamada, DDS, of Torrance, CA, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, sought compensation for dentists who had to
Komet USA has introduced its streamlined introductory kits for the DentinPost, DentinPost X, C-Post, T-Post X, and T-Post XP root-post systems. Each introductory kit includes a selection of the specific posts along with matched instrumentation — each component is color-coded to simplify selection of the appropriate drill for the specific post, the company explained in a press release. The DentinPost introductory kit contains 10 tapered DentinPost root posts in four
