Milwaukee kids to receive free dental care on Jan. 25

The Greater Milwaukee Dental Association is offering free dental care to children from low-income families at the 12th annual Give Kids A Smile Screening Day on Saturday, January 25. The care will be provided by 50 dentists and 145 other volunteers, including dental hygienists and assistants, dental and hygiene students, and other helpers. Treatments offered will include dental exams, teeth cleanings, and fluoride treatments. The value of care provided on

Japanese kids’ teeth to be checked for radiation

Dental officials in Fukushima, Japan, are spearheading efforts to determine whether children’s teeth contain the radioactive isotope strontium-90 amid fears they were exposed to fallout from the 2011 nuclear plant disaster. The research is part of a project to examine the health effects of the Fukushima disaster and would be the first large-scale examination to be done on children’s teeth, according to a Japan Times story. Dental associations across Japan

ValuePenguin.com offers info on Affordable Care Act benefits

ValuePenguin.com is offering examples of pediatric and adult dental benefits that can be purchased on the U.S. government’s HealthCare.gov insurance website. ValuePenguin.com advised that consumers shopping for dental insurance on HealthCare.gov should carefully investigate the cost-sharing aspect of the plans, according to a post by Marty Jablow, DMD, on dentechblog.blogspot.com. With the Affordable Care Act (ACA), pediatric dental is considered an essential health benefit and must be included by insurers

Leaders in Dentistry: DentaQuest CEO Jeffrey Parker

HuangshanDental.com is pleased to present the next installment of Leaders in Dentistry, a series of interviews with researchers, practitioners, and opinion leaders who are instrumental in changing the practice of dentistry. We interviewed Jeffrey Parker, CEO of DentaQuest Healthcare Delivery. Parker, who recently became the first person associated with dentistry to make the annual HealthLeaders20 list, has long been cited for his work with Sarrell Dental in bringing dental care

Conn. includes pediatric dental insurance in all exchange plans

Connecticut is one of the few U.S. states that includes pediatric dental insurance in all of the health plans that it offers through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange. Pediatric dental coverage is a key part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), but some states don’t include dental coverage in their insurance plans, so parents have to get insurance on the open market. In Connecticut,

Calif. kids’ dental access bill moves forward

California’s Assembly Health Committee has voted in support of a bill that would expand the role of dental assistants. Jenny Kattlove, director of strategic health initiatives at the Children’s Partnership, noted in a statement that the final vote for bill AB 1174 was 17-0. The bill would enact policies to ensure the successful Virtual Dental Home demonstration project could be replicated and sustained by changing workforce policies and requiring Medi-Cal,

Kids’ dental decay leads to Fla. mom’s arrest

A Florida mother was arrested for child neglect after her two young children were found with such extensive caries that each needed to have several extractions. Brenda Miguel, 20, a resident of Lake Worth, has two children ages 2 and 3 whose dental condition was so bad that each needed to have six teeth extracted, according to a mypalmbeachpost.com story. She was taken into custody on January 14. An investigator

Skip preop acetaminophen/hydrocodone before IAN blocks

When patients walk into the office already in moderate to severe pain, their duress heightens the need for an effective anesthetic prior to treatment. Given the successful pain management of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, could preoperatively administering them increase the effectiveness of an inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) block? Researchers from private practices and the Ohio State University College of Dentistry tested the efficacy of this approach when treating patients experiencing moderate

New mobile gaming app teaches proper brushing

The Ad Council and the Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives has released a new mobile game app, Toothsavers. Available free for Android and iOS devices, the mobile game was created on behalf of the Kids’ Healthy Mouths campaign. It is the first developed in-house by the Ad Council, the nation’s largest producer of public service advertising, and is geared toward children ages 3 to 6. The app inspires kids

Study follows implants in risky patient for 12 years

A recent article in the Journal of Oral Implantology looks at long-term treatment for a patient with severe periodontal damage (December 2013, Vol. 39:6, pp. 737-742). In the article, the authors anticipate that the higher risk of implant failure in this patient will be offset by coating the implants with a rough, oxidized surface called TiUnite and emphasizing the need for diligent oral hygiene. They also expect that by using

Study aims to increase awareness of weight-loss medication interactions

A recent report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (June 2012, Vol. 42:6, pp. 563-570) suggested that an additional 30 million Americans will be obese in 16 years (costing an additional $549.5 billion on medical expenditures), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that 35% of U.S. adults are obese today. How many of your patients are overweight? How many would you consider obese (that

Hawaii officials investigate child’s dental death

Hawaiian officials have started an investigation of an Oahu dentist whose 3-year-old patient died after the girl was sedated with different drugs during an extensive dental procedure. The Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is investigating dentist Lilly Geyer, DMD, who performed a root canal procedure on Finley Boyle on December 3, according to an Associated Press story. The girl went into cardiac arrest after being sedated with Demerol,