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Sports Drinks

 * International Association for Dental Research in Miami finds "[p]rolonged consumption of these types of beverages could lead to erosive tooth wear."

Sedation Using Video Games

 * PediSedate ... is essentially a plastic, purple set of earphones, attached to a Nintendo DS, GameBoy or PSP. As a child plays a game in the dentist’s office, nitrous oxide is gently released, flooding their tiny little lungs with giggly unconsciousness gas.

Bacteria

 * Some orthodontic appliances are more prone to bacteria

Medical Tourism

 * Dental offices are seeing brisk business in Los Algodones, Mexico

Recession

 * Recession leads to high demand of public dentistry


 * Shifting dental care to the ER

Green Dentistry

 * San Diego practice goes green (Press release)

Minnesota Review on Mid-level Oral Health Practitioners

 * "Research studies have consistently shown that mid-level oral health practitioners improve access, reduce costs, provide excellent quality of care, and do not put patients at risk."pdf

Care for Wisconsin Poor
Lucia Alba knew something was wrong when her son said his teeth hurt while eating an apple.
 * Dental care in short supply for low-income Wisconsin children
 * by Guy Boulton
 * Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal-Sentinal

Carlos, her son, isn't a fussy child. But a few days earlier, he had mentioned that his teeth hurt. This time, Alba got a flashlight and looked in his mouth. She saw blood.

Her son, 7 years old at the time, had abscesses, or infections, in two of his teeth.

He had never been to a dentist. Neither had his siblings.

Controversy arises surrounding CA governor's selection to state Dental Board
'Unfortunate error' in oral surgeon's background, by Michael Rothfeld, May 26, 2009 The mistake by McCormick, 49, who declined to be interviewed, highlights how little information is available to consumers from the agencies that are supposed to protect them. Both the dentist and the board, which took no disciplinary action against her, contributed to keeping the incident secret.

McCormick obtained a "gag clause" during settlement discussions so the boy's lawyer would not file a complaint against her with the board she would soon join, reducing the chances that she would be disciplined.

The Dental Board, which investigates misconduct against its licensees, learned of the incident when McCormick reported the December 2005 malpractice settlement to the state, as legally required. But the board keeps settlement records confidential.

Had the board sanctioned McCormick, consumers could have learned about the incident on the agency's website. But board staff, based on what they called a "cursory review," closed her case a few months after she was appointed. An outside consultant, a Northern California dentist who contacted McCormick but not Rossi or his family, concluded the matter did not warrant punishment, state officials said.

Distribution of Dentists in California
In some California counties, finding a dentist is like pulling teeth, By Kimi Yoshino, May 29, 2009 "In some areas, particularly when they're rural, you're talking about having to travel a long way before you can find a dentist," Pourat said. "And if you don't have dental insurance, you have to pay out of pocket in order to find a dentist willing to accommodate you."

Study Revised
UCLA revises dentist study, By Kimi Yoshino, June 27, 2009 A technical error -- which arose because some ZIP Codes span two counties -- caused an underestimate in the total number of active dentists and the ratio of dentists to population in some areas. The overall remain largely the same: Some counties are experiencing a severe shortage and others may soon see shortages when aging dentists retire.

USC pioneer passes
Nathan Friedman dies at 97; pioneering USC professor of dentistry, By Valerie J. Nelson, June 8, 2009. Within the USC School of Dentistry, he founded the department of behavioral dentistry in 1964 and served as its chairman for decades. At the time, the department was a novelty in U.S. dental education, Friedman wrote in 1988 in The Times.

Using psychological principles, students were taught to question patients about their fears, discuss the roots and try to help them overcome them.

Wayne Waller, a former USC assistant professor of human behavior who worked closely with Friedman, said the dentist was "way ahead of his time."

"It was an indignity to him that anyone should fear him or others in his profession," Waller said. "He spent much of his career developing a methodology to help people in concrete ways. It became a model for many programs in this country and around the world to treat fear in dentistry."

Xylitol Syrup Study
Xylitol syrup found to curb childhood tooth decay, By Shara Yurkiewicz, July 11, 2009 The study, by researchers of the University of Washington in Seattle, was conducted in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where early childhood tooth decay occurs at double or triple the rate of the average U.S. mainland community. Just over half of Marshall Islands 2-year-olds have at least one decayed tooth.

Researchers instructed parents, aided by community healthcare workers, to give xylitol in a topical oral syrup to children ages 9 months to 15 months over a period of about a year. The 94 children in the study were divided into three groups: One group received a single 2.67-gram dose of xylitol a day; another got 8 grams a day delivered in two doses; the third got 8 grams in three doses.

Of the first group, 51.7% had some tooth decay. In the two-dose-a-day and three-dose-a-day groups, rates were 24.4% and 40.6%, respectively. In addition, the numbers of decayed teeth were significantly fewer in the latter two groups. No adverse effects of xylitol were reported.

The results, published in this month's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, suggest that using an oral syrup with xylitol while baby teeth are growing could prevent as much as 70% of tooth decay, the authors said.