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Ohio Democrat Rep. Dennis Kucinich Sues U.S. House Cafeteria for Olive Pit in Sandwich
Ohio Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich
$150K for dental work – for an olive pit?Rep. Dennis Kucinich has sued a U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria for selling him a sandwich wrap that caused dental damage when he bit into a pitted olive, according to a Jan. 3 lawsuit filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia.
The Cleveland Democratic congressman’s lawsuit seeks $150,000 in damages from companies that operate the Longworth House Office Building’s cafeteria.
It says he bought the suspicious sandwich wrap “on or about April 17, 2008,” and eating it caused “permanent dental and oral injuries requiring multiple surgical and dental procedures.”
“Said sandwich wrap was unwholesome and unfit for human consumption in that it was presented to contain pitted olives, yet unknown to plaintiff, contained an unpitted olive or olives which plaintiff did not reasonably expect to be in the food prepared for him, and could not visually detect prior to consumption,” the lawsuit said.
I cannot fathom any dental work that would have to be completed that would cost so much for an olive pit trauma. Maybe an auto accident, but not one or two teeth broken from biting an olive pit. Oh wait, the attorney wants to be paid too and since it is the government, why not?
Between this idiot and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Air Force flight expenditures is there any wonder why American voters threw the Democrats out of power in the House?
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The Daily Extraction: Lower Molar by Dr. Tommy Murph
Extraction of tooth #30 with a 301 elevator and 23 forcepAn extraction from
yesterdaythe other day by Dr. Murph. Note the pumping action of the 23 forcep after elevation with the 301 elevator.Dr. Murph is a South Carolina dentist who practices general dentistry who really excels in extracting teeth. For patients in the Myrtle Beach area, I can heartily recommend Tommy as YOUR dentist.
For dentists, Dr. Murph has a number of resources for you in extracting teeth, including one on one courses in his office.
Dr. Murph’s website is here and his extraction manuals are here on e-Bay.
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Rejects Parole for Deadly Dentist Tony Protopappas
Former Orange County dentist Tony Protopappas
Arnold’s decision, although RIGHT, will probably be overturned by the California Appeals Court.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has rejected parole for a Southern California man who killed three of his dental patients in the 1980s by administering fatal doses of a general anesthetic, the man’s attorney said Thursday.
Schwarzenegger made the decision on Dec. 15 even though a panel of appellate court judges and a state parole board favored release for Tony Protopappas, attorney Rich Pfeiffer told the AP.
In late 1983 and early 1984, Protopappas gave fatal doses of a general anesthetic to Kim Andreassen, 23; Cathryn Jones, 31; and Patricia Craven, 13, in his Costa Mesa office.
Protopappas was using narcotics at the time and wasn’t licensed to administer the drug.
Protopappas, 65, has served more than 25 years of his 15 years-to-life sentence for three counts of second-degree murder. A proposition passed by California voters in 1988 gives the governor the power to reverse parole decisions in murder cases.
The WAPO report about the narcotics is not correct since there was little or no regulation of IV conscious sedation at the time. Protopappas was using a drug cocktail of Valium, Demerol, et al. and exhibited extreme disregard for his patients leading to their death.
Here is the report of findings:
protopsppsdI was privileged to serve on the California Dental Association Council on Legislation shortly after the Protopappas conviction and worked on sedation legislation to better protect the people. At the time regulation of these drugs and sedation protocols were scant since the dentistry profession regulated its own – not bad actors like Tony Protopappas who abused the system and his patients.Should Protopappas be set free on parole after killing three people?
How is this case any different from that of Susan Atkins?
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Announcing edgeDMS for iPad, Native Touch-Based Clinical Charting Software for the Paperless Dental Office
Edge Health Solutions, Inc. introduces edgeDMS for iPad, a touch based dental charting application designed exclusively for the innovative iPad from Apple, Inc. for use with edgeDMS available from Edge EHR Corp. www.edgeehr.comFrom the press release:Edge EHR Corp., EDGE, a provider of Dental Practice Management solutions for the Mac OS®, is pleased to announce the release of edgeDMS™ for iPad® for Dentists and Dental offices looking to leverage the awesome power of the Apple® iPad.
The launch of edgeDMS for iPad sets a new standard for dental practice management with the most elegant and intuitive dental charting solution available today. The edgeDMS Perio chart quickly captures pocket & recession depths, tooth mobility, and furcation values with a few taps. Extracted, impacted, and erupted states are recorded with a swipe. “Native is best! Competitors using VNC (Virtual Network Computing) or browser based applications to bring iPad functionality to the practice just don’t understand the power of the Apple iPad’s iOS touch capabilities,” said Edge CEO, Troy Spracklin, referring to the multi-touch workflows available in edgeDMS for iPad.
Dental professionals can quickly search for patient records, access patient histories and chart new exams with a series of taps and swipes on the their iPad. “It’s iPad easy! Tap a patient, review the history and chart a new exam with your fingertip — no more pencils,” said Spracklin.
“I’ve been an edgeDMS user in my dental practice for several years. It has worked seamlessly for my needs, and with the introduction of version 2.5 with an iPad App I couldn’t be more excited to perform routine evaluations and updates on my periodontal patients. Edge has created a new gold standard in all dental management software, let alone Mac based systems. Edge with iPad will be working to enhance my periodontal practice in expected Apple style,” says existing edgeDMS user, Dr. Stephen Chermol, DMD, PC from West Chester, PA.
Exam details including observations, etiology, diagnosis and patient recommendations are also quickly recorded on each patient visit using the iPad with or without a bluetooth keyboard. In addition, edgeDMS for iPad also features an integrated picture and digital X-ray browser allowing providers to add, review and share intra-oral images, photos and digital x-rays with their patients at chair-side. edgeDMS running on a Mac desktop makes it simple to view any patient record in the office or on the go through a secure VPN tunnel for providers seeking mobile empowerment where no patient data resides on the iPad device. Add in iPad’s remote data wipe features and security is covered.
The future is today and should further reduce the costs of record keeping and managment.
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Video: The Top Ten Dentist Movies
This is a good compilation but I want to give a special mention to Bill Cosby.
His routine is below:
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Why is the FDA to Review Science Behind Ruling on Mercury in Dental Fillings?
Existing fillings sometimes need to be replaced due to wear, chipping, or cracking. Many people use this opportunity to replace their silver amalgam fillings with natural, tooth-colored composites. Their reasons may be aesthetic, or concern over the safety of amalgam filings, which contain mercury.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review science behind ruling on mercury in dental fillings.
Less than 18 months after concluding that mercury in dental fillings was not harmful to patients, the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific basis for its decision.
A panel of outside experts will meet next week to consider challenges from four consumer and dental groups to the analysis that FDA used to justify its conclusion that mercury released from dental amalgam fillings is too low to cause harm.
Agency officials said Thursday there’s no new evidence contradicting that assessment, and that “at this time FDA is not modifying its existing guidance.”
The FDA’s position is supported by the American Dental Assn., which says that treatment decisions should be left to patients and their dentists.
Opponents say FDA used flawed science in setting the safe level for mercury exposure too high, especially for pregnant women and children.
They want dental amalgam either banned or subject to extensive testing to prove safety.
The advisory committee will not vote on specific recommendations, but will discuss a series of technical questions about how exposure to mercury is measured, whether safe levels of exposure have been set correctly and the reliability of studies of mercury on humans.
This is political payback by the Obama Administration to the “Holistic Dentistry” quacks who want to outlaw dental amalgam.
Earth to FDA – most dentists are no longer using amalgam in restorations because of patient demand and the availability of better tooth-colored materials.
Should dental amalgam be banned only the poor children who receive these long lasting and LESS EXPENSIVE restorations as a result of Medicaid or other government programs will be harmed.
So, do your study again, waste more public money and come to the same conclusions.
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Study: Toothache More Common Among Minority and Special Needs Children
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry says that frequent consumption of liquids containing fermentable carbohydrates (e.g., juice, milk, formula, soda) increases the risk of dental caries due to prolonged contact between sugars in the liquid and cariogenic bacteria on the teethWell, DUH. Education, diet and the ability to pay for early childhood dental care are all factors that hurt poor children.
Poor, minority and special needs children are more likely to be affected by toothache, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Toothache is a source of chronic and often severe pain that interferes with a child’s ability to play, eat and pay attention in school,” the authors write as background information in the study. The authors also note that “the most common cause of toothache is dental decay” and the “process of dental decay is one that optimally would be prevented or, at the very least, identified early and then arrested through provision of regular professional dental care. However, for some U.S. children, including those who are Medicaid-insured, access to preventive and restorative dental care is more difficult.”
So, what is the remedy?
Free dental care ala ObamaCare?
More $ millions spent by the government on public health dentistry and dental health education?
Obviously, those remedies are infeasible or have been ineffective.
How about personal responsibility, education and an enforceable federal immigration policy for a start?
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Medicaid Dentistry for Adults Gets the Axe in Many States
The adult Medicaid dentistry cutback started in California and has spread like a virus across the United States.
From one side of the U.S. to the other, dental benefits for adults are being eyed for reduction or elimination as states struggle with the ongoing effects of the recession and burgeoning enrollment in Medicaid.
Medicaid enrollment grew by 8.5% in fiscal year 2010, and while states got $87 billion in economic stimulus funds to help cope, they were also barred from placing new limits on eligibility. So to contain costs, many states have been cutting back on optional benefits, including adult dental services, according to an annual 50-state survey of Medicaid budgets released September 30 by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
Adult dental benefits are always vulnerable in hard times, said Diane Rowland, the commission’s executive director.
“Dental services for children are not an option for state cuts,” Rowland said. “It’s adult dental that is one of the first benefits to be cut.”
With private companies suffering under an extended business recession, one of the first expenses they cut rather than laying off employees is dental insurance. Couple this with government cutbacks on adult dental benefits (medicaid) where do these patients go?
They go without dental care – hoping for better economic times.
In the meantime, public health and low-income clinics close with dentists (particularly new graduates with large school loan debt) not working. Do you see how this can spiral out of control?
Exit question: How does President Obama expect to pay for dentistry for all (or for all children) with ObamaCare health reform?
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Net32 Survey Reveals Dentist’s Online Behavior
Here I am blogging at lunch a few months ago
An interesting survey from Net32.Net32 today reported that it completed a social technographic survey of members of its industry leading dental comparison shopping marketplace, revealing a number of major differences between dentists’ online behavior and that of the US adult online population. For example, dentists identified themselves most frequently as Critics as defined in the social media focused book Groundswell; people who rate and review products and services, contribute to forums, comment on blogs, etc. About 25% of online US adults are classified as Critics while over 40% of dentist respondents identified themselves as such by their interests and activities.
Dentists were also represented strongly as Collectors; people who receive real-time updates from sites that interest them, tag photos, rate websites, and suggest websites. 26% of the dentists identified as Collectors, more than double the 12% US online adult Collectors. In the category of Creators; people who publish blogs, upload video, write articles, etc, dentists identified themselves as this at a 10% level, below the 18% of online US adults who are classified as such.
The fact is that there are not many dentist bloggers and we can us more. There are more each day on Twitter which is a start.
But, dentistry is a demanding profession both physically and mentally. Sometimes with a demanding clinical/patient schedule finding time to write and be creative is just not easy.
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Study: Women Who Get Dental Care Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease
But, men not so much.A new study led by a University of California, Berkeley, researcher could give women a little extra motivation to visit their dentist more regularly. The study suggests that women who get dental care reduce their risk of heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular problems by at least one-third.
The analysis, which used data from nearly 7,000 people ages 44-88 enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study, did not find a similar benefit for men.
Published online Sept. 29 in the journal Health Economics, the study compared people who went to the dentist during the previous two years with those who did not.
“Many studies have found associations between dental care and cardiovascular disease, but our study is the first to show that general dental care leads to fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other adverse cardiovascular outcomes in a causal way,” said study lead author Timothy Brown, assistant adjunct professor of health policy and management at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
So, the study advises as do I – see the dentist at least twice a year while brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day. If you have n no remaining teeth and wear dentures, keep them clean to avoid build-up of oral bacteria.
