Inventive (and creepy) Dental Mannequin Calendar
I was over at the Dental Buzz checking out their blog- and I ran into news of a creepy dental calendar using the mannequins with realistic teeth! I went online to find as many of the highest quality images I could possibly find:
This seems like a novelty gift item- especially for your dental students and hygienist that might exist in our lives! This could also be a very clever Secret Santa item! Its a shame we just missed the holidays! You can find this item over at Practicon.
Clearwater Florida Decides to Return Fluoride to its Drinking Water
During Portland’s heated fluoride debate, Florida’s Clearwater has decided to begin fluoridating its water again. Through grassroot education, political lectures, and a lot of opinion based conjecture, they decided to reject the votes of the two county commissioners. The commission had to listen through three hours of public testimony for and against fluoridating- the goal to inform the public on the subject matter.
“The 6-1 vote by the commissioners to put fluoride back into the Pinellas County water system demonstrates the effectiveness of an organized effort by the dental community and the many organizations that collaborated with us,” said Dr. Terry L. Buckenheimer, ADA 17th District trustee and a Tampa area dentist. After the vote, local dentists and dental societies and other pro-fluoridation individuals and groups began working at the grassroots level to educate policymakers and residents about the benefits of fluoridation.
Dentists typically do not discuss political issues with their patients, but the debate in Florida forced them to discuss the safety and effectiveness of the fluoridation. The local dentists had become major supporters of the local fluoride movement. They declared the entire issue to be a win- especially for the below poverty level workers who would be unable to afford dental care. It introduces the idea… of Portland has a high enough below poverty level class, then perhaps going in that direction would not be a bad idea. I went online to check the averages…
Portland: 20.3%
Whole state: 19.0%
1 in 5 people is below the National Poverty Levels. The national average of below poverty levels is 12.2%.
Reference.
With a much higher below poverty level then the national average, when it would come to assisting the poor’s dental needs it would be in our best interest to allow fluoride in the drinking water.
Hygenist fired by her boss for being “irresistable”
Melissa Nelson, an Iowa Hygienist, was fired by her boss for being “irresistible”- with the supreme court ruling that her employer broke no discrimination laws. She spoke out against their ruling on December 22nd, 2012: “The last couple of days have just been an emotional roller coaster. I’m trying to stay strong. It’s tough, I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think it’s right. With regard to the ruling, I think it is sending a message that men can do whatever they want in the work force.” She had been working got the dental office for more then 10 years working with her employer, Dr. James Knight.
Their ruling was based off of a ruling from a lower court- and it did not constitute sex discrimination under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. She was not fired because of her gender, the court ruled, but because her boss and his wife felt Nelson was a threat to their marriage. They simply could not rule out every other similar ruling with similar facts. Under the traditional employment at will doctrine, employees can in general be fired for any reason or no reason as long as it doesn’t violate civil rights or fair employment laws, a personal services or union contract, or an employee handbook provision.
There has been many claims about how inappropriate the dentist could be at work, and according to the report by ABC News, Dr. Knight’s wife had noticed offending text messages and ordered her husband to fire Nelson. After he discussed it with his pastor, her decided it would be best to let Melissa Nelson go. Nelson said she is happily married and was not having an affair with her boss. She said she routinely wore scrubbs while on the job, not tight clothing. She admitted that she is still struggling with the court’s decision that the firing, while unfair, was not unlawful. Although people act for a variety of reasons, it is common for women to be targeted for discrimination because of sexual attractiveness or supposed lack of sexual attractiveness.
BogoBrush | A New Stylish Tooth Brush
This brush isn’t for people who likes gimmicks and tricks, this brush goes for the most aesthetically beautiful brush possible. Bogobrush’s bamboo handle and nylon bristles, it is fully biodegradable for the extra hipster sheek of being environmentally conscious. Sadly, there is no real reason to use this tooth brush past its aesthetic- its whole goal is an attempt to be pleasing to the eye, and target an early to late twenty year old market. I honestly expect it to work, and I honestly want one!
You can watch their promotional video and see their very modern website here.
Funny Dental Sketches
I was minding my own business on YouTube, and I happened to stumble onto a dentist sketch that wasn’t very funny. It got me thinking- what are the good dental sketches out there? I started searching YouTube for them…
This one has to do with an abnormally incompetent dentist who is working right out of his book with the patient. He numbs his hands, and hilarity ensues.
This one has to do with a dentist who talks about toilets while talking to a patient and gets pretty inappropriate. He is called “rude dentist” and he actually has a large handful of sketches where he is rude talking to the patient.
This sketch has to do with a dentist who doesn’t seem to understand his patient unless he has his hands in his patient’s mouth.
This patient got some embarrassing results.
In this one they mock Bane from the Batman movies, until the punchline kicks in.
A young man doesn’t floss enough.
A woman attacks a dentist thinking he is talking about her breasts.
Crazy woman goes to the dentist.
Bill Cosby goes to the dentist.
I was actually pretty unimpressed with all the dental sketches I could find. Though I remember Bob’s Burger’s dentist and I found that to be pretty entertaining. The character’s name is Dr. Yap, here is the preview to the episode:
Robotic Dental Patients
Engineers have perfected a robotic female patient, her name is Showa Hanako 2, which allows dentists to practice new procedures on non-living subjects. The robot is designed to help figure out the amount of discomfort that the patient may have, having the ability to both gag and swallow. It even has the ability to flinch at perceived pain. Japan’s Showa University is so comfortable with their life like training robot that they feel she is ready to work with actual dentists.
It actually does more then flinch- it blinks on its own, and is capable of sneezing. There is an actual list of other human like habits it can display, but most of them are a little inane to write about (for example displaying signs of wanting to close its mouth from jaw pain). It actually even response to voice recognition technology to help react to the doctor, and can even carry out very simple conversations using Raytron. This started being developed about 10 years ago, this is the first version that has realistic skin and movement. Showa Hanako 2 has several major improvements over the previous model. The skin has been changed from PVC to silicone, and the tongue and cheek linings have been formed in one piece. And the head, which previously moved only pneumatically, now has a motor.
“We considered the motions of the tongue and mouth lining separately. To prevent water getting into the machinery and causing problems, we wanted to form those parts in one piece if possible. But the molding technology for doing that wasn’t available to us. Orient Industry had that technology, and it helped us a lot.” continueing on… “If you don’t try to make a robot’s face look realistic, it doesn’t have the same effect [on] users psychologically,” Koutaru Maki, a professor at Showa University’s School of Dentistry, told DigInfo TV. “It makes quite a difference if patients can train while experiencing the same kind of tension they’d feel about a human patient, thinking, for example, ‘I’m really going to make this treatment work’ or ‘Even the smallest mistake would be unforgivable.’”
Dentsply - Interesting Marketing Campaigns
ADA in San Franscio, where I ran into DDS Dan, a Dentist who handles dental work as though he was a private eye from the 1930s.
This quirky advertising campaign sure sticks with you, as its a weird juxtaposition- why Dental work and a private Investigator? And trust me it gets better- I have one of their packets for their AMD Lasers…
They are advertising their lasers using a “Dr. Evil”-esque figure standing in front of a globe with a slogan “one world, one vision”. I’m beginning to get it- Dentsply- DentSPY. They are going for a spy underlying them, which kind of works for both items. naturally these lasers have nothing to do with sharks, and a lot to do with dental surgical work used to remove infected areas.
I am reasonably sure their advertising campaigns are by Symmetri Marketing, though I can’t tell much about the company. They have the feel of a company that outsources a lot of their work giving their free lancers vague ideas of what the customer wants. They do also have inside staff who handle these things, so I could be mistaken. Lake Oswego Dental Office.
Here is a video displaying how the procedure works.
Picture Demonstration
This technology has been in use for over a decade, and was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration to be used on the general public in 2004. Typical a dentist or doctor would be trained or certified to use this procedure. They use the laser to remove the diseased or infected areas, remove tartar, and remove the connective tissue, which heals and reconnects to the tooth. While this technology is still new, it has been shown to be more successful and effective then old procedures used by dentists. The procedure has also proven effective at reducing pocket depth without gingival recession over a 6-month period.
There has been some questions about the results. The American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) has yet to amend its August 1999 statement questioning the procedure, when it stated, “The Academy is not aware of any randomized blinded controlled longitudinal clinical trials, cohort or longitudinal studies, or case-controlled studies indicating that ‘laser excisional new attachment procedure (or Laser ENAP)’ or ‘laser curettage’ offers any advantageous clinical result not achieved by traditional periodontal therapy.
The premiere tool for this procedure is the Periolase MVP-7, which is an award winning technology and rated “Best in Class”. Beyond that, there is simply a lack of competing tools out there as well, making it easily in the lead with its other technological function, such as being able to connect to Samsung Galaxy technology. You can investigate it more on the website, though I found it a bit hard to discover information there with all the clutter. I believe this tool was also made by the people who created and improve upon the procedure itself, but I am unsure as its hard to gather real information on the subject using the website. As always, Wikipedia stays the best place for proper information on the tool and the procedure.
EPCS Gold 2.0
In 2010, the DEA approved sending some control substances through the mail as long as they were prescribed. It took two years of testing with government guidance in Berkshire County, MA, before they were able to launch EPCS (E-prescribed Controlled Substances). From this, a certain amount of business have emerged to be able to sell these prescriptions online. Individual states have different laws when it comes to electronic prescriptions.
Why ePrescribing? a report in the ehealth initiative has estimated that ePrescribing could save up to 29 billion for the US healthcare system, by limiting certain pharmacy interaction. They also are more accurate in detecting medical duplication and are less error prone. Another potential benefit of the same vain for ePrescribing is to do some tasks for physicians, one of the most prominent task is dose calculation specially for children and some drugs where the dose is weight dependent, previously these calculations were done manually and were liable to human error, the study here shows the great benefit of using ePrescribing in ambulatory settings to calculate pediatric dose.
Level of Electronic Processing
Level 1: This is a simple system consisting of a reference handbook containing drug information, dosing calculators. The information is available only if the physician explicitly looks for the information.
Level 2: Allows searching for a drug name and gives generally used dosage details.
Level 3: Patient unique data such as allergy, and information can be stored. So the physician can prescribe drugs according to the specific needs of the patient. The system also provides alerts for drug allergies.
Level 4: Medication history for the patient is maintained which enables alerts for drug to drug interaction. It also provides reminders for renewal.
Level 5: Linkage between the physician’s office and pharmacy. Physician can transmit the prescription to the location of the pharmacy specified by the patient.
Level 6: Integrated with an electronic medical record, which enables disease management and access to lab tests, problem list and diagnosis.
What Are Controlled Substances?
Controlled substances are drugs or other substances that are regulated under federal law depending on medical use, potential for abuse, and addictiveness.
Schedule I: High abuse potential, no medical use, considered unsafe
Schedule II: High abuse potential, approved for medical use, has severe dependence risk
Schedule III: Lower abuse potential, approved for medical use, has moderate or low dependence risk
Schedule IV: Relatively low potential, approved for medical use, limited dependence risk
Schedule V: Drugs that are cough medicines with codeine
Here is a video that might explain it a little better, even if it is a pitch for a service:
United States Dental Tennis Association
Dentist have to take classes every year in order to meet their requirements- and being the most educated dentist is often bragging rights. This is why they even have dental conferences with the ADA where people set up booths for dentists to visit. This organization has found a better method to help dentists meet their class quotas- by having classes occur between rounds of tennis! The United States Dental tennis Association was founded in 1969 and has over 300 members. It is not required to participate in the tennis matches, but they are available to watch for your enjoyment.
They currently have a Spring meeting planned April 7th - 13th in Destin Florida, and a fall meeting planned November 3rd - 9th in Hawaii.
here is a link to some of their benefits.
Physical exercise is good for everyone’s physical and mental well being, regardless of their level of skill. It is a fun pass time that allows the exercise many people have a hard time finding time for in their life. However, many of our members and their families choose to take part in activities other than tennis during our meetings. The USDTA staff works to ensure that every event is unique, informative, and fun with a variety of events to keep the whole family busy.
Dental Reach International
The poor of the world have a rough time staying educated and having the equipment they need to keep their dental health at an acceptable level. Having difficulty accessing clean water, and often not able to get to proper plumbing. These problems take a huge toll on the mouths of people living in places that do not have the financial structures to support them. Dental care is a problem that most of the world doesn’t even get to enjoy it. They never even consider a dental exam or dental veneers.
Dental reach international is here to try to reach areas that are suffering it ways that would make dental health hard, and helping to set up long term solutions (clean water and clothing distribution) and set up short term medical huts where dentists will be able to offer them an exam and help their short term needs. They will also offer information concerning basic dental needs and the best way to handle their dental issues. There is more out there then just our local Lake Oswego patients.
They travel all over the world, from Africa to rough areas of Australia. There is a way to contact them to come to your area if you are in need of dental help. Trips are flexible, and they have upcoming opportunities in Rural Baja, South America, and Africa.
here is an example of one of their expedition plans, you can read it here:
“From San Diego International Airport your journey begins. Picked up by DentalReach International staff you board vehicles and say goodbye to the comfortable world you know for 7 days. Crossing the border into Baja, you travel 70 miles along scenic Mexico Highway 1 to beautiful Ensenada to be greeted by the largest Mexican Flag in the country. Here your journey really begins. for the next 3-4 hours, your route follows parallel to the Baja 1000 course through rugged terrain to the San Quintin Valley communities in the heart of rural Baja.
Remote beaches, dormant volcanoes and the beautiful waters of the Pacific greet you -here you will spend the next week helping the poorest of the poor providing much needed dental care for those who have never had it.
In the down times, the Pacific calls and its beaches are ready for recreation and relaxation. Have dinner on the beach, relax under the sun, visit a roadside baja taco stand, take a guided climb up the face of a dormant volcano, visit a remote fishing village - in these primitive settings far away from busy life you know, your perspective will be changed.
Typical Duration: 7 days including travel
Typical cost: $70-125 all-inclusive per day per person from San Diego International Airport (includes all in-country travel, food, housing, purified water, visas,etc)
Typical work: Working out of a small dental clinic or mobile dental settings
Optional work: food and clothing distribution, clean water projects, sustainable gardening projects, team home builds
Accommodations: optional housing from dormitory to 3-star hotel, transport from 15-passenger van to luxury SUV, food from standard group meals to full service restaurants meals
Trip subject to meeting a minimum group size of 6.”
Green Dentistry, the Four Major Places for Waste in a Dental Office
Dental Office Waste & pollution
There are thought to be four main ways that Dental offices produce waste.
/Infection Control Methods Toxic disinfectants and disposable barriers can often be hard on the environment and hard to dispose of healthily. This includes methods they use to sterile equipment and process, as they tend to be a major waste when handled poorly. On top of it, the chemicals used are highly toxic. It can often even be hard to find non-toxic alternatives.
Mercury Containing Material this is less rare then people think- and the mercury enters our water supply. Amalgam filling material includes equal parts of elemental mercury and an alloy powder mostly composed of silver, tin, and copper. The EPA estimates 50% of all mercury comes from dental offices.
X-Ray Trash and Chemical Waste Traditional x-rays fixers contain chemicals such as Ammonium Thiocyanate and Boric Anhydride. These are chemical irritants that effect our eyes and skin in a harmful way. It is also toxic to our blood, kidneys and lover, and repeated exposure can cause dramatic organ damage. On top of being toxic to people, they are dangerous to fish and the majority of animals. According to Healthcare Environmental Resource Center, spent x-ray fixer is a hazardous waste because of its high silver content. The regulatory level is 5 mg/l silver and used fixer typically contains 3,000 to 8,000 mg/l of silver. As such, it cannot be legally dumped in the sewer or disposed of as common solid waste. Another waste found from x-rays are lead foils- The EDA estimates thay 48 million lead foils are disposed of every year in America- coming mostly from dental offices. Its not biodegradable and is thought to be able to remain as long as 2000 years.
Vacuuming Systems Suction systems in dental offices can use as much as 360 gallons of water a year. Even at 180 gallons of water, its a huge amount of water. Though they estimate that the average dental office actually uses about 57,000 gallons of water a year.
Dental Wear - Dental Fashion
I stumbled onto Dental Wear’s website, which got me thinking alot about dental fashion and things of that effect. You can find their collection of clothing here. They are the most notable for using incredible fabric that is great for the job, when you go out and look there is a lot of stylish clothing to be found out there for dentists and dentist assistants. Uniforms can even be found in places that will highly customize it for you, or you can visit places like PulseUniform and basically find anything you would ever want.
I went through the web and found parts of uniforms and uniforms that I liked and put them here in a gallery for you guys to look at. its a fun thing to look at and imagine about.
Injex, Needless Injections
While injects goes by the slogan “Injex, the soft shot” they should really be going for “Injex, the needless shot”. Studies have shown that the anxiety of the shot, and even the pain, go down drastically when the patient cannot see the needle. Other people have used similar techniques to help this, such as using equipment that vibrate to mask the pain. This is a lightweight and easy to use injector that is just as effective as a needle injection. It has to be approved by the NHS, and it is even covered by some prescriptions.
After an injection, bleeding very rarely occurs. It occurs in a pin sized drop of blood that emerges. The mark that is left after the shot typically looks like a tiny spider bite. The recommended basic dosage is 0.3 ml per injection. A second injection to prolong the effect can be administered at any time. The local anesthetic dose is still lower than with a conventional syringe in spite of the second injection. When applied correctly the injection with INJEX is virtually painless. There is a lot of limitations in terms of the amount it can inject, so larger amounts of shots are needed and in some causes it simply will not work in an effective manner and regular injection must be used instead.
This was invented by a doctor who lives in Berlin, Dr. mathias Eignbrodt. To quote him from his website:
“One of my goals is to make sure my patients are comfortable and receive the best dental care possible. Since being introduced to INJEX, the pain-free alternative for anesthesia, I have been able to accomplish this goal.”
Here is one of his videos describing his product- in German:
Digital Apex Locators
What is an Apex locator?
An apex locator is a device use to determine the length of a root canal. It uses electrical currents that hook up to the lip to tell the shape of a tooth, and helps endodontic procedures go smoothly. They are able to also monitor the blood flow, saliva, and level of agitation that are occurring in the mouth. their success rate it at about 80-95% accurate and help a lot with root canals. To be able to determine correct working length, you have to appreciate what that term truly means. As early as 1930, Grove determined that root canals should be “junction of the dentin and the cementum and that the pulp should be severed at the point of its union with the periodontal membrane.” They have been found to be a reliable for determining root canal working lengths.
Types of Apex Locators
I-Root, Digital Apex Locator
While being an incredibly interesting piece of technology, it sure is hard to learn about it. Its branding makes it a little rough to find, and its own descriptions seem trapped in some translation lexicon that make it hard to understand with out understanding the dental world on its own thoroughly.
Root ZX II Endodontic Apex Locator
The Root ZX II Endodontic Apex Locator has been credited to be one of the most accurate of Apex locators, being evaluated with a 96.2% accuracy. It has a large color display and is light and compact. This is the smallest apex locator on the market, and does not use analog readings for measurement. Its about as big as two thumbs put togetherApex NRG-XFR