Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Microimplants, Dentist Fraud, Bond failure and more

Dentist Charged With Medicaid Fraud

PASADENA, Texas - A Pasadena dentist has been charged with Medicaid fraud, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

Dr. David Lloyd Gonzales Jr. allegedly billed Medicaid for services not performed or for more expensive services than what were actually performed.

A Houston grand jury's 24-count indictment accused Gonzales of billing for root canals that were not performed, for crowns that were not placed on patients' teeth, for extricating teeth that were not extricated and for fillings that were not performed.

Gonzales, 46, was arrested at his office in the 700 block of Pasadena Boulevard and was set to go before a U.S. Magistrate on Monday.

Gonzales became a Medicaid provider in 1994 and has since billed $1.8 million for services allegedly performed. He has been paid about $1.5 million, according to the indictment.

Class II malocclusion treated with miniscrew anchorage: Comparison with traditional orthodontic mechanics outcomes, Miniscrews use leads to better esthetic outcome (Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2009;135:302-9)

Introduction: Anchorage control in patients with severe skeletal Class II malocclusion is a difficult problem in orthodontic treatment. In adults, treatment often requires premolar extractions and maximum anchorage. Recently, incisor retraction with miniscrew anchorage has become a new strategy for treating skeletal Class II patients. Methods: In this study, we compared treatment outcomes of patients with severe skeletal Class II malocclusion treated using miniscrew anchorage (n  11) or traditional orthodontic mechanics of headgear and transpalatal arch (n  11). Pretreatment and posttreatment lateral cephalograms were analyzed. Results: Both treatment methods, miniscrew anchorage or headgear, achieved acceptable results as indicated by the reduction of overjet and the improvement of facial profile. However, incisor retraction with miniscrew anchorage did not require patient cooperation to reinforce the anchorage and provided more significant improvement of the facial profile than traditional anchorage mechanics (headgear combined with transpalatal arch). Conclusions: Orthodontic treatment with miniscrew anchorage is simpler and more useful than that with traditional anchorage mechanics for patients with Class II malocclusion. Buy the miniscrews now

Factors Affecting success of Microimplants
Angle Ortho Issue 4, 2009
Objective: To test the hypothesis that the impact of the insertion depth and predrilling diameter have no effect on the primary stability of mini-implants.
Materials and Methods: Twelve ilium bone segments of pigs were embedded in resin. After
implant site preparation with different predrilling diameters (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 mm), Dual Top Screws 1.6  10 mm (Jeil, Korea) were inserted with three different insertion depths (7.5, 8.5, and 9.5 mm). The insertion torque was recorded to assess primary stability. In each bone, five Dual Top Screws were used as a reference to compensate for the differences of local bone quality. Results: Both insertion depth and predrilling diameter influenced the measured insertion torques distinctively: the mean insertion torque for the insertion depth of 7.5 mm was 51.62 Nmm (25.22); for insertion depth of 8.5 mm, 65.53 Nmm (29.99); and for the insertion depth of 9.5 mm, 94.38 Nmm (27.61). The mean insertion torque employing the predrill 1.0 mm was 83.50 Nmm (33.56); for predrill 1.1 mm, 77.50 Nmm (27.54); for the predrill 1.2 mm, 61.70 Nmm (28.46); and for the predrill 1.3 mm, 53.10 (32.18). All differences were highly statistically significant (P .001).
Conclusions: The hypothesis is rejected. Higher insertion depths result in higher insertion torques and thus primary stability. Larger predrilling diameters result in lower insertion torques.
Click here for most successful microimplant placement tech, Full Paper

Bond Failure if you bond immediately after patient has done Tooth whitening ?
Angle Ortho Issue 4, 2009
Objective: To test the hypothesis that there is no difference between the bracket survival rate of brackets bonded to bleached and unbleached teeth.
Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight patients who required comprehensive orthodontic treatment were included in the study. A split mouth technique was used with one arch exposed to in-office whitening gel containing 38% hydrogen peroxide for 30 minutes, while the unbleached arch served as the control. Patients were divided into two groups: Brackets bonded within 24 hours after bleaching and brackets bonded 2–3 weeks after bleaching. The bracket survival rate was computed using the log-rank test (Kaplan-Meier Analysis).
Results: A significantly higher rate of bracket failure was found with bleached teeth (16.6%) compared with unbleached teeth (1.8%) after 180 days. Brackets bonded within 24 hours of bleaching resulted in significantly higher clinical failure (14.5%) compared with those bonded after 3 weeks (2.1%). Adhesive Remnant Index scores of failed brackets revealed that the majority of failure in bleached teeth occurred in the enamel/resin interface.
Conclusions: Brackets bonded within 24 hours after bleaching have a significantly higher risk for bond failure. Orthodontic bonding should be delayed for 2–3 weeks if patients have a history of in-office bleaching with 38% hydrogen peroxide. Full Paper

Man Swallows his own Loose Tooth, Lodged in Lung
Statesman 11 March
KOLKATA, March 10: Doctors of the ENT department of SSKM Hospital today successfully removed a tooth that had stuck in the lung of a 55-year-old man three years ago.
According to one of the doctors, Mr Rajendra Prasad Gupta, a resident of Garulia in North 24-Parganas, came to the hospital complaining of respiratory distress. On proper clinical examination, it was found that a tooth was stuck in his right lung. The patient told doctor that three years ago he had unknowingly gulped a tooth of his own which had come loose.
Later, he developed breathing distress. He was admitted to the hospital yesterday and the tooth was successfully removed today.

Dental Credit card is drilling hole in patients pocket, Link is here

Turmeric- Majic Indian Spice
Also known as the Indian Saffron, Turmeric was always considered a magical herb in India, and has been used by traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha for treating wounds and infections. It has also been used in cosmetic preparations.

And, now a team of science experts in the United States have discovered what makes this herbal blood purifier and antiseptic "holy powder", revealing that curcumin is the its main curative ingredient responsible for the magic healing power of Turmeric.

The scientists’ team at Michigan University, led by Indian-origin researcher Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, who is a Professor of Biophysics at the University of Michigan (U-M), has claimed that curcumin fights infection and promotes good health by inserting itself into cell membranes and making them more orderly. By entering blood cells, it helps improve cells' resistance to infection and malignancy.
"The membrane goes from being crazy and floppy to being more disciplined and ordered, so that information flow through it can be controlled," says Prof Ramamoorthy. FULL News

Leading Pain Researcher Admits his Fraud

In what may be among the longest-running and widest-ranging cases of academic fraud, one of the most prolific researchers in anesthesiology has admitted that he fabricated much of the data underlying his research, said a spokeswoman for the hospital where he works.

The researcher, Dr. Scott S. Reuben, an anesthesiologist in Springfield, Mass., who practiced at Baystate Medical Center, never conducted the clinical trials that he wrote about in 21 journal articles dating from at least 1996, said Jane Albert, a spokeswoman for Baystate Health.

The reliability of dozens more articles he wrote is uncertain, and the common practice — supported by his studies — of giving patients aspirinlike drugs and neuropathic pain medicines after surgery instead of narcotics is now being questioned. Full Story

Ortho Organizers Sold
March 10, 2009

Dental and medical equipment distributor Henry Schein Inc. of Melville, Long Island's third-largest company in sales, said yesterday it has acquired a California-based company that makes orthodontic products.

Ortho Organizers of Carlsbad, Calif., had sales last year of about $30 million. The company has about 200 employees, and its products are sold in the United States and overseas.

Henry Schein said the acquisition is expected to add to financial results in 2009. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stanley Bergman, Henry Schein's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement that orthodontics is a $1.2-billion global market, and $600 million of that is in the United States.

ADA Lauches New Resorce on Evidence based Dentistry

This month, the ADA launched EBD.ada.org, a new Web site dedicated to evidenced-based dentistry (EBD). EBD.ada.org allows easy and quick access to a database of systematic reviews of oral health clinical information from one centralized location. EBD, according to the ADA, is an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient's oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist's clinical expertise and the patient's treatment needs and preferences.

1 Comments:

Blogger Peter said...

I think dentists should be penalize if anything wrong happened to their client. Dentist should be careful because it's the mouth their working with.

cosmetic dentistry pasadena-pete

April 21, 2009 10:22 PM  

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