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Ultimate revenge? Recently dumped dentist removes all of her ex’s teeth – FOX News

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Dental Pain Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2012 – new market research report – Transworld News

Dental Pain Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2012 – GlobalData’s clinical trial report, “Dental Pain Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2012″ provides data on the Dental Pain clinical trial scenario. This report provides elemental information and data relating to the clinical trials on Dental Pain. It includes an overview of the trial numbers and their recruitment status as per the site of trial conduction across the globe. The databook offers a preliminary coverage of disease clinical trials by their phase, trial status, prominence of the sponsors and also provides briefing pertaining to the number of trials for the key drugs for treating Dental Pain. This report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and in-house analysis by GlobalData’s team of industry experts.

Note: Certain sections in the report may be removed or altered based on the availability and relevance of data for the indicated disease.

Report Scope

- Data on the number of clinical trials conducted in North America, South and Central America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa and Asia-pacific and top five national contributions in each, along with the clinical trial scenario in BRIC nations
- Clinical trial (complete and in progress) data by phase, trial status, subjects recruited and sponsor type
- Listings of discontinued trials (suspended, withdrawn and terminated)

Reasons to buy

- Understand the dynamics of a particular indication in a condensed manner
- Abridged view of the performance of the trials in terms of their status, recruitment, location, sponsor type and many more
- Obtain discontinued trial listing for trials across the globe
- Espy the commercial landscape of the major Universities / Institutes / Hospitals or Companies

Keywords

Dental Pain Clinical Trials, Trial Designs, Subjects Recruited, Unaccomplished Trials of Dental Pain , Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Abbott Laboratories, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Celgene Corporation, Daiichi Sankyo Company, Ltd., Bayer AG, Eisai Inc., GE Healthcare, Biogen Idec Inc., Copharos Inc., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., National Cancer Center, The University of Texas, M.D. Andersons, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Cancer Research UK, North Central Cancer Group, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Cancer and Leukemia Group B, Columbia University, UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Duke University, Ohio State University, National Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Click for Report details:Dental Pain Global Clinical Trials Review, H1, 2012

No pain, no gain: LeAnn Rimes’ toothache doesn’t stop concert with Alabama Symphony Orchestra – Birmingham News

Review rating: Three out of five stars.

A Bad Taste in His Mouth: Salivary Testing for Periodontal Disease – Medscape News

Halitosis and Bleeding Gums

A 31-year-old man reports a bad taste in his mouth, as well as bleeding gums a couple of times a week, especially when he brushes his teeth. His wife has told him that he has halitosis. He has no dental pain. He occasionally uses floss. He sees his dentist once a year; the last visit was about a year ago. The patient’s third molars were extracted about 10 years ago, and it was a negative experience. He reports a family history of diabetes, myocardial infarction, and periodontal disease, which (along with bleeding gums) are risk factors for gingival disease. His own medical history is unremarkable except that his blood pressure is 135/90 mm Hg.

Patient Evaluation: A Collaborative Approach

The comprehensive oral evaluation includes a series of examinations and data collection and is a joint effort between dentist and dental hygienist. Following a dental examination by the dentist, data are collected and a treatment plan that is in the best interest of the patient is developed collaboratively by dentist and dental hygienist.

Dental Examination

Data collection for this patient included:

• Full-mouth radiographs of all teeth, surrounding bone, and root tips;
• Panorex/CT scan showing temporal mandibular joints, third molar region, sinus, and sphenoid bone;
• Hard tooth examination to assess the presence of tooth decay, tooth fractures, abfractions, wear facets, bite relationship and interferences, missing teeth, and any tooth replacements (eg, bridges, implants, and partials or dentures); and
• Periodontal evaluation, including charting of pocket depths (space between tooth and gum), gum recession, bleeding, pus, furcations (access to the space between the roots of molar teeth), and tooth mobility (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Periodontal chart showing degree of periodontal disease (> 5-mm pockets).

The comprehensive oral evaluation revealed the following:

• Two areas of active decay that could easily be treated with composite and porcelain restorations; and
• Active periodontal infection with pocket depths up to 6 mm with bleeding, indicating the need for periodontal therapy, especially when considering his risk factors.

CARDIN SAYS NEW HHS RULE WITH STRENGTHEN CHILDREN’S DENTAL COVERAGE IN HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGES – Insurance News Net

March 15, 2012

Contact: Susan Sullam, 410-962-4436

CARDIN SAYS HHS RULE WILL STRENGTHEN CHILDREN’S DENTAL COVERAGE OFFERED IN HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGES

Cardin authored letter signed by 11 Senators urging HHS Secretary Sebelius to provide strong consumer protections in health insurance exchanges

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today lauded the forceful consumer protections for stand-alone dental plans that will be offered in health insurance exchanges, which will be available for individuals and small businesses as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) starting January 1, 2014. The ACA requires states to include pediatric oral health care as part of the Essential Benefits package, and permits that coverage to be made available through either comprehensive health plans or stand-alone dental plans.

In October, Senator Cardin and 11 other Senators wrote to Secretary Sebelius urging her to ensure strong protections for dental plan in the health exchanges. In addition to Senator Cardin, the letter to the Secretary was signed by the following Senators: Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Al Franken (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), John Rockefeller (D-WVA), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

“Tooth decay is the most prevalent chronic condition affecting our nation’s children, and that’s why guaranteeing oral health care coverage in the Affordable Care Act is essential,” said Senator Cardin. “The final rule ensures that patients in stand-alone dental plans will benefit from the same consumer protections that apply to other health plans in the exchange, whenever applicable.”

The Department of Health and Human Services this week issued its “Rule on the Establishment of Exchanges and Qualified Health Plans.” It requires plans in exchanges to provide:

* protections against high out-of-pocket costs;

* families the option of selecting a child-only dental plan;

* solvency standards equivalent to those in medical plans;

* adequate provider networks, and;

* vigorous certification standards.

“Moving forward, states have a critical role to play in ensuring that the ACA’s pediatric oral health benefit is designed to provide incentives to encourage prevention, recognize that some children are at greater risk for dental disease than others, and deliver care based on that risk. These rules provide a great start as states begin to prepare for enrollment through the health insurance exchanges in 2014,” said Senator Cardin.

CARDIN SAYS HHS RULE WILL STRENGTHEN CHILDREN’S DENTAL COVERAGE OFFERED IN HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGES – Insurance News Net

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today lauded the forceful consumer protections for stand-alone dental plans that will be offered in health insurance exchanges, which will be available for individuals and small businesses as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) starting January 1, 2014. The ACA requires states to include pediatric oral health care as part of the Essential Benefits package, and permits that coverage to be made available through either comprehensive health plans or stand-alone dental plans.

In October, Senator Cardin and 11 other Senators wrote to Secretary Sebelius urging her to ensure strong protections for dental plan in the health exchanges. In addition to Senator Cardin, the letter to the Secretary was signed by the following Senators: Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Al Franken (D-MN), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), John Rockefeller (D-WVA), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

“Tooth decay is the most prevalent chronic condition affecting our nation’s children, and that’s why guaranteeing oral health care coverage in the Affordable Care Act is essential,” said Senator Cardin. “The final rule ensures that patients in stand-alone dental plans will benefit from the same consumer protections that apply to other health plans in the exchange, whenever applicable.”

The Department of Health and Human Services this week issued its “Rule on the Establishment of Exchanges and Qualified Health Plans.” It requires plans in exchanges to provide:

. protections against high out-of-pocket costs;

. families the option of selecting a child-only dental plan;

. solvency standards equivalent to those in medical plans;

. adequate provider networks, and;

. vigorous certification standards.

“Moving forward, states have a critical role to play in ensuring that the ACA’s pediatric oral health benefit is designed to provide incentives to encourage prevention, recognize that some children are at greater risk for dental disease than others, and deliver care based on that risk. These rules provide a great start as states begin to prepare for enrollment through the health insurance exchanges in 2014,” said Senator Cardin.

Read this original document at: http://www.cardin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/cardin-says-hhs-rule-will-strengthen-childrens-dental-coverage-offered-in-health-insurance-exchanges

Ancient rainforest remedy could replace anaesthetics to cure toothache – Daily News and Analysis

An uncommon red and yellow plant from the Amazonian rainforest could help alleviate dental pain more effectively than existing drugs and treatments, researchers say.

The ancient herbal remedy is so potent that it might even replace uncomfortable anaesthetic injections for certain procedures and provide a natural remedy for teething babies, the Daily Mail reported.

Cambridge University anthropologist Dr Francoise Barbira Freedman came across the budded plant more than 30 years ago when residing with a mysterious Peruvian tribe known for practising shamanism.

During her tour, she suffered severe pain in her wisdom teeth. She was given the medication by the tribe’s medicine men and the ache ‘went away immediately’.

Years later, she was asked to give Cambridge a few examples of rainforest remedies, and added the Acmella oleracea plant to the list.

She describing the inclusion as an ‘afterthought’.

“It was added to the bottom of the list, but somehow the list got reversed, and it was the first one tested back in the UK. It was immediately successful and we’ve never looked back,” she said.

Using extracts from the plant, the researchers have come up with a gel that blocks the pain receptors found in nerve endings and could hit the market in just two years’ time.

In early trials, it aided in relieving pain during removal of teeth that were impacted, or stuck below the gum line.

The gel was also believed to be more efficient than the standard anaesthetic used when patients with gum disease required pain relief for scaling and polishing.

The effects lasted for longer duration, and patients were more likely to attend follow-up appointments.

In informal tests conducted by a Peruvian dentist, the plant extract also helped treat mouth ulcers and ease pain caused by dentures, braces, gum disease and having teeth removed.

And above all, there are no known side-effects.

“This treatment for toothache means we could be looking at the end of some injections in the dentist’s surgery,” Dr Freedman said.

“We’ve had really clear results from tests so far, particularly for procedures such as scaling and polishing, and there are many other potential applications.

These range from relaxing the pain of teething in babies to easing irritable bowel syndrome.

“We think people prefer to use natural products and this is particularly the case for baby teething, for which, to my knowledge, there is no clinically tested natural alternative,” Dr Freedman added.

Report Finds Increase in Dental Emergency Department Visits – Medscape News

March 2, 2012 — The number of emergency department visits for preventable tooth damage jumped 15.8% from 2006 to 2009, as states cut back on dental Medicaid benefits and workers lost jobs with dental benefits, according to a report released February 28 by the Pew Center.

The report is one of the first to look at national data on an issue that has cropped up repeatedly in statehouses during times of budget tightening.

The evidence shows that states might have cost themselves more money than they saved by cutting back on dental benefits for the poor, the researchers report.

“If someone is taking a trip to the emergency room for dentistry, that’s a waste of resources because there is no dentist there,” said Pew researcher Rafael Semansky.

The researchers drew their data from a large survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which sampled 20% of all 138 million hospital emergency department visits in 2009. The sample was weighted to make it representative of the country as a whole.

The AHRQ study categorized visits using International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes. The Pew researchers focused on 2 codes — 521 (diseases of hard tissues of teeth) and 522 (diseases of pulp and periapical tissues) — that correspond to teeth damaged either by caries or some other problem, such as bruxism, that the researchers considered preventable.

Treating these problems in the emergency department costs about $ 6498 per visit, compared with $ 660 per visit in a dentist’s office, the researchers report, citing a study published in Pediatric Dentistry (2000;22:134-140).

They found that 717,032 patients visited emergency departments with primary complaints related to those codes in 2006 and 830,590 visited in 2009, an increase of 15.8%. When they looked at the number of visits in which these codes indicated a secondary complaint, they found a 21.6% increase.

The researchers did not look at data on the state level but, drawing on other sources, they found that some states have experienced a particularly sharp uptick in dental visits to emergency departments. In Hawaii, emergency department visits for tooth and jaw problems went up 74% from 2004 to 2007; in New Hampshire, dental emergency department visits went up 45% from 2001 to 2005, and in South Carolina they went up 59% from 2005 to 2009.

The Pew researchers offered 3 solutions to the problem. First, they say states should focus more on prevention. They called for more widespread sealant programs, increased community water fluoridation, and prophylaxis — such as fluoride varnish — to be done by medical professionals.

Second, they say states should license midlevel dental providers, such as the dental therapists now practicing in Minnesota and Alaska, and expanded-duty hygienists and assistants. This would help address a nationwide shortage of dentists, they explain.

Third, they recommend increased Medicaid payments for dentistry. Not only should the benefits be expanded to include more patients, they should be higher to attract more dentists to accept these patients, the researchers say.

The second of these recommendations drew immediate fire from the American Dental Association (ADA), which argued in a press release that there is no shortage of dentists. “Actually, the ratio of dentists to patients is going to improve,” ADA President William Calnon, DDS, told Medscape Medical News.

The ADA press release cited a 2009 study forecasting that the ratio of dentists to patients would increase by 2022 under the most likely scenarios (J Dent Educ. 2009;73:1353-1360). Dr. Calnon acknowledged that some areas of the country don’t have enough dentists. He said government programs, such as debt forgiveness, might encourage young dentists to set up shop in these areas because it is becoming difficult to buy a practice.

Dr. Calnon agreed with most of the other points in the Pew report. But he reiterated the ADA’s long-standing objection to dental providers who don’t have the training of dentists but do irreversible procedures. The people most likely to lack dental insurance also have the most complex oral health problems, he said.

“They have neglected their oral health, but they have also neglected their overall health,” Dr. Calnon explained. “I don’t want a lesser trained person to work on someone who has this level of difficulty.”

Prioritizing dental health in government programs might address some of the problem, another researcher who has studied dental emergency department visits told Medscape Medical News.

Neal Wallace, PhD, associate professor of public administration at Portland State University in Oregon, said there is no good reason for federal regulations that make adult dental benefits optional under Medicaid — along with mental health — but make most other benefits mandatory.

“There is probably more waste on the medical side than on the mental health and dental side,” he said.

Semansky, Dr. Calnon, and Dr. Wallace have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

The Oldest Toothache – Wired News

Edward Drinker Cope was not exactly known for having a sunny disposition. One of the key players in the “Bone Wars” of the late 19^th century, his long-running feud with fellow bone sharp Othniel Charles Marsh is the stuff of scientific legend. The two former friends tussled over everything from fossil sites to the naming rights for extinct creatures, and their embarrassing spat spilled into public view via The New York Herald in 1890.

Marsh was not the only source of regular discomfort and irritation Cope faced. In the early 1990s, photographer Louis Psihoyos and writer John Knoebber borrowed the naturalist’s bones for an extended — and unauthorized — road trip to meet some of Cope’s intellectual descendants. Along the way, they met with paleontologist Paul Sereno, who recognized that Cope had tooth abscess that undoubtedly made the cantankerous fossil hunter extra grumpy near the time of his death in 1897.

A specimen of one of the many prehistoric creatures Cope named during his career also suffered from a painful dental pathology. Found in the approximately 275 million-year-old rock of the midwestern United States, Labidosaurus belonged to an early radiation of lizard-like reptiles known as captorhinids, and Cope initially described it in 1896. Numerous specimens have been found since that time, but one — CMNH 76876 — shows the earliest evidence of bacterial infection yet discovered in a land-dwelling vertebrate.

The peculiar dental anatomy of Labidosaurus was at least partly to blame for the reptile’s ailment. According to paleontologists Robert Reisz, Diane Scott, Bruce Pynn and Sean Modesto, a difference in tooth replacement may have made the reptile more susceptible to injury and disease. In other reptiles of the time, the teeth were only loosely fixed in the jaw and were constantly in the process of being replaced by newer teeth that erupted in the same sockets. Labidosaurus and other captorhinids, by contrast, not only had teeth that were more strongly fixed to the jaw, but new teeth erupted at a slower rate in different positions. If one of their teeth was broken, the area would be more susceptible to infection owing to the long and unusual pattern of replacement.

A line drawing of the skull of Labidosaurus (top), and a close-up of the lower jaw designated CMNH 76876 showing two missing teeth (tp1, tp3) and an abscess. From Reisz et al., 2011.

In the Labidosaurus specimen examined by Reisz and colleagues, the first and third teeth in the jaw were broken. The sockets had been filled in with bone. This was strange. In other reptiles, the broken teeth would have been lost and new ones would have taken their place, but in this Labidosaurus a pathology had developed instead. Three empty tooth sockets and a nearby abscess also showed signs of a deep infection, and the degree to which the pathology developed indicated that the animal had been living with the damage for some time.

We will never know exactly what happened, but the scientists behind the new study were able to reconstruct the sequence of events. The unfortunate Labidosaurus had lost the two teeth at the front of the jaw first, and oral bacteria had become trapped inside the jaw when the damaged tooth roots were covered by bone. Things only got worse from there. The bacteria triggered a severe bone infection, leading to the loss of three teeth and irreversible damage in the inflamed, pus-oozing portion of the jaw. If this chronic infection did not contribute to the death of the Labidosaurus, it was still active when the animal died.

Cope was not a particularly close relative of Labidosaurus — the ancestors and collateral relatives of mammals had already split from their common ancestor with reptiles long before 275 million years ago — but the injuries in the influential naturalist and the lizard-like reptile can be traced back to a similar condition. Though the anatomy of our own jaws is different than that of Labidosaurus, we only get two sets of teeth during our lifetime, and this gives injury and disease the opportunity to run rampant if we do not seek treatment. Cope could have partially blamed his chronic tooth trouble on our evolutionary inheritance from earlier mammals , though his enmity towards Marsh alone left him feeling plenty sore.

[This essay was originally posted on April 21, 2011]

Top image: A restoration of Labidosaurus by А. Кац. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

References: Reisz, R., Scott, D., Pynn, B., & Modesto, S. (2011). Osteomyelitis in a Paleozoic reptile: ancient evidence for bacterial infection and its evolutionary significance Naturwissenschaften DOI: 10.1007/s00114-011-0792-1

CARDIN KICKS OFF “HEALTHY SMILES IN MOTION” MOBILE DENTAL PROGRAM IN HAGERSTOWN – Insurance News Net

HAGERSTOWN, MD — U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) today attended the kickoff of “Healthy Smiles in Motion,” Walnut Street Community Health Center’s new mobile dental program. The 39-foot, fully equipped mobile dental unit will provide services to Washington County Public Schools and Head Start sites. The event coincides with the 2012 National Children’s Dental Health Month.

“Good oral health is essential to overall health, but quality oral care is out of reach for too many children in Maryland and around the nation,” said Senator Cardin. “I’m proud that the Healthy Smiles in Motion program is breaking down barriers to oral care for low-income families in Western Maryland. Together, we will continue working to make sure that all children have access to the oral care they need to grow up healthy.”

“All children deserve access to comprehensive dental care and to be free of dental pain and decay. Healthy Smiles in Motion is another way the Walnut Street Dental Practice will expand care to children in Washington County,” said Dr. Ilaya Rajagopal, Dental Director of the Walnut Street Dental Practice and a pediatric dentist.

Walnut Street Community Health Center established Healthy Smiles in Motion with funding received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The stimulus funding enabled the Center to purchase a mobile dental unit with two fully operational treatment rooms. In November and December, the program provided dental screenings for more than 400 Washington County children enrolled in the Head Start program. By the end of February, the dental unit will start to provide care on site at Washington County Public Schools.

Dental care is the single greatest unmet need for health care among children, and Washington County is representative of this nationwide health disparity. In Washington County, of the 7,595 children enrolled with a Medicaid Managed Care Organization, 3,200 or 42.2 percent did not receive a dental visit. These statistics do not even incorporate uninsured children.

In the Senate, Senator Cardin has worked to expand children’s access to oral health care and to reduce health disparities in Maryland and nationwide. The 2009 reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) included his provision creating a guaranteed dental benefit.

Read this original document at: http://www.cardin.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/cardin-kicks-off-healthy-smiles-in-motion-mobile-dental-program-in-hagerstown