Metlife Dental and Dentist Cleaning

So recently I have stated in a previous post on this blog, I have finished up graduate school and now moved to a new area with a new job. My employer offers dental insurance. The dental plan turned out to be Metlife. On their website they allow you to select your type of plan either PPO or HMO (I have PPO) and you also enter in your zip code. Now I found a dentist listed as one of their preferred providers and one of my friends in the area recently went to him so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately I didn’t find out the specifics of how much the new dentist would charge for a cleaning and exam which turned out to be $286.00. Metlife sent me a statement in the mail saying they would cover $97 … Read more

Oral Surgeon Arthur Bosanquet Convicted of Sex Claims

An Austrialian former oral surgeon has been found guilty of sex claims.  News of the oral surgeon and his bizaree medical study to incite patients to masturbate in front of him can be found at http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/lying-sex-predator-disgraced-surgeon-guilty-of-indecent-assault/1696567.aspx and http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/new-sex-claim-against-wollongong-doctor/1373243.aspx What it boils down to is that Arthur Bosanquet  convinced a teenager and his father  he was conducting a medical trial to measure the blood pressure of men before, during and after masturbation. Essentially he did the same thing twice with two different victims. He went to the victim’s bedrooms and took a blood sample and told them to masterbate. When they had difficulty doing so, he indecently assaulted them. Bosanquet had performed wisdom teeth removal on one of the victims in addition to facial surgery after an assault occured.

The Role of Dentists in Diabetes Screening

A study, led by Dr. Shiela Strauss, Associate Professor of Nursing and Co-Director of the Statistics and Data Management Core for New York University’s Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing, examined data from nearly 3,000 adults in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who had not been diagnosed with diabetes. The results appear in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry in the article titled “The dental office visit as a potential opportunity for diabetes screening: an analysis using NHANES 2003-2004 data.” The results indicate that the majority of people who have periodontal (gum) disease are also at high risk for diabetes. In addition, half of those at risk had seen a dentist in the previous year. This one can draw the conclusion that dentists should consider offering diabetes screenings in their offices. Dr. Strauss and colleagues determined that 93% … Read more

More Cancer Survivors in the Future

A national health care crisis is looming in the U.S. as the country’s baby boomer population ages and a growing number of older adults find themselves diagnosed with and living longer with cancer. That is the position of a team of researchers from across the country who believe current prevention measures, screening, treatments, and supportive care for older patients at risk of or dealing with cancer are lacking in the US. In a special supplement issue of the international journal Cancer recently released, the researchers say there is an urgent need for clear, evidence-based practice guidelines to assist physicians, oncologists and others who provide short- and long-term care management to older adults with cancer. Only with more immediate research will proper prevention efforts, screening, treatment approaches, post-treatment survivorship and end of life care be put in place to serve this … Read more

Medical Students Often Depressed

New research reveals the extent of how medical students frequently suffer from depression. Sergio Baldassin, from the ABC Regional Medical School, Brazil, led a team of researchers who carried out a study on 481 medical students. He said, “We used cluster analyses to better describe the characteristics of depressive symptoms – affective, cognitive, and somatic. This is the first study to directly evaluate, in a cross-sectional design, the characteristics of depressive symptoms by applying such clusters”. Affective symptoms represent the core symptoms of a depressive mood, based on students’ reported levels of sadness, dissatisfaction, episodes of crying, irritability and social withdrawal. The cognitive cluster assessed pessimism, sense of failure or guilt, expectation of punishment, dislike of self, suicidal ideation, indecisiveness and change in body image. Finally, the somatic cluster assessed the presence of slowness, insomnia, fatigue, loss of weight and … Read more