buy viagra discount

Tag Archives: aaoms

Dental Patients Warned of Possible HIV and Hepatitis Exposure Due to Oral Surgeon’s Practices

Posted on 30. Mar, 2013 by .

direct lender payday loans

0

Previously in this post Oral Surgeon Investigated for Reusing Needles and Syringes it was discussed how last summer in 2012 an oral surgeon in Colorado was investigated for re-using syringes and needles while performing various oral and facial surgery procedures. Around 8,000 patients were told to be tested for potential HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

Recently, in Oklahoma around 7,000 patients were told to be tested for potential HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C who were treated by an oral surgeon due to his potentially rusty instruments and lax sterilization procedures.

A complaint by the Oklahoma  Board of  Dentistry was filed against the oral surgeon on March 26, 2013. It is located over at http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/ktul/documents/Harrington_Complaint_OBD.pdf.

The complaint says that an unidentified patient who was treated by the oral surgeon tested positive for HIV and hepatitis C shortly after being treated for dental procedures. The complaint says that during the Dental Board’s investigation there were multiple sterilization issues, multiple cross contamination issues, the drug cabinet was often unlocked, and some of the dental assistants were routinely providing the IV sedation for some procedures. In addition, it was found that no written infection prevention policies and procedures were available or used.

The complaint goes on to say that the oral surgeon was a menace to the public health for practicing dentistry in an unsafe or unsanitary manner and committed gross negligence by deferring decisions and supervision of cleaning and infection control to dental assistants.

The American Dental Association (ADA) posted on March 29, 2013, that they are monitoring the news story of the Oklahoma oral surgeon, see ADA cites infection control resources as media focuses on Oklahoma oral surgeon. The ADA also issued a press release.

The ADA says

“The ADA has long recommended that all practicing dentists, dental team members and dental laboratories use standard precautions as described in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Infection Control in Dental Health Care Settings guidelines…Infection control procedures are designed to protect patients and health care workers by preventing the spread of diseases like hepatitis and HIV. Examples of infection control in the dental office include the use of masks, gloves, surface disinfectants and sterilizing reusable dental devices. In addition, dental health care providers are expected to follow procedures as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”

The ADA also recommends that if dental patients have any concerns they discuss with their dentist their infection control procedures. The ADA also issued several talking points to dentists to help them discuss infection control with their patients.

Additional Source: Donna Domino, “7,000 patients warned of possible hepatitis, HIV exposure,” DrBicuspid.com. March 29, 2013

Continue Reading

Politics of Dental Anesthesiology

Posted on 03. Nov, 2012 by .

0

A recent article titled “Dental anesthesiology falls short of becoming ADA specialty,” by Rob Goskowski, Nov. 1, 2012, located at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=rst&pag=dis&ItemID=311903, discusses a recent vote that took place at the House of Delegates during the 2012 American Dental Association (ADA) Annual Session. The House of Delegates voted against recognizing Dental anesthesiology as the 10th ADA recognized specialty.

Steven Ganzberg, a clinical professor and the chair of dental anesthesiology at UCLA says:

“This action by the ADA confirms that the ADA process of specialty approval is fatally flawed….This was clearly an effort by the ADA, through AAOMS [the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons], to restrict professional activities that specialty recognition would have provided.”

Dr. Ganzberg and some other supporters were hoping that the specialty would be approved as they felt it would lead to increased training and emergency preparedness at dental schools.

Dr. Ganzberg goes on to say

“We need to work together to improve safety. Unfortunately, oral surgery’s tactics have undermined their relationship with dental anesthesiology. This is unfortunate for oral surgery, as the data are not desirable for them.”

AAOMS had concerns about anesthesiology in dentistry moving to just dental anesthesiologists and away from oral surgeons if passage of the dental anesthesiology specialty occurred. However, even Dr. Ganzberg says he believes that oral surgeons performing deep sedation is important and useful for patients.

Dr. Ganzberg believes that oral surgeons ability to continue doing deep sedation will not be jeopardized by others in dentistry and that that threat would come from medicine.

Dr. Ganzerg states

“The threat is going to come from medicine, which will at some point stop training oral surgeons as they are clearly opposed to what oral surgeons do: operator anesthesia.”

This is quite clear as back in 2009, the AMA (American Medical Association) released a scope of practice data series which stated

“Oral and maxillofacial training programs for dentists simply cannot duplicate the medical education that physicians receive, which prepares the physician to assess and respond to unexpected medical complications observed during surgery, manage the post-operative recovery and follow-up care of patients, and fully address the systemic needs of surgical patients who may have chronic health conditions that can exacerbate their risks for adverse events during surgery.”

I discussed more of the details of this battle back in 2010 see http://blog.teethremoval.com/american-medical-association-versus-american-association-of-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeons/.

Continue Reading

Wisdom of Having that Tooth Removed: AAOMS Response

Posted on 13. Nov, 2011 by .

0

Recently I indicated in a post over here http://blog.teethremoval.com/wisdom-teeth-advice-and-new-dental-schools/ that a New York Times article was run on September 5, 2011, by Roni Caryn Rabin which was titled “Wisdom of Having That Tooth Removed.” This article is located here http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06consumer.html

Recently a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times was written by the President of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Arthur C. Jee, discussing this article located at http://www.aaoms.org/docs/media/LetterNYTimes-09-21-11.pdf

In the article he states

The AAOMS does not advocate for the “prophylactic extraction of wisdom teeth”

If this is in fact the case then I think the AAOMS should make this clear on their website.

The website on wisdom teeth http://www.aaoms.org/wisdom_teeth.php continues to say

“As you can see, it isn’t wise to wait until your wisdom teeth start to hurt you before you have them removed. “

Even so the wisdom teeth page on AAOMS has been updated a bit since the last time I looked.  It does mention at the bottom that you may keep your wisdom teeth after previously discussing many of the problems that wisdom teeth can cause if you keep them.

Further in the letter Dr Jee says

 ”an absence of symptoms does not equal the absence of disease; retained wisdom teeth frequently and unpredictably change position, eruption and periodontal status; over time even retained, asymptomatic wisdom teeth are more likely to exhibit progressive periodontal disease; and retained wisdom teeth with periodontal pocketing increases the risk for several broader conditions that are associated with increased systemic inflammation, including preterm birth and cardiovascular disease.”

In the letter to the editor Dr. Jee says that

“Oral and maxillofacial surgeons provide their patients the best advice based on a careful oral examination, appropriate imaging and tests, and frank discussions with the patient and caregivers”

As indicated numerous times on my website that is not representative of the kind of care I received.

In a recent article a college professor describes the experience of his 21 year old daughter who has impacted wisdom teeth when his daughter and him visited an oral surgeon in California http://blog.teethremoval.com/the-truthiness-of-extracting-wisdom-teeth-james-r-carey/.  The issues addressed and raised in that article do not appear to be frank discussions at all.

In addition, the informed consent forms I have reviewed http://www.teethremoval.com/consent_form.html, leave out numerous potential harmful risks of having wisdom teeth removed which I feel many should be mentioned for an elective procedure when there is ample time to prepare such as a chronic 24/7 headache and a scar on the check as indicated over at http://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html

Further, I think a frank discussion should mention the fact that healthy wisdom teeth are not extracted in the U.K. and explain the reasons why which is for the potential minor and major harmful risks of surgical intervention along with cost effectiveness as mentioned at http://www.teethremoval.com/controversy.html

Continue Reading

Wisdom Teeth Advice and New Dental Schools

Posted on 29. Oct, 2011 by .

0

A new article in the New York Times titled “Wisdom of Having that Tooth Removed” written by Roni Caryn Rabin published September 5, 2011, is an interesting articles for those considering whether or not to have healthy wisdom teeth extracted. The article is located at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06consumer.html

The article explores some of the issues regarding whether or not you should or not have have healthy wisdom teeth extracted.

The article discusses how the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) held a press conference back in October of 2010, http://www.aaoms.org/docs/media/third_molars/key_findings.pdf, in which one of the key findings was

“Retained, asymptomatic wisdom teeth are eventually extracted between 25% and almost 70% of the time.”

The author of the New York Times article questioned AAOMS on this statement which appeared on their website. The response from AAOMS was

“Yet when asked, the association was not able to produce the evidence for these figures.”

The author concludes

“As for my daughter Emma, we have opted for watchful waiting. She went off to college last month, wisdom teeth and all.”

An interesting article by the American Dental Association (ADA) titled “Special Report: An in-depth look at new dental schools” by Karen Fox published September 5, 2011, located at http://www.ada.org/news/6173.aspx explores new dental schools which are now opening in the U.S. This is partly driven due to new academic health centers which believe dental school is essential to their mission.

The ADA is concerned about the opening of these new dental schools as additional dentists can potentially bring down the overall average salaries of dentists.

The ADA is concerned with the extremely high costs of dental education as those who graduate from dental school from public schools paid an average of $124,397 for their education while those in private schools paid $223,788. These high costs can affect how a dentist practices. The ADA is also concerned with the research that may not be conducted by these new dental schools. The ADA is further concerned that many of these new dentists will work in more affluent areas and not serve those most in need of dental care in undeserved areas. The ADA maintains that it can not control the supply and demand of dentists, although I do not entirely agree.

“But it’s up to the governing board of an institution of higher education to decide to open or close a dental school. “The ADA has no role in the creation of new dental schools. A professional organization cannot control supply and demand,” said Dr. Brain T. Kennedy … chair of the ADA Council on Dental Education and Licensure.”

Continue Reading

The War on Healthcare: Patients Who Hate Doctors

Posted on 19. Sep, 2011 by .

3

Dr. Maurice Bernstein on his Bioethics Discussion Blog has an interesting discussion going on about people who hate doctors and their reasons. Reading through the large number of responses located at http://bioethicsdiscussion.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-hate-doctors.html , a common theme emerges: those who are well educated and particularly those with a PhD really hate those with an MD degree.

This is no surprise to me as the current American healthcare system pits patients vs. doctors in a battle.

Here a few snippets from the comments:

1 of the comments:

“I hate arrogant, sadistic, amoral, money-grubbing scumbags, and unfortunately, it seems far too many of these types have weaseled their way into the medical profession. I am one of the millions of people with chronic pain in this country who is at the “mercy” of the American medical profession, and thus cannot get my pain treated.”

Another comment snippet:

“Yes it is true, WAKE UP AMERICA…!! THERE ARE MORE DEATHS IN THE US EVERY YEAR, DUE TO “MEDICINE” & DOCTORS…THAN IN ANY WAR GOING ON!!

THAT is why people “hate” “Dr.s”…becuase they are Killing people!!! They & the AMA are also arrogant, narrow minded & dumb. To think that drugs & only drugs are going to heal somebody & to block out ALL other modes of healing from the practice ie: alternative modes such as Herbs, Accupuncture, Supplements etc…is Assinine, & totally insane!”

Another snippet

“It’s clear that medicine is only about money, about making a buck, about making as much profit as possible for the least amount of risk.”

Yet another snippet

“Lying to prevent malpractice when a heartfelt, humble apology would do? Then it goes too far. Exactly how does an apology protect, legally, against a suit? That’s utter nonsense and yet another backwards step in the entire health care crisis. We are fast approaching a time IMO when the general public will go to war against the health care system.”

As eloquently put by someone who suffered a chronic headache after having wisdom teeth removed just like myself

“In our society, protection from liability is primary, profit is secondary, preserving the posterity and ego of the medical profession is tertiary, and treating the patient is somewhere further down priority chain.”

Hence it is absolutely no surprise that when you go on to American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) Grassroots Action Center http://capwiz.com/aaoms/home/ the first thing you see is Urge Congress to Reform the Medical Malpractice System.

Well that sounds like a good idea especially if you review my site and can clearly see how too little is being provided to patients who have been injured by a doctor in terms of a non-economic damage award and only around 2% to 3% of patients who suffer from negligent care even file a lawsuit http://www.teethremoval.com/legal_system_medical_malpractice

In my case I had my wisdom teeth extracted after I just turned 20 and was extremely healthy and was never told that scientific evidence does not support the removal of healthy wisdom teeth. Nor was I told sufficient information to make an informed choice. Even so due to the the U.S. legal system that rewards doctors for malpractice I never received any compensation for my injuries.

In fact AAOMS and also the American Medical Association are trying to support something called HEALTH Act (S. 218/H.R. 5). See also http://www.teethremoval.com/legal_standpoint.html and http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr5ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr5ih.pdf for further description.

The quick important details is from  http://www.citizenvox.org/2011/05/11/hr5-medical-malpractice-gop-patient-rights/

“H.R. 5, which would give virtual liability immunity to the medical industry for reckless conduct. Included in its repertoire is a national $250,000 cap on non-economic damages, restrictions on punitive damages against pharmaceutical and medical device companies that engage in reckless conduct, limits on the time period for a patient to file a lawsuit to seek compensation for injuries and other obstacles that would deter meritorious cases from going forward.“

I encourage you to review the complications that can happen from wisdom teeth removal and you will come to the same conclusions as I have that a $250,000 pain and suffering damage award for particularly young patients in some instances is extremely unfair, unjust, and downright ridiculous.

Numerous physician groups such as as the AMA and AAOMS in the U.S. have clearly demonstrated that they DO NOT care about their patients.

I urge you my fellow Americans to contact Congress and tell them you WILL NOT TOLERATE H.R.5 AS IT TAKES AWAY YOUR RIGHTS PROTECTED BY THE CONSTITUTION.

Write to your Representative and make it known.

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Here is some AC / DC – War Machine to help set the tone.

Continue Reading