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In Light of the Allegations of Child Sex Abuse at Penn State…

Posted on 10. Nov, 2011 by wisdom.

By now I am sure everyone has at least heard that Joe Paterno has been fired as the head coach of the Penn State college football team due to child sex abuse allegations made against one of his former assistant coaches.

As discussed a few times on this blog and as indicated as a potential unfortunate risk of having wisdom teeth extracted there is the possibility of being sexually assaulted while under anesthesia to have wisdom teeth removed.

As expanded on and discussed at http://www.teethremoval.com/sexual_assault_under_anesthesia_for_wisdom_teeth_removal.html many of the drugs that dentists and oral surgeons give during the surgery can cause in rare instances sexual hallucinations. This means that it is possible for no repercussions and/or loss of license and/or jail time to occur and it can be difficult to distinguish between dreams and actual molestation in the court of law.

In one recent case discussed on this blog in 2009, at http://blog.teethremoval.com/oral-surgeon-sexual-assault-acquital/,  17 women accused an oral surgeon of sexual assault while he was performing surgery on them. The judge ruled that the women “thought” they were sexually assaulted due to the drugs that there were on and that no real sexual abuse occured.

In other cases of sexual assault occurring during dental procedures there have been clear cut cases of sexual abuse. In one case in 1999, a box full of Polaroid pictures of anesthetized semiconscious and blindfolded girls were found at a dental office. The pictures showed roughly around 15 young girls performing oral sex on the dentist.

Recently in the movie Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston plays the character of Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S., who is a  sexually-deprived dentist. Here is a photo from a scene in Horrible Bosses.

In 1996, a movie titled She Woke Up Pregnant was released.  The movie is about a dentist who sexually assaults his patients while they are under anesthesia to have surgery. In one of the cases one of the women becomes pregnant.

If you plan to have surgery at a dental or oral surgeon’s office make sure that nurses or other chaperones are present for the procedure so that sexual assault can be distinguished from a sexual hallucination if it were to unfortunately occur.

Source: Roger Hensley. Did Paterno deserve to get fired over allegations? November 10, 2011 http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/round-two/did-paterno-deserve-to-get-fired-over-allegations/article_6bd81c36-0bc6-11e1-b387-0019bb30f31a.html

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How to Improve Your Chances to Win a Dental Malpractice Lawsuit

Posted on 20. Oct, 2011 by wisdom.

Tom over at OralAnswers has previously written a post on how to win a dental malpractice suit http://www.oralanswers.com/2010/07/sue-your-dentist-and-win-malpractice-lawsuit/

I also discuss on my U.S. Legal System and Medical Malpractice page http://www.teethremoval.com/legal_system_medical_malpractice the 4 elements you must prove to have a chance at winning a malpractice suit.

(1) the doctor to provide a standard of care to patients in the locality where the treatment occured (legal duty)

(2) the doctor breached that standard of care

(3) an injury causing damages

(4) the breach of the standard of care was the proximate cause of the injury.

Now as is quite clear on my site I disagree with the current ‘standard of care’ of removing healthy wisdom teeth in young healthy patients in the U.S. This is not the standard of care in the U.K.

I wanted to touch on an additional element in this post to help improve your chances of winning a dental malpractice lawsuit due to the aggressive tactics employed by dentists, oral surgeons, and their staff to prevent lawsuits.

As indicated on my complications page, my personal experience, and doing additional research on Yelp of wisdom teeth extraction oral surgeon reviews, it is quite clear that patients who experience symptoms and complications after having wisdom teeth extracted are sometimes told things to the effect of:

The condition was not related to the surgery, or the problems were not related to the oral surgery, or send us your follow up results/testing from a medical doctor so we can determine IF your problems are related to the oral surgery as we have not heard of that complication happening before.

Remember that dentists and oral surgeons are in the business of pulling out teeth and are hence after profit and protecting themselves from liability which all too often is at the expense of making the patient receiving  fair compensation.

When I discussed my complication of a 24/7 headache that started roughly 2 days after having 4 healthy wisdom teeth extracted with a lawyer it was suggested to me that there WAS NO WAY TO PROVE I DIDN’T HIT MY HEAD ON THE WAY OUT OF THE OFFICE OR SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENED BETWEEN THE ORAL SURGERY AND THE ONSET OF THE HEADACHE. I was unable to receive any compensation for my injuries and continue to have a 24/7 headache and my surgery occurred over 5 years ago.

The only feasible way I see to get around a lot of these issues is to VIDEO TAPE THE ORAL SURGERY AND ALL EVENTS AFTERWARDS FOR AT LEAST SEVERAL DAYS.

I would personally recommend bringing in multiple friends and family members to the oral surgery and video tape the extractions from multiple angles. You will also need to ensure you have at least 1 video camera on you at all times for like I said at least a few days after the surgery.

Now let’s be honest some dentists and oral surgeons will not be welcoming to having multiple people video taping the surgery but this is really the only way within the current confines of the law to help protect yourself and increase your chances of winning a potential suit if a complication were to occur.

Look if your dentist or oral surgeon won’t let you video tape the surgery then I would find a different one or maybe feed them some BS excuse for taping the surgery such as for a class project or something.  Otherwise I would resort to possibly bugging the oral surgeons or dentists office or hiding cameras or something in your clothes.

Current scientific evidence doesn’t support or refute having healthy wisdom teeth extracted http://www.teethremoval.com/controversy.html and this is an elective procedure. If you are going to have it done at least provide yourself the additional evidence of video tape of the event and events following the surgery to help increase your chances of a successful lawsuit if things don’t go as you would hope.

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Astroturfing And How Your Thoughts Are Being Manipulated by Corporate Interests

Posted on 28. Jul, 2011 by wisdom.

Astroturfing is a form of advocacy typically to support an agenda with the appearance of a fake grassroots organization that is usually sponsored by corporations or those with a certain political interest. They work in such a way so that you are not aware that the corporate or political backing is present and you are led to believe that just an independent public organization is speaking out. There are a lot of ethical issues raised by doing this and evidence shows that astroturfing can be effective.

A recent article in the Journal of Business Ethics titled “Astroturfing Global Warming: It Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence,” by Charles H. Cho, Martin L. Martens, Hakkyun Kim, and Michelle Rodrigue (online July 3, 2011) explores the issue of those who visited astroturf websites and how it affects the perceptions of global warming.

Before explaining the study let’s make it clear global warming is unequivocal and there is at least a 90% likelihood it is caused by human activity.

In the study the researchers used a final sample of 278 students enrolled in accounting classes at a Canadian university. The true intent of the study was disguised from the students and they were told the website they would be viewing was a marketing experiment about effective website design for social issues including fair trade, homelessness, racism, and global warming. Eight versions of websites all on global warming were set up by the researchers designed to either be an astroturf or real grassroots website and each student was randomly assigned to view one website. Each website either didnt have a funding source listed or included‘ ‘Funded from donations by people like you,’’ ‘‘Funded by ExxonMobil,’’ or ‘‘Funded by grants from the Conservation Heritage Fund.”

As one would hope to have found those who browsed a website from an astroturf organization found the information as less credible and the organization as less trustworthy, compared to those who browsed a website from a grassroots organization. Even so as astroturf organizations had intended to instill confusion and uncertainty in the general public regarding the global warming issue they did accomplish that and those who visited an astroturf like website had their beliefs about global warming significantly altered and had more uncertainty about the cause of global warming.

Even more shocking is that those individuals in the study who were highly involved and knowledgeable about climate change had their views significantly influenced by the astroturf message. In addition, those who were not highly involved in the issues of global warming had their views affected even more.

The researchers note

“Our findings not only indicate that corporations are successful in fostering their own interests through astroturfing, but they also imply that this corporate political activity is likely to be detrimental to grassroots organizations. Astroturf organizations take the social movement approach to fulfill corporate agendas. Such fraudulent replication of grassroots organizations is likely to raise questions about the legitimacy of those organizations in the mind of the public…Once aware that they have been manipulated by a fake grassroots organization, members of the public are likely to be much more cautious and skeptical with all grassroots organizations, whether they are genuine or fake.”

There are clear ethical and societal concerns with not having full transparency for any astroturfing organization.

The researchers also say

“Astroturf organizations are (1) successful in creating uncertainty about the importance of global warming in the mind of the public and (2) utilized by corporations to attack the emerging logic of climate change and defend the carbon based energy logic which encompasses corporate interests.”

In addition these astroturf organizations go against the ethical considerations to protect the environment for future generations.

These findings have broad implications that certainly extend beyond global warming. As I have indicated on an earlier post http://blog.teethremoval.com/lets-give-our-kids-a-chance-to-succeed/ today’s youth has a very difficult time distinguishing fact from fiction on websites and information they view online. The results of this study described above just seek to add to support this and in fact demonstrate that their views can be manipulated even though the views they are ‘planted’ with may not be in their own personal best interests.

This even has implications in our own personal health and yes even the decision to extract or not extract healthy wisdom teeth as I discuss on this site. For example the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) states on their website http://www.aaoms.org/wisdom_teeth.php

“It isn’t wise to wait until your wisdom teeth start to bother you.”

In fact as discussed, scientific evidence does not currently support or refute removing healthy wisdom teeth removal. By AAOMS failing to provide this information on their website which is publicly available they are helping to create additional uncertainty in the minds of those who are trying to seek the best decision for their personal health and well being.

It is imperative that our educators recognize that we need to teach our youth how to effectively read and analyze information on the internet and determine facts from fiction. What really makes this difficult is highlighted in the article discussed on astroturfing and global warming:

“…Western Fuels Association [delivers], for free, to public and university libraries across the United States hundreds of copies of their Greening of Planet Earth video, which shows that plants on earth are lacking carbon dioxide, and that an increase in atmospheric carbon will provide a more fertile world….the Heartland Institute [sends] thousands of brochures and DVDs to Canadian schools, pushing them to teach their students that scientists have been exaggerating the effects of human activity on global warming.”

Again to reiterate global warming is unequivocal and there is at least a 90% likelihood it is caused by human activity.

Who is looking out for our children and our youth? They have more to worry about like the extremely high cost of education which has ballooned out of control in the U.S. at both the undergraduate and further graduate and medical school levels.

Source: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/07/medical-education-cost-health-policy-imperative.html

Additional Source: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/07/astroturfing-a-major-challenge-to-climate-change.ars

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Which Caption Will You Choose: Wisdom Teeth To Remove or Not?

Posted on 28. Jul, 2011 by wisdom.

Flickr Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/joebeone/5016877623/ and has a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

This post is by no means realistic. These images are fake. However real tactics like these have actually been used before by the drug industry as a form of disease mongering although not applied to the wisdom teeth debate to my knowledge.

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Music To Listen to After Wisdom Teeth Removal: YouTube Musicians

Posted on 18. Jul, 2011 by wisdom.

If you are recovering from having your wisdom teeth out or soon will be having surgery to have your wisdom teeth removed you may be looking for something to do.

One thing I enjoy doing these days is listening to musicians on YouTube.  Below are some artists I have enjoyed lately with some of their music embedded for your enjoyment.

Kurt Hugo Schneider. http://www.youtube.com/user/KurtHugoSchneider

Kurt is doing extremely well for himself and has over 1 million YouTube subscribers. He graduated from Yale in 2010 with a degree in mathematics and has his own Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Hugo_Schneider

The video below is produced by Kurt Hugo Schneider and features “Just a Dream” originally by Nelly with Sam Tsui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Tsui  and Christina Grimmie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Grimmie http://www.youtube.com/user/zeldaxlove64 on the vocals.

Tyler Ward. http://www.youtube.com/user/TylerWardMusic

Tyler is my favorite musician on YouTube and is an extremely talented kind individual. He is from Colorado, and is a former football player at United States Air Force Academy.  http://www.tylerwardmusic.com/

The video below is of Tyler singing and playing guitar for the song “Teenage Dream” originally by Katy Perry.

Julia Sheer. http://www.youtube.com/user/JuliaSheer

Julia is a 19 year old musician also from Colorado and used to work with Tyler Ward. She has an absolutely amazing voice and is stunningly beautiful. She is currently in the band Caroline County http://www.youtube.com/user/carolinecountymusic

The video below is of Julia singing “Misery” originally by Maroon 5.

Joseph Vincent http://www.youtube.com/user/hoorahjencar

Joseph has been the Ellen DeGeneres show a few times and is very talented.

The video below is an excellent rendition of Joseph Vincent singing  “Just a Dream” originally by Nelly with Jason Chen http://www.youtube.com/user/miniachilles

Tiffany Alvord http://www.youtube.com/user/TiffanyAlvord

Tiffany is an 18 year old female singer from California and also plays the guitar and piano.

The video below is of Tiffany singing “Love You Like a Love Song” originally by Selena Gomez with Jake Coco http://www.youtube.com/jakecoco on the drums and as the producer.

Megan Nicole http://www.youtube.com/user/megannicolesite

Megan is a young and talented female vocalist.

The video below is Megan’s debut single “B-e-a-utiful”

Avery http://www.youtube.com/user/Annamarieee22

Avery is a 16 year old singer who reminds me and many others of Avril Lavigne.

The video below is Avery singing an original song titled “Love  me or Let me Go”

Dave Days http://www.youtube.com/user/davedays

Dave achieved a lot of YouTube fame by singing to Miley Cyrus cardboard cutouts which led to him actually having Miley in one of his videos. He actually is a pretty talented musician.

The video below is Dave days singing an original song titled “Your Melody”

If you are a bit more mature perhaps you will enjoy something from the Piano Guys http://www.thepianoguys.com/. But really definitely check out the video below.

Yes I know I am leaving many talented acts and musicians on YouTube out of this post, I’m sorry! Go on YouTube sometime and check them out. Also you can of course listen to mainstream acts and their music. This is just something different to perhaps keep you entertained for a bit.

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