I wanted to alert everyone who have have missed it that Jay W. Friedman was the American Journal of Public Health Author of the year. Jay W. Friedman is a retired dentist now living in California. He has his own website http://www.wix.com/simcoe/jay/ and has received a lot of attention here on www.teethremoval.com.
Jay W. Friedman was selected for this honor for his articled titled “The Prophylactic Extraction of Third
Molars: A Public Health Hazard.” which has been reproduced on my website courtesy of Jay W. Friedman and the American Journal of Public Health at http://www.teethremoval.com/the_prophylactic_extraction_of_third_molars.html.
The reasons for the selection of Jay W. Friedman as the AJPH author of the year can be found in an article found on Jay W. Friendman’s personal site. It has also been added at http://www.teethremoval.com/AJPH-2009_Author_of_the_Year-1.pdf in case you have difficulty finding it.
Deborah Holtzman writes regarding AJPH 2009 Author of the Year Jay W. Friedman
Jay Friedman’s article confirmed what [my husband] said he knew all along, i.e., removal of wisdom teeth is often an unnecessary medical procedure. My husband did not actually know this since he had not seen the data, but after we both read the article, we were sufficiently convinced that we did not want our 2 youngest children to have their wisdom teeth removed, despite their dentist’s desire to do just that.
Jay W. Friedman has long been advocating that wisdom teeth removal is
an enormous waste of money, considering the small risk of future pathology; money that could be better spent on real health care needs.
In 2008, with the help of Jay W. Friedman’s article, the American Journal of Public Health has adopted a policy (no. 20085) titled “Opposition to Prophylactic Removal of Third Molars (Wisdom Teeth).” This article has also been reproduced on my website with courtesy of Jay W. Friedman and the American Journal of Public Health at http://www.teethremoval.com/Opposition_to_Prophylactic_Removal_of_Third_Molars_wisdom_teeth.html.
Jay W. Friedman argues in his 2009 AJPH Author of the Year Award acceptance speech
..[M]y paper illustrates that what is usually considered an acceptably small risk of injury to an individual may be a public health hazard when applied to the entire population.
Needless or dangerous prophylactic removal of molars is of course only one of many issues in contemporary dental practice standards. I am routinely involved in several others that pertain to the poor training which most dentists receive in the recognition and referral of pain from non-dental causes. I invite you to visit http://www.livingwithtn.org/page/who-gets-tn, to review and comment on a paper titled “Demographics of Neurological Face Pain at a Social Networking Website”. This demographic analysis is possibly the largest sample population of Trigeminal Neuralgia patients ever reported, and it reveals an average age for first emergence of pain at 41 years, with half of all cases emerging between 35 and 49. This compares to widely reported age demographics “in the sixth decade”.
Regards and best,
Richard A. “Red” Lawhern, Ph.D.
Sincerely,
Richard A. Lawhern, Ph.D.
Message for Dr. Friedman:
Thank you so much for speaking out on the lack of need to remove wisdom teeth. I never had mine removed and sometimes had to endure very arrogant dentists telling me that they should be removed. I am 67 years old. It is good that now the truth is being made know.
Mary Roseberry-Brown
Lincoln, Nebraska