Doctors

Washington Dentist Troubles

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Recently, a few articles appeared on DrBicuspid talking about Washington dentists. One of the dentists is a Washington state dentist, the other is a Washington D.C. dentist. The first article talks about how a now retired Washington state dentist must pay $35 million to 29 former patients. The reason for this is because the court determined that the former dentist had performed numerous unnecessary root canals over a long period of time.   The article discusses how the retired dentist performed over 2,000 root canals on about 500 patients over a five year span several years ago. The dentist who purchased the retired dentists practice said that a lot of failing root canals and railing crowns were being noticed by the patients coming in. The court in this case found that the dentist was negligent, failed to obtain informed consent from … Read more

Marketing the Services of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

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An interesting article appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery titled “Marketing—Preparing the Soil for Success” by James Hupp vol. 71, pp. 1-2, 2013. The article discusses how the general public does not know much about the possible health care services that an oral and maxillofacial surgeon can provide. It also is a bit of a reality check of how health care is practiced in the United States article. The article talks about a new marketing initiative and says “To me, this represents the association’s wish to start a new time of planning and laying the groundwork for a new season of better educated consumers seeking our care.” The author discusses how the image of oral and maxillofacial surgeons by the general public is not that well understood. Most would know that they remove teeth and have much … Read more

Biostatistical Knowledge of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residents

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I found an interesting and critical study titled “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residents Have Poor Understanding of Biostatistics,” by Al M. Best and Daniel M. Laskin appearing in the J Oral Maxillofac Surg vol. 71, pp. 227-234, 2013. The article discuss how the three main oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) journals have low quality evidence and how some of the articles can’t be taken at face value. Hence, the purpose of this study was to evaluate residents’ understanding of biostatistics and the interpretation of research results to see if the curricula of training programs should be changed to better prepare clinicians to practice evidence-based dentistry. In the study a 6 question survey was developed for OMS residents and compared to results for a similar survey of medical residents. Further, questions looking into demographic characteristics, the methodologic courses residents may have … Read more

Improving Patient Safety: Updates on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

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In a recent blog post I discussed how a few new videos have appeared in recent months related to oral and maxillofacial surgery Videos Related to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has also updated several sections of their website in the last year or so. They now have a section titled Orthodontics and Oral Surgery where they have videos related to showcasing various techniques that oral and maxillofacial surgeons and orthodontists perform. In addition they have updated and written a new page titled “Culture of Safety“. The page is a welcome addition and discusses how safety is the number one priority in the oral and maxillofacial surgery office. Now I wanted to take a moment to respond to this page and some other developments I have seen lately across the blogosphere. 1) … Read more

Oklahoma Dentist Disciplinary Database

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A lot of media publicity has occurred regarding a case that appeared last month where patients of an oral surgeon in Oklahoma were asked to get tested for HIV and hepatitis after it was found that potentially lax sterilization procedures were used. More on this case is discussed over at Dental Patients Warned of Possible HIV and Hepatitis Exposure Due to Oral Surgeon’s Practices for example. The Tulsa World has been prompted to publish a searchable database of all disciplinary actions taken against dentists, in the state of Oklahoma from January 2000, to January 2013, after the case involving lax sterilization procedures came to light. In that case one patient had four third molars (wisdom teeth) removed and was allegedly given sedation by a dental assistant who should not have been giving sedation. She later developed an infection and liver … Read more