Doctors

Patient Harm in Medical Care

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The New England Journal of Medicine has recently published an article titled “Temporal Trends in Rates of Patient Harm Resulting from Medical Care.” This article was conducted by Christopher Landrigan and 5 other researches, appeared in the November 25, 2010, edition and you can download and view it at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa1004404 The article explores a random sample of 10 hospitals located in the state of North Carolina in the U.S.  A total of 2,341 patients were looked at from this sample and 588 of them had what was identified as a harm meaning that the patient was somehow harmed as a result of medical procedures, medications, or something else that was performed or given during their care. “Of 588 harms that were identified, 245 (41.7%) were temporary harms requiring intervention…  251 (42.7%) were temporary harms requiring initial or prolonged hospitalization. An … Read more

Bringing Teeth Back to Life

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This post may sound a bit futuristic, but it is just one of the many ways nanotechnology can play a great role in impacting our lives. A study appearing in ACS Nano, describes a nano sized dental firm which could be used for bringing a diseased tooth back to life instead of leaving the tooth dead via a root canal. Nadia Benkirane-Jessel and colleagues state in the report that root canal procedures help prevent tooth loss in millions of people each year. During  a root canal a dentist removes the painful, inflamed pulp, the soft tissue inside the diseased or injured tooth that contains nerves and blood vessels. An area called regenerative endodontics in which the development and delivery of tissues to replace diseased or damaged dental pulp could become the future. The researchers have developed a multilayered, nano-sized film … Read more

Anesthesia in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Office

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The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) is continuing to attempt to increase their ability to attract young adults to elect to have their wisdom teeth removed. Back in May 2010 they released a video called “Anesthesia: Safety and Comfort in the OMS Office.” The video is over nine minutes long and takes viewers into actual Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon’s offices with interviews by Dr. M. Anthony Pogrel who is Professor and Chair of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of California, San Fransisco, Dr. Andrew Herlich who is Chief of Anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dr. Michael Miloro who is director for the Postgraduate Residency Training Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, Dr. Michael Ding who is Chief Resident of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at … Read more

U.S. Dental Schools Teaching little on Sleep Disorders

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American adults suffer from sleep disorders and the number is quite large, around 70 million. U.S. dental schools are not teaching their graduating soon to be dentists the importance of screening their patients for sleep disorders. A survey sent out by researchers from the University of California — Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry,  indicates that dental students spend an average of 2.9 instruction hours during their four years of dental school studying sleep disorders. The main problem is for those 18 million Americans that suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). It estimated that 80 % to 90 % of patients with OSA are not diagnosed and this can consequently raise the patients risk for many diseases and problems. The researchers feel since dentists see patients on a regular basis, they can notice early warning signs of sleep disorders. This … Read more

Western Dental injuries and pain

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I found some interesting pieces from ABC 7 KGO-TV San Francisco, CA. The articles and videos are about the second largest HMO in the state of California called Western Dental. Numerous people are profiled talking about things such as nerve damage following wisdom teeth removal, people’s healthy teeth being pulled out and being replaced with dentures,  a syringe injecting bleech into a girl’s sinus during a root canal, and putting too much filler into the root of a woman’s teeth during a root canal and causing severe pain. Of course Western Dental defends by not admitting wrongdoing but then lawsuits result and a settlement is reached in some cases. In other cases Western Dental has not paid for subsequent follow up treatment. To see the videos and read more of the articles visit these 2 links. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7583317 http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7585208