Wisdom Teeth

Are Dentists Ethical or Scam Artists?

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Recently The Journal of the American Dental Association has been running some “Ethical Moments” regarding dentists. This is purely propaganda and should not be taken at face value. For example Jeffrey C. Esterburg wrote an article titled Are Dentists Losing Their Status as Professionals? (J Am Dent Assoc, 2011; 142, 1084-1085). He opens up the article saying “As a new dentist, I am becoming increasingly concerned that what it means to be a dental professional is being lost in the eyes of the public and our vendors and consultants.” He goes on to discuss some conflicting pressures he is faced with running his dental practice. He then goes on to discuss the American Dental Association Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct. He closes the article by saying “The size of our hearts defines our success much more than does the size of our practices, homes or bank … Read more

Focal Infection Theory

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I think it is important for everyone to read over the article on Wikipedia regarding focal infection theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_infection_theory. Focal infection theory (FIT) is the idea that a local infection affecting a small area of the body can lead to subsequent infections or symptoms in other parts of the body due either to the spread of the infectious agent itself or toxins produced from it. Let’s look at an article from 1938 by Russell L. Cecil and D. Murray Angevine, “Clinical and experimental observations on focal infection with an analysis of 200 cases of rheumatoid arthritis,” Ann Int Med 12(5):577-84 “But even in America, the home of focal infection, scientific men are becoming a little wearied of the universal acceptance of a theory as though it were an established fact. For example, one of our leading pathologists has satirically described a focus of … Read more

Wisdom Teeth Conspiracy: Electronic Eavesdropping Device

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This story may sound a bit bizarre but actually is true. In the 1989 a U.S. Air Force veteran requested copies of his dental treatment records from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Hampshire. He believed he had dental treatment at this facility in 1981 and “….sought his dental records because he believed an electronic eavesdropping device had been planted in his mouth after his wisdom teeth were removed.” Unfortunately at this time the medical records were on paper and the dental records never turned up. So I guess this begs the question of whether or not a listening device can be planted in a tooth extraction socket. I think the technology may be there and it may be possible but I highly doubt this a common occurrence. I suppose this could be possible with a radio-frequency … Read more

Astroturfing And How Your Thoughts Are Being Manipulated by Corporate Interests

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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 … Read more

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

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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.