Now is a Great Time to Sell Your Dental Practice: Four Signs of the Industry Season

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Right now, over the next 12 to 18 months, may be the perfect time to sell your dental practice. Even if you are not in the market to retire, you can sell your practice. Many dentists sell their practices so they no longer have worry about owning a business and providing for several staff and their families. Selling a practice can give dentists an opportunity to work as professors or to simply just practice their crafts. Selling a practice often leaves dentists in a comfortable financial situation. With approaching challenges, like Obama-care, many dentists are selling because recent dental school graduates are able to get good lending rates to buy well-established practices. At one dental society meeting, a speaker informed the crowd on the approaching economics and Obama-care programs.  This speaker explained that veteran dentists will not benefit from the … Read more

Periodontal Disease and Pregnancy Risks

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An often disagreed point in the literature is whether or not periodontal disease is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm births and low birth weight. I have discussed this some more on the risks of keeping wisdom teeth page over at http://www.teethremoval.com/risks_of_keeping_wisdom_teeth.html. I discussed how in a meta-analysis of 10 randomized trials in January 2011 found no evidence in favor of periodontal disease being associated with preterm births and low birth weight. The source for this study is Mariana Fampa Fogacci and et al. The Effect of Periodontal Therapy on Preterm Low Birth Weight: A Meta-Analysis. Obstetrics & Gynecology. vol. 117. issue 1. pages 153-165. January 2011. In a letter in J Can Dent Assoc 2012; 78: c120 there is an articled titled “Periodontal Disease and Pregnancy Risks,” which was published on on September 24, 2012 over at http://www.jcda.ca/article/c120 … Read more

Controversy Over Spinal Fusion

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Debate over spinal fusion surgery continues to occur. A recent article tiled “Spinal fusions serve as a case study for debate over when certain surgeries are necessary,” appears in the Washington Post written by Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating and published on October 27, 2013. (Note I have previously mentioned some of the controversy over spinal fusion in the post Tips to Prevent Medical Errors – AHRQ) The article mentions that spinal fusions being performed in the U.S. has risen over the years and that around half of the surgeries they reviewed don’t meet expert consensus on when the surgery should be performed. This article discusses a surgeon at a Florida hospital who was earning well over a million a year performing spinal fusions on patients. Auditors at the hospital began to wonder if all the cases were necessary and … Read more

Active Surveillance For Managing Retained Wisdom Teeth

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An interesting expert opinion by Thomas B. Dodson appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery vol. 70, issue 9, supplement 1, pages 20-24, 2012, titled ” Surveillance as a Management Strategy for Retained Third Molars: Is It Desirable?”  The author opens by describing in the third paragraph that the treatment of symptomatic disease-free wisdom teeth can be challenging. The author states in the third paragraph “Absent good evidence, management decisions should incorporate the clinician’s experience and expertise, and after a careful, balanced review of the risks and benefits of both treatment options, weigh heavily the patient’s wishes and desires regarding extraction versus retention. The opinions in this chapter reflect the author’s personal decision-making process based on a careful literature review and clinical experience/expertise.” The author opens by describing his clinical classification of wisdom teeth rationale. He states that … Read more

Looking at the Timing of Removal of Wisdom Teeth and It’s Effect on Complications

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An interesting study by M. Anthony Pogrel titled “What Is the Effect of Timing of Removal on the Incidence and Severity of Complications?” appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 70, issue 9, supplement 1, pages S37-S40, 2012. The author sets out to explore if younger patients (less than 25 years) have a decreased risk for postoperative complications than older patients.  The author begins by describing three studies in the literature that have shown that complications associated with wisdom teeth removal increase after 25 years of age. I have also mentioned several of these studies over at http://www.teethremoval.com/wisdomteeth.html. The author then goes on to discuss that recovery for patients of wisdom teeth surgery older than 21 may be delayed after extraction (by two studies). The author then discusses that mandibular fracture and tuberosity fracture may occur after … Read more