Research During Residency for Oral Surgeons?

by

Earlier this year over the summer an article appeared in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery discussing the attitudes of program directors and residents toward performing research during residency. I commented on this article here https://blog.teethremoval.com/the-lack-of-importance-of-research-in-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery-residency-programs/ A new article has appeared in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery written by Dr. James R. Hupp titled Research During Residency – Should it be Mandated? (vol. 69, pages 2685-2687, 2011). In the article is a discussion of research and whether or not it should be performed by oral surgeons in residency. Dr. Hupp discuses his own experience with research work and then questions if the current accreditation standards require all Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery residents to do research. He says: “Now the question becomes, should our standards require all residents to have the opportunity to conduct research and, in my … Read more

The Cyberchondriac: Managing the Difficult Patient

by

There is an interesting series over at QuantiaMD on Managing the Difficult Patient. Presentations are available for viewing as long as you sign up for with your email. One such presentation was originally called The Patient Who Knows too much but has been changed to The Cyberchondriac. http://quantiamd.com/player/wywzswwh?courseid=31844 Mary Modahl  who is QuantiaMD Chief Communications Officer said after the original title was added  “‘The Patient Who Knows Too Much’ is a very poor title. Certainly a patient can never know too much. In every way, we’re supportive of doctors meeting their patients’ need for care.” Dr. Joseph Scherger, vice president for primary care at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, defines a Cyberchondriac in the presentation: “This is a patient who is on the internet…indiscriminate with the material they are reading…they consider themselves an expert yet often their true medical … Read more

Do I Really Need to Remove My Wisdom Teeth?

by

A few days ago an article titled “Do I Really Need to Remove My Wisdom Teeth? appeared in Community Magazine by Jacques Doueck located at http://www.communitym.com/article.asp?article_id=101936  The article opens with “I was prompted to write this article because of two adult patients who suffered severe damage, infection, and swelling because they delayed taking out wisdom teeth. One of them actually broke his jaw because of a wisdom tooth that should have been removed long ago. The patient, 48 years old, lost both teeth and the fractured jaw forced him to eat baby food for six months. The other patient was 65 years old and had to have the wisdom tooth and the adjacent molar removed.” This opening in this article kind of cracks me up because both of these patients are quite old, especially the 65 year old. Of course we … Read more

Fraud and Abuse in Medicaid Clinics

by

I have previously discussed on this blog how students graduating from medical school have an average debt of around $158,000 and the average debt of those graduating from undergraduate college is around $27,000 in the U.S.  In fact, the video called College Conspiracy https://blog.teethremoval.com/college-conspiracy-and-united-states-hyperinflation/ profiles a dentist who is stuck with with high loans from school  (around the 11 minute mark). One quote appearing in this video is “…as soon as you get out of school you are indentured for life.” This figure below showing the inflation cost of college tuition (in blue), medical care (in red), and general inflation (in black) from http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/College.html pretty much tells more of the story. In fact I would argue that college tuition costs and medical costs are correlated with each other and you should be able to calculate some sort of correlation coefficient. An interesting article titled “Our Junior Colleagues … Read more

Wisdom Teeth Advice and New Dental Schools

by

A new article in the New York Times titled “Wisdom of Having that Tooth Removed” written by Roni Caryn Rabin published September 5, 2011, is an interesting articles for those considering whether or not to have healthy wisdom teeth extracted. The article is located at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06consumer.html The article explores some of the issues regarding whether or not you should or not have have healthy wisdom teeth extracted. The article discusses how the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) held a press conference back in October of 2010, http://www.aaoms.org/docs/media/third_molars/key_findings.pdf (dead 10/14/19), in which one of the key findings was “Retained, asymptomatic wisdom teeth are eventually extracted between 25% and almost 70% of the time.” The author of the New York Times article questioned AAOMS on this statement which appeared on their website. The response from AAOMS was “Yet when … Read more