Interesting Article on Health Care

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I very interesting article was posted in The Atlantic by David Goldhill. The article is tilted “How American Health Care Killed my Father.” The article discusses a businessmen and his views and experiences on health-care which led to his father’s death in the ICU. He discusses his thoughts on what is wrong with the health care system in the United States and what some of his suggestions are. You can read the article in full at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care

Treatment Varies Wildly Among Dentists in UK

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There is an extremely interesting article posted by Ross Slater over at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/24/private-dentists-mirror-investigation-finds-treatment-varies-wildly-115875-21619929/. The article discusses how Ross went to visit six (6) different private dentists in the UK after having not seen an NHS dentist for over a year. He wanted to see what they would say about his teeth and not all the dentists that he had no current problems with his teeth. The results were quite surprising. As the number of fillings recommended varied from zero (o) to five (5). The total bill was also wildly varied at each dentist as was the teeth that needed fillings when it was told one was needed. Read the entire article if you are interested to learn more about the varying dental care found.

Sexual Assault in the Dental Chair

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I have reported previously on two separate oral surgeons and assault of women during oral surgery. You can find the articles at https://blog.teethremoval.com/oral-surgeon-sexual-assault-acquital/ and at https://blog.teethremoval.com/sex-offense-and-assault-after-surgery/. Another case has come to light of Benva Oshana Lazar who so far has been accused by 8 patients who have said of groping during office visits. This is currently being reported in MercuryNews. Similarly one of the patients accused the San Jose dentist of groping her during a wisdom teeth extraction procedure. One of the women who is alleging  sexual abuse is 14 years old. I wonder if the judge this time will also find the dentist not guilty because the women were on “propofol” during the dentist visits and a known side affect is “sexual hallucinations”. This is a ridiculous  claim and clearly if you are a patient at the dentist you … Read more

Malpractice Liability Damage Caps and Their Effects on Rural Doctors

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According to a paper by David A Matsa. who is an economics professor their is an effect on medical malpractice liability damage caps. In other words, the amount of money you can get if you sue a physician if something goes wrong is capped and you can only get X amount back as determined by a law in your state. (I have discussed this issue on my website about the legal standpoint of wisdom teeth removal.) Matsa finds that “Back-of-the-envelope calculation using estimates presented… implies that the enactments of damage caps are responsible for approximately 17 percent of the increase in frontier rural specialists in these states since 1970.” Even so, Matsa finds that there really is no significant effect on physician supply for most Americans (those who do not live in rural areas). If you are interested in the … Read more

Animals Have Room for Wisdom Teeth

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An article recently posted by Popular Science http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/do-animals-have-wisdom-teeth suggests that animals have room for wisdom teeth. An evolutionary biologist named Leslea Hlusko of the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the shape of your jaw is partially determined by what you eat when you are growing up. Since unlike animals, humans cook all the meat they eat usually and do not just tear it off raw, jaws have become smaller in size. The article also suggests that if you eat a lot of raw carrots and other tubers as a child this may help to make the jaw larger when you get older and thus better accomedate your wisdom teeth so the wisdom teeth do not have to be removed.