dentist

Dental Phobia – Therapy Treatments for Anxiety and Phobia

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Overcoming a fear of the dentist, or odontophobia, is incredibly important if you want to maintain your oral hygiene and avoid having serious health problems in the future. You may be pleased to learn that fear of the dentist is actually surprisingly common – affecting 20% of the population worldwide. Most people’s fear of the dentist doesn’t stop them from visiting the dentist when problems arise but it does stop them when going in for regular check-ups – which increases the likelihood of actual problems occurring.  For some though dental phobia is so severe that they will not visit the dentist under any circumstances – and will often result to extreme measures to fix their own dental issues. In either case various techniques and therapies can be used to overcome dental phobia. Visiting the dentist regularly is the best way … Read more

Preserving Research Funding in Dentistry

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An interesting article titled “The vital role of research funding in preserving the oral health of the public and the dental profession,” appears as a guest editorial in the June 2015, issue of JADA and written by Maxine Feinber and et. al. The article discusses how it is critical that investments in dental, oral, and craniofacial research continue in the United States to help improve the nations oral health. The article states “…oral diseases persist on a scale that is poorly understood and wholly unacceptable… 3.9 billion people had oral conditions, with untreated dental caries in permanent teeth the most prevalent disease, affecting 35% of the world’s population….1 in 5 Americans is afflicted with dental caries…” The article says that around 4% of health care spending in the U.S. is for dental services. Even so we know little about oral disease and … Read more

Are Dentists Not Busy Enough?

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An interesting article titled “Solving dentistry’s ‘busyness’ problem” appears in the August 2015 edition of JADA and written by Marko Vujicic. The author states that nationally (U.S.) around 1 in 3 dentists say they are not busy enough. This differs by state and whether or not the dentist accepts Medicaid. The author states that the number of working age adults who have seen a dentist within 12 months has been declining over the past 10 years. In addition, inflation adjusted dental spending has been flat for several years. So the demand for dentistry is declining. The author also states that the number of dentists has increased over the last 10 years. So decreasing demand and increasing supply creates a problem for dentistry. Even so the author feels that dentist utilization by seniors will increase over the coming years and dentist utilization … Read more

Can Dentistry Learn from the National Basketball Association (NBA)?

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An interesting article titled “What the ADA can learn from the NBA” appears in the July 2015 issue of JADA by Marko Vujicic. The article discusses how the National Basketball Association (NBA) implemented some changes that are relevant to health care workers. What the NBA did was start reviewing and evaluating all referee decisions during the last 2 minutes of any close games. The NBA wanted to be more transparent, more accountable, and show that most calls by a referee are correct. The NBA publicly discloses the results of their review of the calls of any close games. No longer do they wait until controversy causes them to act and instead are proactive instead of reactive. The author of the article feels “…that the underlying trends toward increased transparency, accountability, data-driven metrics, and emphasis on quality and outcomes that drove the NBA’s decision are precisely the … Read more

People with Missing Teeth May Have Increased Cardiovascular Events

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New research has suggested that tooth loss can indicate if a person will have future cardiovascular events, diabetes, and death. The study was conducted at the University of Helsinki in Finland and in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Welfare. The study used National FINRISK 1997 study data which is a Finnish population-based survey of 8,446 subjects, ages 25 to 75, who filled a comprehensive questionnaire, and participated in clinical examinations. In the study the number of missing teeth was recorded at a baseline and future information regarding health was recorded at a 13 year follow up. It was found that having more than five missing teeth increased the risk for coronary heart disease events and myocardial infarctions by as much as 140 %. If one had more more than nine missing teeth they had an increased risk for diabetes … Read more