dentist

Washington Dentist Troubles

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Recently, a few articles appeared on DrBicuspid talking about Washington dentists. One of the dentists is a Washington state dentist, the other is a Washington D.C. dentist. The first article talks about how a now retired Washington state dentist must pay $35 million to 29 former patients. The reason for this is because the court determined that the former dentist had performed numerous unnecessary root canals over a long period of time.   The article discusses how the retired dentist performed over 2,000 root canals on about 500 patients over a five year span several years ago. The dentist who purchased the retired dentists practice said that a lot of failing root canals and railing crowns were being noticed by the patients coming in. The court in this case found that the dentist was negligent, failed to obtain informed consent from … Read more

Slit Throat During Wisdom Teeth Extraction

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A recent story has appeared in ABC Action News (Tampa, Florida, U.S.) titled “Patient says dentist accidentally slit throat while pulling wisdom teeth: Patient expected refund after accident” by Jackie Callaway, July 9, 2013. The story described a man who had three wisdom teeth extracted earlier this year. The man had the first two wisdom teeth removed successfully. According to the man, on the third wisdom tooth, the dentist slipped and came down to near his tonsil and cut his throat. The man says the swelling and pain was unbearable and he lost 12 pounds. The man was interested in getting a refund for the $180 he paid for the dental visit; however, the refund was not made. In addition, the man’s wife had an upcoming appointment with the dentist office, which they canceled and were charged a $25 cancellation … Read more

Biostatistical Knowledge of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residents

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I found an interesting and critical study titled “Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residents Have Poor Understanding of Biostatistics,” by Al M. Best and Daniel M. Laskin appearing in the J Oral Maxillofac Surg vol. 71, pp. 227-234, 2013. The article discuss how the three main oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) journals have low quality evidence and how some of the articles can’t be taken at face value. Hence, the purpose of this study was to evaluate residents’ understanding of biostatistics and the interpretation of research results to see if the curricula of training programs should be changed to better prepare clinicians to practice evidence-based dentistry. In the study a 6 question survey was developed for OMS residents and compared to results for a similar survey of medical residents. Further, questions looking into demographic characteristics, the methodologic courses residents may have … Read more

Looking at Evidence Supporting Dental Procedures from Cochrane Systematic Reviews

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An interesting article titled “Is the Evidence Supporting Dental Procedures Strong? A Survey of Cochrane Systematic Reviews in Oral Health” by Clovis Mariano Faggion Jr. appears in J Evid Base Dent Pract, vol. 12, pp. 131-134, 2012. The article sets out to explore Cochrane systematic reviews and whether or not they provide useful information for use in dentistry. The author set out to look at the quality of evidence for Cochrane systematic reviews published in dentistry. The evidence was considered inadequate when authors described weak or insufficient evidence or when no studies were selected for the review. A total of 120 systematic reviews were looked at for 20 topics. The author did have some creative interpretation to assess the reviews. He states: “The full text of articles was, however, scrutinized to assess the risk of bias of included primary studies; methodological … Read more

Planning Intravenous Sedation for Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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An article (in press at the time of writing this -2012) appears in the International Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery titled “Does planned intravenous sedation affect preoperative anxiety in patients?” by M. Seto, Y. Sakamoto, H. Takahashi, R. Kita, and T. Kikuta. The authors set out to evaluate The Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) which can be used to evaluate levels of state and trait anxiety. State anxiety is defined as a subjective feeling of nervousness, whereas trait anxiety is defined as an individual’s underlying tendency to perceive a situation as stressful or threatening. One hundred and eleven (111) Japanese patients who were scheduled to have wisdom teeth extracted under local anesthesia were evaluated. STAI evaluates the degree anxiety based on 5 stages. The article states “The authors assessed preoperative anxiety using STAI at the initial visit and recommended … Read more