dentistry

Oral Surgeons License Suspended for Five Years After Patients Contract Bacterial Infection of the Heart

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An oral surgeon in New Jersey has agreed to a five year suspension of his license after 15 patients contracted the bacterial heart infection endocarditis at his office. The oral surgeon also agreed to pay $243,500 in penalties and $50,000 in costs totaling $293,500, to resolve the State of New Jersey’s allegations that he exposed his patients to the risk of contracting endocarditis due to his failure to follow proper infection control procedures at this office. Twelve of the fifteen patients who contracted endocarditis required subsequent surgery and one died as a result of the bacterial heart infection. The investigation into the oral surgeon’s practice began after a 25 year old man was diagnosed with endocarditis about five weeks after having two of his wisdom teeth extracted in June 2014. Specifically the New Jersey Department of Health officials and Enforcement … Read more

How Reliable is Online Information Regarding Dentistry and Wisdom Teeth

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It it important that patients exploring dental topics are not being led astray by questionable information on websites. An interesting article titled “The reliability of online information regarding orthognathic surgery available to the public” written by Cobb and Scotton appears in the 2013 edition of Oral Surgery (vol. 6, pp. 56-60). The article discusses how the internet is increasingly being used to access health information and explores the reliability of information on websites regarding orthognathic surgery also known as corrective jaw surgery. The reliability of online information regarding wisdom teeth removal has been explored by this site before in the past, see the post Some New Wisdom Teeth and Dental Information Websites. The post discussed two websites that used to be accessible but have since been deleted that provided some questionable information on wisdom teeth. In addition a PhD Thesis … Read more

Need A Dentistry Service? What To Look For In The Best Cosmetic Dentist in Las Vegas

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These days, aesthetic dentistry has many advantages it can offer to help improve your smile and confidence. The reasons why you should look into cosmetic dentistry has been discussed before on this site, which includes: speed, less pain, confidence, comfort and convenience. However, once you have identified that cosmetic dentistry is right for you, it is important to consider what to look for in a cosmetic dentist. For example you may be interested in the best cosmetic dentist in Las Vegas or in another area. Below are what to look for in a top cosmetic dentist: Services First, you should look into the kind of services a cosmetic dentist can offer you. Nowadays, cosmetic dentists offer services that include crowns, dental veneers, orthodontic treatments such as invisalign, teeth whitening, implants, and filing replacement. Not all teeth-whitening products are alike. For example, there exist whitening toothpastes, … Read more

Five Benefits of a regular dental visit

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There’s nothing better in this world than a healthy body, yet many people overlook medical checkups which are important. There are many medical checkups which an individual must undergo every year, and a dental checkup is one of them. Teeth are a prominent part of the face and have a direct impact on the personality of an individual. There are many benefits of a regular dental checkup, however in this article you will be guided through some of them. In most countries, doctors recommend patients visit a dentist at least once every 6 months. Some benefits of a regular dental visit are: 1.      Early detection of problems Most people are unaware of their dental problems for a long time. A regular visit to the dentist can help a person getting to know about any chronic issues present. The doctor will … Read more

Quality Data Registry in Dentistry

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Recently on this site there was a discussion of using an outcomes data registry for dentistry to help assess surgical outcomes, complications, and possible gaps in treatment.  The goal with such a data registry is to better monitor what is going on in clinical practice to help improve the quality of care that patients receive. Such efforts have been limited in dentistry although present in other aspects of healthcare for many years. According to the “Quality Measurement in Dentistry A Guidebook” produced by the Dental Quality Alliance in June 2019, retrospective claims data are the only data currently collected in dentistry. In an article titled “Swedish Quality Registry for Caries and Periodontal Diseases – a framework for quality development in dentistry,” by Bultzingslowen et al. appearing in the International Dental Journal in 2019, the authors discuss an automatic data retrieval … Read more