oral surgeon

What to Do about the Fourth Molar: Similar Management Strategies as the Third Molar aka Wisdom Tooth?

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So wisdom teeth are also known as third molars but did you know that there are also fourth molars in a small subset of patients? A recent study was performed by the United States at an Air Base in Japan which is currently in press to appear in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery titeld Prevalence and Management of Fourth Molars: A Retrospective Study and Literature Review by Khurram M. Shahzad and Lawrence E. Roth, 2011. In the study conducted 409 patients were referred for a third molar (wisdom teeth) consultation. Two of 227 white patients (0.9%) had a fourth molar and 6 of 94 black patients (6.4%) had a fourth molar. One of the other 84 patients (1.2%) also had a fourth molar. Of these patients with a fourth molar 5 out of 9 (55%) had only 1 … Read more

Do I Really Need to Remove My Wisdom Teeth?

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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

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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

Dental Networks – The Rising Popularity of Social Dentistry Marketing

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As a dentist you may be put off by the thought of “marketing” your dental business. After all you didn’t major in business, but rather in dentistry. However, marketing your dentistry business is of great significance. The major reason for dental marketing is to get as many patients as you can. This should be the key factor of your marketing plan. To achieve this goal, you also need to set an online platform where you must create a space for professional recognition. So what comes to your mind first? Social media? Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Let’s see the consequences. Undoubtedly, social media has played a great role in how businesses have reshaped marketing. This is why medical marketing on social media is the hype these days. However, creating recognition in a highly competitive market can be exigent. So it’s better … Read more

The truthiness of extracting wisdom teeth: James R. Carey

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An excellent article was written yesterday October 3, 2011, titled “The truthiness of extracting wisdom teeth” by James R. Carey who is a Professor of Entomology at UC Davis  http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/facpage.cfm?id=carey The article is located at http://www.davisenterprise.com/opinion/opinion-columns/the-truthiness-of-extracting-wisdom-teeth/ and I think it is well worth a read for anyone considering wisdom teeth removal. He opens the article with “In this age of evidence-based health care, I was astonished to discover that the oral surgeon’s recommendation for removal of my 21-year-old daughter’s impacted wisdom teeth was not based on evidence, theory, logic or facts but rather on truthiness — the quality of being considered to be true because of what he wished.“ He goes on to say “Yet it is considered by dentists, oral surgeons and the majority of the public as “standard of care.” Neither I nor any family members or friends … Read more