Dentistry News Archives

A Minnesota House Committee passed a bill to allow Dental Hygienists to do simple fillings, pull teeth and even some root canals. The Minnesota Dental Association opposes the bill.

A dental health crisis exists in almost every state because low-income Americans can't afford dentistry or they can't find a dentist willing to accept Medicaid or there is no dentist living or working in their rural or low-income neighborhoods.

As a result, many groups are trying to fill that void much to the dismay of organized dentistry who enjoy a lucrative monopoly.

The TV video report is here: http://wcco.com/video/?id=38796@wcco.dayport.com

The bill would allow denturists - people who are trained to make dentures - to be licensed and work independently rather than working in conjunction with a dentist.

It is not clear that the benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water outweigh risks of neurodevelopment or other effects such as dental fluorosis, according to an Institute for Children's Environmental Health report

This is to alert you to the risk of allergic reactions in users of denture cleansers, and the risks of misusing these products.The FDA has received at least 73 reports of adverse events, including at least one death, related to the use of denture cleansers. These adverse events, including abdominal pain, vomiting, seizures, hypotension and difficulty breathing, have occurred both when the product has been used properly as well as from improper use The allergic reactions can occur soon after the patient begins using the product, or after years of use

The soaring cost of dental treatment has been blamed for millions of Britons having teeth in shockingly poor state, a new report has found.

In an effort to maximize profits, dentists are buying products from India and China. There are concerns tonight that the lead found in Chinese toys may also be showing up in dental implants, crowns and dentures from China and India.

Are denturists helping or hurting Kentucky? They've been called bootleggers and outlaws. But are dentists just fearful denturists, who fit dentures directly to the patient, will be taking a chunk of their income

SCOTTISH dentists are warning that patients' costs will rise and there will be hundreds fewer dentists because of new hygiene rules.

In Louisiana, for instance, fewer than 50 of about 2,000 dentists provide dentures, said Ward Blackwell, executive director of the Louisiana Dental Association. Fewer than five attempt to meet the broader oral health-care needs of the frail and old in nursing homes.

Prince George's County, Md. It's been a year since Deamonte Driver died of a dental infection and now the Maryland legislature is working to take steps to fix the state's broken Medicaid program.

The New Zealand Government's policy of free dental care for adolescents is being labeled a "sick joke" and a "fraud" with many Nelson dentists now refusing to take new patients under the scheme.

Quebec's dentists are poised to pull out of the public health-insurance plan and start charging to fix the teeth of welfare recipients and children under 10 after talks with the government broke down this week.

The province is stepping into the fluoridation debate after a local citizens group requested a review of their concerns under the Environmental Bill of Rights.

Katie English, 28, knew what pain was -- she had run marathons, after all -- but she had never felt pain as she did in the dentist's chair that day.

A Manhattan dental clinic - which already has held the dubious distinction of being the most sued in the city - dumped hundreds of private records containing intimate patient information right out onto a busy street...

Two of them have bad teeth. Genetically bad. Soft, deeply pitted teeth that are highly prone to cavities. I feel like a bad parent at the dentist’s office. I can always sense my personality turning falsely chipper and somewhat manic. I think I overcompensate...

“No, they never drink soda. We all brush our teeth twice a day. Hardly any candy. Very little juice. They love water. Can’t get enough water. They eat tons of fruit. Maybe its all the sugar from the fruit eating those enamels away? Because we certainly don’t eat many sweets at our house. No, ma’am. We floss every night. Not a night goes by that we are not flossing, flossing, flossing.”

"Taxpayer dollars are being wasted because they're paying for treatment that's not getting done, treatment that doesn't need to be done, and children aren't being treated like children,"

Community dental clinics try to offer care to everyone, but like their clients, most are strapped financially.

The Academy of General Dentistry recommends that people who drink soda use straws to minimize the damage done to their teeth.

Does toothpaste give kids bad teeth? It can if they swallow too much fluoride, says Simon Crompton

Even dental teams are unaware of the dangers. Richard Harrison, a clinical dental technician from Barnsley, a fluoridated area, certainly wasn’t aware that his seven-year old daugher might be at risk of fluorosis. But as soon as her second teeth started to come through, he saw they were mottled and brown-stained with white flecks – the classic sign of dental fluorosis.

Too much exposure to fluoride while the second teeth are developing beneath the milk teeth makes their enamel porous, something that doesn’t become apparent until the teeth break though. In mild cases, this leads just to a pearly sheen to the teeth. In bad cases there can be staining, chipping and pitting of the tooth.

“She always loved strawberry-flavour toothpaste, so she may have swallowed it,” Harrison says. “Our biggest fear is how other children will respond to the way she looks.” The effects of dental fluorosis are irreversible, although it can be covered up with expensive tooth veneers when children reach their early teens.

When it comes to good dental health, some of the best practices are learned at home, according to the Virginia Dental Association.

Water fluoridation is the biggest medical scandal since thalidomide This week the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, is expected to call for more health authorities to consider water fluoridation.

Health trusts want practitioners to take on more patients who pay NHS charges Dentists are under pressure to deny children treatment, MPs will be told today.

Could your next visit to a dentist in Texas turn into a nightmare? An 11 News Defenders investigation reveals you're not as safe as you should be in Texas -- all because of policies with a state agency some say has lost its mission

No reasonable person could have read the article about dental care on the front page of this newspaper Monday without feeling disturbed.

It was fear of the hefty bill as much as fear of the drill that kept American musician Don Clay away from U.S. dental clinics for 30 years.