dentapress: news of dentistry » Politics

California bill calls for “rigorous study” of expanded dental procedures

JG — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:39:25 +0000

Legislation approved by the state senate Jan. 26 would create a dentist-led Statewide Office of Oral Health within the state Department of Public Health charged with addressing the “significant human and financial costs” of unmet dental needs. As amended Jan. 25 and forwarded to the state assembly, SB 694 says the new statewide office “may design and implement a scientifically rigorous study to assess the safety, quality, cost-effectiveness, and patient satisfaction of expanded dental procedures for the purpose of informing future decisions about how to meet the state’s unmet oral health need for the state’s children.

Amalgam ban “not feasible’ in short term

JG — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:43:25 +0000

nternational professors and the chief dental officer have agreed it would not be feasible for the use of dental amalgam to be banned in the short term but phasing down was the right approach. Speaking to a meeting of MPs and senior stakeholders from the industry at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dentistry, CDO Barry Cockcroft said there had already been a reduction in the use of amalgam in the past 20 years with a new approach to restorative techniques and changing patterns of disease.

Report cites quality improvement efforts, opportunities

JG — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:19:08 +0000

Quality improvement efforts in organized dentistry and throughout the health care system offer opportunities to increase access to care and “improve and maintain the oral health of the U.S. population,” says a report funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and DentaQuest Institute and intended to advance the national health policy dialogue. Although quality improvement in oral health lags behind similar efforts for overall health, these efforts are intensifying, says the report, Oral Health Quality Improvement in the Era of Accountability, which was prepared by Dr. Paul Glassman, professor of dental practice, director of community oral health and director of the Pacific Center for Special Care at the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, and released Jan. 26.

BDA’s John Milne re-elected by dentists 27th Jan 2012

JG — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:50:40 +0000

John Milne re-elected as Chair of General Dental Practice Committee Dr John Milne has been re-elected as Chair of the British Dental Association (BDA) General Dental Practice Committee (GDPC). Members of GDPC today (27 January 2012) voted to renew the mandate to lead the UK’s general dental practitioners, first won by Dr Milne in 2009. They also chose to re-elect Vice Chairs Dr Peter Hodgkinson and Dr Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen.

World Cancer Day

JG — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:05:27 +0000

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 7.6 million deaths (around 13% of all deaths) in 2008. Each year on 4 February, WHO supports International Union Against Cancer to promote ways to ease the global burden of cancer. Preventing cancer and raising quality of life for cancer patients are recurring themes.

NCDs: WHO’s post-UN-Summit activity

JG — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:09:19 +0000

On 9-10 January 2012, WHO convened an Informal Consultation with Member States and other Agencies of the United Nations. The subject under discussion was a comprehensive global monitoring framework and voluntary global targets for the prevention and control of NCDs. This is the second response of WHO to monitoring and evaluation tasks set down in the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable diseases. These tasks include developing a comprehensive global monitoring framework, including a set of indicators, and preparing recommendations for a set of voluntary global targets.

Vital and Health Statistics

JG — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:24:21 +0000

Seven percent of American children aged 17 and younger had unmet dental need in 2010 because their families could not afford dental care, the National Center for Health Statistics said in an analysis of data collected by U.S. Census Bureau interviewers and reported in the Vital and Health Statistics series. This includes an estimated 4.3 million children aged 2-17 years and is representative of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States. The measure of unmet dental need is based on the question posed during face-to-face interviews with an adult family respondent and any other adults present at the time, “DURING THE PAST 12 MONTHS, was there any time when (child’s name) needed any of the following but didn’t get it because you couldn’t afford it: Dental care including (check-ups)?”

Minister of State for Health on dental subsidies

CB — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:31:57 +0000

SINGAPORE: Subsidised dental treatment amounted to S$23 million in fiscal year 2010.Minister of State for Health Dr Amy Khor said at the National Dental Centre, these subsidy rates can vary from 20 per cent to 76 per cent depending on the type of procedure.Responding to a question from Non-Constituency MP Lina Chiam in Parliament on Tuesday, Dr Khor said these treatments range from basic dental services to more complex dental procedures like crowning or root canal…

Concerns raised over access to NHS dentists in Norfolk

JG — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:50:57 +0000

The county’s health overview and scrutiny committee will meet on Thursday to assess the difficulties people face in getting access to an NHS dentist. The group will discuss whether a series of targets set in 2008 – including that rural patients should be able to get a routine appointment within eight weeks and within 30 minutes travelling time – are being met. A report to the committee from NHS Norfolk and Waveney says patient satisfaction on the issue is between 96 and 97pc – higher than the national average of 94pc. It also notes that access to NHS dentistry has improved “significantly” since 2008, with £4.8m invested in the provision of general treatment. But the report acknowledges more work needs to be done to “meet unmet demand in hotspots”, to improve access to urgent treatment for 18 to 24-year-olds, and to improve domiciliary services, particularly for the over-75s.

More NY kids with early caries going to hospitals

JG — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:45:43 +0000

The number of young children with early childhood caries (ECC) who sought treatment at emergency departments (EDs) and ambulatory surgery facilities (ASFs) in New York state rose sharply between 2004 and 2008, and the costs of treating them nearly doubled, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Dental Association (January 2012, Vol. 143:1, pp. 59-65). Using data from the New York State Department of Health’s Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, researchers from the health department evaluated 25,622 ECC-related visits to New York hospitals and freestanding healthcare centers, averaging 5,124 cases per year for the period studied.