According to a news release from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, a former Massachusetts dentist who pleaded guilty last week to charges of Medicaid fraud for using paper clips in place of stainless steel posts during patients’ root canals was sentenced to jail Monday.

An eastern Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to one to two years in prison after his teenage son tried to pull out his own teeth because he hadn’t been taken to a dentist. Northampton County Judge Michael Koury Jr. said Friday that he only wished he could sentence 41-year-old Francisco Torres to more prison time. [...]

The British Dental Association (BDA) is calling for a proposal to extend dentists’ working lives to the age of 68 to be abandoned by government. The proposal is part of a raft of fundamental reforms government wishes to make to the NHS pension scheme. Health trade unions, including the BDA, are consulting members on the [...]

I just got back from root canal #13. Yes, thirteen of my teeth have gone under the knife, so to speak, to have their nerves gutted and killed off with neurotoxin and the ensuing hole filled with gutta percha. I still have one or two more left to go before my dentist is [...]

New research reveals a startling new finding: fluoride is likely contributing to the epidemic of cardiovascular disease by stimulating calcification of the vascular system, including the coronary arteries. In a study published in the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications this month (Jan. 2012), researchers assessed fluoride uptake and calcification in the major arteries of 61 patients [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge. They found the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. The BBC’s Science Editor David Shukman was given access to the research.

Researchers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine have identified a genetic variation that raises the risk of developing serious necrotic jaw bone lesions in patients who take bisphosphonates, a common class of osteoclastic inhibitors. The discovery paves the way for a genetic screening test to determine who can safely take these drugs. The [...]

Nearly 12,000 people will die of head and neck cancer in the United States this year and worldwide cases will exceed half a million. A study published this week in the journal Carcinogenesis shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, [...]