U.S. budget issues hurt oral health programs; the key to digital dentistry's future

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

With the U.S. Congress locked in a battle to trim trillions from the federal budget and raise the nation's debt ceiling, key provisions of the healthcare reform act specific to oral health research, education, and access-to-care issues face a murky future. And it's got organized dentistry again debating the merits of midlevel providers. Read more in this latest Practice Management Community news feature.

Meanwhile, is standardization the key to digital dentistry's future? That is what a growing number of dental CAD/CAM companies believe. They're joining forces with a Canadian software and scanner firm to integrate an open-platform operating system into their CAD/CAM systems and make them more flexible and user-friendly. Click here to read more.

And in Cosmetics Community news, temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain-control strategies that target women's hormonal cycles appear to be ineffective, according to a new study in the journal Pain. But the authors were encouraged by the potential benefits of cognitive-behavioral therapy for female patients with TMD-related pain.

Finally, citing "conflicting findings" from research into whether the use of oral bisphosphonates is associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it is actively reviewing published studies that evaluate this risk. Click here to read more, or visit the Oral Cancer & Diagnostics Community.