Dear DrBicuspid Member,
An HIV-positive man who worked as an office assistant in a Great Expressions Dental Center in Detroit is preparing to sue the chain for HIV-related job discrimination, claiming fellow workers followed him around with Lysol and that he was unfairly fired.
And although the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in 2011 that there was "reasonable cause" to believe the man had been subjected to discrimination because of his HIV status, Great Expressions maintains it is an equal opportunity employer and is fighting back, having filed its own litigation in response. Read more.
In other Practice Management Community news, the ADA is warning members to be on the lookout for fraudulent invoices for membership dues that are being faxed to dental offices across the U.S. Click here to read more.
Meanwhile, the antibiotic prescribing practices of dentists for odontogenic infections in children do not appear to be in line with recommended professional guidelines, according to a survey in the January Journal of the American Dental Association.
In other Hygiene Community news, can ice cream help reduce the incidence of caries in young children? It might if it contains probiotics, according to a study in Acta Odontologica Scandinavica.
Finally, while U.S. cancer death rates overall have been falling for the past several years, the incidence of some cancers -- including esophageal and certain throat cancers associated with human papillomavirus -- continues to rise, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
