Dear DrBicuspid Member,
Just two weeks after the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced a $16 million initiative to fund dental therapist pilot programs in five U.S. states, the Pew Center on the States has released a report that contends that private practice dentists can improve their productivity and profitability by adding dental therapists to their teams. Read more in this latest Practice Management Community feature.
Even so, the dental associations in those five states -- Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Vermont, and Washington -- remain unconvinced that the dental therapist model will prove to be safe and effective. Click here to read what has the presidents of these associations so worried.
In other news, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco -- a subsidiary of the former Philip Morris company -- has agreed to pay a North Carolina family $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2005. Experts say this sets a precedent as the first wrongful death settlement involving smokeless tobacco in the U.S. Read more.
Legal liability is the focus of another story this week, involving incidental findings on cone-beam CT scans. Two presentations at the recent American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiologists meeting highlighted the need for general dentists to ensure they have the proper training to interpret a cone-beam CT scan.
Finally, in her latest Dental Diaries entry, Dr. Sheri Doniger lists the many reasons dentists are so busy -- and thankful -- this time of year.
