Allcare sued by former patients; Dentsply gets FDA warning letter

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

In what is likely just the tip of the iceberg, two former patients of Allcare Dental & Dentures have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming Allcare knowingly took money from them and thousands of other patients for dental care it never intended to deliver. The goal, according to their attorney, is to help them recover at least some of the money Allcare allegedly refuses to refund. Read more.

Meanwhile, in what is being characterized as "serious violations," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter this month to Dentsply Pharmaceutical for misbranding its localized anesthetic Oraqix in a journal ad and professional mailers. And the company is supposed to reply by today. Read more.

In Restoratives Community news, treating dentin hypersensitivity with oxalates is a common practice, and in fact oxalates have a particularly high level of acceptance among dental practitioners for this application. So you might be surprised at what a recent systematic review of the literature yielded in terms of its clinical efficacy. Click here to read more.

And in imaging news, health officials in Ontario, Canada, are considering easing a moratorium that prohibits any dental practitioner in the province who is not also an oral radiologist to install or operate cone-beam CT equipment. Will this prompt some other provinces to more closely regulate dental cone-beam CT? Read more.

Finally, over on the Second Opinion page, Dr. Sheri Doniger wonders why some of the biggest dental meetings of the year are held in the dead of winter in two of the coldest cities in the U.S.