OraPharma sold for $312M; bleaching gels don't hurt enamel

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

There was big news last week in the pharmaceutical world with the announcement that OraPharma's ownership was once again changing hands.

In 2010, Johnson & Johnson sold OraPharma -- makers of Arestin -- to a private equity firm that had planned to build it into a pharmaceutical products company focused exclusively on oral health. Now a large Canadian pharmaceutical company is buying OraPharma for $312 million, marking the Canadian firm's first foray into the dental market. Read more.

Over in the Imaging & CAD/CAM Community, our coverage of the International Association for Dental Research meeting taking place in Iguaçu Falls, Brazil, this week begins with an article about ongoing development of a 3D ultrasound system for assessing gingival tissue and inflammation and diagnosing gingivitis.

In other imaging news, the American Thyroid Association last week revised its 2005 position on the relationship between diagnostic x-rays and thyroid cancer, and now recommends that thyroid collars be used for all dental x-rays. Read more.

And in a related story, while more cancer patients are surviving than ever before, this trend has created new challenges for the medical community to treat the many short- and long-term side effects of cancer treatment -- including those that affect the oral cavity. This has, in turn, prompted the emergence of what some are calling a "cottage industry": dental oncology.

Meanwhile, in Cosmetics Community news, a study in the June Journal of the American Dental Association found that bleaching gels do not alter calcium and phosphorus concentrations on the enamel surface. Read more.

Finally, in his latest Beyond Practice Management column, Dr. Don Deems shares a number of ways to battle one of the biggest long-term challenges dental professionals face: burnout.