Economic upside to DSOs? And, PDT targets oral dysplasia, bacteria

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Dental service organizations (DSOs) have been getting a bad rap in recent months, with investigations of alleged Medicaid fraud, accusations of overtreatment and mistreatment of young patients, and implications that the private equity firms behind many of these chains are more interested in profits than patients.

Now a new study of DSOs, conducted by a well-regarded U.S. economist (and paid for by Kool Smiles), contends that DSOs provide more efficient and lower cost treatment than private practices and thus better serve the Medicaid population. The author also argues that the many detractors of DSOs are "long on anecdotes and short on data."

Click here to read more about the report and what many in the dental community are saying about its pro-DSO conclusions.

In other news, recognizing that productivity is lost when an employee takes time off to go to the dentist, a Danish firm headed by a U.S. entrepreneur is taking dentistry into a new realm: the workplace. Read more in this latest Restoratives Community feature.

Finally, imagine being able to treat a suspicious lesion on a patient's tongue simply by applying a topical agent, waiting a few minutes, then exposing it to light from a handheld laser or light-emitting diode device. Imagine being able to treat bacterial and fungal infections in the oral cavity -- even periodontal disease -- using this same approach.

These are among the promises of photodynamic therapy (PDT), a minimally invasive technique that experts say has a bright future in dentistry. And a growing body of research is demonstrating just that.