School-based clinic a hit with kids; last week to vote for excellence!

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Dr. Daniel Tanita, a volunteer dentist who established a full-service school-based clinic in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, has two goals: treating children who often have no access to dental care and making their first experience with dentists a positive one.

Since first opening the clinic in a janitor's closet in 1997, his approach has been a rousing success with students and parents alike, setting an example for other programs across the U.S. to follow. Read more in this latest Practice Management Community feature.

In other news, more U.S. dentists are incorporating electronic dental records (EDRs) into their practices, creating new opportunities to utilize EDR data in evidence-based research projects, according to a study in the Journal of the American Dental Association. And the trend is expected to accelerate in the next few years.

Meanwhile, Connecticut is among those states leading the charge when it comes to establishing health insurance exchanges and ensuring that dental benefits are included. Click here to see which dental insurers have already signed on to participate and where other states are in the process.

Finally, it's the final week to vote in the final round of the 2013 Dental Excellence Awards. If you haven't done so already, click here to cast your ballot for the best and brightest in dentistry. Voting ends at midnight on January 18.