Kids come up short in Pew report; is nasal spray anesthesia for real?

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

The Pew Charitable Trusts has released yet another report decrying the state of children's oral healthcare across the U.S. and recommending that midlevel providers (MLPs) are the best solution to the problem.

MLPs can improve the ability of safety-net systems to reach low-income communities and save states money on emergency room care, according to the report, which focused on three states -- Kansas, Maine, and North Carolina -- as examples of the scope of the dental workforce shortage and its effect on access to care. Read more.

Meanwhile, a fear of needles can wreak havoc on many patients, even to the point of keeping them from getting regular dental care. But an anesthetic nasal spray currently in phase III clinical trials could change the equation entirely. If successful, it could even be administered by dental assistants, according to the company developing it.

Finally, a growing body of research has shown that ultrasound imaging has a promising future as a hard- and soft-tissue diagnostic tool for dentistry. Despite its advantages over other modalities, however -- including being noninvasive and painless -- few dentists are aware of the full utility of this nonionizing imaging tool, according to a new study in Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology. Click here to read about the many potential uses for ultrasonography in the dental office.