Older adult oral health data; associate performance; extraction challenges and the sinuses

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

More than 80% of adults 60 years and older in Illinois had no dental insurance, and more than a quarter said their oral health was only fair or poor in a recent study, published in the Journal of Dental Hygiene. The study author says it's time to make treating older adults a priority. Read more here.

In the next part of their series, Thomas Climo, PhD, and Jill Nesbitt examine a dental practice group and the profitability of its associate dentists. In this third part, they focus on two other methods to measure the performance of associate dentists based on hours worked and collection.

The closeness of the roots of the posterior maxillary teeth to the maxillary sinus makes treatment or extraction a challenge in these teeth. Practitioners are rightly concerned with maintaining the border of the maxillary sinus. However, a recent study in the Journal of Endodontics found that only few premolars actually present a risk of that border being violated. Read more here.

Researchers have found a potential link between mutations in breast cancer genes and salivary gland cancer, according to a new study in JAMA Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery. This retrospective study suggests it occurs 17 times more often in people with inherited mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Read Features Editor Donna Domino's article here.

While there's no question that attention needs to be focused on pediatric patients and ensuring access to quality care, the oral healthcare situation at the other end of the aging spectrum is just as concerning. As the study above shows (and thanks to Ms. Lukes for giving me some of her time to discuss it), the first steps in improving care of older adults is defining the issues and collecting the data.