Obesity Could Result in Higher Risk of Tooth Loss

Written by Dentistry TodayThursday, 29 March 2012 07:31



Overweight people have a higher probability of losing their teeth.

But the possible tooth loss has nothing to do with carrying a few extra pounds around. It’s usually their poor diet that adds the pounds, which also happens to be the same problem for their teeth.

A research team from Japan analyzed the eating habits and overall oral health of 800 recent college graduates and determined that the people that needed to lose weight had more of a chance of developing gum disease and losing their teeth when compared to slimmer people.

The combination of eating fatty, greasy foods and a low rate of fruit/vegetable consumption led to poor oral health. It also led to obesity. If the person was overweight but consumed a reasonable amount of vegetables, gum disease was less likely to be part of the person’s future.

Another problem for people in this age range is that they’re more susceptible to a poor diet. With the lack of home-cooked meals and the greater intake of alcohol than other age groups, a healthy diet is just not realistic for many college students.

That’s why it’s important for young people to be educated about the importance of oral health and the fact that poor oral health can easily lead to poor overall health.

Brushing and Flossing May Have Added Benefits

Written by Dentistry TodayThursday, 29 March 2012 15:26



Brushing and flossing may lead to other things besides good oral health.

There’s research that suggests brushing and flossing can lead to a healthy body and a healthy mind.

It’s proven that by maintaining a daily dental hygiene routine, a person has the ability to fight off serious medical conditions. There are types of bacteria that cause gum disease that have the ability to travel throughout the body via the bloodstream. The chances of heart disease and stroke increase under these circumstances. Poor oral health may also lead to issues for pregnant women before labor and during labor.

By maintaining one’s oral health, these problems are less likely to occur.

Many people don’t heed the advice of their dentists, however. The evidence is supported by the fact that many people only brush once each day and don’t use dental floss. A daily dental hygiene routine can’t be complete without brushing twice. It’s also essential to mix in visits to the dentist.

Patients With Basic Dental Problems Continually Visit ER

Written by Dentistry TodayMonday, 02 April 2012 07:30



There are about 130 million Americans that feel they have no choice.

Without dental insurance, their only chance for dental treatment is to visit the emergency room. This problem continues to worsen.

Based on the current economy, there are also only about 10 percent of dentists in some states, like Illinois, that will take on Medicaid patients. The problem arises when the dental patients visit the emergency room, and at almost 10 times the cost, according to the Pew Center on the States.

Between the years 2006 and 2009, dental-related visits to the emergency room increased by 16 percent.

In Illinois there were nearly 66,000 residents that visited the emergency room in 2009 with some type of dental problem. About half of the problems could have been prevented, according to a division of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

And there are some dental problems that emergency rooms can't adequately treat. Many emergency rooms don't even have a dentist, and the patient ends up having to visit the dentist any way. But without dental insurance, therein lies the problem for the person.

For comparison's sake, in Illinois, an extraction costs the state $57 while it can cost around $400 in the emergency room. Never mind the fact that the actual problem may not even be fixed in the emergency room.

In some states, like Illinois, the problem lies with Medicaid. The overhead costs take out anywhere from 65 to 70 percent of the every dollar and Medicaid reimburses only about 39 percent of the service. Therefore, treating low-income patients doesn't make much fiscal sense for dentists, so they don't take them on.

Dentists Misleading Patients in United Kingdom

Written by Dentistry TodayWednesday, 30 May 2012 07:31



Nearly 500,000 dental patients in the United Kingdom are given incorrect dental information, according to the Office of Fair Trading.

The wrong information was given to convince dental patients to spend money on unnecessary treatment.

According to the findings of the investigation, more than half of the dentists who were seeking to offer this treatment did not display the charges for the treatment at the reception desk. More than 80 percent of patients were not given a written treatment plan.

Despite the few dentists that tried to take advantage of people, most people in the United Kingdom were content with the service their dentist provided, according to the study.

Roughly £6 billion was spent on dental treatment in the United Kingdom from 2009 through 2010. About 42 percent of that treatment was spent on private treatment.

Lack of Dentists a Problem in Rural Areas of California

Written by Dentistry TodayWednesday, 30 May 2012 15:45



Tooth decay rates in many California areas are rising.

The problem can be traced to one main cause: a lack of dentists.

Many of California’s rural counties don’t have nearly as many dentists and specialists as they need. In fact, there is only one dentist for every 4,500 people in the McKinleyville area of Humbolt County. There’s also only one dentist that will accept Medi-Cal (California’s version of Medicaid) for every 71,000 residents in the county.

According to a 2006 survey, in a four-county span in Northern California, more than a quarter of the people below the poverty level hadn’t visited a dentist in at least five years. Rural counties in Northern California also rank highest in the state for the number of emergency department and urgent care visits for preventable dental conditions.

The problem for dentists is the lower reimbursement rates in places outside of urban areas, which gives them less incentive to open a practice in those areas.

There were some program cuts to Medi-Cal three years ago, which exacerbated the problem. Increasing various telehealth programs could be a boost to dentistry and specialty treatment.

Studies also have indicated that education loan repayment programs are enticing enough to get more students interested in dentistry. Without programs like that, the problem will continue in rural areas of California.