The DMD Check-Up: Canadian Dentists Being 'Swallowed Up' By Corporations

Canada's dental industry is being re-shaped by a wannabe "Walmart of Dentistry." That story tops this week's DMD Critical List. Also on the list: Gold is falling out of favor in dental offices, and a new alert about flash drives sent by the ADA to its members.

• Corporations Swallowing up Canadian Dental Practices

(Times Colonist)

“Corporate dentistry is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada,” but one firm, Dental Corporation of Canada, has grown to more than 160 dental practices nationally since 2011. Will these “Walmarts of the dentistry world” put patients or profits first? Here’s a report.

• Gold Loses Shine in Dentistry (Chicago Tribune)

Until a decade ago, more than $2.7 billion worth of gold was used every year to fill, cap, and crown teeth worldwide. In the last five years, though, gold demand has plunged almost 60%. According to dentists, it's all due to teeth-whitening. "We're in a fad in dentistry where people have to have 'triple-A, Dulux-white' teeth.”

• ADA Mails Malware to Members (Tech Insider)

The ADA, the nation’s largest dental association, inadvertently sent some members USB drives infected with malicious software loaded onto it, according to this independent report. “The ADA told journalist Brian Krebs the drives were manufactured in China and 37,000 had been distributed.”

• “Dentist of Horror” Going to Jail (BBC)

The sadistic Dutch dentist, Jacobus Van Nierop, has been sentenced to eight years behind bars for harming patients in a small rural French town badly in need of dental care. Prosecutors said his “aim had been to earn money through claims on patients' medical insurance schemes and to take pleasure at causing pain.”

• Caring Hands Brings Dental Care to Veterans

(Washington Times)

Here’s a feel-good report on an Oregon-based faith group that is helping America’s worthy warriors with free dental care. Four volunteer dentists saw that “about 30 veterans received dental exams, fillings and extractions inside a 40-foot semi-truck trailer parked outside” a church.

• Nearly Half of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax (MarketWatch)

An estimated 45.3% of American households—roughly 77.5 million—will pay no federal individual income tax, according to the Tax Policy Center. The top 1% of Americans, who have an average income of $2.1 million+, pay 44% of all the federal income tax.

• Indiana Kids Need Time In Dentist's Chair

(WBAA)

Joining an already long list of presumably affluent states that report a poor state of oral care among its youth is Indiana. “The Indiana Youth Institute reports that more than half of Hoosier children have a history of tooth decay in their permanent teeth, and a recent federal report shows Indiana kids on Medicaid are not getting the recommended care.”

• Q&A with the Head of California’s Troubled Dental Program (California Healthline

)

In response to California’s dental program for low income people being called an “outright mess,” the head of the program offers up this thoughts on troubling the Little Hoover Commission report. “All 13.3 million beneficiaries are important to us, and it is our duty to provide them with the benefits they deserve and that we are required to provide,” says,” Dr. Alani Jackson.

• Opposition to ADA Sedation and Anesthesia Guidelines (PR Newswire)

Some respected dental leaders are claiming there is a lack of science behind proposed revisions to the ADA's Sedation and Anesthesia Guidelines. A pioneer in the education of general dentists on sedation dentistry techniques and safety protocols, wonders “whether we will be a profession guided by science, or by emotion and politics.”

• The Promise of Growing New Teeth (Tufts Now)

“Using dental stem cells to grow new teeth and jawbone would have advantages over existing tooth-replacement techniques, and could even be used to reconstruct a patient’s jaw after a severe injury or disease, according to a researcher at the Tufts School of Dental Medicine.”