Dental Health

Contrary to what had been “accepted” thinking by many, there is no conclusive evidence that gum disease causes heart attacks and strokes, or that treating gum disease will improve heart disease, according to a new scientific statement by the American Heart Association.

Cardiologists, dentists, and infectious disease specialists reviewed more than 500 studies addressing the connection between the two diseases. The results were published Wednesday in a statement by the AHA.

The belief has been that periodontal disease such as infections and inflammation of the gums may cause atherosclerotic vascular disease, including inflammation and blockages of the arteries, which in turn might lead to heart attack or stroke.

But the experts who reviewed the numerous studies say that though people with heart disease can certainly have periodontal disease, that gum disease does not necessarily cause heart disease.

Gum disease and cardiovascular disease both produce markers of inflammation such as C-reactive protein, and share other common risk factors as well, including cigarette smoking, age and diabetes mellitus. These common factors may help explain why diseases of the blood vessels and mouth occur in tandem. Although several studies appeared to show a stronger relationship between these diseases, in those studies researchers didn’t account for the risk factors common to both diseases.

According to a CNN report, West Nile Virus has killed 15 people in northern Greece and sickened 158 others, the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

Thirty-nine people were hospitalized Friday, nine of them in intensive care, the agency said. Another 116 patients have been treated and discharged from the hospital.

As might be expected, marshy areas and places with standing water are prime mosquito breeding grounds and should be avoided when possible, especially at dusk when the mosquitoes will be at their most active.

West Nile virus can cause encephalitis and meningitis that could be fatal for almost a four percent of patients. Most people who are infected suffer from fever or other mild symptoms and quickly recover, without even rushing to doctors.

Outbreaks of the virus have been reported over the past 15 years across Europe and are connected with high temperatures.

USC’s School of Dentistry has received what is believed to be one of the largest individual donations to a dental school in the nation — $35 million — to enhance programs and services, university President Steven Sample announced today.

The money is a gift from Herman Ostrow, a USC trustee and entrepreneur who graduated from the dental school in 1945. In recognition of the donation, the school is being renamed the Herman Ostrow School ofDentistry of USC, Sample announced at a campus unveiling ceremony.

The school has been renamed in Ostrow’s honor. The dean says the money will be used to renovate and upgrade school facilities, support research, hire faculty, attract students and fund programs that provide dental service to Los Angeles residents.

According to an article by the Popular Science, the Virtual Dental Implant Training Simulation is now in beta testing, and set for rollout next fall, when it will reach about 15,000 dental students in 25 universities around the globe that partner with Nobel Biocare of Sweden, the project’s funder. Developed by Maryland-based game developer BreakAway in concert with the Medical College of Georgia, VDIT uses entertainment technology to simulate real-world scenarios. Serious gaming, as it’s called, allows players to enter the virtual worlds of the military, corporate training and health care, and gain experience before they tackle real-time problems in the real world. Dr. Roman Cibirka, Vice President for Instruction and Enrollment Management Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, put the wheels in motion 18 months ago, after he attended a Games for Health conference.

This year he presented VDIT at the gathering in Boston.

The digital interface lets dental students put classroom lessons into action and build on the training they’ve done with medical mannequins. Cibirka said increased opportunities to exercise hands-on-mouth skills lead to better outcomes, on both sides of the dental chair. Speaking from Breakaway’s high-security offices (the company has top-level security clearance because of its contracts with the military), producer Isaac Jeppsen said he situated the action in the dental office — and in the patient’s mouth — to make it less complicated for first-time gamers. “You don’t need to navigate down the hall and move into an office, you start the game where you need to be,” said Jeppsen. Looking at a patient ensconced in a dental chair. He created a mouth, brought drills to life and input a series of questions that allow players to assess their patients’ conditions before setting drills in motion.

Dentists-in-training start each round of the simulation game with a question-and-answer intake session to figure out if the person in the chair is well suited for an implant. Neglecting to ask a pixelated patient what brought her to the dentist will cause a player to fail, Popular Science reported.

For more consumer information and tips on dental insurance, visit dental insurance ppo Consumer Guide.

Affordable Dental Insurance

The British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) and the General Optical Council (GOC) are today urging Britain’s 3.5 million contact lens wearers not to endanger their eye health and comfort during the recession through risky contac lenses practices.

The warning follows a YouGov poll that reveals nearly one in four contact lens wearers would consider switching their contact lens brand to save money, and more than one in ten wearers would consider having less frequent check-ups. One in five would consider wearing the lenses for longer than recommended, such as using monthly lenses for more than a month, to cut costs.

Although, by law, contact lenses can only be supplied following a fitting by a registered eyecare or medical practitioner, recent reports suggest that some contact lens wearers are switching to cheaper lenses without having the new lenses fitted. When lenses are not properly fitted wearers may experience a range of side-effects, from minor discomfort and blurred vision to more serious adverse reactions such as red, inflamed eyes.

A contact lens fitting should include an eye examination to make sure your eyes are healthy, and measurements of your eyes to ensure the best lens type, fit and vision. Your practitioner should also advise you when you should wear the lenses, how to look after them and how often they should be replaced. Contact lens wearers should not change their prescribed lens type, wearing schedule, replacement frequency, solutions or care procedures without the recommendation of their eyecare practitioner.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver on Tuesday signed into law a health care bill (SF 389) that among other provisions increases income eligibility for Hawk-I, the state’s CHIP program, from 250% to 300% of the federal poverty level, the Des Moines Register reports. The law requires parents to enroll children who are eligible but does not impose any immediate penalty for failing to do so.

The law also includes provisions to give state administrators more flexibility to subsidize private health insurance premiums for families who qualify for public insurance and to streamline eligibility requirements for public insurance programs. In addition, the bill allows children in families with moderate incomes to receive dental doverage through Hawk-I, even if they have a private health plan (Leys, Des Moines Register, 5/19).

The state will spend $5.7 million on the expansion and another $2 million on dental coverage (AP/Omaha World-Herald, 5/19).

“This new law is a major step forward in providing a dental home for Iowa’s kids who need it,” said Iowa Dental Association President Dr. Steven Bradley. “It’s significant that we close the access gap for dental care for all of our kids. These children now will have an even better chance to be healthy and achieve their full potential.”

According to a USA TODAY report, aggressive rate increases on credit cards are threatening to push struggling consumers into financial ruin, accelerating home foreclosures and the nation’s descent into recession.

Across the nation, a growing number of consumers and financial experts are complaining that sudden credit card limit reductions and sharp interest rate increases are triggering a domino effect that makes it harder for consumers to juggle bills, stay in homes and avoid going broke. No official data are available on how many people are being pushed into financial distress by credit cards rather than mortgages. But credit counselors, bankruptcy lawyers and legislators say banks increasingly are pummeling consumers for making the smallest payment error – or making no error at all.

The shift comes as regulators and legislators have spent the last year pointing to toxic mortgages and overextended home buyers as the culprits behind the financial crisis. Credit cards, by encouraging a society of spenders rather than savers, have played a significant role in loading up consumers with unaffordable debt whose rates and terms can change at any time.

In USA TODAY’s article series “Credit Trap,” it has reported that during the housing boom, banks sharply raised card limits in part because of a surge in home equity, then guided borrowers to use mortgages to pay off card balances. The series also found that banks’ practice of packaging and selling credit card debt to Wall Street has given them a powerful incentive to raise card rates and fees.

Now, USA TODAY’s interviews with credit counselors, bankruptcy lawyers and other financial experts show that as debt-saddled consumers struggle to stay afloat, banks are aggressively raising rates and fees – often stripping consumers of what little disposable income they have left and threatening to become another drag on the economy. Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

For more news on credit cards, visit Credit Card Consumer Guide.

A 2005 survey by the Commonwealth Fund found that more than one-third (34%) of adults ages nineteen to 64 had medical bill issues during the past year, such as medical debt, inability to pay doctor’s bills, life is available medical costs, or being contacted by a collection agency. Though the uninsured are most at risk of having medical bill problems and medical debt, many of us with insurance are exposed too. The Commonwealth Fund survey revealed that more than one-quarter of people continuously insured over the year before had medical bill problems or medical debt.1 Another study guessed that 15.6 million US citizens were underinsured-that is, with insurance but at risk of before had medical bill issues.

In 2006 The Access Project, in collusion with the Kansas Farmers Union, surveyed Kansas farmers about these issues. The study revealed that while virtually all respondents and their family members were insured (95%), nearly one-third (29%) of non-elderly respondents had medical debt. However, this study did not about these issues. the source, type, or characteristics of respondents’ health insurance, nor did it gather information about the financial burden of healthcare expenses on farm and info about The Navigation System. the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health and Brandeis University to gather these data systematically and on a larger scale. Data were collected through a telephone survey of over 2,000 non-corporate farm and ranch operators in seven Great Plains states. This survey protocol was then used to collect similar data from over 1,500 farmers and ranchers in California.

The sample Health and Brandeis Varsity to collect these information methodically and ranchers with individual or partnership GPS. the great majority were sole proprietors. The survey asked about the insurance characteristics and healthcare expenditures of farmers or ranchers and their families; while some respondents may have employed workers or hired contract workers, the survey did not gather information about this population.

The impact of healthcare costs on non-corporate farm and ranch operators is significant for a number of reasons.
Family farms dominate U.S. agriculture. Most farms (98%) are family (non-corporate) farms, and they collectively generate 85 percent of the value of production.5 Of the approximately 80,000 farms in California in 2002, more than 98 percent were family or individually operated.6 California family farmers and ranchers produce $32 billion per year in value, while supporting over 1.1 million jobs,7 about 7.4 percent of all employment in the state.

The circumstances may affect their ability to respond to healthcare expenses as the burden of healthcare costs on California farm and ranch operators assumes particular importance in light of the recently failed effort to enact comprehensive health reform in the state and, in the face of a large state deficit, proposed state budget cuts that would reduce funding for programs that might ease the burden of healthcare costs.

For more information on health insurance, see Health Insurance Consumer Guide.

Many of us hate going to the dentist. When we were youngsters we were frightened of the agony, but as adults we are frightened of the cost! Also, many bosses who offer health insurance packages don’t offer dental health insurance, and just like they don’t seem to be needed to supply health insurance, they don’t seem to be needed to supply dental insurance, either. This suggests you are left to find inexpensive dental health insurance on your own.

Health insurance isn’t the only medical insurance that is obligatory. Dental insurance is also a sound to compare pricing and insulate your pocket against surprising dental similar expenses. In North America it is usual to people as well as health insurance. The two most well liked kinds of dental insurance are provided by Dental HMO’s and Preferred Provider Organizations or PPO’s.

Dental HMO’s, ordinarily known as a DHMO, is an insurance coverage Plan members receive categorical coverage from dental Plan members receive specific coverage from dental plan providers assigned by their physical location and area. This type as a capitation plan. Cash is paid for the plan and services are offered in the plan framework. DHMO plans are known as closed plans because plan members can not select their dental providers.

The benefit of DHMO’s include a low fixed monthly payment and no surprise charges for procedures. Many basic dental treatments like routine x-rays and cleanings are freed from charges. More complicated procedures like dental surgery and orthodontic work need a predetermined corp payment be paid upon receipt of receiving the procedure.

The downsides of DHMO’s are the absence of freedom, longer waits for receiving routine cleanings, having to stay within the DHMO dental network in both geographical location and doctor pool to get care.

For more information on dental insurance, go to Dental Insurance Consumer Guide

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