OSAP Video Contest Includes Photos
The Organization for Safety and Asepsis Procedures (OSAP) has expanded its “YouTube” style contest for video clips that promote infection control in the operatory. OSAP added a category for still photographs. Anyone can enter the I See IC Dental Reality Contest by uploading a video clip or photograph at www.OSAP.org. Entries can also be viewed on the OSAP Web site.
To enter the I See IC Contest, participants should prepare a short video clip or still photograph that either captures good infection control procedures in action or unmasks the hazards of poor technique. Clips may be serious, humorous, or downright offbeat, as long as they get their message across. A link on the OSAP Web site allows entrants to upload their entries.
The deadline for submissions is Dec. 31, but prizes for both categories will be awarded monthly, with grand prize winners selected at the end. A panel of judges will evaluate the entries for scientific and creative merit, and popular vote will be considered as well (online voting began Aug. 1).
Contest rules and criteria for acceptable entries are posted on the OSAP Web site. There is no charge to enter.
Dentsply Acquires Sultan Healthcare
Dentsply International Inc. announced the acquisition of the assets of Sultan Healthcare, Inc., that was previously announced on June 22, has been completed. It is expected that this acquisition will add approximately $45 million to $50 million on an annualized basis to Dentsply’s sales.
With the acquisition, Dentsply will expand its product offerings by entering important new categories such as infection control products. The combination is expected to expand global market access and increase opportunities for growth of the Sultan product line.
Dentsply designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of products for the dental market. The company distributes its dental products in more than 120 countries under some of the most well-established brand names in the industry.
Grants Announced For Programs Focusing On Children
On July 13, the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF) announced the awarding of $529,000 in grants to 14 not-for-profit university and community dental clinics, health facilities, mobile dental units and hospital-based programs. The facilities are members of NCOHF’s national affiliate network that provides delivery of comprehensive oral health treatment and preventive services to millions of children and their families.
Fern Ingber, president and chief executive officer of the NCOHF, said, “These grants bring with them the expectation that we will continue to break down barriers to access oral health services, and provide critical care and preventive education to young children.”
Approximately 4 million children suffer from debilitating oral pain and often irreparable damage to their teeth and gums. Poor oral health care is the cause of the No. 1 pediatric disease nationally. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, over half of children aged 5 to 9 have had at least one cavity and 7 percent of children have lost a permanent tooth to decay.
“We applaud our affiliates for their commitment to provide creative, practical solutions and look forward to celebrating their accomplishments,” Ingber said. “Thanks to generous support from our corporate underwriters, 100 percent of all general contributions are allocated directly to children’s oral health services.”
“These extraordinary underwriters include Sybron Dental Specialties, Discus Dental, 3M ESPE, Patterson Dental Supplies, Nobel Biocare, Ultradent Products Inc., Heraeus and Dentsply.”
List of grant awards:
- Catholic Healthcare West, Chandler, AZ, $50,000
- Community Care Health Centers, Huntington Beach, CA, $47,480
- Community Oral Health Services, Salinas, CA, $50,000
- El Centro del Barrio, San Antonio, TX, $46,160
- Family First Health, York, PA, $5,000
- Friends of Children, La Habra, CA, $40,588
- Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, $35,000
- Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, $50,000
- St. Joseph’s Hospital, Puente a la Salud, Orange, CA, $50,000
- San Gabriel Valley FDN for Dental Health, La Puente, CA, $35,000
- Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, $5,000
- The Gary Center, La Habra, CA, $30,000
- University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, Chapel Hill, NC, $35,000
- Washington State Smile Partners, Bainbridge Island, WA, $50,000
For more information on the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation, visit their Web site www.ncohf.org.
Ultradent Launches Club To Encourage Sealants
Ultradent Products, Inc. recently announced the formation of its UltraSeal No Cavities Club. The club’s mission is to help pediatric patients and their doctors spring into action toward better oral health by placing more dental sealants.
Participation in UltraSeal No Cavities Club is encouraged through membership (www.ultrasealclub.com), which offers the opportunity for patients to win an Amazon.com gift certificate. Once sealants have been placed, patients receive a uniquely coded UltraSeal “hero” sticker. Patients and parents enter the code from the sticker to see if they’re a winner of a gift certificate. The Web site is also full of fun activities, games, and tips for maintaining great oral health.
Additional patient education resources such as reception room brochures and countertop displays are also available free of charge. The benefits are available until Jan. 31, 2008.
For more information about the UltraSeal No Cavities Club, please call Ultradent Products, Inc. at (800)552-5512, or visit us online at www.ultrasealclub.com/doctorinfo.
FDA Clears Modifications On KaVo Product
KaVo Dental recently announced that Food and Drug Administration clearance had been received for required modifications to the QUATTROcare units and spray cans. KaVo had previously instituted a voluntary FDA recall on the QUATTROcare spray cans.
All owners of QUATTROcare units should contact KaVo directly or through their dealer to register their unit for a complementary retrofit. Newly designed spray cans are now available. More information can be found at www.kavousa.com.
Schein’s “Healthy Children” Program Expands
Henry Schein, Inc. recently announced that “Healthy Children, Healthy Lifestyles,” a program that promotes access to health care for underserved children, will expand to bring free medical services to children in four new cities this year. In addition to Columbia, S.C., where the program was launched in 2006, Healthy Children, Healthy Lifestyles will aid children in Baton Rouge, La., Jackson, Miss., Detroit, Mich., and Richmond, Va.
Last summer, a total of more than 2,000 children received free health and dental screenings from local physicians, nurses, dentists, and community volunteers, who check for diseases and risk factors that commonly afflict children, including hypertension, asthma, diabetes, obesity, and poor oral health.
Henry Schein worked with the statewide community health center networks, local departments of health and family services, local government agencies, dental associations, churches, low-income neighborhoods, and youth and community organizations to identify children in greatest need. Beyond this recruitment, Healthy Children, Healthy Lifestyles is also open to the general public on the day it takes place in participating cities.
OraPharma Introduces Arestin Student Access Program
OraPharma, Inc., maker of Arestin® (minocycline hydrochloride) Microspheres, 1 mg, introduced in August the Arestin Student Access Program for dental and hygiene schools.
According to Arestin Product Director John Lenart, “We have been working closely with the directors of leading dental and hygiene schools for several years to develop a program that will provide educational programming and hands-on training so that senior dental and hygiene students can appropriately incorporate locally administered antibiotics like Arestin as part of a comprehensive periodontal disease treatment protocol.”
The program, which was scheduled to begin in September, is open to all accredited two- or four-year dental and dental hygiene schools that include instruction on the use of Arestin as part of a comprehensive Periodontal Treatment Protocol. Participating dental and dental hygiene schools will receive a variety of materials from OraPharma.
Dental and hygiene school faculty who wish to participate in the Arestin Student Access Program or request more information can contact OraPharma at (800) 553-6010, ext. 0747.
Hu-Friedy Online Community Opens “Cyber-home”
Hu-Friedy opens the doors to a new “cyber-home” exclusively for dental hygienists, dental hygiene students, and faculty. The Web address, www.friendsofhufriedy.com, became active on Aug. 1. The online membership program began its construction after Hu-Friedy surveyed the dental hygiene community and discovered respondents had various needs whose solutions could form a solid framework for a web-based program.
The site is tailored to encourage and enhance communication between dental hygienists, their fellow colleagues, and Hu-Friedy, allowing direct relationships to develop and grow. It will remain an open space for dental hygienists to:
- Learn about Hu-Friedy products and services with engaging presentations
- Earn “Hu-Points” through program involvement and interaction
- Participate in product evaluations
- Share content and professional advice
- Free online CE courses will be offered to members as the program grows!
For more information on Friends of Hu-Friedy, call (800) Hu-Friedy or contact your authorized Hu-Friedy representative.
ADHA, Discus Team Up For New Orleans Relief Effort
On Wednesday, June 20, 25 hygienists and student hygienists devoted a day to help one deserving New Orleans family build a home. This year’s ADHA annual session in New Orelans proved to be a time to give back as Discus Dental, the ADHA and volunteer dental hygienists worked together with Habitat For Humanity to build a home for one lucky family that survived Hurricane Katrina, and to educate more than 200 local children on the importance of eating healthy and practicing good oral hygiene through The Learning Center - Operation Blessings. In addition, Discus Dental provided each child with a fluoride varnish treatment.
“Discus has a long-standing history of giving back to the community, and we are honored to be able to work with ADHA to support their community service efforts at this year’s annual meeting,” said Mark Gersh, director of Professional Oral Hygiene Products, Discus Dental. “We look forward to many more partnerships like this in the future, where we can give back to the community together.”
Discus Dental is headquartered in Culver City, Calif. More information is available at www.discusdental.com.
P&G Executive Elected To Dental Museum Board
The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry’s Board of Visitors elected Michael R. Sudzina as its new chair during its annual meeting in Baltimore on June 16, 2007.
Sudzina is the director of professional and scientific relations at Procter & Gamble Company,
Sudzina, who began his two-year term on July 1, said, “My vision for the future is to make the museum more nationally accessible while enhancing our image as a fun and exciting place to visit.”
Sudzina became involved with the museum when it was first being developed in the early 1990s. Procter & Gamble was one of the first corporations to sign up with a pledge to create the Crest Learning Hall located on the second floor. He joined the Board of Visitors in 1999 at the request of Dr. Jack Gottschalk, the first chair of the board. “I have been a fan of the museum ever since,” he said. He served as vice chair of the board of trustees from 2005-2006, and chair elect from 2006-2007.
Sudzina has been with Procter & Gamble Company for 36 years. He is also a member and vice president of the board of trustees of the American Dental Association Foundation and chairman of their strategic planning committee. He is serving on the board of directors of the Academy of General Dentistry Foundation.
The NMD Board of Visitors also elected Dr. Leslie W. Seldin to the position of chair-elect for 2007-2009. Dr. Seldin, advisory chairman of the Greater New York Dental Meeting, has been serving as chair of the museum’s Pillars Campaign, a five-year, $8 million effort to bring the museum to a new level of excellence.
NCOHF Teams Up With Previser For Initiative
The National Children’s Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF) and PreViser Corp. announced on July 10 a joint initiative to collaborate in an effort to improve the oral health of low-income children nationwide. PreViser will provide analytical services to affiliate clinics of the NCOHF. The intent of the initiative is to improve the targeting of care resources to those underserved children at greatest risk of disease based on analysis by PreViser technology.
NCOHF affiliate clinics provide care to low-income children and will use PreViser technology to assist in providing care most appropriate to a child’s individual needs as determined by their objective PreViser risk scores. To facilitate this process, PreViser Corporation has made a donation of $1,200,000 in assessment technology that will be utilized by NCOHF clinics.
PreViser CEO Carl Loeb stated, “We are pleased to be able to partner with an organization that is as dedicated to oral health as the NCOHF. There is a great deal of work to be done to improve both the access to, and the quality of care for economically disadvantaged children.”
Fern Ingber, president and CEO of the NCOHF, stated, “This important contribution will enable NCOHF pediatric facilities to significantly enhance their ability to serve the critical oral health needs of our nation’s most vulnerable children.”
PreViser, which is based in Washington, provides web-enabled diagnostic decision support tools for dentists and dental hygienists. To learn more about PreViser, visit http://www.previser.com.
More information about NCOHF can be obtained at www.ncohf.org.
Dental “Tourism” To Reach 2.5 Million Mark In 2007
At least 2,544,000 people around the world will search the Internet for dental treatment abroad this year, according to Dublin-based Reva Health Network, the world’s leading “medical tourism” search engine. In June alone, Reva revealed that 636,155 dental tourism-related searches were carried out globally by 212,051 unique users on Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft’s search engines.
The interest confirmed that more people consider travelling abroad for dental procedures. Some patients choose to fit treatment around vacations or business trips to maximize cost savings, while others escape long waiting lists and expensive fees by arranging dental treatment abroad.
The average value of overseas dental treatments inquired about specifically through Reva (excluding travel) is $4,485, which compares to an average of $12,150 for the equivalent dental treatment in the United States. This represents a saving of $7,665, or 63 percent.
A dental implant in Costa Rica would save an American 60 percent, and a veneer in Mexico 73 percent.
Reva receives 600 dental tourism inquiries per week, leading to an expected total of over 31,200 inquiries this year alone. The average age of those inquiring about treatment was 42, 51.3 percent were male, and they contacted their chosen clinics approximately 10 weeks before they intended to travel.
