Tag Archives: dentistry

Researchers see potential for teledentistry to address disparities in care

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

Photo: Matt Madd via Flickr

Telehealth technologies are on the rise, connecting patients and providers, and expanding access to crucial health services that can be scarce and sometimes difficult to reach. Thanks to digital innovations, high-risk infants and stroke patients are receiving specialty care remotely. People coping with anxiety and depression are benefiting from therapist-supported internet cognitive behavioral therapy.

In the field of oral health, teledentistry is proving increasingly useful too, according to the December issue of Health Affairs that explored the transformative potential of telehealth technologies. Continue reading →

Dental chain in spotlight after child’s death, separate settlement in fraudulent billing case

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

In Arizona, relatives of 2-year-old Zion Jay Gastelum are trying to find out why the toddler died after a recent dental appointment.

Zion’s parents took him to a Kool Smiles dental clinic on Dec. 16 for a crown and filling, according to an uncle, who spoke to KNXV-Phoenix.

“Somehow either during or after the process, it appears Zion stopped breathing,” reporter Mike Pelton noted in his Jan. 5 story. Continue reading →

Uncertain outlook for pediatric dental benefits in a post-ACA world

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

Oral health advocates are closely watching Capitol Hill.

Many are worried about the future of children’s dental benefits under proposed Republican plans to repeal or replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Continue reading →

Texas child’s death during dental surgery reawakens ‘deadly dentistry’ debate

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

Daisy Lynn Torres

Daisy Lynn Torres

Several months after its seven-part Deadly Dentistry series, the Dallas Morning News is following the case of another child left dead after a dental visit.

Daisy Lynn Torres suffered complications from anesthesia while undergoing a procedure at an Austin dental office last spring, a medical examiner recently concluded. Now the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners has opened an investigation into the death of the 14-month old girl, Tom Steele reported July 15.

“Daisy went to Austin Children’s Dentistry on March 29 to have two cavities filled and was placed under general anesthesia,” Steele told readers. “A short time later she went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to a hospital where she died.” Continue reading →

Don’t forget about oral health when reporting on the latest dietary guidelines

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

Photo: Ana Ulin via Flickr

Photo: Ana Ulin via Flickr

Every five years, the federal government comes out with a new edition of its dietary guidelines. The official nutritional recommendations help shape America’s school lunch menus, influence grocery shopping trends, and of course, generate a flurry of news coverage.

The big question for reporters – and their readers, listeners and viewers is always “what’s new?” Continue reading →

Weaving data, human stories into compelling series on dental deaths

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Mary Otto

About Mary Otto

Mary Otto, a Washington, D.C.-based freelancer, is AHCJ's topic leader on oral health and the author of "Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America." She can be reached at mary@healthjournalism.org.

Brooks Egerton

Brooks Egerton

In early 2014, a 4-year-old Dallas boy named Salomon Barahona Jr. died after undergoing sedation for a dental procedure.

The child’s death spurred Dallas Morning News reporter Brooks Egerton to embark upon what turned out to be a major reporting project – an 18-month investigation of dental safety in the United States.

Egerton sifted through thousands of records detailing patient harm and endangerment drawn from many sources: state and federal regulators, police, coroners, academic researchers, courts, litigators, insurers, dental schools and dentists themselves. Continue reading →