Photo: Omar Bárcena via Flickr
A state jury found a former Hawaii dentist not guilty of manslaughter and other criminal charges related to the highly publicized death of a 3-year-old girl under her care.
It was the latest development in a nearly five-year-old case that focused attention on the potential risks to children who receive anesthesia or other sedation as part of a dental procedure. Continue reading
Anna Nguyen
A prominent pediatric dental organization recently issued guidelines for a treatment that can offer a painless, minimally invasive alternative to drilling and filling teeth.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) has offered a “provisional recommendation” for the use of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) to halt and manage tooth decay in children.
The product, which is painted onto the diseased area of the tooth, been used in Japan for years but has only recently attracted the attention of U.S. healthcare providers. Continue reading
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
Photo: Rob via Flickr
Back in May, reporters in Florida stayed busy covering the nightmarish story of a Jacksonville dentist under investigation for Medicaid fraud by the state attorney general’s office.
Howard S. Schneider, who made nearly $4 million from Medicaid over five years, according to state records, gave up his license in the wake of allegations that he had overtreated and abused children. Continue reading
State and federal policymakers should take steps to make dental benefits less costly and more widely available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) according to a panel of experts convened by the nonprofit National Academy for State Health Policy.
While oral health advocates were heartened to see pediatric dental benefits included among the health reform law’s essential health benefits (EHB), the task of making them available on state marketplaces and getting consumers to buy them has proven to be complicated.
Dental benefits have traditionally been sold separately from other types of health insurance, and the “ACA and subsequent federal guidance treat pediatric dental benefits differently from the other EHB categories, creating unique challenges in implementing the vision of a guaranteed pediatric dental benefit,” concludes the experts’ report, released today. Continue reading
