NC board blocks Heartland deal; Conn. teeth-whitening businesses sue state

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

In a case that spotlights a downside of the growing dental-chain trend, a North Carolina dentist has agreed to settle charges by the state dental board that he sold his practice to Heartland Dental Care -- a dental management company not owned or operated by a licensed dentist -- through a complicated series of transactions, contracts, and employment agreements that violated state law. Click here to read details.

In other legal news, a public interest law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against the Connecticut State Dental Commission, contending that the commission illegally shut down small businesses that offered teeth-whitening services at malls, spas, and salons. Could the case play out similarly to that in North Carolina, where a U.S. Federal Trade Commission judge ruled in July that the dental board's efforts to block nondentists from providing teeth-whitening services constituted an anticompetitive conspiracy? Read more.

On the clinical front, oral bacteria may signal which patients are likely to develop healthcare-associated pneumonia, according to a study presented October 22 at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting. Researchers from Yale University used DNA sequencing to show that the types of bacterial communities that normally reside in adults' mouths change substantially as their risk for developing pneumonia increases.

Finally, in the latest installment of his Beyond Practice Management series, Dr. Don Deems offers some practical advice on how to keep your practice healthy in a down economy in which money has become the No. 1 reason people are deferring dental treatment.