Texas dental board gets an earful; more dental anesthesiologists needed

Dear DrBicuspid Member,

Texas state legislators fielded a bevy of complaints about the State Board of Dental Examiners from patients, dentists, and lawyers during a hearing April 11 before the Public Health Committee.

In addition to ongoing concerns about the dental board not addressing patient complaints fast enough and not improving access to dentists' disciplinary actions, legislators heard testimony about the rise of corporate dentistry in Texas. Dental chain owners are interfering with dental care by dictating treatment plans and setting quotas, according to practitioners who spoke at the hearing.

Click here to read what legislators are recommending the dental board do to address these issues in this latest Practice Management Community feature.

Meanwhile, in Restoratives Community news, two studies in the current Anesthesia Progress point to a new trend in pediatric dentistry: the growing demand for dental anesthesiologists in the U.S. The problem is there aren't enough dental anesthesiologists to go around, the study authors contend. Read more.

In other clinical news, an international team of researchers has developed new classification criteria for Sjögren's syndrome -- the first classification criteria for Sjögren's to be based solely on objective clinical tests.

Finally, in the latest addition to our popular Leaders in Dentistry series, we spoke with
Dr. Allan Farman, immediate past-president of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, about the numerous issues he addressed during his two years as president, from radiation dose concerns to the need for more standards and guidelines, particularly for cone-beam CT.