DrBicuspid.com Business & Industry Insider

Dear Business & Industry Insider,

The North Carolina dental board has joined a group of dentists in filing lawsuits against DentalWorks, alleging that the dental chain pressured dentists to give patients unnecessary treatments and that DentalWorks is illegally practicing because only dentists licensed in North Carolina can legally own dental practices in the state. Read more.

And the Florida Dental Association is asking DentaQuest to expedite reimbursements for fluoride treatments that have not been paid because of company delays in updating its claims processing system to accommodate new ADA procedure codes.

Meanwhile, more than 1 in 3 American adults has delayed or will delay dental care due to the uncertain U.S. economy and their lingering fears about their current financial situation, according to survey results released this week by Aspen Dental.

In corporate developments, in response to a longer-than-anticipated delay in the dental implant market recovery, Straumann is implementing more restructuring and cost-saving initiatives and plans to cut approximately 200 jobs by the end of the year.

And Nobel Biocare will reportedly pay up to $1.3 million to settle a $450 million lawsuit brought against it three years ago by a California dentist who said the company had misrepresented the safety of its NobelDirect implants.

Finally, in new product news in the Business & Industry Community, a new dental implant system from Natural Dental Implants has the technology to apply an intuitive concept: replacing a tooth with an implant that is an exact replica of the extracted one. The company is awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

And a noninvasive cytology test for oral cancer is being offered for free to dentists. The test, aimed at "watch and wait" lesions, is cheaper than biopsies and less frightening for patients, according to the company commercializing it.