Falkel: Timing of local anesthestic; Greater New York wrap-up; and your top stories

If you weren't able to attend the Greater New York Dental Meeting, associate editor Rob Goszkowski rounds up a few things that you missed here.

In one of our more popular features, Daniel Demers continues his history series on dentistry's colorful side. His latest is about Dr. Faith Sai So Leong, who was more than just the only woman in her class of 40 in dentistry school; she was the first Chinese woman to receive a degree in dentistry in the U.S. Read Demers' fascinating story here.

After you administer a local anesthetic, how long do you wait for the anesthetic to take effect? Mic Falkel, DDS, a presenter at the recent Greater New York Dental Meeting, has not only spent a considerable amount of time studying anesthesia, but he was humbled by a problem he encountered while administering local anesthesia. A problem you have most likely also encountered.

"When do we expect local anesthetics to start?" Dr. Falkel asked during his presentation, "Local Anesthesia -- Technique, Anatomy, and Physiology in the Digital Era." Then he answered his own question: "An average of three to five minutes for infiltrations and five to seven minutes for [inferior alveolar nerve] blocks." But is that really the end of the issue? Read more here.

As we begin to look back on 2013, it's clear dentistry is going through a period of transition, as issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act implementation to access to care to teeth whitening to imaging to clinical issues defined this year. So, we are taking a look back at the stories that had the most impact, as determined by your page views. Read the first of our two-part look back at the year's top stories here.