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After six months of being out of touch with normalcy, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are close to a reopening date for the practice and are scheduling patients again. We are currently busy setting up our new state-of-the-art equipment as it arrives. We also want to thank Drs. Salvaggio, Chaney, and Murphy for covering the emergencies during the reconstruction.

We are proud to be a part of the rebuilding of a better South Louisiana. And we are looking forward to putting smiles back on the faces of the residents of Kenner and the surrounding areas.

I have been working on the New Orleans Dental Conference for April 2007. We will be excited for the opportunity to provide excellent continuing education for the dentists of the New Orleans area while drawing visitors from around the world to witness the resurgence of this fine historical city. We cannot wait to see you all and thank you for your prayers on behalf of our residents.

Brushella the Tooth Fairy starts her second tour of North America to visit children and science museums beginning in Winnipeg, with their “Branches, Bristles, and Batteries: Toothbrushes Through Time” exhibit. This will be the first time they have taken the exhibit beyond the U.S. borders. This is made possible through the generous support of the United Concordia Dental Insurance Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Brushella acts as the hostess and guide for the displays encouraging children and families to brush and to explain to them the truths about toothbrushes. The exhibit aimed at elementary school children has learning stations, a computer-based activity area, and colorful text panels describing the history of the toothbrush from Babylonian times to modern-day battery-powered devices. The exhibition is to help achieve an overall healthy lifestyle through entertaining, high-tech activities that address oral care techniques included in that life style.

A complete schedule of the cities
the exhibition will be visiting is at: www.dentalmuseum.org/exhibitions/traveling

In their 2002-2005 tour, they visited New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Portsmouth (Virginia), St. Paul, Kansas City, Dallas, El Paso, and Ft. Lauderdale. Local dental associations in each city partner with the host museums to promote the exhibition and plan educational programs.

The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry was founded in 1996 and is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate. It is located on the campus of the University of Maryland in Baltimore and composes part of the original Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the first in the United States.

Dentistry has had some wins and some losses last year in Washington, D.C. The Republican Congress has been focused on reducing spending. The entitlement spending by our country simply cannot be sustained.

We were able to make some $39 billion cuts, some of which came out of Medicaid, but with common-sense changes, like giving State Governors the authority to request very small co-payments. We require citizenship verification for those applying for Medicaid to confront the problem with so many illegal immigrants receiving services at the expense of our own poorest citizens. Senior citizens that have a home equity over $500,000 are not allowed to get on Medicaid long-term care. And we are encouraging Medicaid patients to use generic drugs.

Dental Medicaid almost took the biggest hit. The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act allows States to design a “benchmark medical insurance plan,” which might not cover dental treatment particularly for children who are now covered by early periodic screening diagnostic prevention (EPSDT). With the help of the ADA, I fixed this problem in the House Bill.

The Labor Health and Human Services Appropriations cut the Dental Education Grants within Title 7 to nothing. We managed to get about half the funding back.

I have only one more year to serve on the oversight control for OSHA as there is a six-year term limit as subcommittee chairman. The new assistant OSHA Secretary Edwin Foulke and I have a meeting in early 2006 to discuss the problems.

\Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) is the subcommittee chairman there that has jurisdiction over OSHA, and Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) is full Chairman. They have a tremendous OSHA Bill in the Senate, which includes four of my OSHA Bills that passed the House a few months ago. We hope to get this passed in 2006.

I appreciated seeing many of you at Philadelphia ADA Meeting. I am aware that the ADA House of Delegates are faced with determining how much of our profession’s work is to be done by people who are not trained as dentists. Be careful not to give our profession away.

I did have some ugly health problems in 2004 and 2005 with a single lung transplant to a lobectomy in my native lung removing a malignant growth, but it had not metastasized. I am in much better health now and expect to run for re-election this November. I love what I do and it keeps me motivated. There is never NOT a problem to solve.

If you are ever in Washington, please stop by my office in the Rayburn Building. I enjoy catching up with what is going on with practicing dentists on what the practical effects of government policies impact on your practice.

And if you have any Easter spirit left over, send me some at P.O. Box 499, Evans, Georgia, 30809-9906.

Dental World constantly monitors the Internet for dental-related news. But everything that comes over the Internet is not always accurate or true. DW has developed a network of assistants that enjoy debunking (or not) many e-mails that we never publish. We save them for future reference in case some of the statements come to light as suggesting to our leaders in dentistry to be aware of. There are two that we would like to mention for your contribution and assessment.

The first comes from Monica Castro, the BDC Service Coordinator for Mercedes-Benz of Chicago and Fletcher Jones Imports. In her missive to us, she refers to an NBC-Channel 5 News Report (Chicago) of about 23 February 2006 that their TV Investigative Team canvassed toothpastes, like Crest, Colgate, and other name brands, that are being sold in the “dollar stores” at discounted prices. They reported that these toothpastes were manufactured in other countries and are not approved by the ADA. One made in South Africa contains fluoride that is ten times greater in strength than is allowed in the United States. Now South Africa does not have fluoridated water as many cities in the United States have, so the amount may be necessary to achieve the same protection. Their concern was that kids often swallow their toothpaste. Using the discounted, foreign-made toothpastes could cause a health hazard. Spokespersons for the discount stores declined to comment on this, so the television station has launched a further investigation into the possibilities of using foreign toothpastes not approved by the ADA. They cautioned that shoppers check to see if the discounted toothpaste is approved by the ADA Council on Dental Therapeutics, check the ingredients and their amounts, or play it save and purchase them at reputable outlet stores.

The second e-mail was part of a series of cartoon cautions that were meant to be humorous warnings. One of their statements was that 9 out of 10 dentists recommend that you keep your toothbrush at least 10 feet from the toilet facility to avoid bacterial contamination. I must be the tenth dentist as I have never seen that reported anywhere. Correct me if any of you have seen any research on this. I cannot remember being in a bathroom that is 10 feet long. In measuring my home commode area, it was about six feet by six feet with 2.5 feet being taken up by the bathtub. Most water closets have a bathtub, the sink, and then the toilet. With the toothbrushes hanging off the water cup holder, they are barely three feet away.

While the premise has a certain logic to it, bathrooms do not seem constructed to accommodate keeping the toothbrushes 10 feet away. And keeping them elsewhere would probably reduce their use, certainly by children. In addition to that, if bacteria from the toilet is an important concern, more so than that contained in the mouth, or breathed in when shaving or showering, does it not escape the area as airborne? Like dust does.

Keeping them in the medicine cabinet, a mere three feet away, would certainly contaminate them when taken out for use.

At Loyola University Medical Center, the dental teachers shared a cafeteria with the medical staff. One day a group of dentists I was with sat with some proctologists for lunch. One dentist asked whatever made a physician want to become a proctologist. The proctologist answered that it was cleaner at his end than at ours. And because a majority of the population thought the same way, a proctologist could charge them more.

The Internet is a powerful tool in gathering and disseminating information. Some e-mails you have seen note that they have been around the world several times. So misinformation can spread as rapidly as truisms. Is this discussed statement a conundrum or is there valid research behind it?

We dentists talk about “extreme dental neglect” all over the world. There is so much dental treatment to be done! We are concerned about the poor, the uneducated people with rampant dental disease. We applaud the few dentists who give up a few days or weeks to leave their offices and go into remote areas of the world to help the underserved by relieving pain and suffering. It is our professional responsibility to help those whom we can.

Now look in your own backyard! Look in your own State! Look in the area of your own Section! What are YOU doing to relieve the underserved in your own backyard? We do not always need to go into remote areas to find those in need. If your Section Chair has not recognized an area of concern, then help your Section Chair find an appropriate project. We in the Foundation want to help you as a Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy by funding your grant! There are new grant application forms on the Web site that are up-to-date and extremely user-friendly.

On a personal note, several years ago, we in Michigan heard about the Bay Cliff Health Camp in our Upper Peninsula. This facility is a non-profit, non-denominational summer health camp for children and adults. Their primary mission is to serve children and adults who have physical disabilities. They also provide dental treatment for their campers. At that time, our Section Chair was Dr. Virginia Merchant, who felt that this project was a worthwhile endeavor. Dr. Cheri Newman, Jim Kenyon (her husband), Stephanie Newman (her hygienist daughter), Kristy Dorland (her chair side assistant), Dr. Virginia Merchant, my wife Janet Campbell, and I traveled the 800 miles into Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.

We found the camp to be in an isolated area and the dental clinic was supplied with old, worn equipment. The PFA Foundation had funded a grant to the Michigan Section to be used for the camp dental clinic. We treated patients every day, often running out of supplies. My wife, who was volunteering in the clinic office, made several trips to the nearest town (an hour round trip) to get the needed items from a local dentist, Dr. Donn Kipka who graciously supplied our needs.

Dr. Kipka was the PFA Fellow who had applied for the original grant. By the end of the week, we all felt we had contributed to our profession. We were also pleased to see how valuable our Foundation Grant was to this remote and valuable dental clinic.

When we shared our experiences at our Section Meeting, the Fellows of the Michigan Section voted to donate $7500 from our Section treasury to the Bay Cliff Health Camp for a compressor, lights, and handpieces for the clinic. This money was in addition to the original Foundation Grant. To sum it up, as one of our team did, “We came expecting disabled people. But we found ‘differently-abled people!’” Money cannot buy our pride and sense of accomplishment or the warmth and the appreciation of these patients.

Help YOUR Section apply for a Foundation Grant to help you do what only YOU can do … valuable dentistry!

Remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.