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Denture service program successful
in restoration of endodontically treat ed teeth. I must take exception to their group ing o f Kurer Crown Anchors with Dentatus and Blue Island Screws, the latter tw o being pure screws. In fact, the Kurer Anchor is a bolt whose path o f entry has been preceded by a tap threading the dentin. The screw will cut and wedge its way into the material holding it, cre ating m assive lateral stress. This in ternal stress, coupled with the torque o f mastication, may easily precipitate root fracture. Conversely, the Kurer Anchor, when properly inserted, will create virtually no lateral stress inas much as it does not cut its way to seat ing. This was proved conclusively in a laboratory study using polarized light in conjunction with a photoelas tic material similar to dentin in ten sile and com pressive strengths. In private practice, I routinely have placed hundreds o f Kurers without incident, and I feel most confident about their efficacy. I could not ap proach the pure screw post with such confidence. It is important to distinguish be tween the screw post and the bolt, lest one condemn what could be a very real adjunct to a successful treatment plan.
have volunteered their professional services, the dental laboratories are cooperating in reducing their fees, and the Ben Massell Dental Clinic, a United Way facility, is cooperating to make treatment rooms, housing, and auxiliary personnel available for this service. The cost of this program is being underwritten by the entire member ship o f the Northern District Dental Society, and all this information has been released to the press and has had press coverage to bring our mes sage to the community. A s president o f this organization, I began work on this program in the fall o f 1975, and have continued to pursue it throughout this year to see it to its fulfillment. I feel that not only are we going to be rendering a needed health service to the needy, and cer tainly that is the prime purpose of the program, but fringe benefits of this type program are improvement of our public image, a possible deterrent to legislation favoring “ denturists,” and hopefully a small dent in an attempt to arrest government intervention into our profession. EMILE T. FISHER, DDS
Denture service program successful ■ The Northern District Dental So ciety, which is made up o f approxim ately 800 members in the metro Atlan ta area of Georgia, has instituted a program which I think will be o f in terest to the American Dental A ssoc iation, and to every component and constituent society of our organiza tion. I believe it is the first such pro gram ever implemented in the dental profession in this country, and I am proud to report it a success. The program I am writing you about is called our “ Indigent denture ser vice program,” and it is designed to render full denture service to the pov erty stricken population of our area. Approximately 60 dentists from the Northern District Dental Society
LOUIS M. ABBEY, DMD VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIV RICHMOND
An abhorrent topic
ATLANTA
MEL H. POLLACK, DDS SAN DIEGO
ularly, could discover and refer about 6% o f undetected hypertensive pa tients.” This statement means that approximately 6% of the undetected hypertensives in our study visited their dentist regularly once every 12 months but did not make it a habit to visit their physician during that same time period. Our projection was that dentists might, therefore, be solely responsible for detection o f approx imately 6% o f all undetected hyper tensives. The other 6% figure mentioned in the article was that about 6% of all of the patients we screened were referred to physicians for suspected hyper tensive disease. Put another way, according to our figures, if a dentist measures blood pressure on all o f his new adult patients, he might expect to refer 6 out of every 100 patients for suspected hypertension.
A misunderstanding m I would like to thank you for pub lishing our paper, “ Hypertension screening among dental patients,” which appeared in the November j a d a (page 996). May I call your attention to an in accuracy which appeared in the green highlight box on page 996. The state ment is made: “ If dentists measured blood pressures regularly, they might be able to detect about 6% of their suspected hypertensive patients and refer them to physicians.” My point is that any reader reading this statement might correctly ques tion the reason for screening for high blood pressure in dental offices. The portion of the article to which the statement was referring, I believe, is a sentence beginning on page 999 and continuing on page 1000: “ This figure seem s to indicate that dentists, if they measured blood pressures reg
22 ■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I JADA, Vol. 94, January 1977
• Hear, hear, and bravo for a most forthright and illuminating letter on a topic that is most abhorrent to me, mandatory education (September j a d a , page 519). My hat is off to Dr. Robert D. Helmholdt o f Fort Lauderdale, Fla, for his thoughts and expressions on such an asinine subject. HARRY A. SILBERMAN, DDS JERSEY CITY, NJ
‘M eaningless’ statem ent ■ Mr. James Bouman’s contention that preventive dentistry via the N izel approach has only a 20% effectiveness rate (“ Letters to the editor,” Septem ber j a d a , page 515) lacks any scien tific basis and is therefore an unsupportable and relatively meaningless statement. Further, one must won der whether the writer has had the training and experience to be able to render such a judgment appropriately. Even if his “ statistics” are correct,
have volunteered their professional services, the dental laboratories are cooperating in reducing their fees, and the Ben Massell Dental Clinic, a United Way facility, is cooperating to make treatment rooms, housing, and auxiliary personnel available for this service. The cost of this program is being underwritten by the entire member ship o f the Northern District Dental Society, and all this information has been released to the press and has had press coverage to bring our mes sage to the community. A s president o f this organization, I began work on this program in the fall o f 1975, and have continued to pursue it throughout this year to see it to its fulfillment. I feel that not only are we going to be rendering a needed health service to the needy, and cer tainly that is the prime purpose of the program, but fringe benefits of this type program are improvement of our public image, a possible deterrent to legislation favoring “ denturists,” and hopefully a small dent in an attempt to arrest government intervention into our profession. EMILE T. FISHER, DDS
Denture service program successful ■ The Northern District Dental So ciety, which is made up o f approxim ately 800 members in the metro Atlan ta area of Georgia, has instituted a program which I think will be o f in terest to the American Dental A ssoc iation, and to every component and constituent society of our organiza tion. I believe it is the first such pro gram ever implemented in the dental profession in this country, and I am proud to report it a success. The program I am writing you about is called our “ Indigent denture ser vice program,” and it is designed to render full denture service to the pov erty stricken population of our area. Approximately 60 dentists from the Northern District Dental Society
LOUIS M. ABBEY, DMD VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIV RICHMOND
An abhorrent topic
ATLANTA
MEL H. POLLACK, DDS SAN DIEGO
ularly, could discover and refer about 6% o f undetected hypertensive pa tients.” This statement means that approximately 6% of the undetected hypertensives in our study visited their dentist regularly once every 12 months but did not make it a habit to visit their physician during that same time period. Our projection was that dentists might, therefore, be solely responsible for detection o f approx imately 6% o f all undetected hyper tensives. The other 6% figure mentioned in the article was that about 6% of all of the patients we screened were referred to physicians for suspected hyper tensive disease. Put another way, according to our figures, if a dentist measures blood pressure on all o f his new adult patients, he might expect to refer 6 out of every 100 patients for suspected hypertension.
A misunderstanding m I would like to thank you for pub lishing our paper, “ Hypertension screening among dental patients,” which appeared in the November j a d a (page 996). May I call your attention to an in accuracy which appeared in the green highlight box on page 996. The state ment is made: “ If dentists measured blood pressures regularly, they might be able to detect about 6% of their suspected hypertensive patients and refer them to physicians.” My point is that any reader reading this statement might correctly ques tion the reason for screening for high blood pressure in dental offices. The portion of the article to which the statement was referring, I believe, is a sentence beginning on page 999 and continuing on page 1000: “ This figure seem s to indicate that dentists, if they measured blood pressures reg
22 ■ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I JADA, Vol. 94, January 1977
• Hear, hear, and bravo for a most forthright and illuminating letter on a topic that is most abhorrent to me, mandatory education (September j a d a , page 519). My hat is off to Dr. Robert D. Helmholdt o f Fort Lauderdale, Fla, for his thoughts and expressions on such an asinine subject. HARRY A. SILBERMAN, DDS JERSEY CITY, NJ
‘M eaningless’ statem ent ■ Mr. James Bouman’s contention that preventive dentistry via the N izel approach has only a 20% effectiveness rate (“ Letters to the editor,” Septem ber j a d a , page 515) lacks any scien tific basis and is therefore an unsupportable and relatively meaningless statement. Further, one must won der whether the writer has had the training and experience to be able to render such a judgment appropriately. Even if his “ statistics” are correct,