DLP August 2022 New Products

Articles

A look at some of the latest dental lab products from around the industry.

New Dental Lab Products August 2022

Robert Elsenpeter is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Dental Products Report and Dental Lab Products. He is also the author of 18 technology books, including the award-winning Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line. As such, he’s particularly interested in the technological side of dentistry.

The United States of America is a big place. Its total area is 3.8 million square miles and there are more than 4.1 million miles of roads. It’s hard to say, exactly, how many cities there are because the number is nebulous, depending on how a “city” is defined. Do townships count? What about unincorporated areas? But the best guess is to say that there are about 15,000 cities. There are also 3,006 counties; 14 boroughs and 11 census areas in Alaska; the District of Columbia; and 64 parishes in Louisiana.

The United States of America is a big enough place that dentists can work just about anywhere they want. To that end, we’ve compiled our annual list of the top 10 (and bottom 5) places for dentists to live and work.

There are a lot of factors that go into establishing which are the best – and which are the worst – communities for dentists to live and work. Certainly, money matters, but while dentists must have some level of compassion for their fellow man, not many are doing the work out of sheer altruism. There’s more to it than just that – in fact, only 1 city in the top 10 list was even in the national salary top 10. When evaluating cities’ merits, we have to look at a host of factors.

We started by looking at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s (BLS) data which gave us the top-earning cities in America. But the cost of living varies, depending where in the country one lives. For instance, things like food, housing, and discretionary spending are more expensive in San Francisco, California than they are inthe southeast part of Mississippi. As such, we added the AdvisorSmith Cost of Living Index as a factor in the calculations.

However, there is more to life than making and spending money (nationwide, general dentists earned an average of $163,220 in 2021). That’s when we started adding such factors as overall economy, public safety, and so forth.

Cost of living index (COLI). This is a ratio comparing the cost of living in a certain area to the national average. Some areas are more expensive to live in than others, so the lower the COLI, the less expensive it is to live in an area.

Stress, including work-related, family-related, money-related, and health and safety-related stress.

Included, where available, is information about the total number in that profession for the community. Nationwide, BLS reported a total of139,200 dentists in 2020 (they didn’t have 2021’s number).

In addition to BLS, we refined our rankings from personal finance website Wallethub.com, U.S. News & World Reports’s Healthiest Communities study, and data from Centers for Disease Control for life expectancy, by state.

We compiled all the rankings and then honed the list from there. Whoever got the lowest score earned the highest position on the list; whoever got the highest score, well, we talk about them also.

Top 10

With any top 10 list, there is a natural inclination to ask, “If those are the best places to live and work, where are the worst?” We scrolled to the end of the list to present the following:

Bottom 5

Here is the annual list of the top 10 and bottom 5 cities for dentists to live and work in in 2022. 

The Top 10 (and Bottom 5) Cities for Dentists in 2022

 Labs that fabricate full-arch and other zirconia restorations.

 Whenever a case calls for milled zirconia crowns, bridges, or implant-supported restorations.

Not only does this zirconia allow full-arch restorations—including implant-supported designs—to be sintered in less than 4 hours, but multiple units can be sintered in the same fast cycle, and no base or support structures are needed during sintering, saving both time and material.

The formulation of this zirconia promises not only an efficient sintering process but also optimal physical and esthetic properties. Not just for use with full-arch cases, 3:45 is also suited for posterior crowns, which can be sintered in less than 30 minutes. It exhibits 1100 MPa of strength and 48% translucency and is available in 25-mm and 30-mm preshaded discs, with multiple shades available and more in development.

This new zirconia formulation allows full-arch restorations to be sintered in less than 4 hours.
Information provided Zubler USA

5Ws* 3:45 Zirconia

Ortek Therapuetics, inc. will be expanding its BasicBites® product line with the addition of BasicBites SynergyPlus™ soft chew. This product combines Ortek’s microbiome oral care technology with nutrients to help support tooth enamel and maintain healthy bones and immune and cardiovascular systems, according to a press release from the company.

The company’s patent pending formula is said to include arginine bicarbonate and calcium carbonate, which work together to create a healthy, balanced oral pH environment that protects teeth from harm caused by dry mouth and sugary foods and drinks. Arginine is an amino acid that is said to promote the beneficial pH-raising bacteria discovered in plaque, resulting in a buffering effect on tooth surfaces that helps neutralie harmful plaque. The calcium carbonate encourages healthy tooth enamel and bones, per the company’s statement.

BasicBites SynergyPlus soft chews are also formulated with K2VITAL®, which the company describes as a K2 MK-7 formula designed to transport calcium into bones and teeth; and Vitamin D3, which helps the body absorb calcium into the bloodstream and maintains strong teeth and bones.

These soft chews will be available in chocolate and caramel flavors. The company is developing additional BasicBites line extensions that it plans to announce in the future.

These soft chews are designed to deliver nutrients to support tooth enamel and healthy bones.

Ortek Therapuetics Launches Prebiotic Chews

Look, I'm not on the take with any company, I don't get any endorsement fees for mentioning any products in these videos, alright, at all. Dental Products Report did not tell me to mention anybody if these videos I had no money or anything for. For example, one time I'll never forget the doctor I went to the first time when CEREC was coming out for the first time. And they put that unit right in the reception area. So they said, hey, you know, let me show you something, when they want to do my crown. They walk me out to the thing. Show me it milling right there in front of me, I'm like, “Whoa, I was sold like man, I can get that done today, when I'm here like that.” It's right there. They put it out there for a strategic reason to show people you can get same-day dentistry, you don't have to wait and come back. That's huge to be able to do that.

That's why we give tours in this day and age. It's okay to show them we have the most advanced x-ray technology, your lasers, your things. That's cool. That's 21st century dentistry, right? Especially if you want to appeal to the younger generation of patients coming to your practice, they want to see that you have all this kind of stuff, which is really cool, right? And they can see and explain it, it's great having that stuff out in the open, it shouldn't be hidden, it's a selling point to have all these things, right. So, it's always good to have them out there in the present.

And it's all about utilization too, we shouldn't be afraid to talk about it and bring it up and hype it up that we have it ,right, and what it does and how it all works, because people don't know how it all works, and how modern dentistry is, right. A lot of misconceptions still have people coming in about what dentistry is and what is not, right. So having this high tech stuff is cool, and even the stuff that we know, and the other thing behind the scenes is the technology we have is underutilized, right. Whether it's a software, whether it's all these different things. Like when I started doing this, there was no social media, there was no… there was… The question I used to get from time to time was, "Hey, Mike, I heard about this thing called a website. Should I have one?" You know, that was a question I used to get at one time. Now, it's like, we move so far beyond that. But we have patients, we have staff, people utilizing their software that are so amazing to use. And we still got a paper book on the site and someplace, as a backup, backup, whatever the hell that means, right? Where we have all the software that can do all these things, when all those reports make so much life easier, easier, and they know how to use it, right? You paid for this, it comes with training, utilize it.

Staff change, some people come in, they're not familiar with it. I can't emphasize enough train your people to get on this kind of stuff. So they get excited about it too. And they can promote a market there's these pieces of equipment as well, because patients are going to ask about them if they see them. They're going to ask questions, they want to know about it. Right? So and we don't want the stuff sitting around the office collecting dust, right? You know, whether it's an intraoral camera, and in mentioning a brand I don't care which one you have get a camera, you know, you know panorex machine, laser, you know, VELscope, whatever you have. There should be some training, extensive training on it. And we should be fine with displaying and promoting in your office because that is a gigantic selling point in terms of wanting people to come to your practice and get dentistry from you.

Videos

In just 3 short minutes, dental practice coach Mike Massotto offers some insight on how to make your dental practice shine. In this episode, Mike talks about leveraging dental technology as a marketing tool. [3 minutes]

Therapy in 3 Minutes - Technology: Making it Visible

Lynne Slim is an award-winning dental author who has published extensively in dental/dental hygiene journals including 

Journal of the Western Society of Periodontology

. She was the periodontal columnist for RDH magazine for about 17 years and is now a columnist for 

 and is a member of their advisory board. In 2003, Lynne founded Perio C Dent, a dental practice management company that specializes in the incorporation of non-surgical periodontal therapy into the hygiene department of the general dental practice.

As a key opinion leader in the dental industry, Lynne is frequently asked to review new products and write product reviews. She participates in product development and is consulted about consumer/RDH product awareness. Lynne received the Philips Oral Healthcare “Mentor of Distinction” award at the 2012 ADHA Annual Session.

Dedicated to Katherine “Katie” Slim and Mackenzie “Kenzie” Anderson, beautiful women who died too young. Mackenzie is the daughter of, Tabitha Acret, a dental hygienist living in Australia.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is “abuse directed at a current or former spouse, significant other, partner, girlfriend, or boyfriend.”

 Once termed “domestic violence,” IPV is rarely if ever mentioned in dentistry. Dental professionals probably meet victims of IPV without knowing it, but we may find clues when reviewing a patient’s medical history.

This topic is very close to my heart—about 1 year ago, I lost my daughter to IPV. Approximately 2 years before she died, my daughter, Katie had been physically and mentally abused by a partner. Although she did not die directly as a result of IPV, she was never able to stop feeling responsible for the abuse. Trying to live with that distress made her chronically anxious and depressed, and it continued to contribute to her mental and physical decline until she ultimately passed at the age of 33.

The loss of a child is one of the worst things that can happen to a parent. Death also has a profound effect on relatives, friends, coworkers—even strangers. As I grieved for Katie, I was startled one day by a message on Facebook from a dental hygienist in Australia, who said that her daughter had just been fatally wounded by an ex-boyfriend outside her apartment in Newcastle, New South Wales. Mackenzie, a 21-year-old single mother, had struggled as Katie had.

Yet these 2 young women are not alone. Research indicates that one-third of women globally experience domestic violence, which is considered a human rights violation.

 Young women like Katie and Mackenzie are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence, especially if those women are financially dependent on their abusive partners.

A serious social problem worldwide, IPV has devastating consequences for victims—physically, psychologically, and financially.

 IPV is sometimes difficult to identify, and many cases go unreported, either to health professionals or legal authorities.

 An abused person often feels alone and isolated and experiences lingering adverse effects, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

 Physical conditions linked to IPV include migraines, arthritis, asthma, chronic pain, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and digestive and heart problems

). Cognitive changes from traumatic brain injuries as the result of abuse are also an area of concern.

These are not the only consequences of IPV; physical injuries can often be severe or life-threatening, and about one-third of “female murder victims have been killed by intimate partners.”

 Short- and Long-term Health Outcomes in Women Who Are Abused

In response to widespread instances of IPV, communities across the United States have created a broad range of resources to support survivors and their families.

 These services include advocacy, shelters, transitional housing, outreach, and counseling services.

 Since the onset of COVID-19, there has been an increased demand for these types of services, adding to an already strained network of support.

 Now, domestic violence programs—which offer housing and foster dignity and socioemotional well-being—are facing budget cuts, staffing shortages, and other difficulties.

The economic control tactics employed by abusers include preventing victims from working, sabotaging their job or housing, and ruining their credit, all of which make leaving home or the relationship very difficult.

In 1976, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act became the first piece of legislation dedicated to combating domestic violence in the United Kingdom. The United States Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and expanded upon it in 2000 and 2005, creating programs and resources for victims and seeking to hold perpetrators of domestic abuse and violence accountable. In 1996, the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968 went into effect, banning possession of guns by individuals convicted of domestic abuse. All 50 states have passed versions of these laws to penalize domestic abusers and protect vulnerable populations. In addition, many states have civil laws that allow IPV victims to file restraining/protective orders.

Examples of Screening Tools for Intimate Partner Violence

Research on the role of the health care system with regard to IPV is insufficient as many instances go unreported, however, it is estimated that about 20-30% of American women have experienced IPV in their lifetime.

 The US Preventive Services Task Force began recommending routine screening for IPV in female patients of childbearing age with validated IPV screening instruments starting in 2013.

 Such screening tools may be limited based on whether a patient can admit they are in an abusive relationship or if they fear retaliation from their abuser.

 However, this should not dissuade clinicians from regularly screening patients with the tools available (

A 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association found that almost all dentists surveyed did not include IPV screening questions on patient history forms and more than half of dentists did not know where to refer patients who were experiencing IPV.

 Additionally, more than half of dentists surveyed did not feel that IPV screening should be part of their roles as health care providers.

Dental exams can be an important setting for identifying patients who may be survivors of IPV or currently experiencing IPV, given that common IPV injuries are located on the face and head.

 Bite marks, bruising of the neck and palates, tearing of the labial frenum and/or mucosal lining, lacerations, discolored teeth, traumatic tooth or jaw fractures, and more are common orofacial signs of abuse that can be identified during a dental exam.

IPV isn’t always physical. Abuse can come in the form of coercive control, a behavior that exploits, dominates, or creates dependency in the victim.

Unlike in the UK, where it’s been illegal since 2015, coercive control is legal in the US unless a crime has been committed. Approximately 60% to 80% of women who seek help for IPV have experienced coercive control, which involves these behaviors:

monitoring victim activity throughout the day

gaslighting (causing victims to doubt their thoughts and memories)

controlling eating, sleeping, or bathroom use

making jealous accusations, being possessive

regulating the couple’s sexual relationship

If a patient screens positive for IPV, they may exhibit a myriad of responses.

 Patients may not be ready to leave the relationship for emotional reasons or due to financial or safety concerns and “most homicides by an intimate partner occur in the year after the abused partner leaves the relationship.”

 No matter their reaction, it is important that clinicians and staff be supportive and provide resources or intervention services.

 offers suggestions on how to approach IPV with a female patient.

Tips for Discussing Intimate Partner Violence with Female Patients

The following 5-question assessment measures the risk of immediate harm; if a patient answers “yes” to at least 3 of these questions, they are to be considered at high risk of immediate harm.

Has the physical violence increased over the past 6 months?

Has your partner used a weapon or threatened you with a weapon?

Do you believe your partner is capable of killing you?

Is your partner violently and constantly jealous of you?

A list of resources should be given to the patient in the event they are in immediate danger (

). Another step is to implement a safety plan to help the individual leave if the situation worsens.

 This safety plan may include making copies of important documents, securing funds, packing essential items, and making copies of keys.

 The patient should also identify a safe place to stay that is out of harm’s way.

offers posters, brochures, and safety planning cards. 

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

 offers calling, texting, or online chatting.

Set up a library in the reception area that includes books on IPV/coercive control and the phone number of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Health care providers are among those professionals a patient is most likely to trust with issues such as IPV, and we’re also in a position to support children and elderly patients who have been exposed to violence within their families.

The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Charitable Foundation helps victims of domestic violence through its “Give Back a Smile” program (givebackasmile.com), which has fashioned more than 2000 dental restorations since it began operating in 1999.

Understanding intimate partner violence. Harvard Health Online. January 1, 2021. Accessed May 10, 2022. 

https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/understanding-intimate-partner-violence

AmelBarez M, Babazadeh R, LatifnejadRoudsari R, Mousavi Bazaz M, MirzaiiNajmabadi K. Women’s strategies for managing domestic violence during pregnancy: a qualitative study. 

Conner DH. Financial freedom: women, money, and domestic abuse. 

https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1380&context=wmjowl

Global perspectives on intimate partner violence and safety in the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. June 17, 2020. Accessed May 10, 2022. 

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/multimedia-article/global-perspectives-on-intimate-partner-violence-and-safety-in-the-home-during-the-covid-19-pandemic

Huecker MR, King KC, Jordan GA, Smock W. Domestic Violence. StatPearls Publishing, 2022. Accessed March 7, 2022. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/

Sullivan, C. Examining the work of domestic violence programs within a “social and emotional well-being promotion” conceptual framework. National Resource Center on Domestic Violence; 2016. Accessed July 22, 2022. 

https://www.dvevidenceproject.org/wp-content/uploads/DVEvidence-Services-ConceptualFramework-2016.pdf

Penti B, Timmons J, Adams D. The role of the physician when a patient discloses intimate partner violence perpetration: a literature review. 

Dicola D,Spaar E. Intimate partner violence. 

Parish C, Pereyra M, Abel S, Siegel K, Pollack H, Metsch L. Intimate partner violence in the dental setting. J Am Dent Assoc.2018;149(2):112-121. doi:

Richards L. So, what exactly is coercive control? Laura Richards blog. Accessed May 10, 2022. 

https://www.laurarichards.co.uk/coercive-control/

How to recognize coercive control. Healthline. Accessed October 2019. 

https://www.healthline.com/health/coercive-control#controlling-money

Kalra N, Hooker L, Reisenhofer S, Di Tanna GL, García-Moreno C. Training healthcare providers to respond to intimate partner violence against women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021;5(5):CD012423. 

The dental chair can be key in recognizing signs of abuse and intervening on behalf of the patient.

Intimate Partner Violence: A Lack of Awareness in Dentistry

Too often the practice’s sterilizer is seen as a household dishwasher or washing machine. Because its job is cleaning, it is taken for granted that it exists in a state of eternal cleanliness. But like household dishwashers and washing machines, sterilizers need to be cleaned—and their cleanliness needs to be tested.

The necessity for testing should go without saying. “Because you want to know whether the sterilizer works,” Lisa Kane, DMD, says. Dr Kane is the owner of Dental Office Compliance of New England LLC and an infection control consultant.“In order for instruments to be clean enough to be in someone’s mouth, they have to be sterilized. And the only way to tell whether your machine is working and doing what it’s supposed to be doing is if you test it. You have to test for biological indicators. You have to do a spore test, otherwise you don’t know whether it’s working.”

Linda M. Harvey, MS, RDH, LHRM, DFASHRM, likens the practice’s sterilization center to the heart of the practice. Harvey is the president and founder of The Linda Harvey Group, a health care compliance and risk management consulting company. “You have to keep that heart pumping well,” Harvey observes. “All the patient care systems are spokes of that hub, that heart—the sterilization center. Maintaining the efficacy of your sterilization units is done through weekly spore testing, which assures the instruments are indeed sterilized and able to be safely used on patients.”

Different types of tests exist with the goal of making the sterilization process faster and more efficient. “There are different options,” Dr Kane observes. “There are in-office and mail-out tests. Double-check with your state and make sure they’re OK with in-office tests.”

Fortunately, the tests seem to be getting better and better. “The technology has changed in this arena,” Harvey says. “The technology is evolving everywhere in dentistry, not just with ‘dentistry in a day,’ artificial intelligence, or teledentistry. It’s also [affecting] our sterilization centers. And now there are rapid readout biological indicator tests, and you can get the results in 24 minutes in the office.”

In addition, practices must perform testing on a regular basis, at least weekly. “Someone or several team members should be assigned the task of weekly testing. If multiple team members will be conducting the spore testing, the tests must be standardized and ensure everyone is following the exact same process,”Harvey says. “That way, whether someone leaves the practice, [is] on vacation, or [is] out sick, it’s done. What’s exciting about this new technology is when you can have spore test results in 24 minutes, [it] enables you to immediately begin troubleshooting if you have a failed test [result]. Whereas with third-party testing, you may have to wait a week to get the results back. However, it’s important to know what the spore testing requirements are in your state or province. It’s wise to be familiar with your dental practice act.”

What should you do in the event of a failed spore test result? The answer, although inconvenient, is designed to minimize infection risk. “You’re supposed to take back everything from the last negative test [result], because you’ve labeled everything,” Dr Kane says. “You have to take it back and reprocess it. Ideally you have another autoclave you can use, but you [should] take the failed autoclave out of commission and retest it. If you get another failed test [result], you should probably research a little more, maybe call someone to fix it. A lot of times it fails because of user error. You don’t have to throw out your autoclave if it failed, but you do not want to use it again until you get a negative spore test [result].”

Redundancy steps and having a second sterilizer can help in the event of a failed test result. “Sometimes offices have multiple units,” Harvey observes. “They’ll have a traditional, typical-sized autoclave, and then [they’ll] have what’s called a STATIM, which holds a smaller capacity. Having a backup plan is important, because they [may be] faced with, ‘How do we go back and identify the instruments that have already been used on patients?’ Unless pouches and cassettes are properly labeled and dated, it can create confusion when trying to identify which instruments need to be resterilized.”

Although staffing redundancy in the sterilization center is an old idea, too many people can be counterproductive. “I recall working with one practice that was struggling with standardization. They had 4 people conducting spore testing, and they were getting failed test [results],” Harvey says. “In other words, they were [each] carrying out the spore testing differently, testing at different times of the day, or placing the test strips in different parts of the unit. Ultimately, we decided to pare it back and just keep 2 people involved who learned a standardized method. But typically, we need to have others who know how to properly test the autoclave.”

It is necessary to properly document that testing has occurred and passing results were achieved. “I’m always a big fan of taking pictures,” Dr Kane advises. “If you’re doing in-office tests, take pictures of the results as proof of the test [result]. It’s about the documentation. Most people, when they do spore tests, have a calendar; they literally put a check on that day or have a little notebook. But there’s a lot of information that needs to go in the spore test record. You need to make sure you’re in house, documenting it the right way and keeping track of everything. The problem with the out-of-office spore test is it takes a long time to get back. The in-office [test] is faster, but do whatever works best in your office.”

Do practices tend to properly document their sterilizer testing efforts? Regrettably, no. “Most people are not documenting correctly,” Dr Kane says. “We always go into offices and give everyone a new log. Most people are just documenting that they’re testing. Some people are taking pictures that they’re mailing off [to] test, and that’s their documentation. You need to have documentation of what’s in the load, what the parameters are, time, temperature, and pressure. What happens at the end of the load recording? What kind of load was run? And then you have to circle back and see whether the chemical indicator changed. Because if the chemical indicator didn’t change, your spore test [result] isn’t passing. There are probably 10 things that have to be recorded on the spore test log.”

As with so many products in the dental practice, following the manufacturer’s instructions for use is critical. “One of my top recommendations is that every practice have the manufacturer’s instructions handy,” Harvey says. “Whether they’re kept digitally or in paper format, have them accessible for onboarding new team members and [as a] ready reference when calibrating the team and checking periodically to ensure you’re still properly following those recommendations.”

The job of the sterilizer is to make sure instruments are ready for use on patients. Their job may be to provide safety, but they still need to be checked on a regular basis. Ensuring regular, accurate testing will help prevent infection control breaches.

Why (and how) it needs to be done in your dental practice.

Sterilizer Testing 101

Scheduling platform CallForce has announced that it is rebranding under the new name, Reach, to illustrate the company’s mission help practices reach their full potential. Founded in 2016, Reach is the largest patient service provider in the United States that offers inbound calling services for dental patients.

Along with this optimized calling service, Reach also offers dental insurance verification to communicate between patient and practice, what services the patients are eligible for. This rebrand is an evolution and a commitment to Reach’s mission, according to CEO Cory Pinegar.

“Over the past 5 years we have honed in on who we are and the solution we provide to dental practices, and we wanted our name to reflect that,” Pinegar said in a press release from the company. “Reach describes the company’s natural progression as well as the direction we’re going, think CallForce 2.0, and I could not be more thrilled.”

This rebrand not only comes with a new name, but a new website URL for practices looking to work with Reach.

“Our clients can expect the same great services and fantastic patient care,” Pinegar said. “Just with a new look.”

Scheduling and calling platform CallForce will assist dental practices in reaching potential, with new name Reach. 

CallForce Rebrands and Renames as Reach

Planet DDS Launches New Patient Engagement Capability in Denticon


Cloud-based dental software provider Planet DDS has announced the launch of Denticon Patient Engagement. This patient communication tool is a new capability incorporated in its Denticon practice management software, according to a press release from the company. This tool, dental practices and organizations can automate appointment reminders, create marketing campaigns, customize patient messages, and communicate important information. It's also natively built into Denticon, allowing clinicians to begin use right away.

Incorporating practice management software and patient engagement software cuts time while earning the practice more money in the long term, according to CEO at Planet DDS, Eric Giesecke.

“Historically, dental organizations miss out on opportunities to increase production because patients aren’t receiving appointment reminders. Or, just as likely, patients are receiving incorrect reminders due to the inherent difficulties of syncing data across multiple platforms,” Giesecke said in the press release. “Now, with many of our clients feeling the sting of the ongoing labor shortage along with inflation, eliminating administrative burden and enabling dental offices to engage their patients more effectively with limited staff is crucial.”

This new patient communication capability is available through Denticon now.

This new Denticon capability from Planet DDS allows for easier patient communication and engagement while cutting down on administrative burdens. 

Planet DDS Launches New Patient Engagement Capability in Denticon

National Committee for Quality Assurance to Focus on Addressing Health Disparities, Dental Measures


The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has announced revised quality measure for health plans in the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) for the year 2023, according to a press release from the group. These updates will introduce race/ethnicity stratifications and member gender identity affirmations.

NCQA has added race and ethnicity stratifications to 8 HEDIS measures to more accurately collect data to improve transparency in care gaps and disparities. NCQA has also amended references to pregnancy by incorporating more inclusive language. This language will recognize and include transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

Other HEDIS measures (including important Dental measures) introduced are:

Oral Evaluation Dental Services: This measure aims to assist plans in understanding if pediatric Medicaid members receive comprehensive or periodic oral evaluations.

Topical Fluoride for Children: This measure clarifies for members with pediatric Medicaid members, that 2 fluoride varnish applications will aid in the prevention of cavities.

Deprescribing of Benzodiazepines in Older Adults: This measure assesses Medicare members 67 years and older who were dispensed benzodiazepines and achieved a more than or equal 20% decrease in dosage. This measure will ensure the avoidance of withdrawal symptoms and illness in deprescribing.

Emergency Department Visits for Hypoglycemia in Older Adults with Diabetes: Because of the higher risk for falls and fractures due to hypoglycemia in older adults, this measure will monitor and measure risk for older patients with diabetes. This can help with injury prevention.

Social Need Screening and Intervention: This measure will assist health plans in identifying the needs of patients, including food, housing, and transportation, and connecting those patients to those needs.

HEDIS 2023 and its corresponding changes are available for review at NCQA.org.

New measures for health plan providers in 2023 put the focus on inclusivity and health equity.  