The DMD Top 5 for the Week Ending Jan. 6

1. Why You Should Ask Your Dental Patients if they SCUBA Dive: A recent pilot study conducted by a dental student at the University of Buffalo found that the rigors of SCUBA diving can lead to oral pain and dental issues. The findings were published in the most recent issue of the British Dental Journal.

2. Dentist Sentenced for Prescribing Pain Meds to Employee, Then Using Them Himself: The Keene Sentinel of Keene, N.H., reports that Ayman A. Jacobs, DMD, 54, was convicted on two drug possession charges that stemmed from an incident in 2014. He received a 12-month jail sentence, but the sentence was suspended for four years as long as he takes part in drug treatment.

3. Take a Journey through Dental History: At the following dental museums around the U.S., sink your teeth into dentistry’s past, chew on various cultural attitudes and enjoy tasty professional tidbits.

4. Analysis Highlights Need to Reform Dental Care Delivery Model: “It remains unclear whether twenty-first-century dental science, information technology, interprofessional practice, and population health needs can be mounted onto the current nineteenth-century dental care delivery model,” writes analysis author Elizabeth A. Mertz, an associate professor in the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

5. New Mercury Ruling: Dental Offices Must Comply with EPA Regulation: The EPA has adopted a new federal regulation that requires all dental offices, clinics, and schools to purchase and use dental amalgam separators in their treatment areas.