Dear DrBicuspid Member,
It was a busy week here at DrBicuspid.com, so let's dive right in and cover some of the editorial highlights from the past few days.
October 12 (Monday) is a big day when it comes to your dental practice and your amalgam separator. Yes, Monday is the deadline for submitting your dental practice's one-time compliance report for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amalgam rule to the control authority. What does that mean? What do you need to know? What should you be doing? Alexander Bischoff broke all of that down very clearly in an article that I consider to be a must-read.
On a personal note this past week, as a child of the 1980s, the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen truly hit me hard. It was another reminder of just how deadly oral cancer is, and how dental practices have a duty not only to screen for the disease when a patient sits in the chair but also to talk about the potential warning signs with him or her. Your patients heard the news of Van Halen's death this past week just like you did. Maybe it's an opening to talk to one of them and help save a life.
Talking to patients is exactly what Dr. Alvin Danenberg did this past week; his article covered the 14 "splinters" that could be in patients' mouths today and what they need to combat them. He told me that he hopes the words he shared will also give his fellow dentists some ideas on how to discuss these issues with their own patients.
Let's end this editor's note with a couple of articles dealing with our most-read topic: COVID-19.
Dental teams at an oral medicine hospital at the epicenter of the outbreak in China did not develop COVID-19 while providing emergency dental treatment during the pandemic, likely due to increased infection control measures, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Dental Research. It's a fascinating look at how personal protective equipment and strictly followed infection control protocols can truly stop the spread of the virus.
Finally, the presence of COVID-19 likely led a woman, who was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, to develop severe hemorrhagic necrosis on her lips. This could show a link between blood diseases and SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a case report.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read DrBicuspid.com. My team and I are truly grateful for your readership and wish you an amazing and relaxing weekend ahead.
