Current Dental Public Health Issues - Annotated Bibliography Example

Annotated Bibliography: Current Dental Public Health Issues Alexander Heatrice DDS A.T. STILL MPH736.4 Introduction to Dental Public Health October 15, 2011 Annotated Bibliography: Current Dental Public Health Issues Module 4 Articles: Annotated Bibliography Kaplowitz, G. J. (2011). An update on the dangers of soda pop. The Dental Assistant, 80(4), 14- 16. Keywords: Demineralization of teeth enamel and dental caries Kaplowitz was the Chief Dental Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard and currently has a private practice in York, Pennsylvania and a dental consulting practice in Baltimore for product development and research. The author highlights the demineralizing effects of soda pop on teeth enamel, which increases the chances of dental caries. He also states that people with low salivary flow and those who have a habit of keeping soda in their mouth for a long time before swallowing, have a higher risk of demineralization of teeth enamel and dental caries. This information is important with respect to a public health program as it underscores the importance of proper training of dental professionals in the area of diet counseling, home care instructions and professionally applied fluoride treatments. The findings of the study appear to be valid, based on chemical analysis of different brands of soda and numerous nation wide studies on dental caries. Messadi, D. V., Wilder-Smith, P. & Wolinsky, L. (2009). Improving oral cancer survival: the role of dental providers. Journal of California Dental Association, 37(11), 789-798. Keyword: Oral cancer and non-invasive oral cancer detection techniques. Dr. Messadi is a professor and Dr. Wolinsky is the associate dean for academic programs and personnel at the Division of Oral Biology and Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Wilder-Smith is a researcher at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at University of California at Irvineand. The authors state that nearly 2 to 4% of all cancers occurring in the U.S are oral cancers, which are diagnosed late and therefore have a poor survival rate. They provide detailed information on various non-invasive oral cancer detection techniques like vital staining, chemiluminescence and brush biopsy. This information is important with respect to a public health program as it highlights the need for educating dental health professionals on early cancer detection techniques. The findings of the study appear to be valid as the authors have provided evidence based early cancer detection techniques in this article. Riley III, J.L., Gordan, V. V., Rindal, D. B., Fellows, J. L., Williams, O. D., Ritchie, L. K. & Gilbert, G. H. (2010). General practitioners’ use of caries preventive agents in adult patient versus pediatric patients: findings from the dental practice-based research network. Journal of American Dental Association, 141(6), 679-687. Retrieved from http://jada.ada.org/content/141/6/679.full.pdf+html Keywords: Preventive dentistry, caries risk assessment and private practice Dr. Riley is an associate professor at the Department of Community Dentistry while Dr. Gordon is a professor at the Department of Operative Dentistry and Behavioral Science at University of Florida, Gainesville. Dr. Rindal is an investigator and dental health care provider at HealthPartners in Minneapolis while Dr. Fellow is an investigator with Kaiser Permanente Northwest at Portland Oregon. The authors found that dentists were more likely to provide in-office caries preventive agents to children than to adults. They also found that when most of the dentist’s clientele had dental insurance, the dentists were more likely to provide in-office caries preventive agents to adults. This information is important with respect to a public health program since it reveals the tendency of dental practitioners to change treatment modalities based on their patient’s insurance coverage. Although the sample size of dentists was 467, it was not a random sample and therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the population of dentists as a whole. Module 5 Articles: Annotated Bibliography Lam, M., Riedy, C. A., Coldwell, S. E., Milgrom, P., & Craig, R. (2000). Children’s acceptance of xylitol-based foods. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 28(2), 97-101. Keywords: Xylitol, food preferences and child behavior Lam, Riedy, Coldwell and Milgrom are faculty members in the Department of Dental Public Health Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Researcher Craig belongs to the Cultor Food Science Corporation at Ardsley, New York. The authors evaluate the acceptance of six snack food items made with xylitol by children. The children were asked to rate each food item individually and also rank them in comparison to other food items. Nearly 84% of the children found five out of the six food items made with xylitol very good or satisfactory. This information is important with respect to a public health program since Xylitol has been found to reduce dental caries. However, the results cannot be generalized since a convenient sample of 31 children was used. Mouradian, W. E. (2006). Band-aid solutions to the dental access crisis: conceptually flawed – a response to Dr. David H. Smith. Journal of Dental Education, 70(11), 1174-1179. Keywords: Oral health, disparities, children and access to dental health. Dr. Mouradian is the Director of Regional Initiatives in Dental Education, an initiative to address the oral health requirements of the underserved communities in the Northwest. She is also a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Washington School of Dentistry. The author clearly explains why band-aid solutions to address dental access issues are not viable. She emphasizes that these solutions are not patient centered but are provider driven and that they neither address provider capacity and geographic distribution nor the lack of dental insurance or prevention. This information is important with respect to a public health program since it involves early detection and prevention strategies, special care for children with special needs, parental involvement, provision of wrap-around services for children and accessibility. The findings of the study appear to be valid as the author has provided evidence based methods to address the dental access crisis. Stewart, R. E., & Hale, K. J. (2003). The paradigm shift in etiology, prevention, and management of dental caries. Journal of the California Dental Association, 31, 247-251. Keywords: dental caries, paradigm shift, infectious disease and antimicrobials. Dr. Stewart currently has a private practice of pediatric dentistry at Salinas, California. He is also an associate professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of California at San Francisco School of Dentistry. Dr. Hale has a private practice of pediatric dentistry at Brighton, Michigan and is also a faculty member in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Michigan. The authors describe a new approach to address the prevention and management of dental caries, which is based on a medical rather than a surgical perspective. This new approach involves conducting maternal risk assessment, treatment using antimicrobials and early risk assessment of infants. This information is important with respect to a public health program since it requires dental health professionals to treat dental caries as an infectious disease and focus on preventing dental caries rather than treating them. The paradigm shift presented in this article appears to be practical as the authors have suggested a new method to reduce dental caries by focusing on prevention and early detection of dental caries. Module 6 Articles: Annotated Bibliography Dobson, A. J., Malcom, J. A., & Steele, P. L. (1989). Social effects of a history of ischaemic heart disease. Annals of Medicine, 21(1), 17-21. Keywords: Ischaemic heart disease, social effects and WHO MONICA project. Researchers Dobson, Malcom and Steele belong to the hunter region heart disease prevention program, university of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. After reviewing the data for suspected heart attacks, the authors found that men who had a history of ischaemic heart disease were more likely to be retired or permanently unable to work. Even after addressing risk factors like cigarette smoking, these men were more likely to die from the registered event within one hour after the onset of symptoms. This information is important because it underscores the need to prevent heart diseases before it causes personal and social effects that can debilitate an individual or turn fatal. The results of this study appear to be valid because of the large sample size and detailed research methodologies that include routine surveillance techniques. Hellerstedt, W. L., Himes, J. H., Story, M., Alton, I. R., & Edwards, L. E. (1997). The effects of cigarette smoking and gestational weight change on birth outcomes in obese and normal-weight women. The Journal of Public Health, 87(4), 591-596. Keywords: Cigarette smoking, women, obesity and infant birth outcomes. Researchers Hellerstedt, Himes, Story, Alton and Edwards belong to the school of public health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The authors found that cigarette smoking was associated with low birth weight in infants, regardless of the fact if mother was obese or had normal weight. They also found that gestational weight gain did not reduce the effect of smoking on infants. This information is important because it emphasizes the need to reduce cigarette smoking during pregnancy. The results of this study appear to be valid because of the large sample size and the use of logistic regression analysis and other techniques used after adjusting for confounders. Kelly, S. E., Binkley, C. J., Neace, W. P., & Gale, B. S. (2005). Barriers to care-seeking for children’s oral health among low-income caregivers. The American Journal of Public Health, 95(8), 1345-1351. Keywords: children’s oral health, access to care and barriers to dental care. Researchers Kelly, Binkley and Gale belong to University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. At the time of this study, Neace was working with the Pacific institute for research and evaluation Louisville center, Louisville. The authors of this study identified psychological, structural and cultural barriers to dental care access among low-income caregivers like oral health beliefs, caregiver responsibility, dental experiences of caregiver discriminatory treatment, transportation and expectation of poor oral health. This information is important as it underscores the importance of using community based initiatives, education of care givers and provision of professional preventive health care services to address this issue. The results should be viewed with caution because of potential selection bias and limitations with respect to racial and ethnic diversity. Read More