Statement from David Jordan, Director of the Dental Access Project at Community Catalyst

BOSTON - "Lack of access to dental care in the United States has reached epic proportions. Dental disease is the number one chronic illness affecting children - more common than asthma. The Institute of Medicine clearly states that the current dental delivery system doesn't work for a third of the people in the U.S.

"The American Dental Association survey and report confirm the extent of the problem, but the association's recommendations for combating the problem are sorely lacking in one area: the refusal to include midlevel dental providers in the fight to expand access to quality dental care for those most in need. Midlevel providers known as dental therapists are actively expanding access to our most vulnerable citizens.

"Community Catalyst released a study just yesterday showing that dental therapists-currently practicing in Alaska and Minnesota - are rapidly expanding access to people in remote areas, those who are publicly insured, and children. Key findings from the study show that:

• Seventy-eight percent of the patients served by dental therapists in Minnesota are publicly insured;

• In Alaska, dental therapists have been able to expand access to more than 40,000 people in rural areas; and

• Nearly 85 percent of all services provided by dental therapists are routine and preventive.

"States are struggling to provide care to children enrolled in Medicaid - 51 percent of children enrolled in Medicaid did not receive care in 2011. Yet, dental therapists are treating Medicaid patients in Minnesota and could be doing the same in other states. However, the American Dental Association has opposed this proven, common sense solution despite the evidence that these providers expand access to dental services for underserved populations.

"Solving the country's dental health access problem will require solutions on multiple fronts but adding midlevel dental providers and updating the current dental delivery system are critical. They should not be left out of the equation."

For additional information on the cost-effective care provided by dental therapists, please visit www.communitycatalyst.org or view the resources below:

• Report: Economic Viability of Dental Therapists

• Press Release

• Infographic: Dental Therapists Are A Smart Investment

About Community Catalyst

Community Catalyst is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1997 with the belief that affordable quality health care should be accessible to everyone. We work in partnership with national, state and local organizations, policymakers, and philanthropic foundations to ensure consumer interests are represented wherever important decisions about health and the health system are made: in communities, courtrooms, statehouses and on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org. Read our blog at https://blog.communitycatalyst.org . Follow us on Twitter @healthpolicyhub.

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) is joining forces with the Canadian Dental Association and its Journal of the Canadian Dental Association Oasis program to bring infection prevention resources to Canadian dental professionals.

Recently, the JCDA underwent a metamorphosis into JCDA Oasis (online advice and searchable information system). The web-based Oasis combines a peer-reviewed journal, a chairside clinical decision support tool and a blog site, Oasis Discussion, where clinicians’ questions are answered. The program is designed to facilitate dental engagement and discussion around credible clinical content.

Dr. John O’Keefe, Canadian Dental Association’s director of knowledge networks and member of the OSAP board of directors, proposed the partnership, suggesting OSAP become a contributing organization for infection control. He is developing a team of experts in all clinical areas for JCDA Oasis, and plans to repackage question/answers portions of the Oasis Discussions blog into papers.

“Among other things, JCDA Oasis aims to answer the burning clinical questions on the minds of Canadian dentists and their team members,” said O’Keefe. “OSAP has an amazing wealth of responses to such questions, in the area of patient safety. With Dr. Nita Mazurat providing the link between Oasis and OSAP, we will ensure that the expertise of OSAP is brought to Canadian dental team members in an appropriate manner though JCDA Oasis. Canadian dental team members will also develop enhanced awareness of the great resources they can access by becoming members of the OSAP community.”

An OSAP member, Dr. Mazurat, has been tasked with repurposing the wealth of information OSAP has gathered and responded to over the years through frequently asked questions by their members, to ensure the content is applicable and consistent with Canadian needs.

"One of our major challenges for infection prevention and control in Canada is lack of a central venue to share our information,” said Mazurat. “The Oasis/OSAP collaboration is providing a welcome and necessary platform for overcoming this challenge.  Kudos to the foresight and passion of Dr. O'Keefe for recognizing how important it is for oral healthcare providers to be able to have these resources at their fingertips.  Therese Long and the OSAP board members are to be commended for their generosity and willingness to share their resources from the culture of safety they have developed tirelessly over many years.  I extend my gratitude to both groups for including me in this bold, exciting co-operative adventure."

To learn more about the resources available from JCDA, visit www.jcdaoasis.ca.

For the latest infection control information, guidelines and resources, visit www.OSAP.org.

About OSAP

The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention is the world’s leading membership association exclusively dedicated to preventing disease transmission and ensuring the safe delivery of oral healthcare for all.  As a non-profit organization, OSAP helps dental practitioners close the gap between policy and practice.  Its members include dental and other healthcare professionals, consultants, researchers and non-governmental organizations, manufacturing and distribution companies, policy makers and academia.  

Boston, MA- A new report assessing the economic viability of services provided by practicing midlevel dental providers in the U.S. shows that they are expanding preventive dental care to people who need it most: children and those who can't afford care. At the same time, they are providing that care at a reduced cost to the dental practice. The report, released today by Community Catalyst, determined that midlevel dental providers currently practicing in Alaska and Minnesota cost their employers 27 and 29 percent respectively of the revenue they generate.

The report is the first to analyze the economic viability of practicing midlevel dental providers in the U.S. It comes at a time when more than a dozen states are exploring using midlevel dental providers as a way to greatly expand access to dental care. According to the federal government, approximately 45 million people in the U.S. live in areas where there are not enough dentists to serve the population. Millions more can't afford dental care.

The economic study conducted for Community Catalyst by Frances M. Kim, DDS, DrPH, a general dentist and public health researcher, details the types of procedures that practicing dental therapists in the U.S. perform, the amount of money they generate in relation to the type of procedure and the population they are able to serve. According to the study, nearly 85 percent of the care they provide is routine and preventive. Filling cavities represented approximately one quarter of their work.

"For the first time we have a real picture of what it means to employ a midlevel dental provider," said Kim. "What we are seeing is that midlevel providers are providing mostly preventive care to the most economically-challenged patients and are still able to generate enough revenue to ensure that dental practices that employ them can care for the poor."

Midlevel dental providers, also known as dental therapists, are fairly new in the United States, practicing in Alaska and Minnesota. Eight states have put forward legislation seeking to authorize dental therapists. Several other states have called for studying the model further. Outside of the U.S. dental therapists have been practicing successfully in close to 50 other countries for the better part of a century. 

Dental therapists work as part of a dental care team, helping expand the reach of a dentist -- in much the same way as nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other medical personnel have been able to expand what the medical team has to offer.

The report, Economic Viability of Dental Therapists, assessed dental therapists in practice between August 2011 and December 2012. Key findings include:

• The majority of services dental therapists provided (32.8%) were preventive; sealants (44 %) and fluoride varnishes (43%) were the most common preventive services.

• Less than a quarter (23.7%) of the care dental therapists provided was restorative and extractions represented just a fraction of care (3.8%).

• Restorative procedures represent the majority of revenue (46.7%) dental therapists generate. Preventive procedures account for 20.5 percent of revenue despite the fact that they are the most commonly performed procedures.

• Dental therapists primarily treat children, low-income adults, Native Americans and those who would not otherwise have access to dental care. Seventy-eight percent of dental therapists' patients in Minnesota were publicly insured and the majority were under 21. In Alaska, 66 percent of patients served by dental therapists were under 21.

"This report underscores just how critical dental therapists could be to fighting what has become the number one chronic but preventable disease affecting children," said David Jordan, director of the Dental Access Project at Community Catalyst. "Children and families with Medicaid often struggle to find a dentist willing to treat them. In 2014, as many as 5.3 million kids could be eligible for services, but they need providers to treat them."

Dental therapists have been practicing in Alaska since 2006 and in Minnesota since 2011. Children's Dental Services, a non-profit dental health organization in Minnesota, reports their dental therapists have provided care to more than 2,000 patients, of whom 84 percent were enrolled in Medicaid and 9 percent were uninsured.

Practicing primarily in tribal health clinics in rural Alaska, dental therapists there provide care almost exclusively to those with public health insurance, reaching more than 40,000 Alaska Natives who would otherwise go without care. 

More than 50 million Americans lack access to basic dental care and tooth decay is the most common childhood illness, affecting nearly 60 percent of children. Poor oral health can lead to serious health consequences later in life, including diabetes and heart problems. Children, minorities and the poor are disproportionately affected by the oral health care crisis.

Methodology

The researcher examined data regarding productivity of Dental Therapists (DTs) and Dental Health Aide Therapists (DHATs) from 4 employers in Minnesota and Alaska. The study findings are based on data from August 2011 through December 2012 for 8 DHATS (8.0 FTEs) and 6 DTs (5.3 FTEs), two of whom are dually licensed dental hygienists/dental therapists.

About Community Catalyst

Community Catalyst is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1997 with the belief that affordable quality health care should be accessible to everyone. We work in partnership with national, state and local organizations, policymakers, and philanthropic foundations to ensure consumer interests are represented wherever important decisions about health and the health system are made: in communities, courtrooms, statehouses and on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit www.communitycatalyst.org. Read our blog at https://blog.communitycatalyst.org. Follow us on Twitter @healthpolicyhub. 

From Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site-

A new bird flu virus, called H7N9 for short, is infecting people in China and causing serious illness. About 20 percent of the people who have been infected have died. Luckily, H7N9 is not spreading easily between people the way seasonal influenza (flu) viruses do. Available evidence indicates that most people are being infected after exposure to birds or to environments that might be contaminated with bird flu virus (like live bird markets, for example). There have been no cases of H7N9 in the United States or anywhere outside of China.

Some people might ask why CDC is concerned about a virus that is causing illness on the other side of the world. Should people in the United States be worried?

Risk in the United States

At this time, the risk of getting sick from H7N9 in the United States is low. CDC does not have any new or special recommendations for the U.S. public associated with H7N9, known scientifically as avian influenza A (H7N9). But the emergence of this new H7N9 bird flu virus as a cause of severe illness and death in people raises some serious public health concerns everywhere.

Wild water and shore birds are hosts to many avian influenza viruses. These viruses are very different from human influenza viruses. Mostly, they don't spread easily from birds to people, so human infections with bird flu are quite rare. But because these viruses are so different from human flu viruses, most people have little to no immunity. For that reason, whenever there is a human infection with a new animal virus (a "novel" virus), scientists sit up and take notice. With the H7N9 situation in China, several things are worrisome:

• The H7N9 virus has genetic changes that have been associated with making bird flu viruses spread better and more easily to mammals, causing more severe disease and causing disease to progress more quickly.

• Human H7N9 virus infections so far have resulted mostly in very serious illness. Cases have started with flu-like symptoms including fever and cough and progressed quickly to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure.

• In the two months after H7N9 was first detected, more than 120 human cases were reported, including 24 deaths.

Spread of H7N9

It's reassuring that no evidence of ongoing human-to-human spread of this disease has been found. Chinese health officials have carefully followed up on more than 2,000 close contacts of confirmed cases and have not found any indication of community spread. Also, China's regular surveillance system for influenza-like illness has not shown any unusual increase in activity.

But influenza viruses are constantly changing, and a big concern is that this H7N9 virus might gain the ability to spread easily from person to person. This can happen when animal and flu viruses mix genetic information (reassort) and produce a new influenza virus that can spread easily between people but that is still very different from human viruses, and so people would have little or no immunity against it. Such "reassortment" events are believed to have happened before the influenza pandemics of 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. CDC doesn't know if this change will occur. But if this change happens with H7N9, the severity of illness associated with this virus is concerning. The world could face a pandemic with a high toll in illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

What is CDC doing about H7N9?

CDC is following this situation closely and coordinating with domestic and international partners, including the Chinese Center for Disease Control (China CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and taking aggressive proactive steps to be ready for the possibility that this virus may change to spread easily between people.

On April 11, 2013, the Influenza Division laboratory at CDC received one of the H7N9 viruses from China.

CDC has been using the virus for the following routine preparedness measures:

-Develop a test kit for detecting H7N9 infections in humans that is being shared with approved public health laboratories. The kits have already been distributed to most U.S. states and are being shared internationally, too.

-Test for the presence of antibodies against the H7N9 virus in human blood samples. This will allow CDC to see if some people already have immunity against this virus.

-Test to see if certain existing antiviral drugs (i.e. oseltamivir [Tamiflu®] and zanamivir [Relenza®]) will work to treat H7N9. (Visit H7N9 Update; CDC Pandemic Preparedness Activities Progress for more information.)

-Develop a candidate vaccine virus that could be used to make a vaccine if it is needed

Taken from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. https://www.cdc.gov/Features/h7n9flu/index.html

In an advance toward solving a 50-year-old mystery, scientists are reporting new evidence on how the fluoride in drinking water, toothpastes, mouth rinses, and other oral-care products prevents tooth decay. Their report appears in the ACS journal Langumir.

Karin Jacobs and colleagues explain that despite a half-century of scientific research, controversy still exists over exactly how fluoride compounds reduce the risk of tooth decay. That research established long ago that fluoride helps to harden the enamel coating that protects teeth from the acid produced by decay-causing bacteria. Newer studies already found that fluoride penetrates into and hardens a much thinner layer of enamel than previously believed, lending credence to other theories about how fluoride works.

The report describes new evidence that fluoride also works by impacting the adhesion force of bacteria that stick to the teeth and produce the acid that causes cavities. The experiments — performed on artificial teeth (hydroxyapatite pellets) to enable high-precision analysis techniques — revealed that fluoride reduces the ability of decay-causing bacteria to stick, so that also on teeth, it is easier to wash away the bacteria by saliva, brushing and other activity.

The authors acknowledge funding from the German Science Foundation (DFG) and the Federal State of Saarland.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - Swimways Corp., a leading outdoor recreational products manufacturer celebrated raising more than $900,000 for charity organization Operation Smile. Over the last six years, Swimways has created nearly 5,000 smiles around the world.

Packaging for the SwimWays(r) Swim Steps product line has highlighted Swimways support for Operation Smile since 2007. Swim Steps packaging also includes a donation brochure insert featuring a special message from Swimways Corp. President David Arias, inviting consumers to make direct contributions to Operation Smile. Swim Steps is a three step program consisting of a line of floats and swim training gear for children. Swim Step 1 supports young children as they are introduced to the water, Swim Step 2 provides support as children explore the water and become more confident, and Swim Step 3's graduated support gives parents a swim training system to empower their child in the water.

In addition to packaging and print support, Swimways also supports the charity online, with direct links from Swimways.com to the Operation Smile website, and via social media. In April 2012, Swimways launched a social media campaign with a Facebook challenge to benefit the charity, donating $2 for each new "like" resulting in 11,000 new Operation Smile Facebook fans and a 171% increase in Facebook monthly revenue, funding 91 surgeries.

"We're very proud of our partnership with Operation Smile," said David Arias, president of Swimways Corp. "As a manufacturer of children's products, and parents ourselves, we believe that every child should have the ability to smile. We're honored to have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many children around the world."

Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife Kathleen, a registered nurse in 1982. At a recent Swimways Corp. meeting Dr. Magee gave thanks to the employees for their efforts. "If it wasn't for people like you all doing what you do every day, Operation Smile would not be able to do what it does," Dr. Magee said. "Swimways is part of our team, and that team takes care of kids all over the world."

This year Operation Smile launched its 30th Anniversary celebration with the change forever(tm) campaign, featuring a year-long series of events in the United States and globally. World-renowned athlete Tony Hawk stars in an interactive film which can be viewed at www.wecanchangeforever.com<https://www.wecanchangeforever.com>. In the film, viewers can upload their smile through Facebook and watch as their smile travels around the world to help a child suffering from a facial deformity such as cleft lip and cleft palate. They are also asked to take a pledge to help create greater awareness for children suffering from facial deformities.

SwimWays Swim Steps, a product line created for swim development, includes the Swim Sweater(tm), Sea Squirts Swim Assist Vest(tm), and the #1 selling Baby Spring Float(tm). SwimWays Swim Steps products are available nationwide at Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Leslies' Pool Supplies, and other retailers.

About Swimways Corp

Based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Swimways Corp is a privately owned leisure and recreational water products manufacturer whose mission is making free time more fun through innovation. It is a company rich in traditional values and respected for the quality and integrity of its products and services. With distribution in more than 50,000 storefronts, it markets three unique brands: SwimWays(r), Kelsyus(r) and COOP(r). With offices in Hong Kong and the United States, the company's diverse staff is passionate about developing fun and engaging products for kids.

About Operation Smile

Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is an international children's medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose network of more than 5,000 medical volunteers from over 80 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 3.5 million healthcare evaluations and conducted over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities, as well as patients suffering from burns. To build long-term self-sufficiency in developing countries, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their own local communities, donates medical equipment and supplies, and provides year-round medical treatment through its worldwide Comprehensive Care Centers.

(PR Web)The Royal Council of Real Fairyland announced the launch of a partnership with hundreds of dentists across the United States, Canada, India and South America to become Official Real Tooth Fairy Dentists has been a huge success. Their award-winning website, which has experienced over 600% year-over-year growth, can be viewed at https://www.therealtoothfairies.com.

“We’re thrilled with the success of the partnership,” says Marilyn Bollinger, President of The Real Tooth Fairies, LLC. “With nearly 8 million unique visitors coming to our site, primarily families with children of tooth-losing age, The Real Tooth Fairies are the perfect ones to spread the word about the importance of early preventive oral care as they help families find the right dentist for them. It’s a natural partnership that benefits everyone, most importantly the children, who need early oral checkups to help ensure a healthy mouth and a positive attitude toward dentists.”

To help motivate every girl to brush her teeth just like her Tooth Fairy does, the Real Tooth Fairies created an entertaining webisode entitled: "How to Brush Your Teeth.” The fun, interactive webisode can be experienced during a visit to the online world of The Real Fairyland, or watched as a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtWozvmZsBQ.

The new webisode is just the latest addition to the Real Tooth Fairies award-winning interactive world for girls (ages 5-10) that focuses on character-building through positive role models, the 20 Lost Tooth Virtues, and the Every Kindness Counts program.

In addition to the interactive webisode, Earthie Girls (as they are called in Real Fairyland) can also print a weekly tooth-brushing chart and find an Official Real Tooth Fairy Dentist in their area. The Official Real Tooth Fairy Dentists are part of a network of dentists across the United States, Canada, India and South America who are dedicated to making dental visits special. These dentists give their young patients official Real Tooth Fairy surprises at office visits, and their waiting areas feature The Real Tooth Fairies award-winning book series. When the dentist helps wiggle out a lost tooth, the child receives an official Tooth Fairy Lost Tooth box and a tip about getting a free personalized Tooth Fairy Letter on their pillow that night. All these fun elements have girls saying they can’t wait for their next dental appointment.

“We’ve created a total experience from The Real Tooth Fairies website to an Official Real Tooth Fairies Dentist and back,” Bollinger says. “And along the way, the children are involved in games and learning in the Tooth Fairy online world, discovering the 20 Lost Tooth Virtues and staying healthy. You can tell if your dentist is an Official Real Tooth Fairy dentist by the certificate on his or her wall – and that happy twinkle in the dentist’s and dental assistants’ eyes!”

Children and their parents can find these dentists by searching by city or zip code in the website’s dentist section. On each dentist’s profile, families see what kids like most about this dentist and there is a clickable link to the dentist’s website. Families enjoy seeing a Dream Tree about that dentist that shows his or her talents, dreams, and achievements. Search for an Official Real Tooth Fairy dentist here: https://www.therealtoothfairies.com/official-rtf-dentists/search

“Dental care is such an important part of a girl’s total health,” says Bollinger. “As Queen Sirona of Real Fairyland says: ‘If girls see their teeth like treasures to take care of for their whole lifetime, they are inspired to brush twice a day to make them shine like beautiful jewels’.”

About The Real Tooth Fairies

The Real Tooth Fairies are represented to Earthies by the Royal Council of the Real Fairyland, LLC, an entertainment company dedicated to the production of excellence in programming and interactive media, tied to consumer products that inspire imagination, foster creativity, and encourage children to spread kindness and change the world. The Real Tooth Fairies focus on character building through positive role models, the 20 Lost Tooth Virtues, and Every Kindness Counts. In addition, a school kindness program involves students in a 4-week program wherein kids are heroes for kindness in their family, school, and community while supporting a global charity.

Marilyn Bollinger, president of The Real Tooth Fairies, is the author of 30 Disney books and has consulted for LeapFrog, Fisher-Price and other top children’s companies. As a licensed clinical social worker, she practices family and children’s therapy and is leader of parenting workshops. And of course, she’s honored to be the Earth’s ambassador to all things Real Fairyland, where Love is Magic and Every Kindness Counts!

Learn about the Real Tooth Fairies at https://www.TheRealToothFairies.com/guest-services/about-us

WASHINGTON/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In discussions of workforce issues and the media, New Zealand is frequently hailed as proof that dental therapists are the key to improving the oral health of underserved populations in the US.  The latest example is a brief published by the Pew Children's Dental Campaign, "Dental Therapists in New Zealand:  What the Evidence Shows." But that report contains a significant error, one that undermines Pew's overall premise. As it turns out, New Zealand and the United States have identical levels of untreated tooth decay in school age children. 

"Dental Therapists in New Zealand:  What the Evidence Shows" purports to demonstrate that the use of therapists in that country has resulted in dramatically better oral health outcomes among children than in children in the US: "Among 5- to 11-year olds, the treatment disparity is the most dramatic. In New Zealand, 3 percent of children in this age range have untreated tooth decay, compared with 20 percent of U.S. kids."  The brief's authors derived the statistic of 20 percent untreated decay among U.S. children from a 2012 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Their error—unfortunately glaring—was in assuming that the 20 percent figure represented permanent teeth only (originally reported by the CDC in May 2012; corrected in June), when in fact the CDC reports the statistic is for both primary and permanent teeth. 

While New Zealand's rate of 3 percent may be accurate for permanent teeth, the report referenced by Pew (2009 New Zealand Oral Health Survey) notes that 17 percent of baby teeth in New Zealand's 5- to 11 year-olds have untreated decay.  That adds up to a total of 20 percent. We have confirmed our reading of the data with the CDC. 

Why does this matter?  Because the Pew Children's Dental Campaign uses its erroneous calculations to buttress its arguments that New Zealand's use of dental therapists is responsible for better oral health among New Zealand children than those in the US.  When the numbers are corrected, those arguments fall apart.

"Ultimately, a 20 percent rate of untreated decay in children is unacceptable in any country," said ADA President Dr. Robert A. Faiella . "We are committed to changing this, as we know Pew is.  Unfortunately, debates about dental midlevel providers have threatened to drown out discussions of how to extend known, proven solutions to greater numbers of Americans who lack access to dental care, many of them suffering with untreated disease.  That's why the ADA remains committed to pursuing proven, actionable measures to deliver care now to those in need, prevent disease from occurring and recurring, and provide the knowledge that empowers families to become good stewards of their own oral health."

About the American Dental Association

The not-for-profit ADA is the nation's largest dental association, representing 157,000 dentist members. The premier source of oral health information, the ADA has advocated for the public's health and promoted the art and science of dentistry since 1859. The ADA's state-of-the-art research facilities develop and test dental products and materials that have advanced the practice of dentistry and made the patient experience more positive. The ADA Seal of Acceptance long has been a valuable and respected guide to consumer dental care products. The monthly The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) is the ADA's flagship publication and the best-read scientific journal in dentistry. For more information about the ADA, visit www.ada.org. For more information on oral health, including prevention, care and treatment of dental disease, visit the ADA's consumer website www.MouthHealthy.org.

The American Dental Assistants Association (ADAA) is looking for a new slogan for 2014 Dental Assistants Recognition Week. The ADAA wants to replace the current slogan, "Key to Productivity: The Professional Dental Assistant," with a shorter slogan. Enter the contest for a chance to win a one-year paid membership to ADAA.

Submit entries to tomcdono@adaa1.com before August 10. 

Instrumentarium Dental, a designer and manufacturer of advanced dental imaging equipment, is providing the use of advanced dental care equipment to needy individuals in Northeast Philadelphia. The Mission of Mercy (MOMS) clinic provides free dentistry to more than 2,000 underprivileged people per event.

Mission of Mercy clinics are set-up in locations easily accessible to all populations that live in a specific geographical area. Patient transportation, if needed, is arranged through community partnerships to provide shuttle transportation.  All services are provided free of charge by members of organized dentistry and assisted by a host of volunteers.

“Supporting Mission of Mercy is an easy decision, “ said North American Instrumentarium Dental Vice President Brian Broncatti, “Patients receive much needed dental care without having to worrying about how to pay for the services they receive.  It is a cause that we truly enjoy supporting.”

Instrumentarium Dental, part of the KaVo Kerr Group of market-leading dental equipment companies, provides X-ray equipment used for dental imaging and is a global leader in the design and production of advanced dental imaging equipment ranging from both intra- and extra-oral applications as well as advanced 3D technology.

Instrumentarium Dental will provide two ORTHOPANTOMAGRAPH® OP30 machines for the Philadelphia MOMS event. The ORTHOPANTOMOGRAPH^® OP30 is a digital panoramic X-ray unit designed for dental offices and small imaging centers that demand a top quality digital panoramic system.

About Instrumentarium Dental

Over the past 50 years, Instrumentarium Dental has been a pioneer in imaging systems designed for professionals. From the original ORTHOPANTOMOGRAPH® OP1 to the complete offering of today’s advanced imaging systems, our years of experience guarantee our customers a safe investment in their future. For more information: www.instrumentariumdental.com