Health News
- State, Dental Schools Start Pilot Program To Forgive Loans Of Dental Graduates Who Set Up Practice In Appalachian Kentucky
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News ANNVILLE, Ky. ? Two to five new graduates of Kentucky's dental schools will each have up to $150,000 of their tuition debt forgiven if they practice dentistry in Appalachian Kentucky, under a pilot program state and...
- More Dental Patients Using Ers, Showing Lack Of Dental Coverage, Shortage Of Dentists And The Stepchild Status Of Oral Health
More patients are going to hospital emergency rooms for dental care, illustrating how oral health remains the stepchild of the health system despite health-care reform. "An analysis of the most recent federal data by the American Dental Association shows...
- Dr. Gene Paxton Lewis Dies; He Was A Leader In Public Health Dentistry In Kentucky And The Nation
Dr. Gene Paxton Lewis, a dentist who did the first survey of Kentucky's oral health and helped create the state's oral health coalition and its first mobile dental office, died Feb. 12 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was 78. "Lewis spent more than...
- State Starting Free Training For Dentists In Pediatric Dentistry
One of the many problems with Kentucky's oral health is that not enough dentists are willing to accept children as patients, or lack proficiency in treating children when they are around age 1, the recommended time for a child's first dental visit....
- As With Health Care Reform, Dentistry Should Move From Volume To Value, Report Urges
Dentists should be paid according to the outcomes of their patients and should be monitored more closely given that there is great variability and expense when it comes to dental care, a new report argues. "I think there is broad consensus that the current...
Health News
Oral health care for the poor in Kentucky suffers under managed care as dentists leave Medicaid; how about your county?
Kentucky's serious oral-health problems are getting worse because fewer dentists are participating in the Medicaid program -- a result of "new paperwork issues compounding Medicaid's reputation" for low payments to providers, Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal.
Ungar's source for that is Dr. Raynor Mullins of the College of Dentistry at the University of Kentucky, who told her that only 700 to 800 of the state's nearly 2,500 dentists, about 30 percent, accept Medicaid patients.
That makes now seem like a good time for journalists to ask their local dentists if they accept Medicaid -- and if not, why not; and if so, whether they are considering dropping it.
Ungar notes that 28 of Kentucky's 120 counties are deemed not to have enough dentists to serve the local population. Most if not all of them are rural. You can find out which counties are under-served by physical, dental or mental health providers at this federal Health Resources and Services Administration website.
Ungar's source for that is Dr. Raynor Mullins of the College of Dentistry at the University of Kentucky, who told her that only 700 to 800 of the state's nearly 2,500 dentists, about 30 percent, accept Medicaid patients.
That makes now seem like a good time for journalists to ask their local dentists if they accept Medicaid -- and if not, why not; and if so, whether they are considering dropping it.
Ungar notes that 28 of Kentucky's 120 counties are deemed not to have enough dentists to serve the local population. Most if not all of them are rural. You can find out which counties are under-served by physical, dental or mental health providers at this federal Health Resources and Services Administration website.
- State, Dental Schools Start Pilot Program To Forgive Loans Of Dental Graduates Who Set Up Practice In Appalachian Kentucky
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News ANNVILLE, Ky. ? Two to five new graduates of Kentucky's dental schools will each have up to $150,000 of their tuition debt forgiven if they practice dentistry in Appalachian Kentucky, under a pilot program state and...
- More Dental Patients Using Ers, Showing Lack Of Dental Coverage, Shortage Of Dentists And The Stepchild Status Of Oral Health
More patients are going to hospital emergency rooms for dental care, illustrating how oral health remains the stepchild of the health system despite health-care reform. "An analysis of the most recent federal data by the American Dental Association shows...
- Dr. Gene Paxton Lewis Dies; He Was A Leader In Public Health Dentistry In Kentucky And The Nation
Dr. Gene Paxton Lewis, a dentist who did the first survey of Kentucky's oral health and helped create the state's oral health coalition and its first mobile dental office, died Feb. 12 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He was 78. "Lewis spent more than...
- State Starting Free Training For Dentists In Pediatric Dentistry
One of the many problems with Kentucky's oral health is that not enough dentists are willing to accept children as patients, or lack proficiency in treating children when they are around age 1, the recommended time for a child's first dental visit....
- As With Health Care Reform, Dentistry Should Move From Volume To Value, Report Urges
Dentists should be paid according to the outcomes of their patients and should be monitored more closely given that there is great variability and expense when it comes to dental care, a new report argues. "I think there is broad consensus that the current...