News

As I write this column, it is June 19. Things change rapidly, so I wanted to provide some reference to my comments. I have received several questions from members about our Ohio State Dental Board guidelines, so I had a conversation with the Board President, Dr. Kumar Subramanian. I relayed the questions that I had received and he reiterated that ... [continue reading]

The Ohio General Assembly is considering a pair of bills (House Bill 606 and Senate Bill 308) that would provide certain businesses and health care providers with qualified civil immunity during the current coronavirus pandemic and other such emergencies. On behalf of the ODA, I submitted testimony in support of these bills to both the House Civil ... [continue reading]

Last month we looked into patient documentation and record retention. This month to finish the two-part series we will look at the documentation of the office and employees. As is always the case, documentation in the dental office is of the utmost importance. As the saying goes in dental offices, if it is not documented it did not happen. That is ... [continue reading]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much disruption throughout every facet of society. An impact it has had on dentistry has directly led to increased costs for dentists to provide care while at the same time significantly decreasing dentists' ability to recover those costs via the number of patients they may see in any given period of time. While ... [continue reading]

Thanks to the pandemic, we have had time recently to consider more of the softer side of dental care. Understanding what makes our relationships with patients valuable and patient care successful is of paramount importance. In private practice for years and now in discussions with students, I stress the responsibility of dentists to be leaders for ... [continue reading]

A favorite of health care future-gazers these days is value-based care (VBC) or you may have heard it called pay-for-performance (P4P). Like much of health care reform, it comes down from Washington, from those who wish to transform our health care system from its present state to something few if any have ever seen. In a nutshell, VBC intends to ... [continue reading]

Dental offices that either require the use of respirators such as N95 masks or make their use optional must create an OSHA Respiratory Protection Program. The Ohio Dental Association has developed a sample OSHA Respiratory Protection Program for dental offices as part of our regulatory compliance guide. For more information about the OSHA ... [continue reading]

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we understand that many Give Kids A Smile events that were scheduled for the spring or summer may have been postponed or canceled. If your event has been canceled due to the pandemic, please remember to report that to the Ohio Dental Association and American Dental Association. Please log into the GKAS sign-up ... [continue reading]

The Ohio Free Clinic Dentist Loan Repayment Program aims to increase access to dental care in Ohio's Free Clinics by providing loan repayment assistance to dentists who volunteer or work part-time in an Ohio Free Clinic. Applications for the program are being accepted through July 24. For more details and to apply, visit ... [continue reading]

The Battelle CCDS Critical Care Decontamination System™ addresses the current shortage of critical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across the United States. Battelle CCDS™ is designed to work on N95 respirators for the decontamination of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Battelle’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) allows ... [continue reading]