ADA News (Newspaper) - April 15, 1985, Chicago, Illinois SURVEY PAGE SEVEN FOCUS ON SMOKELESS PAGES FIVE American Dental Association News April 1985 22 million users US market increases for smokeless tobacco education efforts under way across country quid of smokeless tobacco offers its own kind of negative quid pro quo the very real potential for damage to the oral tissues that includes oral cancer as a As hearings in Massachusetts re cently smokeless tobac asl moist in popular with young and as re ported in some children as young as 2 years of Many of these users are well aware of the hazards of smoking but most are woefully ignorant of the association of habi tual smokeless tobacco use with oral cancer and oral health problems such as periodontal discolored bad and tooth The sugars added to the leaf tobaccos are also of US consumption of smokeless tobacco reached 135 million pounds in with million pounds being consumed as chewing tobacco and million pounds as ac cording to the US Department of The major area of growth has been in moist of which million pounds were consumed in rising to million in For all tobacco products in US consumers spent billion on million on and billion on smoking tobacco as for chewing to and Because of the growth in the market for smokeless health organizations such as the the American Cancer So ciety and governmental groups are concerned about the publics lack of knowl edge of the Estimates of the number of people who use smokeless tobacco in this country run as high as 22 The smokeless tobacco in their hold that there is no scientific evidence linking the use of smokeless to bacco with oral cancer or other Continued on page 15 Inside Capitation Dentistry the law Hospital privileges People survey Practice management Indiana Blues 2 6 10 18 19 21 21 Government official backs potential lauded by attorney Reagan Administra tions top antitrust official pledged strong support in a recent speech for the develop ment of contract provider organizations and other alternative health care de livery Given the potential of these contractual it should come as no surprise that we have encouraged their said Assistant Attor ney General Paul McGrath said and the like should help to revolutionize the dynamics of the health care marketplace by giving consumers the opportunity to shop for the mix of and conveni ence they prefer and by motivating health professionals to control An but very important benefit of is the spur they give to nonparticipating physicians and hospitals to contain costs and lower he In business review we repeatedly have stressed the potential benefits that may arise from appropriately structured and similar arrange he told the American Bar Associa tions antitrust section at its spring Continued on page three Health tax poster enclosed Bound into this issue of the ADA NEWS is a poster for display in dental challenging the proposed tax on employee health care The poster uses the Tell them its for the birds theme developed by the Health Insurance Association of America HI A leader of a coalition effort to defeat Reagan Administration and congressional proposals to tax the health care insurance coverage employees receive as benefits from their has launched a million print and television campaign using this The poster is only part of a multicomponent program being mounted by the ADA to inform the and the public of the dangerous impli cations of the tax proposals on the nations dental In a few weeks every practicing ADA member will receive a standup display utilizing the same with preprinted postcards for patients to mail to their congressional voicing opposition to a health benefits Also included will be postcards for members to send to their senators and representa All ADA members are urged to display the poster prominently in their offices and to talk with their patients about the negative effect this proposed tax will have on their dental Trends in student performance examined Academic qualifications show decline from 197983 academic qualifications of dental on the are higher than 25 years they have declined during the 5year period from 1979 through Accompanying declines in academic per in dental school were slight and in according to a report of the ADA Division of Educational The declines reported tended to be sharper for private institutions than for pub lic according to Trends in the Academic Qualifications and Performances of Dental The report was compiled in order to re view and extend the findings of preliminary research done along these lines and to inves trends occurring in second year dental school performances in specific coursework In predental as well as Dental Admissions Test DAT scores tended to be higher for public schools than for private The report notes that the and DAT scores in many instances have remained fairly constant across the years observed for the public The values for private institutions have a tendency to show a pattern of decline that probably accounts for the overall declines across the 4 most recent years The report cautions in interpreting these consideration should be given the fact that there is considerable overlap in the distribution of such grades and scores for public and private Time period important The time period examined is another con The study looks only at a lar 5year Dental schools had a much larger applicant pool in the late 1960s and early 1970s than they do Looking back 25 the times that the applications to enrollment ratio was the academic qualifications also tended to be The av academic qualifications during the late 1950s were relatively lower in comparison Continued on page 20 Briefs Trans National board chairman Steven Belkin has apologized to the ADA for inad deleting the title Doctor in the recent Gold Master Card To an ADA a profes in the field of this error is The error is in no way a re sult of any action by the ADA or its Belkin wrote in a letter to ADA Executive Director John We sincerely regret the embarrass ment this has caused you and your col As a sign of our good we wish to offer our apologies to all your members in make a donation to the ADA Health Founda We trust that this action will dem to your members our commit ment to them and organized Belkin ADA offices will be closed May in observance of the Memorial Day Offices will reopen and resume daily activities May The cost of dental services rose by in according to the Consumer Price For all a increase was Physician services rose hospital room rates medical care food commodities and services Since February the cost of dental services rose physician services hospital room rates medical care food commodities services and all items The Drug Enforcement Administration DEA announced plans to replace its an licensing of dentists and other health professionals who prescribe controlled substances with a 3year The 3year registration is expected to begin next Last DEA increased its annual registration fee from to to cover the governments Guidelines for Infection Control in the Dental Office and the Commercial Dental Laboratory are available on request from the ADA Council on Prosthetic Services and Dental Laboratory Relations The guidelines describe in fection control procedures for dentists and dental laboratories and were de by the council with help from the National Association of Dental Labora the Dental Laboratory Confer and the ADA Council on Dental Therapeutics and the Council on Dental and More information is available by contact ing at ADA Delta Dental Plans of Minnesota takes over dental benefits for Republic Airlines Continued on page 20
