Effects of managed care on teaching, research, and clinical practice in academic plastic surgery.

The aim of this study was to determine: 1) if there have been changes in teaching, research, and clinical practice in academic plastic surgery in recent years; and 2) if there have been, are they associated with changes in the managed care environment? Gaining a clearer perspective on how managed care affects academic plastic surgery will enable academicians to define better the problems and opportunities they face mutually and to respond effectively to these issues. This study used a cross-sectional study design. Reference time periods were the premanaged care era (1990-1991) versus the current time (1997-1998).

Technology assessment in the Veterans Administration Dental Longitudinal Study.

Of the 52 studies emanating from the Veterans Affairs Dental Longitudinal Study, 6 were identified as technology assessments. Three of these studies evaluated dental radiographs used for the diagnosis of oral lesions. Two studies compared alternative technologies for the replacement of missing teeth, and one reported the effects of NSAIDs on alveolar bone loss.

Effect of Peroxyl mouthrinse on chlorhexidine staining of teeth.

The efficacy of Peroxyl mouthrinse in reducing the extrinsic stain produced by Peridex, a chlorhexidine mouthrinse, was evaluated in a double-blind, three-month clinical study. Intraoral safety, extrinsic tooth stain and plaque accumulation scores were determined on 119 healthy adult subjects at baseline and at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals following use of Peroxyl or placebo formulations in combination with the Peridex product. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups.

Statistical methods for comparing dental diagnostic procedures.

In dental diagnosis, there are typically two or more clinical diagnostic procedures which may be used either independently or jointly to reach a conclusion regarding the presence of a particular disease in a patient. To determine which of these diagnostic procedures are more accurate, statistical methods may be applied to research data in which the true health status as well as the diagnosis provided by each clinical procedure are available on each observation. Results arising from this type of analysis can be of great interest to clinicians when the diagnostic procedures themselves are costly, painful, or even potentially harmful to the patient.

Effects of age and removable artificial dentition on taste.

Sodium chloride and sucrose gustatory recognition thresholds, suprathreshold taste intensity function, and sucrose suprathreshold taste preference in healthy adult males with removable artificial dentition were compared with persons having natural dentition. In addition, several inorganic salivary constituents were evaluated for their possible relationship with these modalities. The 75 participants studied were divided into two age and two dentition groups: less than 65 years versus 65 years and older; and natural dentition only versus either removable partial dentures or complete artificial dentition.