Dental health aides in Alaska: A qualitative assessment to improve paediatric oral health in remote rural villages.

Objective: Isolated villages in Alaska face disparities in oral health and access to care. Dental health aides such as the primary dental health aide (PDHA) and the dental health therapist (DHAT) fill a critical role for providing dental care in Alaska. Our objective was to describe strengths and barriers to paediatric dental care for children living in remote Alaska villages from the perspectives of the community and the health care system.

DENTEX: The emergence of dental therapists in the United States.

Dental therapists were introduced into Alaska in 2005 to meet the basic oral health needs of Alaska Native communities. Deployed in 54 countries, dental therapists are well distributed throughout their respective societies. In Alaska, they provide effective, quality, and safe care for children in an economical manner and are generally accepted both by the public and by the dental profession.

Expanding dental education partnerships beyond the four walls.

The increasing complexities of health care that dental graduates must be equipped to handle require schools to develop new models of education in order to address these intricacies. To meet these challenges, it is the school's responsibility to provide an environment that fosters discovery and scholarly activity, embraces evidence-based philosophies, encourages partnerships with other units on campus and the community, including the global community, and recognizes the richness of diversity in both our human resources and our thinking. Beyond new curriculum initiatives within our school, we recognized the need to build strong partnerships outside our four walls in order to respond to the challenges confronting us.

Nitrous oxide analgesia in humans: acute and chronic tolerance.

Electrical tooth stimulation was used to investigate whether humans develop tolerance to nitrous oxide (N(2)O) analgesia within a single administration as well as over repeated administrations. In a double-blind cross-over experiment, 77 subjects received a 40-min administration of 38% N(2)O at one session and placebo gas at the other. The sessions were separated by 1 week and the order of gas administration was counterbalanced.

Medical care for interned enemy aliens: a role for the US Public Health Service in World War II.

During World War II, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) administered health care to 19 000 enemy aliens and Axis merchant seamen interned by the Justice Department through its branch, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The Geneva Prisoners of War Convention of 1929, which the United States applied to civilian internees, provided guidelines for belligerent nations regarding humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war, including for their health. The INS forged an agreement with the USPHS to meet these guidelines for the German, Italian, and Japanese internees and, in some cases, their families.