Emerging Regional and Racial Disparities in the Lifetime Risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Among Men who Have Sex With Men: A Comparative Life Table Analysis in King County, WA and Mississippi.

Background: Little is known about the lifetime risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis among US men who have sex with men (MSM), trends in risk and how risk varies between populations.

Methods: We used census and HIV surveillance data to construct life tables to estimate the cumulative risk of HIV diagnosis among cohorts of MSM born 1940 to 1994 in King County, Washington (KC) and Mississippi (MS).

Results: The cumulative risk of HIV diagnosis progressed in 3 phases.

Factors associated with access to dental care for children with special health care needs.

Background: The authors examined the relationship between receipt of routine medical care and receipt of dental care among children with special health care needs (CSHCN) who resided in the American Dental Association's Fifth Trustee District, which includes Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

Methods: The authors conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the 2001 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, a module of that year's State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (sponsored by the U.S.

Engaging the dental workforce in disaster mitigation to improve recovery and response.

Natural disasters may strike quickly and without warning and cause long-term health consequences beyond the immediate loss of lives and property. Dental professionals have a social responsibility to participate in community emergency preparedness planning and response to mitigate prolonged recovery of the dental care infrastructure in the affected areas. Public health and emergency management agencies should plan for access to emergent dental care as part of a multidisciplinary local emergency response to mitigate the impact of devastation on the primary oral health needs of persons in the affected geographic areas.

Dental care as a vital service response for disaster victims.

Hurricane Katrina's impact on the infrastructure of public health and the health care system in the affected areas was unprecedented in the United States. Many dental offices were flood-bound in New Orleans and over 60% of dental practices were partially or completely damaged in affected counties in Mississippi. Most needs assessments conducted during the initial recovery operations did not include questions about access to oral health care.

Impact of increasing Medicaid dental reimbursement and implementing school sealant programs on sealant prevalence.

Unlabelled: We examined the impact of two financing strategies--increasing Medicaid dental reimbursements and providing school sealant programs--on dental sealant? prevalence (number of children with at least one sealant) among 7- to 9-year-olds in Alabama and Mississippi counties from 1999 to 2003.

Methods: We used Medicaid claims data in a linear regression model. We regressed number of children sealed per county onto eligible children, median family income, dentist-to-population ratio, and indicator variables for reimbursement increase, presence of community health center (CHC) or school sealant program, and interaction between reimbursement increase and presence of school program or CHC.

HIV-positive patients: dental management considerations.

HIV infection in humans occurs primarily by mucosal infection during unprotected sexual activity or inoculation during intravenous drug use. HIV infection causes a progressive deterioration of protective cell-medicated immunity, specifically due the destruction of thymus-derived lymphocytes, called T-cell, during viral replication. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) reduces HIV viral replication and improves immune function against opportunistic infections, but it does not offer a cure for disease.

Interprofessional educational partnerships in school health for children with special oral health needs.

Dental caries is an infectious yet preventable disease that is rampant in some subpopulations in the United States, in particular among individuals with neurodevelopmental/intellectual disabilities (ND/ID). This article reports on the implementation and evaluation of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) School of Dentistry interprofessional school health educational model to improve oral health assessment and referral for children with ND/ID in an inner-city school system. During this project, dental hygiene students and elementary school nurses were paired to assess the oral health status of 255 inner-city children with developmental disabilities, improve referral/access to dental care for those identified as having need, and propose dental hygiene curriculum changes that would incorporate participation in a "real-life public health setting" for those with ND/ID.

Maximizing the dental workforce: implications for a rural state.

Geographic areas with low socioeconomic status may experience status may experience less access to oral health promotion and oral health care. Approximately 40% of the licensed dentists in Mississippi practice in two metropolitan areas, Jackson and the Gulf Coast. As a result, 38 of the 82 counties in Mississippi have 4,000 or more persons per dentist.