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A study was conducted to ascertain the feasibility of face-to-face educational outreach visits, called 'academic detailing', as a methodology to promote dentists' adoption and incorporation of tobacco-use cessation counseling activities into their practices. It was found that using academic detailing, dentists could effectively increase the longevity, decrease the morbidity and improve the oral health status of their patients through the promotion of smoking cessation.

Computer access to the MEDLINE medical research database service at home or in the office may be helpful to dentists in improving patient care and office efficiency. This electronic library contain updated lists of research articles cataloged by title, author, and key words and may contain a summary of the article. Dentists can access MEDLINE either through a service linked to their computer over the telephone lines or by updated CD's played on the computer's CD-ROM drive. MEDLINE can help to answer patient questions and keep dentists up to date on current dental techniques, disease prevention, and management procedures. Equipment requirements include a computer, modem and phone line if using the telephone service, CD-ROM drive if using CDs, and a printer to print the accessed information.

HIV, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, remains a significant health problem among U.S. adolescents and young adults. Since HIV/AIDS increases the risk for various oral conditions, it is imperative that dentists become familiar with its presentation and clinical management within this unique population. This brief paper details the occurrence, elevated risk for oral diseases, and clinical management of HIV/AIDS among adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults are living longer and retaining their teeth, resulting in a concomitant increase in the need for oral care services. Despite improvements in oral health among the elderly, there continue to be profound disparities by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic and dentate status. Furthermore, challenges, such as limitations in activities of daily living, poor wheel-chair accessibility of dental clinics, poor geographic distribution of providers, difficulty navigating the oral health system and fiscal limitations make access to, and utilization of, dental services difficult among older adults. While dialogue around national policy, especially incorporation of dental benefits for adults in Medicare and Medicaid, is imperative, local efforts in New York and Northern Manhattan show promise in addressing the oral health and health care of older New Yorkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, in partnership with the Harlem United Community AIDS Center, has developed a service-learning (SL) program for use in the training of Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents. This article presents basic tenets of SL, their applicability for dentistry, and our experience implementing SL in care of people living with HIV/AIDS. It proposes that social-behavioral theory, when incorporated into the basic components of SL, can play a useful role in resolving a number of challenges inherent in competency-based training programs. Although the article provides examples of how a particular theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, might be applied in the SL context, opportunities for the application of other social-behavioral theories potentially exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the assess the prevalence of oral lesions in HIV-infected people undergoing highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), and the association between the duration of HAART usage and oral lesions. The article mentions that the duration of HAART usage had a significant influence on the prevalence of these lesions. The article presents a list of oral side effects including Xerostomia, Parotid lipomatosis, and Oral Ulceration.