Access To Dental Care Is ‘A Huge, Huge Problem’ For People With Disabilities, But At NYU Clinic They’re Treated Like Family
Some dentists won't treat patients with disabilities, but at a new center at the New York University College of Dentistry -- which educates roughly 10 percent of the nation's dentists -- that behavior is unacceptable. "We need to train dental students to stop throwing their hands up and to start embracing them,'' said Dr. Ronald Kosinski, the center's director. Other public health news focuses on student safety, fossil discovery, hungry college students, antidepressant drugs, eating disorders and more.
The New York Times:
Saving The Teeth Of Patients With Special Needs
Many dentists can’t — or won’t — treat patients with disabilities. Some cannot physically accommodate a large wheelchair, “or they don’t feel comfortable treating the patients,” said Dr. Rita Bilello, the dental director at Metro Community Health Centers in Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx. Historically, pediatric dentists were taught how to treat patients with special needs, but general dentists weren’t. That means a child with autism might get regular checkups, but not necessarily an adult. However, in 2006, a new standard for dental programs went into effect. The Commission on Dental Accreditation mandated all students had to be able to competently assess the treatment needs of special-needs patients. But as of 2012, less than three-quarters of dental schools have predoctoral students actively involved in their treatment, according to a study in the Journal of Dental Education. (Saint Louis, 5/2)
The Associated Press:
School Safety At Forefront Of Teacher Rally After Shooting
North Carolina's public school teachers and their supporters showed up in force Wednesday to demand an overhaul of the state's education priorities, bringing thousands to a march and rally in the state's capital. Chanting "Whose schools? Our schools! Whose voice? Our voice," they rallied in Raleigh for the second year in a row. They want more money for student support staff, such as counselors and nurses — features now included in the state House budget written by Republican legislators. (5/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Fossil Points To A Vanished Human Species In Himalayas
A fossil jaw found in the Himalayan highlands of Tibet belongs to a vanished human species called Denisovans, deepening the mystery of human evolution in Asia, scientists said Wednesday in a new study probing the roots of humankind. Discovered by a local Buddhist monk, the fossil shows these archaic human relatives lived on the roof of the world in the rarefied air at almost 11,000 feet—an altitude that would leave many people today starved for oxygen. They settled at these frigid heights at least 160,000 years ago, more than 120,000 years before modern humankind arrived, said the scientists, who published their work on the fossil in the journal Nature. (Hotz, 5/1)
The New York Times:
Pay Tuition Or Eat Dinner? Nearly Half Of All State College Students Go Hungry
In the coming weeks, thousands of college students will walk across a stage and proudly accept their diplomas. Many of them will be hungry. A senior at Lehman College in the Bronx dreams of starting her day with breakfast. An undergraduate at New York University said he has been so delirious from hunger, he’s caught himself walking down the street not realizing where he’s going. A health sciences student at Stony Brook University on Long Island describes “poverty naps,” where she decides to go to sleep rather than deal with her hunger pangs. (Laterman, 5/2)
NPR:
In 'Mind Fixers,' Anne Harrington Explores Role Of Drug Marketing In Mental Illness
Historian and Harvard professor Anne Harrington believes that pharmaceutical companies have played an oversized role in determining how mental illness is treated in the United States — leading to a rise in the use of antidepressant drugs. Harrington's new book, Mind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness, chronicles the history of psycho-pharmaceuticals, such as Prozac and Xanax, which have been used to treat depression and anxiety, as well as lithium, the first drug to treat what is now called bipolar disorder. (Gross, 5/2)
The New York Times:
Anti-Infective Drugs Tied To Eating Disorders
Girls who have serious or repeated infections in childhood are at higher risk for developing eating disorders in adolescence, a new study has found. The study, in JAMA Psychiatry, tracked 525,643 girls — every girl born in Denmark from 1989 through 2006. The researchers recorded all prescriptions that were filled for antibiotics and other anti-infective medications, as well as hospitalizations for infection, through 2012. There were 4,240 diagnoses of eating disorders during that time. (Bakalar, 5/2)
The New York Times:
Premature Birth Raises Risk Of Kidney Disease
Premature birth increases the risk for chronic kidney disease later in life, a new study reports. Researchers used a database of 4,186,615 singleton live births in Sweden from 1973 to 2014, following the people into mid-adulthood. The analysis, in BMJ, found 4,305 cases of chronic kidney disease. (Bakalar, 5/1)
