'Dentist of horror' on trial for mutilating patients

NEVERS, France - The trial of a Dutch man dubbed the "dentist of horror" after allegedly mutilating the mouths of more than 100 patients in France is due to open on Tuesday.

Jacobus van Nierop, 51, ripped out healthy teeth and left dozens of patients in a remote French village with broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia.

He is charged with aggravated assault as well as fraud over claims that he tried to rip off patients and insurance companies, and faces up to 10 years in prison and a 150,000 euro ($165,000) fine if found guilty.

Van Nierop, who went by the first name of Mark, was hired by a head-hunter in 2008 and was initially welcomed by locals in the rural area of Chateau-Chinon, who were sorely lacking in medical services.

Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, visited the dentist in March 2012 to have braces fitted.

"He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days," she said.

An 80-year-old, Bernard Hugon, said the dentist left "pieces of flesh hanging everywhere" after tearing out a tooth.

"Every time, he would give us what he called 'a little prick' and we were asleep, knocked out," said Nicole Martin, a retired teacher who lost several teeth to abscesses caused by the horrific operations.

"When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after," she added.

Martin set up a victims' group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon swelled to 120 members.

In June of that year, police arrested Van Nierop but left him free pending trial, and he fled the country the following December.

He was eventually tracked down to a small Canadian town in New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant in September 2014.

Local media reported that he tried to slit his throat when police arrested him.

Van Nierop tried to block his extradition, first to the Netherlands and then France, claiming to suffer from "psychological problems" including gender identity issues and suicidal tendencies. But he was eventually placed in a prison psychiatric unit in the Loiret department, south of Paris.

"He claimed to have killed his first wife, he played crazy, he said he was trans-sexual. He tried everything" to avoid extradition, Martin said.

According to Dutch media, Van Nierop had already come under investigation at home over his working practices before coming to France.

The trial in Nevers is due to last until March 18.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why 'silver pasta' isn't toxic

MANILA -- Dental amalgam, or "silver pasta," is not toxic despite containing mercury, a University of the Philippines professor and dentist said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Nina Corpuz on dzMM's "Magandang Gabi Dok", Dr. Michelle Segara, faculty member and chairman of the Department of Basic Dental Health Sciences of the University of The Philippines (UP) College of Dentistry, said dental amalgam is not dangerous to health and shouldn't be banned.

"Walang scientific evidence directly connecting dental amalgam sa mga diseases na sinasabi nila, like pagkasira ng utak, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease," Segara said.

Clamor rose for the banning of "silver pasta" after an environmental group released a study saying that mercury levels in the air in dental schools in the country are dangerously high.

Segara, however, said sweeping generalization is dangerous. She added that one study alone cannot prove that dental amalgam is toxic and should be banned.

She said that dental amalgam has been in use for more than 150 years, and experts haven't found any direct link between the mercury found in the amalgam and any diseases or death.

"We concur with other agencies in Europe and in the US. Even the World Health Organization (WHO), in their Minamata Convention of 2013, exempted dental amalgams and vaccines in their ban on mercury," she said.

She was referring to the Minamata Convention of 2013, wherein different countries pushed for the total ban on mercury following the large-scale public health crises caused by mercury poisoning and Minamata disease in Japan and in other countries.

What's in 'silver pasta'
Segarra explained how mercury is used in dental amalgams.

"Masama ang mercury, pero kapag ginamit mo siya sa dental fillings, like silver pasta, the mercury is bound to the silver so hindi siya makakalabas."

The mercury inside the amalgam can only be toxic if it leaches.

However, she explained that even in that case, it will have minimal effects as only a minute amount of mercury is used in dental amalgams.

She added that the kind of mercury used in dental amalgams is organic mercury, which is relatively safer compared to methyl mercury being used in industries that causes the Minamata disease.

She also said that the UP College of Dentistry, as well as other dental schools in the country, practice good mercury hygiene by ensuring that dental amalgams are not left in room temperature to minimize mercury emissions.

"Mercury vaporizes in room temperature. If the temperature is below 27 degrees, then there will be mercury emission."

No need to panic

Segarra advised people not to panic and go to their dentists to have their "silver pasta" removed, saying that it is actually more dangerous than leaving it on the teeth.

"Kapag dini-drill out yung amalgam, mas may emission kasi umiit siya. Mas toxic kapag ganoon."

She also explained that it is considered unethical for a dentist to remove a sound dental filling.

A damaged dental filling, on the other hand, is a different story.

Segarra added that there are certain safety precautions that a dentist should practice in amalgam extraction, like putting a rubber dam on the patient's mouth to separate the amalgam from the mouth, and using copious amount of water while extracting the amalgam.

She said minimal mercury vapor is emitted during amalgam extraction, and that the mercury levels are way below the tolerable limit values.

"There is no need to fix it (amalgam) if it is not broken," she added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Pete Rose Sued By Dentist -- He Charlie Hustled Me

Baseball won't have him back ... and now, Pete Rose's dentist is pissed at him too ... claiming the MLB legend has refused to pay for almost $3k in dental services.

Dr. Armen Terteryan is drillin' Rose for $2,915.00 for "dental services rendered and not paid for" back in 2010.

According to the lawsuit, filed in small claims court in L.A., the doc claims Rose agreed to the fees before "starting treatment" ... though it's unclear which procedures were performed on the baseball star.

A small claims showdown has been scheduled for December 14th. Calls to Rose have not been returned.

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2011/11/03/pete-rose-lawsuit-dentist/#.TrKMqVsbBog

SEO Services for Dentists – Why You Need Them

If you’re a dentist, you probably aren’t an expert on the inner-workings of the world wide web. Sure, you may have a website – but are you actively working to make the most out of it? Do you know how to optimize it properly and target relevant traffic? If you’re too busy to focus on your website, you need professional SEO services for dentists to maximize your potential.
What can the right SEO services do for your dental practice?
These 4 things:

1. Help you target local traffic
Let’s say you’re a dentist in Dallas. Clearly, you want people in the Dallas area to be able to easily find your website. With the right SEO services, you can optimize your website so that it attracts people from your local area.
Did you know that a big chunk of Google’s searches are related to local businesses? Out of the 2 million Google searches that take place every minute, 20% of them are related to location. By getting SEO services that target those local searches, you can wind up with more web traffic, and, ultimately, more patients.

2. Make you stand out
How many dentists are there in your area? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? If you want to generate more business, you need a way to stand out; SEO services for dentists can help you do it.
The right SEO strategy can get you to the top of the search engine results – where people are more likely to find you. After all, most people look for a new dentist on the internet. But if your website is not right under their nose, you’re going to lose their business to a competitor.

3. Give you cost-effective advertising
Once you have a solid SEO strategy in place, you can reap the benefits for years. Compare that to paid advertising – both online and off. With paid advertising, as soon as you stop paying the bills, you lose the exposure. But by focusing on professional SEO services for dentists, you can wind up with a far-reaching web presence that’s far more cost-effective than any advertisement.

4. Leave your competitors in the dust
Chances are that the majority of your competitors are not focused on their web presence. So, by turning to SEO services for dentists, you can make the most out of your site, target specific traffic, and leave your competitors in the dist. Even if your competitors eventually get around to optimizing their own websites down the road, you will be so far ahead of them that they will have to work hard just to try and catch you!

Search engine optimization or SEO as it is popularly known as, is a process of conducting a series of activities to promote the incoming traffic on a website. It is done primarily to help a website gain prominence on the internet. In this process the webpage is structured in such a way so that it can be easily and swiftly accessed.

Article Source:
http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051491064-1-seo-services-for-dentists-why-you-need-them/