Texas dental journal
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Hookah smoking has recently emerged as a popular alternative to cigarette smoking, particularly among young adults. The perception that hookah smoking is cleaner and less harmful than cigarette smoking appears to be key to its increased use, although this is not the case. Hookah tobacco smoking delivers the powerful addictive drug nicotine, higher levels of carbon monoxide than a cigarette as well as many of the carcinogens in cigarette smoke. ⋯ Communal hookah use increases the risk of transmission of infectious diseases. Transition from social to individual hookah use is a critical step toward nicotine dependence as well as progression to cigarette use. Prevention and intervention in patients' tobacco use should include discussion of cigarette alternatives including hookah smoking.
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Texas dental journal · Mar 2011
Summary of the new 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Basic Life Support (CPR).
Approximately every 5 years, American Heart Association (AHA) experts review emerging scientific evidence and recent clinical experiences and update the AHA guidelines for basic and advanced life support procedures for in-hospital and out-of-hospital victims of life-threatening cardiac events. This article summarizes many of the 2010 changes in those guidelines as they apply to dental healthcare providers (HCP). More detailed information will be available in the near future as these guidelines are fully implemented and instructional materials are released by the AHA. Until they are trained in future AHA or American Red Cross (ARC) basic or advanced cardiac life support (BLS, ACLS) courses in 2011, dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and office staff should continue to rely on the training and information they received in their most recent basic (and/or advanced cardiac) life support training course.
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Texas dental journal · Feb 2011
Teaching evidence-based practice at the University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston.
This brief report outlines the current curriculum for evidence-based practice at The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston (UTDB). This curriculum is now based on the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation 2010 Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs. ⋯ Students learn to be clinically effective through use of the components of evidence-based practice, information search and retrieval, critical thinking (appraisal), and through information resource evaluation and then application to the patient or population. Planned innovations in curriculum include further implementation of evidence-based decision-making in clinical courses, including development of the clinical prescription as a means of demonstrating competence in asking and answering clinical questions, and of the portfolio as a means of demonstrating overall competence.