Dentist

A homeless man spent the night camped outside the Forum, hoping to finally get glasses to help him see better. An unemployed grocery clerk waited in desperate need of root canal surgery. A former auto mechanic came with an aching back. One by one, about 1,500 people made their way through the Inglewood sports arena, where dozens of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and other healthcare professionals are providing free medical services this week. Remote Area Medical Foundation is a trailer-equipped service that has staged health clinics in rural parts of the United States, Mexico and South America.

A vet responds Prior to arriving in Los Angeles, my experience with the practice of canine disarming for the treatment of aggressive dogs was minimal, and over the years, my continuing education with this procedure has been on the job. My feelings regarding this practice have fluctuated from being adamantly opposed to performing it on occasion, justifying it as a desperate approach to addressing the problem of dog aggression for clients...

`The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has revised an earlier study detailing severe shortages of dentists in several California counties. A technical error -- which arose because some ZIP Codes span two counties -- caused an underestimate in the total number of active dentists and the ratio of dentists to population in some areas. The overall remain largely the same: Some counties are experiencing a severe shortage and others may soon see shortages when aging dentists retire.

Americans may be cutting back on computers, books, washing machines and jewelry, but they're still going to the dentist. Sageworks, which collects data on private companies, said the average dentist office saw 6.9% sales growth in the 12 months through April. Oral hygiene isn't the only area with sales gains in the recession, Sageworks said. Among the service and product providers seeing revenue gains: Accountants tallied 10.2% higher revenue; storage companies' sales rose 9.6%; building contractors, such as electricians and plumbers, had sales gains of 4.6% as homeowners focused on remodeling; grocery store sales receipts grew by 6.7%; and personal-care shops, such as hair salons, barber shops and skin-care providers, saw sales increase 4.5%.

Have a toothache in Alpine County? Tough luck. There are no active dentists there, making it the most underserved dental population in California, according to a report released Thursday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The 700-square-mile mountainous region is one of several counties with severe dentist shortages. San Benito and Inyo counties have less than one dentist per 5,000 people; Imperial and Colusa counties have less than one dentist per 4,000.

The plane that suddenly nose-dived into a cemetery in Montana this weekend killed three young California families bound for a ski vacation, including two sisters, their husbands and their five children. Federal investigators, sifting through the charred wreckage Monday, warned that the cause may not be known for many months, but were looking into whether the plane was carrying too much weight or was disabled by icing or mechanical problems.

The family of bone-strengthening drugs called bisphosphonates -- best known by the brand names Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva -- pose a small risk of causing esophageal cancer, a Food and Drug Administration official reported Thursday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. Diane K. Wysowski of the drug risk assessment division said the FDA has received 23 reports of the cancer developing in patients taking Fosamax, manufactured by Merck & Co. Eight of the patients died.

Orange County sheriff's deputies have arrested a San Juan Capistrano dentist on suspicion of sexually assaulting a patient, a sheriff's spokesman said Thursday. Ghassan Mehtar was accused of assaulting a 26-year-old woman while treating her in his office, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. The woman told authorities that Mehtar pulled up her clothing to expose her breasts and fondled her as she sat in a dentist's chair. She was alert and not under anesthesia, Amormino said. Employees told investigators that other patients -- primarily Latinas who spoke little English -- had complained that Mehtar abused them as well.

Amid the congested pantheon of romantic male leads, one would be hard-pressed to find a more improbable candidate than Ricky Gervais. I mean, can we talk? Even if one could somehow exorcise images of David Brent, the gaseous desk jockey immortalized by Gervais in the BBC comedy "The Office," one would still have to reckon with the package: the squat, orb-like frame, the craggy smile spiked with stalactite-like canines that would be the envy of the entire Transylvania vampire workers union.

Michael Eisner is taking a road trip back to TV family land with a gung-ho dentist and some new pals at Nickelodeon. Through his private investment firm, Tornante Co., Eisner plans to announce today that he has sold his first animated series, "Glenn Martin DDS," to the Viacom Inc.-owned cable channel. The program, about a dentist who takes his family on a road trip across the country, is expected to debut next summer.