Smile Brands Inc. is making a foray into Nevada in a partnership with Las Vegas-based P3 Dental Group.
P3 currently operates in that state via five general dentistry practices and two specialty practices providing implants and endodontic services. As part of the partnership, it will expand periodontics and oral surgery services across all locations.
Smile provides business support services to dental practices, including administrative needs, purchasing, billing and collections, payroll, marketing and recruitment. Chief Executive Steve Bilt said the opportunity came from an industry vendor partner introduction.
Newport Beach-based Glidewell Dental opened an 8,500-square-foot training, education and demonstration center in Louisville, Ky., the dentistry’s second center to its flagship West Coast facility in Irvine, marking its expansion to the Eastern U.S.
Founder and Chief Executive Jim Glidewell said at the center’s grand opening reception that the Glidewell International Technology Center will provide hands-on courses and lectures, such as those focused on modern implant and restorative dentistry, surgical dental implant replacement, prosthetic rehabilitation and dental sleep medicine.
Glidewell is among the world’s largest independent providers of custom restorative services. It was established in 1970 and opened an Irvine-based education center in 2011.
Irvine-based DentalXChange and Delta Dental of Colorado recently launched co-branded credentialing software DDS Enroll, which is designed to reduce credential processing time from 90 days to 10 days.
“Credentialing is a process entered between dental providers and insurance carriers,” said DentalXChange President Scott Wellwood. He said each insurance company has its own credentialing process requiring dentists to update their credentials every two to three years. The process is a “time-consuming pain point for carriers and providers alike,” he said.
The paperless process is designed for both dentist and insurance company users, according to Wellwood. Dentists use the software to submit credentialing information online, track the credentialing process, monitor approval for reimbursements, and participate in special programs. Insurance companies use it for initial credentialing of new providers and to notify existing network providers it’s time to renew credentials.
“Since dentists need to be credentialed with dozens of insurance companies, the software provides a huge advantage, in that they only need to enter their information once, and the system will carry data over to any and all insurance applications selected,” Wellwood said.
FDA OK
Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT) received Food and Drug Administration approval of a less-invasive implant approach of the Heartware HVAD System, according to a company press release. The approval allows the device to be implanted via thoracotomy, a small lateral surgical incision between the patient’s left-side ribs.
HVAD is a left ventricular assist device. The battery-operated, mechanical pump is used in patients who’ve reached end-stage heart failure.
The approval is based on data from a 26-center, 144-patient trial in the U.S. and Canada. More than 88% of patients met the primary endpoint of survival at six months after surgery free from disabling stroke or device explant or exchange due to malfunction.
Medtronic said the HVAD system is the only left ventricular assist device approved in the U.S. and Europe for implant via a thoracotomy, as well as for meidan sternotomy, a procedure in which a vertical incision is made along the breast bone.
The device maker maintains its U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis. It has sizeable operations in Santa Ana and Irvine.
Grant for Thoughts
Maria Shriver’s nonprofit Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement has partnered with the University of California-Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, or UCI MIND, to help discover why women are more prone to Alzheimer’s disease. Two out of every three patients with Alzheimer’s disease are women, according to a press release. The two recently announced the inaugural $100,000 grant recipients, Sunil Gandhi and Mathew Blurton-Jones, associate professors of neurobiology and behavior at UCI.
The winners are studying the role of a type of specialized brain cell, microglia, in Alzheimer’s disease.
“Microglia are the brain’s primary immune cells and play important roles in the clearance of toxic proteins from the brain, including the protein beta-amyloid that accumulates in Alzheimer’s disease,” Blurton-Jones said.
The funded project will use skin stem cells donated by male and female research participants and convert them into microglia to investigate how male and female microglia may differ in their interactions in the Alzheimer’s patient’s brain.
