Re: Frugal orthodontics ..... any comments (?)(?)

From: Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS (bornfeldmung_at_dentaltwins.com)
Date: 12/11/04 

Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 13:41:55 -0500

Joel M. Eichen wrote:

> *************
> REAL OR HYPE?
> *************
>
>
> A new kind of dentistry
> By CRISSA SHOEMAKER
> Bucks County Courier Times
>
>
> Christopher Davis and his mother, Valerie, are enjoying the best of
> both worlds. His teeth are being straightened without braces. And his
> parents don't have to pay for it.
>
> Nine-year-old Christopher is a member of a clinical study group and a
> patient of Dr. David Hamlin, a dentist who has shunned conventional
> dentistry in favor of trying out the latest dental products.
>
> Valerie Davis said she had wanted her son to get braces, but
> orthodontists told her to wait. She then learned of Hamlin's study.
>
> "I thought it would be a beneficial thing at a young age to start
> something [like braces]," she said.
>
> She's so happy with the results of the GET - Guided Eruption Therapy -
> device that she's paying for her 7-year-old daughter to get one, too.
>
> Davis pursued the study not because it was free, but because it would
> help her son, she said. She also said she had no hesitation about her
> son's participation in the trial because he could back out at any
> time.
>
> "I'm very happy," she said. "[Dr. Hamlin's] so gentle. He's so patient
> with them. My kids love to go to see him. He sends us birthday cards.
> He's just amazing. Parents really should give it a try."
>
> After six years in a private dental practice, Hamlin decided to leave
> and enter the corporate world. For the next nine years, he was an
> executive at several biomedical and technology companies. Then the
> Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened, and Hamlin decided he no longer
> wanted to travel. He wanted to go back to the examining room.
>
> But Hamlin said he didn't want to return to an insurance
> industry-dominated field, which was what forced him out to begin with.
> So he used his corporate connections to open Contract Dental
> Evaluations, where he enlists patients in dental studies.
>
> "There's no pressure to deliver," said Hamlin, who lives in Langhorne.
> "An insurance practice has to be constantly in delivery mode."
>
> Among the products Hamlin has studied: Crest White Strips and a
> whitening machine that he found could improve even the most discolored
> teeth.
>
>
> He said his research patients are given lengthy disclosure statements
> before they participate in any study. They can back out at any time.
> Every product or procedure has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug
> Administration, he said.
>
> If a product doesn't work, Hamlin will fix any problem the treatment
> might have caused. He also makes suggestions about how the companies
> he works for can improve their products.
>
> "We do see products that don't perform well," he said. "That's why the
> research is so necessary."
>
> Dental research is most often done in clinics or schools, whose
> patients don't represent the people who will actually purchase the
> products or have the work done, Hamlin said.
>
> "They're either too young or too old or they wouldn't buy the product,
> or they don't have the oral care that would be normal," Hamlin said.
> "And they're asked to evaluate white strips."
>
> Hamlin also has a private practice, but he doesn't accept insurance
> payments. Patients must seek reimbursement through their insurance
> companies for any work he does.
>
> Some private practice patients had previously participated in clinical
> studies, he said.
>
> "I'm not looking to take patients from other doctors," he said.
>
> In the two years his office has been open, Hamlin and his staff, which
> includes his wife, Joyce, and office manager Gina Albert, have
> outgrown their Newtown office and moved to the Oxford Valley
> Professional Center near the Oxford Valley Mall in Middletown.
>
> Hamlin said he wants to start larger studies with 100 or more
> patients. He's looking for 12 patients to participate in a tooth
> whitening study.
>
> To reach Dr. Hamlin and Contract Dental Evaluations, call
>
> D E L E T E D
>
>
>
>

        Yada yada yada...
        So, who is paying Hamlin for these "evaluations"?

Steve 

-- 
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001
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