Clinic
Health
CHA-MAY WEEYA - MEDICINETALK
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Siletz
Community
Contract Health Service Update
Out-of-Area Health Care
by Judy Muschamp, Health Director
by Judy Muschamp, Health Director
Call-in dates for pre-authorization are July 2 and Oet. 1.
Calls are answered starting at 8 a.m. in the order reeeived. Be sure to register
for health care before these dates.
Only one authorization per year per tribal member is allowed. Members have
a choice of selecting medical, dental, vision, or hearing services.
Numbers to call: 541-444-1236 or 1-800-628-5720.
Fiscal Year 2006 has finally passed
and the CHS program hit a new record
- 25 catastrophic cases! These are
high-cost cases for which the program
is eligible to apply to the Indian Health
Service for reimbursement after a cer
tain dollar threshold is met.
Unfortunately, the majority of
those cases occurred after the IHS chef
funds had been depleted. Thanks to the
Tribal Council, tribal program manag
ers, and other health programs, unspent
dollars were reprogrammed to cover
highest priority care during the last 10
weeks of the year.
High hopes for a better year were
quickly dashed when seven catastrophic
cases hit the chef funding threshold be
fore the end of the first quarter.
In an attempt to manage the CHS
budget to the end of the year, the Gate
keeper Committee currently is consid
ering approval of Priority I and II requests.
High level III care is considered on
a case-by-case basis for elders and chil
dren. Priority III is defined as inpatient
and outpatient care that involves the
treatment of prevalent illness or con
ditions that have a significant impact
on morbidity and mortality.
This involves treatment for condi
tions that may be delayed without pro
gressive loss of function or risk of life,
limb, or senses.
Categories include ambulatory ser
vices for non-emergent conditions,
specialty consultations in surgery,
medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, pe
diatrics, ophthalmology, ENT. ortho
pedics. dermatology, elective routine
surgeries, diagnostic evaluations for
non-acute conditions, allergy testing,
and specialized medications that are
not available at the tribal facility.
How are you affected? Orthopedic
requests are Priority III services - by far
this is the most requested elective care.
MRIs, CT scans, and bone scans of
knees, backs, necks, shoulders, elbows,
etc., are all currently being deferred.
If adequate funding becomes avail
able through prudent management and
shifting costs to alternate resources,
Priority III care will be considered.
You can help by assuring safety in
motor vehicles and while playing
sports, and covering your family mem
bers if you have access to employer-
sponsored insurance plans.
If you have any questions about
CHS priorities, please call CHS at
541-444-1236 or 1-800-628-5720.
Personnel Changes Coming to Clinic
by Judy Muschamp, Health Director
If you're a patient of the clinic, you
may notice some changes soon.
In the Dental Department, Dr.
Randall Teich is fazing out of his posi
tion as dental officer and building his
private practice office in Newport. Ore.
Dr. Matthew Winkle has been selected
to take the lead as dental officer and is
transitioning into his new position un
der Dr. Teich’s guidance.
The clinic currently is recruiting a
full-time permanent dentist to fill Dr.
Teich’s vacancy. In the meantime, he
is available on a reduced schedule to
see Siletz patients. To accommodate
this reduced schedule, only Siletz tribal
members are being scheduled for new
visits at this time.
Also, Dr. Beverley Phillipson had
been our medical officer until June
2006, when she passed that responsi
bility to Lisa Taylor, family nurse prac
titioner. Dr. Phillipson is an internist
who specializes in endocrinology. She
recently announced her retirement ef
fective May 20, 2007.
Until that time, her appointment time
is reduced to half time. A full-time perma
nent medical doctor currently is being
sought to fill this very important vacancy.
Tooth Talk
by Mary Ellen Volansky, RDH, MS
Oral Health Inventions of Old
Oral health inventions you
wouldn't have thought of unless ... you
were there.
Would you have thought to use ani
mal hair as the bristles for a toothbrush?
Around 1780, a toothbrush with
“natural bristles” was developed in
England by William Addis. These natu
ral bristles are actually the hairs from
the neck and shoulders of swine, es
pecially from pigs living in colder cli
mates like Siberia and China.”1
Natural-bristled brushes of all kinds
were made for grooming until nylon
arrived about 1939.
If you were there in “35(X) B.C.” you
and others, at least until the late 1700s,
would have used “chewing sticks.”2
“The earliest known reference to
toothpaste is in a manuscript from
Egypt in the 4th century A.D., which
prescribes a mixture of powdered salt,
pepper, mint leaves, and iris flowers.”2
See if you believe this from
Wikipedia. Toothpaste was homemade
in the early 1800s from materials such
as: chalk, pulverized brick and salt, and
pulverized charcoal. These abrasive
materials were placed in toothpaste in
an attempt to remove hard deposits,
calculus, from teeth.
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Siletz News
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Aren't you glad you're living now?
Glad at least for the availability of safe
and easy brushing and flossing to pre
vent the buildup of those hard depos
its in the first place.
Pulverized brick as an oral health
treatment isn’t as hard to swallow as not
brushing at all. “(It is) hard to believe,
but most Americans didn't brush their
teeth until soldiers brought the Army-
enforced habit back home.”4
In the 1940s and 1950s, toothpaste
containers were made of lead. “Even with
wax lining those lead tubes, the lead
mixed with the paste and caused ill
nesses and death.”2
Plastics have arrived since then to
provide us with flexible containers.
Has anyone ever threatened to “wash
your mouth out with soap?" I doubt that
rude person had toothpaste in mind.
Dr. Peabody had toothpaste in mind
when in 1824 he added soap to tooth
paste as a bubbling agent. Today so
dium laurel sulfate (SLS) is used for
the same purpose.
If you have mouth sores (i.e., can
ker or cold sores), it's recommended
that you stay away from products with
SLS in them. Read the label, there are
toothpastes without SLS.1
An interesting patent for toothpaste
came in 1934. That it contained fluo
May 2007
ride wasn't its surprise, that it contained
“asbestos” was.3 Asbestos was meant
as a polishing agent.
Do you recall, “Look Ma, no cavi
ties!”? Proctor & Gamble was the first
company to put fluoride in toothpaste
in 1956 and advertised it with “kids
running into the house brandishing
notes from their dentists and scream
ing, ‘Look Ma, no cavities!’”
Twenty years earlier, Grand Rap
ids, Mich., had been the first U.S. city
to deliberately add fluoride to city wa
ter to reduce cavities. Other cities fol
lowed suit so now nearly 2/3 of the U.S.
population has fluoridated water.”4
The information about the next two
inventions was provided by The New
York Times (NYT) on April 1, 2007 - no
fooling! These timely inventions have
their origins with Homeland Security.
As travelers, we can have in our
carry-on baggage only trial-size or
samples size (less than 3 ounces) of liq
uids (i.e., shampoo, mouthwash, etc.).
Also, they must be in clear plastic
containers, and those containers must
be placed in a quart-size zip-top bag.
Toothpaste comes in sample size, but
not in clear plastic. What’s a traveler
to do?
The NYT ran an article with this
heading, “On Your Next Trip, Stock Up
on Dental Mitts.”
Reading this helpful article, I
learned I could purchase Dental Mitts,
finger mitts that are “pre-moistened
and always ready to freshen your
breath, cleaning your teeth, and mas
saging your gums.”6
Without a brush and fluoride, I am
skeptical about the cleaning comment;
the other two seem easily manageable.
For prices and options on dental mitts,
visit at www.lafreshbeauty.com.5
Further on in the article, 1 learned
of Travelon, a travel accessories maker.
Travelon has come out with “instant
tooth gel, mouthwash and shaving gel
in the form of tablets that, like Alka-
Seltzer tablets, transform when water
is added. You can purchase your den
tal mitts at www.travelonbags.com.6
Whoever said, “Necessity was the
mother of invention” - it would seem
they were correct.
I
2
3
4
5
6
www.toothbrushexpress.com’/html/
toothbrush_history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothpaste
www.fluoride-history.de/p-dentifrice.htm
www.wholepop.com/features/oral/
kx>k_ma.html
http://lafreshbeauty.com
www.nytimes.com