Are Braces Covered Under the ACA?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a boon for children’s teeth. Early estimates put the number of newly-insured young smiles at somewhere around 1.7 million.

But is there any hope for coverage for adult smiles?

While pediatric dentistry was included under the “Essential Health Benefits” section of the ACA, adult dental insurance is not required, notably with regards to orthodontia. This could be due, in part, to the lingering stigma of orthodontic correction as a “cosmetic” procedure.

Common sense tells us this is a silly distinction: straight teeth don’t wear down unevenly, they help us eat a much wider variety of foods, they’re easier to keep clean (thus helping to avoid decay and gum disease), and they provide us the emotional confidence to show our smile.

While the ACA does include provisions for “medically necessary” orthodontic correction (due to injury, extreme illness, etc.), it does not yet include orthodontia across the board, not even for children.

This lack of inclusion comes at an inopportune time for adult patients who want to take advantage of the newer orthodontic technologies. This includes adults who have been living with uneven smiles and maloccluded bite patterns for most of their lives, who were hesitant to get the traditional (read: highly visible) metal braces.

The lack of required coverage leaves many adults paying for their braces out of pocket. Luckily, the very technology that makes getting braces more appealing is also making them more affordable and easier to endure.

For example, traditional braces require adjustment every four-to-six weeks. Invisalign trays are instead swapped out every two weeks, dramatically shortening the overall time a patient is being corrected.

More general dentists are also being trained in the use, application, and fitting of corrective trays like Invisalign, making them a “one-stop shop” for their usual patients who may also be interested in orthodontic correction.

Will adult dental coverage (orthodontia in particular) be included in future modifications of the ACA? Only time will tell. But perhaps further technological advances and breakthroughs will render the question moot.

State Department Trolling Social Media for Terrorist Activity

The boom of social media has provided millions of people will real time ways to communicate with one another. With the explosion of smartphones and mobile devices, users are more connected than ever before, and more than 6 billion people worldwide own a mobile device.

The fact that 1.8 billion people use social media globally should be cause for an international celebration of worldwide media success, but in recent years, it is becoming a glaring concern, particularly for Homeland Security and national defense sectors.

Twitter and Facebook are increasingly being utilized by the U.S. State Department to reach out to potential jihadists to dissuade them from joining Islamic extremists. Various extremists have taken to the social media waves to appeal to global citizens, asking them to join in their efforts. These posts often include propaganda photographs and gruesome images of fellow combatants wounded or killed in battle.

The Syrian war has taken center stage of late, with extremists reaching out expatriates and the larger diaspora of Muslims who may be sympathetic to the Syrian cause. A recent study showed that of the 11,000 Western Muslims who have joined rebels in Syria, roughly a quarter of them were recruited by radical Western supporters who used social media to further their plight. These fanatics recently lured a British teenager into the country using Twitter, who silently left the U.K. to join the fight. While he was killed shortly after reaching Syria, other convert extremists have tweeted missing the luxuries of home back in the U.K.

In California, social media patrolling helped to quell fears of an individual terrorist within U.S. borders last month. Nicolas Teausant, a 20-year-old college student, used his Facebook, Tumblr, and Google + accounts to post phrases and pictures that caught the attention of online users and local authorities. He publicized his conversion to Islam, and his continued search for the “The Mujahid’s Handbook,” a guide to becoming a “lone wolf terrorist,” according to the FBI.

Teausant is only one potential terrorist in a long line of online suspects that the FBI has traced. He and hundreds of other radical social media users have been detained and questioned by the FBI, leaving some people questioning the actual threat these boisterous extremist-supporters pose to the nation. Teausant did not have any formal ties to jihadists in Syria, and was caught in an FBI sting operation, trying to cross the border into Canada.

Even with these doubts, the FBI is not taking any chances. Coordinator of the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, Alberto Fernandez claims that the social media push helps combat the propaganda barrage of terrorist regimes, like Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Zawahiri has publicly announced that he uses media as a call to arms for Muslims around the world.

While there have been no clear markers as to the success of social media communications in reducing extremist converts, or ending America’s “War on Terror,” Twitter, Facebook, Google +, YouTube, and other social outlets will likely be an important part of tracing potential threats to the nation as jihadists continue sharing their beliefs and feelings using these media channels.

First Geothermal Energy Plant in New Mexico Begins Production of Green Energy

New Mexico’s first geothermal plant is up and running.

The plant taps into a readily available heat source — geothermal energy — to produce up to four megawatts of energy, or enough to power over 4,000 homes. By next year, they hope to increase output to 10,000 megawatts.

How does it work? The more pressure something is under, the hotter it gets. Layers of the Earth’s crust get progressively warmer the deeper you go, and this difference in temperature can be used to heat water, which can then create the steam needed to generate electricity.

This process works not only works well for large-scale production like the New Mexico plant, but can also be successfully applied to individual homes. Even just six feet underground, the temperature differential can provide enough energy to provide hot water for an entire household, eliminating the need for a hot water heater.

How does geothermal compare to other renewable resources? While solar and wind energy have been getting a lot of press, they do have their limitations — namely, cloudy days or days without wind.

But the heat of the Earth never shuts off. Geothermal energy can be utilized 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without interruption. At just six feet below the surface, energy prospectors find an excellent source of heat, which radiates constantly between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the water sent through the underground pipes is not wasted. Once the heated water has done its job and dispersed its energy, it can be sent down again for reheating.

Is geothermal energy the reliable, renewable source we’ve been waiting for? At the very least, it may end up being a key component.

But the future of residential green energy may not come from only one source. A combination of solar, wind, and geothermal energy may be the perfect answer to home energy consumption. Government incentives exist for homeowners who “green” up their homes, and some areas actually allow owners who produce more energy than their home uses to sell that energy back to the grid, creating a more direct financial incentive.

Gender Equality and Cosmetic Dentistry

What does gender equality really look like?

By now everyone has seen the stat proclaiming that women make “77 cents on the dollar” compared to men. While the issue may not be as apples-to-apples as that, a gap does exist, and women have been struggling against it for a long time.

Ironically, one of the ways women have been trying to battle against lower earnings is with higher spending. Research by the American Association of Cosmetic Dentistry shows that the majority of cosmetic dentistry patients are women.

But more and more men are jumping on the cosmetic dentistry train.

“It’s competition — 100 percent,” said Dr. Bruce Hartley of the Peninsula Center of Cosmetic Dentistry. “You have five or six guys vying for the same job and one looks handsome, has a nice smile, dresses well and looks sharp — he’s going to have an edge.”

Many experts cite the “tech boom” as a driving factor. In an age where profile pics, YouTube, and ceiling-high keynote presentation screens are becoming the norm, appearance may matter more than ever.

Dr. Hartley elaborates: “I have a lot of the CEO types that say, ‘Hey, I’m up on a big 30-foot-screen or on television now. The last time I saw myself on the business channel, I didn’t like my smile.’ They’re seeing that, and realize a new smile will make a difference.”

Questions of the overall social appropriateness of placing such a high value on appearance are, for the moment, moot. Simply put, our society values attractiveness. We notice and respond favorably to a healthy, white smile.

As our appearances pop up in more and more places, it will be interesting to see whether the cosmetic dentistry gender statistics realign and balance. Because equality advances don’t always make things easier for the struggling side. Sometimes they just spread out the struggle.

Malaysia Airlines plane turns back after tire burst

A Malaysian Airlines plane boarded with 166 people returned back to Kuala Lumpur airport after bursting its front tire during the take off on Monday.

Officials of the Malaysian Airlines said that we found the debris of the burst tire 16 minutes after the plane had departed for the Bangalore.  They further said that we had immediately contacted the captain of Boeing 737-800 and ordered him to return back to the Kuala Lumpur airport.

A senior official said that we had deployed all rescue team at the airport but the jet landed safely. Furthermore, the airport authorities changed the scheduled of the Flight MH192 later on Monday.

It goes without saying that, last month, a flight of Malaysian Airlines -boarded with 239 passengers- disappeared during its route to Beijing. After the disappearance of that flight, the MAS is being considered as “the most dangerous and sensitive” airliner in the world.

 

One-Handed Guitar Brings Music Back to Refugee’s Life

A former Vietnamese refugee suffering from a brain injury named Dinh Van Nguyen is reconnecting with music with the help of a custom, one-handed guitar, setting high hopes that designers could further modify the instrument to help others who suffer from similar debilitating injuries and conditions.

As a young man, Nguyen was the guitarist and singer in a Vietnamese band, but when he was 23-years-old he lost the use of the left side of his body after suffering from a traumatic brain injury. As music was always such a big part of his life, he refused to let it beat him and continued to sing, though he couldn’t continue to play the guitar.

Jason Kenner, a music therapist and fellow musician, became part of Nguyen’s rehabilitation, and hoped to bring music back to Nguyen’s life. Kenner said, “[Nguyen] plays music with his carer Quan, but Quan plays the guitar and Dinh sings along, but if we put a guitar in Dinh’s hand and we played the chord, than Dinh would strum along.”

Kenner started to tool around and modify old guitars laying in his garage. Basing his idea off of a harp’s design, he incorporated a similar build into the body of a guitar, changing its tuning and shortening its neck. When Kenner handed the prototype to Nguyen, he said something just clicked.

“He just played it instantly, didn’t have to explain how it worked, so it met its brief really well,” said Kenner. “We were able to utilise music, to achieve some therapeutic aims.”

The one-handed guitar could be the next step in the instrument’s evolution. The instrument has been around for centuries, but ever since it seized the attention of pop music, innovators have made their own changes to the instrument. From the invention of the electric guitar, to advancements in amplifying technology, to the more recent innovation of guitar multi-effects pedals that came into prominence as late as the 1960s, the guitar has undergone many transformations. The one-handed model may very well become a new iteration of the popular instrument.

If successful, it could help the 12% of America suffering from a disability learn to play music for the first time, or reconnect with the art, as is the case with Nguyen.

Kenner isn’t the only person to design a one-handed guitar, either. Popular engineer Ben “Heck” Heckendorn received a similar challenge from Ian Pierce, who lost his arm in a tragic railroad accident. Heck’s model works by placing one-hand on the neck, while an automated pick is worked by two foot pedals to strum.

Kenner is taking his one-handed, harp-guitar hybrid to a national conference in Brisbane in the hopes to help more disabled persons with his prototype.

Trial of Billy Roger Bailey Will Center Around Whether Bus Was Completely Stopped

The trial of Billy Roger Bailey, the driver who swerved around a bus and killed an 11-year-old boy in December, 2012, began last week. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter and passing a stopped school bus. One of the main issues is whether or not the school bus was actually stopped with its stop arm down and red lights flashing at the time of the accident.

Naturally, both sides are offering conflicting reports about whether the bus was properly stopped when the boy, Hasani Wesley, a sixth-grader at Forsyth Middle School, was killed.

In early testimony, Odina Wesley, the boy’s mother, and several other witnesses testifying for the prosecution on Tuesday said that the bus was completely stopped. She said she remembers the red lights flashing when she looked out her front door.

But the defense team presented a different scene during opening statements. George Cleland, one of Bailey’s attorneys, told the jury they would hear other witnesses tell the opposite story.

“As he passed the bus, there was no stop sign, no red lights,” Cleland said. “He never saw him.”

“I knew the yellow lights had come on,” Bailey added. “I was looking to see if she was going to stop.

The popular yellow school buses that have become synonymous with field trips and early-morning shenanigans alike first appeared in North America in 1939. Today, millions of kids depend on them to get safely to and from school and extracurricular activities. Safety regulations, like the red stop sign and not passing stopped buses, are vital for keeping them safe.

Regardless of how the trial turns out, parties on both sides of the tragic story are saddened. Even Bailey, a pastor at Cross Roads Ministry of Walkertown who also works at a publishing company and part-time at a gun store, expressed a desire to save the child.

“I noticed something laying behind the bus,” Bailey said. “I went to him. He was face down. I put the back of my hand to his mouth to see if he was still breathing. I assumed that he was.

“Being in the field I was, I just started praying for him.”

Odina Wesley got a hug from her son in the morning, but it was the last one she would ever get.

“I grabbed his hand and said ‘Please Hasani, fight,’” she said. “That’s when they told me there was nothing else they could do.”

South Korea ferry disaster: Fake survivor posts add to nation’s anguish

The South Korean authorities said that shivering messages, social media posts, and short messages were totally false. Messages like “Help me, I am alive” and “Please help me, my battery is turning down, please believe me” brought hopes for parents who lost their children in the recent ferry incident. These rumors circulated in the country like fire in the forest and created troublesome situation for the authorities engaged in the rescue operation.

A mother said to a private news agency that I was so excited when I heard through social media that most of the missing students are still alive and sending their messages to relatives.

After receiving such messages, hundreds of people gathered at Jindo and showed the messages to South Korean authorities. Later on, they lost their patience and started hurling different objects at the officials. They mourned loudly and said that “you people are doing nothing to save life of our children”.

On the contrary, officials of Police Cyber Terror Response Center said that “we have verified all the messages and they are not genuine”. In press conference, the officials requested to people that “please stop sending fake messages to the grieved families otherwise they would be dealt as per the cyber law”.

Last but not the least, there is national grief across the country and all scheduled concerts and school field trips have been postponed.

LA County Considers Putting the Breaks on Food Trucks Amid Growing Safety Concerns

Residents in Los Angeles County are looking for answers. The county, home to Tinseltown, is a thriving center of the growing food truck movement in the United States. At present, the county hosts more than 3,200 food trucks, selling everything from tacos to sushi. For the most part, L.A. County residents are perfectly happy to have such a successful, economically viable new food-scene. That being said, there is growing concern among residents and the county’s Department of Public Health that food trucks are serving a little bit more than their customers asked for.

A number of L.A. residents are reporting that after eating at some of the city’s popular food trucks, they came down with some nasty stomach bugs. Now, you might be thinking that getting an upset stomach from a bad piece of sushi is to be expected from time to time, but what if you heard that it could probably have been avoided? Consider, according to a recent report, 40% of the county’s food trucks haven’t been inspected in three years. The other 60% were only inspected once in the last year, despite state mandates calling for at least two annual inspections.

Because food trucks are inherently mobile, surprise inspections, a tactic the DPH relies on to get a real picture of an eatery’s compliance, are nearly impossible. For now, as the county mulls over greater oversight, the Department of Public Health is advising patrons of the food truck scene to visit the DPH website and take a look at the list of recent inspections, ensuring that the vendor they’re about to buy from is up to date.

Foodborne Illness is a Constant Concern in the States
For many, the lack of inspection of these mobile establishments is a non-issue. After all, a plethora of countries across the world allow their citizens to run unregulated restaurants on the streets without issue. Japan, most notably, let’s residents serve food for money out of their homes with minimal issues. For many in the worldly Los Angeles, complaints from the Department of Public Health and others are simply overreactions.

It’s important to note, however, that foodborne illness in the United States afflicts millions of people every year. The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control show that 48 million Americans become ill after eating bad food each year, with 128,000 needing to seek medical treatment. While annual deaths from foodborne illness are relatively low, only measuring around 3,000 annually, there’s no denying that food poisoning is a real issue.

Increased Oversight isn’t Going to Stop the Food Truck Revolution
In the end, increased oversight and enforcement of public health laws needs to become a reality in L.A. County and throughout California. Critics of instituting any new rules against what has traditionally been a volatile, sensitive market say that increased oversight will hinder the growth of a micro-economy that has been a great source of income for the county.

However, those criticisms are likely unfounded. Food trucks throughout the United States have gained stable footing, now generating an estimated $650 million in revenue per year. Whether at New York’s award-winning Red Hook Lobster Pound, winner of the Daily Meal’s coveted number one spot for best food truck in the States or at Kogi BBQ, L.A.’s own golden child, a little oversight isn’t going to be slowing anybody down. Delicious food that’s safe to eat, it’s no stretch to say, will likely improve the fate of the food truck movement overall.

‘Real Housewives’ Stars Joe and Teresa Giudice Still Owe Millions Worth of Debt After Filing Bankruptcy

“Real Housewives” stars Joe and Teresa Giudice aren’t out of hot water yet. According to a trustee’s final report, the couple still owes $13.4 million to creditors — and that’s after filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy satisfied just $7,500 of their current debts, NJ.com reported Wednesday.

Teresa and her husband filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Their piling debts, they claimed, were a direct result of the recession and ensuing losses from Joe’s construction company. It is not altogether unusual that filing for bankruptcy did not erase the stars’ debts. Chapter 7 bankruptcy removes select debts only. Claimants are still responsible for money owed to the government, such as overdue taxes and student loan payments. The couple did not rely on bankruptcy alone.

“When John Sywilok, their court-appointed trustee, alleged that the couple had hid assets and income, Joe Giudice in 2011 invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination and agreed to a settlement in which the court denied discharge of his debts,” NJ.com explains. “His wife later followed suit.” In a rare twist of fate, however, filing bankruptcy — in their particular case — may have been their undoing.

The bankruptcy resulted in ongoing investigations and charges (pending) of financial and bankruptcy fraud. “It was a terrible decision to file for bankruptcy. They might have gotten away under the radar otherwise,” attorney Ronald LeVine tells NJ.com. “Joe Giudice faces a recommended sentence of 37 to 46 months, while Teresa Giudice faces up to 27 months,” the news site continues. Courts will make a final decision on July 8.