New York Times reporter Alex Berenson writes about Alaska's dental health aide therapist program for the second time in today's edition . The article is far from even-handed. The comments section, so far, isn't friendly to us, either.

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The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) recently identified a deficiency in the Social Security Act that prevents dentists from referring patients for physical therapy under Medicare. Accordingly, AAOMS worked with Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) to introduce legislation (H.R. 5590) that would include dentists in the definition of health care providers authorized to refer for physical therapy. The ADA has joined with other dental organizations in supporting this measure.

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After winning the approval of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday, a proposal to give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco is one giant step closer to final passage in the House.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (H.R. 1108) would establish a federal ban on sales of tobacco products to minors, and would identify and reduce the toxic constituents of tobacco products and tobacco smoke. The bill also would give the FDA the ability to regulate claims of so-called reduced-risk tobacco products and to prevent the tobacco industry from misleading the public about the dangers of smoking. The ADA supports the measure.

H.R. 1108 will come to the House floor in the coming weeks and is likely to pass.

Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Jon Cornyn (R-Texas) have introduced identical legislation (S. 625) in the Senate. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved that bill on Aug. 1, 2007.

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