Dentistry without the anxiety

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COLOR CONSISTENCY
HueMetrix has a new device to monitor
textile dyeing during production. The device
gives more frequent measurements than
current equipment.
PAGE 3D
NASDAQ
DOW
AMEX
16.66 at 2,073.55
24.24 at 10,912.62
Business
THE NEWS & OBSERVER
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2005
3.74 at 1,529.90
NYSE
S&P 500
14.14 at 7,426.17
D
QUINTILES
Quintiles Transnational raised its revenue
by 20 percent, but that wasn’t enough to
keep it from a loss. Two deals helped it
increase its cash reserves.
PAGE 3D
10-YEAR NOTE YIELD
5.88 at 1,219.43
4.393%, up from 4.310%
For the latest stock information, news and quotes,
go to www.newsobserver.com, keyword: stocks
Prices
of raw
items
jump
A commodities index
soars to a 24-year high,
renewing inflation concern.
BY CLAUDIA CARPENTER
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Dental assistant Nicky Dixon, left, of Sedation Dental Care, helps patient Liza Rogala get comfortable before a root canal
to be performed by dentist Edward W. Davidian. The state dental board recently established rules for oral sedation.
STAFF PHOTOS BY MEL NATHANSON
Dentistry without the anxiety
More dentists marketing sedation to help patients who might not get treatment otherwise
BY JEAN P. FISHER
a Raleigh dentist who is president of the
N.C. State Board of Dental Examiners, the
body that licenses and regulates dentists.
The dental board recently established
the state’s first rules on oral sedation, in
recognition of the technique’s growing
prevalence. Dentists must complete at
least 18 hours of board-approved training in conscious sedation and perform a
minimum of five supervised sedation
cases to obtain a permit.
The board plans to inspect practices annually to ensure that dentists offering
oral conscious sedation are properly
trained and are correctly monitoring patients during treatment, although that
system is not yet in place, Brown said.
Dentists also must monitor patients’ blood
pressure, pulse and blood oxygen levels
during treatment. A staff member who is
trained in resuscitation and life support
must be immediately available on site.
He said the rules are mainly about fairness. Other types of sedation used in dentistry, including intravenous sedation and
general anesthesia, are regulated.
“We felt that it ought to have the same
type of scrutiny,” said Brown, who specializes in root canals and sometimes
uses oral conscious sedation for patients
STAFF WRITER
Phil Letterman of Raleigh was 15
when he swore off the dentist.
After a bad experience getting a cavity
filled, he just flat refused to go. But after
three years of dodging the dentist, Letterman had sore teeth, aching jaws and
chronic headaches. He fessed up about his
troubles and his parents took him in for
a marathon five-hour appointment at a
Raleigh dental practice in December.
Letterman took a sleeping pill prescribed by his dentist, Dr. Dan Davidian,
before the appointment and another
once he got there. He remained calm as
Davidian systematically filled the cavities
he had in just about every tooth.
The best part? The next day, he didn’t even remember getting treatment.
“It’s completely changed my mind
about dentists,” said Letterman, now 18
and a senior at Sanderson High School.
“I will go to … [Davidian] until my teeth
fall out of my head.”
Even Mom and Dad are smiling, despite the $14,000 bill for Phil’s extensive
work, of which their dental plan will pay
$1,500. The fee for sedation accounted
for less than $300 of the total.
“I’m beginning to see a big difference
in him, now that his teeth don’t hurt,”
Dental assistant Nicky Dixon puts a light-blocking mask on patient
Liza Rogala to help make her comfortable before her root canal.
said Kay Letterman, Phil’s mother. “He’s
getting back to his old, jovial self.”
Sedation dentistry, in which patients
swallow a pill to calm their nerves, was
relatively rare for everyday dental care
until recently. But it’s fast becoming
mainstream. Many dentists see the technique as a way to extend care to pa-
U.S. losing
edge in tech,
group says
tients who might otherwise skip treatment entirely — and to boost business.
Practices that offer sedation often use
it as a selling point. At least a dozen
Triangle dental practices promote that
they offer oral sedation services.
“All you’ve got to do is look in the phone
book to see,” said Dr. Benjamin Brown,
Construction growth fuels increase in workers and plant expansion
BY EDMUND L. ANDREWS
AND EDUARDO PORTER
SEE TECH EDGE, PAGE 8D
CLIMB
STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON — Leaders of high-tech
companies said Tuesday the United
States risks losing its competitive edge
without significant new investments in
education, research and development
and the spread of broadband technology.
“The world is changing a little bit,
and frankly there is a significant amount
of concern that if we don’t make some
adjustments, follow the right public policies, do some things that are important,
we could find ourselves very quickly losing the advantage we’ve had for so long,”
Rick White, president and chief executive of high-tech lobby TechNet, said at
a news conference.
The Palo Alto, Calif., group represents
about 200 high-tech leaders, including
Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems and
Hewlett Packard. TechNet made its annual lobbying trip to Capitol Hill on
Tuesday to meet with Cabinet members
and congressional leaders.
White and other TechNet officials
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increase about 25 percent this year, it is
being squeezed by rising costs for steel
and other raw materials. The company
said last week it will raise prices for the
second time this year.
Caterpillar recently expanded its facility in Clayton by opening a visitor
and training center next to its plant.
The 10,000-square-foot center will be
used to demonstrate machinery for customers and dealers. Visitors will also
receive training on how to best optimize equipment on their job sites.
Rapp said the center should boost future sales. “We find that when people see
the product firsthand, closing the sale is
extremely high,” he said. Caterpillar estimates that more than 10,000 visitors
will come to the center each year.
Town officials say that traffic could improve business for Clayton’s restaurants
and hotels. “This is a win-win for the region,” said Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod.
The 14-year-old Clayton plant started
to emerge from the three-year economic
slump about 18 months ago when it won
a $20 million contract to build forklifts
for the Air Force. Rapp said that last year
the plant also won another contract to
make equipment for the Marine Corps.
The company employs 2,500 people at
eight facilities in North Carolina, including about 930 in Clayton, 700 in
Sanford and 200 in Cary.
Caterpillar’s shares rose 10 cents
Tuesday to close at $99. The shares
have nearly tripled since October 2002.
Staff writer Vicki Lee Parker
can be reached at 829-4898
or [email protected].
1D, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2005
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Business
spending
increases
Caterpillar in butterfly stage
CLAYTON — Caterpillar, the world’s
largest maker of earthmoving equipment, has expanded its Clayton plant as
sales pick up steam and the economy
continues to improve.
Demand for backhoe loaders, forklifts
and wheel loaders made at Caterpillar’s
plant in Clayton has increased as construction companies and other Caterpillar customers see a boost in business.
During the past year, the plant has
added a third shift, expanding its work
force from 700 positions to about 930
full-time and temporary workers, said Ed
Rapp, a vice president with Caterpillar.
Rapp said that last year was the best
year ever for Caterpillar’s Building Construction Products division, which includes plants in Clayton and Sanford and
an administrative office in Cary. “Our volume increased 30 percent last year,” he
said. “We had $2.5 billion in sales and are
well on our way to $3 billion.”
Last year, total annual revenue for
Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., rose
33 percent to $30.3 billion, fueled by
higher sales in North America and Asia.
While the company expects profit to
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEE PRICES, PAGE 8D
Many see economy
in sweet spot
BY VICKI LEE PARKER
BY ERICA WERNER
SEE DENTISTRY, PAGE 8D
NEW YORK — Commodity prices surged
to a 24-year high Tuesday, led by gains
in crude oil and copper, on concern that
global economic growth is eroding inventories of raw materials faster than
supplies can be replenished.
Copper reached a 16-year high, and oil
rose near a record in New York, extending the rally in the Reuters-CRB Index of
17 commodities to the highest since January 1981. The index gained 7.1 percent
in February, the most in any month since
August 1983.
Crude prices made a run at the all-time
high of $55.67 per barrel before retreating to $54.80, a gain of 91cents on the day.
Oil futures are up 49 percent in a year.
Energy and metals prices “are moving
higher on the continued concerns regarding the pace of global consumption and the
ability of supply to keep up,” said Michael
Guido, director of hedge-fund marketing
and commodity strategy in New York at
Paris-based Societe Generale.
Higher commodity prices are renewing
concerns among some investors that inflation may quicken, prompting the Federal Reserve to step up its pace of interestrate increases. “I think this is going to be
a damper on the markets, finally,” Michael
Metz, Oppenheimer’s chief investment
strategist, said of U.S. stock markets.
The impetus for the higher commodity
prices Tuesday was a rally in heating oil
and natural gas futures amid a blast of cold
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — Nearly five years after
the last economic boom sputtered out,
some executives and investors are again
talking about a rebirth of the Goldilocks
economy.
The Goldilocks economy — not too
hot, not too cold — was never a perfect
metaphor even at the height of the 1990s.
For all the strong growth and low inflation of the 1990s, the economy and the
stock market were both overheated by
the time the stock bubble collapsed in
March 2000.
But a wide variety of indicators now
suggest that the economy may be in a
sweet spot: business investment is soaring; inflation appears moderate; employment is climbing, even if real wages
are not.
Many economists have raised their
growth forecasts for the year, from about
3.5 percent to 4 percent or higher.
In some ways, the pattern resembles
the handoff from consumer-led growth to
business-led growth that many Federal
Reserve officials hoped would occur.
The most encouraging trend is business
investment: spending on equipment and
SEE ECONOMY, PAGE 2D
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