Nearly 80 percent of all prescriptions in the U.S. are filled with the generic version of a drug. The price tag can be appealing, but taking a generic drug can also have dangerous consequences because generic drug manufacturers are not accountable for the safety of drugs they produce.Accountability is a key incentive to ensure drug companies monitor and adequately warn patients about the safety of drugs. Despite what many may think, the FDA does not test drugs, but instead relies on testing provided by the drug companies. FDA approval of a drug does not guarantee safety. In the above video, American Association for Justice President Burton LeBlanc talks about the accountability imbalance between generic drugs and name-brand drugs and how the lack of accountability can put consumers at risk. “What you may not know is that unlike brand-name manufacturers, generic drug manufacturers cannot be held accountable if their drugs injure or kill Americans. And we all know too well, if no one is accountable, no one is safe,” LeBlanc said. To view the video in its entirety, click here. Here’s where you can help. Join the growing number of over 20,000 consumers who have already signed a petition calling on the FDA to restore accountability. Safety is an issue that can’t be overlooked.
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It turns out we both were right. Dental X-rays are essential for detecting serious oral and systemic health problems, and generally the amount of radiation is very low. But new thinking on dental X-rays is that the "one size fits all" schedule is outdated.
"The notion of bite-wing X-rays every year and a full set of X-rays every three years for every patient should go in the garbage can," says Stuart White, a dentist and professor emeritus at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Instead, decisions should be made individually.
Emphasizing that "without dental X-rays we would go back 120 years, and disease detection would be primitive and awful," White says dentists must strive to minimize unnecessary exposure.
And this is where the discussion gets complicated because the amount of radiation you receive depends on how the dentist takes pictures of your teeth.
For example, if your dentist uses slow film and round collimation (the piece of equipment placed near your face during X-rays), you're going to get approximately double the dose that you would from digital imagery and rectangular...
"The notion of bite-wing X-rays every year and a full set of X-rays every three years for every patient should go in the garbage can," says Stuart White, a dentist and professor emeritus at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Instead, decisions should be made individually.
Emphasizing that "without dental X-rays we would go back 120 years, and disease detection would be primitive and awful," White says dentists must strive to minimize unnecessary exposure.
And this is where the discussion gets complicated because the amount of radiation you receive depends on how the dentist takes pictures of your teeth.
For example, if your dentist uses slow film and round collimation (the piece of equipment placed near your face during X-rays), you're going to get approximately double the dose that you would from digital imagery and rectangular...