HealthLeader Editorial Board

Richard D. Bebermeyer, D.D.S., M.B.A.
Dr. Richard Bebermeyer teaches clinical general dentistry to advanced students at the UT Dental Branch at Houston. As professor and vice-chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials at the Dental Branch, Dr. Bebermeyer's teaching and research interests include prevention and health promotion, evidence-based dentistry and practice management.

Dr. Bebermeyer earned his dental degree at Washington University in St. Louis. He also earned his Master's in Business Administration, specializing in health care administration, from Southern Illinois University. While Dr. Bebermeyer has participated in a number of national and international dental organizations, his most recent interest is teaching evidence-based dentistry to colleagues in developing nations.

Evelyn C.Y. Chan, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Evelyn Chan is a practicing internist and biomedical ethicist. As an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and as director of bioethics for the Department of Medicine at the UT-Houston Medical School, Dr. Chan balances a clinical practice with teaching and research concerning primary care and ethical issues.

Her research interests include physician-patient communication, informed consent, new media and preventive health care. Dr. Chan helps patients and health-care providers sort through the choices available to them through her service on the Hermann Hospital Ethics Committee, the UT-Committee for the Protection for Human Subjects and the Texas State Prostate Cancer Advisory Committee.

On the national level, Dr. Chan serves as a member of Project JOLT (Joining Organizations with Leading Technologies), an initiative led by the National Cancer Institute to link grass-roots patient organizations and leading technology companies with federal efforts using the new media to improve health-care promotion and communication.

Carlos A. Moreno, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Family medicine is Dr. Carlos A. Moreno's passion. As professor and chairman of the Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine at UT-Houston Medical School, Dr. Moreno cares for patients while sharing his knowledge with medical students and residents.

Dr. Moreno earned his medical degree at Harvard. He also has a Master of Science in Public Health degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. One of many leadership roles he holds is as a member of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Training Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry. As Vice President of Community Programs and Education Outreach at UT-Houston, he leads the university's efforts to promote diversity on campus. Dr. Moreno is chief of family practice at Memorial Hermann Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital in Houston.

Jon R. Wiener, PhD
Jon R. Wiener, PhD has been the assistant dean for academic affairs at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) since 1999 and assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Therapeutics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1994.

He received a BS and MS in microbiology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a PhD in microbiology from the University of Virginia. After a post-doctoral fellowship in microbiology at Duke University, in 1988 he joined the faculty of Duke University in the Department of Surgery.

His research focuses on aberrant tyrosine kinase signaling and protease secretion in human ovarian cancer, with other interests being infectious virology, and the education and training of biomedical scientists.

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Dental Health Tips

Health Tip:

Fireworks
Don’t lose your independence
on Independence Day!

They’re beautiful, hypnotic, inspiring and dangerous. Each year, thousands of injuries occur from fireworks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cite

In 2006, 11 dead and an estimated 9,200 treated in emergency departments for fireworks-related injuries in the United States.
An estimated 5 percent of fireworks-related injuries treated in emergency departments required hospitalization.

Most injuries involved:

Hands (2,300 injuries), eyes (1,500 injuries), and the head, face, and ear (1,400 injuries).
Burns were the most common injury type to all body parts except the eyes and head areas, where contusions, lacerations and foreign bodies in the eye occurred more frequently.

Most common fireworks involved:

Firecrackers, associated with the greatest number of estimated injuries at 1,300. There were 1,000 injuries associated with sparklers and 800 associated with bottle rockets.
Sparklers, accounting for one-third of the injuries to children younger than 5.

Between 2000-05, more than one-third of the fireworks-related deaths involved professional devices that were illegally sold to consumers.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, if you are going to light firecrackers:

Use a specially designed stick, or "punk," rather than a match to light fireworks.
Have a bucket of water ready.
Always follow manufacturers' directions and dispose of used fireworks properly.
Never give a firecracker or sparkler to a child.
Never use a bottle rocket.
Do not light firecrackers bigger than your pinkie, do not light them indoors, and avoid relighting duds.
Never put fireworks in your pocket, throw them while lit, or make homemade firecrackers.
In case of eye injury, do not touch the eye. Tape a clean paper cup over the eye to prevent contamination or further injury. Immediately seek medical attention from an ophthalmologist (eye MD).

What is banned nationwide: Any firecracker with more than 50 milligrams of explosive powder and any aerial firework with more than 130 milligrams of flash powder is banned under federal law, as are mail order kits and components designed to build these fireworks.