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REAL OR HYPE?
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A new kind of dentistry
By CRISSA SHOEMAKER
Bucks County Courier Times

Christopher Davis and his mother, Valerie, are enjoying the best of
both worlds. His teeth are being straightened without braces. And his
parents don't have to pay for it.

Nine-year-old Christopher is a member of a clinical study group and a
patient of Dr. David Hamlin, a dentist who has shunned conventional
dentistry in favor of trying out the latest dental products.

Valerie Davis said she had wanted her son to get braces, but
orthodontists told her to wait. She then learned of Hamlin's study.

"I thought it would be a beneficial thing at a young age to start
something [like braces]," she said.

She's so happy with the results of the GET - Guided Eruption Therapy -
device that she's paying for her 7-year-old daughter to get one, too.

Davis pursued the study not because it was free, but because it would
help her son, she said. She also said she had no hesitation about her
son's participation in the trial because he could back out at any
time.

"I'm very happy," she said. "[Dr. Hamlin's] so gentle. He's so patient
with them. My kids love to go to see him. He sends us birthday cards.
He's just amazing. Parents really should give it a try."

After six years in a private dental practice, Hamlin decided to leave
and enter the corporate world. For the next nine years, he was an
executive at several biomedical and technology companies. Then the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened, and Hamlin decided he no longer
wanted to travel. He wanted to go back to the examining room.

But Hamlin said he didn't want to return to an insurance
industry-dominated field, which was what forced him out to begin with.
So he used his corporate connections to open Contract Dental
Evaluations, where he enlists patients in dental studies.

"There's no pressure to deliver," said Hamlin, who lives in Langhorne.
"An insurance practice has to be constantly in delivery mode."

Among the products Hamlin has studied: Crest White Strips and a
whitening machine that he found could improve even the most discolored
teeth.


He said his research patients are given lengthy disclosure statements
before they participate in any study. They can back out at any time.
Every product or procedure has approval from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, he said.

If a product doesn't work, Hamlin will fix any problem the treatment
might have caused. He also makes suggestions about how the companies
he works for can improve their products.

"We do see products that don't perform well," he said. "That's why the
research is so necessary."

Dental research is most often done in clinics or schools, whose
patients don't represent the people who will actually purchase the
products or have the work done, Hamlin said.

"They're either too young or too old or they wouldn't buy the product,
or they don't have the oral care that would be normal," Hamlin said.
"And they're asked to evaluate white strips."

Hamlin also has a private practice, but he doesn't accept insurance
payments. Patients must seek reimbursement through their insurance
companies for any work he does.

Some private practice patients had previously participated in clinical
studies, he said.

"I'm not looking to take patients from other doctors," he said.

In the two years his office has been open, Hamlin and his staff, which
includes his wife, Joyce, and office manager Gina Albert, have
outgrown their Newtown office and moved to the Oxford Valley
Professional Center near the Oxford Valley Mall in Middletown.

Hamlin said he wants to start larger studies with 100 or more
patients. He's looking for 12 patients to participate in a tooth
whitening study.

To reach Dr. Hamlin and Contract Dental Evaluations, call

D E L E T E D