METLIFE AND PREVISER LAUNCH ORAL HEALTH DISEASE MANAGEMENT PILOT PROGRAM

 MetLife and PreViser Corporation, a developer of patented oral health risk assessment software technology, today announced the launch of a new pilot program to help identify risks for periodontal disease. MetLife will provide dentists in the pilot program free access to PreViser’s Oral Health Information Suite™, an oral health risk assessment software, through the Web site portal, www.metdental.com, so they can more effectively treat their MetLife dental plan patients who are affected by, or at risk for, periodontal disease.

Participants for the pilot program are a select group of dental practices and dentists from MetLife’s Preferred Dentist Program (PDP) – a nationwide network of over 95,000 dentist locations.

Dr. Alan Vogel, MetLife vice president and national dental director said, "As part of MetLife’s ongoing efforts to provide innovative tools for improving the oral health of patients, we are pleased to introduce this disease management program with PreViser. We believe PreViser’s technology and educational tools will help dentists work more effectively with their patients to combat the serious consequences of periodontal disease."

"Importantly," Vogel added, "this joint initiative should provide measurable results to all stakeholders of the effectiveness of oral health disease management programs."

PreViser Chief Executive Officer Carl Loeb stated, "We are excited to be working with MetLife, a recognized leader for its approach to oral health care, on such an important initiative. We look forward to introducing pilot program participants to the PreViser oral health risk assessment tool and the companion analysis reports to help them improve their patients’ understanding of periodontal disease."

The PreViser oral health risk assessment software, distinctive in the dental industry, enables a dentist to input information and determine a patient’s risk score for developing periodontal disease. The tool also generates a score of the severity of the periodontal condition for those who already manifest symptoms. Knowing this information, dentists can then better develop a customized approach for preventing and/or treating periodontal disease conditions for individual patients.

Patients also receive a personalized report that provides them with actionable suggestions to better address their periodontal care needs. It is anticipated that treatment results will improve with patients’ increased understanding of their periodontal conditions, and these improvements can now be measured. Enhancing the periodontal health of patients is considered essential not only for oral health, but also because clinical studies have implicated periodontal disease as a complicating factor in other serious health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and low birth weight babies.

PreViser Corporation, based in the state of Washington, provides web-enabled diagnostic decision support tools for dentists and dental hygienists. The PreViser Oral Health Information Suite™ enables quick, accurate, reproducible and objective analysis of oral disease risk in an easy-to-understand format for the dental professional and the patient. To learn more about PreViser, visit www.previser.com.

MetLife administers dental benefits for nearly 21 million people, more than any other commercial carrier. MetLife is a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), a leading provider of insurance and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Through its domestic and international subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the U.S. (based on life insurance in-force). The MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance, reinsurance and retirement & savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. For more information, please visit www.metlife.com.

Contact:

MetLife
Karen Eldred