A bright, caring dentist in Minnesota called me this past Friday afternoon to voice his opposition to the proposed American Dental Association guidelines that would – if approved – likely force him to stop offering his patients oral conscious sedation.

The dentist told me he would like to support the efforts of TEAM 1500 because he agrees with our goals.  But he wondered – and here he tried to put it delicately – just what we would do with the money that he contributes?

What a fair and timely question!

Those of us working as part of the TEAM 1500 coalition have been so busy getting our organization up and running, that we haven’t had much time to really spell out our plans.

To the credit of the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation and its co-founder Dr. Michael Silverman, dozens of dentists have already sent in pledges to support the TEAM 1500 effort solely on the strength of DOCS’ and Dr. Silverman’s endorsements.  DOCS has never led them astray in the past and if Dr. Silverman says it is vital to support TEAM 1500, his word alone satisfies them.

That is not to say that we want anyone to base his or her support on blind faith.  Quite the opposite.  My goal as director of TEAM 1500 is to make this non-profit organization as transparent in its actions and finances as possible.

I want to tell you what we’ve done, what we are doing and what we plan to do.  Moreover, I want you to know that we are fiscally responsible in all of our undertakings. 

That said, I also don’t want to hand our “playbook” to those who would use our openness in an effort to thwart us in our cause. 

What I told the Minnesota dentist and my best advice to anyone who is still on the fence about TEAM 1500 is to let us show you our efforts and results.  If you like what you see, then throw your support our way!  (The sooner, the better.)

TEAM 1500 officially began operations on January 2, 2007.  Since then, here are some of our noteworthy accomplishments:

• Incorporated as a non-profit organization; hired a fulltime director (me) and established a dedicated office.
  
• Co-hosted two live, free teleconferences to inform the dental community about the nature of the ADA proposals and why they are hurtful to current and future dental patients.  More than 1,000 dentists heard either the original calls of their digital rebroadcasts.
  
• Launched a dedicated web site as the digital headquarters of the TEAM 1500 movement.  In our first 26 days of operation, more than 8,000 unique visitors have clicked through to articles at www.team1500.org.
  
• Published a weekly newsletter about our efforts and the dentists who are in the vanguard of our fight.  The e-newsletter already has 2,417 opt-in subscribers and is steadily growing.
  
• Issued a national news release highlighting the dangers of the ADA proposals for dental patients.  The release reached nearly 700 news organizations.
  
• Monitored and posted comments on most major dental discussion boards and chat rooms.
  
• Contacted the officers and boards of all major dental associations to express our concern and opposition to the ADA proposals.
  
• Responded to dozens of requests from individual dentists for assistance or information to guide them in their own actions in opposition to the ADA proposals.
  
• Worked with regional dental organizations to support their efforts both nationally and in individual states to ensure equal access to dental care for all patients.
  
• Organized an ongoing letter-writing campaign on the part of dentists and their patients to rebuke the ADA concerning its insensitivity to the needs of 100s of thousands of oral conscious sedation patients.
  
• Launched a fundraising campaign aimed at providing TEAM 1500 the necessary resources to sustain its fight all the way to the ADA’s 148^th Annual Session to be held in San Francisco in late September 2007.  Our goal is to enlist the aid of more than 1,500 dentists in our coalition.  Each and every dentist and each and every dollar count.

In the weeks ahead, we will be delivering the first wave of dentist and patient protest letters to members of the ADA’s Council and Dental Education and Licensure; continuing our push to educate the broad ADA membership about the risks entailed in the proposed guidelines; meeting with state dental board members to educate them on the issues; and securing allies among dental groups, politicians, citizen groups and members of the public at large.

I will be checking back with the dentist from Minnesota regularly to gauge how he thinks we are doing.  I’d also like to hear your thoughts and questions.  Please do email or call me without hesitation.

-- DEAN ROTBART