If this information contained in this post doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what will.

Why should you be angry? 

Because a small but influential group of dentists care more about themselves and their turf than they do about the public’s health.

Because these same spiteful dentists are determined to stop you from practicing dentistry as you think best – replacing their judgments for yours.

Because your future and that of your patients is being decided right now by two ADA committees that are pledged to act in the public interest, yet have demonstrated very little interest in the public.

Because those who would undermine your practice and make a mockery of your professional dedication are mobilizing to influence your state dental board to act against you.

If a robber breaks into your home and attempts to walk out with all that you have worked for, you wouldn’t sit by passively.  Well these “robbers” wear white clinic coats and often have advanced educational degrees.  But make no mistake about it; their aim is also to rob you of all that you’ve worked for professionally.

Take Dr. Steven M. Sullivan, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at University of Oklahoma. 

I sent Dr. Sullivan an email (along with many other dentists) detailing the negative impact that the ADA’s proposed guidelines on oral conscious sedation would have on the dental profession and current and future patients. 

Although my email never once mentioned the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation (DOCS), this is verbatim what Dr. Sullivan wrote me back:

“I agree with the policy to restrict people like DOCS.”

There you have it. 

This fight is not at all about protecting public health.  It’s not about ensuring access to dental care for the most needy patients.  It’s about Dr. Sullivan, an oral surgeon, and others like him who want to punish DOCS and its members for having the audacity to encroach upon their sacred territory.

That more than one million patients have safely and effectively been served by DOCS-trained dentists is immaterial to Dr. Sullivan and his pals.  DOCS and its members must get their comeuppance – at any cost – because they had the nerve to be dental innovators.

By the way, Dr. Sullivan is a colleague at the OU College of Dentistry with Dr. Stephen K. Young.  Dr. Young is both Dean of the College of Dentistry and – importantly – chairman of the ADA’s Council on Dental Education and Licensure, also known as CDEL.  It is CDEL and its Committee on Anesthesiology who are pressing for changes in the ADA’s guidelines for anesthesia.

When I got Dr. Sullivan’s email stating that he favors restricting “people like DOCS,” I wrote him back.

Dr. Sullivan:  DOCS is an organization with more than 3,000 members.  Do you believe they are all incompetent to provide their patients oral conscious sedation under existing ADA guidelines?  How do you explain the fact that they’ve treated more than 1 million fearful and anxious adult patients without incident?  On what basis would you like to restrict these dedicated dentists?

By the way, do you know or work with Dr. Stephen K. Young, chairman of CDEL?  Have you discussed this subject with him?

Do you know how Dr. Sullivan replied? Professor and Chairman of the OU Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and colleague of CDEL Chairman Dr. Young, his entire response was “Yes and Yes.”

Jealously is a powerful motivator.

It is moving the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) to conduct a well-funded, well-organized campaign to persuade state dental boards that they should adopt the ADA’s newly proposed restrictions on oral conscious sedation even before those guidelines have been formally adopted by the ADA itself.

AAOMS is so confident that Dr. Young and his CDEL council members will vote its way, that AAOMS is presenting the new guidelines to state boards as if they’ve already been adopted and telling the states they must comply with the ADA’s intent.

Perhaps, you are thinking, Dr. Young and his friends will come to their senses and understand the great benefits provided by putting oral conscious sedation into the hands of competent, well-trained general dentists and other non-specialists.  Perhaps.

But thus far, Dr. Young and his council members haven’t even deigned to familiarize themselves with the very organization (DOCS) and its members who they are seeking to restrict.

Did you know that last year DOCS invited trustees of the ADA and members of CDEL and its Committee on Anesthesiology to take a free DOCS course so they could judge for themselves the quality of the education being provided by DOCS, the largest educator of OCS dentists in the world?

The ADA Board of Trustees considered the invitation and then flat out rejected it.  You see, when committee members such as Dr. Young have already made up their minds, they don’t want to let the facts confuse them.  

“I agree with the policy to restrict people like DOCS.”  So quoth Dr. Sullivan.  So quoth the majority of those on CDEL and its anesthesia committee.

What is to be done?  How do we combat the small-mindedness of Dr. Young, Dr. Sullivan and their cohorts?

TEAM 1500 has already submitted more than 1,000 letters of protest to Dr. Young and the ADA from concerned dentists and their patients.  (Thank you for your efforts.)

But more is needed.

• We need to work with and provide information to each and every state dental board to counter the arguments already being laid before them by AAOMS.

• We need to reach out to each and every ADA delegate who will have the opportunity to vote on the CDEL proposals at the organization’s annual meeting this September.

• We need to contact the local media in all 50 states as well as the national news media to let them know that if Dr. Young and Dr. Sullivan get their way, the cost of dental care in their states will rise, even as the availability of quality dental care will decline.

• We need to continue our efforts to inform all general dentists – whether or not they offer oral conscious sedation – that these proposals rob them of the rights conferred on them by their dental licenses.

• We need to continue to work tirelessly to ensure that quality dental care is available to all segments of the population, including the poor, minorities and the elderly.ean%20Rotbart dateTime=2007-03-07T10:49>

To be effective, we need your financial support and we need it today.  TEAM 1500, a non-profit coalition, is funded entirely by concerned dentists such as you.  Every dollar counts in our crusade against CDEL, Dr. Young, Dr. Sullivan and their powerful friends.

Attached to this post you’ll find a pledge form.  Please fill it out and return it today.  If you wish to pay your pledge over several months, please note it on the form.  And even if you can’t donate as much as you’d like at the moment, please donate whatever you can.

We are up against powerful forces who wish to rob you and your patients of the dedicated care you provide them.  We have two powerful defensive weapons.  1.  We are on the right side of the issue.  2.  We are backed by dedicated professionals such as you – who put their patients ahead of their egos.

“I agree with the policy to restrict people like DOCS,” says Dr. Sullivan.  Please fill out the attached pledge form and let him know just how much you think of his policy.

Many thanks,

Dean Rotbart, Director

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