A Refesher Course: What You Need To Know About TEAM 1500
TEAM 1500 was recently approached by a journalist who asked that we explain ourselves and our mission to those dentists who are unfamiliar with us. We thought readers of this web site might also benefit from a Q&A about who we are and what we seek.
1) Please introduce TEAM 1500 to those unfamiliar with it. What is your organization? Who do you represent? What are your goals and agendas?
TEAM 1500 was organized in January 2007 to harness the energies and resources of healthcare professionals in opposition to unnecessary regulations that effectively restrict access to quality and affordable healthcare.
TEAM 1500 is committed to public safety. But our coalition members recognize that recent efforts by the American Dental Association to establish new guidelines for periodontal care and oral conscious sedation are aimed primarily at creating “cartel-like” protection for some segments of the dental profession at the expense of the general practitioner.
By imposing unnecessary regulatory hurdles on the general practitioner, the ADA and the state dental boards that rely upon the ADA to help establish their regulations, are making it more difficult for members of the public at large to have access to safe, affordable, quality oral healthcare.
TEAM 1500 believes that these unjustified regulations disproportionately impact the poor and minorities and raise the cost of quality medical and dental care for everyone.
Our members are primarily dentists and dental team members who are active in well-respected professional organizations including the ADA, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Academy of Periodontology, and the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation.
In the future, we hope to recruit additional support from non-dental healthcare professionals who also face unreasonable and costly regulations.
TEAM is an acronym for Trust for Equal Access Medicine. 1500 represents the initial number of participating healthcare professionals. That number has since risen significantly as word of our efforts spreads.
2) What is the nature of your quarrel with the American Dental Association?
In October 2005, the broad governing body of the ADA – known as the House of Delegates – adopted a policy statement affirming the “remarkable record of safety” of anxiolytic sedative and anesthetic techniques by appropriately trained dentists.
Less than two years later, in December 2006, the ADA’s Committee on Anesthesiology proposed a dramatic overhaul of the very guidelines the House of Delegates lauded in late 2005.
Indeed, as initially proposed, the ADA Committee asked that dentists who offer their patients Oral Conscious Sedation (OCS) more than triple their prerequisite training and increase their live patient experiences from zero to ten.
The ADA Committee offered no scientific justification for such an about face, nor does there appear to be any rise whatsoever in reported injuries or fatalities in relation to adult oral conscious sedation.
Although the ADA’s Committee on Anesthesiology and its parent, the ADA’s Council on Dental Education and Licensure, explain their reasoning in terms of protecting public health, TEAM 1500 knows of no example where the existing guidelines have failed to prove completely effective in protecting the adult patient population.
We believe the ADA Committees’ actions, despite their protestations to the contrary, are designed to protect oral surgeons, dental anesthesiologists and other dental specialists from further encroachment on their turf by general dentists offering their patients OCS.
These ADA Committees, we believe, are using the pretext of public safety to protect the power elite of dentistry – not the public or the general practitioner.
3) What do you feel ADA's policies are wrong? How should they be changed?
The ADA’s existing guidelines, combined with regulations set in place by state dental boards, are working. More than one million adult patients – most of whom previously avoided the dentist due to fear and/or anxiety – have been safely treated with OCS.
That is, as the ADA’s own House of Delegates affirmed in October 2005, a remarkable record of safety.
TEAM 1500 wants the ADA to leave its existing guidelines in place and unchanged. By raising the requirements affecting general dentists who wish to offer OCS, the ADA is also raising the “bar to entry” for general dentists. In effect, the ADA is saying, “if you are going to take business away from oral surgeons and dental anesthesiologists, you’ll have to invest more time and money to do so.”
That is not good policy. And it certainly is not good for the many millions of patients who stand to benefit from OCS, if OCS remains readily accessible and affordable.
4) What is needed to improve dentistry in the U.S.? How do you feel your organization is contributing to dentistry?
The numbers of adults and children in the United States and globally who don’t regularly visit a dentist is staggering and appalling.
The dental profession should be working to remove all possible barriers between good oral healthcare and the public at large. This includes keeping costs down and promoting (not blocking) protocols such as OCS that help patients overcome their fear of dental visits.
As for what TEAM 1500 is contributing to dentistry, we are unafraid to speak our minds and defend the rights of general practitioners and their patients.
Our methods do offend the sensibilities of some traditionalists. And so be it. Those who put fairness and patient rights first have nothing to fear from us.
5) What should dentists do?
Speak up. Virtually every supporter of TEAM 1500 is also a member of the ADA, AGD and/or AAP. Demand that the organizations that you pay to represent you do just that.
TEAM 1500 believes that the vast majority of ADA members do not support the proposed changes. But through their inactions and silence, they are allowing a small group of self-interested specialists to set the ADA’s agenda.
The ADA is your organization. Take it back!
More than 1,000 dentists and patients have already written protest letters to the ADA. ADA members who value their dental licenses and the rights conferred by them should write the ADA in protest of this usurpation of their authority to treat patients with proven, safe protocols without undue interference.
6) What should government do?
We believe it is imperative that individual state dental boards review the ADA’s guidelines carefully and not simply rubberstamp what the ADA recommends.
In general, states regulate dentistry with three goals in mind: public safety, access and cost. As for safety, both the old and new ADA proposals are more than adequate to ensure patient safety.
However, the new ADA guidelines would reduce patient access to care and raise the price of dental care for many, many patients – even those who aren’t treated with OCS.
7) Anything further?
Yes. When it comes to OCS, trust the dentists who best understand its benefits and risks – those practitioners who use OCS regularly.
As far as we can determine, not one general dentist who has been trained in OCS protocols and uses them regularly has written to the ADA or TEAM 1500 in support of tougher standards. Not one.
The cry for new restrictions comes from dentists who are largely unfamiliar with OCS and don’t offer it to their patients. They speak not from experience.
More than 7,500 dentists currently offer OCS to their adult patients, safely and effectively. These are dedicated professionals whose values are above suspicion. If OCS dentists saw any evidence that these protocols were in any way risky for their patients, the OCS dentists would be pounding the ADA’s table to make changes.
IV sedation and OCS are not one in the same. Being an expert in the former doesn’t make a dentist an expert in the latter.
1) Please introduce TEAM 1500 to those unfamiliar with it. What is your organization? Who do you represent? What are your goals and agendas?
TEAM 1500 was organized in January 2007 to harness the energies and resources of healthcare professionals in opposition to unnecessary regulations that effectively restrict access to quality and affordable healthcare.
TEAM 1500 is committed to public safety. But our coalition members recognize that recent efforts by the American Dental Association to establish new guidelines for periodontal care and oral conscious sedation are aimed primarily at creating “cartel-like” protection for some segments of the dental profession at the expense of the general practitioner.
By imposing unnecessary regulatory hurdles on the general practitioner, the ADA and the state dental boards that rely upon the ADA to help establish their regulations, are making it more difficult for members of the public at large to have access to safe, affordable, quality oral healthcare.
TEAM 1500 believes that these unjustified regulations disproportionately impact the poor and minorities and raise the cost of quality medical and dental care for everyone.
Our members are primarily dentists and dental team members who are active in well-respected professional organizations including the ADA, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Academy of Periodontology, and the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation.
In the future, we hope to recruit additional support from non-dental healthcare professionals who also face unreasonable and costly regulations.
TEAM is an acronym for Trust for Equal Access Medicine. 1500 represents the initial number of participating healthcare professionals. That number has since risen significantly as word of our efforts spreads.
2) What is the nature of your quarrel with the American Dental Association?
In October 2005, the broad governing body of the ADA – known as the House of Delegates – adopted a policy statement affirming the “remarkable record of safety” of anxiolytic sedative and anesthetic techniques by appropriately trained dentists.
Less than two years later, in December 2006, the ADA’s Committee on Anesthesiology proposed a dramatic overhaul of the very guidelines the House of Delegates lauded in late 2005.
Indeed, as initially proposed, the ADA Committee asked that dentists who offer their patients Oral Conscious Sedation (OCS) more than triple their prerequisite training and increase their live patient experiences from zero to ten.
The ADA Committee offered no scientific justification for such an about face, nor does there appear to be any rise whatsoever in reported injuries or fatalities in relation to adult oral conscious sedation.
Although the ADA’s Committee on Anesthesiology and its parent, the ADA’s Council on Dental Education and Licensure, explain their reasoning in terms of protecting public health, TEAM 1500 knows of no example where the existing guidelines have failed to prove completely effective in protecting the adult patient population.
We believe the ADA Committees’ actions, despite their protestations to the contrary, are designed to protect oral surgeons, dental anesthesiologists and other dental specialists from further encroachment on their turf by general dentists offering their patients OCS.
These ADA Committees, we believe, are using the pretext of public safety to protect the power elite of dentistry – not the public or the general practitioner.
3) What do you feel ADA's policies are wrong? How should they be changed?
The ADA’s existing guidelines, combined with regulations set in place by state dental boards, are working. More than one million adult patients – most of whom previously avoided the dentist due to fear and/or anxiety – have been safely treated with OCS.
That is, as the ADA’s own House of Delegates affirmed in October 2005, a remarkable record of safety.
TEAM 1500 wants the ADA to leave its existing guidelines in place and unchanged. By raising the requirements affecting general dentists who wish to offer OCS, the ADA is also raising the “bar to entry” for general dentists. In effect, the ADA is saying, “if you are going to take business away from oral surgeons and dental anesthesiologists, you’ll have to invest more time and money to do so.”
That is not good policy. And it certainly is not good for the many millions of patients who stand to benefit from OCS, if OCS remains readily accessible and affordable.
4) What is needed to improve dentistry in the U.S.? How do you feel your organization is contributing to dentistry?
The numbers of adults and children in the United States and globally who don’t regularly visit a dentist is staggering and appalling.
The dental profession should be working to remove all possible barriers between good oral healthcare and the public at large. This includes keeping costs down and promoting (not blocking) protocols such as OCS that help patients overcome their fear of dental visits.
As for what TEAM 1500 is contributing to dentistry, we are unafraid to speak our minds and defend the rights of general practitioners and their patients.
Our methods do offend the sensibilities of some traditionalists. And so be it. Those who put fairness and patient rights first have nothing to fear from us.
5) What should dentists do?
Speak up. Virtually every supporter of TEAM 1500 is also a member of the ADA, AGD and/or AAP. Demand that the organizations that you pay to represent you do just that.
TEAM 1500 believes that the vast majority of ADA members do not support the proposed changes. But through their inactions and silence, they are allowing a small group of self-interested specialists to set the ADA’s agenda.
The ADA is your organization. Take it back!
More than 1,000 dentists and patients have already written protest letters to the ADA. ADA members who value their dental licenses and the rights conferred by them should write the ADA in protest of this usurpation of their authority to treat patients with proven, safe protocols without undue interference.
6) What should government do?
We believe it is imperative that individual state dental boards review the ADA’s guidelines carefully and not simply rubberstamp what the ADA recommends.
In general, states regulate dentistry with three goals in mind: public safety, access and cost. As for safety, both the old and new ADA proposals are more than adequate to ensure patient safety.
However, the new ADA guidelines would reduce patient access to care and raise the price of dental care for many, many patients – even those who aren’t treated with OCS.
7) Anything further?
Yes. When it comes to OCS, trust the dentists who best understand its benefits and risks – those practitioners who use OCS regularly.
As far as we can determine, not one general dentist who has been trained in OCS protocols and uses them regularly has written to the ADA or TEAM 1500 in support of tougher standards. Not one.
The cry for new restrictions comes from dentists who are largely unfamiliar with OCS and don’t offer it to their patients. They speak not from experience.
More than 7,500 dentists currently offer OCS to their adult patients, safely and effectively. These are dedicated professionals whose values are above suspicion. If OCS dentists saw any evidence that these protocols were in any way risky for their patients, the OCS dentists would be pounding the ADA’s table to make changes.
IV sedation and OCS are not one in the same. Being an expert in the former doesn’t make a dentist an expert in the latter.
Comments