For the record, TEAM 1500 is not a puppet of DOCS, the ADA, the AGD or any other organization.

We are a grassroots group of dedicated and concerned dentists and other healthcare professionals who believe that what’s in the interest of patients is of paramount importance.

The CDEL member I was speaking to didn’t buy any of my explanations. It seems that he and his fellow committee members simply don’t want to let the truth get in the way of their comfortable dismissal of all we do – and why.<< MORE >>

General dentists, particularly those who faithfully serve their fearful and anxious patients using oral conscious sedation, have been ambushed by a gang of bullies. This particular gang may wear white overcoats and hang framed degrees on their walls, but nonetheless they are out to rob and rough up their victims as assuredly as any common hoodlums.<< MORE >>

Dr. Kenneth P. Moritsugu’s letter to TEAM 1500 came in response the organization’s call for the Surgeon General to take a position on efforts by the ADA to pass new guidelines that would effectively prevent hundreds of thousands of fearful and anxious patients from continuing to receive the increasingly popular form of treatment known as oral conscious sedation, or OCS.<< MORE >>

If general dentists want to offer sedation to patients who previously required the services of a more highly educated dental specialist, then let the general dentists and non-specialists at least invest more time and money in their training, too! It’s not about safety, it’s about fairness.

Now the scenario unfolds in a manner more to the specialists’ liking. General dentists and non-specialists who wish to offer their patients OCS will pay an “educational tax” to do so. Describe the “tax” as a safety precaution if you must, but recognize it for what it really is. << MORE >>

In a letter conveyed to acting U.S. Surgeon General, Kenneth P. Moritsugu, TEAM 1500 called on the nation's chief health educator to intercede with the American Dental Association to protect the public's access to safe and effective dental care.

Writing on behalf of TEAM 1500, Director Dean Rotbart told Rear Admiral Moritsugu that recently proposed ADA guidelines, if approved, will prevent thousands of dentists from continuing to provide their patients oral conscious sedation.

"While the ADA's mission is to serve the public interest, the reality is that merit is not always the basis for its actions," Rotbart wrote Dr. Moritsugu.  "Unfortunately, sometimes internal political considerations trump what's in the public's best interest."

The full text of TEAM 1500's letter to the Surgeon General can be downloaded here (PDF of letter to Dr. Moritsugu) or click "More" below to read it online.

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I did a residency with an anesthesilogy rotation and am qualified to do IV sedation, but have chosen not to because, in a general practice, it is safer and more efficient to use oral sedation with/without nitrous oxide. Should we be listenting to oral surgeons who do not use this technique or should we be listening to those general dentists treating millions of cases without serious complications utilizing this technique on a daily basis?<< MORE >>

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.

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Sometimes, people die when they don’t get proper dental care.

We are reminded of this sad reality by the recent death of a 12-year-old boy in Prince George County, Maryland who, as news accounts note, likely would have been saved by a timely $80 tooth extraction.

The tragic death of Deamonte Drive on February 25th underscores the dangers that face patients – children and adults alike – who are pushed out of the dental care system, rather than embraced by it. << MORE >>

Your proposed regulations would effectively be a needlessly insurmountable bureaucratic obstacle. They would serve to take dentistry back a generation or two, to a time when patients had little or no choice but to suppress their fears and put up with (in their minds) terrifying procedures from dentists whose compassion can be equated with that of Hannibal Lecter!

-- Harvey Winter, DDS, FDOCS: New York<< MORE >>