sevodes said:
Look man, I am just telling people what a perio. resident told me. Besides, as an OMFS resident I don't have the time to chase down all you crazy "illegal" periodontists. If you are not actually involved in this type of practice then relax. If you are truley a Periogod then this should not make you so angry. By the way, ScRP and FBI? That is like putting a pimple and a melanoma in the same Dif. DX.
Sevodes - I am glad you are saving lives taking out all of those FBI 3rd molars. Give me a break!
Do you have time to chase down all of the "illegal" OMS? Oh yeah, your too busy being a resident. All professions have people who push the limits, practice substandard care, and have ship happens (including yours). So, before you start pointing fingers at others look at your own profession. I copied these articles from my malpractice carrier.
Article 1
Friday, May 23, 2003 [major northwest newspaper article]:
When [patient] awoke from dental surgery, his chin was numb.
Six years later, it's still numb.
Because of a misinterpreted notation on an X-ray, a [City] oral surgeon had drilled into [patient's] jaw, trying to reach a wisdom tooth that wasn't there.
"He kept going deeper and deeper until he finally clipped that nerve," said [patient's] attorney, [name].
On Thursday, the state Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the surgeon, [name], was negligent. [Patient] and his attorneys will collect $52,500 that a [City] jury awarded for the 1996 mistake.
"Mr. [patient] woke up after being rendered unconscious to find out that he had four holes in his mouth, and he knew he only had three wisdom teeth," said [attorney].
[Dentists'] defense of the mistake centered on a radiograph - an X-ray picture - provided by [patient's] regular dentist. The film included a mark in one corner, which [dentist] apparently interpreted as "LR," or "lower right."
Going by the X-ray, [dentist] began drilling toward what should have been an impacted wisdom tooth. But there was nothing there. He was drilling on the wrong side of [patient's] jaw.
"He interpreted the radiograph in a reasonable way, given the way it was labeled," said [dentists'] attorney, [name]. "The problem here was always with this radiograph."
[Dentists' attorney] had challenged the jury ruling, saying that the judge made it too easy for the jury to find negligence in the case. Under a legal shortcut called res ipsa loquitur ("the thing speaks for itself"), jurors can infer negligence in obvious cases where the thing causing the injury is under the control of a defendant. In this case, [patient's] attorney argued, the thing causing the damage was the drill.
[Dentists'] attorney argued, on the other hand, that the thing that led to the damage was actually the X-ray.
The nine justices sided with [patient].
"The role the X-ray played, if any, in the injury is unclear," Chief Justice [name] wrote. "What is clear is that it was the drill which was the direct and immediate cause of [patient's] injury, and that [dentist] had exclusive control over the drill."
[Dentist] referred questions about the case to his attorney.
[Patient's attorney] said that doctors say [patient's ] numbness will likely last the rest of his life. It hasn't affected his speech, but while eating, he worries constantly that a piece of food might be stuck on his chin.
"He wouldn't feel it," [patients' attorney] said.
Article 2
LARGE SOUTHERN CITY (AP) - A wrongful death lawsuit filed by a [City] family alleges that a dental clinic took advantage of low-income patients after their teenage son died the morning after he had his wisdom teeth pulled. The family of [victim], 16, said [dental clinic] used a "quick turnaround" scheme to maximize the number of patients and the amount of Medicaid payments.
The suit came days before a state cap on malpractice damages took effect. It seeks $10 million for wrongful death.
[Victim's] parents found him dead in his bed on Aug. 9. The County medical examiner has not determined a cause of death.
On Thursday, the family sued the dental clinic, charging that it negligently went through with the surgery despite warning signs that something was wrong.
Representatives of the clinic said that it's too early to conclude that the surgery caused [victim's] death and that they stand by their procedures.
"Like the family, we want to understand how this tragedy happened and are awaiting that determination," the clinic's founders, said in a statement. "We continue to have great faith and confidence in the professionalism and commitment that our dentists and employees show our patients."
[Victim] would have been a junior at [name] High School this year. The brawny 6-foot-1, 347-pound defensive tackle hoped to play for the University of Florida and maybe even in the NFL.
According to family members, the teen's parents took him to the clinic to get his wisdom teeth pulled on the advice of the family orthodontist. They said they were alarmed that the dentist, [name], recorded victim's blood pressure as 155 over 43. A typical blood pressure reading for people his age is 120 over 80.
"I doubt that's an accurate blood pressure," said [dentist], an oral surgeon and president of the County Dental Society. "That should have been retaken and verified ... I think their blood pressure cuff was off."
The [families'] lawsuit says the clinic should have delayed [victim's] surgery to make sure the reading was accurate and to check the teenager's physical health and medical history.
[Dental clinic] said [dentist], who is on administrative leave, is a qualified dentist.
[Mother] said when they returned home, she gave her son the prescribed painkillers and antibiotic, and he went to sleep. When she checked on him the next morning, he was dead.
"I have to adjust and change my cooking habits," she said in an article in Tuesday's editions of the [City] Morning News. "It's hard because I know I have to cut it down. But that's one of the things."
[Victim's] teammates at [high school] are dealing with the loss as they prepare for the new season. [High school] football coach [name] described [victim] as good-natured.
"In the coaching business and teaching business, you try to touch somebody's life," [coach] said. "He was the type of kid that touched your life and the lives of the people around him. We lost a player, but a mother lost her child. Football is not even important when it comes to life and death," he said.
Article 3
Two [name of town] dentists have been ordered to pay nearly $130,000 in fines for performing cosmetic plastic surgery without proper medical licenses, authorities said Wednesday. Michael [dentist 1] and David [dentist 2], both 46 and partners at [name] Facial and Oral Surgery, are licensed oral surgeons but received medical degrees from an Internet company. Such degrees are not valid in California, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the dentists performed eye-area procedures and nose jobs, which they were not legally allowed to do, on about five patients. Additionally, they misrepresented themselves as medical doctors in advertisements, a violation of the state's unfair competition laws, prosecutors said.
"They were holding themselves out as medical doctors in a number of ways -- in telephone books, in brochures in their offices," said Deputy Dist. Atty. [name].
[Dentist 1] and [dentist 2] agreed to the settlement, ending a civil case brought against them by the county. As part of the deal, the dentists have removed all medical doctor references from their advertising.
