Lost files on R. Kirk Huntsman discussion

The Dental Leader no longer exists other than in cached format. But I located this discussion and going to repost it.  I’m not sure when it was written, but here is the cached copy. By looking at the Wayback Machine, it was archived the first time in February 2001, and this News Letter was there at that time.  So this goes back a while. I guess, sadly, no one listened to Dr. Maroon.  Look where we are in 2012! Maybe too much nitrous in the operatories and folks were sleeping!

The Dental Leader Inc - Michael Maroon, DMD, FACE, FAGD - Editor & Publisher
39 Webster Square Road, Berlin, CT 06037
Email: contact@TheDentalLeader.com (no longer works)

Great Article...Great Newsletter

Mike,

I thoroughly enjoyed the June issue of your newsletter, especially "There’s Always Tomorrow." I read quite a few parallels to my own life in that article.

The rest of the newsletter also contained quite a bit of meat along with some thought-provoking, insightful articles. Keep up the good work!

Dr. Kit Weathers, Griffin, GA

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The Devil Revisited

Well, I don’t quite know how to respond to all this DPMC (Dental Practice Management Company) stuff that is starting to manifest in our profession. However, I do know when I see a biased and self-serving article when I read one. Case in point, the reply of a one Mr. R. Kirk Huntsman (sounds like an attorney to me Vern) to the article written by a fellow dentist Mike Maroon.

I believe Mr. Huntsman referred to Dr. Mike’s article as a condescending diatribe (a long, violent, or blustering speech, according to Webster). This description would more appropriately fit the pen that wrote the reply. Dear R. Kirk, should I call you "R" or "Kirk", the R. Kirk just didn’t sit well with my simple Midwestern mind. Makes me feel like I gotta have sum one ta represent me. So I’ll jist call ya Kirk then. I’m sorry, I’m jist a Dennust. Ya know...sore on the hind end from rollin’ over so many times to ya’all. So Kirk, please enlighten me on your credentials that enable you to speak so intelligently about the dental profession. Are you one of us? Do you have a DDS or DMD degree? Or, are you yet another wonderful, charismatic and caring purveyor of management expertise who beckons to save us by convincing us that big brother (DPMC) is here for the good of all?

ATTN: Dental Mill Dentists - Dentist charged with offensive touching of young patient; he put his hand over the child’s mouth and told him to “shut up”

Sussex County Delaware

A Sussex County dentist has been charged with offensive touching of an 8-year-old patient who began screaming after a medical procedure, state police said today.

The incident occurred about 10 a.m. Wednesday at the office of Dr. Bruce Fisher, First State Oral Surgery, in the 33000 block of Wescoats Road near Lewes, police said.

When the child began screaming, “Dr. Fisher immediately covered the victim’s mouth with his hand and told him to ‘shut up,’” said Master Cpl. Gary Fournier.

He said a family member who was in the room during the procedure informed police Wednesday afternoon.

After police obtained a warrant, Fisher, 44, of Rehoboth, turned himself in to state police today. He was arraigned and released on $500 unsecured bail.

The boy was not injured, Fournier said.

Police asked anyone with information on this or other incidents to call investigators at (302) 856-5850, ext. 206. Anonymous tips may be texted to 274637 (CRIMES) beginning with “DSP.”

Dentist charged with offensive touching of young patient | The News Journal | delawareonline.com

Imagine this dude was arrested and charged for “improper touching” by putting his had over the child’s mouth. Imagine the jails that would need built for the dental mill dentists who do so much worse ever day.

Heads up parents! Call the police before you ever leave the clinic!

As for the dental mill dentists, look out! The next picture could be YOU!

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE KIDS!!

Virginia Regulatory Town Hall–Board of Dentistry is holding an open meeting today concerning a rule change requiring training in the 6 Links to Survival

March 9, 2012
Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website

First I want to say that I understand “good” reasons when someone opposes something. There are always two sides and views to everything. It’s the lame and idiotic excuses that gall me to no end.

Today is the 5 year anniversary of Raven Maria Blanco’s death. Raven died because a dental office was not prepared for a medical emergency. 19 children have died in the last five years from ill-prepared dentists and staff, when 6 common sense steps could have made the difference.

Comments from the public closed on February 19, 2012.  Below is a sample of those who sent comments opposing the rule change. 

These are copied and pasted as they were posted on the regulatory agency website. My comments are in [italics and brackets]

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Those OPPOSED

Commenter: Watchdog for Coalitions Against The Dental Profession (CADP)

Be Cautious! Don't be Fooled, Don't play into the empathy game!

This Raven Blanco Foundation may be a plublicity stunt to raise funds, that support their self created non profit slary jobs. Everything about their web site is very exploitive. They list no financial discloures, no board of directors/advisors. They are certainly following the guide for creating an issue that will bring them money and influence, and as they say power. And like all these nonprofits, they appeal to ones suffering to gain support.  They can be dangerous, just like all of our local dental nonprofits, run by non dentist, unlisenced advocates if you will, who want to be policy makers over dental matters of which they are trully ignorant. I would question the credibility and intentions of this group. Leave the emotional baggage out of any descision making. Dont treat victims as equals, they are not!

[ Apparently the group has problems with “unlicensed” citizens advocating for change in events that directly affect them. This is confusing to me. Who else would advocate for change? Those unaffected?  Financial “disclosures” are available online and Mr. Blanco, President and his Executive Director who puts in about 50 hours a week draw ZERO dollars from the foundation!  ZERO!  Rather, Mr. Blanco gave a large some to the foundation! Yes, I would question the intention of this group as well, since you will be amazed at what you find. You’ll also find out what wonderful people they are and how much they help other parents whose children are killed by ill-prepared dentists who are sedating children. They assist with emotional support, and financial support.  Helping families with funeral expenses or organize fundraising.They travel to every dental convention they possible can and promote safety in sedation dentistry. How can anyone be faulted for promoting safe sedation of children? The spokesperson for this group sounds as though they know the Blanco’s, are locals and have an ax to grind.]

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Commenter: Dr. E. Thomas Elstner, Jr.

Training for medical emergencies

There should be provisions for practitioners who do not administer local anesthetics in their office setting.  Currently there is no ACLS focusing on the dental setting.

[if this person is referring to Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), then with 8 deaths in the last 12 months, maybe ACLS should be focused on the dental setting.  Think?]

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Commenter: Dr. Paul W. Callahan

Another costly regulation that does nothing to help public welfare

It is the responsibility of ALL Virginia Regulatory Boards to protect the public.  Any death is is one too many, but statistically it is probably safer to go to the dentist that cross the street.   These proposed regulations are already the Standard of Care in most offices.  A regulation such as this would cost hundreds of thusands of dollars for most practicioners to follow; meaning the time spent documenting training, paying for training for a large staff when not everyone needs to be trained at the same level, etc.  So who pays for all this unnecessary documentation and training?   The average Virginia resident in the form of increased dental fees.   Is this what we want for our patients?

[This is just a wild guess, but I doubt your patients would mind a slight increase in your fee to know you were prepared to save their life if an emergency arose.]

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Edison dentist charged with fraud after S. Plainfield fire

MyCentralJersey.com

A Metuchen, NJ dentist was charged on Thursday, March 8, 2012 with falsifying the dental records of three children who were among five victims of a house fire on Feb. 23 in South Plainfield.

Paresh Patel, 46, of Laurie Lane, Edison, NJ was charged with falsifying or tampering with dental records and obstruction of the administration of law by providing the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office with false dental records of three of the children who died during the fire.

He also was charged with insurance fraud by submitting five or more false claims totaling more than $1,000, and was charged with five counts of health-care claim fraud.

Patel, owner of the Metuchen dental clinic Healthy Smiles Dental Associates, was charged after initial efforts to identify the youngsters determined Patel provided records that showed certain dental work had never been performed. The false records prevented and delayed positive identification of the children.

Police further determined that after falsifying dental records between April and May 2011, Patel billed Medicaid for the procedures that never were performed.

Five family members perished in the Feb. 23 blaze in South Plainfield and four other family members were injured.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan says Paresh Patel,  was charged with fraud after he provided records that showed certain dental work had never been performed on the children even though he had billed Medicaid for the work.

Patel's attorney, Lawrence Y. Bitterman, says he Patel has been practicing for 20 years and plans to enter a not guilty plea during his court appearance this week.

Edison dentist charged with fraud after S. Plainfield fire

American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry trying to squelch “Raven’s Song” and video created to promote safety in sedation dentistry.

Twice today it’s been removed from their Facebook page.

Confused about the “Dental Crisis” here in the U.S.

There is little doubt I am completely confused as to the so called “Dental Crisis” here is the U.S. 

I am not understanding why the Pew Institute or any other “institute” wastes time and money on access to care and certainly no one is wasting their time on studying access to quality care.

For the primary teeth we are lucky enough to be born with, corporations want to “drill ‘em, fill ‘em, cap ‘em and bill ‘em. They stress the importance of early treatment of caries and developing good hygiene habits so you can keep your natural teeth for the rest of your life.  Hell, the AAPD is now recommending you get your infant to the dentist at age 6 months or when the first tooth erupts, even if in-utero I suppose.

Why? 

The clinics down the street, such as Aspen, Affordable Dentures and the like, what to pull every last tooth in your head and slap in some cheap ass dentures.

What’s the whole point?

It’s not about proper medical treatment, it’s about Sales!

See – The below is from Aspen Dental.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see about, it’s about the “prize”, it’s about highest possible sale comes first, it’s about “hey, office manager, even if the patient says they are not interested in the “treatment” plan, get the doctor or hygienist first so they can “re-stress” the sale, it’s not about medical care.

Below you’ll see a note.  These notes are attached to each file reviewed (audited)by regional operations managers at Aspen clinics. Read this carefully, Aspen was NOT concerned about the medical care the patient needed, only the commitment to a sale. 

Ocean Dental gets a D- from the BBB

Ocean Dental, headquartered in Stillwater, Oklahoma is not receiving very good reviews. In fact the Better Business Bureau is giving it a D-.

Over on Topix there was a thread started in 2009 when a parent complained and told what happened to her child at an Ocean Dental in Arkansas. Here

No wonder so few parents speak up about the terrible experiences that happen to their children at these dental mills. This was was literally attacked! One person even said, that if they were bad, they wouldn’t be in business. 

Lord, it must be nice to live in land of Oz.! Last I checked the “waterboarding” dentist, Megann Scott worked at one of their OK clinics.

Guardian Angel "Raven's Song" has gone viral

The song was produced in honor of Raven Maria Blanco who died because of an ill-prepared dentist and staff sedating children in his office – Dr. Michael Hechtkopf.

The five year anniversary of Raven's death is Friday, March 9th 2012. The video has received nearly 400,000 hits in the last few days.  You can purchase the song on itunes.  Proceeds go to purchase AED's-Automatic External Defibrillators which are donated to dental offices across the county. Put there to save a child!  Please consider purchasing Raven's Song.

This week major news outlets have all but promoted sedation dentistry for children. Not a word was mentioned about the 19 deaths of children due to sedation complications that has taken place since Raven’s death 5 years ago.

Dentist Arrested For Illegally Prescribing Drugs - NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & Sports

 

Dentist Arrested For Illegally Prescribing Drugs - NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & Sports

Why would a Florida state representative, who is a CPA, own a business that contracts with Private Equity financed corporate dental practices to train their dental hygiene departments?

Let’s start here -
Does anyone find it the least bit odd that:
Douglas W. Brown of  Dental Works, Dental One, Dental Care Partners Dental Works and Secretary of the Dental Group Practice Association owns Regional Clinical Consultants, a company designed to train hygienists the art of upselling.

“Hygiene at DentalCare Partners (DCP) has experienced a huge paradigm shift in recent years, from the hygienists being“prophy queens” to “periodontal therapists.”Doug Brown, CEO, hired a consulting group in 2004 that worked with DCP-affiliated dentists to develop the first periodontal protocol.  Brown knew that the investment to provide training and development to all hygienists throughout DCP, as well as comprehensive care to doctors and auxiliary staff, would pay off.  This company wide initiative occurred from 2004 to 2005 and was worth every penny in not only monetary rewards but by fostering patient stability and improving quality of care. n 2005, Brown created the Regional Clinical Consultant position at DCP.