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]
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.]
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?]
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.]
