Question:
The governor in California has dissolved the Dental Board !
Anyone knows why?
Answer:
The homepage of the CA Dental Board says every seat
is vacant: http://www.dbc.ca.gov/
How is performing their normal regulatory activities right now?
But they did a fairly comprehensive fact sheet:
http://www.dbc.ca.gov/newltr/dental_factsheet_2001.pdf
What specifically do you think is wrong with that one?
Nothing wrong with it.
I'm not very familiar with this issue, but afaik, the problem was
not with the fact sheet, but that it was not put into use.
I mean, the fact sheet was compiled, but then there was a
failure to actually put this into practice.
I do know that there are new state review boards (sunset) for not only
dentistry but also medicine being conducted. This is all being done
quietly, none of this gets much publicity (afaik).
It appears to be part of an overall, broad attempt at healthcare
reforms but I don't know the real story, if there is or is not
something else really going on.
--We have just finished an exciting week in our battle with the Calif
DentalBoard. As you know, the Board is required to write a Fact Sheet
thatcorrectly states the risks of dental materials, including mercury
amalgam.(That's the Watson law, written by now Congresswoman Diane Watson.)
Fornine years, the Board has ignored this duty -- a flaunting of the law
nottolerated for the ordinary citizen. So the Calif Assembly voted 66 to 8
toshut them down, and the Senate, after its August recess, appears posed to
dothe same.So the Board, as a good-bye favor to the ADA & CDA [Calif Dental
Assn]hurriedly decided to have a quick meeting and adopt a Fact Sheet that
saysno risks exist for amalgam. Scheduling to meet at a plush, hideaway
hotelnear the expensive San Francisco Airport, the Board chose a place where
thepublic could not afford to come -- but, of course, which ADA/CDA
lobbyistscould fly into & say their piece. The Board almost got away with
it.Indeed, the Calif Dental Ass'n news release said the Board would adopt
theFact Sheet at that meeting, June 18.Shawn Khorrami, our excellent L A
lawyer, spotted legal error: a failureto give proper public notice. Shawn &
I, with Anita Tibau as the plaintiff,headed to L A County Superior Court on
Monday, July 16, to block the meetingscheduled on July 18. Stephen Rivers &
Brett Mathews arranged another newsconference about it -- and for the fourth
time this summer, we receivedtelevision coverage about our issue on Calif TV.
(Truly, people arelearning about the "M" word.)At the Courthouse, the Attorney
General's office was there to defend theBoard. The Attorney General by law
must defend state agencies, but (whenthe Attorney General does her or his job
correctly) is also charged withtelling Boards to comply with the law. To the
credit of Attorney GeneralBill Lockyer, the Deputy Attorney General, Kimberlee
King, realized that theDental Board had screwed up (these folks on the Dental
Board are not thesharpest tools in the shed), and agreed that the Board could
not legallyvote. We in turn agreed that the Board could meet and discuss the
issue, aslong as it did not vote -- we always welcome discussions about the M
word.Thus, because of our lawsuit, the Board was forced to abandon its plan!The
Board meeting near the San Fran airport proceeded, but it was a meetingwhere
the Baord could listen but not vote! We had an aggressive group thereto inform
the Board that it must state the risks: Lindell Tinsley (from ourlaw firm),
Anne Marquez, Maz Levy, Dr Dave Kennedy, Anita Tibau, Dr AndyLanderman, and
others. They stood up to the Board and showed that,whenever they try cover up
amalgam's risks, we will be there!And how about this: Governor Gray Davis'
Administration, I am happy toreport, weighed in on OUR side: Director of
Consumers Affairs KathleenHamilton had her Deputy read a letter stating that
the Fact Sheet as writtenviolated the Watson law and failed to state the risk
of mercury amalgam.So we stopped the Board from sneaking through a terrible
Fact Sheet.But have they learned anything? Confused, the Board now appears to
want totry the same thing -- in Oakland on August 3. Stay tuned.
