Newspaper finds 85 dental patient deaths in Texas since 2010

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Newspaper finds 85 dental patient deaths in Texas since 2010

Updated 1:13 pm, Thursday, December 10, 2015

DALLAS (AP) — At least 85 dental patients have died in Texas since 2010 and the number of similar deaths nationwide is likely much higher, according to a new investigation by The Dallas Morning News.

The newspaper listed several potential risks of bad dental care, including oversedation, inhaling objects, bleeding and facial fires. Other concerns included monitoring and emergency-response failures, accidental or deliberate violence, unsterilized equipment and intoxicated dentists.

Texas is the only state in the nation that both requires dentists to report all deaths that might be treatment-related and produces a detailed accounting of those reports, the paper found. It said that many states refused to release death reports that dentists have submitted, making it impossible to have a complete picture of why patients die and how many cases are related to treatment errors.

But based on the number of deaths in Texas — the second-largest state with about one-twelfth of the U.S. population — the paper projected that up to 1,000 people may have died nationwide of dental-related causes since 2010.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Newspaper-finds-85-dental-patient-deaths-in-Texas-6689462.php

[valerief]

1. Facial fires! WTF? nt

[haikugal]

4. Yeah, wtf?

[Kelvin Mace]

8. I am guessing that might be relate to drilling

I can think of two possibilities:

1) Cotton wadding igniting after contact with a hot drill bit or some type of cauterizing device (to control bleeding during oral surgery) or

2) People tend to brush their teeth and use lots of mouthwash before an appointment, and some mouthwashes have a high alcohol content.

Sounds like a job for Mythbusters, but they have retired.

Update: Oh, also, an oxygen or nitrous mishap. I forgot dentists use that.

[forest444]

12. Excellent, Dr. Holmes!

I imagine you must be either a dentist or someone who works with one.

I myself had a different (less dangerous) mishap with laughing gas about 8 years ago. She was a very sweet and professional gal, but she apparently set the flow too high and I almost passed out before she realized what was happening (I'm probably quite sensitive to it as well). It was like a dream.

Everything else went very well; but I have to say I felt a little foggy and forgetful for at least a couple of months afterward.

In all fairness nobody noticed the difference.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. No, was actually a tad phobic of them

Until I found my current dentist who I have been with for 25 years.

Just an educated guess.

[forest444]

18. Well, you could have fooled me.

A xylitol a day will keep the dentist away. Use the granulated instead of sugar, too.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. I too had a mishap with laughing gas. It involved my face and the bumper of a car.

But it was in a parking lot outside a Grateful Dead show. Nobody to blame but me.

[forest444]

17. Ah, but you survived...and you got by.

That must have been a fun night.

[Helen Borg]

16. It could be spontaneous dental combustion...

[valerief]

20. Now I know what dental dams are used for. To keep the saliva in to prevent tooth fires. nt

[hedgehog]

2. Is it proper to assume that the same rate of accidents occurs across

all 50 states? What about the states with onerous rules, regulations and inspections?

[msongs]

3. every aspect of this for each dentist should be posted on the internet, so we can compare cost and

safety records of each dentist...and doctor as well

[Judi Lynn]

5. Facial fires? I had to find out. Here's one story: Dentist kept practicing after fire in face

Dentist kept practicing after fire in face

Case shows length and difficulty for state revoking licenses

By Joel Hoffmann | 6 a.m. Jan. 24, 2015

In June 2007, the Dental Board of California put Rancho Bernardo dentist Ray-Michael Smith on probation for five years in response to a series of incidents, including one in which a patient was burned when an oxygen line erupted in a fire in her face. A week after Smith was put on probation — but allowed to go on practicing — patient Stephen Frisch, 15, of Ramona died of heart failure while sedated during oral surgery.

By the time a state administrative law judge and the dental board officially revoked Smith’s dentistry and sedation licenses, it was January 2012, and the dental board had spent more than a decade investigating reports of negligence, injury and death in his care.

. . .

Smith doesn’t dispute that a patient’s face was burned when his laser ignited an oxygen line, nor does he dispute that a boy died under sedation by Smith. But he said the state had distorted details in a “relentless pursuit … to wipe me off the face of the earth no matter what the truth was.”

. . .

She said she has mixed feelings about what happened to her. She’s sickened by the horror of spitting out chunks of her own burnt flesh, but relieved that she wasn’t permanently disfigured.

More:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/jan/24/face-on-fire-dentist-california-dental-board/

[Ezlivin]

6. How long before our conservative overlords remove this "job-killing" requirement?

Here in Texas we live in a free state: A state free of pesky regulations and oversight.

We're "business friendly."

I can't believe this reporting requirement exists here in Texas. It makes us look bad. We should quickly end it so like other states we can simply be ignorant of the safety hazards that truly exist. It's more important that we be worried about dangerous Syrian refugees.

[yellowcanine]

7. Yes. What is a little FACIAL FIRE compared to profits and jobs?

[KT2000]

9. the RW crazy dentist

I used to see does not believe in special precautions against AIDS and Hep C. After he was reported for this the Health Dept. did nothing because they had to catch him in the act. He considered himself a sovereign citizen.
It is good to check your health care professionals' political beliefs.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

10. I'm glad I read this after I went to the dentist today.

[tammywammy]

11. Heh!

I was at the dentist Monday. Next time I'm gonna ask if they ever set anyone's face on fire.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Maybe they should be required to post a sign:

Days since last facial fire: 3

[packman]

19. Why some people become dentists

You have a talent for causing pain---

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