HORROR AT THE DENTIST'S OFFICE : HOW 7,000 PEOPLE COULD HAVE BEEN INFECTED BY ONE SINGLE DENTIST'S OFFICE

 

photo: CNN

The state of Oklahoma's Health Dept. has investigated a case that is so fraught with violations that as many as 7,000 patients who have gone through a dental office in the years it was open were advised to get tested for HIV, Hepatitis or any other illness that can be passed from infected instruments.  

When the investigators reached the office for inspection the premises seemed clean enough.  Then the investigators realized that the dentist was not sterilizing his instruments, and that needle used for the practice were not disposed of properly.  

In addition, the dentist's assistant was in charge of procedure only a licensed dentist is allowed to do.  

The dentist in question, Scott Harrington, was not strapped for money.  Such negligence speaks to a complete and wanton disregard for the welfare of his patients.  

Investigators also found that the doctor employed unlicensed and unauthorized workers to perform dangerous and delicate procedures such as intravenous sedation of his patients.  

The dentist has since surrendered his license and permits, but the question remains:  how many people have been infected by the practice?  The dentist who is an oral surgeon, no less, has been practicing his trade for more than 35 years.  

In addition, there are no logs of inventory for the drugs in the office. One of the vials that was found bore an expiration sticker that said 1993.  In some of the existing records, the investigators found that the office had administered morphine, even through there was no receipt of the office receiving morphine shipments.  

To make matters worse, the doctor treated many low-income patients who held medicare cards and whose history he did not know.  And the doctor also admitted that he had a higher than normal number of HIV patients and patients with hepatitis, which is making the outlook of looking for infected patients even bleaker. 

Some of the instruments found in the autoclave, which was not working as intended, were in dismal conditions, with dirt and rust on them.  

Source: CNN 3.28.13