According to the Dallas Morning News, despite years of critical audits and complaints of lax oversight, the dental board is less likely to take disciplinary action, slower to act and far less likely to impose the most severe sanction, loss of a license, than the state medical board, a newspaper review found.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Monday that the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners is awaiting the results of a state auditor's review this month. The board regulates 15,950 dentists, more than 33,000 hygienists and registered assistants, and 1,083 laboratories.
The 15-member board routinely suspends dentists' licenses, but then allows the dentists to serve probation instead of missing work, the newspaper reported.
Of the board's 158 disciplinary actions since January 2007, 51, or nearly a third, were fully probationary suspensions, and 65 were warnings. Rarely is a suspended dentist ordered away from the workplace.
Probation has been given to dentists who have had their licenses revoked in other states or who pleaded guilty to crimes such as Medicaid fraud or assault, according to the newspaper's review of the board's actions since January 20007.
"There is no deterrence for behavior that is unethical or unprofessional," said Dr. Susana Paoloski, a Houston periodontist who was president of the Greater Houston Dental Society in 1990-91.
The Texas Medical Board, which oversees about 62,000 doctors and 7,000 other medical workers, has suspended 56 doctors since January 2007, and all but three were ordered to stop practicing for a period of time, spokeswoman Jill Wiggins said.
The board also disciplined more than 1,000 other license holders during that time, she said.
Texas Medical Board suspensions are more likely to require monitoring by another doctor, visits to a psychiatrist and a proof of fitness to return to practice. In contrast, the dental board more often orders fines, participation in classes and adherence to court requirements.
The dental board also makes referrals for treatment in drug cases.
The dental board's executive director, Sherri Sanders Meek, declined to discuss specific cases and would only answer questions from the newspaper in writing.
"Each case is decided based on factors contained in the individual complaint and subsequent investigation," she wrote in an e-mail.
State audits since 1997 have found flawed enforcement and weak oversight of dental professionals. The most recent audit, in 2005, said the staff lacked a system to determine whether orders were being followed.
The state medical board makes detailed information about doctors' disciplinary records available on its Web site. But the dental board requires an open records request to see a dentist's disciplinary record. Its Web site shows whether a dentist has been disciplined but gives no details.
The dental board is considering posting the text of its disciplinary orders online, Sanders Meek said.
