Gov. Steve Sisolak gave brief comments Thursday on the latest regarding the state dental board members. (Bill Dentzer/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The Review-Journal’s investigative reporter Arthur Kane talks about what he found in his 5 month investigation of the Nevada State Board of Dental Examiners.
The Las Vegas Dental Association has charged the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners is not treating all dentists fairly. The sister of the LVDA executive director sought treatment from then-board president Byron Blasco. Her complaint to the dental board claims Blasco tried to charge her for unnecessary treatment that other dentists said she doesn’t need. But the board and the Nevada Attorney General dismissed the complaint.
At a public comment session, Harold David Moore called out the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners, charging corruption and failures to protect patients. Afterwards, board staff filed a restraining order against him. A Las Vegas justice of the peace rejected the restraining order and admonished the board for violating open meetings laws.
Patients who claim dentists made mistakes and injured them say the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners isn’t doing enough to protect the public. While complaints have risen, board actions have plummeted and only a handful of dentists lost their licenses in recent years, a Review-Journal investigation found. Auditors also have found serious problems with the board’s disciplinary process.
The Nevada Board of Dental Examiners and the courts provide patients with ways to check dentists’ background for actions and malpractice lawsuits. But the Review-Journal investigation found that dental board information is sometimes incomplete.
If choose to file a complaint against a Nevada dentist, here are the forms dental board requires a patient to complete.