‘AIDS and Dental Care’

Your editorial “AIDS and Dental Care” (Feb. 12) though well written, makes a naive assumption that once provided with education, dentists who are now refusing to treat HIV-infected people will welcome them into their practices. Certainly, education is a very important element in ending abuse of afflicted people in our society, but motivation is often needed to give impetus to the utilization of such knowledge. Litigation can provide that motivation when all else fails.

You make reference to a case “filed in Encino” against a dentist that “allegedly refused to treat” and offer the opinion that “a better course” would be to use education to overcome the fears of dentists.

When my partner told his dentist that he has HIV infected he was refused treatment.

Because he was very ill at that time he asked me to act on his behalf. I agreed and subsequently filed a complaint with the Board of Dental Examiners, requested a board policy statement on refusal to treat, and requested that AIDS-related continuing education courses be mandated for California licensed dentists. Their first letter contained three sentences and did not address any of my concerns. I approached my state senator and asked him to help me obtain a more relevant response from the board. In the next letter, after Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) intervened, board officials declined to act either on the ethical question or on the continuing education request. I then spoke with a representative of the city attorney’s office handling AIDS discrimination matters.

He too, like you, felt that education was the best way to proceed and though he had received over 50 complaints of violations by dentists, no charges had been brought against any of them and none were planned. His office was urging dental professionals to make “nurturing referrals” when they refused to treat persons with the virus and to voluntarily seek more education about the disease. That seems to me to be analogous to saying that it’s all right if a lunch counter owner in the Deep South refuses service to a black as long as he then supplies the address of the local soul food restaurant. Also, asking a few caring dentists to carry the burden seems unfair. The AIDS Project Los Angeles dental clinic and committed professionals such as Dr. Jim Formaker should not have to pick up the slack for unethical dentists.

Education is fine and sometimes litigation is just the kind of education that best promotes change.

CHARLES KUELL

Van Nuys