Assembly Panel Moves to Pull Entire Dental Board

A legislative committee moved Tuesday to wipe out the California Dental Board for the next six months, a move some lawmakers argued was fitting punishment for what they see as an uncooperative, poorly run panel.

Dental board President Kit Neacy, a Covina periodontist, defended her group’s work and called the bill “a political bloodletting.” She warned lawmakers that they would lose valuable experience by obliterating the board, which is responsible for licensing and disciplining 30,000 dentists in California.

Critics of the board, by contrast, were gleeful over the vote, which comes largely in response to a dispute over the board’s slow response to legislative demands for creation and distribution of a warning sheet on the potential side effects of mercury cavity fillings.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to clean house,” said Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), urging the Assembly Health Committee to approve a bill to strip the dental board of funding and remake it, possibly with new appointees, in January.

The committee heeded her plea, sending the bill, SB 26, to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which is expected to take it up today. If the bill survives that committee and a vote on the Assembly floor, it could be on Gov. Gray Davis’ desk within a week.

A governor’s spokeswoman said he has not taken a position on the bill.

The legislation would shift the oversight duties of the dental board to the Department of Consumer Affairs until a new board is appointed and funded in January.

Figueroa called the 14-member board unresponsive to consumers and the Legislature. Though there is a long history of problems, she said, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was the debate over what to tell patients about the health risks of mercury cavity fillings. For years, the Legislature and the board have argued over what to tell patients about mercury risks, and some lawmakers believe the board has ignored their direction--a charge that board members deny.

“Obviously we have your attention,” Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis), chairwoman of the Health Committee, told the current dental board president and executive officer.

For decades, patient advocates and dental groups have sparred over the impact of mercury fillings. Two weeks ago, a group called Consumers for Dental Choice filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against state and national dental associations, seeking to ban the use of dental amalgam that contains mercury.

The American Dental Assn. has concluded that mercury fillings do not harm a patient’s overall health, but critics say the substance causes reproductive and neurological damage.

Members of Consumers for Dental Choice welcomed Figueroa’s bill, calling the dental board an arm of the dental industry.

“They function as an adjunct of the American Dental Assn.,” said spokesman Stephen Rivers.

Only four members of the current board were appointed by Davis, a Democrat. The others were appointed by Republican former Gov. Pete Wilson or the Legislature, and there are two vacancies.

Under Figueroa’s bill, the board and its executive officer, Georgetta Coleman, would lose their positions. A staff of about 50 workers would probably be absorbed by the Department of Consumer Affairs to carry out the board’s duties, said department spokesman Mike Luery.

“We’re ready to go if that’s what the Legislature mandates,” he said.