stateagenciespartner

New York State Agencies, Hospitals and Dentists
Partner to Increase Access to Dental Care

On December 14th and 15th over 100 dentists made their way to Albany through a snowstorm to participate in the Montefiore
Medical Center’s course on Enteral Conscious Sedation sponsored by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities Task Force on Special Dentistry. The course represented partnership efforts by New York State
Agencies, several New York State Hospitals and Task Force volunteers pooling their efforts to address the unmet dental needs of
New York’s population of persons with disabilities.

The course was subsidized through a grant from the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, a federally funded state agency
working under the direction of Governor Eliot L. Spitzer. The agency is responsible for developing new ways to improve delivery
of services and supports to New Yorkers with developmental disabilities and their families and recognizes the following:

1) Many individuals with developmental disabilities are in community settings and do not require an operating room setting to do
their dentistry, but they are still fearful of the dentist and would benefit from anxiety relief or oral sedation.

2) Oral Sedation has become very popular but is not by any means a panacea for dental treatment of individuals with
developmental disabilities and one purpose of this course is to raise the awareness of dentists treating patients with special needs
of both the safety concerns and the indications and contraindications for use of oral sedation with individuals with developmental
disabilities.

3) Some dentists just out of dental school have very little experience treating patients with special needs since it is an area not well
covered in many dental schools. This course is a step in raising new dentists’ comfort levels regarding the treatment of individuals
with special needs..

4) The dentists taking this course have pledged to help treat patients with special needs and have agreed to be listed on the Office
of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities web page as dentists who treat persons with developmental disabilities in
New York State. Through this joint endeavor and with this Enteral Conscious Sedation course, a greater access to quality dental
treatment will be attained for many New Yorkers with developmental disabilities who have struggled to find necessary dental care
in the past.

Many organizations and dentists “stepped up” to make this course possible. Firstly, we want to recognize Dr. Richard Kraut, Chair
of Department of Dentistry of Montefiore Medical Center who provided the course content, which is certified by the New York
State Department of Education as a course that qualifies participants to apply for New York State Enteral Conscious Sedation
Certificate. Secondly, we want to thank our speakers: Dr. Ralph Epstein, Course Director from Stony Brook University Medical
Center, Dr. Lee Lichtenstein from Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Dr. Morton Rosenberg of Tufts University School of
Dental Medicine. Next, we want to thank Lutheran Medical Center Department of Dentistry for providing ADA CERP credits for
the participants and GHI for providing a CPR course the evening before the course. Finally, we want to thank Dr. Alicia Bauman,
Dr. Pat Seagriff, Dr. Ed Riggins, Dr. Craig Colas, Dr. Carl Tegtmeier, Elaine Czerw RN, Annette Schaeffer and other members of
the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Task Force on Special Dentistry who volunteered
their valuable time to help make the course successful.

For further information concerning the NYS OMRDD Task Force on Special Dentistry, please visit our web page on the OMRDD
web site: www.omr.state.ny.us and type in Dental Task Force in the upper right hand corner search engine.

Gary Goldstein DDS, MBA, Dental Director, GHI FDP and Resource Center
Founder NYS OMRDD Task Force on Special Dentistry

20 Corporate Woods Blvd.
Suite 602
Albany, New York 12211
ph: 518-465-0044
fax: 518-465-3219
alt: 800-255-2100
nysdf@nysdental.org