BC dentists warn of risks patients face if they visit an illegal practice
Posted June 24, 2014 11:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The College of Dental Surgeons of BC is asking anyone who have seen an illegal dentist to get checked out by a doctor.
This comes a day after the college raided two suspected illegal practices in East Vancouver.
The college’s chief executive Jerome Marburg says if you go to an illegal dentist, you not only face the potential of improper work on your teeth and gums, but also could risk getting a serious infectious disease.
“Everything from bacterial infections, which will manifest fairly quickly, all the way through to some of the very nasty infections… like hepatitis and HIV,” says Marburg.
“While transmission risks are low, when you have no infection control or very poor infection control, the risks increase,” he adds.
Marburg says the college is making extra efforts to reach out to BC’s ethnic communities, as illegal dentists often look for clients among immigrant populations not used to regulated dental care.
“We work with the ethnic media and the ethnic press,” says Marburg.
“We’re getting information out in multiple languages and we’re doing it in concert with the other health profession regulators. There are 23 colleges under the Health Professions Act and we work together to get that information out. It is a health concern first and foremost. It’s a public protection issue.”
