The dentistry board launched its probe after one of Harrington's patients came down with hepatitis C. That patient originally tested positive for HIV, too, but a subsequent test came back negative, the Tulsa Health Department said.
While other states conduct random inspections of dentist offices with some regularity, Rogers told the Tulsa World newspaper that dentists' offices in Oklahoma are inspected only after a complaint is filed.
Say WHAT?!?
How could ANY regulatory office exist with such a rule? What's the point of having regulations in the first place if enforcement is purely reactionary? This story shows the folly of having this Tea Party BS attitude of "getting out of the way of businesses" and letting the :invisible hand of the market" handle weeding out inferior business practices. What that has gotten Oklahoma is -- at the VERY least -- possibly hundreds of people infected, spreading infections for months without even dreaming they could be in danger.
The natural question to ask now is... how many other dentist offices are in similar or worse shape than this guy? There's no way to know, because the government of Oklahoma is so into letting the "free market" to the job it's SUPPOSED to do. Will the people of Oklahoma care about this? I'm looking forward to seeing if they do.
