http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/board-wont-let-va-dentist-retire-license-pending-probe-1091472.html
Board won’t let VA dentist retire license, pending probe
By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer
Updated 10:43 PM Friday, February 25, 2011
DAYTON — The Ohio State Dental Board on Friday declined a request to retire the license of the 81-year-old dentist whose infection control practices were at the heart of an investigation into whether 535 veterans were exposed to blood-borne pathogens at the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic.
“The Board will not accept your request for retirement at this time,” the board’s executive director, Lili C. Reitz, wrote in a letter to Dr. Dwight M. Pemberton of Centerville. The letter did not give a reason for the denial.
“I can tell you that in the past couple years, the few requests for retirement that were not accepted were due to the fact that there was an active investigation ongoing,” Reitz told the Dayton Daily News by e-mail.
Dayton VA officials announced Feb. 8 that a dentist in its dental clinic failed to change latex gloves between appointments and sterilize dental instruments.
At least 535 veterans are being offered free screenings to see if they were infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV at the clinic between 1992 and July 2010. Most have been contacted, a VA spokesman said Friday.
The Dayton Daily News confirmed the dentist is Pemberton, who retired from the VA on Feb. 11. He had been at the Dayton VA since 1976, and was licensed in 1955. When contacted Friday, Pemberton declined comment.
DAYTON — The Ohio State Dental Board on Friday declined a request to retire the license of the 81-year-old dentist whose infection control practices were at the heart of an investigation into whether 535 veterans were exposed to blood-borne pathogens at the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic.
“The Board will not accept your request for retirement at this time,” the board’s executive director, Lili C. Reitz, wrote in a letter to Dr. Dwight M. Pemberton of Centerville. The letter did not give a reason for the denial.
“I can tell you that in the past couple years, the few requests for retirement that were not accepted were due to the fact that there was an active investigation ongoing,” Reitz told the Dayton Daily News by e-mail.
Dayton VA officials announced Feb. 8 that a dentist in its dental clinic failed to change latex gloves between appointments and sterilize dental instruments.
At least 535 veterans are being offered free screenings to see if they were infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV at the clinic between 1992 and July 2010. Most have been contacted, a VA spokesman said Friday.
The Dayton Daily News confirmed the dentist is Pemberton, who retired from the VA on Feb. 11. He had been at the Dayton VA since 1976, and was licensed in 1955. When contacted Friday, Pemberton declined comment.
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