Dentists asked to treat A.I.D.S. patients

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 37

Dentists asked to treat A.I.D.S. patients

PA Auckland Dentists are being asked to volunteer for a special treatment directory. The list of dentists sympathetic to treating highrisk homosexuals and bisexuals is being prepared by the A.I.D.S. Foundation. Its plea for volunteers has been published in the Dental Association’s national newsletter but the executive officer, Dr Derrick Liggins, said dentists were unlikely to refuse treatment. Hundreds of California dentists, aware that the acquired immune deficiency syadrome virus hasJieen isolated in blood and saliva,

are refusing to handle A.I.D.S. patients and suspects. The shortage of willing dentists is so acute that the L.A. County Health Department has had to set up a separate dental clinic staffed by homosexual dentists.

There was no suggestion New Zealand dentists would go to such extremes, said Dr Liggins. He had received no complaints about dentists refusing to treat A.I.D.S. suspects or patients. Dentists, however, were very aware of the risk of catching the disease and had been issued with a rigorous new policy to follow for treating A.IE.S.

patients. The Health Department guidelines include: • Wearing gloves, a face mask, glasses, and surgical gown. • Treating victims at the end of the day so instruments and surfaces could be thoroughly sterilised before other patients were treated. • Covering equipment surfaces with throwaway material to be sterilised before disposal or incinerated. Dr Liggins said some dentists were wearing gloves and protective gear for all their patients and asking them if they could be at risk from A.I.D.S.