TEAM 1500, a coalition of more than 1,500 healthcare providers and others concerned with patients' rights, conducted an economic impact study. They found treatments utilizing oral sedation will have to pay twice as much as current fees if new American Dental Association guidelines, ADA Resolution 77, are approved.
TEAM 1500 used data and calculations derived from a cross-section of practicing oral healthcare professionals, dental school academics, regulatory experts and financial forecasters.
Here are five points:
1. The study, known as T1EIS, was overseen by Dean Rotbart. Mr. Rotbart is a prestigious financial journalist who currently serves as director of TEAM 1500. TEAM 1500 strongly opposed the ADA's effort to rewrite the ADA guidelines concerning sedation dentistry in a proposal known as ADA Resolution 77.
2. The study projects as many as 50,000 patients will stop obtaining routine dental treatments within the first two years following the adoption of ADA Resolution 77.
3. Additionally, T1EIS predicts 250,000 patients who currently see a dentist on a regular basis will stop seeing that dentist within five years because of higher dental fees and longer wait times.
4. ADA Resolution 77 requires dentists who want to offer their patients enteral moderation sedation to double the amount of training that is currently recommended. The additional cost for the training could reach $50,000 or more per dentist.
5. If ADA Resolution is implemented, the study predicts the total number of dentists able to provide sedation dentistry will fall by 5 percent to 7 percent each year.
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