CAPSULES: Dangerous Dentists

Most people will seek any excuse to avoid seeing their dentists. An article in the A.M.A. Journal now offers a new one: dentists may be hepatitis carriers. This risk was revealed when four Baltimore physicians began investigating the cause of a small epidemic of the of ten severe liver ailment. None of the twelve victims had had blood transfusions, a common source of the infection. Nor were any of them drug users who might have contracted the disease from contaminated needles. But all had one thing in common — the same dentist, a 28-year-old man who had recently returned to practice after a long and serious bout with hepatitis. Tests showed that the dentist was still a carrier. Further investigation also disclosed that the twelve patients, all of whom had had extensive dental work, were not the dentist’s only victims. He had passed the disease on to two others in his office: an other dentist — who happened to be his father — and a dental assistant.