The
Contact News Bulletin is distributed by email and is posted to our website when dentists, dental therapists and certified dental assistants need to be informed of timely and important matters.
The most recent
Contact News Bulletin is below. An archive of
past issues remains online for your reference.
For information about upcoming Continuing Education opportunities, visit our
upcoming events page.
31 January 2018
IN THIS
NEWS BULLETIN
“A father complained that he was denied emergency care for his daughter because of his outstanding balance owing to the previous owner of the practice.”
“A patient complained that the dentist extracted the wrong tooth and when she contacted the office to complain and request a refund, both the office manager and the dentist did not communicate professionally.”
“A patient complained that the dentist replaced a fractured amalgam filling with a composite filling without informing her of the difference in costs and without offering alternatives.”
There are now five years’ worth of complaint summaries on the website. They include every complaint that resulted in some action being taken by the registrant to improve their practice. A review of the complaint summaries may help you avoid being the subject of a complaint by learning what people complain about and how the College addresses the concerns raised.
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All registrants should have received a renewal package in the mail earlier this month. Log in to your account today to complete your renewal and make your payment. The deadline is 1 March 2018.
In order to renew your registration you must have fulfilled the Quality Assurance requirements which include your CE being current and having the minimum required continuous practice hours. Please contact the registration department at registration@cdsbc.org if you have any questions.
Note: Registrants who do not renew by 1 March will not be not permitted to practise until they have been reinstated (for which there is an additional fee).
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Dr. Suzanne E. Cziraki
Dr. Cziraki is registered as a certified specialist in Orthodontics
and Dentofacial Orthopedics. She has a practice in Vancouver and
formerly owned a practice in Cranbrook. A discipline hearing was set and
then cancelled when Dr. Cziraki made admissions and proposed a
resolution under s.37.1 of the Health Professions Act. Dr. Cziraki has
admitted to professional misconduct with respect to a number of patients
in that:
- She failed to accurately diagnose the presenting
conditions, provide all reasonable treatment options, and develop
appropriate treatment plans.
- She failed to appropriately manage patients.
- She provided unnecessary or inappropriate treatment.
- She unduly extended the length of treatment and/or increased the complexity of treatment.
- Under
her supervision, her office submitted insurance claims for treatments
that either were not indicated and/or not provided, or should not have
been billed separately from the orthodontic treatment.
A
panel of the Inquiry Committee considered Dr. Cziraki’s admissions and
her proposal and ordered a reprimand, a fine, payment towards the costs
of the investigation, an educational program and monitoring. More
information, including the consent order, is available at the link
below.
Dr. Doochul Shin
Dr. Shin, a general dentist in Coquitlam, has signed a memorandum of
agreement and understanding (MAU) acknowledging concerns that his
professionalism and ethical behaviour in the context of dentist/staff
boundaries were not in keeping with the standards expected in B.C. He is
suspended from practice for two months and a condition has been placed
on his practice that he will not be alone with any female employee in a
clinical setting without a second employee being present and will not
take any female employee into his private office unless accompanied by
another employee.
Dr. Shin is reprimanded and required to pay a
fine, pass an ethics course and receive psychological counselling. More
information, including the MAU, is available at the link below.
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The Board election will be held on 17 May 2018 for the following positions:
Officers (One Year)
- President
- Vice-President
- Treasurer
Board Members (Two-Year Term)
- Dentist, District 1 (Fraser Valley)
- Dentist, District 4 (Vancouver)
- Certified Specialist
- UBC Faculty of Dentistry
- Certified Dental Assistant
Nominations will be accepted until 4:30 pm on 15 March 2018. More information is available at the link below and in the Notice of Election and Call for Nominations that was included in registrants’ renewal packages earlier this month.
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One-third of the College Board is public: these are members of the public appointed by the Ministry of Health. Mr. Dan De Vita and Mr. Rick Lemon have both stepped down from the Board after serving for nine years (2008-17). We welcome two new public members to the Board: Mr. Gurdeep Bains, a chartered professional accountant, and Ms. Barb Hambly, a senior leader in the corporate health sector.
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The Board will be meeting on Saturday, 24 February 2018, 8:30 am at the Marriott Hotel, 1128 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C.
To reserve a meeting package and ensure adequate seating, observers should RSVP to Nancy Crosby, Manager of the CEO's Office, at ncrosby@cdsbc.org by 15 February.
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You can now locate and contact active study clubs near you through the College website. Don’t see your study club listed? Email CE@cdsbc.org to be added to the contact page.
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Thank you to everyone who took the time (or even braved a snowstorm) to
join the College for one of our seven listening sessions in 2016 and
2017. Our Board and committee members and staff were pleased to speak
directly with you in Victoria, Surrey, Nanaimo, Nelson, Vancouver,
Kelowna and Prince George. We look forward to continuing these
conversations in 2018.
Detailed reports from all seven listening
sessions are now available online and cover various topics including
bylaws, public trust in the profession, corporate dentistry and quality
assurance.
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Deputy Registrar Carmel Wiseman, who joined the College in 2010, has announced that she will retire at the end of February, 2018. Carmel oversaw the complaints and discipline function from 2010-17, after which she moved into a policy role. We thank Carmel for her many contributions as part of the senior staff team.
After five years with the College, General Counsel Greg Cavouras has moved on to a position with another professional regulator. We are pleased to welcome Joyce Johner as our incoming General Counsel. Joyce comes to us after 15 years in a senior role on the legal team at the BC Securities Commission.
Our office will be closed on Monday, 12 February for Family Day and will reopen at 8:00 am on Tuesday, 13 February 2018.
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This Contact News Bulletin is distributed to registrants for the College of Dental Surgeons of BC. It is one of CDSBC's official methods of notification to its registrants. Registrants are responsible for reading College publications to ensure that they are aware of current standards, policies and guidelines.
