© ABC/KOCO,Oklahoma Board of DentistryDr. Wayne Harrington, an oral surgeon with a practice in Tulsa, Okla., is being investigated by the state dental board, the state bureau of narcotics and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency because one of his patients recently tested positive for hepatitis C and HIV without known risk factors other than receiving dental treatment.
Dr. Scott Harrington, an oral surgeon who has been practicing in Tulsa for more than 30 years, voluntarily stopped practicing March 20 after two site visits found multiple violations, including assistants being allowed to unlawfully perform IV sedation, which only a licensed dentist may perform. Allowing this is a felony.
The Tulsa Health Department is setting up free testing clinics for the 7,000 patients who may have been exposed since 2007, when the earliest patient information was available.
Patients before 2007 are advised to call a hotline that will be answered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The number is 918-595-4500.
The free testing will begin Saturday morning at the North Regional Health and Wellness Center, 5635 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., and continue next week.
Exposure to these diseases through an outpatient dental clinic is rare, and the public should not panic, State Epidemiologist Kristy Bradley said.
"I want to stress that this is not an outbreak," she said.
