Dental residency program receives more criticism

Friday, Nov. 26, 1999 | 12:18 p.m.

Dr. Tony Ippolito, the second of Nevada's three dental residents to quit the troubled program, criticized the program for not having a formal plan in place for such situations.

But others associated with the program say the Nov. 16 situation was handled professionally even though they were unaware of an official protocol for such occurrences.

Ippolito, who plans to leave the program by Jan. 1, and a former resident, Dr. Charles Aldridge, said this week that the 5-month-old residency program did not have a "needle stick protocol" in place.

Such guidelines usually spell out where the affected people should go to have their blood drawn and tested for HIV and the hepatitis B virus. The protocol also deals with paperwork and reporting issues as well as follow-up blood testing.

Fortunately, Ippolito said, the dentist and patient were tested right away because a physician in the same University of Nevada School of Medicine complex shared his protocol with the dental residency program.

The program's new director, Dr. George McAlpine, countered that the dental residency had a protocol in place but not everyone knew about the guidelines. The protocol will be common knowledge in the future, he said.