Board of Dentistry: pediatric anesthesia: committee.

The Dental Practice Act provides for the licensure and regulation of dentists by the Dental Board of California. That act authorizes a committee of the board to evaluate all suggestions or requests for regulatory changes related to the committee and to hold informational hearings in order to report and make appropriate recommendations to the board, after consultation with departmental legal counsel and the board's chief executive officer. The act requires a committee to include in any report regarding a proposed regulatory change, at a minimum, the specific language or the proposed change or changes and the reasons therefor, and any facts supporting the need for the change. The act governs the use of general anesthesia, conscious sedation, and oral conscious sedation for pediatric and adult patients. The act makes it unprofessional conduct for a licensee to fail to report the death of a patient, or removal of a patient to a hospital or emergency center for medical treatment, that is related to a dental procedure, as specified. The act also makes it unprofessional conduct for any dentist to fail to obtain the written informed consent of a patient prior to administering general anesthesia or conscious sedation. In the case of a minor, the act requires that the consent be obtained from the child's parent or guardian. This bill, which would be known as "Caleb's Law," would require the board, on or before January 1, 2017, to provide to the Legislature a report on whether current statutes and regulations for the administration and monitoring of pediatric anesthesia in dentistry provide adequate protection for pediatric dental patients and would require the board to make the report publicly available on the board's Internet Web site. The bill also would require the board to provide a report on pediatric deaths related to general anesthesia in dentistry at the time of its sunset review by the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature. This bill would require that the report of the death of a patient, or removal of a patient to a hospital or emergency center for medical treatment, be on a form or forms approved by the board and that the report include specified information. The bill authorizes the board to assess a penalty on any licensee who fails to make the required report. This bill, with regard to obtaining written informed consent for general anesthesia or conscious sedation in the case of a minor, would require that the written informed consent include specified information regarding anesthesia, as provided.