Is the Texas Dental Association too Authoritarian?

29 Responses

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on June 19, 2010 at 1:03 PM said:

I’m curious if anyone has yet noticed that something is missing from the TDA response to 6 of my 35 questions. And, did you notice that there is not a signature anywhere?

D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on June 20, 2010 at 10:48 AM said:

Transparency, the TDA and 35 questions

This is the first report about the TDA’s responses to 35 questions.

Click to access tda-response-to-pruitt.pdf

I extend my appreciation to the Medical Executive-Post for providing a link to the PDF document sent to me by the Texas Dental Association a couple of days ago.

Intermediaries and asterisks – TDA rules

“I was told to tell you that the TDA has responded to your 35 questions, but that’s it. No more questions and no follow-ups. She says that it took 10 days to send the questions around to the appropriate people and that the staff had to put aside important duties to research answers for your questions.” – TDA Judicial Committee member. (Note: They only answered 6 questions, and 2 of those were answered with my own words copied off the Internet – numbers 19 and 20).

That may not be the exact quote. I didn’t record my telephone conversation with the messenger, but I’m sure he would agree that I presented an accurate description. It would have been much handier if the Executive Director Mary Kay Linn had emailed me that information along with her response. That way, I could have copied and pasted it instead of counting on my fallible memory of a conversation that may well evolve over time.

“No follow-up questions.” That chunk of information would have been real handy to have about a month ago when I was compiling the 35 questions. Why would I have bothered at all if I had been told that TDA employees are permitted to dodge accountability with an asterisk, and their non-answer will never be contested? Let me repeat: Only 6 questions were answered.

So why are TDA staff so slow and my time so expendable?

It would have also been nice to know beforehand that never before had it been TDA policy to limit members to any number of questions. Since I was limited to 35, I assume I set the benchmark at the state level of the ADA. My staff as well as my family are honored that I’m such an important dentist, but if I had known that I was setting a standard, I would have asked 36 questions.

This would have been my final question: “In my first telephone conversation with the TDA Judicial Committee member [the messenger], I was told that an unnamed TDA employee was ‘fed up’ with my behavior. Without speculating, hypothesizing or giving an opinion, what is the huckleberry’s name?”

One more thing – I noticed that there is not a signature on the response that TDA staff reportedly spent so much time preparing (6 questions). In fact, the PDF isn’t even done with a TDA letterhead. Why?

That would have been a good question.

I sign my work like this:
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Proots, on June 25, 2010 at 2:51 PM said:

Resign now, Mary Kay Linn

Good morning, @theTDA

I’m probably not going to mess with you much until next week, @theTDA. I’m heading out of town. Do you think you’ll miss me, Mary Kay?

This is a pretty neat way to reach out and touch TDA employees who would rather not be held accountable, Mary Kay.

Did you really intend to exhibit your authoritarian disrespect for a TDA member when you compiled your lame, unsigned response to me?

You should pay attention to this fact, Linn: NOBODY has come to your defense. NOBODY.

I don’t think the TDA needs an Executive Director even half as clever as you are, Mary Kay Linn.

This would be a good time to hand in your resignation, Linn. Please don’t cause my dental patients any more harm than you have already.

Proots

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Proots, on July 6, 2010 at 12:11 AM said:

Mr. Lyle Hoyt, of Tulsa Oklahoma, is a timid man

Hoyt is the shy vice president of Dental Economics who made what he must have assumed was a safe, anonymous corporate decision to abandon journalism ethics in favor of the interests of an important and influential advertiser – the American Dental Association. If Hoyt’s inherent character weakness typical of an anonymous leader sounds familiar, you might recall that I have reason to believe that it was also an anonymous ADA official – possibly even Lyle’s mysterious but influential friend in Chicago – who had me kicked off of the Dr Bicuspid.com Website a couple of years ago – also following my criticism of anonymous leaders in the ADA, as well as other dental care STAKEHOLDERS and their products.

I should add that I was kicked off of the Chicago Dental Society Facebook as well as my own Texas Dental Association Facebook for speaking up about similar politically-incorrect issues confronting the PRINCIPALS in dental care – that would be dentists and their patients rather than hangers-on.

It also aggravated repressed leaders in the TDA when I posted my art on their orderly Facebook – an official Website stunted by a stifling, insulting policy I’ve grown to expect from the ADA. The TDA membership director’s boss didn’t see any social value in my “WhoZis, TDA members?” pencil-portrait guessing game – an icebreaker idea of mine which my West Texas friends seem to still enjoy.

The membership director’s boss, whoever she is, became so enraged that she reflexively had the director block me from following @theTDA on Twitter as well. But that plan only lasted for an hour or two. Being a sportsman, I enthusiastically helped the director to realize the silliness of her boss’s idea: 1. She had no grounds to block me on Twitter using Facebook Rules of Conduct, and 2. Because of the nature of Twitter, her attempt at revenge was as abysmally petty as foolish. The TDA’s Facebook looked professional but was otherwise irrelevant before I arrived, and it died shortly after I left. But I still ring @theTDA’s bell regularly.

So why do I feel it is important for me to stare down a weak bureaucrat from Tulsa? I’m beginning to notice a pattern.

Here’s what I think: If I don’t publicly (but rhetorically, Dr. Kathleen O’Loughlin) kick Lyle Hoyt’s butt in an entertaining manner, it may be only a matter of time before timid, influential people have me banned from the next site… and then the next. I’m getting tired of this, quite frankly. And the humiliating pain of unexpected accountability is the only sensation image-conscious good ol’ boys feel. I just happen to be a person who is arguably empowered to deliver such pain to even anonymous b, again and again, just for freakin’ grins. Wow! Am I eve on a caffeine high!

Tell me. Do you think I’m just a hyper-righteous bastard who’s had too much coffee? Wait. There’s more…

Even though I’m no longer allowed on Pruitt’s Platform, one must still click on a pop-up ad to read my criticism of poor patient representation in the ADA and throughout the healthcare industry. That means everything I posted on “Pruitt’s Platform” for a year and a half still pays part of Hoyt’s salary. Sweet job if you can find it, Lyle.

—————————-

Hey, @lylehoyt. Have you been watching what is happening with the leadership in both the @ADANews and @theTDA? You got anything to hide?

@lylehoyt, you still too shy to tell me why you had a Dental Economics employee kick me off of Pruitt’s Platform? Have you no self-respect?

Would you like me to forget your name, Lyle Hoyt?

All you have to do is tell me the name of the ADA official who persuaded you to betray your ethics. Just how hard can that be for you, Lyle?

I assure you, Lyle. It will be better for your career if I discover the name of the ADA employee from you than from elsewhere. I promise.

Proots

—————

So do you think I’m over-reacting? Please don’t be shy. I can take it.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Proots, on July 8, 2010 at 5:08 PM said:

Good morning @theTDA

I’ve been comparing TDA President Dr. Ronald Rhea’s letter concerning the NLRB settlement with court testimony. There are differences.

For one thing, Ron told members that “The case was heard before an NLRB hearing officer.” Judge Carson might not appreciate that.

Was that a simple mistake, Ron?

If TDA members were paying attention, wouldn’t they interpret Dr. Rhea’s “rebuttal” as disrespect for the court? Is that how we roll, @theTDA?

I find it fascinating that in light of such basement ethics on the part of TDA leadership, I have been charged with “unprofessionalism.”

Dr. Rhea reminded readers 3 times that the plaintiffs in the NLRB case against the TDA disrupted TDA employees’ work. I get that too.

It seems that if one asks just the right questions to TDA employees, work completely falls apart in Austin. What are they so busy with?

If an employee disrupts others, an executive director should be able to resolve the problem without bringing the TDA before the NLRB.

When one reads Dr. Rhea’s rebuttal of the judges’ verdict, one would think Mary Kay Linn of the TDA handled that case just swell.

Dr. Ronald Rhea closes with an invitation: “If any member has questions not answered by this letter,…

“… you are invited to contact me, members of the Board of Directors, or your Executive Director.” Seriously, Ron? I’ve tried that.

I was invited by the Executive Director to submit 35 questions. She answered 6 and told me that I was disrupting important work.

She also informed me that I used up all my questions. Would you answer my questions, Ron?

Here’s one: When is TDA Executive Director Mary Kay Linn going to resign?

Proots

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Darrell Pruitt DDS, on July 18, 2010 at 4:30 AM said:

Let’s play, TDA

Yesterday, an anonymous Texas Dental Association official quietly shut down the TDA Forum on the TDA.org Website. I was its only contributor, and I assume someone important told Executive Director Mary Kay Linn that she didn’t like what I was contributing, In Linn’s defense, I’m sure she simply had no choice but to again respond with impotent aggression. Nevertheless, the Executive Director is ultimately, and sometimes directly responsible for TDA mistakes. I intend to hold her accountable my way. I’m not waiting a year for the next TDA meeting as was suggested by a TDA Delegate. We’ve all seen how well that worked for a more patient TDA member who put himself at the mercy of bureaucrats. The TDA chose to attack the member dentist and pay the $900,000 he could have saved membership. TDA President Dr. Ronald Rhea says it was a bargain.

Thanks, TDA. Now I have something to keep me entertained for a while. I just love matching wits with committees, and besides, It’s going to be far too hot to golf today.

Darrell Pruitt DDS

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Darrell Pruitt DDS, on July 18, 2010 at 1:50 PM said:

TDA’s end-game

I sent this email to TDA Executive Director Mary Kay Linn. Have you noticed that each time the TDA or ADA tries to silence me, it only amplifies my voice? When I began this adventure, I never intended to be as public as I’ve become. Anyone can see that popularity beyond a few incredibly tolerant Facebook friends and a few others is not my goal. There is no pretense. I’ve just acquired a fondness for creating challenging content for good ol’ boys. I can’t help but overwhelm TDA committees which simply cannot keep up with my pace. It’s that simple.

Call me Vector, but I’m not stopping there with spreading viral transparency. The ADA is next. I intend to discover why ADA Executive Director Dr. James Bramson was unexpectedly fired a few years ago, as well as the name of the ADA official who talked Dental Economics Vice President Lyle Hoyt into kicking me off of Pruitt’s Platform.

I hope you are finding my adventure as exciting as I am.

Darrell

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on July 19, 2010 at 11:54 AM said:

You’re a threat to my patients, TDA

Like the enforcers of ethics and judicial affairs in the Texas Dental Association, professional British Redcoats who stoically and unquestioningly fought for the honor of royalty complained about unprofessional colonists shooting at their rows of bright uniforms from behind trees and rocks. The name-calling didn’t shame the farmers and tradesmen much, and failed to spoil their aim. Meaningless British professionalism is decidedly obsolete to modern Common Sense in the land of the free.

Yours is a difficult walled fort to defend, TDA. I not only have you surrounded and increasingly bottled up with Friday’s closing of the TDA Forum, but I have always held the Hippocratic high ground you abandoned when you chose to risk everything on defending an artificial, self-serving illusion of Professionalism. On the other hand, I simply represent my dental patients’ interests. Such uncomplicated, symbiotic loyalty comes naturally to me and almost all other TDA members (who are still pretty much asleep to our negotiations).

Watch your step, Good ol’ boys. It’s not your turf and it never has been. Modern communications humbles those who might try to buzzword Professionalism. Cosmetic charm and dazzling smiles mean little in the wide open, TDA.

Someone’s been out-hillbillied in a frontier she hasn’t yet learned to respect.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Dr. Pruitt, on August 6, 2010 at 9:17 PM said:

Common sense Internet communication versus TDA policy

I mentioned recently that it is my opinion that the TDA’s policy of sending certified letters to TDA members in trouble with the TDA Ethics Department is not only rude, but the costly and nasty habit was made obsolete years ago by the e-Discovery Law of 2006. For example, if a whistleblower sends a company a notice in an email that clearly informs a leader of suspicion of malfeasance – and later the suspicion proves to be true – such whistleblowers’ notices have been protected by e-Discovery since December 1st, 2006. In this way, the law effectively blocks testimony that one or more officials were uninformed. When it comes to holding people personally accountable, one no longer has to dig through a shoebox full of paper receipts. That’s worth something, isn’t it?

Enough about the efficiency of hard drives versus shoe boxes. Let me show you what I mean about the speed of Internet communications versus mail and paper receipts: Less than an hour ago, my mailman had my office manager interrupt what she was doing to sign for a certified letter from Dr. Roy Burk, Chair of the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs. He’d already sent it to me in PDF. What more does he want from me to prove that “Yes indeed, I got your message days ago, Roy.”

As a matter of fact, since he hasn’t responded since last night’s email exchange, we have already resolved our differences of opinion as far as I can tell. All I need is his confirmation that Judicial Case 12-2010-3 against me has been dropped. It’s his only real choice.

Certified mail is sooo slow that by the time I held the TDA stationery in my hands, the words had been posted on Medical Executive-Post for days.

Become a Whistle Blower in the Healthcare Industrial Complex

What’s more, it will still be days before some poor slob in Austin will have the duty to mention to Dr. Burk that the TDA has hardcopy proof that I received his threatening notice on August 3. Considering everything that has transpired between Roy and me on the Internet since someone in Austin paid extra to mail me the letter three days ago – as well as all the surprises that will happen while the return receipt finds its way to 1946 S. IH35, Ste 400, Austin, TX 18704 – Dr. Burk may not be in the best humor to hear about the signed return receipt’s trip to Fort Worth and back.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on August 15, 2010 at 7:35 PM said:

My adventure starts and ends with HIPAA

Ultimately, it will be the HIPAA blunder that will force the ADA into transparency, and I’m giddy enough to think my latest ME-P article will be recognized by some as the defining push for change – at last..

An Open Letter to the TDA Council on Ethics

On August 11, I shared the (long) article which featured my email I sent to an unresponsive TDA official named Dr. Roy Burk. I discovered this morning that the submission was picked up by Medical Executive-Post as “An Open Letter to the TDA Council on Ethics.” It’s only been up for a few hours and it’s already the seventh favorite article on the popular ME-P Website. I’ve never been so optimistic that my goal is nearly reality.

Of the thousands of pieces I’ve posted since 2006 describing what I interpret as clues of malfeasance in my professional organization concerning HIPAA, I think the open letter will push transparency over the tipping point in both the ADA and the TDA. I boast that my ME-P article will be copied and pasted by many, including quiet ADA and TDA delegates and trustees. Let’s hope so.

If I have ever assembled an overpowering argument in favor of transparency in one article, this is the stinker. It includes a 2007 letter from an ADA president-elect who after 6 months, quietly shared important information with me about stolen computers before mailing copies of the letter to an ADA trustee, the ADA executive director, ADA chief operating officer, ADA chief legal counsel and the TDA executive officer. But because of politically-inspired censorship of my articles by leaders of the TDA, the information is no longer available to members on TDA Facebook or TDA.org.

In addition to blocking me from TDA venues, ADA officials extended their power outside the organization to also influence my exclusion from PennWell and DrBicuspid Websites. However, the ADA officials were never successful in wedging themselves between me and the editors of the Medical Executive-Post (with its 230,000 readers). My profession is indebted to you, Medical Executive-Post. I thank you. I wish I could find such courage in the ADA.

It is my hope that “An Open Letter to the TDA Council on Ethics” gains enough search engine optimization (SEO) power on ME-P to force individual TDA members to demand accountability from those whose motives have been winked at for decades. Get ready for change, ADA. Transparency is catching up on you fast. It’s unavoidable and it can be harsh on those who can’t justify their actions in writing.

For sports fans who want ADA and TDA leaders to know we are not satisfied with business as usual, here again is the link to the ME-P article.

An Open Letter to the TDA Council on Ethics

A click is as good as a vote, so click early and often. Let’s send a message to those who would jerk us around.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Darrell, on August 18, 2010 at 10:04 AM said:

Censors of all sizes attract my attention, Dallas

Dallas County Dental Society not only deleted my comment, but blocked me from posting any more of them.

I always find the motives for censorship on local, state and national levels of the ADA much more interesting than the books the tyrants burn. Many times it’s the feisty local organizations that are the most aggressive in protecting their small herds of politically naïve members from incorrectness – even if it means blocking truth. The level of ethics of such leadership is described in the official 2007 ADA/IDM slogan, “Image is everything.” I suspect they are the same cowards who lecture to members that “The ADA must speak with one voice” – theirs.

Unfortunately, since weak people are anonymous and actively unresponsive, it’s difficult to hold the slippery bureaucrats personally accountable. Nevertheless, I do my best.

On August 13, I posted “ADA News tries sarcasm” on the Texas Dentists Facebook with over 1400 fans, as well as the Kansas Dental Association Facebook, which has almost 500 fans and the Dallas County Dental Society Facebook with 72 fans. Guess which organization took it upon itself to shield its 72 impressionable adult readers – even if it makes them look nationwide foolish.

Way to go, Dallas!

My critical but honest essay which describes the ADA’s notorious ineptness – including supporting evidence – was apparently acceptable to almost 2000 Facebook readers across the nation, but was judged to be just too dangerous for Dallas. That’s why an anonymous Dallas County Dental Society official deleted my piece without warning or explanation.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear the DCDS official’s reason for being such a butt? A victory over Delta Dental’s unfair business practices that takes 40 years hardly warrants the celebration the official defends.

I was going to post this on the Dallas County Dental Society’s Facebook and sit back and watch how long it takes for the anonymous official to delete my description of her mistake. However, she not only censored me, but she also blocked me from posting anything else on the DCDS Facebook – depriving me of access to her 72 fans. She might have even turned me in to the TDA Council on Ethics if she didn’t mind standing in line.

How would she say her vindictive activity helped dental patients in Dallas?

Wouldn’t conversation between adults make more sense, Dallas? What can you lose? You already soiled your precious image with a bonehead mistake.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on August 29, 2010 at 10:14 PM said:

ADA officials have evaded my questions about HIPAA for over four years. Maybe this year’s TDA President Dr. Ron Rhea will prove to be different. I was told to expect the Houston dentist to be more progressive than presidents in the recent past. However, you couldn’t prove it by me. Dr. Rhea has not only failed to exhibit transparency, but his casual dismissal of the TDA’s loss before National Labor Review Board as part of doing business simply infuriates me in a very fundamental way:. Is the TDA indeed that far above the law?

From: pruittdarrell [mailto:pruittdarrell@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 3:53 PM
To: Ronald Rhea
Subject: How sincere are you, Ron?

Dear Dr. Ronald Rhea, President of the Texas Dental Association:

Before today, have you ever found yourself having to apologize for promoting the NPI number?

When I read your column in the July edition of TDA Today, I discovered that you are from Amarillo. I grew up in Panhandle, located 25 miles northeast of Amarillo on Hwy 60. This means you and I drank the same water. So how did we turn out so differently even though you still give off the neighborly appearance of a sincere person?

“As president of the TDA, it seems people want to ‘think out loud’ when they are giving me new ideas, requests, directions, criticisms, and so on. No one should take this job if such ruminations are not to their liking. It is from these pondering sessions that some of the best ideas come. So please, ‘Let us ruminate together!’.” – From “Ron’s Ruminations,” TDA Today, July 2010.

“Let’s ruminate together!” Do you really mean that, Ron? Or are you just saying that because it has an appealing ring to it? (And “Let’s Talk” was already taken).

A few years ago, “Let’s Talk” was chosen as a column title by TDA President Dr. David May. When not used as a buzzword to pad one’s image, ”Let’s talk” is at least as warm of an invitation as “Let’s ruminate together.” Upon reading either, one can almost feel goosebumps from the friendly greeting to what promises to be two-way conversations where “no question is a stupid question” and other things bureaucrats with nice-looking teeth often say.

When President Dr. May invited questions from membership for his column in June 2007, I immediately sent him mine concerning the wisdom of Medicaid’s capricious NPI requirement for participation. Even though it appears that the TDA has since given up on tricking TDA members into quickly signing up for the 10 digit identification number, in 2007 the effort was sold to membership as an important investment of dues. Yet to this day, TDA officials much like you are not permitted to discuss HIPAA with members beyond copying and pasting links to CMS. That’s not only insulting, but it’s hardly helpful. Nevertheless, just months ago when I asked the TDA Executive Director about HIPAA, she copied and pasted 4 CMS pages for me, yet still failed to answer my questions.

I wanted to ask her how the NPI benefits anyone other than the insurance companies (who were also pushing hard for their adoption by dentists), but she managed to slip me a verbal message through an intermediary that she would not entertain any new or follow-up questions from me. (See “Is the Texas Dental Association too Authoritarian?” – Medical Executive-Post, June 18).

Is the Texas Dental Association too Authoritarian?

You’ve also been around for a few years. Surely you remember how absurd the gag rule was back when the TDA was trying to slide HIPAA by membership quickly and quietly. Before today, did you ever find yourself needing to defend the TDA’s promotion of the NPI? So what did you tell colleagues about the NPI? Was it the same thing you told your friends in private? Which was the truth?

Don’t you see what everyone else sees, Ron? The TDA’s lame policy to restrict speech of members who pay dues to the organization is even sillier now than it was in 2007. It’s impossible for our organization to be a relevant force if our leaders are not part of the community they serve. And until someone comes forward to discuss the TDA’s past mistakes we will never be capable of moving on to other more important issues – such as access to affordable dentistry for the poor in Texas through competition for Medicaid dollars. Remember Adam Smith, the father of economics and his “invisible hand” of competition?

Well then, do you remember the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath?

Up to 1/3 of Texas dentists have still not applied for the arbitrary identification number. Since without the NPI dentists cannot participate in Medicaid, this means that the NPI requirement in Texas limits access to dental care for the poor without providing a single benefit to the patients you and I serve. Yeah, that’s right. It’s called the Hippocratic Oath, and there’s simply no allowance in the document for the NPI number or those who promote it.

My email I sent Dr. May with the question about the NPI number just had to be one of the first he received, yet it not only failed to appear in his column, but the dentist from Abilene never even bothered to show me the kindness of a response at all – sort of like you. How good is that, Ronald? Do David’s bad manners reflect the West Texas honesty you and I are familiar with?

I followed Dr. May’s safe, vanilla column his entire term and it appears to me that he submitted his favorite dozen committee-approved questions to answer and succeeded in making his column as unremarkably irrelevant as the previous president’s.

In my experience, “Let’s Talk” was an extreme exaggeration of the level of conversation in 2007-08.

So how about it, Ron? Do you really want to be roommates or was that just unchecked exuberance?

Darrell

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Darrell Pruitt DDS, on September 2, 2010 at 1:18 AM said:

Nothing beats a Fort Worth mix of metaphors and mandates

This month, my Fort Worth District Dental Society is sponsoring an all day continuing education seminar featuring Lorne Lavine, DMD – founder and president of Dental Technology Consultants.

“The whole lecture is technical, and some of the items, such as how to get good clinical digital x-rays, would certainly qualify as clinical.

We will discuss the 2014 deadline. Many dentists are unaware that the Federal Government is mandating that ALL patient records are supposed to be electronic by the end of the year 2014. While it’s the government and we know things can change, the last thing a dentist wants to do is stand on the sidelines and then realize in the middle of 2014 that they are behind the 8-ball; most offices need 12-18 months to get paperless. This course will give them a ‘treatment plan’ of what to get and in what order to move in that direction. It has everything from information for the neophyte, to advanced information for those who are already techn-savvy. Six steps to a chartless practice will be discussed.” – FWDDS “Twelfth Night” newsletter, September 2010. (No byline)

My apologies to Dr. Lavine. One of the first things he’ll have to do when he gets in town is to clear up a local fantasy about federally mandated paperless practices.

That’s sort of embarrassing, actually.

Darrell

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Darrell, on September 13, 2010 at 9:47 PM said:

Complaint resolution in the TDA

I’m not the first TDA member who has been wrongfully accused of unprofessional conduct by duped officers of the Fort Worth District Dental Society’s Judicial Committee and the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs. But before the Internet, when the odds were still heavily in favor of entrenched, influential officials rather than indignant and furious individuals like me, I bet very few innocent troublemakers came out of the TDA’s kangaroo court system unscathed – and I bet none of them emerged more powerful in Texas dentistry than when they were first accused of “failing to uphold the dignity and honor of the profession” according to a TDA manual on professionalism.

“Principles of Professional Conduct, Section XI” has been cited in a couple of certified letters to me, “Dentists should observe all laws, uphold the dignity and honor of the profession, and accept its self-imposed discipline.” – If you ask me, I think Section XI is a fully adjustable tool that can be used for just about any problem good ol’ boys come across.

I also may not be the first TDA member to successfully call the good ol’ boys’ bluff, but chances are I’m the first one you ever heard about. In the past, when the TDA officials who police the ethics of dentists in Texas were caught red-handed performing political favors, the good ol’ boys have managed to quickly back down without anyone outside a tight circle of nameless officials ever learning about the blunder – including signed agreements of confidentiality all around. “Image is everything.”

It is obvious to me that traditional lack of personal accountability as part of TDA policy causes dentists and their patients to suffer from the same mistakes again and again – and as of this summer, on a federal level in front of the National Labor Review Board with a $900,000 judgment against our TDA. When our anonymous leaders evade the pain of learning experiences in life, they doom our professional organization to irrelevance and we lose the ability to properly represent the interests of our dental patients in Texas.

Denial is an increasingly serious dysfunctional problem in TDA leadership. That is why I personally think TDA members should demand an investigation of the TDA’s complaint system. I started my own a few months ago. Here are the results.

In a failed effort to negotiate a settlement of the TDA’s complaints that had been filed against me years earlier, in May, Executive Director Mary Kay Linn agreed to answer questions I had started asking TDA officials in 2006 – a few months before complaints of my “unprofessional conduct” from TDA officials first started rolling in. Coincidence?

Per her invitation, I submitted 35 timely and important questions for the TDA covering electronic dental records, HIPAA, the NPI number, data breaches and complaint resolution. Only 6 of the 35 questions were acknowledged. Under the topic “TDA complaint resolution,” Ms. Linn answered only 1 of the 9 questions.

Click to access tda-response-to-pruitt.pdf

Ms. Linn writes: “Re: questions 23-28. Information of this nature regarding members is not made available by the TDA. We know of no lawsuits by members.”

23 – What percent of TDA members’ complaints against TDA officers and employees are satisfactorily resolved?

(no answer)

24 – What percent of unresolved complaints results in TDA members quitting the organization?

(no answer)

25 – What percent result in lawsuits?

(no answer)

26 – What percent of TDA officers’ and employees’ complaints against members are satisfactorily resolved?

(no answer)

27 – What percent of unresolved complaints results in TDA members quitting the organization?

(no answer)

28 – What percent result in lawsuits?

(no answer)

29 – What percent of TDA employees’ complaints against officers are satisfactorily resolved?

“There have been none.”

[In the Executive Director’s defense, the $900,000 NLRB judgment was still a couple of weeks away on June 3. However, by that then she could have added, “Not yet, anyway.”].

30 – What percent of TDA employees subsequently quit or otherwise terminated?

“Not applicable.”

31 – What percent result in lawsuits?

“Not applicable.”

The leadership’s reticence makes it difficult to believe the TDA is a non-profit organization supported by members’ dues – mostly. (43% of the income to the TDA which pays employees’ salaries is non-dues income from rent and other profitable TDA business ventures).

As far as my own reputation is concerned, I’m confident I can handle anonymous officials, slow-moving committees and certified letters because I’m transparent and write profusely. However, very few dentists have the time, ability and passion to defend themselves like I do. So even though the TDA categorically denies complaints against the organization, who protects members’ reputations if the TDA’s complaint system is actually a sham?

Darrell K. Pruitt DDS

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Darrell K. Pruitt DDS, on October 3, 2010 at 10:23 PM said:

I asked Dr. Matt Roberts to be my Facebook friend a few days ago. I have to assume he chooses to ignore me. Today, I noticed a “Share” button on the lower left of his page that posts his photo on my Wall whether he’s a friend or not. I’ll post his photo from time to time until he either becomes my Facebook friend or isolates himself even more from the community he serves by removing “Share.” $1 says he hunkers down.

———————–

Dr. Matt Roberts, the Crockett, Texas dentist in the photo, owes me an apology. As TDA President, the leader of dental professionals abused his power this spring when he attempted to silence the opinions of this TDA member as a favor to Executive Director Mary Kay Linn for political reasons. Obviously, he failed. I invited Matt to be my Facebook friend because my patients need me to keep an eye on the politician.

Dr. Matt Roberts is defenseless and nobody is coming to his rescue

Here is what I think about the TDA’s magnificent blunder at this point: My plodding, four-year investigation into the cause of what has been proven in federal court to be an atmosphere of malfeasance repeatedly leads me to questionable actions on the part of Executive Director Mary Kay Linn and other entrenched Board members like Dr. Matt Roberts. When I posted my suspicions on the TDA Facebook a year ago, I knew I was getting close to the truth because Linn’s desperate, clumsy efforts suddenly became focused not on addressing the serious faults I pointed out, but on silencing me. I’m certain Mary Kay is sharp enough to recognize the problem with nurtured charges that can only be officially described as “posting inappropriate language” and “breaking Facebook Rules.” I’m pretty sure that Mary Kay was hoping I would be shamed into silence long before her silliness could be challenged, and she was counting on Matt’s help.

A critical part of her plan was to persuade the outgoing TDA President to use his influence over the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs – the Executive Director’s tool of last resort.

Marginalizing TDA members using the all-purpose accusation of “unprofessional conduct” was a reliable way to handle troublemakers until I came into Austin riding the Internet. The last time the TDA’s old school kangaroo techniques worked as planned was about four years ago when the TDA Board unjustly sanctioned the only TDA official who had the guts to warn that Mary Kay Linn habitually mistreats TDA employees. My colleague’s carefully prepared presentation for the Board was not only casually brushed aside by parliamentary tricks to protect the status quo, but because of his courage to stand up for the rights of those who can’t, his disruptive “outburst” cost the dentist his position on the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs – Mary Kay Linn’s tool. Since then, following Mary Kay’s plans, I’ve had contact with the same Council. I see why the good ol’ boys didn’t want someone with a backbone watching them work. The shock of suddenly tripling the level of the Council’s ethics would have been painful.

So what about the dentist’s warnings? They were proudly ignored because “image is everything” (ADA/IDM slogan). According to court documents from the subsequent National Labor Review Board hearing, there appears to be an acceptance of unfairness in TDA Headquarters. For example, when a TDA President was contacted by an employee who Mary Kay Linn had terrified, his advice to her was to cooperate with the Executive Director’s unlawful demands or she would definitely be fired – which she was.

(See “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD DIVISION OF JUDGES ATLANTA BRANCH OFFICE)

Click to access jd-atl-12-08.pdf

As you can read for yourself, as recently as 3 months ago the NLRB strongly disapproved of Mary Kay Linn’s business ethics. Even after being waned years earlier by the TDA official who paid a dear price for caring, the TDA was indeed found liable for the unfair firing of employees. But some good ol’ boys never learn. In letters mailed to all TDA members shortly after the $900,000 dollar verdict, Current TDA President Dr. Ron Rhea quickly assured members that the money was no big deal and even acceptable as part of doing business in Texas. I hope Ron is still in a generous mood when I submit my bill.

Matt never even came close to marginalizing me like Mary Kay demanded. How could he? I’m at home on the Internet while both of them hide from transparency. That means there is nobody to tell Matt’s side of the story – even if he had an acceptable excuse for his lapse in ethics. In addition, none of his colleagues are coming forward to defend the man’s honor. That just has to be disheartening for Matt. But it’s no more harmful to the TDA’s image than Dr. Ron Rhea’s letter.

Let’s face it. If TDA officials are not part of the community they serve, it is simply impossible for them to be anything more than weak figurehead leaders easily manipulated by the bureaucracy they are entrusted to oversee. Specifically, that means that there is no excuse for TDA immediate past-president Dr. Matthew Roberts to reject my invitation to be his Facebook friend. Think about it. What possible reason can Matt give for rejecting my invitation? I have nothing to hide. Does he?

This year, the TDA Executive Director cost the TDA about a million dollars. All I want is an apology – which I will take care of publicizing – plus fair reimbursement for being wrongfully deprived of the TDA Facebook benefit I paid for.

Compared to NLRB attorneys, I’m easy to please.

Darrell K. Pruitt DDS

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Dr. Pruitt, on October 4, 2010 at 6:11 PM said:

I sent TDA past-President Dr. Matt Roberts this email today. Another email I sent both Matt and Dr. Roy Burk from Littlefield, Texas will follow.

It appears that Dr. Burk, the Chair of the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs wants more of this than I thought he did. It turns out that even though I responded to Roy 20 times or so with emails concerning Case No. 12-2010-3, I failed to respond “officially.” Roy warned me in a certified letter that the Council is going to really call me bad names now even without saying exactly what it is that I did wrong. Who learns from that? Roy and his Council. That’s who.

Darrell

——————————————————————————–

From: pruittdarrell [mailto:pruittdarrell@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010 11:51 AM
To: crockettdental@gmail.com
Subject: FW: Bringing Matt to my Facebook

I’ve read a rumor that TDA Membership Director Lee Ann Johnson filed a complaint against me because I “threatened to hunt down whoever kicked me off the TDA Facebook.”

Hello, TDA past-President Dr. Matthew Roberts.

Seriously, Matt, Crockett can’t be that big and neither is Panhandle – my home town. Considering the ease of gossip in a small community where everyone basically knows who can be trusted and who can’t – if you and I lived in such a town, how easily could you get away with the politically-expedient “unprofessional conduct” crap you pulled on me? Well guess what.

You simply must trust me when I tell you that because there is no acceptable excuse for your rude unresponsiveness, you’ve already made it clear to the dozen or so people who are paying attention that you and other ADA officials who are “In the Loop” appear to be dishonest people regardless of your accomplishments and titles. Have you considered how uncaring you are making my professional organization look?

Whether you want to listen to me yet or not, your problems with the personal accountability that come with transparency are only going to get worse the longer you refuse to be my Facebook friend. And once you accept my invitation, I’ll still ask you important and timely questions. However, my rhetoric will be professional and civil rather than confrontational like this. It will be as if you and I happen to meet at the Post Office. You have my word. And if I ask you something you cannot answer for political reasons, then all you have to do is say so, perhaps again and again.

Otherwise, there will be more of what follows.

Political good ol’ boys like you can no longer hide from the troublemakers you once stepped on as if they didn’t matter. What you and other board members did to the dedicated TDA official you railroaded for caring about the working conditions of TDA employees was simply piss-poor ethics, Matt. The fun is over.

“Bringing Matt to my Facebook” was posted on my Facebook as well as the Medical Executive-Post yesterday. The ME-P has almost 250,000 readers but don’t let that intimidate you. I bet no more than 14 will read it.

Is the Texas Dental Association too Authoritarian?

Darrell K. Pruitt DDS
____________________

This topic is now closed.
The Editors

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Dr. Pruitt, on November 23, 2010 at 9:47 PM said:

Now let’s invite Texas State Representative Diane Patrick into the eDR conversation. Her husband is local dentist.
—————-

Don B commented:

@Dr. Pruitt…

“The TDA is truly a fascinating study of a command-and-control institution wilting in the harsh light of transparency.”

Nice visual. Lots of others feed on us without addressing the facts except to spout talking points issued to them. Entities such as TDA is to create the impression by its members that it represents them when in fact it (like others such as AMA) are organized to keep members from having a voice snipping off debate when they issue nationally packaged talking points.

———–

My response:

I know exactly what you are talking about, Don B. If you were in the TDA, what you just shared could draw an anonymous complaint that could eventually cause a member to be run out of the organization. I’ve seen it happen. The TDA doesn’t take criticism well.

“Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia. Paranoia kills conversation. That’s its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies.” Theses 49 – 52, from “The Cluetrain Manifesto” by Lavine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger, 1999.

Those guys knew what they were talking about, but I’d say they were about a decade early for dentistry.

I’m trying out a new tactic to perhaps draw other players into our conversation. Once again, no promises. This morning, I shared the last few posts on this thread with my State Representative, the Honorable Diane Patrick, House District 94.

http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/member-page/?district=94

Representative Patrick’s husband is a local dentist. I’ve heard her speak on several occasions to the Fort Worth District Dental Society. That’s what makes my statements about the TDA so special. Diane Patrick receives Den-Pac contributions from the TDA. Isn’t Internet transparency wonderful!

Here’s how I introduced my latest message to Representative Patrick:

Honorable Diane Patrick:

Yesterday, I sent you a heads up about the imminent state crisis concerning extending electronic health records to dental offices. The unprecedented open discussion about this topic continues – plus an invitation to the Texas Dental Association to join in on the informal discussion. I know your husband is a dentist, so I’m pretty sure he knows what I’m talking about. Something’s got to give.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on January 11, 2011 at 10:16 PM said:

The TDA is lost in transparency the leadership never saw coming

For the safety of our dental patients, isn’t it time we accept and take ownership of the abject leadership failure in the Texas Dental Association? If accountability isn’t personal, it’s not.

The TDA is arguably out of control from the very top, and compounding the harm is the silence about the professional organization’s increasingly embarrassing problems on multiple fronts. I think others already recognize that in Texas our patients depend on what looks like a dysfunctional family of bureaucrats to represent their interests before state lawmakers, and I don’t think lawmakers yet know the difference. I’m working on that end as well.

The old school’s diminishing effectiveness is causing Texas dentists to surrender treatment decisions to ambitious stakeholders that rightfully belong to our patients, Doc.

I’d love to entertain constructive, respectful debate among responsible adults. But after 5 years of being ignored by TDA officials – including being called names on Twitter by an immature TDA Delegate from San Antonio, and being suspended from the TDA by the immature Chair of the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs for still-secret reasons – I’m not counting on any of the current leaders coming forward until one or more are finally ready to apologize to me. That’s going to be a while.

Having personally experienced the worst of petty vindictiveness from only a few volunteer and paid “professionals” in the TDA, it’s my opinion that even the TDA’s well-meaning and benevolent mid-level elected leaders who still hide behind anonymity must allow themselves to be held personally accountable for their failure to lead. Would-be tyrants who are moving up the leadership ladder like the young TDA Delegate from San Antonio need to be shown that childishness will no longer be winked at. Otherwise opportunists will continue to silently undermine the credibility of our pious and proud professional organization. Anonymous TDA committees controlled by unaccountable leaders are incapable of eliminating institutional malfeasance that has set in like rot. I learned long ago that change in the TDA has to start from the grass roots up.

“When we see something change that doesn’t make sense, we have to identify it and let the ADA know about it. Don’t roll over and take it if something doesn’t seem right. Your interpretation might not be accurate every time, but nobody who administrates or interprets the laws will be aware there are any issues to resolve if they’re never brought up.” Past-President Dr. Bob Brandjord on 12/20/06 (ADA News).

When I had questions about HIPAA for my Texas Dental Association about 10 months before Dr. Brandjord’s quote, I followed the recommendation of the Fort Worth District Dental Society executive director and met with my designated TDA representative during a local dental society meeting. The Weatherford dentist won a perfect attendance award that evening, yet the steadfast leader hardly gave me the courtesy of eye-contact during our entire meeting. Within minutes of shaking my hand, he summarily dismissed my concern without even reading what I had sent him the day before concerning the obvious absurdity of HIPAA in dentistry. Later, the dentist who probably still knows nothing about me, called me unprofessional because of my persistence. He told me “You’re on your own.” Perhaps I frightened the man.

Gatekeeper no longer practices dentistry locally. He now teaches tomorrow’s new dentists about professionalism at the UT dental school in San Antonio alongside the TDA Delegate who called me names on Twitter for months before I discovered it. In my opinion, we seem to have chosen a handful of influential people who lack basic leadership skills and common sense. What’s more, if “vetting” our leaders doesn’t include encouragement to join the community they serve and actively participate in conversations about dentistry on social networks, the evasive rot will spread unabated.

From what I can tell, the entire ADA lacks personal accountability and the rot is slipping through a revolving door into at least one Texas dental school.

Until improvements are made in the not-for-profit’s business practices, the TDA leadership will continue to isolate itself from the community at a critical time in history. My dental patients, who I care more about than others’ opinions of my “professionalism,” need representation, not evasion and name-calling.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Dr. Pruitt, on January 20, 2011 at 2:58 PM said:

I responded to Kurt again this morning concerning the TDA

Here’s what I find especially interesting about this adventure, Kurt. If anyone has any doubt whether I was indeed unfairly treated by the Texas Dental Association, please notice that my numerous blunt but constructive criticisms of the dues-supported organization are never followed by any challenges from even hecklers. NOBODY is defending the policies of the ADA or the TDA against my criticism. So just how good are those policies?

Out of 160,000 ADA members, there must be a few thousand who read what I write, yet NOBODY objects. What does that tell you? It tells me that ADA members either knew about malfeasance in the professional organization before I suggested it, or that the vast majority of members wouldn’t put it past ADA leaders to misbehave in the manner I describe. That tells me that somebody in leadership must have failed to uphold the dignity and honor of the profession long ago.

Either way, the good ol’ boys must be aware by now that they are running out of wriggle room, and NOBODY is telling their side of the story.

As a matter of fact, not only do the hecklers leave me alone, but I rarely receive comments at all … I know some of that is because I can go on and on, repeating the same things again and again and using far too many adjectives to do so. I work through the shame I bring to my friends and family by reassuring myself that my writing skill is marginably acceptable as long as I don’t try to get paid for it.

Darrell K. Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on January 21, 2011 at 10:55 PM said:

Not out of Texas yet

I was wrong about imminent FTC involvement with my refund from the TDA. I didn’t fact check. My bad.

This morning, when I listened to the recording from the consumer protection agency I contacted using the phone number provided by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, I learned that it could be slow progress through the agency in my fight for a $200 refund from the Texas Dental Association. In a related matter, I also learned that the number I was given didn’t lead to the FTC’s Consumer Protection Agency as I prematurely reported earlier this week, but rather the Texas State Consumer Protection Division under Attorney General Greg Abbott… who I assume oversees the actions of the TSBDE… whose members are appointed by Abbott’s boss, Governor Perry, at the suggestion of the politically-influential Texas Dental Association lobby, funded by DenPac money raised from members’ voluntary contributions.

Seconds after hearing “… of the office of the Texas Attorney General,” I suddenly considered the unfolding political relationships between those I have been compelled to involve in my struggle for a measly $200 refund from the TDA. As the pleasant voice on the recording was going on and on, I suddenly recalled the numerous times I’ve heard TDA officials who were raising money for DenPac proclaim: “Always remember that we practice dentistry at the pleasure of the state.” The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I forgot I was on the phone with a machine. I forgot to breathe.

The second time I called the Dallas number, I successfully provided my address and phone number so a complaint form can be mailed to me in 2 to 3 working days. I wonder if this means I’ll have to deal with obsolete, bureaucracy-friendly certified letters again on the next higher level of jurisdiction.

After going through the paper delays in my failed communications with the TDA concerning questions about my “professionalism,” and then handling online a complete complaint process with the Austin Better Business Bureau without ever having to lick a stamp, it’s clear to me that traditional public and private bureaucracies still resist abandoning paper communications – not to keep mail carriers employed or the Ax Men on the History Channel, but to slow processes down to a 1950s pace for personal accountability reasons. I’m not out of Texas yet.

While quickly learning about state and national consumer protection agencies this morning, I came across a Website called justanswer.com where cheap people like me can ask legal questions for free (but answers come at a price). If my question only silently attracts the attention of TDA attorneys, this effort will still be well worth the cash I sunk into it. And who knows? I suppose there could be an idle lawyer somewhere on the Internet with time on his or her hands who might follow the links and give me an answer and perhaps more for free – so that I don’t have to dig into my pocket and pay for the conversation. I’ll even throw in 5 free answers to dental questions, if I have to.

Today I heard a rumor that a movie deal is being negotiated over the rights to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s life story. Although there’s a world of difference in my amateur community struggle with the TDA and Julian Assange’s professional commitment to transparency on a world scale – even in the face of extradition to extremists in the United States – if Assange’s efforts warrant a movie about his life, my $200 adventure surely has the makings of a slow-moving coming-of-age silent reality show that focuses sunshine on shy bureaucrats who are responsible for secret, unshaven, politically-expedient policies that needlessly harm vulnerable, trusting people. I am Julian Assange.

————-

Dear Attorneys:

First of all, I’d like to thank you for volunteering your time to help those of us who find law confusing and intimidating.

I hope you don’t consider this question to be a prank, because it is certainly unusual. I’m a practicing dentist in Fort Worth, Texas, and I believe Texas Dental Association officials have cheated me out of a refund of $200 in prorated yearly dues following my wrongful suspension from the organization. I want to know my options on how to collect what may appear to some to be an insignificant amount of money. I’d also prefer to not have to spend a fortune to stand up for principle in front of traditional bureaucratic stonewalling. I’m thinking maybe small claims court? Or should I take this to the Consumer Protection Division under the State Attorney General? Or both?

I won’t describe my months-long struggle here, but my still unresolved complaint can be confirmed on the Austin Better Business Bureau Website.

http://austin.app.bbb.org/complaint/view/90189714/c/p4ew6l

The BBB’s unfavorable assessment of the TDA’s unconcerned reaction to my complaint can be found in their Reliability Report.

http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/dentist-information-bureaus/texas-dental-association-in-austin-tx-90020165#complaint

Would this be sufficient evidence for a small claims case? Thanks again.

Sincerely,
D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on February 8, 2011 at 9:37 PM said:

TDA, meet Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

Immediately following the TDA’s guilty verdict before the National Labor Review Board his summer, TDA President Dr. Ronald Rhea – who will be addressing the Fort Worth District Dental Society this evening – mailed letters to around 7,000 TDA members. He assured us that the $900,000 in members’ dues that were awarded to wrongfully terminated employees is an expected cost of doing business in Texas, and that the loss won’t hurt the not-for-profit organization because the leadership anticipates million dollar bad decisions by Executive Director Mary Kay Linn. Yet both Ms. Linn and Dr. Rhea still refuse to discuss refunding $200 in dues to me even with the encouragement of the Austin Better Business Bureau.

Regardless of what one thinks about it, this is transparency in the modern world, and nobody is presenting the TDA’s side of the story. Do our command-and-control leaders think their careless, prideful blunders are going to magically vanish like they did before the internet? Our shy officials’ lack of common respect for other human beings inside or outside the organization will continue to draw the TDA into much worse PR trouble than a B+ rating by the Austin BBB. And “image is everything” (ADA – Intelligent Dental Marketing slogan in 2007).

Today, I finally got around to filing an online complaint against the TDA with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office. It wasn’t difficult. I simply copied the same complaint I filed with the Austin Better Business Bureau and added the BBB’s negative conclusions about the TDA’s business ethics. If the Austin BBB is not worthy of the Executive Director’s attention, maybe she’ll hold herself more accountable to the Texas Attorney General.

———–

On 12/24/09, I paid $1228 to the Texas Dental Association for a year of service. In February, I was told by Ft Worth dentist Dr. O.Z. Helmer, a member of the Fort Worth District Dental Society Judicial Committee (a TDA component), that as long as three years prior, I had been accused of “unprofessional conduct.”

The first oddity about the news is that the TDA Council on Ethics, chaired by Littlefield dentist Dr. Roy Burk, took so long to respond to the complaints about alleged remarks I posted on the Internet disparaging the “TDA and/or staff.” I asked Dr. Helmer, “Just how bad can the complaints be if they’ve been sitting on Bedford dentist and local committee chair Dr. Jeff Corbet’s desk for three years?” Dr. Helmer conceded that when he read the evidence, he was shocked that the case had gotten this far because my remarks appeared to be blunt opinions, but that “the complaints actually seem trivial.” Nevertheless, Dr. O.Z. Helmer was the first to refuse to let me see the evidence.

Dr. Burk still refuses to share the evidence he would have had me defend before his Council without an attorney, without a recording device and without preparation. What’s more, he threatened that if I didn’t agree to keep the proceedings of the “informal conference” confidential, he would label me “unethical” and kick me out. Understandably, I refused to cooperate because it’s clear to me that he runs an unjust Council and cannot be trusted. In the end, I was labeled unethical and kicked out anyway, and TDA officials dodged accountability.

“The Council finds that your violations include threats made to the staff members of the TDA, offensive name calling to dentists and staff members, inappropriate and offensive communications regarding TDA members and to TDA members, staff and other individuals, misuse of TDA and other electronic communication devices by attempting to dominate or takeover these facilities, attempted disruption of TDA and ADA communication facilities, use of offensive and inappropriate words and name calling, harassment of individuals by attempting to highlight their name in electronic media for unspecified reasons, attempting to cause the name of TDA members and staff to be recognized by Internet search programs for no apparent purpose other than harassment, and attempting to make a mockery of the TDA process to investigate complaints regarding ethical violations.”

Though the allegations sound serious, note that not a hint of evidence has been provided. Why?

“The Council has also determined to offer PROBATION of this one year suspension if you agree to accept the one year suspension with the one year probation and agree to the following conditions.

1. You will refrain from contacting the TDA, ADA or component dental societies, either in person, by telephone or electronically, for any purpose other than to obtain information regarding your membership status, request copies of TDA or ADA publications available to members, or respond to questions from TDA or ADA.

2. You will cease threatening and attempting to intimidate TDA staff and TDA members.

3. You will not use electronic media to threaten, harass or otherwise disparage TDA members and TDA staff.

4. You will not participate in electronic media information or discussion groups involving organized dentistry.

5. You will comply with the TDA Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct.”

Dr. Roy Burk adds “Please be aware that the Council’s purview concerns the offensive and unethical methods by which you promote your various viewpoints, not the validity of their content or your right to express your viewpoints using proper methods.” In spite of what Dr. Burk says, I was punished for criticizing the leaders of the not-for-profit professional organization.

This fall, I emailed TDA Executive Director Mary Kay Linn (marykay@tda.org) twice requesting a prorated refund of $200, and she never responded. I then filed a complaint with the Austin Better Business Bureau in November. Here are their findings:

BBB Rating for Texas Dental Association

“Based on BBB files, Texas Dental Association has a BBB Rating of B+ on a scale from A+ to F. Factors that lowered this business’ rating include:

•One complaint filed against business that was not resolved.

•BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business. BBB made two or more requests for background information from the business. BBB has not received a response from this business and/or has not been able to verify information received from this business.”

“Refund or Exchange Issues – Unresolved: Company failed to resolve the complaint issues through BBB voluntary and self-regulatory process.”

http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/dentist-information-bureaus/texas-dental-association-in-austin-tx-90020165

I was told by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners that I should contact the State Attorney General about this issue, so here I am. I figure if the TDA doesn’t owe me a huge apology, they owe me about 200 bucks.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on February 9, 2011 at 7:52 PM said:

NLRB verdict forces TDA Executive Director to step down
[But was the lesson lost on the Board of Directors?]

Texas Dental Association President Dr. Ronald Rhea addressed the Fort Worth District Dental Society yesterday evening, foretelling the end of a battered and arguably unaccountable dynasty. FWDDS members who attended the meeting say Dr. Rhea announced that Executive Director Mary Kay Linn is to resign her position – possibly within months. Dr. Rhea also revealed discussions with a national headhunter firm are underway to find qualified candidates to choose from for her replacement.

Here is my studied advice to the TDA Board of Directors: If it’s the Board’s desire to regain relevance in dentistry in Texas, it is up to you to select a modern Executive Director who is transparent with both employees and members, is comfortable on the internet and is searchable. Anonymous, WWII-era command-and-control leadership in the organization has been a protected vestigial absurdity for decades and recently turned silly. If given the opportunity, someone will prove my point again and again by bringing nothing more than simple transparency. TDA policies must withstand public scrutiny or they will be scorned publicly.

I mean really!

Please give this some thought: In these times of Wikileaks, when regime-changing confidential diplomatic cables are being exposed by the hundreds of thousands, what can dental leaders possibly have to hide, and who gives a crap anyway? What secrets concerning dentistry in Texas can possibly be so critical to the welfare of dental patients that everyone except properly vetted leaders must be shielded from hidden truth – including those who pay dues to the not-for-profit organization? It’s only dentistry for crying out loud!

I also heard a rumor that Dr. Rhea – on behalf of the TDA Board of Directors – still refuses to admit the TDA’s guilt in the unfair firing of two TDA employees. How secure do you think that makes the remaining TDA employees feel? To the average Texan, it doesn’t look like the TDA Board members respect the National Labor Relations Board any more than they respect Austin Better Business Bureau.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on February 14, 2011 at 11:07 AM said:

There is a rumor that TDA Executive Director Mary Kay Linn has resigned. She was one of the three proud pillars in leadership who fully supported my punishment for allegedly “calling TDA members and/or staff names on the internet.” The other two proud pegs of the three legged-stool are Dr. Roy Burk from Littlefield, Texas who is the Chair of the TDA Council on Ethics and Past TDA President Dr. Matthew Roberts from Crockett.

Here is my encouragement to surrender to transparency that I sent to Matt and Roy this afternoon. I hope you are enjoying this. I sure am. Matt and Roy (and Bill) must find the truth demoralizing at this point. What do you think?

Darrell Pruitt DDS
________________________________________

Dear Matt and Roy:

First there were 3 of you. Now there are 2. Greetings:

Do you think the imminent exit of the current TDA Executive Director has yet caused a change in heart for any of the entrenched and powerful Delegates? I do. I think it was not only an overdue kick in the ass. But I say it’s an “all-clear” signal for you and I to continue fearlessly along our road to inevitable transparency in the TDA without a moment’s hesitation. As I’ve told you before in emails you never answered, many dentists in Texas are quietly waiting on marketplace conversations like ours to help them recapture control of the TDA – preserving dentistry as a profession to serve dental patients not bureaucrats. Now that an ambitious and overly influential TDA employee is no longer around to interfere with justice, let’s quickly and openly advance the resolution of our disagreement about TDA members’ duties to the organization.

“When we see something change that doesn’t make sense, we have to identify it and let the ADA know about it. Don’t roll over and take it if something doesn’t seem right. Your interpretation might not be accurate every time, but nobody who administrates or interprets the laws will be aware there are any issues to resolve if they’re never brought up.”

Dr. Bob Brandjord [an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and ADA past president]
From ADA News, 12/20/06

Considering you conspired with an unknown number of nameless TDA officials to unfairly deprive me of my TDA membership for alleged “unprofessional name-calling” – which was actually criticism of the TDA from a dues-paying member – I guess that means you pretty much gave Brandjord and every TDA member the bird, doesn’t it?

Are you two still not prepared to join me in a meaningful public discussion about the future of Texas dentistry? Imagine this: If your “dental school” punitive actions against me haven’t successfully silenced all other former dental school students long into retirement, our discussion has the potential to grow into a powerful grassroots collaborative effort on an internet platform that other reclusive professional organizations will envy and perhaps even emulate… once the initial glitches are worked out. If you recognize this idea, I posted it on the TDA Forum in 2007. It stayed there over a year and a half without a response before being censored along with all my other invitations to conversation. Now do you remember it? Can you tell me how TDA censorship of my opinions benefited dental patients in Texas? If not, then you must publicly agree that the TDA’s focused aggression against this dues-paying member was wrong. And then, on behalf of the TDA, you must apologize to me and accept the consequences like men.

Consumers in Texas can only benefit from open discussion about important topics in dentistry TDA leaders foolishly evade as policy. Is it not a TDA member’s Hippocratic duty to be honest?

You might as well stop being shy. At this point, it makes no difference whether any of us three are TDA members. Even though for some reason you once assumed there was an invisible network of high-level good ol’ boys that would shield your reputation from troublemakers, you both surely recognize by now that the nameless good ol’ boys abandoned you to protect their own butts. You’re on your own in the community, and eventually you will choose to face me publicly, or resign – just like the Executive Director. Just take a look around you. Texans no longer believe you two are honoring the Texas Dental Association and its 8000 members by ducking accountability for your careless and hurtful mistakes. The rising popularity of openness isn’t in your favor. Like Stalinism, I doubt unchecked authoritarianism in dentistry will ever make a comeback.

But if you are still too new to the internet to appreciate where you and I are taking the TDA, how long are you willing to carry on with a TDA employee’s childish, vindictive game you two unwisely enabled long ago – all according to biased interpretations of obsolete TDA policy, and with the blessing of clueless TDA legal staff? (Hello again, Bill. We’ll just have to meet face-to-face some day. I bet we’ll laugh about all this). I suppose these are the same legal minds that guided the TDA through the NLRB case costing the TDA a lot of national respect, but less than a million dollars. I say it is these same attorneys who now warn you not to respond to me at all. Am I right? And how well is that plan working out… I mean other than this afternoon?

As one who increasingly cherishes the 1st Amendment’s protections from tyranny, I can only sympathize that it must be morally degrading to be respected, vetted TDA officials with post-graduate degrees, and to be forbidden from taking part in marketplace conversation by TDA attorneys. It’s only dentistry for crying out loud! What can the TDA possibly have to hide?

I understand TDA members are travelling to Austin this month on behalf of dentists’ interests in the marketplace. If you two cannot defend TDA policy, Matt and Roy, how do dental patients’ interests have a chance before state lawmakers, even with the very best DENPAC lobbyists?

There’s more to come if you two can tolerate my constructive criticism. Until next time, I suggest you start catching up in the developments on the internet by reading the 95 Theses in the “Cluetrain Manifesto,” from 1999. It will only take a few minutes, it’s online, free, and about 87% of everything leaders like you need to know about the internet. On the other hand, if you think you are capable of protecting my patients’ interests without help from practicing dentists, just say so and I won’t send you feedback on your progress.

If you’re acquiring an interest in the way I present the way the internet really works and want more lessons, all you have to do is move close to the LCD screen, depress and hold the “W” key while nodding your head up and down vigorously a couple of times and then let go of the key. I’ll instantly get the message. (happy face).

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on May 26, 2011 at 8:57 PM said:

TDA officials ask for members’ opinions about dental ethics in Texas

“The August 2011 Issue of the Texas Dental Journal will feature quotes and photographs from dentists throughout the state. We want to hear your thoughts on the topic of ethics and professionalism.”

http://www.tda.org/displayemailforms.cfm?emailformnbr=163234

The ethical thing for me to do is to warn recent grads to be careful how you respond to invitations like this. It could be a trap you’re not prepared for and an unfair fight that’s impossible to win.

As a former TDA member who was prosecuted in absentia to the fullest extent by the TDA Council on Judicial Affairs, I am again an American – completely free to speak the truth about the ethics of the TDA without fear of further retaliation. The alleged complaints against my professionalism involved opinions I posted on the internet up to 3 years prior. I never once had a chance to defend myself because TDA President Dr. Matt Roberts from Crockett, Texas refused to even provide me the dates of the alleged infractions – much less the evidence. What’s more, he still hides the alleged complaints from me. I was a TDA member for 28 years.

I think once the TDA releases the evidence it used to judge my ethics, history will show that my suspension was a shallow hoax perpetrated by small minds for vindictive reasons, and the TDA still owes me $200 in prorated dues, dammit.

http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/dentist-information-bureaus/texas-dental-association-in-austin-tx-90020165

Anyone can see that it was truth that scared the water from unresponsive good ol’ boys, and the TDA Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs is nothing more than a retaliatory instrument for the leaders with wet pants.

I fear that the reputations of young TDA members who are accustomed to modern internet communications, could be innocently harmed if someone doesn’t warn them about the TDA’s ways of secretly marginalizing dissent without risking personal accountability… unless the mention of the Crockett, Texas dentist’s name could be considered as a kind of personal and professional accountability.

You can bet thirty year olds haven’t a clue about the dangers of the protective bureaucratic machinations of the TDA’s 1950s command-and-control business model. It’s a rare dinosaur.

I think the TDA Journal’s “Ethics Edition” has actually become an annual contest of literary skill in expressing high ideals. The TDA has several talented, if safe, writers as members (but none on the internet), and the contest entries always show deep thought into the theory of professionalism that few people will have the chance to read. Here are this year’s questions:

1. What are dental ethics, and why are they important?

2. What is professionalism?

3. What, in your opinion, are the consequences of unethical behavior?

Since because of reasons explained earlier, I’m not sure which topics to warn naïve members to stay away from. But I’ll do my best.

I know for a fact that TDA members with political ambitions should never criticize Delta Dental, BCBSTX or the TDA. I’d also be careful about mentioning HIPAA, EDRs or NPI numbers. Today’s ADA leaders are becoming increasingly sensitive about being accomplices in that historical blunder, and your name will be quietly jotted down on someone’s list for sure. And of all things, never, never ever suggest that a little transparency would make the TDA more valuable to members and their patients. If you mention accountability, remember that TDA leaders are not against breaking up long-term personal and professional friendships to protect themselves. So be careful.

Nevertheless, if you should choose to enter the contest, put yourself in a dental school mindset and say what you think old farts like to hear. Keep it vanilla and watch out for run-on sentences.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on August 27, 2011 at 1:16 PM said:

HHS Games

For you dentists in Texas who generously perform intricate fillings, extractions and root canals on squirmy kids for near-charity Medicaid fees and far too much hassle, I sincerely thank you for your kind hearts.

However, it’s only fair that Medicaid providers in Texas be warned about developments revealed in WFAA’s breaking report, “Feds investigate Texas dental Medicaid program” by Byron Harris.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/investigates/Feds-Investigate-Texas-Dental-Medicaid-Program–128414743.html

“In a letter to the state, the inspector general [US Dept. of HHS] says it will examine the ‘authorization process for orthodontic treatment’ under Texas Medicaid.” Harris adds, “Texas spent $184 million on Medicaid orthodontics last year; that’s nine times as much as California, which spent $19.5 million.”

Sure. We learned that Texas orthodontists have much better lobbyists than California’s, but one shouldn’t miss the subtle warning to dentists about doing business with Texas that is hidden deeper in the article. Billy Millwee of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said “if taxpayers money had been lost, the attorney general might take action to get it back.”

Doc, imagine years from now, receiving a letter from the Attorney General demanding a refund of hard-earned money you had to fight the state for to begin with. If Texans trust the future of Medicaid to the whims of unaccountable state and federal bureaucrats who don’t know how to conduct business, even more of the poor will be driven to already over-burdened charity clinics. Let’s not play these games. People depend on us.

It’s clear that orthodontists in Texas were ambitious, and their opportunism was wrong. But a deal’s a deal, Texas. Move on. The amount of money state leaders carelessly squandered is not worth the years of harm refund demands from the AG would cause the poor in Texas.

Who would want to do business with the state under that threat?

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on September 18, 2011 at 11:20 PM said:

I’m not radical – I’m just a year too early for the Texas Dental Association.

“During times of universal deceit, to tell the truth is a revolutionary act.”
– George Orwell

Only hours ago I prematurely boasted that I alone publicly discuss topics which most dentists only mention privately. Well, I was wrong. This morning, a friend brought to my attention to a September 5, 2011 letter to the editor posted in the ADA News written by Dr. David Lurye – immediate past-president of the Colorado Dental Association.

http://www.ada.org/6187.aspx

As you read Dr. Lurye’s letter, you are certain to recognize the uncanny similarity of his disparaging comments about Delta Dental to opinions I started posting years ago – opinions which ultimately cost me my TDA membership. It’s almost as if the Winter Park, Colorado dentist has been following my posts all along. But the fact is, practicing dentists nationwide have no reason to respect Delta Dental officials. What’s more, dentists who actually treat patients resent ADA leaders for not only protecting Delta’s officials from accountability for sleazy ethics, but the ADA routinely enables the discount dentistry broker by publishing Delta’s press releases in the ADA News. They’re the ones with no byline.

Not to mention the traditional executive exchange program that has quietly been going on between Delta, the ADA and other stakeholders for decades – but that’s another story. One would hope the ADA is at least charging Delta for their ads.

———

Silence of the lambs?
By David Lurye, D.D.S.

I read with continued disgust (it used to be dismay but it is sadly no longer surprising) about the ratcheting down of fees paid to dentists by Delta of Washington state in the July 11 ADA News (“Washington Insurer Lowers Reimbursement”). On the same page, Delta Dental Plans Association is given space in our publication beating their chest over the fact that they have “given away” to philanthropic causes almost $300 million in six years (“Delta Says $48 Million Supported Oral Health Programs”).

When are our members going to wake up and smell the coffee? This money that Delta is “giving away” comes off the backs of working dentists if they participate in those plans, and off the backs of hapless patients when they exercise their “freedom to choose” a dentist. If that dentist happens to not be in a Delta network, Delta only pays about half of what it pays if that same patient goes to a network provider. It’s really easy to be generous and philanthropic with someone else’s money.

Are we now the lambs, so complacent to what is happening that we are now trudging down the path to slaughter? I did not go to dental school with dreams and aspirations of working for an insurance company, or letting them dictate what procedures are performed or what I feel is fair compensation for them. Why do our members keep marching down that path, and why is our ADA News so matter-of-factly juxtaposing stories such as this without taking a stand? I question the heart and soul of this organization.

David Lurye, D.D.S.
Winter Park, Colo.

Editor’s note: Readers are advised that this letter expresses the view of an individual member only and should not be read as an invitation to collective action, which might be subject to risks under the antitrust laws.

———-

Don’t let the significance of the ADA disclaimer slip by unnoticed. As long as the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act protects Delta Dental and other members of the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP) from antitrust suits, but not ADA officials (and members), it is clearly impossible for the ADA to protect our patients from well-funded parasites like Delta. As long as the M-F Act unfairly hobbles the ADA, it will only become more and more irrelevant as the center of power in the dental industry. I’m tired of waiting on the 66 year old M-F to retire.

Power to the people!

Doc, the whole flat world can see that American dentists can no longer depend on the ADA for leadership. The not-for-profit is a fat, slow-moving information vacuum. We have no choice but to take hold of our destiny by individually protecting our patients from parasites like Delta Dental. So grab some courage, stand up and risk an opinion for once. Dentists and patients are the principals in dentalcare. Everyone else – including the ADA – is a mere stakeholder. Stakeholders don’t care for our patients and damn sure better be more polite in my community than Delta Dental supporters inside and outside the ADA.

This is the transparency I’ve promised, sports fans. Just look at the progress we’ve made: Over two years ago, when I pointed out the poor ethics of BCBSTX, the Texas Dental Association Board banned me for life from the TDA Facebook without so much as a warning. But two weeks ago, the immediate past-president of the Colorado Dental Association was allowed to post essentially the same criticism in an ADA publication.

Come on, TDA Board. Try to keep up for once.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on October 27, 2011 at 6:29 PM said:

Do you know what opportunistic stakeholders call dentists’ stoic devotion to the ADA’s one-voice policy no matter what? They call it “professionalism.”

Long ago, an editor of the Journal of the Texas Dental Association warned TDA members against “washing our laundry in public.” Guess what happened. The laundry never got washed and now our community is beginning to notice the stench.

“Is dentistry facing an ethical dilemma?” by DrBicuspid.com Features Editor Donna Domino was posted this week. She writes: “Scandals, lawsuits, a growing focus on commercialization and self-promotion, and dentists who prescribe excessive treatments are tarnishing the profession’s image, according to a presentation on ethics at the recent ADA annual session in Las Vegas.”

http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=308952&wf=1011

I contend that if there were more transparency in my honorable profession, our reputations wouldn’t be defined by a small minority of never-contested, unethical dentists who are causing all of us to slide from public favor. Nobody is telling our story, and as long as ADA members who ask “What stinks?” risk suspension of their membership for “failing to uphold the dignity and honor of the profession,” our dirty laundry only becomes more noticeable.

Is it any wonder that dentistry’s information vacuum allows stakeholders to manipulate our leaders according to their needs rather than our patients’? Since we are our patients’ only natural advocates, at what point will you speak up? Remember: What’s good for them is good for us.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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Darrell K. Pruitt DDS, on December 5, 2011 at 11:20 AM said:

Change Starts Here

Meaningful change ALWAYS starts with local ownership of the damn problem. The more local the better.

Today I came upon the Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Facebook and addressed a question to the Fort Worth District Dental Society about the safety of EDRs locally. I posted it in front of the S-T’s 5000 Facebook Fans. If you recall, about a year ago, an anonymous moderator who ultimately refused to give me a name or a supervisor kicked me off the FWDDS Website to protect a dozen or so readers from unpleasant questions about HIPAA and EDRs – both of which FWDDS leaders have blindly endorsed for years.

Welcome me home.

I’m not sure I’m allowed to post the following comment on the S-T Facebook and don’t know how long it will remain. But I’m allowed to try. Besides, if I don’t attempt to persuade the leaders of the FWDDS to address the growing problem of data breaches from local dental offices, who will? The TDA in Austin? The ADA in Chicago? HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in Washington DC? There is nobody else, friend.

I was going to address the question to the current FWDDS President, but I haven’t a clue who it is. ADA officials even on a local level don’t get out in the community much. One can tell by the silence:

https://www.facebook.com/fwstar?ref=ts&sk=wall

Are electronic dental records safer or more dangerous for our dental patients than paper dental records, Fort Worth District Dental Society? Fort Worth citizens deserve to know the truth even if it’s not politically-correct… especially if the truth is not politically-correct.

S-T Facebook readers might at first be annoyed by the seemingly out-of-place question this local dentist asks any willing FWDDS representative. I understand. I’ve been annoying colleagues with unpleasant thoughts for years. Please hear me out, though. As you will see, it could be your family’s welfare, as well as your dentist’s, that I seek to protect.

A Ponemon Institute study recently revealed that 96% of healthcare facilities have suffered data breaches in the last two years – effectively risking exposure of their patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) to someone needing, say $50,000 worth of heart surgery, and willing to pay for a stolen insurance to stay alive. (See “Health Care Data Breaches Increase by 32 Percent: Ponemon Report” by Brian T. Horowitz).

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Health-Care-Data-Breaches-Increase-by-32-Percent-Ponemon-Report-233543/

Here’s some discouraging news: According to the report, “61 percent of health care organizations [dentists] lack confidence in their knowledge of the data’s location.” This means that if you have visited a provider who uses electronic health records, there’s less than a 40% chance that he or she can guarantee that your identity hasn’t already been sold on the wide open internet.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Compared to physicians’ practices, the business of dentistry is far less complicated. Not even computers can increase the safe speed of dentists’ hands. What’s more, physicians who have tens of thousands of patients with lab test results, might require electronic health records to keep everything straight. On the other hand, dentists who bill for procedures limited to the lower 1/3 of the face only have thousands of active patients, and have been performing bookkeeping chores efficiently and safely for decades using pegboards, ledger cards and the US Mail. Thank goodness dentists can drop back to low tech if HIPAA compliance raises the cost of dentistry to unaffordable prices.

Because of social networks, my consumer-friendly comments concerning identity theft risks in dentistry are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore by those who are most capable of mitigating the data breach problem from local dental offices. Thank you for the transparency, Fort Worth Star Telegram. You lead by example.

Darrell K. Pruitt DDS

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D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on March 2, 2012 at 11:25 AM said:

The problem with the TDA

As one who’s membership in the Texas Dental Association was suspended for still unrevealed evidence of “unprofessional conduct,” I think Cory Doctorow’s article describing clinical psychologist Bruce Levine’s theory about his colleagues’ propensity for diagnosing anti-authoritarians with mental illness, very accurately describes the attitude of dentistry’s leaders in the dysfunctional professional organization.

(See: “Why shrinks diagnose anti-authoritarians with mental illness”). http://boingboing.net/2012/03/01/why-shrinks-diagnose-anti-auth.html

Dr. Levine is quoted:

When I was told by some faculty that I had “issues with authority,” I had mixed feelings about being so labeled. On the one hand, I found it quite amusing, because among the working-class kids whom I had grown up with, I was considered relatively compliant with authorities. After all, I had done my homework, studied, and received good grades. However, while my new “issues with authority” label made me grin because I was now being seen as a “bad boy,” it also very much concerned me about just what kind of a profession that I had entered.

———————————

The TDA still owes me a refund of $200 for 2 months in prorated dues for 2010, and has a B+ on the Austin Better Business Bureau’s website to remind them of it.

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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