If anyone still doubts the safety and reliability of oral conscious sedation dentistry, they ought to spend some time with Leslie S.T. Fang, M.D., Ph.D.  Dr. Fang is a world-class expert on the topic and I am proud to serve with him as a member of the D.O.C.S. faculty.

Since early this year, Dr. Fang has been wowing our faculty members and our course registrants with his mastery of the “bridge” between medicine and dentistry.  Dr. Fang not only endorses the D.O.C.S. methods of safe, reliable sedation dentistry, he teaches our members how to practice effectively on patients who enter our dental offices ailing with non-dental medical issues.

 
Like all of us, Dr. Fang puts patient safety first.  As he recently told my friend, Dean Rotbart, a journalist, the most important thing that he teaches is to avoid treating patients who suffer from non-dental medical conditions that put them at heightened risk in the dental chair. 

Dean, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who writes regularly on dental topics, filed this story on Dr. Fang.  I thought you’d enjoy reading it:

FANG EMBRACES MEDINCE AND DENTISTRY WITH A PASSION TO INNOVATE

There are five hours everyday, sometimes maybe a little bit more, that Dr. Leslie Shu-Tung Fang deliberately does not think about ways in which he can apply his considerable medical knowledge and talents to improving the world in which we live.

That’s not to say, however, that good ideas don’t sometimes come to Dr. Fang in his sleep.

During the 19 hours on the average day that he is not supine, Dr. Fang is driven.

“I’m perpetually interested, curious and looking for new frontiers where I can make a difference,” he says during a recent telephone interview.

One such frontier is oral medicine.  Dr. Fang, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, is an internationally recognized expert in nephrology and healthcare management.  Yet he has become equally renown for his clinical and teaching mastery of oral medicine and sedation dentistry.  Since January 2006, Dr. Fang has been a distinguished member of the D.O.C.S. faculty.

Dr. Fang’s foray into oral medicine began back in his earliest days at Harvard Medical School where first and second year medical and dental students are commingled in pre-clinical coursework.

Seated alphabetically, Dr. Fang found himself studying and partnering in the lab with Robert C. Fazio, a dental student.  The two became fast friends and remain close to this day.

Fazio, now Dr. Fazio, went on to get his DMD from Harvard and serves as an associate clinical professor of surgery at Yale University School of Medicine.  Dr. Fazio also maintains a private practice in oral medicine and periodontology.

The two friends, Fazio and Fang, joined with Stephen T. Sonis, DMD, chief of the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to author Principles and Practice of Oral Medicine, the definitive guide to oral medicine.  The troika is now at work on the third edition of their seminal text that is used by numerous dental schools.

Dr. Fang was recruited to the D.O.C.S. faculty on the strength of both his in-depth knowledge and his talent at teaching.  Students at Harvard have honored Dr. Fang multiple times for excellence in clinical teaching.

“With the ever-increasing complexity in dental procedures, there has never been a more important need for an effective bridge between the dental and the medical professions,” Dr. Fang has noted.  “I believe that bridging should be a fun experience.”

Dr. Fang says he is impressed by the D.O.C.S. curriculum and its commitment to teach “the safest and best ways” to manage anxious patients who otherwise would have no access to dentistry.

Teaching at D.O.C.S. “has been very gratifying,” says Dr. Fang, who says he derives “incredible satisfaction” from dentists who come up to him after the course to report that they now feel confident and comfortable addressing a patient population that was previously deprived of care.           

Dr. Fang says that during the course of his weekend D.O.C.S. courses dentists do easily master what they need to know to apply D.O.C.S. methodology safely and confidently.  Among the key lessons he teaches is how to ascertain the most at-risk patients – and to avoid trouble before it starts.

Increasing, as the population ages, Dr. Fang says general dentists will encounter patients on multiple medications, so it is crucial for them to know which drugs have dental implications and which do not.  (See related post: Opportunities and Risks Presented By An Aging Population)

Indeed, along with his colleagues, Dr. Fang has authored what he calls “the ultimate cheat sheet” for dentists.  The monograph examines the 150 drugs that physicians prescribe most often and highlights those that dentists must be aware of in order to treat their patients safely.  In a related document he spells out the correct dosages for the 50 drugs that dentists prescribe most frequently.

Dr. Fang leaves no stone unturned.  For example, while the likelihood of serious complications from the use of Fosamax – an oral bisphosphonate – are miniscule, he nonetheless makes sure to alert dentists to the possibility of complications and how to avoid them.  “You better warn the patients on Fosamax,” Dr. Fang says.  “The fact that only 45 cases have ever been described out of 22 million is irrelevant.  I want to make sure that [dentists] are aware of the information.”

Dr. Fang says his long hours and drive to achieve are characteristics that are deeply ingrained in his culture.  He was born in China, raised in Hong Kong and professionally educated in the United States.  His full curriculum vitae is available on the faculty pages at www.sedationdocs.com.

-- Dean Rotbart

View Dr. Fang's Full Biography