The Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Board is the body that endavours to act on behalf of the public to maintain access to a safe dental service in the province and also to ensure that those persons provided with the right to provide such service are properly trained and continue to maintain a satisfactory level of competence appropriate to their individual license.
Notice of Discipline Decision and Order – Louis Bourget, D.D.S.
Summary
On November 20, 2021, an Adjudication Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) of the Disciplinary Panel of the Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Board (the “Board”) held a hearing into charges against a practitioner registered under the Dental Act, 2008 (the “Act”), Louis Bourget, D.D.S. (the “Practitioner”), whose registered practice is located at 91 Roe Avenue, Gander, NL. At the hearing, the Tribunal was presented with an Agreed Statement of Facts, an Admission and a Joint Submission on disciplinary measures which had been agreed to and signed by the Practitioner and the Registrar of the Board.
The events giving rise to the charges occurred on October 16, 2020, when the Practitioner was performing dental procedures on a patient, Blair Harris, the Complainant, who was sedated at the time of the procedures. While the patient was sedated the Practitioner allowed a person who was not trained in dental procedures to extract or remove teeth from the patient’s mouth and did not take steps to prevent another person present during the procedures to use a cellphone to record the extractions of the patient’s teeth by the person in question.
The Agreed Statement of Facts established that the patient would not have been able to provide informed consent to any of the actions of the persons who performed the unauthorized procedures and recorded those procedures being performed as referenced above, given that he was under sedation. It is agreed that there was a lack of informed consent obtained from the patient with respect to the actions of the Practitioner in permitting those persons to, 1); perform a dental procedure on the patient, and 2); record the person performing such procedure. The Agreed Statement of Facts also established that the Practitioner failed to protect the patient’s personal dignity by allowing someone untrained in dentistry or dental procedures to perform a dental procedure on the patient while he was sedated.
The Practitioner accepted responsibility for his actions and cooperated with the Dental Board during the investigation and complaints process.
In the Admission statement, the Practitioner pleaded guilty to:
Sanctions
The Tribunal accepted the Practitioner’s guilty plea and the Joint Submission and by a written decision (the “Decision”), dated December 9, 2021, ordered that: