The High Court yesterday rejected a finding by the Dental Council's Fitness to Practise Committee that a dentist was guilty of carrying out an intravenous sedation/general anaesthetic procedure on an eight-year-old boy without ensuring proper professional monitoring standards. However, Mr Justice McCracken upheld a restriction on the dentist using general anaesthesia or sedation on patients under 16 and ruled that he should arrange for a consultant anaesthetist to administer sedation.
The judge said that the Dental Council should reconsider the restriction once Mr Ronan Cahill, of Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, had successfully completed a postgraduate course in paediatric dentistry. He found that the council had imposed "unnecessarily restrictive" penalties on Mr Cahill after finding him guilty of failing to use or apply appropriate procedures when treating the boy.
