Big New York dental groups lock horns

The New York State Dental Association is trying to abolish the 140-year-old New York County Dental Society -- the leading dental organization for Manhattan -- according to a statement on the society's Web site.

On Tuesday, the state Legislature passed a bill giving the New York State Dental Association the power to expel the New York County Dental Society.

The society is a co-sponsor of the annual Greater New York Dental Meeting, which bills itself as the largest dental meeting in the world. Expelling the society would also expel the organization -- and potentially its 2,500 members -- from the national ADA. Under the ADA bylaws, most members of the national organization must be members of both state and local "component" groups.

In order to expel the society, the state association needed new legislation because the society is chartered by the state. The society posted a message on its Web site saying the legislation would put it "out of business" and asking Gov. David Paterson to veto it.

It's a rare, if not unprecedented, for a state organization to expel one of its constituent groups, said Robert Raible, public affairs manager in the ADA's Washington, DC, office. "I've never heard of it, and I've been here for nine years," he said.

Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Manhattan Democrat, said she voted in favor of the bill because the state association already had the power to affiliate with local groups, so it should have the power to end those affiliations. "It's not a matter of taking sides, it's a matter of allowing an organization to operate," she said.

Why would the state association want to separate from the local society? Association officers did not respond to DrBicuspid.com's requests for comment.

And society executive director Ellen Gerber said no one from her organization could comment either, because of pending litigation. But she confirmed the details reported in articles published by the New York Times Thursday.

According to the Times, leaders of the local society, based in Manhattan, have criticized the association's executive director and lobbyist, Roy Lasky. They say his salary -- $432,453 a year -- is too high. They also object to legislation he has promoted that would allow the state association's board of governors to appoint some officers who are currently elected by the association's members.

"The dispute is basically about whether a component society accepts the standards and the implied agreement to accept the decision of the whole, even when they disagree," Lasky reportedly told the Times.

The newspaper said a new local association has already formed to take the place of the society: the New York County Dental Association, headed by Elliott Moskowitz, D.D.S., M.Sd., editor of the New York State Dental Journal. The society has filed a lawsuit to block the new group from marketing itself, alleging a trademark infringement.

The state association's board of governors is scheduled to meet and vote on the expulsion on July 8, according to the Times.