Dr. Kessler served as President of the Colorado Dental Association. He also serves as the chairman of the Well Being Committee for the State of Colorado, and is a consultant for the American Dental Association, serving on the Dental Well Being Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists. Brett keeps in shape by both coaching and participating in various endurance races across the United States (running/trail running, cycling, mountain biking and triathlon). Brett and Gina have four children: Abbey, Max, Sydney and Riley.
In this episode we talk about:
– His seminar at this years ADA meeting
– Marijuana legalization and how it fits into the world of dentistry
– Fighting addiction
Brett’s difficult time story:
Brett recalls his addiction to drugs and alcohol while in Michigan in the year 1997, and how it was reducing every bit of his life and affecting his practice. Eventually, he got a helpful advice from the Well Being Committee, Michigan and went to rehab — only to realize how locked up he was. This prompted him to in turn be a part of the Well Being Committee Colorado, and help others to maintain their dignity.
Because marijuana is legal in Colorado, does that mean a dentist can start smoking marijuana? How is the profession handling this?
Imagine this, in North Carolina, you can go into a liquor store and buy a six pack of beer and go home in drink it. We can do that here, but we also have marijuana stores and choose what we want and take it home and smoke it. 10 to 15 percent of people will have actual substance abuse problems. There are those that use drugs recreationally and 10 to 15 percent of them will experience a drug abuse problem. We know that marijuana does impair our motor skills and so obviously we dont want anyone using it while they are working and we have been working with the dental board about setting some policies around this. At first, if someone tested positive for marijuana, they were going to lose their license. So when I was talking to the board about this, I testified that if I had a beer three weeks ago and I smoked pot three weeks ago, when I get drug tested, I will not test positive for beer but I will test positive for marijuana. Neither of these determine my level of impairment though. So if you are going to take someones license away for testing positive for marijuana, there has to be a more comprehensive testing for that and we are trying to develop that.
So I know Colorado had a program to help dentists with substance abuse, do you know if every state has one of these programs?
North Carolina has an amazing program, and sets the standard for most of the country. We use a lot of what North Carolina does as a reference for Colorado. Im on the Dental Well Being Advisory Committee for the ADA, and we try to make sure that any dentist that has questions about this, has a place to call and a place to go, and I think that most states have some sort of wellness program. If not, they can call the ADA and the ADA will direct them to the right people. These programs are not there to shame you, there are there to help get you the right help and keep your dignity so that you can retain your ability to practice. Some things might need to change in the process but its there if you need it. There is a much better chance of not losing your license if you get better and a much greater chance of losing your ability to practice if you dont get better and things start getting out of hand.