The HIV positive dentist in the United Kingdom - a legal perspective

In 1991, the United Kingdom Advisory Panel (UKAP) was set up under the aegis of the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS (EAGA) to consider individual cases of HIV infected healthcare workers. 1 Policy and guidance relating to HIV infected healthcare workers is set out in a Department of Health report. 2 Although more recently the EAGA has advised that an HIV positive dentist may under certain conditions provide clinical treatment for patients who are also HIV positive, 3 the advice from UKAP relating to exposure-prone procedures means, in effect, that dentists who become HIV positive must cease contemporary clinical dentistry. The plight of dentists who become HIV positive and face this situation has been poignantly described as '...the dental practice equivalent of clearing your desk and being escorted off the premises.'(4)