Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee.
I am Dr. Peter Trainor, president of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario. I am also president of the Canadian Dental Regulatory Authorities Federation.
The college is the regulatory body for the dental profession in Ontario. We regulate the practice of over 9,000 dentists. These dentists work in both general practice as well as specialty practices. To put that into a different perspective, we regulate about half the dentists in Canada. Our legislative mandate as a provincial health care regulator is very clear: it is public safety and protection. Everything that we do is seen through the single lens of public protection, and we have been doing that for a long time. RCDSO has been regulating the dental profession since 1868. Dentists have a long history of safely and effectively using and prescribing medications to their patients in the treatment of oral health disease. It is an essential component of the modern practice of dentistry, and this is why our college is very pleased to have the opportunity to be before this committee today.
Joining me today is Irwin Fefergrad. Mr. Fefergrad is a lawyer by profession. He is the registrar and chief executive officer of the college. He is certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a dual specialist in civil litigation and health law. He is also the executive director of the Canadian Dental Regulatory Authorities Federation.
Also with me is Dr. David Mock, a dentist as well as a specialist in oral pathology and oral medicine. Dr. Mock is an expert in pain management and as such is the associate director of the Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. He is the former dean of the faculty of dentistry at the University of Toronto, the largest dental school in the country. Dr. Mock is also a member of our governing council.
Our college, due to concern about the management of chronic pain, has held a one-day symposium strictly dedicated to this very important topic. As an outcome of that symposium, a working group was established to study acute and chronic pain. Dr. Mock is the chair of that working group.
Dr. Mock, as well as Dr. David Segal, an oral surgeon on the RCDSO council, are also members on the working group of the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse. Dr. Mock co-chairs that working group, and they have produced a statement on the national document First Do No Harm. The working group is composed of both professional as well as lay people developing competencies for health care providers.
With that brief introduction, I would like to turn the presentation over to Mr. Fefergrad.