Two dentists have had their “extraordinary” and lengthy legal battles with the Bermuda Dental Board highlighted in an international report — and it doesn’t cast the Island in a favourable light, according to one of them.

James Fay, of Paget Dental Group, said the fact that his story and another matter involving David Thompson were used as case studies in the Dental Protection Annual Review 2013 wasn’t a positive thing, but did show the need for urgent review of the legislation governing Bermuda’s dental industry.

The Review, in an article entitled ‘One country — two journeys’, claims there was a “disproportionate level of activity” in relation to actions taken by the Bermuda Dental Board in this “relatively small jurisdiction” between 2000 and 2010.

“Two cases in particular involved complex legal challenges — in the one case by way of judicial review...and in the other case by a long and convoluted route all the way to the Privy Council,” the article says.

Dental Protection Ltd (DPL) is a malpractice insurer with 50 members in Bermuda, including Dr Fay, and it funded his legal case. It has 62,000 members around the world who each receive a copy of its Annual Review.

The article says the same legal firm represented Dr Fay and Dr Thompson, sharing “these extraordinary journeys” with them and with DPL.

“The two cases serve to illustrate the tenacity and endurance of the members involved, as well as DPL’s willingness to fight important points of principle that involved fair treatment of our members and the determination of our legal representatives to help us achieve this,” the article continues.

The case involving Dr Fay saw him and his former hygienist Keri Payne found guilty of serious misconduct, and inefficiency, by the Dental Board following a complaint made in 2003 about Ms Payne carrying out tooth filling work she was not licensed to do.

Dr Fay obtained special leave to have the decision reviewed in the Supreme Court and Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley quashed the convictions in 2006, after ruling that they had not been given a fair hearing.

Mr Justice Kawaley, who is now the Chief Justice, said changes were needed to the law to ensure a fairer process for dental professionals, and a right of appeal in court for Dental Board decisions, rather than an appeal to the Governor.

Dr Fay told The Royal Gazette this week that the laws governing dentists were still outdated and in need of amendment.

In particular, he said, members of the Dental Board ought to be voted for by members of the dental profession, rather than appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Government.

He said of the article in the Dental Protection Annual Review 2013: “It isn’t a positive thing.”

“We had a huge amount of litigation per capita because of our Dental Board,” Dr Fay said. “Dental Protection Ltd had to support us in lots of litigation, which was way and above what’s normal.

“DPL would pay local lawyers to take our side and the Government of the day would have to pay lawyers. I would estimate it cost the taxpayer of Bermuda hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees in actions that they lost.”

The article describes Dr Thompson’s “extraordinary” case as running for the best part of ten years.

“The Dental Board had sought through a succession of ill-motivated and unreasonable actions to block the registration of a dentist taking the registration exam and, in doing so, acted with bias and violated his human rights and natural justice in the fair and proper conduct of the functions of a statutory regulatory body,” the article says.

The Privy Council, in a landmark June 2008 ruling, found that Dr Thompson was unlawfully discriminated against by the Dental Board, which had refused to let him resit his practical registration exam because he wasn’t Bermudian.

It wasn’t possible to reach Bermuda Dental Board president Ronda James for comment on Tuesday, and the Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for information about whether there were plans to amend the laws governing the dental industry.