(RALEIGH) --  Dentists and patients from across North Carolina gathered Tuesday at the Legislative Building voicing opposition to bills that would change the way dentists work with dental service organizations.  DSO's help manage the increasingly complex business aspects of running a dental practice, such as accounting, human resources and purchasing.

Dr. Bruce Gray said utilizing a DSO at his practice frees him up to concentrate on patient care. “My focus is now on the 4,000 patients I treat each year and making clinical decisions that are in their best interest," said Gray.

The Alliance for Access to Dental Care organized the Tuesday press conference.  The Alliance is a trade and advocacy group.

“This legislation ignores the needs of patients in our state, which is the 10th most populated in the nation but ranks 47th in terms of the number of dentists per capita," said Doug Brown, a member of the Alliance and CEO of Affordable Care, Inc.

Brown claimed that the proposed legislation will further reduce access to dental care and result in patients paying even higher fees if dentists can no longer contract with DSOs to help them run more efficiently.  Compared to other states, North Carolinians already pay $280 million more than they should each year for dental services because of a shortage of dentists, according to Brown.

In a letter to the North Carolina General Assembly last week, the Federal Trade Commission firmly stated opposition to the House and Senate bills.  The FTC sited the “anticompetitive effects” of the bill, and made a strong recommendation to reject both H.B. 698 and S.B. 655.