BURBANK, Calif. - March 25, 2026 - A California dentist previously disciplined in Arizona after a 71-year-old woman died during a dental procedure involving unauthorized sedation still holds an active California dental license, even though his California Moderate Sedation Permit is currently suspended.
The case involves Dr. Ehsan Pourshirazi of Burbank, California, whose Arizona office was found by the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners to have performed a sedation procedure without the required office anesthesia permit during an October 25, 2019 extraction appointment involving patient Sharlon Stemmons. Board findings stated that the procedure should not have taken place. The board also found that a pre-anesthesia medical evaluation was not performed and concluded that Pourshirazi engaged in unprofessional conduct.
Stemmons, 71, suffered a medical emergency after anesthesia was administered. According to allegations in a wrongful death lawsuit later filed by her daughter, emergency services were not called for approximately 11 minutes after the crisis began. Stemmons was transported to the hospital, suffered severe oxygen deprivation to the brain, never regained consciousness, and died ten days later. Pourshirazi denied liability in the lawsuit and maintained that he met the duty of care at all times.
Arizona regulators ultimately imposed a six-month suspension of Pourshirazi’s dental license, restricted his ability to obtain an anesthesia permit, and ordered continuing education. His license was not revoked.
What happened next raises a separate set of questions in California.
Public licensing records show that the Dental Board of California issued Pourshirazi (SmileOnImplants, Burbank, CA) a Moderate Sedation Permit on October 4, 2022, nearly three years after Stemmons’ death and while the Arizona disciplinary case was still being challenged through the courts. That California sedation permit now carries a status of Suspension. His underlying California DDS license remains current and active.
The public record does not explain why the California sedation permit is suspended. It also does not clearly show what information California regulators reviewed, or what weight they gave to the Arizona disciplinary history, when the permit was issued.
That gap matters because sedation permits are not a minor administrative detail. They govern whether a dental office is authorized to perform procedures that can place patients at immediate medical risk if something goes wrong.
The case also exposes how difficult it can be for patients to uncover a provider’s full disciplinary background when events cross state lines. A patient searching routine consumer directories may find reviews, location details, and insurance information, but not necessarily disciplinary findings from another state, separate permit statuses, or allegations contained in prior litigation. Even when that information exists in public databases, it is often scattered across multiple licensing systems and not presented in a way most patients would ever think to search.
In this case, public records show a dentist whose Arizona office was found to have performed unauthorized sedation in a procedure that ended in a patient’s death later received formal authorization in California to perform sedation, only for that California permit to end up suspended while his dental license remained active.
The broader issue reaches beyond one provider. Interstate healthcare oversight in the United States is still largely handled state by state, with boards operating on separate systems, separate records, and separate enforcement timelines. Patients are often left to piece together critical safety information on their own.
Before agreeing to any dental procedure involving sedation or anesthesia, patients should verify not only the dentist’s core license, but also any separate sedation or anesthesia permits, and they should check every state where the provider has practiced. They should also ask whether the provider has ever been disciplined by a licensing board, whether any malpractice claims have been filed, who will administer anesthesia, and whether the office holds the permits required for the procedure being offered.
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