Despite the failures of 2007, Basin denturist Gary Vollan won't give up his fight to make dentures in Wyoming once again.

A local judge signed an injunction in October 2006 preventing Vollan from doing so because the Wyoming Board of Dental Examiners claimed he was practicing dentistry without a license.

Vollan hasn't made a pair of dentures since.

Over the past year, Vollan has maintained he does not practice dentistry and he is not under the board's jurisdiction. He said he is licensed as a denturist in Oregon, a state that regulates denturists, and trained to make, fit and adjust dentures.

He said he does not diagnose or alter mouth tissues. If something does not look right in a patient's mouth, he refers the client to a local dentist.

"Since the beginning, I have said I am not in the dental board's jurisdiction," Vollan said. "I am not a dentist. I don't practice dentistry."

Some dentists in Wyoming say Vollan is trying to do something only dentists are trained to do. They say he is not qualified and it is not safe to allow denturists to practice in the state.

"You don't come out of technical school with the knowledge to work in someone's mouth," said Dr. Edward Clark, president of the Wyoming Dental Association.

The Legislature sided with the dental board in February when the House Corporations Committee rejected a bill that would license denturists under the dental board and allow Vollan to go back to work.

The Wyoming Supreme Court sided with the dental board in August when it affirmed the injunction and rejected Vollan's appeal.

Vollan hoped to have enough signatures by February to have an initiative on the 2008 general election ballot, but he said a death in the family prevented him from getting the approximately 35,000 required signatures.

He hopes to have the signatures in time to put the issues on the ballot for the 2010 general election.

"Dropping everything sounds tempting, but my kids are in school here," said the father of 10. "This is my home. I love the people. I am in the process of doing what I can do."

Vollan had been working as a denturist in Basin since 1992, when he moved his family from Washington and opened Bezalel Denture Service.

He has no plans of leaving Wyoming, even though denturists in Oregon and Montana have offered him jobs to come work in their offices.

He is part of a bigger cause, he said. There is a national push by denturists to get their profession recognized in their respective states. Some denturists in Florida and Georgia have even been arrested for practicing denturism, while other states have allowed denturists to practice without penalty.

Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Maine and Arizona all recognize the profession.

Vollan said he still has some tricks up his sleeve. It helps that he has enlisted the support of some Wyoming legislators and arranged an arsenal of about 100 circulators to gather signatures.

Clark, a Cheyenne dentist, said the association will continue to oppose denturists because they are required to have only a high school education. If they have education beyond high school, he said, it is usually from a two-year technical college.

In comparison, dentists have at least eight years of college and medical school education.

There is not a denturist program in the country that is accredited by the United States Department of Education, Clark added.

The American Dental Association "vigorously opposes denturism."

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, will cosponsor a bill with Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, in the 2008 budget session that is similar to the denturism bill that was rejected in 2007.

Scott said he is trying to do whatever he can to alleviate the dentist shortage in the state.

"Frankly, there are not enough dentists to go around," Scott said. "We are in a situation where not everybody has access to dental care."

By allowing Vollan and others like him to practice in the state, Scott said he hopes to free up some time to allow dentists to see more patients.

When asked whether or not denturists are safe, Scott said he didn't see any concern for the public.

"Their concern is for their wallets," Scott said about the dentists who are opposing this. "I don't see any real safety issue."

Clark said denturists compromise the safety of the public. He said taking an impression of the mouth, what a denturist does to make a mold for dentures, can be very dangerous if a person doesn't know what he is doing.

"You are filling a mouth full of impression material," Clark said. "If some were aspirated, if the denturist isn't prepared, it endangers that person."

He also worries about mouth diseases going undetected if a person is seeing a denturist.

Vollan said he received three years of training, additional experience in the Navy as a dental technician and a two-year associate's degree in dental lab technology. He then graduated from the two-year Oregon Denturist Program, which no longer operates.

Scott said he is unsure how the new denturism bill will do in the Legislature. He said he is unfamiliar with the dynamics of the House, which is where the bill will most likely start.

In case the bill fails again, Vollan is trying the initiative process, too.

Wyoming has one of the most restrictive initiative processes in the country, requiring sponsors to submit registered-voter signatures representing 15 percent of those who voted in the preceding general election and 15 percent of those residents in at least two-thirds of Wyoming counties. The measure is enacted if it receives approval of more than 50 percent of those voting in the general election.

If Vollan wanted to see the initiative on the 2008 general election ballot he would have needed the signatures by Feb.12, the day the Legislature's budget session begins.

He was unable to spend as much time collecting signatures as he had hoped, because his father became ill in September and died Nov. 20. Vollan said he spent a lot of time in Denver tending to his father.

He said he has collected about 11,000 signatures.

Throughout the summer, Vollan and his children traveled around the state in a pop-up camper meeting people, signing up circulators and collecting signatures. He has even done some work on the Internet, blogging regularly.

"The kids have gotten a geography lesson," Vollan said. "We've been to the four corners of the state. We have a lot of good memories."

Many of his circulators are sons and daughters of people he has made dentures for or who need affordable dentures.

Barbara Anne Greene's grandmother received dentures from Vollan about two years ago when Vollan was still practicing.

"They were made really well," Greene said. She said he was gentle and patient with her 95-year-old grandmother, who also has dementia.

The dentures were much cheaper than her grandmother could received from a dentist, she said.

Greene, who is the director of economic development for Big Horn County, said Vollan should be able to contribute to the county's economy by doing the trade he was trained to do.

"He's a local guy and keeps our money here," she said. "I'm in favor of any money that can stay in Wyoming. It's an opportunity for an entrepreneur to grow his business."

Greene said she had no problem getting her first form filled with 100 signatures and she is working on her second set of 100. She said only two people have refused to sign her initiative.

Besides meeting people to sign his petitions and circulate his initiative, Vollan said he met people all over the state that had broken dentures, ill-fitting dentures or no dentures at all.

"There are so many different people in need, low-income people, seniors, the homeless," Vollan said. "There are a number of people who need access to dentures."

Contact health reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.