North Carolina senator introduces bill enhancing dental anesthesia event reporting

A bill from State Sen. Michael V. Lee seeks to boost oversight of dental anesthesia in North Carolina, proposing stricter reporting guidelines designed to enhance patient safety, as noted by the North Carolina State Senate.

Filed as SB 1038 on April 30 for the 2025 regular session, the measure bears the short title: ‘Henry’s Law.’

What follows is a summary based on the official bill text, including explanatory detail for clarity.

The proposed law would require dentists holding permits to provide general anesthesia or sedation to report defined adverse events to the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners—such as patient death, permanent brain dysfunction, specific hospital admissions, anaphylaxis, aspiration, cardiac arrest, and unexpected advanced airway procedures—within specified periods. Dentists would need to halt anesthesia or sedation until cleared by the board. The bill also instructs the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory to examine if a secondary anesthesia provider should be required with certain deep sedation drugs and submit a report by April 1, 2027; $100,000 in nonrecurring funds is allocated for the study in the 2026-27 fiscal year. Section 3 goes into effect July 1, 2026, Section 1 starts Oct. 1, 2026, and other sections are effective upon the bill becoming law.

During the same session, Lee introduced 53 additional bills.

North Carolina’s legislative process involves a multi-step procedure to pass a bill into law. A bill is filed by a lawmaker, then assigned to a committee for review and must be read three separate times in both chambers. Should either chamber amend the proposal, both must assent to the final form before it proceeds to the governor, who has 10 days (or 30 when the legislature is not meeting) to sign, veto, or allow it to take effect without signature.

For more details on legislative measures and bills, visit this page.

Lee holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1991) and a JD from Wake Forest University Law School (1997).

Lee, a Republican, was elected in 2023 to represent North Carolina’s 7th Senate district, succeeding Jim Perry.