Weeks After Testing, 2 Former Patients Of Tulsa Dentist Get Good News

The first patients of Dr. Scott Harrington to get tested for possible HIV and hepatitis exposure are starting to get their test results back.

State health leaders urged 7,000 of Harrington's patients to be tested, after the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry said an investigation found that Harrington didn't properly sterilize equipment at his Tulsa and Owasso clinics.

Sheridan Greenhaw and her husband, both former patients of Scott Harrington, received some good news this week.

"I wanted to do cartwheels in the aisle. I was happy. I'm still happy when I think about it. It's like you dodged a big bullet," Greenhaw said.

We've been following the anxiety Greenhaw and her husband have been going through. She said the two weeks to get results were agonizingly long.

4/12/2013 Related Story: Former Patient Of Tulsa Dentist Anxiously Awaiting Health Screening Results

"They tick and tick and tick, and there's nothing you can do about it," Greenhaw said.

They're among 2,500 of Harrington's patients who have been tested, so far, through the Tulsa Health Department, for possible HIV and hepatitis exposure.

They both tested negative.

"Just a real big sense of relief, like the weight of the world was off my shoulders, and I didn't have to worry so much about that one particular thing," Greenhaw said.

The Greenhaws are among some of the first to get their health department tests back. Many others going through private doctors got their results much sooner.

If there are any positive test results that come back from the state lab in Oklahoma City, health leaders say it will be a while before that information is released publicly. They say if someone tests positive for HIV or hepatitis, then an individual case investigation would be done to see if the infection could be traced back to Dr. Harrington's office, or if it could have been caused by another source.

While others wait, Greenhaw said it's important to lean on family and friends for support.

"Don't hide it. Have somebody to talk to about it. There are 7,000 of us out there, we're not alone," she said.

Health leaders are still waiting to find out how many former patients have been tested at health departments in other Oklahoma Counties.