Amid Colorado's exploding demand for tummy tucks, nose jobs and other cosmetic surgeries, a new breed of surgical professional steps in.

Dentists.

Dentists and other oral professionals are rapidly tapping into consumer demand to look better beyond the mouth, performing surgeries that once were the exclusive realm of plastic surgeons.

More dental specialists are doing chemical peels, liposuctions and other plastic surgeries - an invasion that has led to a turf war among medical specialists.

Plastic surgeons are vociferously complaining that patient safety is jeopardized.

"It is like playing Russian roulette with their patients," said Rod Rohrich, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, whose organization is attempting to block a bill in the Colorado legislature that some argue would give an "open door" to dentists performing plastic surgery.

At issue in the bill to re-establish the dental examiners' board is the expansion of the scope of practice from "oral cavity" to the "body."

The measure recently passed the House and a Senate committee, 5-0, and has gone to the full Senate for a vote later this session.

Additionally, plastic surgeons say that only they are qualified to do such work, given that they have endured seven-year residency programs to gain board certification. Anything less endangers patients' lives, they argue.

Countering that accusation, many dentists and oral surgeons say they have plenty - and in some cases more - experience in cosmetic procedures.

"During my residency I did face-lifts and all that," said Dr. Eve Bluestein, a Louisville oral surgeon.

Bluestein, who has M.D. and D.D.S. degrees and specializes in cosmetic surgery, said plastic surgeons train mostly in general surgery and lack the education of some oral surgeons and dermatologists.

"Elective plastic surgery is the area everyone wants to be in," Bluestein said. "You get to deal with nice people and not with insurance companies."

On average, the price of beauty ranges between $200 for a botox injection to remove wrinkles to $8,000 or more for a face-lift. Tummy tucks, which get rid of sagging midsections, run about $5,300, and breast augmentation costs about $6,000.

In Colorado, no one tracks who performs cosmetic procedures or screens their credentials. Only hospitals verify doctor training - which doesn't really apply to elective plastic surgeries because most are done in private offices.

Technically, any medical doctor, or M.D., can perform surgery even without completing a residency program or getting board certification. No medical society, licensing board or governmental agency has designated one class of medical specialist more competent than another for cosmetic surgery.

However, many patients are calling for more oversight after suffering what they called botched plastic surgeries.

When Jean Marie Robertson agreed to a chemical peel that would take the outer layer of skin - and its 40 years of lines and wrinkles - off her face, she turned to her daughter's dentist.

Her daughter had been in the dentist's office having her wisdom teeth removed when she spotted signs advertising an anti-wrinkle procedure. "He explained this like it was going to be a very simple thing - like a bad sunburn," she said.

The day after the peel, Robertson's eyes and mouth swelled shut. Four months later, Robertson's face was covered in scabs and streaked with red. Two years after the peel, her skin looked like an elderly woman's, mottled with brown and red blotches.

It took a second chemical peel to reverse the damage, she said.

She filed, but later dropped, a lawsuit alleging negligence against Dr. Randolf Robinson, who performed the procedure.

"I was dumb. I didn't ask a lot of questions," said Robertson.

She later found out she was the third patient on whom Robinson had performed a chemical peel.

Robinson denies any negligence. He said Robertson indeed was his third chemical peel, but she went skiing - against his advice - within six months of the procedure. The sun damaged her face, he said.

"She didn't follow my instructions," Robinson said. "I certainly felt comfortable doing" the peel.

Robinson and other dental professionals said they are being singled out because their backgrounds are nontraditional and plastic surgeons don't want to share what has become one of medicine's most lucrative fields.

"I don't fit in anybody's box," Robinson said. "I did 40 rhinoplasties (nose jobs) and 80 facial-skeletal surgeries during residency. I'm proud of the cases I do."

But plastic surgeons warn consumers that unless they ask for detailed information on a surgeon's training and credentials, their health may be at risk.

For example, there's a big difference between the American Board of Plastic Surgeons and the American Board of Cosmetic Surgeons, they say.

The former requires completion of a six- to seven-year residency program and is recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

The Board of Cosmetic Surgeons requires doctors pass a test and pay a fee, and is not recognized by the ABMS.

Dr. John Millard, a Lone Tree plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said oral specialists aren't "doing anything illegal or against any state board of ethics." But he warned potential patients to do their homework before they go under the knife.

When a physician who has completed a plastic surgery residency does his first breast augmentation in private practice, "it's probably his 85th or 86th," Millard said. "He didn't go to a weekend course, come back and say 'I'm going to do my first breast augmentation."'

Financial pressures from health plans and government programs demand that doctors see more patients for less money, which drives many toward cosmetic surgery, said Dr. David Nelson, a Denver oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

"You have practitioners saying, 'How can I make a living?"' he said. "You have dermatologists and emergency physicians getting into it."

Nelson specializes in repairing cleft palates and reconstructing faces injured by trauma, including jaws, cheekbones, eye sockets and facial lacerations.

In the end, the question is an ethical one, he said.

When it comes to tummy tucks and breast augmentation, "no general dentist is going to do that," he said. "But if a person is trained in this and he can prove he can do it, why shouldn't he be able to?"