The state Board of Dental Examiners has suspended the license of a Glen Burnie dentist for kissing and fondling a patient while she was under nitrous oxide during a 1989 office visit.

Dr. Howard Rudo was ordered to stop practicing dentistry for 30 days, pay $3,000 in fines, attend a course on professional ethics and keep an attendant in the operating area whenever he treats female patients.

Dr. Rudo, who has appealed the order to Anne Arundel Circuit Court, vehemently denied the allegations yesterday and called the former patient who made the charges "a pathological liar."

The board held two hearings in late 1993 before deciding Dr. Rudo behaved "dishonorably or unprofessionally" during the patient's Dec. 1, 1989, visit, according court records.

Dr. Rudo appealed the board's March 9 order on April 7. That appeal, ordered sealed for 10 days at Dr. Rudo's request, was unsealed yesterday under an order issued by Judge Martin A. Wolff.

The dental board's 10-page order says that the patient was in the doctor's office for two hours and that the fondling went on for about 45 minutes after the dental assistant, who had been there when the patient arrived, left for the day.

The patient, who had seen Dr. Rudo once before, is identified in court papers only as "Patient A."

"Patient A testified that as she emerged from nitrous oxide, she became aware that [Dr. Rudo's] tongue was in her mouth and [his] hand was inside her unbuttoned blouse," the order said.

According to court records, "Patient A" also filed a $6 million suit against Dr. Rudo in Anne Arundel Circuit Court. The records show the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount of money on Nov. 15, 1991.