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Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Health began sending letters Friday to those patients, urging them to have their blood tested for H.I.V., hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The dentist, Dr. W. Scott Harrington, has offices in Tulsa and Owasso, a northern Tulsa suburb, and investigators said they found numerous health and safety violations at the Tulsa office, including nonsterilized and rusty instruments.

So far, only one patient has been confirmed as having been infected — with hepatitis C — after being treated by Dr. Harrington. While officials stressed how important it was for patients to be tested, they cautioned that it was premature to characterize the situation as a widespread public health crisis. They said the transmission of H.I.V., hepatitis B and hepatitis C in a setting like a dentist’s office was unusual.

“This is certainly going to be very alarming for those patients of this dental practice, but we’re trying to assure folks that this is not an outbreak investigation,” said Leslea Bennett-Webb, the spokeswoman for the Health Department. “We know based on scientific investigations in the past that acquiring these kinds of infectious diseases in a dental practice is very rare.”

Health officials have records for Dr. Harrington’s patients only since 2007, so they do not know how many others had visited him before then and might have been exposed to the viruses. They also do not know how long the improper practices were in place, and so were recommending that anyone who had ever been treated by Dr. Harrington be tested.

Dr. Harrington, 64, has been a state-licensed dentist since 1974 and an oral surgeon since 1977. He told investigators that he had treated a large number of patients known to be infectious disease carriers.

He has voluntarily closed his two offices and surrendered his dental license for 30 days. He faces the possibility of having his license revoked, after a hearing on April 19 at the state Board of Dentistry in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Harrington and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

In a 17-count complaint filed Thursday by the dentistry board, Dr. Harrington was accused of being “a menace to the public health” by using unsafe and unsanitary practices. The complaint accused him of using drug vials for more than one patient and keeping expired vials; failing to keep suitable records of dangerous drugs; leaving his drug cabinet unlocked and unsupervised; and allowing dental assistants to sedate patients though they were not licensed to do so.

Dr. Harrington told officials during one inspection that his staff handled all sterilization and drug procedures, telling investigators, according to the complaint: “They take care of that. I don’t.”

Inspectors this month also found two separate sets of instruments at the Tulsa office, each cleaned by a different method — one for those patients known to have infectious diseases and one for those not believed to have such diseases, the complaint stated. The proper approach, officials said, is for all instruments to be handled as if they contained viruses.

“This is unprecedented for us,” said Susan Rogers, the executive director of the state Board of Dentistry and a member of the team that examined Dr. Harrington’s office. “When I say he wasn’t following infection control guidelines, that’s an understatement. I will tell you that I was stunned. I’m used to seeing drug cabinets in disarray. I’m not used to seeing rusty instruments.”

A spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency was assisting Oklahoma authorities with the investigation.

The Tulsa Health Department said it would offer free testing at a local clinic starting on Saturday.

Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.