Impressions
Are You My Dentist ?
Jane Smith ( name and details modified to protect her identity ) was your average dental patient . She needed a filling but didn ’ t have dental insurance . She lived in northern New Jersey and found every dentist to be too expensive . She had a friend tell her about Dr . Maria Mendel ( her real name ). Her friend told her that Dr . Mendel worked out of her apartment and was very cheap .
So , Jane made an appointment and went to see Dr . Mendel . The office didn ’ t look like any other office she had been to before . It looked more like someone ’ s living room . After an oral exam , Jane was told that she needed a few fillings . No radiographs were taken and Dr . Mendel said that no local anesthetic was needed since the cavities were not very deep . Dr . Mendel didn ’ t use a drill . She said the cavity was soft and just need to be scooped out with a dental instrument . The fillings were pretty easy to do and Jane thought she had found herself a new dentist .
A few weeks later one tooth began to hurt . She went back to Dr . Mendel and was told that everything was fine . She went back a few more times and felt that Dr . Mendel didn ’ t want to see her any longer . Because her tooth continued to hurt , she went to another dentist who took a radiograph and performed an examination . He thought something looked strange and called Dr . Mendel . Bill Jones ( name and details also changed ) had heard about a dentist near his apartment in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell , Ga ., named Dr . Ardilla-Ramirez ( real name ). Bill also was looking for affordable dental care . He had lost his job a year earlier
D r . B r u c e R . T e r r y
and had no money or benefits for dental care . He had a badly decayed tooth and wanted an extraction . Dr . Ardilla-Ramirez seemed professional with her lab coat on . Her office had a TV style lounge chair rather than a standard dental chair . Bill thought it was odd , but it was really comfortable . Dr . Ardilla-Ramirez didn ’ t accept insurance or credit cards . She only took cash . She had three others waiting on a sofa in the same room while she extracted Bill ’ s tooth . A week later , with an infection , Bill returned to the dentist , but the dentist told him everything was fine . Bill eventually went to an oral surgeon who found half of the roots remaining , and when he asked who the dentist was that did the extraction , the surgeon was surprised that he had never heard of Dr . Ardilla-Ramirez .
Dr . Tim Gurley ( real name ) practiced with his father for nearly 10 years . He helped his dad as he eased into retirement mode . New patients and some current patients of his father ’ s became Tim ’ s patients . He performed extractions , restored implants and made dentures .
They were all living the American dream . Hardworking , dedicated practitioners , seeing patients every day . They practiced general dentistry and had many patients . Maria Mendel , 47 , from Bound Brook N . J ., Martha Gabi Ardilla-Ramirez , 49 , of Roswell Ga ., and Tim Gurley , 40 , of Tampa , Fla . Maria practiced out of her home in northern New Jersey . Martha alsopracticed out of her home in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell . Tim practiced in the Tampa office of his father Dr . Max Gurley . While each practice was different , they all shared one very important attribute . Maria and Martha had each practiced for less than one year while Tim had practiced for nearly 10 years . What was the one thing they all had in common ? They were all found to be practicing dentistry without a license ! Their respective State Boards caught each of them after numerous complaints were filed . In each case , patients went to a new dentist with a common complaint of poor dental work . When the new dentist questioned the work of the previous dentist , each found that the dentistry was done by someone they didn ’ t know .
Maria worked out of one room with a mix of questionable equipment . She was also in possession of narcotic medication without a license to prescribe or dispense . Martha , originally from Bogotá , Columbia , also practiced out of a room with a lounge chair rather than a standard dental chair
( continued on page 6 )
September / October 2010 • Pennsylvania Dental Journal
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