Direct to Consumer Opportunities for Fake Dentists
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- Published: Wednesday, 17 April 2024 14:27
- Written by Peter Ingle
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As medicine and dentistry move into the world of direct to consumer offerings, and increasingly reach their would be patients through social media, regulators and law enforcement are struggling to keep up.
In an industry searching for new business models, there will be many opportunities for the unscrupulous. As in other areas of commerce, knowledge of events in the USA may provide useful preparation for those in the UK.
Monica Davis registered her business, The Veneer Experts in July 2023. Promoting her business on TikTok she described it “changing lives one smile at a time.” This may not have been in the way her clients had hoped. CBS2 reported that there had been multiple complaints about her practice in Illinois. This led state and suburban police to start an investigation. Monica Bailey, one of the unhappy patients, told her story. She had been to the practice in Schaumburg with her 15 year old daughter to have orthodontic appliances fitted for them both, another service that Davis provided.
According to Bailey she had, "cleaned my teeth and started, you know, putting the glue on and putting the brackets on for the braces and I thought what she was doing was how it’s supposed to be done." Her problems started when she tried to make a follow-up appointment. "One of the numbers was disconnected. The other one, nobody would answer," Bailey said. CBS 2 found out that The Veneer Experts were asked to leave their office in Schaumburg. A building receptionist said they’d received several calls from upset customers.
Dr Laura Zalay examined Bailey’s appliances and commented that, "They look like real braces, but they don’t connect to anything in the back and so there’s no way to move the teeth." Bailey confirmed to Dr Zalay that no x-ray examination had been conducted before her treatment.
Davis’s name could not be found on the state website where dentists are registered.
Ralph Jones was another unhappy patient. A $2,000 price tag and huge customer smiles on The Veneer Experts Instagram page sold him. Jones visited Davis and had veneers placed which he was told would last eight to 10 years. "I don’t know what she put inside of my mouth," he said.
Photos of Jones’s now chipped veneers were shown to Dr Zalay who commented, “the gum tissue is what I’m very concerned about, because if you can’t brush under those teeth, you’re not going to have teeth there much longer."
Lindsay Wagahoff, governmental relations director at Illinois State Dental Society explained the consequences for anyone who touches teeth without a license.
"Sometimes, there are cease and desist letters that are sent, and then obviously there’s a process after that in the court system," she said. That process could result in an arrest. Something Davis would have known. The Veneer Experts had also been operating at a Las Vegas strip mall, and Davis had been charged there for practicing dentistry without a Nevada dental license. Her next Las Vegas court date is in May.
When shown Davis’s Nevada mugshot, Bailey said she "couldn’t believe it." Court documents showed that Davis was released from police custody in Nevada on Jan. 31. It was just nine days later when Bailey said that she and her daughter got their braces from the unlicensed dentist, by then operating in Illinois.
Bailey commented that, "It’s crazy to me that she can do this in Las Vegas and post bail, and then come here and do the same thing."
After the seeing the proliferation of illegal whitening operations and laissez faire approach taken with Smile Direct Club, the UK may also become the next appealing place for those determined to offer unregistered dentistry.
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