The Risks of TikTok for Healthcare Professionals and Followers
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- Published: Wednesday, 10 January 2024 10:11
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Medical & dental professionals have flocked to TikTok to discuss the behind-the-scenes aspects of their jobs, raising their profiles, and gaining the trust of their viewers, whose numbers can reach millions.
Part of the appeal to viewers is that they can, via the camera of a doctor’s phone, receive access to free medical tips on virtually every medical field under the sun, including dentistry.
But the exposure is not without risk. As the profiles of some TikTok medical specialists rise, their records are re-analysed, complaints by previous patients resurface, and new ones may be encouraged to come forward. The Independent reported on three medical TikTok casualties: disgraced plastic surgeon “Dr Roxy,” once-popular dentist “Dr Kenny,” and outed fake “doctor” Dalya Karezi
Plastic surgeon Katharine Roxanne Grawe, known online as “Dr Roxy” had developed a following of over 800,000 on TikTok. She would livestream surgeries, speaking to the camera as she walked through the steps of procedures, and dancing in her surgical gear.
But at the same time in her practice things were going wrong, with patients complaining to the Ohio medical board. This led to an investigation that ended with her licence’s permanent revocation on 12 July. Three unnamed patients — and their surgical complications — were listed in the Ohio medical board’s notice of Dr Grawe’s suspension in November, but by the time her licence was revoked, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas showed 12 legal cases that named Dr Grawe and her clinic Roxy Plastic Surgery.
One unhappy former patient said she was “relieved” to hear that she was no longer practicing. “I tried to tell so many people during those years not to go to her because she’s a hack. And then when I saw people were going to her because of TikTok, I was just incensed.” She added that “nobody would have believed me” if she had gone on TikTok and spoken out, citing the “enjoyable, likeable” persona of “Dr Roxy.”
Another affable online persona-turned-controversy magnet is Kenneth Wilstead, aka “Dr Kenny Smiles.” While the Texas-based dentist boasts 500,000 followers on Instagram, he can now add a host of misconduct complaints to the tally.
There was an outpouring of complaints from his patients after the dentist announced via TikTok that a new show was being made about his practice, Smile Again Dental. He posted a video on the platform, asking users to share their best “sob story,” as he said he was “looking for contestants that would benefit from a life changing smile makeover.” To submit a video, hopefuls had to use the hashtag #DKSCasting. In what may have been an unfortunate choice of words he clarified this saying: “Not casting couch.”
However allegations have since circulated on TikTok about his controversial responses to those audition videos. One woman in particular, 34-year-old Krystal Widrig, said she had a strange experience with Dr Kenny. Ms Widrig, said that she entered a “smile giveaway” contest, which came from a partnership between Dr Kenny and a TikTok star. Contestants had to submit a video describing why they wanted a new smile. When she came across Dr Kenny’s giveaway, she posted a video on Instagram and tagged him. “And that’s when he started DMing me,” Ms Widrig said.
The initial exchanges were innocent. She sent photos of her teeth and asked how much it would cost. He said he could fix her teeth for $15,000 — compared to the $38,000 quote she had received in Canada, that was a great deal, she said. Then they stopped chatting.
She later resumed contact with him, after he posted a preview for a debate between him and another dentist. The two dentists were arguing; The other dentist was in favour of orthodontics and veneers instead of Dr Kenny’s non orthodontic approach. This discussion would also lead to a lawsuit filed by Dr Kenny against the other dentist.
The mother-of-five replied to Dr Kenny’s Instagram story in his DMs, commenting that she sided with him, not wanting to have braces at 30. She then sent a voice note saying her original quote “was 38,000 dollars and it wasn’t even top-notch.” She alleges that he replied, “You’re perfection. Now take your clothes off.” Ms Widrig said that their conversation “dwindled” after his “out-of-the-blue” comment, but she reached out again later on, after he announced his upcoming show, saying that she still needed the dental work done. Following the instructions, she sent a video for why she wanted to win the contest, to which he allegedly responded: “I just f***ing love you.”
Brooke Brinkschroeder went to see Dr Kenny in April 2018 for a dental procedure. She accuses Dr Kenny of making “several sexually inappropriate comments in her presence before and during the procedure.” Afterwards, before taking a photo of the results, Dr Kenny allegedly told Ms Brinkschroeder, “My assistants know the only way they can get me to smile is if I’m grabbing tits and ass.” She hoped “the statement was merely a joke,” the complaint states. As the photo was being taken, the suit alleges, Dr Kenny “grabbed her right buttock and forcefully squeezed it.”
The patient felt “uncomfortable,” and was unsure about how to leave the conversation with the dentist, until a window of opportunity opened up: a staff member informed Dr Wilstead that his next patient was ready for him. That’s when, the complaint states, “the staff member showed [Dr Kenny] a picture of the next patient’s cleavage, demonstrating a pattern of inappropriate sexual conduct.” She accused Dr Kenny of assault and negligence, among other charges. Speaking to NBC News in September, the dentist said he is “totally innocent of any inappropriate touching of that woman.”
The case will go before a jury in February, according to online court records.
Dalya Karezi, whose handle was “Dr.Dalya.s,” posed a different kind of threat for TikTok users.
She boasted 243,000 followers on TikTok, and her videos typically showing her in scrubs and a stethoscope, had been liked by around 1.5 million users, according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Over a little more than a year Ms Karezi posted 56 TikTok videos discussing issues related to reproductive health, and posted photos on Instagram of her wearing scrubs while giving so-called medical advice. The videos were watched nearly 15.5 million times, the AHPRA said.
Despite her massive following, Karezi was not a doctor at all. Her thriving social media presence came to an abrupt end on 12 October 2023, when Karezi was convicted in an Australian Court. She had pleaded guilty to two counts: one count of taking or using a title indicating she was authorised to practise medicine, and one count of indicating that she was a medical practitioner.
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