The French Have Two Words For It. “Dental Mutilations”.
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- Published: Tuesday, 08 March 2022 07:38
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The language that gave us ‘Carte blanche’ and ‘Faux pas’ has many eloquent two word expressions, and we can now add ‘mutilation dentaire’ to the list.
This is one of the charges against a father and son dental team on trial in Marseilles. Lionel Guedj, aged 41 and his father, have become the centre of a case involving the treatment of 322 patients. In the words of one of these patients “c’est un carnage.” The men were indicted in 2012, with their trial now taking place.
The story has unfolded with the newsworthy ingredients of dreadful dentistry and great wealth. In the 15th Arrondissement of Marseilles, the practice saw many mainly working class patients whose treatment was funded by the national health insurance scheme, CPAM. With the latest equipment and the promise of “star smiles,” between 2006 and 2012 Lionel developed a very distinctive style of practice. The majority of the 322 patients in the case suffered lasting damage, including many cysts, infections, lost teeth and as a result, much pain and loss of function.
Unfortunately for his patients Lionel appears to have been a speedy worker, seeing 70 or more patients a day, and carrying out as many as 180 procedures on them. Experts reviewing his activity calculated how long it would take to provide the volume of work he claimed in a typical single day during 2010. They concluded that to do it properly would take 51 hours of surgery time. There may have been elements of virtual dentistry too, with a witness for CPAM wondering, “not if all work was done poorly, but at all.”
Lionel’s motivation appears to have been monetary, his work being described as “basic and quick, with the emphasis on financial gain.” He specifically carried out as many treatments as possible that came from the non price limited sections of the insurer’s tariff. This left him achieving 14 times the average dentist’s turnover, and making him by some accounts both the highest paid, and wealthiest dentist in France. According to a CPAM witness, a particularly sad aspect of his treatment was that many of his young patients were left with “devitalised teeth on a massive scale,” and they would be left to live their lives with “mutilated mouths.” As she described some of the cases, complainants in the court burst into tears. With the proceeds of his work Guedj enjoyed a flamboyant lifestyle. He drove a Ferrari as well as owning an Aston Martin. His wife who worked mainly from home, had a Porsche as her company vehicle. There were also his 700 000 euro yacht, paintings by Andy Warhol, three flats in Paris, two in the Alps, and a block of flats in the town of Perpignan in the south.
Exchanges in court suggest that Guedj appears to have, what UK dentists might well describe as, ‘limited insight’. Asked by Kamel Toulali, a lawyer acing for the patients if he had skipped stages of treatment, Guedj immediately replied “we never did it.” Toulali then enquired, “Medical errors?” Guedj’s chilling response being “yes, otherwise there would not be 322 people in front of me.” When asked if 322 errors were possible he unhesitatingly replied, “When you see the numbers I saw you can say that there were an enormous number of happy patients”
Lionel Guedj was removed from the register of dental surgeons in September 2016, as was his father. He is now working as a tobacconist in Aix-en-Provence. On February 8, 2021, Lionel Guedj was also sentenced in a case of international cigar trafficking to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros. His injured patients are still awaiting compensation.
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