[BCrago66]

What was that movie where Steve Martin played a sadistic dentist?

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[hole_n_one]

"Is it safe yet?"

[bigfootbob]

"...to punish a patient who owed him money,...Neville Kan had not been paid £60 following the woman's previous visit to his surgery in Chiswick, west London, five years earlier."

How can this be? I thought the "enlightened" British has cradle to grave health care.

[Larry Lucido]

Ping, I mean, bzzzzzzzz.

[Just another Joe]

If it was me, That dentist would be missing a few teeth also.

[BOBWADE]

Sounds like she should have paid her bills.

[The Brush]

Mrs B told the hearing how the pain in her mouth ruined a Pavarotti concert at the Royal Opera House

Sounds like she had money to afford things that were important to her but not enough to cover a dentist bill. No I don't support what the dentist did but he should have refused to treat her unless she paid the outstanding bill rather than to go to illegal extremes.

[RGSpincich]

Talk about a slap on the wrist.


Dentist is cleared of 'revenge drilling'
By Graham Tibbetts
(Filed: 19/07/2003)


A dentist accused of drilling a patient's tooth in revenge for an unpaid bill was cleared of using intimidating behaviour at a disciplinary hearing yesterday.

Neville Kan was alleged to have ground away almost half of a woman's canine tooth when she came to him with a problem in a different tooth.

The patient, identified as Mrs B, had earlier told the General Dental Council's hearing that she returned to Kan's practice in Chiswick, west London, after a five-year absence when a filling fell out.

She claimed that Kan, who was owed £35 for previous treatment, drilled another tooth and told her: "Nothing lasts forever, I am not going to last forever. . . nothing in life is free. You owe me money."

The GDC's professional conduct committee acquitted him of making intimidating and inappropriate remarks but found him guilty of serious professional misconduct for failing to explain his treatment and costs in advance, failing to obtain consent for his proposals and failing to respond to the patient's subsequent complaints.

He was also found guilty of using an "outmoded procedure" by not having an assistant on hand and not wearing gloves.

Kersasp Fanibunda, the chairman of the council's professional conduct committee, said no further action would be taken as Kan had taken steps to remedy his errors.

18 July 2003: Dentist 'drilled healthy tooth to punish patient'
27 March 2003: Private dentistry 'not working well for consumers'

External links

General Dental Council

[roadcat]

Good thing he's not an eye doctor.

[carlo3b]

WAIT A MINUTE! This is BS, I'm not buying her story for a minute..What does she take us for...she must be kidding, how could a toothache ruin a Pavarotti concert at the Royal Opera House?..;)

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Mrs B told the hearing how the pain in her mouth ruined a Pavarotti concert at the Royal Opera House and prevented her from sleeping properly.

She's going to Pavarotti concerts.
At the Royal Opera House.

And she won't pay her dentist -- a man she permits inside her mouth with sharp, mechanized implements -- a lousy $60 Pounds.

I'm sure the dentist's conduct is ethically inexcusable and all that, but methinks "Mrs.B" is a few cards short of a deck herself.

Lots of rocket scientists in this news story, lemme tell ya.