This dentist was found guilty of deliberately damaging patients' teeth for profit
He was definitely the sheep in wolf's clothing...
A dentist, Scott Charmoli, 61, from Wisconsin, USA, was convicted of five counts of healthcare fraud and two counts of making false claims about his clients’ treatment last week.
Charmoli is said to have broken or drilled his clients' teeth deliberately. His aim being to cause them to come back to him so he could fix the damage he had caused and charge them for the additional treatment.
"As a result, Charmoli’s profits ballooned, with the dentist going from making $1.4m and installing 434 crowns in 2014 to $2.5m in 2015, installing over 1,000 crowns." (The Guardian)
It was revealed by the prosecution that he has been motivating for procedures that he in fact caused, and receiving payment from medical insurance.
"Charmoli would drill or break his client’s teeth and send X-rays of the intentional damage to insurance as “before” photos to justify the crown procedures. One client, Todd Tedeschi, testified that Charmoli pressured him into getting two crowns in one appointment, despite Tedeschi believing that his teeth were fine." (The Guardian)
Some of these patients were extremely vulnerable individuals in abusive relationships, recently widowed, survivors of cancer and living paycheck to paycheck scrounging to afford the co-pays required for the unnecessary procedures he was billing.
For more from East Coast Radio
He has the nerve to claim that his wealth came from hard work and the effort that he put into his work week. But the truth is that his malpractice was revealed when he sold his practice in 2019.
It was in fact the new owners who revealed his dirty dealings. They left no crown unturned when they shared the amount of crown procedures that he done. The new owners felt it was their ethical duty to report his dealings to the authorities. And rightfully so, as nearly 100 patients have sued him for malpractice.
Image Courtesy of Unsplash Website