Iowa dentist with history of inappropriate conduct faces new charges

An Iowa dentist with a history of alleged sexual misconduct with multiple patients is facing more charges from state regulators. The dentist first faced trouble in July 1993, when was charged with unprofessional conduct in the practice of dentistry and accused of inappropriately touching two female patients, one 17 and one 25 during their dental appointments.

The 17 year old was recovering after being sedated during wisdom teeth surgery when the dentist entered and inappropriately touched the patient while she was in the dental chair. The 25 year old at her first appointment was sedated and upon waking found that her clothes were disheveled and had pain in her pubic bone. At her second appointment of the 25 year old, she allegedly awoke and heard the dentist making suggestive remarks while inappropriately touching her.

Shortly after the first two patients had charges filled, two new cases emerged. In the first of the new cases a female patient allegedly awoke from sedation to find the dentist inappropriately touching her. In the second of the two new cases, the female patient was waking up from sedation, and could hear the dentist making “unprofessional and inappropriate” comments. The girl later testified that the dentist touched her breast over her clothes and put his finger through a hole in her jeans and touched the skin of her upper thigh. The dentist also allegedly told the girl he was married but that “there’s always fooling around on the side.”

During a subsequent hearing on the matter, the third patient testified that when she awoke from a procedure in the dental office, she felt the dentist’s hand on her right breast, moving up and down. The fourth patient testified that when she awoke from sedation, she heard the dentist say something about “going out together” or having a “hot time together.”

The dental board concluded that the the first three patients had credible testimonry and decided to suspended the dental license indefinitely while ordering him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The dentist moved out of state and worked in another line of work any steps he would need to take to have his Iowa dentistry license reinstated. The board eventually reinstated his license.

Photo by Jackie Hope on Unsplash

Last year in July 2023, a woman came forward and complained that she while she was in the dentitst’s dental office, he made comments on how sexy she was and grabbed her butt. She reported that he then followed her outside of the building and again grabbed her butt, pulling her close to him and telling her, “Keep being sexy.”. The Iowa Dental Board suspended the dentist’s license on an emergency basis and deemed him an “an imminent threat to public safety”. The dentist had been criminally charged with assaulting a female outside his office. It seems that even the lengthy time away from practicing dentistry was not enough for the dentist to fully reform from his past.

Unfortunately other cases of sexual misconduct in the dental profession has occured, see for example Recent Cases of Dentist Assistant Sexual Assault During Wisdom Teeth Removal and Hallucinations While Taking Anesthesia: Implications for Sexual Assault.

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