Shocking GDC Case
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- Published: Friday, 01 April 2016 01:25
- Written by DentistGoneBadd
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By @DentistGoneBadd
Two consultant grade dental surgeons are facing erasure from the Dental Register following the performing of ‘Frankensteinian surgical treatment' at an NHS hospital.
In a Fitness to Practice hearing at the General Dental Council, Maxillofacial Surgeon Mr Albert Tatlock, 66, and Orthodontist Mr Kenneth Barlow, 59, are charged with gross professional misconduct following a two year-long investigation.
This news item was originally published on the morning of April 1st 2016.
The conduct committee heard that the two face 23 charges of failure to gain informed consent for 'bone grafts' performed on adult patients undergoing orthognathic surgery at The Coronation Royal Hospital at Swanlea-on-the-Naze in South West Rutland.
The panel were told that the two carried out live bony allografts on patients being treated for differing malocclusions. In one case, an entire lower jaw in a patient suffering retrognathism was substituted with the mandible of a patient being treated for prognathism.
It was only when a radiologist noticed on a post-operative radiograph that a patient with a previously intact dentition suddenly acquired a large number of amalgam restorations without actually leaving the hospital, that concerns were raised.
One patient, in a statement to the Disciplinary Committee said: "It felt a bit funny when I woke up from the anaesthetic, but it was only after they took the wires out that I noticed I'd suddenly got a denture. It moves about a lot and it doesn't even match my own teeth. I'm not happy. It's disgusting."
Another patient, 'Mrs X' said: "My teeth don't meet at all now and I can't shpeak properly - I've acquired a shpeech impigiminge. When I ashk my hushband to put shalt in the dishwasher, he laughsh at me."
A theatre nurse told the committee that Mr Tatlock had threatened to inform the GDC about her vaping habit if she reported him.
The consultants were joined in the dock by a general dental surgeon, Mr Eric Bristow. Patients were told that Mr Bristow was the dentist responsible for 'after-care' and he should be contacted for any advice.
Patients were encouraged to attend Mr Bristow's practice if they had problems. NHS Protect, the department dealing with NHS fraud said the three dental professionals worked together and shared the money they made from the scam. In 18 months, Mr Bristow claimed 423 times for occlusal adjustment and 183 times for provision of occlusal splints to the 23 patients involved.
Mr Barlow the orthodontist told his defending barrister, Mrs Mavis Riley QC, "When Mr Tatlock first mentioned his idea, it seemed exciting - it made sense mixing and matching jaws. It was an ideal opportunity to get adult orthodontics done much quicker - sometimes it can take up to a month to move teeth you know? - and it was a change from taking alginates and diagnosing caries. I now know that what we did fell well below the standards expected of dental professionals, but being an orthodontist isn't really being a dentist is it?"
Mr Tatlock is currently suspended. Mr Bristow in his defence said: "I'm behind with my UDA's. Is this going to take long? I've got a mouthguard on a four year-old to fit."
The three will return to the GDC next week.
A New Chair ?
Might some seat of postgraduate learning, The Eastman or Edinburgh, not create a new Chair... Professor of Bimax Transposition?I doubt that the GDC could do anything in a week!
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