Illegal Practice News from USA
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- Published: Friday, 27 December 2024 10:15
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Stories of illegal practice, particularly from the USA are not unheard of. But a recent case puts a different perspective on this activity.
According to prosecutors, a 70-year-old Long Island woman allegedly turned her kitchen into an illicit dental surgery, in one case extracting five teeth from a patient who had paid her nearly $2,000.
Gladys Serrano, has been charged with operating an unlicensed dental practice from the kitchen of her one-bedroom apartment in Hempstead, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
According to the DA office, a woman contacted Serrano, who does not appear to be licensed to practice dentistry, to arrange a single tooth extraction in July 2024. When they visited the makeshift surgery, separated form the rest of the kitchen by a hanging curtain, Serrano allegedly told her that she actually needed five teeth extracted, because they were decayed.
Serrano extracted the teeth, gave the victim paper towel pieces to absorb a large amount of blood and instructed her to rinse with salt water, officials said.
The woman was also told that she would need a bridge, so she returned to the flat several times between August and December. But the victim never received a satisfactory bridge that fitted, despite Serrano making additional impressions of her mouth, according to prosecutors. During this 5-month period of the patient paid Serrano a total of $1,950.
“Practicing dentistry without proper authorization poses an incredibly serious risk to public health and safety,” Nassau County DA Anne T. Donnelly, said in a statement. “This defendant’s alleged home operation endangered the well-being of at least one person in need of dental care.”
When investigators searched Serrano’s apartment, they found a curtain hanging in the kitchen and a patient chair positioned near a sink. Drawers were full of apparently used dental instruments, as well as impression trays, extraction forceps, scalers; and a large container was full of empty vials of medication and used dental needles.
They also recovered boxes labelled as single-use dental needles, capsules of Amoxicillin, Lignocaine and Relaflex, an anti-inflammatory. A search of New York State records did not show anyone with the name of Gladys Serrano licensed to practice dentistry.
Serrano pleaded not guilty during her arraignment on one count of unauthorized practice of a profession, a class E felony. If convicted, the offence can carry a custodial sentence of up to 4 years.
While only one victim has so far been identified, Nassau authorities believe others visited Serrano for treatment. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office of Immigrant Affairs have called on anyone else who has been seen by Serrano to contact them. She is due back in court in January 2025 and has had to surrender her passport.
A Diploma from a dental school in El Salvador from 1986 was found in the flat. It appears that Serrano’s patients were referred by word of mouth and tended to be those who would struggle to access licenced dentists, for a variety of reasons.
While one resident in Serrano’s building told a local news network that she should be “locked up”, others were more sympathetic to her practice.
"She’s a very nice lady. I don’t know why they’re making this a big deal. She has a degree in El Salvador. She’s a great dentist," neighbour Myriam Kai said.
She added that Serrano provided a service for people who might have been afraid to go to a hospital or who could not afford dental work. "Most of the Latino people, they are afraid to go into the hospital because they don’t have a paper or because it’s more expensive. But I know how difficult it is for the people who don’t have insurance to get the help they really need."
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