Rogue Dentists!!!

My dentist's office called me two days ago to remind me of my appointment. This otherwise unimportant bit of news has set me to searching for recent news about dentists. And they're getting a lot of bad press recently:

From Associated Press:

Police arrested eight Ecuadoreans in Spain accused of working as dentists without a license or training, treating illegal immigrants in filthy, clandestine clinics and in one case using a microwave oven to sterilize instruments, officials said.

....

It called hygiene at the clinics "deplorable." One bogus dentist powered dental drills with the kind of foot pump used to inflate beach rafts, the statement said.

From News 14 Carolina (scroll past this if you have a queasy stomach):

CORNELIUS, N.C. – A Cornelius dentist who pleaded guilty in May to injecting his semen into the mouths of several female patients spent his first night in prison Thursday.

Dr. John Hall entered an Alford plea, which means he pleaded guilty but did not admit actual guilt, on the seven counts of misdemeanor assault on a female.

Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin sentenced the 44-year-old to five years of probation and mandatory sex offender therapy. Instead, Hall opted to serve four months in prison.

And finally, Stars and Stripes:

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — An Air Force captain was dismissed from service and given 15 days of confinement during a general court-martial on Tuesday for having an affair with another captain’s wife.

Capt. Roger Thai, a dentist with 18th Dental Squadron, pleaded guilty to Uniform Code of Military Justice Articles 133 and 92 — conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and failure to obey an order or regulation. Military judge Col. Steven Hatfield, chief judge of the Pacific Region, tried Thai, who had requested trial before a judge.

Thai, who has been married for 12 years, admitted that he had an affair with the wife of a fellow 18th Wing captain from April 2004 to March 2005. The woman was a patient of Thai’s at the base Dental Clinic, he said.

“We had a long-standing sexual relationship, which included sexual intercourse and oral sex,” Thai told Hatfield. “When the captain was gone [on temporary duty] we pursued the relationship more vigorously.”

I think I'll pass on the nitrous oxide, thank you.