Never Leave Your Child With Dr. David Moore, DDS

Remember Dr. David Moore, DDS, the dentist in Charlotte, North Carolina who was suspended a mere 6 months in 2006 for physically abusing several children?

One mother, Lachandra Beasley had filed a police report as far back as 2002 when her son, Tyreese has seen Dr. Moore. Tyreese had reported:

“I was struggling because everybody was holding me down-my arms and my shoes- so I kept struggling. He put something inside my tooth and started smacking me with gloves on.”

Tyreese’s mother said police were supposed to follow through on the complaint but she never received a follow up report from police.

I guess the police didn’t take the report about a dentist physically abusing a child very seriously back in 2002 and things haven’t changed much. Same with Keily’s mother who found her child was abused by Dr. Mike Kort in Bull Head, Arizona a few months back as reported and updated on this blog. (link)

Then in January 2006 WCNC TV in Charlotte reported Dr. David Moore had been suspended for 6 measly months for slapping, kicking, shaking, and pinching children. He reportedly banged children’s heads against chairs, pulling kids down on the chair with their ponytails, hit them in the forehead with his fist and grabbed them out of the dental chair by their necks and their upper teeth.

Dr. Moore, signed a consent order with the North Carolina Dental Board agreeing there were factual basis to the claims against him even though his attorney said he denied all the charges.

Few employees testify against Dr. Moore. However, at least two former employees, Tina Cooper and Meta Parsons talked to WCNC TV saying it was like working for Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde.

Cooper worked in Moore’s office for 10 years and Parsons worked there for five. Parsons reported she has seen him clamp his hand over the mouths and tell the children to shut up. She also said she had seen him pound on the children’s chests!

Both women reported they stayed as long as they did to try and protect the children under their care. Keepers of the child so to speak. Parson’s said her breaking point was when she found Dr. Moore sedating children without her presence and leaving them alone, unmonitored. These children could have died! Never leave your child alone with Dr. Moore!

Cooper left after testifying to the dental board. Both said it was tough for them to leave what they witnessed this doctor do to children behind them after they left his employment.

What ever happened to Dr. Moore, well he’s still in business. Yep, that's right. This dentist can do this, the dental board does little and the police do nothing!

He’s the top dog at Charlotte Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics with 3 locations:

Billingsley Medical Dental Center
411 Billingsley Rd.
Suite 106
Charlotte, NC 28211
(704) 377-3687

Mallard Creek Medical Park
10320 Mallard Creek Rd.
Suite 150
Charlotte, NC 28262
(704) 547-8438

And

Morris Professional Center
7215 Lebanon Rd.
Suite G
Charlotte, NC 28227
(704) 545-0390

Dr. Moore has a daughter named Ryan, wonder how he would like to have his daughter treated like he treated other children?

The Dental Board is ready and waiting for more reports of abuse by Dr. David Moore that could lead to further disciplinary actions, so if your child has been abused my Dr. Moore, I urge you to contact the police and the dental board as soon as possible.

Dr. Moore's license status says he's still under probation.

Dental Board Investigation

Dr. David Moore-Small World Dental Clinic-North Carolina

By Tara Savatius: 2-1-06

When kids wouldn't behave, he choked them, slapped them and banged their heads against chairs. He'd often haul them out of their seats by their necks or yank them forward by hooking his fingers under their upper front teeth.
No, this isn't another column about some thug with a three-page rap sheet. This is about Dr. David Moore, pediatric dentist extraordinaire, and what went on in his Billingsley Road office.
In one case described in a report by the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners, Moore pulled a girl "off of the dental chair by her head and neck and slammed her against the window in the operatory." In another, he choked a boy and left marks on the child's neck and face. A third child also emerged from his office with marks on his cheeks and arms after Moore strapped him to a chair and used a mouth prop that caused unnecessary bleeding.
That's just a small sample of how the low-income children who visited Moore's Small World Clinic, which specialized in Medicaid patients, were treated. The rest of the story doesn't get much better. According to the dental examiners' report, Moore left children unattended while they were under intravenous sedation and failed to note his reasons for sedating them in their records. Though he didn't have a general-anesthesia permit, he administered general anesthesia to other children and left them unattended as well.
Why knock your patients out? My guess is that it's a heck of a lot easier to perform hours of unnecessary work when they're out cold.
That's where the Medicaid fraud comes in. Moore repeatedly billed the government for work he didn't do and failed to justify work that he did, an investigation by the dental examiners revealed.
A rational person would assume that Moore's dental career was kaput, but rational people apparently don't sit on the dental examiners board. As punishment, the board revoked Moore's license for six months starting Jan. 13. When he gets it back in July, they plan to get really tough with him by putting him on probation.
Here's how that harebrained scheme is supposed to work. According to an agreement Moore signed with the board, if he doesn't beat up kids, illegally gas them, work on them alone or bar their parents from the examining room, he gets to keep his license. The board plans to enforce this by training his staff -- who will be hired and paid by him -- to keep an eye on him. Moore will be required to establish a fund for each staff member that covers their salary for up to six weeks -- not six weeks, but up to six weeks. They'll get the money if they fink him out, but only if the board later finds he broke the law. How they'll pay the rent until they find a new job isn't covered in the agreement.
What happened at Small World Clinic is just the latest example of the dental examiners board's laissez-faire attitude toward fraud and patient abuse by Charlotte dentists. Two and a half years ago another investigation by WCNC-TV's Stuart Watson found that two other pediatric Medicaid Dental Centers in Charlotte were barring parents from the examining room, strapping down children as young as 4 for hours, and drilling and capping eight to 16 teeth at a time, procedures that the board found were often unjustified or unnecessary.
After more than two years of inaction, the board finally wrote letters of censure to six of the doctors. The two owners of the clinics, Drs. Letitia Ballance and Michael Derose, were put on that infamous probation. If they bill Medicaid for more than six crowns in a single day, neglect to get parents' permission before the procedure or commit fraud again, they could lose their dental licenses for six whole months. Wow. That's tough.
Part of the problem here is that like doctors, dentists police themselves in North Carolina, with results that can be frightening. The six dentists who serve two-year terms on the dental examiners board are elected by the other dentists licensed in this state. (A hygienist and regular citizen also serve on the board, but they don't get to vote or sit in on disciplinary hearings.)
This creates a sticky situation. Laying the smackdown upon your fellow dental practitioners isn't the way to maintain your popularity or your seat on the board. Make too many enemies and it could come back to haunt you when you leave. And since the board is the final word, why stick your neck out when you could stick up for a colleague who handles poor kids no one wants to work on anyway? It's not like there's a lot of money in that Medicaid stuff, and dentists have to make a living somehow.
Right?

Creative Loafing Charlotte 
Dental Board Investigation