FORBA Forced To Change? Doubtful !

Reported by: Jane Flasch
Email: jflasch@13wham.com

1/21/2010

Rochester, N.Y. / Washington D.C. -- After 13WHAM News raised questions about the use of restraining devices and unnecessary root canals on children, the parent company of Small Smiles promised changes.

In a two-page statement, FORBA Dental Management CEO Michael Lindley detailed the changes including a reversal of a policy to never allow parents into the same room with their children while their teeth are being pulled or drilled. That was December 2007. Yet 13WHAM News has received a dozen e-mails from parents who say as recent as last month those policies were not in place.

Nadine Dukes says her 10-year-old daughter’s calls for “mom” were ignored. "She was screaming. I heard it, but I didn't know who it was. They never got me,” says Nadine. When she next saw her daughter Kitana six of her teeth were gone -- pulled out.

Fast forward three years. Small Smiles will pay a $24 million settlement to the US government, promising changes once again so its clinics won't be forced to close.

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After a report by 9News in Denver reporter, Deborah Sherman and subsequent state investigation, of the Small Smiles clinics owned by the DeRose family, laws in Colorado were changed and took effect in 2005.

Strict guidelines were put in place to limit the number of root canals that could be done on a child in one office visit and when it's appropriate to use the dreadful papoose board. Yet here we are in 2010 and we find the Small Smiles Clinics and other clinics owned by Forba Holding, LLC are still mistreating, over-treating, and down right abusing children for profit.

Michael Lindley, Alfred Smith, Rodney Caywood of the Nashville, Tennessee area, Jack Draughon, William C. Miller, Jr. and Charles H. Ogburn of Atlanta, GA, Bowen Diehl of Dallas Tx and Charles Griffith of Englewood, Colorado should be tarred, feathered and ran out of town on a rail, after they write that $24 million dollar check to taxpayers. These people are listed as the 'Managers' of FORBA Holding, LLC 618 Church Street, Suite 520, Nashville, Tennessee.