Showing posts with label Dental Works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dental Works. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

North Carolina takes action against Dental One Partners: operating dental clinics illegally–unnecessary treatment– false diagnosis periodontal disease

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Appears Dental One Partners has been doing a bit of “up selling”  or should it be put “up diagnosis”.  Court Pleadings at the end of article.

 

Published: 10:38 PM, Tue dentalworksMar 05, 2013

 

N.C. sues DentalWorks, alleges unnecessary treatments pushed, illegal ownership

By Paul Woolverton

Staff writer

State officials allege in a lawsuit that the DentalWorks dentistry chain pressured dentists and dental workers at its North Carolina locations to give patients expensive, unnecessary treatments.

The claim is part of a lawsuit the state Board of Dental Examiners filed in Wake County Superior Court on Feb. 18. It says DentalWorks illegally owns dental practices in this state - by law, only a dentist licensed in North Carolina may own a dental practice here - and therefore is illegally practicing dentistry.

A related lawsuit was filed Feb. 18 against DentalWorks by 14 dentists with DentalWorks offices, including two dentists from Cumberland County.

The allegations in both lawsuits paint a picture of patients being taken advantage of to boost profits.

They say DentalWorks used financial incentives, protocols, internal recommendations, warnings of malpractice lawsuits and other pressures to push dentists and hygienists to make diagnoses that patients had gum disease when they did not.

The patients were given unnecessary treatments, leading to excessive billing, the Dental Board says in its lawsuit and in other documents.

The dentists' lawsuit also accuses DentalWorks of pushing them to give patients unneeded veneers and ceramic crowns in order to boost revenues.