From another article embedded in the original article:
What exactly is an “unlawful dental act”?
According to court documents, Lookhart repeatedly used IV sedation to knock patients out, not because they needed it, but because Medicaid covered the procedure while private insurance companies did not.
Prosecutors say Lookhart did this so often that he ended up billing nearly $2 million for IV sedative procedures, often doing it just to clean patients’ teeth, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. Eight of the charges against Lookhart are for medical fraud or theft of more than $25,000, and he alone accounted for more than 30 percent of Medicaid’s billings for the procedure in the state in 2016, per Alaska Public Media.
But perhaps most alarming is what Lookhart allegedly did once his patients were unconscious. According to KTUU, prosecutors are accusing him of riding a hoverboard and recording a patient as he pulled out her tooth. He later sent the footage of the procedure to his friends, joking that it represented a “new standard of care.” The patient said she did not know about Lookhart’s actions while she was asleep.
Lookhart also allowed an office manager, Shauna Cranford, to extract two teeth from a sedated patient and record the procedure, despite the fact that she does not have a medical license, court documents show. Prosecutors also say Cranford was the one who first persuaded Lookhart to over-prescribe the IV sedation procedure, and she has been charged with 10 felonies and six misdemeanors.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation- ... 97574.html
Wow.......... I mean, where do you start? Sedating patients, but not monitoring? Needlessly sedating patients? What if the patient had a reaction to the sedation? Allowing non-qualified staff the perform extractions? Really??????? What if the patient developed an infection due to improperly following protocols designed to mitigate risk of infection. Dental issues can result in cardiac issues if undiagnosed or left untreated. Who will be responsible for the follow-up and management of this patent's care? Then there is the issue of filing a patient (period) as well as filming an unconscious patient. Not only is this a clear violation of Patient Rights, but may also be a HIPPA violation unless the dentist sought and obtained a signed release from the patient authorizing the filming and dissemination of materials
Not sure what he means about the "new standard or care" that he's proposing, but, on first blush, I'd caution Alaskans be beware as this seems to be more of a marketing ploy than uses of real skills with improved outcomes and improvements to patients. In Massachusetts, this guy wouldn't last very long........ He'd have his license to practice yanked.
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