Isaac Gagnon stepped off the school bus sobbing last October and
opened his mouth to show his mother where it hurt.
She saw steel
crowns on two of the 4-year-old’s back teeth. A dentist’s statement in his
backpack showed he had received twopulpotomies, or baby root
canals, along with the crowns and 10 X-rays -- all while he was at school.
Isaac, who suffers from seizures from a brain injury in infancy, didn’t need
the work, according to his mother, Stacey Gagnon.
“I was absolutely horrified,” said Gagnon, of Camp Verde,Arizona.
“I never gave them permission to drill into my son’s mouth. They did it for
profit.”
Isaac’s case and
others like it are under scrutiny by federal lawmakers and state regulators
trying to determine whether a popular business model fueled by Wall Street
money is soaking taxpayers and having a malign influence on dentistry.
Isaac’s dentist was dispatched to his school by ReachOut Healthcare America, a dental management services
company that’s in the portfolio of Morgan Stanley Private Equity, operates in
22 states and has dealt with 1.5 million patients. Management companies are at
the center of a U.S. Senate inquiry, and audits, investigations and civil
actions in six states over allegations of unnecessary procedures, low-quality
treatment and the unlicensed practice of dentistry.
Allegations like
Gagnon’s “are not representative” of the more than 500 cases handled by
ReachOut affiliates in Isaac’s school district, said Mickey Mandelbaum, a
company spokesman.
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