Malaysia ends fake dentist’s 29-year career
MALAYSIA: Malaysian police have arrested a man who practised as a
dentist for 29 years although he had no medical training and treated
patients at his home in a cast-off examining chair.
The impostor’s closest brush with the dental profession was during
the years 1962 to 1978, when he assisted an army dentist by carrying his
bag on visits to plantation workers’ homes, the New Straits Times
reported on Wednesday.
“I watched the doctor diagnose and treat problems with teeth,” the
paper quoted the unidentified man as saying when officials raided his
home this week.
“I also saw how he would extract teeth and make models and
measurements for dentures.” The 63-year-old man, who convinced his
neighbours he was a retired army dentist after being told he was too old
to work as a dentist’s assistant, charged 20 ringgit ($5.76) for
extractions and 130 ringgit for dentures, the paper said.
Health officials seized antibiotics, painkillers, syringes and
bottles of Chinese medicine during the raid, but they needed more than
six men to carry off his 1940s-era examining chair, tossed away by the
Malaysian army in 1978.
The man has been arrested for illegally practising dentistry and will
face charges under Malaysia’s private healthcare facilities and services
act.
Kuala Lumpur, Wednesday, Reuter
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