Sierra Dental -- People Scammed by Sierra Dental

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Date Posted: 08:36:29 04/04/08 Fri
Author: Joanie (PLEASE READ AND CALL HOTLINE #)
Subject: Sierra Dental

DARTMOUTH DENTIST WHO ABANDONED PATIENTS AND THEIR RECORDS TO LOSE LICENSE AND PAY $20,000 FINE

BOSTON – Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has filed a lawsuit and consent judgment resolving allegations against Dr. William Salisbury, a dentist who owned Weymouth-based Sierra Dental and that abandoned his practice without completing dental procedures and treatments for more than 50 patients. Under the terms of the settlement, Dr. Salisbury must pay $20,000 to the Commonwealth and will be barred from practicing dentistry in Massachusetts.

“Irresponsible behavior by dentists like Dr. Salisbury hurts consumers and threatens the security and privacy of medical records,” said Attorney General Coakley. “Our office will continue to hold practitioners accountable for protecting the privacy of their patients’ records.”

The complaint, which was filed earlier this week in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that Dr. Salisbury violated state consumer protection laws by failing to provide patients with the good dental care required by contracts and Massachusetts professional standards, failing to provide patients with access to their dental records, and failing to maintain the security and privacy of his patients’ dental records that were abandoned when Sierra Dental abruptly closed. Sierra Dental’s owners terminated their lease and abandoned hundreds of patient records and devices. The Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into Sierra Dental in September 2007 after receiving consumer complaints about the practice.

The $20,000 payment imposed on Dr. Salisbury will help defray the cost of managing the abandoned records and providing general consumer education and assistance. The patient records will be transferred to the Board of Registration in Dentistry, which will be contacting patients with instructions about how to obtain their records. For further information about obtaining their records, patients should call the Board of Registration in Dentistry at (617) 973-0865 or send an email to DentalBoard@MassMail.State.MA.US.

Consumers with complaints about Sierra Dental’s practices should call the Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400.

This case is being handled by Assistant Attorneys General Thomas O’Brien and Lois Johnson of Attorney General Coakley’s Health Care Division and Gillian Feiner of Attorney General Coakley’s Consumer Protection Division, with assistance from Mediator Beckie Peyton and Investigator Dante Annicelli.

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