A multimillionaire French dentist was jailed last week for “wiping the smiles off the faces” of hundreds of patients by maiming them with expensive, unnecessary and harmful treatments to boost his earnings, not only carrying out pointless surgery but also botching many of them.
Lionel Guedj had promised patients “celebrity smiles”. Instead, he killed the nerves of 3 900 healthy teeth in unnecessary root canal treatment between 2006 and 2012, many of his patients then developing serious dental problems after rushed work as he saw up to 70 patients daily.
Some said the trauma from teeth and bridges that fell out and chronic pain and infections led to social problems and even divorce, reports The Telegraph.
Meanwhile, Guedj drove a Ferrari and owned a €700 000 yacht, paintings by Andy Warhol, three flats in Paris, two in the Alps and a block of flats in southern France.
At one point, he was the “wealthiest dentist in France”, raking in €2.9m in 2010 alone.
Last Thursday, the criminal court in Marseille handed Guedj an eight-year prison term, while his accomplice, his father Carnot, also a dentist, received a five-year prison term. The pair was found guilty of inflicting “voluntary violence leading to mutilation or a permanent disability” on 327 patients. They have been struck off the dental register.
Industrial-grade abuse
Presiding judge Céline Ballerini said the two men were guilty of industrial-grade abuse with invasive and unnecessary dental operations that “wiped the smile” off patients’ faces, “destroyed” lives, and left many in “unbearable pain”.
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