Dentist

INSTEAD OF HANDING out toothbrushes and dental floss, a dentist in East Mount Airy was busted dishing out prescriptions for Percocet and Oxycodone — and may have treated patients while he was high on crack cocaine, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General. A monthlong investigation — which began with a tip from a confidential informant — ended Thursday with the arrest of Chandrakant Parekh, 62, who allegedly sold at least 14 prescriptions for Oxycodone and Percocet for between $30 and $40 each from his clinic on Germantown Avenue near Sharpnack Street.

I NSTEAD OF HANDING out toothbrushes and dental floss, a dentist in East Mount Airy dished out prescriptions for Percocet and Oxycodone and may have treated patients while he was high on crack, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. A monthlong investigation that began with a tip from a confidential informant ended Thursday with the arrest of Chandrakant Parekh, 62, who sold at least 14 prescriptions for Oxycodone and Percocet for between $30 and $40 each from his clinic on Germantown Avenue near Sharpnack Street, authorities said.

Every two weeks or so, Doc Young would mosey into town and set up shop in somebody's living room. It was only a matter of time before almost everyone in town would pay him a visit. "Everybody needs to go to the dentist sooner or later," said Floyd E. Baker. He should know. Floyd Edward Baker, DDS, followed in Doc Young's footsteps. Once a year, the 76-year-old Mount Airy dentist returns home to where Doc Young practiced - a small, one-dentist town in Missouri - and rolls up in a mobile home-type van that's been converted into a fully equipped dental office.

A dentist suing ABC and "20/20" correspondent John Stossel for libel admitted under cross-examination yesterday that most of his patients are referred to him by negligence lawyers and that he finds a jaw problem in 99 percent of these patients. Dr. Owen Rogal, who runs the "Pain Center" on Broad Street near Locust, also testified that he wrote a book, "Mandibular Whiplash," about temporomandibular joint problems (TMJ) sustained in auto accidents. In the book, he advises dentists and lawyers that "every accident has a TMJ component," he testified yesterday.

A female dentist and graduate student has sued Temple University in federal court, alleging she has been subjected to sexual harassment and discrimination by a professor at Temple's dental school. The dentist, Anastasia Batsis, is seeking money damages from both the university and the professor, Asterios Doukoudakis. The alleged wrongdoing began in January 1991, when Batsis enrolled in the school's prosthodontics program, which Doukoudakis directs, and included "inappropriate and unwanted sexual touching, comments and other advances," the suit states.

A Philadephia dentist was sentenced yesterday to one to 23 months in prison and was fined $2,500 for billing the state for dental work for needy patients who never received the care. Dauphin County Judge Clarence C. Morrison ordered Robert G. Soroka, 31, to begin serving his sentence May 23 in Dauphin County Prison and pay $4,998 in restitution. Robert Gentzel, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said the conviction on three counts of fraud was the result of a plea bargain.

Slain Society Hill dentist Stephen Grosse was drunk at the time of his murder, with tests showing his blood-alcohol level was enough to prevent him from fending off his attacker, authorities said yesterday. Toxicology tests show that Grosse, 44, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15, which is 50 percent above the legal limit of 0.10, said Montgomery County Coroner Halbert Fillinger. Tests are not complete on whether Grosse had any drugs in his system when he died, Fillinger said.

A Philadelphia dentist has been charged with cheating hundreds of poor people under the state Medicaid program by making them pay extra for anesthesia. Dr. Bernard Rothman, 49, of Delancey Place near 21st Street in Center City, was charged with 524 counts of Medicaid fraud in Harrisburg yesterday. Rothman, an oral surgeon, is accused of requiring his poorest patients to pay $15 to $20 a shot for general anesthesia, then billing Medicaid for the treatment. Each count is a felony and carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Root canal. Fillings. Crown reconstruction. For many people, even routine dental operations provoke responses of fear. For dental phobics, the fear is multiplied a thousand times. Brian Moscow, a dental anesthesiologist, believes that dental phobics need not go through life shielding their teeth from the world. He believes the solution, in a word, is anesthesia. "Ninety percent of my patients are people who want to go to the dentist, but don't want to hear a drill and can't handle a needle.

William H. Phillips, 77, of Wayne, a dentist in Havertown for 37 years, died Tuesday at Paoli Hospital of a stroke. Dr. Phillips, whose father died when he was 5, was educated at Girard College, then a boarding school for fatherless boys. He was grateful for the tuition-free education, his daughter Anne Murphy said, and returned to Girard every year for a reunion with former classmates. He earned a bachelor's degree from Villanova University on a Navy ROTC scholarship and then served in the Navy aboard the aircraft carrier Kula Gulf.

I NSTEAD OF HANDING out toothbrushes and dental floss, a dentist in East Mount Airy dished out prescriptions for Percocet and Oxycodone and may have treated patients while he was high on crack, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. A monthlong investigation that began with a tip from a confidential informant ended Thursday with the arrest of Chandrakant Parekh, 62, who sold at least 14 prescriptions for Oxycodone and Percocet for between $30 and $40 each from his clinic on Germantown Avenue near Sharpnack Street, authorities said.

INSTEAD OF HANDING out toothbrushes and dental floss, a dentist in East Mount Airy was busted dishing out prescriptions for Percocet and Oxycodone — and may have treated patients while he was high on crack cocaine, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General. A monthlong investigation — which began with a tip from a confidential informant — ended Thursday with the arrest of Chandrakant Parekh, 62, who allegedly sold at least 14 prescriptions for Oxycodone and Percocet for between $30 and $40 each from his clinic on Germantown Avenue near Sharpnack Street.

WAYNE Marcellus Taylor was a skilled and popular West Philadelphia dentist, but his true love was dogs. "If he could have made a living with his dogs, he would have given up dentistry," said his sister, Sheryl Taylor Bailey. Fortunately for his loyal patients, he stayed with dentistry. But he kept six dogs, four at his home in Yeadon and two at a dog club in Quakertown. He also bred dogs and hunted with them. Wayne Taylor, a dentist for 30 years who often did free work for seniors on fixed incomes, died March 7 of an apparent heart attack.

A Center City dentist and his daughter have been indicted on charges of billing insurance companies for almost $5 million in fraudulent medical bills through the pain management clinic they operate together. Owen Rogal, 71, who has been living and working in Center City for decades, runs the Pain Center at 12th and Lombard Streets. His 50-year-old daughter, Kim Rogal, of Delaware, works there as an office manager. Since mid-2002, District Attorney Seth Williams said Wednesday, the Rogals have repeatedly billed 15 insurance companies $4,800 for a procedure that costs $800 at the most.

A Delaware County dentist, who authorities say hasn't filed a legitimate tax return since 1991, has been sentenced to six years in a federal lockup. A jury convicted Richard P. Kaufman, 61, who represented himself, in August in a scheme to obstruct or impede the administration of federal income tax laws, false claims and failure to file returns. Authorities said the Ivy League-educated Kaufman attempted to hide his income from the IRS by transferring his house into a bogus trust, frequently changing the bank into which he deposited his business receipts, and submitting $10 million in phony documents to the IRS that he said were "bonded promissory notes.

Alan Bernard Hinerfeld, 75, formerly of Center City, a retired pediatric dentist and an accomplished photographer, died of leukemia Saturday, July 30, at Ivy Ridge Retirement Home in Sacramento, Calif. Dr. Hinerfeld grew up in West Oak Lane and graduated from Central High School in 1953. He considered becoming a rabbi, said his daughter, Laura, and studied Judaism at Gratz College. He then attended Temple University and earned a dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964.

After four days of testimony, it took a federal jury about an hour Monday to convict a dentist who the government said had not filed an accurate tax return since 1992. Richard P. Kaufman, 61, who had a practice in Newtown Square, was immediately incarcerated pending sentencing in November before U.S. District Judge Juan Sanchez. Kaufman faces 33 to 41 months for failing to file tax returns, attempting to obstruct the IRS, and filing false claims. Earlier, he told the jurors that he did not intentionally break the law, and that they had to decide whether "I'm a reasonable man who made some decisions that the government thinks are criminal, despite my thinking that I did the right thing.

An Ivy-League educated Newtown Square dentist was convicted by a federal jury this afternoon of failing to file tax returns, attempting to obstruct the IRS and filing false claims. Richard Philip Kaufman, 61, of Glen Mills, potentially faces 33-41 months in a federal lockup under preliminary advisory sentencing guidelines. U.S. District Judge Juan Sanchez set sentencing for Nov. 7. Kaufman, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody immediately after the verdict. Federal prosecutors said Kaufman had not filed a "true and accurate" federal tax return since 1992, except for an allegedly bogus one in 2008.

Harry Field, 91, a dentist in Northeast Philadelphia for more than 40 years, died of cancer Wednesday, May 11, at McKnight Place Extended Care in St. Louis. Dr. Field opened a dental office in Frankford in 1948 and opened a second office in the Summerdale section of Philadelphia in 1951. After several years, he closed the Frankford office. He practiced in Summerdale until he was in his early 70s. Dr. Field grew up in Overbrook Park, graduated from Overbrook High School, and attended what is now La Salle University.