For a year, his mask has been hiding a daily life of suffering and shame. At that time, Julie however hoped to find a real smile. This mother then wants to have three temporary crowns replaced, but her financial means are modest. She therefore turned to a Proxidentaire care centre, whose associative statutes promise to address the poorest as a priority. The young woman hesitated for a long time before confiding to “Complément d’Enquête” what she would have suffered there.
Four of his front teeth were pulled out in one sitting, she says, by a sweaty and sweaty dentist, she says. “It was cracking, it was cracking, but he was shooting. And it didn’t come…” At the end of the appointment, Julie is in shock when she discovers, under the plastic prosthesis which replaces them, a gaping hole in her gums. “He explained to me that it was a piece of bone that was gone, but it was going to grow back, it was going to fill up, that it didn’t matter.” At 33, Julie now wears dentures… and suffers from constant pain. She filed a complaint against Proxidentaire. In the Dijon region, she is not the only one.
“Acts of mutilation on healthy teeth”
The Regional Health Agency (ARS) investigated the practices of Proxidentaire, and its findings are overwhelming. His report points to “acts of mutilation on teeth that are healthy or without significant pathology”, “illegal billing practices”, “breaches of hygiene rules”, “breaches of staff qualification”… The the center Julie had contacted had existed since 2020. It has already been closed by the health authorities, as well as another center opened in Belfort a year later.
Excerpt from “The poor, it pays!”, a document to see in “Complément d’Enquête” on April 21, 2022.
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