There are few things in this life that simply do not go together – orange juice and toothpaste, smokers cough and a flight of stairs, and in today’s case a dentist surgery and a hoverboard.
Alaskan dentist Dr. Seth Lookhart has landed himself in hot water after he sent footage of himself performing extractions on several patients while on a hoverboard. He even joked that his hoverboard surgery was a “new standard of care.”
According to The Guardian, Dr. Lookhart has been convicted on 46 counts including “medical assistance fraud and reckless endangerment.”
Dr. Lookhart’s patient, who didn’t consent to being filmed – or having her tooth pulled while her dentist was on a hoverboard – says the incident was “outrageous” and “narcissistic.”
Judge Michael Wolverton said “the evidence presented at trial established that Lookhart believed he could get away with his fraud indefinitely,” and “believed his scheme was foolproof.”
He said that unless “someone was standing right next to him at the time, no one would ever know.”
Sadly, Lookhart’s hoverboard surgery isn’t his only dodgy behaviour. The Guardian reports that the dentist was also “pushing Medicaid patients to take expensive sedation not normally covered by their $1,150 annual limit for non-emergency procedures.”
Dr. Lookhart would instead offer patients a $450 flat fee for sedation but bill Medicaid over $2K for the same service, earning him approximately $1.9M from Medicaid for IV sedation services.
I don’t know about you, but this whole thing is giving me major Dr. Death vibes. ICYMI, Dr. Death AKA Christopher Duntsch is the former neurosurgeon who earned his name for gross malpractice resulting in the death and maiming of 33 patients.
Sounds like Dr. Lookhart hasn’t quite reached that point but there’s definitely something fishy going on here. Apparently, the dentist’s offenses carry a possible sentence of a year in jail, a fine of up to $25,000 and an order to return funds to the Medicaid program and his business partners.
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