The Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has ratified the conviction of a dental prosthetist and hygienist for committing two crimes of professional intrusion in Cross port that he dictated Criminal Court Number 9 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
In 2013, the College of Dentists of Santa Cruz de Tenerife filed a complaint with the Senior Court of Puerto de la Cruz and it has been private accusation in the procedure, with the intervention of a detective and the complaint of a patient.
Now, the Provincial Court ratifies the sentence to a three-month fine at a rate of 6 euros per day for each of the crimes and against this ratification there is no appeal, the College points out in a note.
In the sentence issued by the Criminal Court Number 9 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it is established as proven facts that the dental prosthetist and hygienist, owner of a clinic in Puerto de la Cruz, performed functions typical of a dentist without possessing the corresponding title academic.
After a patient’s complaint, due to suspicions of possible professional intrusion, the College of Dentists hired a private detective and, once his report was obtained, he made said investigation available to the judicial authority by filing the corresponding complaint.
In the sentence it is determined, as proven facts, that the now condemned, being a dental technician and hygienist, opened a dental clinic “by having its own staff with an academic degree in dentistry.”
However, from 2007 to 2012, he carried out work typical of a dentist, “such as taking measurements and placing prostheses in the mouths of at least two patients, making diagnoses, extracting and carving teeth.”
Likewise, the very sentence of the Criminal Court Number 9 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife refers to the previous sentence, in 2016, to the same person and “for similar facts” that was issued by the Criminal Court Number 2 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife .
Both the General Council of Dentists of Spain and the College of Dentists of Santa Cruz de Tenerife have expressed, on several occasions, the need to toughen the penalties for crimes such as professional intrusion in the field of dentistry, so that they can have a dissuasive effect, since carrying out these actions without the proper qualification is a danger to the patient’s health.
