Accusations started pouring onto a Facebook page after it was started to share allegations of abuse from patients of a local dental practice.
Tuesday afternoon as the accusations poured in so did protesters, picketing outside the office of Dr. Howard Schneider.
Renee Frisch, whose daughter was a patient of Schneider, said her daughter has been traumatized and said that it is the result of his work.
“Every single tooth that he worked on, I had to get redone. She’s terrified of the dentist. She’s extremely afraid,” Frisch said. “He said she had cavities so he filled them up. A couple days later she was complaining that they hurt. I took her back in. The cavities got infected.”
Another mother, April Smith, has pictures of her 7-year-old son who she said left the dentist swollen and bruised with busted blood vessels. She said her son was only supposed to receive a filling and a spacer.
“The dentist came out and handed me a bag of several teeth and told me he did multiple fillings. He put in spacers and I was just completely shocked that, why would you do that much work without saying something first?” Smith said.
Schneider said he has been operating his dental practice for 50 years. He said that he always gets the consent of parents before any procedure takes place. He said the accusations against him are unfounded.
Tuesday afternoon, the backlash from protestors got so bad that one woman even attacked him outside of his office.
Protesters created a change.org petition and they plan to be back outside his practice every morning for the rest of the week. They plan to begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. When asked if the dentist has plans on closing down his practice he said not at all.
Dr. Holly Nadji of the Aesthetic and Family Dentistry of Baymeadows said there are some things that parents can do to help protect their child when finding a dentist.
“Get a tour of the office. Take your child with you and see how it feels to you. Ask the front desk questions about what kind of patients they see tour,” Nadji said.
She also said that children can be traumatized easily and recommends parents become a patient at their provider first.
“You want to be very careful not to scar your child because a lot of times we see children who had a bad experience in other places and don't want to go back. Those are the areas we want to avoid,” Nadji said.
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