Alaska dentist was filmed riding a hoverboard while extracting a patient's tooth

Alaska dentist was filmed riding a hoverboard while extracting a patient’s tooth



Wilhelm states she failed to know about the hoverboard, or that her method in July 2016 was captured on digicam. She uncovered out only when investigators contacted her to validate she was the affected person in the online video.

According to a lawsuit filed by the state of Alaska in April 2017, her dentist, Seth Lookhart, texted the clip to good friends and spouse and children, joking in at least one conversation that carrying out oral surgical treatment while on a hoverboard was a “new conventional of care.”

The state of Alaska billed Lookhart with “unlawful dental acts” for the incident, stating that his affected person care did not conform to the least professional specifications of dentistry, in accordance to the lawsuit.

The hoverboard incident is a single of the more than 40 expenses that Lookhart faces.

He was billed with medical aid fraud, for allegedly billing Medicaid far more than $25,000 for strategies that have been possibly avoidable or not correctly justified. His other prices include engaging a scheme to defraud Alaska Medicaid of $10,000, and theft of $25,000 or much more by diverting funds from Alaska Dental Arts, among the other accusations laid out in the lawsuit.

Documents display that Lookhart’s dentistry license was suspended in June 2017.

Lookhart has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Affected individual known as hoverboard incident ‘unprofessional’

Lookhart’s lawyer Paul Stockler reported he did not imagine that what his client has been accused of sum to crimes below Alaska legislation, and instructed CNN that the prices were being not “virtually as very simple” as the condition had produced them.

“You definitely have to acquire all the firm statutes and billing manuals and form of mesh them with each other to determine out whether or not he broke the law,” Stockler stated.

At Lookhart’s trial on Wednesday, Wilhelm testified that Lookhart did not request whether or not she was snug with him doing her tooth extraction although he was on a hoverboard, CNN affiliate KTUU documented.

She mentioned that she would never ever have consented.

“I would’ve said, ‘Hell no!’ No, that is unprofessional. It’s mad,” Wilhelm said.

Lookhart’s trial commenced November 12 and proof presentation concluded on Thursday, Stockler said. The decide has provided the condition right until December 9 to file closing arguments, he explained.

In the movie, Lookhart can be seen standing on a hoverboard in the functioning place whilst he pulls out a patient’s tooth. Before long following, he zooms out of the place, normally takes his gloves off and throws both fingers up in the air although zipping down the hallway.

Stockler apologized to Wilhelm throughout his cross-assessment, KTUU claimed.

“I want you to know that as his attorney, I apologize for what he did on that hoverboard,” he mentioned. “It truly is unacceptable and you can be confident that when I agreed to represent him, I received in his encounter and explained to him what I believed about him for carrying out this.”

On Friday, Stockler reiterated that his shopper had built a “terrible lapse in judgment.” But the issue, he claimed, is how Lookhart should really be punished.

“Should he get rid of his dental license for a interval of time, for forever? Is it a criminal offense?” he explained to CNN. “I’ve been doing this for 30 decades. He is not the to start with particular person to do a little something idiotic. I’ve witnessed items a ton even worse and nobody’s ever had criminal charges filed versus them. As the regulation is penned, I never consider that is a criminal offense.”

In courtroom, Stockler made available Wilhelm a possibility to handle her dentist instantly, in accordance to KTUU.

“I really don’t have anything lousy to say about you having out my tooth, I value that, but I just imagine that what you did was outrageous, narcissistic, you know, and mad,” she reported. “I forgive you for all of that, but there is certainly of course a high-priced lesson that you are heading to have to learn.”

This story has been current to incorporate far more data about the lawsuit and comment from the dentist’s law firm.



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