Posted on 03/28/2018 6:19:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
How sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a despotic pediatric dentist.
Parents who decide, for whatever reason, that they don't like their children's oral care provider should be forewarned. Empowered by government "mandatory reporter" laws, dental offices are now using their authority to threaten families with child abuse charges if they don't comply with the cavity police.
Mom Trey Hoyumpa shared a letter last week on Facebook from a dental office called Smiles 4 Keeps in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. It informed her that if she did not make a dental appointment for "regular professional cleanings" for her child, she could be charged with "dental neglect." Citing a law called Pennsylvania Act 31 on child abuse recognition and reporting, the dental office threatened to report the mom to state authorities if she did not schedule an appointment.
Hoyumpa wrote: "Smiles 4 Keeps bullies the parents, controls the care behind closed doors, and turns parents into villains...and I will not stand for it anymore!!!"
On social media, parents who've encountered the toxic alliance of snoopy medical providers and child welfare agencies shared their own experiences with government bullies who operate on a presumption of guilt.
Brett Darken wrote: "Anyone familiar with 'family court,' DCF, state probate and guardianship courts know well this story. In any other context, it would be considered a threat, coercion and intimidation under RICO laws. But because it's the government, it's legal."
This is a menacing threat to have hanging over customers of dental practices, or any medical providers for that matter: If you leave, you better tell us where you are going or we could report you to government child welfare agencies for suspected abuse.
One Twitter commenter wondered: "Is this fake?"
Unfortunately, it's all too real, and the dental office is championing an intrusive practice that is likely to spread.
Smiles 4 Keeps replied to parental criticism on Facebook by quoting the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry definition of "dental neglect" as the "willful failure of parent or guardian to seek and follow through with treatment necessary to ensure a level of oral health essential for adequate function and freedom from pain and infection."
The dental office also defended its intimidation letter to the mom by explaining that physicians and dentists are "mandated reporters" who are "required to report suspected cases of abuse and neglect to social service or law enforcement agencies in order to prevent such tragedy."
But as investigative reporter Terri LaPoint at MedicalKidnap.com points out, nowhere has Smiles 4 Keeps provided any evidence that Trey Hoyumpa was neglectful or abusive in any way. Moreover, Smiles 4 Keeps insists that parents provide the name of a new dentist if the family chooses to find a new provider. Hoyumpa was just one of 17 recipients of the threatening Smiles 4 Keeps salvos.
Dr. Ross Wezmar of Smiles 4 Keeps actually boasted to local news station WNEP about the snitch letters' ability "to jar the parent to realize that with a child comes responsibility." Benevolent Dr. Marcus Welby he is not. Wezmar claimed his bully notes are the first in the nation to be dispatched. With the encroachment of socialized medicine in America, they certainly won't be the last.
Think it can't happen to you? Last year, in Ontario, Canada, mom Melissa Lopez wanted a second opinion on getting fillings for her daughter and decided to change providers. The jilted dentist, as Lenore Skenazy reported on Reason.com, called Child Protective Services to report possible "oral neglect." The case was dismissed, but CPS refuses to remove Lopez's file from its books -- it is part of a permanent record that keeps a permanent cloud of suspicion over her.
Skenazy drills down to the core: "The issue here is how easy it is to drag a family into an abuse investigation, and how hard it is for the family, like an impacted molar, to get itself extracted."
Indeed, the partnership between medical providers and government child welfare services has threatened innocent families across the country under the guise of "protecting the children." It is a short hop from cavity-shaming and misdiagnoses to ripping families apart.
Don't forget the case of Justina Pelletier, savagely torn from her family by Boston Children's Hospital after the prestigious medical institution wrongly accused her parents of causing her chronic illness. BCH locked Justina in a mental ward until her sister published an undercover video of Justina pleading to be reunited with her family. Public outrage forced her release and now the Pelletiers are suing BCH.
Big Nanny monitors hostile to family privacy and autonomy are everywhere -- in your kids' classrooms, cafeterias, and doctors' and dentists' offices. Eternal vigilance against government intrusion is the price of parenthood.
If I had a child under the care of Smiles 4 Life, I would simply find a new dentist and not tell the new dentist about her previous dentist. That way Smiles 4 Life would not get a request for records, and would have no way of knowing if my child was under the care of a new dentist.
Then Smiles 4 Life could threaten, cajole, and report me to their heart’s content, and I would have no problem producing records from the new dentist, if it finally came to that.
What is this country coming to.
Challenge this crap in court.
Not making 6 month dental appointments for your kid IS NOT “abuse and neglect”!!
They may be “mandated reporters” for “abuse and neglect”, but it is THEY who decided to include dental care in that category!!!
Forcing anyone to do business with a particular entity, such as was the case with Zer0Care, is becoming a common liberal tactic.
And suppose a parent is told to schedule a follow up appointment, drops that dentist because of hamfisted tactics, takes the kid to another dentist, and gets reported by Dr. Hamfist anyway, what recourse is there? Does the report remain anonymous?
Going to heck, for sure. Problem is: there is always some group that loves each and every new regulation because it can be cashed in on. And then even the most onerous regs become entrenched and defended. It permeates everything. Sickening.
For that matter there are very probably ways for dentists to detect a child having been physically abused."Hummm...the textbooks say that the only possible explanation for this kid's teeth looking like this is if he had been repeatedly punched in the mouth".And in such a case that must be stopped.
But failure to appear for a cleaning? Yikes!!!!
Thanks to Obamacare, Medical professionals have become Big Brother. They are required to ask questions that are very personal and frankly none of their business. I fret that the push to deny guns to those who Doctors decide are ‘mentally unstable’ will be used on people who really aren’t ‘mentally unstable’. The Medical profession needs to get back to medicine, not politics.
Young doctor with bills to pay I bet.
Ran into this with a doc once. Smiled, and said I was going to a new practice. Made the doc VERY ANGRY.
Nothing after that, but made me curious.
Considering what dental work costs nowadays,this looks like gov’t. promoted legalized thievery. Parents could be the bad guy for not taking the kids in to the dentist,or for not paying the outrageously high bills afterwards. Sounds a bit like Obamacare,doesn’t it?
This is enough to make me an anti-Dentite!
Goes along with single payer government health care.
Barbers need to push for requiring haircuts every 30 days from a licensed barber. Or it’s literally child abuse.
#ForYourOwnGood
Excellent point.
Put and keep your faith in God Almighty and you will see lucifer cast into the lake of fire. He will be there forever!!!
Thank you, Jesus.
When I grew up you never heard of teeth cleaning.
How many letters are going to the families of illegal Aliens (Immigrants for the PC on board)???
I’m betting none.
So who is the abuser...a parent that stops the service for cause, or a parent that never sends their child to a dentist?
For anyone else curious. And if I had gotten that letter, I’d be calling my lawyer.
You must have been lucky.I was always sent to the dentist as a kid for cleanings.Perhaps as a result I’ve had good luck with my teeth...I’m pushing 70 and have all my teeth,only three of which have ever been filled.
Everyone that gets a letter like this should call their lawyer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.