ILLEGAL DENTISTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27387, 12 May 1950, Page 6

ILLEGAL DENTISTRY

Technician Fined £lO PA WELLINGTON, May 11. A fine of £lO was imposed on a dental technician, Eric Axel Peterson, after he had pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court today to a charge of practising dentistry when he was not the holder of the required certificate, and was not a registered dentist. Mr W. E. Leicester, prosecuting for the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Dental Association, said the basis of the prosecution was to prevent persons from carrying on dentistry who were not up to the required standard. Dentists were continually being asked to repair the harm done by dentures being made and fitted by people who had not the required ability. Evidence was given for the prosecution that the defendant had made dentures for a woman who called at his business premises. For the defendant, Mr C. A. L. Treadwell said the law provided that the work of fitting and making dentures should be carried out under a qualified dentist’s supervision. Dentists themselves helped to break this law, said counsel. They sent such work to laboratories away from their surgeries, to mechanics who were not under their supervision. Then they charged the patient £22 or more and gave the mechanic who did all the work a third. Mr Treadwell added that the work being performed by the defendant was legal in the United States. Imposing the fine. Mr A. A. McLachlan, S.M.. said that all he could do was to hold that there had been a breach of the Dentists Registration Act. The offence was serious, he said.