BEIJING: A Chinese clinic has been punished by authorities after it extracted the 12 remaining teeth from a 63-year-old man with high blood pressure and heart disease, and withdrew all the money from his accounts.
The man, surnamed Li, from Baoji, northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, went to the Datuanyuan Dental Clinic to have an aching tooth checked last September.
Li recently told Chinese media outlets that he believed the clinic’s ads, such as “Get a dental implant in the morning and eat meat in the afternoon”, and “Have a complete set of teeth, live past 100”.
Staff even sent a car to pick him up, and offered a free check-up. He ended up having the 12 teeth taken out, and received 10 implants.
The staff then drained all the 18,800 yuan (US$2,800) from his bank account and digital wallets, and left him with an outstanding bill of 6,200 yuan.
Li said: “When my son found me, my mouth was full of blood, and I only had 30 yuan (US$4.5) left for bus fare.”
What his family found even more unacceptable was that Li had multiple diseases, such as coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, diabetes and high blood pressure. He also has four coronary stents.
These conditions require extra caution when it comes to teeth extraction, and it is sometimes prohibited to carry out immediate dental implants for patients with these diseases.
According to Fu Dongjie, a stomatologist at the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, diabetics should not have dental implant procedures until their condition is under control.
Implanting multiple teeth is also risky. A Chinese man reportedly died 13 days after having 23 teeth extracted and 12 implants inserted during one procedure in 2024.
Li’s family reported the clinic to the local health bureau three times. They also tried to defend Li’s rights, arguing that the medical records the clinic provided were incomplete.
Li’s son said the clinic was always able to provide missing files every time he noted some problems. He suspected that the clinic was faking documents.
They also marked Li’s gender as “female” in the records.
What is more, the clinic only provided a preoperative cardiology consultation record six months after the procedure.
“Was there really a cardiology consultation before the procedure? Why didn’t they notify the patient’s family? They were too daring,” the son said.
In July, the local health bureau concluded that misconduct occurred at the clinic including not providing alternative treatment plans, failing to perform complete preoperative assessments, and not keeping standard medical records.
The authorities ordered the clinic to return the treatment fee to Li, and closed it down for rectification.
“The man was really lucky to be all right after having all 12 teeth extracted at one time,” an online observer said.
“What the clinic did was no different from killing,” another said. - South China Morning Post
