A dentist who tried to seduce a ‘vulnerable’ married patient has been struck off in a bid to ‘protect the public’.
The General Dental Council (GDC) heard how St Albans dentist Milan Shah, who practised at Alexander House Dental Practice in St Peters Street, also wrongly told the woman the dental treatment she needed was not available on the NHS.
The committee heard that between 2005 and 2009 Milan Shah provided dental treatment to Patient A, a mother of five, four of whom had special needs.
Her husband was left in a persistent vegetative state in 2007. She was on benefits and, as a NHS patient, was exempt from paying charges.
After the incident that left her husband incapacitated, Shah repeatedly made unsolicited and clinically unnecessary phones calls to Patient A.
In 2008, she visited the surgery to ask him to cease calling her. He made a sexual advance, ceased calling for a month but then resumed.
In April 2009, Patient A attended the surgery for an emergency appointment and Shah misleadingly and wrongly told her root canal treatment was not available on the NHS.
Ordering that Shah be struck off, the committee told him: ‘Your conduct was a serious breach of the trust that Patient A had placed in you as a dental professional.
‘That she was a patient in an especially vulnerable situation is an aggravating feature of your conduct.
‘The committee is in no doubt that, taken as a whole, your conduct fell far short of the standards expected of a dental professional and amounted to misconduct.
‘When faced with the allegations in the course of this hearing, you have alleged that Patient A has fabricated her account and in putting this case you have not told the truth to this committee.
You have shown no remorse or insight.’
The committee said a permanent striking off order was necessary to protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession.
