Dentist paper clips root canals _A disgraced former dentist has pleaded guilty to drilling patients with unsafe materials and illegally extracting hundreds of thousands from Medicaid, authorities said.
Michael Clair, of Crofton, Md., pleaded guilty in court to using pieces of paper clip instead of a stainless steel posts in two separate patients needing root canals, the Herald News reported.
Clair also pleaded guilty to running a Medicaid scam out of his practice in the New Harbour Mall in Fall River, Mass. and prescribing painkillers to his staff members, the report said.
Before the dastardly dentist entered his plea this week, he’d been accused of fraudulently billing Medicaid for $130,000 between August 2003 and June 2005, despite having been banned from work on Medicaid patients.

In order to get around the rules, cops believe Clair had other dentists in the practice submit the bills for him.

After investigators were tipped off that Clair was cooking the books and performing ghastly dental work on unsuspecting patients, it still took four years to get get an indictment against him.
In that time, they also discovered that he’d been illegally writing prescriptions for powerful painkillers to staffers, who would then fill them and hand some of the pills back to him.

Clair has been charged with assault and battery, three counts of larceny, five counts of Medicaid fraud, three counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances and one count each of tampering with evidence and witness intimidation.

He faced five years in prison on fraud charges and 10 years on drug charges.

He will reportedly be sentenced next week.


Read more: nydailynews