WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Triad dentist had his license revoked after accusations of malpractice.
A judge sided with the state dental board, saying that Dr. Andrew Kelly could no longer continue to practice.
The NC State Board of Dental Examiners alleges that Dr. Andrew Kelly performed negligent dental care for at least 18 years.
He was in charge of the Dental Implant Center of the Carolinas based in Winston-Salem, which also has an office in Greensboro. Kelly is accused of lying to patients, in addition to putting nine patients under sedation when he did not have an active permit to do so.
WFMY News 2 spoke to a patient who said she's been back and forth for over a year at the Winston-Salem office to fix a problem with her teeth.
"I haven't been able to eat solid food; the temporary dentures keep breaking," Wendy Byrne recalled. "It is currently broken right now."
Byrne said she came to see Dr. Kelly in March of 2023 for implants. She said Dr. Kelly put her on a $40,000 treatment plan and performed around 15-20 temporary fixes.
"I was required to pay $32,000 upfront and then $8,000 when the final denture was supposed to get done," Byrne said. "We never got to a final denture."
Byrne said she's out of money and must find another doctor.
Another woman, Roseann Mancini, said Dr. Kelly gave her elderly mother too much sedative back in 2012.
"She wasn't waking up, so we immediately called 911, and she was hospitalized," Mancini said.
She said after the hospitalization, her mother was forced to be on oxygen for the rest of her life.
The State Board of Dental Examiners found Dr. Kelly "overdosed." The board found Dr. Kelly "did little if any pre-operative planning" for the procedure.
The board disciplined Dr. Kelly, but he was still able to practice.
Mancini wants to know how a dentist could legally continue to harm patients and get away with it.
The dental board said it deals with licenses, not the law. That means it can only take action on licenses or permits for dentists.
Effective this week, the State Board of Dental Examiners barred Dr. Andrew Kelly from operating his dental offices in Winston-Salem and Greensboro.
WFMY News 2 has reached out to the dental office for comment and has not heard back.
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