Rebecca Lindsay had a toothache. Dentists told the 36-year-old Irvine woman that her dental fillings were slowly poisoning her and that she should attack the problem at the source. Her teeth had to come out.
Over the next three months, the dentists, James Shen and his wife, Rily Young of Huntington Beach, extracted nine of Lindsay's teeth -- and much of her jaw.
They didn't stop there. They yanked 18 of her mother's teeth after Lindsay referred her to them. "You just put your trust in doctors," said Lindsay, a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. "I thought, if I don't do this, I can die."
The treatment left Lindsay so disfigured that a new team of surgeons has since transplanted bone from her hips to reconstruct her jaw. New plastic teeth are allowing her to eat normal food. Now, she said, after years of shame about her appearance, "I am going to have to learn how to smile again."
Lindsay and her mother, Lyndel McKay, 67, are suing the dentists for malpractice. They are among a long list of patients who have been subjected to "holistic" or "biological" dentistry, a controversial practice that urges wholesale extractions of teeth and surgery to remove "decaying jawbone."
Shen and Young have denied the allegations. They are fighting the suits by Lindsay and her mother.
Many in the dental establishment consider holistic dentistry a fraud. They say there is no reason to pull people's teeth to stop common ailments and that many holistic dentists do so solely to pump up their bills.
"It is hocus-pocus," said Robert S. Baratz, a Boston physician and dentist, who has appeared as an expert witness in 18 cases against holistic practitioners before state dental boards. In all the cases, he said, the dentists either were reprimanded or lost their licenses.
In California, regulators have cracked down on some holistic practitioners, suspending their licenses and fining them. They say the practice has quietly existed for decades and acknowledge that there is little their overburdened departments can do. Patients often are willing participants in the treatment, and those who feel duped are embarrassed to come forward.
Two of the nation's largest insurers recently targeted holistic dental treatments, declaring that they would not pay claims to dentists who scoop out chunks of patients' jawbones. A few months ago, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois stated that the procedure was not a recognized treatment and thus not covered.
Insurer Aetna Inc. came across similar claims a few years earlier and no longer honors them. "Unproven concepts should not be the basis for invasive dental surgical procedures," the insurer stated in a warning to members, providers and claim handlers.
Lindsay said she did not know what was going on until it was too late. The Mississippi native moved to Irvine eight years ago with her husband, Al, so that he could attend Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa. In 2000, a tooth that had been treated with a root canal years before began bothering her, she said.
Lindsay went to see Shen and Young, who were recommended by her chiropractor. The couple, who practiced from a nondescript strip mall office, were licensed dentists with three decades of experience between them. Lindsay said the two asked her about her health history.
Lindsay said she told them she had battled aches and pains most of her life, including in her jaws and neck. Her father had passed away from cancer, and her mother had recently had a mastectomy because of breast cancer.
"I just thought they were being thorough," Lindsay said during a recent interview at her attorney's office in Century City. She has since moved to Colorado Springs, Colo.
Lindsay said Shen and Young told her that her silver fillings and root canal-treated teeth should come out. They showed her X-rays of her mouth with dark spots, which they described as infections. They also sent her home with booklets with titles such as "Root Canal Cover Up" and "Cancer: A Second Opinion," which purported to make a connection between deadly illnesses and silver fillings and root canals.
Lindsay said the accounts in the booklets scared her. "I was very afraid of cancer," she said. "I thought they could save me from cancer."
She was so convinced that she got her husband to replace his silver fillings. Lindsay also flew her mother from Hattiesburg, Miss., to undergo treatment with Shen and Young.
But the treatments left Lindsay and her mother in pain and unable to eat, the women allege in their lawsuits.
Lindsay said dentures recommended by Shen and Young cut into her gums and made them bleed. She wanted implants, but the dentists would not discuss the treatment.
Finally, Lindsay sought another specialist. That's when she learned the extent of what Shen and Young had done and that she would need a bone transplant. She decided to sue.
"I'm still in shock," Lindsay said. "What was I thinking?"
