Two dentists who pleaded guilty to tax charges and 11 other legal battles in the dental industry since January:
1. In August, Santa Maria McKibbins, DDS, pleaded guilty to tax fraud for filing a false tax return for her dental practice.
2. Mary Alexander & Associates filed a lawsuit in Solano County Superior Court against dentist David Webb, DDS, accusing the oral surgeon of sexually abusing, harassing and assaulting patients.
3. Sam Akmakjian, DMD, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the village of Hoffman Estates, Ill., after his proposal to rezone residential property for a dental office was denied.
4. In July, former Oregon dentist Salwan Adjaj pleaded guilty to illegally distributing and possessing controlled substances.
5. Paul Carey, DDS, pleaded not guilty to weapons charges after police found illegal guns in the basement of his dental office.
6. In May, Kathy Thorner, a Kentucky dental practice bookkeeper, pleaded guilty to federal tax charges after allegedly spending thousands of dollars on personal expenses and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
7. Dental Monitoring, a digital dentistry company, filed a lawsuit against teledental platform Get-Grin with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware alleging infringement of two of its patents.
8. Edward Buford III, DDS, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and healthcare fraud after being charged for a five-year kickback scheme and maintaining a post office box as his Maryland dental practice's billing address where he received fraudulently obtained funds.
9. Former dental office manager Danielle Powers pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement and one charge of theft for allegedly stealing and embezzling thousands of dollars from two dental practices.
10. In April, Vivian Letizia, DDS, pleaded guilty to fraudulently prescribing opioids for herself.
11. In February, Stephen Skoly, DMD, filed a lawsuit against the state of Rhode Island after he was ordered to stop seeing patients for defying the state's vaccination mandate for healthcare workers.
12. James Orrington II, DDS, filed a defamation lawsuit against insurance company Humana, claiming the payer's actions led to his practice being dropped by his professional liability carrier, higher premiums for its replacement insurance coverage and forcing it to retain counsel as a result of a complaint filed with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
13. In January, Albert Hazzouri, DDS, pleaded guilty to simple assault charges for allegedly groping a patient and offering her free dental services for life.