As anyone who practices good hygiene knows, it's imperative to visit the dentist every six months.
While it can be a dreaded experience, an appointment with your dentist is imperative to maintaining your oral health.
While we typically stick with our doctors for several years, if they retire or we move away, we're stuck looking for a new one.
Unfortunately for numerous patients in Georgia, they unknowingly chose one dentist who turned out to be a fraud.
"There are numerous new victims that are now under investigation."
Krista Szewczyk was arrested last week after she was accused of practicing dentistry without a license, and now faces 48 indictments.
In 2012, Szewcyzk was accused of falsely posing as a dentist in Dallas, but because her husband was a sheriff's deputy, the matter was allegedly deemed a conflict of interest.
However, senior assistant district attorney Matthew Rollins said that while Szewcyzk was suppose to enter pre-trial diversion program, she never completed the court order.
She then moved to Marietta, Georgia and now more than a dozen people have come forward with complaints.
"There are numerous new victims that are now under investigation, and we'll have to follow up on those allegations and determine whether to re-present it to the grand jury," Rollins told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
"We'll keep on fielding those calls and investigating the allegations as they come in."
However, one man has already publicly spoken out on the disgraced 47-year-old.
"My neck was like the size of a tennis ball."
Szewczyk did all the normal tasks a typical dentist would, such as pulling teeth, applying fillings, replacing crowns and writing prescriptions for pain medications - until it sent one man to the hospital.
Although there seems to be several victims of Szewczyk's illegal activity, David Marsh publicly came forward after she pulled out two of his teeth in 2017.
"I went in. I needed two extractions and then I needed a deep clean," Marsh told Channel 2 Action News, adding that everything seemed fine until a few days after the procedure.
"My neck was like the size of a tennis ball. It was closing in on my throat. My wife took me to the ER and they said I had to be rushed to Grady to have emergency surgery. That's where they cut the abscess, put a tube in through my mouth, through my neck for everything to drain out," Marsh said.
"I was scared because he could barely move, could barely talk. It's really scary to even talk about it, remember it," Marsh's wife Barbie added.
"I'm amazed that she was even able to pull this off as long as she has."
Although Marsh admitted he didn't check Szewczyk's credentials, he said he believed County Dental Providers, where his procedures took place, was a trustworthy establishment.
Although Szewczyk posed as a dentist and is listed as County Dental Providers' CEO, the company's website cites not a typical practice.
"The company is solely a business service organization, which means we don't do dentistry or get involved in the decisions made between dentist and patient," its website states.
"Our affiliated dentists spend most of their time with their patients delivering high-quality patient care, while our highly-trained business professionals manage the business aspects."
Now, Marsh is calling for Szewczyk to face the consequences of her crimes, said he "definitely [wants] to see her do time what she has done."
"I'm amazed that she was even able to pull this off as long as she has."
[H/T: Channel 2 Action News, Atlanta Journal Constitution ]
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