In a quiet town in the Czech Republic, the police uncovered a shocking case: a 22-year-old man and his parents ran a “dental clinic” at home for two years, during which they performed dental operations such as tooth extraction, root canal treatment and filling for dozens of patients.
However, the most incredible thing is that none of their family members have dental qualifications, and their “professional skills” all come from online videos.
According to the Havliczów Brod police, the young man pretended to be a dentist to treat patients, his mother, as a former nurse, provided anesthetics and dental materials, and his father was responsible for making dentures.
The three of them had a clear division of labor, and the clinic operated in an orderly manner. Not only did they arrange an appointment system, but they also had a stable “customer base” and even accumulated a certain reputation in the local area. What is even more puzzling is that no patient had ever complained before it was exposed.
Law enforcement authorities said that this “family clinic” had made a profit of nearly $185,000 (about 4 million Czech crowns) during its illegal practice.
As the case came to light, the three have now been arrested and charged with multiple crimes including illegal business operations, attempted injury, drug-related crimes, theft and money laundering. If convicted, they face up to eight years in prison.
The young man is said to have relied entirely on YouTube to learn dental techniques, from anesthesia to impressions, from tooth extraction to fillings, and he “taught himself”.
His mother secretly provided medical supplies, and his father made braces and dentures in the “laboratory”. Their actions were far from hasty and temporary, but rather established a systematic underground dental network, a family version of the “dentist empire”.
Roman Shmukler, president of the Czech National Dental Association, pointed out that cases of fake dentists are not uncommon in the country, with an average of about 10 similar reports received each year. “I received two more today,” he told Czech National Radio Radio Radiožurnál.
However, this case still seems particularly bizarre, not only because it lasted for a long time, involved many people, and made huge profits, but also because it was supported by a complete set of “black market supply chains” and Internet learning systems.
Now that the clinic has been shut down, the internet is buzzing with questions about the matter – people can’t believe that a family of three built a dental business based on their browser history.
The cautionary tale is very real: If you find a dental clinic with ridiculously low prices, maybe you should ask for their dentist’s license – or at least, check if they just watched a “root canal tutorial” on YouTube.