Select Dental owners vanish amid fraud charges

Counsel for Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer said work is still being done to find a way to gain access to confidential dental records left behind after owners of a Howard Beach dental office fled earlier this month.
Pheffer, who chairs the Assembly’s Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, released a statement recently outlining the bizarre turn of events at Select Dental, formerly of 159-21 Cross Bay Boulevard. According to Pheffer, owners of the practice had been under investigation for fraud when they made a getaway, leaving the building unlocked and abandoned.
Pheffer said the office of Queens District Attorney (D.A.) Richard A. Brown will assist in the investigation, which is being led by federal authorities in Chicago, but the D.A.’s office did not return calls on the matter.
“The answer we’re trying to get from the D.A.’s office right now is how patients can go about getting their dental records back,” said Larry Love, counsel to Pheffer.
Love said Pheffer’s office will alert consumers of any steps necessary for getting the records back, but that the process is still ongoing.
Many patients who received extended credit are also faced with the pressing financial problem of being left stranded in the middle of extensive dental procedures that have already been paid for.
Jack and Marie Marotta, of Lindenwood, say they paid over $5,000 for dental work that was never done.
“They kept telling me to be patient, that they were almost ready to begin the procedures,” said Marie Marotta. “Eventually, I started thinking, ‘How patient can I be?’ I’d never waited this long for a bridge before.”
In addition to the bridge, Marotta said she was scheduled to have an upper plate and denture put in.
Marotta admitted growing suspicious over the long wait, and her suspicion heightened when, she claims, she walked into the Select Dental office one day to find an entirely new staff at work.
“I didn’t know any of these people,” she said. “It was shocking.”
Pheffer said many patients who had had work done at Select Dental were billed through Care Credit. According to Care Credit, all Select Dental bills have been red flagged and are being reviewed. Anyone with questions or concerns about billing may call Care Credit at 866-893-7864.
Patients who believe they may be victims can also call the D.A.’s Economic Crimes Bureau at 718-286-6673.
Those who wish to file a claim with the New York State Department of Education’s Office of Professional Discipline should call 718-794-2457.
“This is a shock,” said Pheffer. “Going to the dentist is a very stressful process to begin with, and this just adds to it.”