Florida Professional License Blog

Four years ago, Meyers dropped a tool down the throat of a patient who later died. Meyers, 69, sold his business last summer. Meyers recently appeared at a Florida Board of Dentistry hearing in Jacksonville, where he faced more complaints about 90-year-old Charles K. Gaal Jr. According to the records, during a two-year period, Meyers and his staff dropped dental tools down the man’s throat–not once but twice.

Fined $17,000 by the Board of Dentistry in 2008, plus another $10,000 for the cost of the state’s investigation, Meyers also was prohibited from performing dental-implant procedures until he had further training. Then in 2010, Gaal’s children sued Meyers in civil court. In the course of the lawsuit, Meyers’ dental assistant testified in a deposition that the dentist had delegated to her the job of putting “healing caps” on Gaal’s implants and the dental assistant testified that during the 2006 incident she — not Meyers — dropped the screwdriver down the patient’s throat.

That testimony that brought Meyers before the Board of Dentistry again.  The board recommended that Meyers’ license be revoked for delegating work that should only be performed by a dentist. It is unlikely, one board member said, that any action would be taken against his assistant.