You'll be a dentist.
You have a talent for causing things pain!
Son, be a dentist.
People will pay you to be inhumane!

Quote:

"That's not as unusual as you may think," said one officer. "When the Jersey City police bust onto a scene, jaws tend to drop. We just have that effect on people."

No-license dentist operation shut

by MICHAELANGELO CONTE/JOURNAL STAFF
Wednesday July 08, 2009

Francisco Macias and Marly Vasquez are taken out in hand cuffs by Detective Martin D'Angelo and H. James Boor, Jersey City chief health inspector, on Wednesday.

A man was in the dentist chair with his mouth wide open when cops walked into a Jersey City Heights business today and charged two people with practicing dentistry without a license, officials said.

Frank Macias, 60, the owner of Frank Macias Dental Laboratory on Central Avenue, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to practice dentistry without a license and possession of lidocaine, officials said. He lives above the business, located at the corner of North Street.

They also arrested Marly Vasquez, 60, of Bergenline Avenue in North Bergen, and charged her with practicing dentistry without a license, possession of hypodermic syringes and possession of lidocaine, officials said.

"It was a lot more elaborate than just pulling teeth -- it was root canals and regular dental work," said Jersey City Chief Health Inspector H. James Boor.

Practicing dentistry without a license is a crime that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison upon conviction.

The investigation into the establishment began when the New Jersey Attorney General's Office received complaints of substandard dental care being provided there, officials said.

One person told officials he had dental work and suffered pain afterward but became suspicious when he asked for a prescription for pain killers and was told they do not write prescriptions, Boor said.

The Attorney General's Office contacted the Jersey City Mayor's Task Force, which set up surveillance and raided it yesterday morning.

Shortly before Macias and Vasquez were led out of the business in handcuffs, police brought out a box of dental equipment and loaded it into a police vehicle as evidence.

There was no sink in the room where the dental work was being performed and the chair being used was a regular office chair on rollers, Boor said.

Officials said the business has been at the location for many years but they did not know how long dentistry was being practiced there.

Boor and Fire Prevention Inspector Matt Barrett also took a look at a storefront across the street on Central Avenue and determined Macias was using it as part of his business but did not have a certificate of occupancy for it. Barrett cited eight fire code violations at the dental operation site and 12 across the street.