Small Smiles Dental Centers
In 2007 a news reporter named Roberta Baskin filmed the inside of a Small Smiles clinic. The film showed children screaming as the dentists did work on them, as the children were held in papoose boards. The main dentist said that, in one time, they often did six or more baby root canals on a child. He also said the clinic had goals to do a certain amount of dental work so the clinic could make money. The news report went on television and people began filing lawsuits against Small Smiles. A woman from Kentucky named Debbie Hagan started a blog that was against Small Smiles and what it did. Journalists and people from the New York State government talked to Hagan to learn about what was happening. On November 14, 2008, Small Smiles sued Hagan, saying that she published their documents without their permission. On April 16, 2009 the company stopped the lawsuit.