A Long Island woman has been arrested for allegedly running a fake dental practice out of a Bay Shore home without a license.
As ABCNY reports, Yolany Mejia Carranza, 55, was tipped off by three patients. One of the patients told police they are suffering from nerve damage and facial paralysis.
“What she’s doing is extremely dangerous,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said.
“I think everyone knows it’s not really fun to go to the dentist you can only imagine what this experience was like for her patients,” the Commissioner added.
Carranza was arrested on Thursday around 3:15 p.m. at her home on Heckscher Avenue.
“We do know that she used a localized anesthesia, but nobody was getting the anesthesia necessary for the complex dentist operations that she was conducting,” Catalina said.
In addition to the Bay Shore location, detectives believe Carranza was previously operating an illegal dental business at 135 Broadway in Huntington Station.
Police say she practiced, illegally for nearly a decade and likely catered to financially-strapped patients.
“We think she was targeting the Hispanic community, mostly people who did not have health insurance and many of whom may have been in the country illegally,” Catalina said.
Carranza is pleading not guilty to the charges against her. She is out of jail on supervised release.