Dentist disciplined for breaching rules, then has license yanked over tax liability

Last update: July 5, 2008 - 6:06 PM

Gwendolyn Timberlake, a St. Paul dentist, has been a focus of complaints and disciplinary action by the Minnesota Board of Dentistry since 2000. But until Timberlake became delinquent on her taxes, the state let her keep practicing dentistry.

The Board of Dentistry licenses dental professionals and enforces state laws and regulations governing dental care. When dentists get in trouble, the board metes out punishment in conjunction with the state attorney general.

Since 2000, Timberlake has repeatedly found herself before the board to answer for deficiencies in infection control, recordkeeping, unprofessional conduct and other problems.

In 2004, the board put conditions on Timberlake's license based on "substandard periodontal care, substandard prosthodontic care, unprofessional conduct [prosthodontic work that was billed for but not completed], as well as continuing concerns" about recordkeeping and infection control, according to Marshall Shragg, executive director of the Board of Dentistry.

More conditions were placed on Timberlake's license last year, but in April the board found she wasn't following the proper procedures to keep her instruments sterile, her patient records and X-rays were inadequate, and she still wasn't keeping up with the proper course work.

In May, the board imposed more restrictions that allowed Timberlake to keep seeing patients only if she gave up her practice and worked under the "indirect supervision" of another board-approved dentist.

But then the Minnesota Department of Revenue alerted the Board of Dentistry that Timberlake had a tax liability. Under Minnesota law, the Board of Dentistry was required to suspend Timberlake's license and did so late last month.

Reached at her Selby Avenue practice Friday, Timberlake said she didn't want to talk about her situation.

Said Shragg: "The board's enforcement philosophy typically favors remediation over discipline, or being punitive. In this case, this is a person who was given many, many chances to remediate and demonstrate her competence."

To find out if your dentist has been the subject of disciplinary action, go to www.dentalboard.state.mn.us or call the board at (612) 617-2250 in the metro, or (888) 240-4762 outside the metro.

JAMES ELI SHIFFER