First Alert 4 Investigates: Who’s really in charge of your dentist?

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A social media post about a local dentist has been shared thousands of times, garnering millions of impressions.

The post, warning of potential danger, is a public safety alert of sorts. Now, patients ask: Who’s really in charge of your dentist?

“I’ve never had a panic attack at a dental office,” said Jaqueline Ploudre.

Jaqueline’s visit to Artistic Dentistry in Creve Coeur earlier this year was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

“He positioned the chair where my feet were higher than my head,” she recalled.

What was supposed to be a simple crown fitting by the practice’s owner and lone dentist, Shea Wilson, she said, turned into much more.

“He was pulling down on my right side of my lower lip. And I could feel my lip tearing,” she said.

She told First Alert 4 Investigates that her position in the chair, combined with a lung disease, compromised her breathing.

“So I raised my finger to signal, ‘I need you to stop.’ He stopped, raised the chair up, and I said, ‘I’m having a panic attack,’” Jaqueline said.

What he said next, she later detailed to police.

“He says to me, ‘No one gives an F about your panic attack. If you didn’t serve in Iraq, no one gives a S Chill the F out,’” recalled Jacqueline.

Online bios indicate Wilson served in Iraq with the Air Force before becoming a dentist.

“We as patients should not have to deal with what he’s got going on,” she said.

She told First Alert 4 Investigates that Wilson then told her to leave. Bleeding from her mouth, she drove to another dentist.

“She said, ‘There’s a big hole in your cheek,’” Jaqueline said.

The tooth Wilson worked on, she said, is still damaged.

“It’s broken all the way up to the gum line. The tooth is going to have to be extracted,” Jaqueline said.

She said it is hard to believe, even now.

“I have never in my life been treated by a professional in that manner. Absolutely appalled,” she said.

So, in March, after it happened, she took to social media to warn others. A Facebook post, shared 15,000 times, went viral. Police also took an official report for assault.

“In my opinion, he verbally and physically assaulted me,” she said.

But prosecutors declined to press charges.

Wilson, in emails, called the allegations false.

“He just overall was extremely disrespectful and ignorant,” said Casey Coulter.

She told First Alert 4 Investigates that she heard it all that day.

“Making comments like, ‘You need to chill the F out,’” Coulter said.

She said she experienced more herself.

“He was just yanking and pulling, and his knuckles were buried into my cheekbone,” she said.

When she complained of pain, “He disregarded it, saying I needed to suck it up,” Coulter said.

Where he extracted her tooth, she said it hurt for weeks.

She, too, went to the police, frustrated that they couldn’t or wouldn’t take action.

“That’s what the officers told me, they can’t do anything because it’s a private practice,” Coulter said.

Ivory Rigney also said Wilson needs to be held able.

“I think he needs to have his license taken away,” said Rigney.

Every crown he put on, shattered almost immediately, she said.

“Yes, exactly. Almost immediately. If not the same day, it was days after,” she said.

Still, she said Wilson refused to set her right or give her a refund last year.

“He was really cold and rude,” Rigney said.

Similar complaints appear in online reviews of Artistic Dentistry, this one from October:

“I had the worst experience ever at this place. The dentist was rude and did not complete the extraction.”

We spoke with Dr. Wilson in nearly the same spot, the office was dark when we visited recently, closed for the day.

His attorney, he said, wouldn’t allow him to do a formal interview.

“He advised against it. I can ask him about it when he calls me back, but for now, that’s what he advised. Basically, it’s false information,” said Wilson.

But he continued answering our questions about patients’ concerns.

“So, pain is going to happen. We do surgery all the time. That’s just part of it,” Wilson said. “We follow all standard practices for doctors,” he said.

He wouldn’t discuss much of his background, including what year he graduated from dental school. But he acknowledged he has used profanity with patients.

“I try not to use profanity at any time. I’m a father with young kids, so I really don’t ever use profanity. Very rarely. Sometimes it happens, but usually it’s with patients that are just out of sorts, you know,” said Wilson.

“There is a code of ethics in dentistry,” said Dr. John Copeland, president of the Missouri Dental Association.

He said he can’t speak to any specific instance, but that even in stressful situations, all dentists should abide by certain standards required for a license.

“There’s the principle of ‘do no harm,’ like you hear in the Hippocratic Oath,” he said. “There’s a lot that’s specific to the patient experience and putting them first. Every dentist in Missouri has to take that test.”

He said patients have a right to know about a dentist’s education and experience. If they have concerns, they can state authorities.

Jaqueline has filed a complaint with the Missouri Dental Board, the entity that disciplines dental licenses. A spokesperson said state law doesn’t allow them to confirm if there is an investigation.

But Jaqueline provided us with a letter from the board confirming her complaint, saying the review can take 3 to 12 months.

“Are you surprised no one can take swifter action?” Chief Investigative Reporter Lauren Trager asked.

“It really bothers me that after I’ve complained and expressed what he’s done to me, he’s still operating. It’s like, who cares?” Jaqueline said.

Jaqueline said she wants his practice shut down, now speaking out to warn others.

“Because the behavior going on there is horrendous, and someone is going to get seriously hurt,” she said.

In a subsequent emailed statement to us, Wilson said he did give Jaqueline a refund and again disputed her allegations.

Wilson addressed his military service, writing:

“My military background was a different chapter in my life, which I do not discuss regularly. I am a disabled veteran who does not like to live in the past. I think cyberbullying is a terrible thing, and I think a news channel lending credit to it is awful.”

Wilson has still declined to provide his attorney’s information.

Creve Coeur police also declined to comment for this story.

First Alert 4 Investigates checked, and the Dental Board has not disciplined a single dentist’s license so far this year. However, they did so 11 times last year.

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