A BRITISH expat has been left in agony after visiting a dodgy dentist who was TWICE struck off in the UK.
Rachel Byrne has reported Rajkumar Rao to the police and dental council after he left her with a ‘very deep’ hole in the side of her gum and unable to eat.
Rao has been practicing at Alhaurin Dental Care, near Malaga, for nearly two decades, despite the Olive Press revealing in 2010 he had been struck off in England in 1998 and 2004 for ‘serious professional misconduct’.
READ MORE: Kicked in the teeth by dodgy dentist in Spain
He moved to Alhaurin, near Malaga, after an ITV documentary Dentists From Hell exposed how he had badly treated six patients, including a 72-year-old given 22 crowns when she only needed seven.
Yet extraordinarily he was able to set up in Spain and got a licence to practice, due to a paperwork error.
And when we reported this to Malaga’s College of Dentistry it still refused to withdraw it despite being presented with a series of new victims, including a man who lost his sight for weeks when Rao allegedly drilled into his eye socket.
Today there is one more victim to add to the list, with Byrne, 63, from Plymouth, refusing to drop her complaint about Rao, who she first visited in August last year.
Describing it as the ‘most traumatic experience of her life’ the former sales boss at the Western Morning News, in Devon, told the Olive Press she was left unable to eat and left with a ‘very, very deep hole’ in the side of her gum.
READ MORE: Dodgy British dentist in Malaga finally coughs up after six-year legal battle
Told she needed a root canal, the dentist ‘immediately began drilling’ in preparation for the treatment but ultimately told his patient that she would have to return in a month’s time.
‘I went back on September 3 and I’m not joking, it was the most traumatic experience of my life’, added Byrne, who has lived in Spain with her UK pilot husband for a decade.
After a ‘horrendous’ experience, it was decided that an implant would be necessary but ‘nothing could be done’ for a number of weeks.
“I was left unable to eat and with a hole the size of a coin in my gum, plus a white patch on my cheek,” continued the mother-of-three. “But when I returned to his clinic a few days later in pain he simply gave me five painkillers saying it was merely a ‘traumatic ulcer’.”
She has since filled out a seven page complaint form with the dentistry college, but she is yet to hear back on its progress.
READ MORE: Exposed: Dodgy dentist
This week the college confirmed they had received it, but said there was ‘no resolution’.
Meanwhile, other victims have taken to our website over the last year to comment about their experiences of Dr Raj.
‘I have just experienced this man and believe me I am not impressed at all’, wrote one, while another reported she had visited ‘a year ago’ adding: “I’ve been having treatment ever since.”
When the Olive Press contacted the clinic this week, a receptionist said Dr Rao was ‘not available’.
When asked why an address on Google said the clinic was ‘temporarily closed’ and there was no website or landline for the business she refused to be drawn. “I really can’t answer these questions,” adding: “Please try another day.”
A series of emails sent to the mobile phone and a separate email were not answered.
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