Former Auckland dentist David Zimmerman and his company, MJ & Sleep Therapy Centre, have been sentenced on charges brought by the Ministry of Health under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act and the Radiation Safety Act. Image / NZME composite
A woman in agony from an infected tooth knew something was off with the dentist when he approached wearing obstetric gloves and no mask.
The second clue was the syringe he used to inject local anaesthetic, after telling her he was “lucky” to have any on hand.
The woman, a health professional, knew the needle was too short and said it appeared to be an insulin syringe.
By then, she was in too much pain to think beyond having the tooth removed.
But disgraced dentist David Zimmerman pulled out the wrong tooth while the woman’s mouth was only partially anaesthetised.
Zimmerman did two sharp movements forward and back, but before the second movement was complete, the woman – in excruciating pain – punched his hand away.
“The pain at the root was off the charts and different to the pain of the original toothache,” she said.
It was a seminal moment in putting an end to Zimmerman’s dentistry career, despite his having been suspended years earlier, and then having his registration removed.
Zimmerman, 79, and his company MJ & Sleep Therapy Centre, were recently sentenced in the North Shore District Court on charges brought by the Ministry of Health under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act and the Radiation Safety Act.
Judge Paul Murray said, in fining Zimmerman and his business, he was driven by the fact that he thought he knew better than the regulatory authorities in continuing to practise despite being banned.
Zimmerman was registered in 1972 and suspended in July 2014, but continued to provide services.
The ministry said in its summary of facts that suspension followed a finding by the Dental Council that he posed a risk of serious harm to the public by practising below the required standard of competence.
His continued practice ultimately led to his registration being cancelled in May 2017 after a complaint from the Accident Compensation Corporation.
Judge Murray said the finding remained a “source of contention” for Zimmerman, who continued to offer dental services, leading up to events on Boxing Day 2022 when the woman sought help for agonising toothache.
Zimmerman told NZME before sentencing that the “system” was against him rather than anything he had done.
But he did not dispute that he had tried to pull out the patient’s wrong tooth while she was not properly anaesthetised.
“I fully acknowledge that. I didn’t hide from it,” he said.
Court proceedings followed the woman’s complaint to the Dental Council in January 2023, which was forwarded it to the Ministry of Health.
Zimmerman continued to operate his dental practice, even after his premises were searched in March 2023, which led to multiple charges against him and two charges against his business.
He eventually admitted one representative charge of using words and descriptions that stated or implied he was a dentist, based on signage outside his property.
He admitted a further representative charge of claiming to be a practising health practitioner when he saw patients between December 2022 and September 2023.
The charge covered five instances of Zimmerman performing a restricted activity without permission.
The centre pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing and managing a radiation source, namely, an X-ray machine, without a licence, which Zimmerman used twice.
All the offending spanned 11 months from December 2022, Judge Murray said.
Zimmerman now faced a hefty financial penalty against already significant debt, and the loss in a mortgagee sale of his home, from where he once ran Stanmore Bay Dental in Whangaparāoa, in North Auckland.
Judge Murray read excerpts from five victim impact statements, which revealed the effects as “wide-ranging and serious”.
Aside from the woman who he described as having been in “excruciating pain” from the botched extraction, another had to have remedial work done on an “excessively painful” filling which never settled.
Another was left needing stitches for a hole in their cheek from a suction hose during a painful wisdom tooth extraction.
A fourth person, concerned at the apparently poor state of Zimmerman’s surgical equipment and who bled during treatment, had a “distressing and frightening period” waiting for blood test results she sought afterwards, Judge Murray said.
Defence lawyer Michell Staub argued there were no sterilisation issues, but Judge Murray said it was clear concerns had been raised on this point.
Another patient at a low point in her life borrowed money to receive treatment from Zimmerman and was left feeling worse.
Some victims expressed shock, anger and embarrassment at having trusted a person they did not know should not have been practising.
Others felt unsettled and deceived, financially drained and emotionally traumatised.
One of the two who sought help on a public holiday when options were limited said the experience was “terrible” and it took five months for the pain to subside.
The identities of all victims were suppressed.
Judge Murray said the woman who had the wrong tooth pulled out was embarrassed at having trusted Zimmerman and angry at his “flagrant” avoidance of orders. Her witness statement made “concerning reading”.
She developed a toothache leading up to Christmas Day 2022.
It got “much, much worse” on Boxing Day, and the pain became unbearable,” she told NZME.
“I was not able to find anyone to help. I rung every emergency dentist in Auckland, but they all said no one could help me till January 4,” she said.
The only one open was Zimmerman.
At the time, she did not know he should not have been practising.
“He also told me he had been published in the British Medical Journal, which added to his credibility as a dentist.”
Zimmerman began the examination, wearing a white coat and obstetric gloves but no mask.
He did not do any X-rays but tapped the woman’s teeth with something metal a couple of times.
Judging by her reaction, he decided a tooth closer to the front of her mouth was causing the pain and needed to come out.
Using the short needle, he put in a round of six to eight injections and then did a test, but the area was not numb.
Zimmerman gave the woman another round of injections, yet she was still not completely numb.
“I would say it was perhaps 50% numb with reduced sensation.”
Zimmerman then did what he described as a “special block” from the outside of her cheek.
“After that, I could still talk and could have drunk a cup of tea.”
Having had the maximum dose of local anaesthetic allowed, and partially numb, the woman agreed to proceed.
Zimmerman placed a clamp on the tooth, and started to yank it out, but she punched his hand away in agony.
With her gum bleeding and tooth loosened, Zimmerman sent her to a nearby emergency clinic, where a doctor told her Zimmerman had been struck off and recommended she go to a hospital emergency dentist for help.
The next day she discovered he had tried to pull out the wrong tooth, which by then needed to come out.
The procedure was done safely the following day.
In March 2023, the ministry’s enforcement team helped police in a search of Zimmerman’s premises.
He was present and when given his Bill of Rights, he showed police a “Sovereign National of Aotearoa” identity card, the summary of facts said.
The search found instruments inside an autoclave (steam steriliser) in brown paper bags.
There was no evidence of a colour change indicating that the instruments had been through a sterilising process.
On a bench top near the autoclave, there were four used local anaesthetic cartridges, plus three vials of the prescription item lignocaine, which was not typically found in a dental surgery, the summary of facts said.
Old plastic milk containers were being used as “sharps” containers and pre-loaded local anaesthetic syringes were found in a drawer behind the dental chair.
The cartridges in the preloaded syringes were not all full.
While the search was under way, a courier delivered a package containing root canal treatment cement.
The ministry said health professional regulation existed to keep the public safe.
Prosecutor Danielle Houghton said the ministry sought a fines starting point for Zimmerman of between $55,000 and $60,000 and between $30,000 and $50,000 for the company.
The only comparable case, which Judge Murray said was worse in nature than Zimmerman’s, was that of imposter Auckland dentist Narayan Prasad, who was sentenced in September to three months’ community detention and ordered to pay $15,950 in reparation to 28 victims.
Judge Murray imposed a provisional fine of $41,000 for Zimmerman and $22,500 for the company after deductions for his eventual guilty pleas, and recognition of his limited financial means.
Zimmerman, whose only income now was a government pension, was said to have debts exceeding $500,000, according to bank documents provided to the court.
A final determination would be made after a mortgagee sale on November 5 of Zimmerman’s home, and the court’s receipt of a declaration of financial capacity.
Reparation of $4275 was ordered, from which $500 would be paid to each victim, with the remainder going to those victims who incurred costs for remedial treatments.
The judge said an aggravating factor of the offending was that it was premeditated in that Zimmerman was aware he was not entitled to practise, but still did, even after his premises had been searched.
He said there was also an element of commercial gain to the offending, even if the defendent was “genuinely, misguidedly motivated” to help people.
Judge Murray said there was a pattern to the former dentist’s behaviour and several of the procedures caused real harm to people, several of whom were vulnerable.
The woman told NZME after sentencing that she was relieved Zimmerman could no longer hurt anyone else.
She said it took a lot of courage to find a voice strong enough to see the complaint through, knowing he was still practising.
“I felt so stupid as I began writing it down, but now I see how many people he has hurt, and I’m proud I spoke out.”
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.