A dentist who severely damaged the teeth of a Dragonair flight attendant during treatment has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
In its ruling last night, the Dental Council said Cecilia Young Yau-yau lacked a proper treatment plan and had failed to refer the patient, Mak Po-ling, to a specialist even though her condition was clearly beyond her expertise.
The council ordered that Dr Young's name be removed from the General Register for a month and said that if she committed further professional misconduct within 12 months her licence would be cancelled.
In a related case last year, the council found Dr Young guilty of three charges of misconduct in treating Ms Mak's friend and colleague at the airline, Wong Yuen-mei, and ordered her to have 15 hours of continuing professional education.
The council heard that when Ms Mak had sought help for her uneven teeth in April 2004, Dr Young proposed an unusual treatment method that would take three to four months - a period that other dentists later criticised as far too short.
She started treatment in June 2004, pulling out three teeth in the process.
After three months, Ms Mak, in great pain and suspicious, consulted a different dentist, who declined to treat her as the case was too serious, and then an orthodontist.
