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Surgeon who concealed removal of wrong tooth is struck off

BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5041 (Published 28 November 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k5041
  1. Clare Dyer
  1. The BMJ

A specialist registrar in maxillofacial surgery has been struck off the UK medical register after a tribunal found that he lied repeatedly to cover up his removal of the wrong tooth during an operation.

Panagiotis Stathopoulos, who qualified in Greece, was working at the Royal Derby Hospital in January 2017 when he removed a patient’s lower right molar 7 and 8 teeth, instead of 6 and 7 as requested by the referring dentist.

The patient, who was particularly troubled by his LR6 tooth, realised the mistake within hours and wrote an email of complaint.

Stathopoulos told the hospital trust—and, later, General Medical Council (GMC) investigators and his medical practitioners’ tribunal hearing—that …

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