“The fake dentist, who had only a secondary school certificate, was practicing the profession exploiting his father’s reputation as a skilled dentist,” Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.

His father was the first dentist to receive a license from the Ministry of Health to practice dentistry more than 90 years ago.

The son acquired the skills in the profession from his father, who was practicing at the Mazloum district in the city.

Director of the Health Affairs in Jeddah Dr. Sami Badawood said his department ordered the closure of the clinic of the “dentist” after a medical licensing committee discovered that the clinic did not have a valid license. 

Badawood said his department’s authority was limited to closing an unlicensed clinic and did not have the power to punish a fake doctor. 

The Medical Legal Commission is the competent authority to take penal action against medical errors and violation of the rights of a patient, Badawood added.

On the other hand, Chairman of the commission in Jeddah Abdul Rahman Al-Ajiri said, after examining a complaint from a victim of the fake dentist, that the issue is outside the authority of the commission, as the complaint did not involve a medical error.

Al-Ajiri, however, said the complaint had been forwarded to a criminal court for action.

Ibrahim Adham, an aged resident of the Mazloum neighborhood, said, “It never occurred to anyone in the district that the young dentist who was practicing next to his famous father’s old clinic since 1997 was not qualified.”

He added that no one in the district had any complaint about the doctor, as he charged very low fees.