State regulators have suspended the license of an Iowa dentist accused of being drunk while performing a root canal on a state inmate.
The Iowa Board of Dentistry has charged Paimoun Bayati, 58, of Waterloo with practicing dentistry in a manner harmful or injurious to the public and violating Iowa statutes related to the practice of dentistry. The council claims he poses an “imminent threat” to the public and has suspended his license on an emergency basis.
Due to a 2022 Iowa Supreme Court ruling, the board is not releasing the specific conduct that prompted the charges.
However, police records show that on December 7, 2023, an Anamosa police officer was dispatched to the Anamosa State Penitentiary for a report of a disabled person trying to break out of the jail. The officer reported that he arrived at the prison and met with the warden, the deputy warden and Bayati, who was the prison’s dentist at the time.
According to the police report, the guard said nurses had reported that Bayati appeared to be intoxicated and had just completed a root canal on a patient. The officer reported that after Bayati was questioned by the warden and “informed that he was done with his work at the jail,” Bayati exited the building and attempted to leave. The warden and deputy warden then prevented Bayati from leaving, according to the report.
The officer reported that he observed Bayati and noticed that his speech was slurred and he “smelled strongly” of alcohol. “He let me search his vehicle in the parking lot, where I found an empty bottle that smelled of liquor,” the officer said.
Bayati was then tested and allegedly showed a blood alcohol level of 0.158 – almost twice the legal driving limit. A case was filed against him for misdemeanor drunkenness.
Bayati said Thursday that he doesn’t drink and that he believes someone, possibly a dental assistant, tampered with his coffee cup by pouring isopropyl alcohol into it after he arrived at the jail that morning.
“I feel like someone slipped something in my drink,” he said, adding that the level of alcohol in his system was equal to 11 shots of alcohol he had consumed in the hour before his scheduled departure.
“Eleven shots, which means I was tending to a patient’s tooth with one hand and hitting hard with the other hand,” he said.
He said he never tried to drive away from the jail and that the empty bottle in his car was camping gear that had been accidentally left in the vehicle.
A trial on the criminal charge is scheduled for February 21. A board hearing on the disciplinary charges was originally scheduled for Friday, but has since been canceled and has yet to be rescheduled. Bayati said the board’s charges are directly related to his arrest.
State records show Bayati was granted a dental license in Iowa in August 1999. In 2022, the board charged him with failing to maintain a reasonably satisfactory standard of competency regarding dental implants. At the time, he was practicing in Sioux City, but the charges against him were related to conduct that allegedly occurred while he was practicing in Waterloo.
According to the board, a patient complained about the placement of four implants by Bayati. A sampling of Bayati’s implant clinical records was then reviewed by a consultant who allegedly concluded that Bayati did not meet the minimum standard of care for the placement of dental implants.
The board then issued an order prohibiting Bayati from performing such work on patients.
