The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Dental Council officials are being accused of orchestrating the “malicious black-balling” of a foreign practitioner after opting to reject multiple renewal applications for his long-standing service licence.

Dr Larry Levin, a Rhode Island dentist with a second home in Long Island, claimed his decision to work independently of one of the council’s foremost members has left him “unable to practice my craft in a community that needs me”.

In detailing the protracted process of applying for renewal of his licence to practice in the Bahamas, the veteran dentist outlined his three separate attempts to “acknowledge, accept and work with” what he called “made-up, arbitrary laws brought about to keep me out intentionally” to no avail.

“It is scary that this has happen the way it has,” Dr Levin told The Tribune. “Every roadblock they placed in front of me, I worked through it by following every step they prescribed. As a result, after all the effort, they just settled on the conclusion that they don’t need me any more and that is the reason they have denied my licence this time around.”

Insisting that he was reluctant to go to the press, Dr Levin - who has been practising on the island since 2012 - said he now feels the only route to justice is through a public fight. Dr Levin has been coming to Long Island for 15 years, eight or nine years on vacation to Cape Santa Maria before buying a property six years ago.

He travels to Long Island once a month and spends long days in the clinic, often starting at 7am and finishing at 8pm, charging miminal fees and finds the help he offers “rewarding” and the people - who otherwise have to fly to Nassau for treatment - “appreciative” despite him struggling to meet the demand. One client messaged him following his most recent visit earlier this month thanking him for “doing such a fantastic, creative work today with inserting my bonded bridge. It is a perfect fit, looks great with no sharp edges at all. It is therefore essential keeping your word class service on Long Island and continue to give dental treatment to so many in need on this sometimes forgotten island.”

He said issues came to a head earlier this year after he was informed by former partner and dentistry sponsor, Dr Ricardo Crawford, that he would be ending his practice on Long Island at some point in 2016. Dr Levin said that while he was surprised and saddened by the news, he knew instantly that he could not withdraw his services as only he and Dr Crawford operated on the island. He said the island was “in desperate need of care”. “When Dr Crawford was my sponsor he wrote a letter to immigration to that effect. The available care on Long Island is no different now than when I worked for Dr Crawford.”

Dr Levin said he gave notice to Dr Crawford that he would be interested in maintaining their practice in Salt Pond in his absence and as a result, talks commenced over equipment and utensils used in the practice to that point.

“He offered me a chance to buy out the equipment we had in Long Island,” Dr Levin said. “I initially saw it as a good deal because I knew it would be costly to travel back to Rhode Island, buy and ship all of this stuff back to the Bahamas and then have them installed.

“That changed, however, when I saw (Dr) Crawford’s price. It was way too much. I thought it was unwise to buy equipment at that price point. It made no sense to buy from him, so I went the cheaper route and purchased new equipment. It never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be operating in Long Island so I saw no issue with this move.”

Dr Levin said once he started the formal application process to have his annual licence renewed for 2017, he quickly realised how big a mistake he had made. “It became a nightmare fast,” he said. “Dr Crawford withdrew his sponsorship and closed his clinic. It confused me, but I saw it as him doing what was in his right as a dentist. I got a new sponsor and applied for renewal. I got a responding letter indicating that my new sponsor couldn’t sponsor me because of their foreign status.

“The letter said due to a recent technicality, you must be sponsored by a Bahamian dentist - strike one.

“I wrote the council back. I asked if this was all it would take to get my licence sorted out. The Council’s response was simple: there were no other roadblocks. I got on to finding a local practitioner to sponsor me. I found a new sponsor, Dr Andre Rollins. I applied again and honestly thought that was it; I thought I was done. Got a new office space and my equipment installed. Everything was ready to go. Applied for work permit, My mind was settled.

“Sometime later, I got another letter - rejected. The Council said I couldn’t be sponsored by Dr Rollins as he was a orthodontist. Apparently there was some new rule that prohibited a general dentist from being sponsored by specialist. It wasn’t seen prior to my case, and if it even existed before then, it wasn’t being enforced.

“Several persons challenged the matter on my behalf and all I got after that was letters telling in plain language that I wasn’t licensed to work in Long Island after this year.”

The Bahamas Dental Act 1989, which governs The Bahamas Dental Council, prescribes that a person is qualified to be registered as a dentist if he holds a diploma, degree, fellowship, membership, licence, certificate or other status or form of recognition granted by a university, college or body empowered to confer authority to practice dentistry by the law of the country or territory where it is granted and which in the opinion of the Council is evidence of satisfactory dental training.

However, when contacted for comment, one official with the Council slammed the claims made by Dr Levin.

“He sees this as an issue between him and one person. It is not: the Council is not one person, the Council is eight people,” noted the official, who asked not to be named. “You get a sponsor, the Council looks at that and decides whether to offer you a licence based on a number of things.

“We at the Council have been able to get a full-time dentist posted on Long Island and another - Dr Crawford - is there on a weekly to bi-weekly basis. Despite what he (Dr Levin) wants to think, we have enough operators there and we had no need for him to remain there.”

The officials said the Council operated on a mandate put forward by the Department of Public Health - one dentist for every 2,500 residents. “There are enough operators on the island and he needs to understand and accept that,” the Council official said.

Dr Levin claimed that Dr Crawford “is there at the most once per month for three and a half hours. Last month he did not show at all when he was supposed to.” Residents have been signing a petition supporting Dr Levin’s case.