Paper clips are really handy. You can use them for things like hitting that tiny reset button on your DVR and, well, clipping paper. And according to the Attorney General’s office in Massachusetts, one dentist was using them in patients’ mouths during root canals.

A grand jury in the Bay State have indicted a dentist who had once had a practice in Fall River, Mass., of using paper clips in place of stainless steel posts during root canal procedures. According to the indictment, he would then bill Medicaid for the steel posts and presumably pocket the difference.

Charges brought against the dentist, who now lives in Maryland, include assault and battery, larceny, submitting false claims to Medicaid and illegally prescribing prescription drugs. He is set to be arraigned on April 8.

The dentist in question was suspended by Medicaid in 2002, but the AG’s office alleges that the he got around this barricade by bringing on other dentists and then filing claims using their information.

Mass. AG: Dentist used paper clips in root canals [Boston Globe]

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