If you’ve ever been lying in the dentist’s chair facing the prospect of painful drilling and sticking needles in gums and oh god why, you might be familiar with the welcome relief nitrous oxide, aka “laughing gas” can bring. For the patient, of course. One dentist has had her license suspended for allegedly partaking in the silly gas in front of patients.

ClickOrlando.com says Florida suspended the dentist’s license after investigators claimed she not only used the gas, but did so in front of patients before performing procedures on them. That can’t be safe and we’re sure only caused more terror on the part of the patients. And also, ouch.

The woman has been a dentist for almost 20 years, but investigators say she threw all medical professionalism out the window by inhaling laughing gas and then going about her job poking around in patients’ mouths and who knows what else.

Her son told the local news that she’d closed the office on her own, voluntarily, to get help for a drug problem in June. However the Department of Health says she failed to overcome her problems and went back to work in August.

Unsurprisingly, health officials had to issue an emergency suspension as she could potentially have harmed her patients while under the influence of the stuff.

DeBary dentist accused of using ‘laughing gas’ in front of patients [ClickOrlando.com]

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