Mother sues Medicaid Dental Centers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The mother of a Charlotte boy whose traumatic visit to the dentist launched a multi-year I-Team investigation has now filed a lawsuit against the owners of the clinic.

Earlier this year, the dentists who owned the Medicaid Dental Centers in North Carolina paid $10 million in fines and restitution.

I-Team reporter Stuart Watson broke this story more than five years ago.

It started when Brandon Dillbeck went to the dentist.

The Medicaid Dental Center on Freedom Drive drilled and capped 16 of Brandon's baby teeth -- all at once.

"My mother almost had to hold me back," said Brandon's mother, Christy Dillbeck.

That report brought dozens of calls and e-mails to the I-Team from parents with similar stories

The clinics routinely locked parents in the waiting room, strapped children down and did as much drilling as possible in one sitting.

As a result of the I-Team's reports, North Carolina Medicaid changed the rules, limiting the number of root canals on baby teeth that Medicaid dentists can do at one time.

And this year, doctors Tish Ballance of North Carolina and Michael Derose of Colorado agreed to pay the taxpayers $10 million.

"It makes me cry to think about what he went through when he was 4 years old," Christy Dillbeck said. "To be strapped to a bed, that could mess with him forever, for the rest of his life."

There have since been civil lawsuits filed. The latest -- five years later -- is on behalf of Brandon Dillbeck.