That 'dentist' was a denturist

The Department of Health finds the distinction isn't subtle. He's arrested.

By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published November 30, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - When a customer received a set of ill-fitting dentures from The Denture Clinic in Brooksville, he went back to complain.

Instead of getting the dentures fixed, he learned the clinic's owner, Leonard J. Condon, was not a dentist but a denturist trained in Canada, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The customer reported Condon, 51, of 2137 Linwood Ave. in Spring Hill, to the Department of Health. Condon was arrested Thursday on charges of practicing dentistry without a license, a third-degree felony punishable by a year in prison.

Though Condon continued practicing until Wednesday, according to the Health Department, the telephone at his clinic, 19229 Cortez Blvd., had been disconnected by Thursday afternoon.

Condon insisted to Health Department investigators that he was qualified to fit and install dentures, the release said.

"Condon felt that by having a licensed dentist come to the office once a week as a private contractor, that he was legal," according to a Health Department news release.

That is not true, said Eulinda Jackson, a Health Department spokeswoman, because denturists are not recognized in Florida. A denturist constructs, inserts and adjusts full and partial dentures for patients.

"To us, he's just not licensed," she said.

His arrest comes less than two months after the arrest of Anthony James David, 30, a Spring Hill resident charged with impersonating a doctor at Tampa General Hospital in October.

David's contact with patients was limited, the Department of Health said at the time, though he had handed out samples of medication and told another patient that he could discontinue taking prescribed drugs.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified November 29, 2007, 20:52:59]