Dentist rode hoverboard while taking out tooth

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A dentist accused of fraud and unnecessarily sedating patients performed a procedure while riding a wheeled, motorized vehicle known as a hoverboard, authorities said.

Prosecutors in Alaska have accused 34-year-old Seth Lookhart of Medicaid fraud and reckless endangerment.

A former patient testified at his trial that she was angered when an investigator showed her an unauthorized 2016 video of Lookhart extracting one of her teeth while she was sedated and he was riding the hoverboard. Veronica Wilhelm was “pretty livid” about the dentist’s actions, she testified.

“When did Dr. Lookhart get your approval to take out your tooth on a hoverboard,” prosecutor Joan Wilson asked in court.

“He never did. I obviously wouldn’t have approved that. That’s dangerous,” Wilhelm said.

Addressing Lookhart in court, Wilhelm said: “I don’t have anything bad to say about taking out my tooth, but I just think that what you did was outrageous, narcissistic and crazy.”

Wilhelm also was angered that Lookhart sedated her son for a teeth-cleaning, she said

Lookhart denied fraud, but acknowledged some other accusations, including the hoverboard procedure, defence lawyer Paul Stockler said. Stockler described the dentist’s actions as “absolutely stupid. But I’ve seen much more dangerous things where no doctor has been charged,” the lawyer said.

The Anchorage dentist unnecessarily sedated patients so he could inflate his Medicaid billing, authorities said.

Lookhart fraudulently billed Medicaid about $1.8 million US and stole $250,000 from his partners, authorities said. A state board suspended Lookhart’s dentistry licence in 2017.