Here’s why a South Florida dentist was fined $10,000 and ordered to give a refund to a patient

After an unusually long time from complaints to conclusion, the Florida Board of Dentistry approved punishment of a

Bay Harbor Islands dentist.

Dr. Anatoly Ripa was hit with a $10,000 fine plus $5,000 in reimbursing the Florida Department of Health’s case costs. Most doctors get assigned two or three continuing medical education courses, even after a death. Ripa got assigned five — ethics, risk management, record keeping, prosthodontics and diagnosis and treatment (the board added that one to the proposed settlement agreement).

Plus, Ripa has to refund one patient’s $385 out-ofpocket costs and pass a Laws and Rules of Florida dentistry examination before Dec. 22, 2024.

Ripa signed the board’s version of the settlement agreement, though he officially neither admits nor denies what he’s accused of in the administrative complaints.

These are the first Florida punitive actions against Ripa, who has been licensed in the state since Dec. 30, 2003. The Board’s final order was adopted Dec. 22, but concerns what happened and what didn’t happen with patients in 2012 and 2013.

An administrative complaint says “A.K.” showed up at 1048 Kane Concourse in Bay Harbor Islands on May 21, 2013 for a “limited examination of tooth No. 31,” the second molar from the back lower right of the mouth.

Ripa recommended a root canal for No. 31 and extraction of all four of A.K.’s wisdom teeth. The complaint says he did the root canal that day. Ripa also billed for a gingivalflap procedure, which the International Congress of Oral Implantologists says is a “procedure where gum tissue is separated from surrounding teeth and deflected back to allow a dental surgeon access to the jawbone and the root of the tooth.”

Nothing in Ripa’s clinical record, the complaint says, justified the flap procedure for which Ripa billed nor did anything indicate it was actually done.

A.K. came back a week later, May 28, 2013, for the pulling of the four wisdom teeth. Ripa performed and billed for a full-mouth debridement, which the complaint explains is “the gross removal of plaque and calculus that interfere with the ability of the dentist to perform a comprehensive oral evaluation.”

But, the complaint says, Ripa’s clinical record “did not indicate a diagnosis to support or necessitate” the debridement.

Ripa’s clinical record said he pulled each wisdom tooth and used a billing code that indicated an “unusually difficult or complicated” extraction. But, again, the complaint said Ripa’s clinical record didn’t note anything that should’ve made it a hard extraction.