Local Dentist Still Practicing After Drug/Drinking Violations

Eyewitness News Everywhere uncovers a local dentist busted for drinking, doing drugs, and writing fake prescriptions, but the state won't take away his license.

A former patient says Dr. Jeffrey Meadows destroyed her teeth just a few months before he was ordered back into rehab. Now he's back out, and working as a dentist again. She wants to know why the Tennessee Board of Dentistry is allowing him to stay in practice.

Debbie Martin had a dental procedure that's done thousand of times every single day. She said, “I went into his office and I had two root canals done.”

Martin then had crowns put on her two front teeth by Dr. Jeffrey Meadows. But a few months later, while she was on out-of-town trip, something went terribly wrong. She said, “My tooth fell out, and I was mortified, and I went in the drug store and got super glue, and I started super gluing the tooth into my gums.”

But the super glue would only hold her tooth for so long. So when she got home, she went immediately to see her neighbor, who is also a dentist. Martin said, “He said Debbie, he sanded down too far, it's not gonna stick.”

Martin then went back to Dr. Meadow's office, and asked him to fix the problem or return the $1700 she paid for the procedure. She said he refused to do either. So Martin had to go to a new dentist, and because her teeth were sanded too small, pay more than $4000 for all new veneers. She said, “I had to pay so much money trying to get my teeth fixed again.”

That's when Martin started doing some research. She found out Dr. Meadows had been in trouble several times for things like drinking, drugs, and writing fake prescriptions. She said at the time he sanded her teeth down too far, he was on probation. Just months later, he was ordered back into rehab for his substance abuse problem. Martin said, “I was flabbergasted how many times the same thing happens to him with drug and alcohol.”

But Martin said even more shocking is the fact that the Tennessee Board of Dentistry has allowed Meadows to keep his license, even though the list of violations dates all the way back to 2001.

Martin said, “The definition for what the board is supposed to do is to keep up the standards of the doctors to the highest standards and to protect the patients, and they are not doing that, they are absolutely not doing that, they are slapping his hand over and over. One mistake yes, two mistakes, umm, questionable, but the stuff that he has done, I want him stopped and I don't want him to do this to somebody else. He had enough chances.”

We contacted Dr. Jeffery Meadows to see if he wanted to talk about his past. We were told by his receptionist that he did not want to talk to us.

We also called the state board of dentistry to find out why Meadows keeps getting his license back. The board director is reviewing our questions right now, and said she will get back to us with an answer soon.

There is a website where you can go to check and see if your doctor or dentist has been in trouble with the state. Just click on the attached link.

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