Opinion by Consumer Advocate  Tim Bolen 

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

I've discovered another quackbuster scam - one to destroy a whole group of US Dentists, the head of a major Dental School, a device manufacturer, and a major emerging dental issue - NICO, and, with some very good help, I've begun the process of breaking up the scam.  I've helped engineer the destruction of about half of the scam already, and the rest is in the works.  We should be finished after a court trial, I'll tell you about shortly,  in April.  With luck, we'll get the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office involved in the clean-up.

I'm a Crisis Management Consultant in the US health care industry.  I specialize in the problems of cutting-edge health care providers.  That work puts me in contact with a whole lot of people across the range of US health care.  Those contacts are where I get my information, and my work.  This newsletter, I do, is spawned from that work.

For the most part I operate behind the scenes making good things happen for my clients, who, as you can guess from my job title, have some sort of crisis in their professional lives. At this, I'm the best in the country.  I'll take a bad situation and make something good out of it.  Example - when the "quackbusters" organized and executed an attack against world renowned scientist/author Hulda Regehr Clark PhD back in 1999 I came in, ripped their attack apart, stopped the trouble for Clark, exposed their sleazy operation to the public, and, in doing so, increased Clark's world-wide book sales by 60%.

The quackbusters, of course, hate me with a purple passion.  De-licensed MD Stephen Barrett even sued me for exposing him, and seven years later he still rants at me on his sleazy website quackwatch.com. And, so do his minions. The lawsuit is still going on, and, so far, Barrett, and his co-Plaintiffs have been battered through endless hearings, Motions, Appeals, and have even felt the wrath of the California Supreme Court.  They've suffered the distaste, because of their ludicrous positions, of every major internet player on Planet Earth.  Currently, they have been ordered by the Court to pay over 500 thousand dollars in attorney fees to one of the Defendants (not me), and were ordered to put up $460,000 in cash, or assets, to continue the case.  Go ahead and laugh.  I do.

But, lets get on with this story.

Everybody knows, these days, that the US lags behind ALL of the industrialized world, and many third world countries, in quality of health care offerings - and that there are many reasons for that.  I find this appalling.  So should you.

There are many reasons for this situation, but here I'll mention only two.  (a)  The first reason is the constant operation of that organized conspiracy calling itself "the quackbusters," whose function it is to block repair of the health care system.  (b)  The second reason is that conventional US Dentistry is CAUSING, or contributing to, many, if not MOST, US health care problems.  The combination of these two reasons is the subject of this article.

A few months ago I was informed, by an unusual source (I'll explain below) about one of the "quackbuster" projects (scams) involving US Dentistry.  Fortunately, in this instance, after I was informed, we stopped an important part of it, and we're working on the rest of the problem.  However, before we got the first part stopped several good people were damaged, perhaps irreparably, perhaps not.

What we uncovered, and stopped, was an attack, by those "quackbusters," spanning the US, against a medical/dental condition called NICO (Neuralgia Induced Cavitational Osteonecrosis), the Dentists, manufacturers,  and laboratories, involved in this issue,. The quackbusters and their minions, claim the situation (NICO) does not exist - and of course it does.  They attack those that teach about, diagnose, provide laboratory tests for, and treat this condition.  And, those attacks are vicious.

Starting Points...

Let me insert a bit of information here to clarify where we're going here. It's this: 

(1) I believe the quackbuster operation is NOT run by the quackbusters you see, like Stephen Barrett. I think its run out of a New York ad (disinformation) agency where a client comes in, identifies who, or what, it wants attacked, a plan is made, a budget is put together, checks are written, and the attack begins.  In the industry this kind of attack is called a Public Relations "black-ops."  Barrett, et al, are just employees in the game.

(2)  As described on the website  http://www.maxillofacialcenter.com/NICOhome.html  "NICO (Neuralgia-Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis) is one of the jawbone versions of ischemic osteonecrosis, a common disease affecting any bone but with special affinity for those of the hips, knees and face. By definition, NICO is associated with pain.  Osteonecrosis itself may or may not be painful. It may or may not affect multiple sites. It is a problem of poor blood flow through the marrow and 4/5 of affected patients have underlying coagulation problems."  If you go to the website, you'll get all the information you need. 

Conventional US Dentistry doesn't want to face this issue because it has been discovered, by those trying to solve the problem, that three dental income mainstays (1) mercury amalgam fillings, (2)  Root Canals, and (3)  the general focus of US Dentistry on "pretty teeth" rather than a "healthy mouth," are responsible for this terrible condition - which shakes the very foundation of US Dentistry - as well it should.

What actually happened?

(1)  The New York ad (disinformation) agency has been after what's known as "Biological Dentistry" for a very long time, attempting to destroy the practitioners, and the very idea that "what happens in your mouth effects your whole body," on behalf of their secret high-dollar client.  The two  cases I'll be talking about here, are just two elements in their ongoing assault.  Generally speaking, "Biological Dentists" challenge many long-lived US Dentistry money makers, as I'll explain below.  For years, Dentists that suggested to their patients that those mercury amalgam fillings in their mouth were leaking out into the patient's body (as, of course, they are), were attacked brutally.  Now, of course, that's not happening as often - and mercury fillings are seeing the end of their days.

(2)  A woman, Barbel (Barbara) Nanjo, was lured by an  article by de-licensed MD Stephen Barrett on quackwatch.com to contact a California attorney named David Wilzig, about the services she had received from a husband/wife Biological Dentist team in California  - James and Riley Young Shen.  You can read the actual article she saw, with my commentaries, further into the story.

(3)  The attorney, Quackwatch's Stephen Barrett's "personal" attorney, David Wilzig, talked her into suing the couple.  When the woman explained that she had, in fact, been to see, and had services performed by, several other Biological Dentists around the US, Wilzig, according to Nanjo, without Nanjo's permission, added ALL of those Dentists on to the lawsuit.  In addition, he added the dental laboratory, a device manufacturer, and two others on to the lawsuit and charged them all with  Dental Malpractice, Medical Malpractice, Conspiracy to Commit Fraud and Intentional Misrepresentation."  The unauthorized lawsuit was originally filed in a State Superior Court in Santa Monica, CA in March of 2006.

The lawsuit was called "Nanjo v. Cavitat Medical Technologies, Inc.; Robert J. Jones; J.E. Bouquot, D.D.S.; Maxifaciall Center for Diagnostics & Research ; Christopher Hussar HUSSAR, D.D.S., James Shen, D.D.S.; Rily Young, D.D.S.; Robert Kulacz, D.D.S.; Wesley E. Shankland, D.D.S.; Alizera Panahpour, D.D.S., aka Alexander Pana;, and DOES 1 through 50, inclusive,"

Note - The lawsuit, according to Nanjo's signed and notarized documents, was never approved by her, and was contrary to her wishes.  She caused copies of her notarized documents detailing this to be sent to each of the Defendants who then proceeded to Dismiss the cases against them, with Nanjo's help. 

Nanjo also fired Wilzig as her attorney.

But, long before Nanjo had had enough of the case she didn't approve of, other things were going on.  Keep reading.

(4)  Immediately after the unauthorized lawsuit was originally filed, Stephen Barrett  placed a really nasty article about the lawsuit on Robert S. Baratz's "casewatch" website.  You can read that article by clicking here.  You have to read my copy because Barrett, and Baratz, took the article down from the website, apparently in fear of the realization of what's coming their way, after Nanjo sent out her documents.. 

(5)  Barrett, Baratz, and the entire quackbuster operation has conspired to get top search engine ranking so that negative articles about NICO, or anything, or anybody, they are against, comes up on the top of the first google, or any search engine, page.  I'll explain how they do this in another article...

(6)  Then certain Defendants filed Motions to get out of the case for various reasons, and Barrett's attorney David Wilzig moved part of the case to Nevada Federal Court, where, again, two of the Defendants filed Motions to Dismiss.  One of the Defendants was dismissed, and the other was moved by Wilzig to Federal Court in New York State. 

(7)  Apparently, ALL of the Defendant's licensing boards were contacted about the lawsuit.  Click here to view a letter from Wilzig to Nanjo, telling her to file a complaint with the Dental Board.

(8)  Four of the Defendant Dentists had to shut down their practices because of the adverse publicity.  One of the Defendants died under the horrible pressure.  The device manufacturer couldn't sell the device to Dentists because of the adverse publicity, and had to file bankruptcy.  The University of Texas had to take special action to protect their Department Head.

(9)  Attorney Wilzig wrote letters, and made phone calls, to the Defendants' Medical Malpractice Insurance Carriers demanding millions of dollars in settlement money from each of them.  Wilzig demanded a three million dollar settlement from one Dentist alone the head of a Dental School Department, making it clear that the lawsuit, itself, and the publicity he could arrange, if carried through, would ruin the Dentist, and demean the school..

(10)  Then, in a surprise to us all, the Plaintiff Barbara Nanjo,  contacted DAMS (Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome) Executive Director Leo Cashman in Minnesota and asked for his help, explaining that she never wanted to sue any of these people, and that she only, really, had a complaint against the Shens, about the fact that her partial dentures didn't fit right.  She said Wilzig made up all of the additional charges, and added the other Defendants without her permission.  As it turned out Nanjo had been a member in good standing of DAMS since 2002. 

Then Leo Cashman contacted me. 

(11)  Leo and I asked Nanjo to write down what she claimed happened.  Nanjo wrote out a Formal Statement about what she said happened and had it signed in the presence of a Notary Public, then fired Wilzig.  Barbara Nanjo then caused to be sent Certified Letter copies of her Statement to all of the Defendants indicating that she did not want to sue them.

(12)  Then, of course, the excrement hit the fan... 

(13)  As you can imagine, there is a lot happening in the background right now, that I'll save for another newsletter.  But, one thing that I will tell you about is that Barbara Nanjo volunteered to be deposed over what happened, and we videotaped it.

Yup, we videotaped it - two-and-one-half hours in all.  The deposition  was conducted by none other than famous California litigator Carlos F. Negrete, and Insurance company attorney Tom Wianecke.  Nanjo was VERY cooperative.  She was obviously angry, and upset about the Barrett/Baratz/Wilzig unapproved use of her name.

Use your imagination to figure out what's happening behind the scenes over this.  Keep in mind, while your imagination is working,  that the quackbusters hate me with a purple passion for very good reason.

Let me summarize for you...

How the game works - (a)  Stephen Barrett, in this scam, is "the hook."  He writes, and publishes on websites like quackwatch, the fake, misrepresenting or fraudulent articles to lure the unsuspecting, like Barbara Nanjo, or employees of a State of Federal regulatory agency, into an action.  (b)   Attorney Wilzig, using information provided by Barrett and Baratz, talks the Plaintiff into suing someone.  (c) Baratz becomes "the expert witness" in the case, for a fee, and contacts the respective licensing boards, behind the scenes, to put pressure on the Defendants, and their insurance companies to settle.  (d)  Barrett, and/or Baratz, write articles for their search engine top-ranking websites to create more pressure to settle for big dollars.  (e)  Paul Lee PT, in Denmark, runs the webring scam, banding together fake websites, etc., to get top search engine, like google, billing so that their articles about the Defendants always come up on the front google page.

Details...

De-licensed MD Stephen Barrett, of quackwatch.com infamy, writes NASTY articles about things he and his associates don't like.  The articles are always characterized by, and with, obvious bigotry, designed to mislead the consumers, insurance companies, and government agents.  Barrett and another, wrote an article, published on quackwatch.com, called "A Critical Look at Cavitational Osteopathosis, NICO, and "Biological Dentistry."  The article serves as a lure for unaware consumers and regulatory agency employees, who are led to believe, in the article, that there is something unclean, criminal, unethical, and legally actionable about those that test for, identify, treat, and correct problems surrounding "Cavitational Osteopathosis, NICO, and Biological Dentistry."  The articles are designed to create a specific negative reaction.

Of course, none of the material in Barrett's NICO, etc., article is true.  US Courts, and science, have ruled that there is major substance to all three dental issues.  And, Barrett knows this but continues to lie, and mislead, the public.  Barrett is well aware that his entire argument, portrayed in his articles, has been court tested, and proven to be a lie, right in his home State of Pennsylvania in the "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Stephen R. Evans, DDS" case. 

It is not known how many Americans have been mislead by Barrett, and company, for no studies have been conducted to determine how much harm, pain, and suffering, they have caused - yet.  But what we do know is that Barrett's article, described above, lured one woman into a cycle of pain, fear, damage to her name, and severe emotional distress. 

NICO, whose long name is Neuralgia Induced Cavitational Osteonecrosis, is a recently brought-to-light dental condition with serious health ramifications for a huge segment of the US population.  In short, the old adage "what happens in your mouth affects your whole body" gains new and stronger  meaning when NICO rears its ugly head (pun intended).  Worse, is that the NICO condition is being shown to grow, these days, from poor dental care.

 Worse yet, is that that "poor dental care" is commonly accepted practice in the American Dental Association (ADA) "approved" view of what dentistry is really all about.  Official US Dentistry shies away from mouth health issues, and focuses instead, on making pretty teeth a sexual conquest tool.  Ie;  "If your teeth are white, you'll get laid tonight..."

And, that's what's wrong...

Final...

Before the Barbara Nanjo case came to boil, I was already a consultant in the other cases involving James and Riley Young Shen - and set up the strategy and tactics for the Defense.  Originally, there were seven total civil cases filed against the Shens by Wilzig, on behalf of seven different Plaintiffs - all, apparently, recruited by Barrett, Baratz, and Wilzig.  One of those cases, the first one, was settled before I came into the picture.  It should not have been settled, for that settlement generated the other six lawsuits.

Since then, besides the Nanjo case, one other has been dismissed, leaving four cases left - and those have been bundled into one case, going to trial in April 2008.  And, Wilzig, Barrett, and Baratz have absolutely no chance of winning.  Their legal arguments are crap.  Their factual arguments are crap. Their witnesses are crap.  They have no scientific backup for their nonsense claims. Wilzig is a nasty bluffer who never goes to trial.  Our side has superb legal representation, fantastically good case management, witnesses with honesty, integrity, and credentials, and science.  We also have really good "impeachment" stuff for their crap witnesses.

The trial will be fun to watch.  I'll keep you posted.

Stay tuned...

Tim Bolen - Consumer Advocate