“I was gullible at the time, I was excited,” Spechelle Overton, who was offered a veneer procedure, tells Inside Edition. “It could have cost me my life.”
Many people have turned to veneers for the perfect smile. According to the American Dental Association, one in four adults do not smile because they do not like their teeth. And some people may be taking advantage of that and smell opportunity. Inside Edition went undercover to find veneers being offered for a fraction of the usual cost and found that some people making the offer were not dentists.
Some phony dentists promising a perfect smile wear scrubs appearing to be real dentists but they are not licensed to practice dentistry. Instead, some of them have taken a short training course and receive a bogus certification.
Spechelle Overton tells Inside Edition a so-called veneer technician offered her an amazing deal for the smile of her dreams.
“I was gullible at the time, I was excited,” Overton says. “It could have cost me my life.”
She says for $3,500, Lemeira Betty, known online as “The Veneer Fairy” performed the procedure and permanently glued veneer caps over her existing teeth.
Overton says one hour after the procedure, she was in tears and her “mouth was on fire. It felt like a thousand ants.” She says Betty tried to pull out the veneers but they would not move, so, Overton says, she took matters into her own hands and ripped them out of her mouth.
“I said a little prayer in my head and I was like, ‘I’m going to get these things out one way or another.’ I just with all my might just yanked. I didn’t know if I pulled my teeth out but I knew I wanted some time of relief,” Overton says.
Cosmetic dentist Dr. Victoria Veytsman says there are warning signs to look out for when evaluating a prospective dentist.
“Dentistry is a regulated profession for a reason. If there are massively steep discounts and quick fixes and a major upsell, I would definitely consider those red flags across the board,” Veytsman tells Inside Edition.
Inside Edition found unlicensed operators advertising their services across the United States.
Jay Colombo of Fairfield, New Jersey, calls himself the “Dental Daddy” online and appears to be a dentist, but he is not licensed. Inside Edition producers wearing hidden cameras met with him in his office.
Colombo told the producers that the procedure they were inquiring about was painless and that he was offering a sale for $6,000 for the operation.
An Inside Edition correspondent caught up with Colombo outside of his office.
When asked if he was performing illegal veneer procedures, Colombo said, “No.”
“The most concerning thing to me is the patient’s overall health and wellbeing. These procedures are still irreversible so it’s not like you can get veneers and then just get them taken off without any ramifications,” Veytsman says.
It is illegal in most states to practice dentistry without a license. In New Jersey, where Inside Edition producers were offered veneers, it is a crime punishable by as much as three to five years in prison.
