Italy struggles with huge fake dentist problem

Some 15,000 Italian "dentists" do not have the proper credentials to treat patients, according to a story in the Guardian.

More than a thousand people were charged in Italy last year with unauthorized exercise of a medical profession, the Guardian reported. They included phony doctors, dentists, and nurses. In an average year, about 1,000 people are convicted of the offense, the paper noted.

An illegal dental practice is closed every three days by the Italian health police, according to a March report in the German publication Riviera Côte d'Azur Zeitung. But because the penalty is only a fine of up to 516 euros ($633), few people are deterred from returning to their fake practices.

Giuseppe Renzo, president of the Italian Association of Dentists, told the Guardian he estimates 15,000 of Italy's 71,000 dentists lacked proper qualifications. Some 70% are dental technicians who practice as dentists, he noted.

"Of late, false degrees have been on the rise. They go and get them in countries like Romania which have recently entered the EU," he said in the article. Others get their names put on degrees from South American universities, he added.

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