Dr Drew Smith

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Dr. Drew Smith (adjunct professor at Schulich Dentistry) and Dr. Joe Armstrong (director of Oral and Maxillofacial Program at Schulich Dentistry) have completely ruined my life. I had no functional concerns regarding my very mild, and perfectly functional, overbite (i.e., no OSA, no TMJ, no speech abnormalities, no restrictions on mastication, no facial pain of any degree). These doctors told me that the jaw surgery and genioplasty (a cosmetic chin procedure that I am alleging was fraudulently billed through OHIP) were required to “fix a severe facial deformity that will worsen with age” and “restore facial harmony”.

I am not sure when or why the state of dentistry in this city has so clearly deteriorated. It seems that more and more professionals who once respected patients’ wishes, abided by principles of beneficence and “do no harm” have since been replaced or have transformed into money-hungry marketing tycoons for unnecessary and medically unwarranted plastic surgery procedures. I am not ignorant to the business side of dentistry, but these antics are getting outrageously unethical and they run rampant in this city. It is very alarming that these very invasive cosmetic facial reconstructive surgeries are being pushed on young patients in the absence of any medical justification. I am very concerned about the lack of ethics in the dental field that is going on.

To this day, I am still trying to wrap my head around how I walked into University Hospital on my surgery day without any functional concerns, the ability to talk and chew comfortably, and completely free of any pain; only to walk out days later with chronic, debilitating pain, mangled facial nerves, and broken bones. These surgeries were completely senseless. There has not been a single benefit from the surgery. Adding to my devastation from a poor outcome is the inhumane treatment I received from Dr. Drew Smith and Dr. Joe Armstrong.

I am a shell of the person I once was. For the first time in my life, I can no longer invest in myself. Each day is a struggle. No one can ever truly relate to the utter despair of living with such debilitating and disabling chronic pain, unless something similar has happened to them. And there are so many people out there who are victims of tragic events that irreparably alter the course of their lives. But only in our dental and medical institutions do the perpetrators so seldom have to take any degree of accountability for their actions, and instead, the harmed victims are the ones left ostracized and marginalized, enduring the physical, mental, financial hardships of something they never asked for. Where is the humanity? Where is the care for patients?