The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed the state Board of Dentistry’s decision to suspend a Woodbury dentist accused of incompetence after putting two patients through elaborate implant surgeries that failed, leading to painful infections.

In the course of two years, Dr. Marko Kamel of Woodbury Dental Arts placed at least 12 traditional and deep-set dental implants into a woman’s jawline and cheekbone, only to have at least seven of them fail, according to the board. That’s a failure rate of nearly 60%, compared to the industry average of 1% to 2%. The woman returned repeatedly for care for loose teeth, sinus concerns, gum and jaw soreness, as well as a screw that had fallen out, according to the judicial record.

Experts later determined that Kamel repeatedly inserted implants into spaces where the previous ones had failed, without allowing proper time for the tissue to heal.

A second patient went to the University of Minnesota — despite Kamel encouraging her not to — complaining of unmanageable pain after his treatments. Surgeons there again discovered evidence he had added a number of implants into infected tissue, and the infections were rapidly progressing toward sepsis and tissue necrosis, or localized tissue death.

The judicial records show that Kamel, in a voicemail, encouraged the patient not to seek their help: “I see that . . . there is some complications going on, but I definitely do not recommend going to the University of Minnesota, ah, E.R. … We can take care of it. The way that the University of Minnesota is dealing with . . . any complications . . . is not something that I would approve … they are not qualified to take care of such a case.”

Both patients later filed complaints with the Minnesota Board of Dentistry, which accused Kamel of “gross ignorance or incompetence in the practice of dentistry” and “personal conduct that brings discredit to the profession of dentistry.”

An evidentiary hearing featuring testimony from expert witnesses, one of the two patients and Kamel himself was held in December 2023 before an administrative law judge, who found sufficient evidence to support the board’s claim of gross ignorance or incompetence, though not the claim of bringing discredit to the profession.

An indefinite license suspension

Based on the judge’s findings, the board then suspended Kamel’s license to practice dentistry “for an indefinite period of time,” but allowed him the opportunity to petition to have his license suspension lifted after one year, provided that he satisfied certain conditions. It also barred him from practicing two types of deep jawline or cheekbone implant surgeries known as zygomatic and pterygoid implants for a period of at least five years.

Kamel appealed the board’s decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, arguing that the board’s decision to suspend his license was not supported by substantial evidence, and that the judge’s recommendation “virtually ignores the entirety of Dr. Kamel’s experts’ testimony without explanation.”

On Dec. 23, a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals affirmed the board’s decision with a non-precedential opinion. They noted that the record showed the implants failed in one particular area of the first patient’s teeth on three separate occasions: “Most concerning about these implant-failures is evidence that Dr. Kamel replaced the dental implants after the first two failures … without allowing the site to heal. Expert testimony presented at the hearing reflects that such conduct constitutes a violation of professional best practices.”

The experts also noted a failure rate of 58.3% “is substantially higher than the average failure rate of 1% to 2%. Although the expert witnesses agreed that any dentist or oral surgeon who performs dental implants has or will experience implant failures at some time, the experts generally agreed that it is extremely rare to have two implant failures in a single patient.”

With regard to the voicemail Kamel left for the second patient discouraging her from seeking help at the University of Minnesota, the judicial panel noted “at least one expert witness testified that this voicemail was inappropriate and a violation of the standard of care in the dental industry because ‘the documented infection that (was) found . . . can rapidly progress to very serious.’”

Woodbury Dental Arts closed

The Minnesota Board of Dentistry was represented before the Court of Appeals panel by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. Kamel was represented by attorneys with the Minneapolis law office of Meagher and Geer.

Reached by phone, attorney Julia Nierengarten said she had not spoken with Kamel about making comments to the media and would have nothing to say at this time.

A call and email to Woodbury Dental Arts were not immediately returned on Friday.

Kamel closed Woodbury Dental Arts abruptly in March, telling KSTP News at the time his office had run out of money and he could not afford to pay his employees. The news station reported that patients, some of whom were still in the midst of procedures, had not been informed of his legal problems and were unaware of any issues until they attempted to seek follow-up care from his practice.

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