Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

As a former citizen of Lee Co, having grown up there and spent 27 years around that area, I can tell you Shelburne has never had a good record with his dental practices. He’s caused a lot of, just friends of mine; who weren’t on medicaid but insurance to undergo treatments that didn’t help, were painful, or stuff he just completely botched up. To take the cake now I noticed on my visit home his office advertises “Ross Shelburne” as the dentist. They’ve owned that building for as long as I’ve been able to remember. A slap on the wrist of 2 years is nothing. And for those other foolish dentists out there who think he’s been so wronged. Well send him money if you like, but I would think if this big legal case was costing him so much he would have parted with his convertible Benz that stays parked behind his office. The real victims here are the tax payers who funded this crook, and who quite possibly could end up funding his son to repeat this mess. I mean, who among us wouldn’t pull 2 years (probably end up being 8 months) in a White colar buisiness style prison, and get out realizing you still have the near million you stole from the tax payers. I would hope those less fortunate who went to him, can find out they were treated for something not necessary and can sue him. Because I guess just like that crooked church he attends full of money paying back sliders, who can quote you the bible daily… Yet can’t manage to live a word of it for an hour; will have a reality to wake up to one day. Last I studied my bible it said no rich man shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. And it also had “rules” about stealing. TO me what happened to him wasn’t good enough, those poor people who he suffered; and tax local tax payers who funded his lavish lifestyle probably will never see our judicial system serve justice to Roy Shelburne. But one day he will have to answer for all he’s done. The people commenting on this story just from what they read, have no true idea. Try living in a place as backward and dirty as every stereotypical southern town you’ve seen in movies/tv, and you start to figure out there are no justice for this with a hefty bank account, good accord with the church, and a “big shot” surname.

As I said, now his son is the practicing dentist there. I had a friend who had to go to him the other day, now what dental school genius grants a diploma to a student who takes over an hour to pull one simple tooth? And not to mention all the pain that kept happening during that hour, because Ross refused to listen to the fact the patient wasn’t numbed enough. I guess his daddy taught him to try to get away with using as lil medication as possible, as a means of saving money. I know one thing, I was in Lee Co 2 yrs ago before this happened, and we have 2 dentists in the town of Pennington Gap, the other being Roberson; and suffering thru a horrible toothache for 2 months. Because I had the good sense not to visit either dentist that was there locally, Roberson almost killed my mother and she’s still left with problems due to his lack of knowledge or not caring what he done. I simply drove in the snow of the southwestern VA mountains up to Norton to visit a very friendly, intelligent and caring dentist who took me in as a walk-in as soon as I arrived (althou his office was packed), performed an exam, Xray and extraction (tooth pulled); and from start to finish I was in his chair for probably 20 minutes. If Ross Shelburne is going to spend an hour extracting one tooth, I guess that will cut back on the number of patients he can see in a day’s time. I know my cousin had basically the same tooth removed as I (only on the opposite side of the mouth), and when I saw him upon my visit his jaw was brused, swollen, and he was still in pain. All of which when I had my extraction done by a real dentist, I had slight swelling that first evening and no problems there after. It’s just a shame, that the citizens of Lee Co and Pennington Gap VA had to first endure Roy Shelburne, only to now face his lesser qualified son Ross. I to this day cannot accept anywhere gave that boy a diploma, he was a few years below me thruout school, and while there probably the only original intelligent thought he had died of loneliness somewhere around his time at Lee High School.

What has changed here? They took away the good dentists dental license, he was in his 50s and from what I heard going to retire once his son took over anyways; so that wasn’t any punishment. Was it that he had to spend some money on his legal issues; well that money was simply him spending what wasn’t his to begin with (stolen tax payer dollars). And now his family is still working there, handling the business and billing; and for the slap on the wrist he got away with; if I were the type of people I know they are, I guess I’d try it again. But here is to hoping someone in the higher courts appeals this and pushes for harsher punishment. At least take away his business from not only him, but run his family out as well. Let them survive and have his son have to start out with being a grad building his way into owning his own practice. Instead of it being given to him. Nothing shocks me anymore, after living in Lee Co as long as I did, I can safely say; the town known as Pennington Gap should be renamed “Hell”. Because that big church on the hill across the street from his practice, who stood behind a liar, theif, and someone who caused innocent people (worse of all children who have to suffer with bad dental issues the remainder of their lives) pain, just because he was a so called professional, and they were on welfare, medicaid, etc. Classic case of why the rich will always get richer, and the poor only get poorer.

Dare I ask this, if this were a average citizen, who lets say worked at Walmart and had children; we’ll say a single mother. And she made just a little too much to have medicaid for her childrens health/dental needs and she lied to get medicaid so that her child wouldn’t suffer with horrible tooth aches. Do you honestly think she’d get away so lightly? Would she only get 2 years? No, she’d be locked away for at least 5 and made to repay back every penny with interest! Think about how this would go if it were an average low income citizen defrauding medicaid because they couldn’t afford insurance or to pay the expensive cash prices of procedures. Then these dentists supporting him would be calling for her head, why not the same for Roy? Just because he has “DDS” at the end of his name, doesn’t make him a God. (Althou his church seems to think so). Hell’s fires burn hot for certain people, and I think quoting scripture won’t save you from that when the Lord in heaven knows what’s in your heart and mind.

Two years! This is outrageous given the education and the opportunities this man has been afforded.

Unfortunately, this is yet another example of a layperson critiquing the work of a professional. Dentists can call other dentists competent or incompetent. A layperson experiences things like “it hurt more than I expected” or “it took longer than I expected”….and then somehow twists that into “he must not be a good dentist.”

Some teeth have 1 root. Others have 2, or even 3 roots. Some may be splayed or dilacerated. Some teeth require special care due to their proximity to nerves or sinuses. Perhap to a layperson, any extraction should take 20 minutes…but that is not the case.

I don’t know how much Dr. Shelburne did wrong. He may have deserved his conviction – or he may have been terribly wronged. Regardless, I hope that those who have no idea what they are talking about will bite their tongues and refrain from speaking nonsense.