Conduct would be considered ‘disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional or unethical’
In a decision released Aug. 11, 2026, a discipline panel of the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, chaired by Judy Welikovitch, ruled that an associate dentist at a Kanata, Ont. practice was more likely than not responsible for a pattern of aggressive conduct toward staff, following a two-day contested hearing.
The panel found the conduct amounted to professional misconduct; a separate hearing will determine what penalty follows.
New assistant leads to conflict
Trouble started when a staffing shortage led the practice manager to pair a newly certified dental assistant with the dentist for the day. The dentist did not take it well. The assistant testified that he dropped his bag, threw his shoes to the floor, and slammed the door to a back office.
He told her, in front of the practice manager, that he would not work with her, calling her "white trash" and saying she did not belong there, the practice manager testified. Twice, when the assistant tried to open the door to the back room, he pushed it shut on her. Other staff later heard shouting coming from inside.
Two days after the incident, the practice owner sent a formal warning letter, co-signed by the practice manager and an assistant manager, telling the dentist that another outburst would mean immediate dismissal. He denied anything had happened at all, and told the panel it was the assistant who had been harassing him.
Threat ends in dismissal
Four months on, a patient asked to see a different dentist for an upcoming procedure, citing vaccination concerns. The practice manager lined up another associate dentist to take over. The dentist was not pleased. A patient, he argued, should not get to pick who provides their care.
He pinned the request on the assistant manager, accusing her of undermining his schedule. Then, according to the practice manager's testimony, he said he would "decapitate her" if it kept happening. She cautioned him about the comment on the spot.
Worried enough to act right away, the practice manager phoned a regional manager, filed a report, and had the matter in front of the company's human resources team by the next morning. Dentalcorp, which owns the practice, opened an investigation. A week later, on Oct. 21, 2021, the dentist was let go.
Panel finds pattern of abuse
Both lawyers called it a case of one person's word against another's, and credibility carried the hearing. Weighing whose account was more likely true, the panel believed the practice manager and the dental assistant, even where their memories of events five years old had gaps, and they did not believe the dentist's denials.
Nor did the panel see the conduct as a single bad day. The dentist's behaviour on June 21, 2021, ran through the entire shift, the panel noted, and a comparably serious threat surfaced again months later.
The panel ruled that the conduct crossed into professional misconduct, the kind of behaviour dentistry's own members would call “disgraceful, dishonourable, unprofessional or unethical.” What it decided goes only to liability.
A separate hearing will still determine what penalty, if any, the dentist faces.
