25-Year-Old Fake Dentist Ran His Own Dental Clinic After Picking Up Skills on YouTube

It turns out that dentistry is so easy that anyone can do it. Case in point, 25-year-old Mohamad Irwan Mohd Sudi from Kuantan, Malaysia, who used YouTube videos and dentistry magazines to hone his skills to the point where he was able to open his own dental clinic and perform various procedures.

Instead of spending six years in dental schools to pick up the necessary skills to become a licensed dentist, Irwan decided to take a different route – he learned all he needed to perform procedures like tooth extraction, teeth scaling and placing braces by watching all kinds of video tutorials on YouTube and reading dentistry magazines. It’s not clear exactly how much time he put into honing his skills, but he apparently became so confident in his abilities that at one point he opened his own unauthorized dental clinic in Perkampungan Indera Sempurna.

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Irwan new that his charade couldn’t last too long, so he planned to close his clinic last year, in December. Only, as luck would have it, one of his clients apparently figured out that he wasn’t a real dentist and reported him to the police. He didn’t have a license to show them when they came knocking, so they closed the clinic a month early. The fake dentist was charged under Section 27 of the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998, and slapped with a RM40,000 ($9,000) fine that he has since settled. Considering the danger he posed to his patients, I’d say he got off pretty easy.

One thing is for sure, though, the guy did have some skill, if he was able to learn various dental procedures from YouTube videos and magazines. Hopefully he was able to put away some money during his fake dentist career to attend dental school and get a license.

Interestingly, Mohamad Irwan Mohd Sudi is not the only fake dentist in Malaysia’s history. In 2007, a 63-year-old man confessed to having practiced dentistry  for 29 years with no medical training. His only experience in the field was assisting an army dentist by carrying his bag on visits to plantation workers’ homes, between 1962 and 1978. They didn’t have YouTube back then.

 

This story reminds of Malachi Love-Robinson, the Florida teen who posed as a doctor and even ran his own fake medical practice, last year. I guess it’s true what they say, you can do anything you set your mind to.

Also, it seems you can learn anything on YouTube these days, from how to fix teeth, to building a house from scratch.