KITCHENER - A Guelph-based dental hygienist who lost his licence for cleaning his wife's teeth is one of three at the same clinic who suffered the same consequences.
Documents from the discipline committee at the College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario show that Melissa Kapralos and Samantha Wehrle both lost their licences for treating people with whom they were in sexual relationships.
Kapralos was married to the patient in question.
The discipline came after they broke a 1993 law that prevents hygienists from treating spouses.
Alexandru Tanase has made headlines fighting for a change to the law, which has had an exemption for dental hygienists pending for years.
Read his story here: 'I just want it to end'
Hygienists in other provinces don't face the same rule. Neither do dentists in Ontario.
But the other two dental hygienists at Dawson Dental Clinic in Guelph accepted the college's decision, the discipline committee's documents show.
"By this document, the registrant states that: … she understands that by admitting the allegations, she is waiving her right to require the College to prove the case against her and the right to have a hearing," the committee finding for Kapralos reads in part.
Wehrle's reads almost identically.
The fact that three of them faced the same consequences for breaking the same rule seems to corroborate Tanase's story.
In an agreed statement of facts from Tanase's case, he received bad information from a colleague, who mistakenly believed that the exemption had passed. That's when he began treating his now wife, Sandi.
"It's not like all of the sudden, three dental hygienists from an office decided overnight to bring their spouses in and provide treatment," Tanase told CTV in an interview.
Since, Tanase has been fighting the college's decision to take away his licence. He's also been labelled a sexual abuser, despite the fact that, the man's wife agrees, no sexual abuse took place.
"I mean, personally I find it insulting. Not just to him but to me, because sexual abuse indicates that there's a victim and I'm not a victim. The only thing I'm a victim of is this stupid law," she told CTV in an interview.
Neither Wehrle nor Kapralos has responded to request for comment.