A North Texas dentist is facing a felony charge after police allege she performed surgery while intoxicated at a pediatric dental office.
Police responded around noon on Monday, Feb. 16, to Pediatric Dentistry of Sherman after office staff reported concerns that a dentist was showing signs of intoxication while treating a patient, according to a Sherman Police Department press release.
When officers arrived, they said they observed signs of intoxication and conducted a field sobriety test before arresting Kelly Buck, 36, according to KXII, WFAA and NBC 5. One outlet reported that she failed the sobriety test.
Buck was charged with performing surgery while intoxicated, a state jail felony under the Texas Occupations Code, police said.
Authorities said Buck treated one patient at the dental office prior to their arrival, according to the outlets. Investigators later obtained a warrant for a specimen of Buck’s blood as part of the investigation, the outlets reported.
Buck was allegedly performing a filling and crowning procedure on an 8-year-old boy when a dental technician assisting her observed behavior that raised concerns she was intoxicated and stopped the procedure mid-course, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA. The boy’s father then called 911, the outlet reported.
Buck has denied the allegations.
“Mrs. Buck is not guilty of the charges she was arrested for,” her attorney, Matthew Hamilton of Jarvis & Hamilton Law Firm, said in a statement. He said Buck has been a licensed dentist since 2016 and takes patient care seriously, adding that she is awaiting blood test results that he believes will show no drugs or alcohol were in her system.
Buck also told WFAA that she offered to take a breathalyzer test and said officers declined. Hamilton told the outlet that Buck allowed officers to search her car and that no contraband was found.
According to the outlets, Buck has been licensed in Texas since 2016 and has no publicly available disciplinary history.
Police said Buck was working in a temporary capacity through a staffing agency at the time of the incident, according to the outlets.
“It’s definitely a very unusual case,” Sherman Police Lt. Sam Boyle said, according to KXII.
Buck was booked into the Grayson County Jail and later released after posting a $10,000 bond, according to KXII and WFAA. If convicted, she could face up to two years in prison.
