Fake dentist charged for doing real surgery

Patients went to see Valbona Yzeiraj, 45, at Riverdale’s Ultimate Dental Care for root canals, injections and even to have their teeth pulled — but “Dr. Val” was not a licensed dentist, an indictment alleges.

Police arrested Ms. Yzeiraj, 45, at 5 a.m. on April 16 at her White Plains home for numerous criminal charges including felony assault and reckless endangerment. The alleged crimes took place at Dr. Jeffrey Schoengold’s 3800 Independence Ave. office from November 2012 to August 2013, when Dr. Schoengold fired her.

“She diagnosed patients, she took x-rays, she injected patients with anesthetics and she performed root canals,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Patrick McCadden said in court at Ms. Yzeiraj’s arraignment.

One patient allegedly suffered a botched root canal. Another woman, who was pregnant at the time, suffered a“terrible oral infection,”prosecutors said.

She also allegedly scheduled appointments with patients when Dr. Schoengold was out of the office, prosecutors said.

At court on April 16, Ms. Yzeiraj declined to comment on the allegations. Her husband, Petrit Yzeiraj, denied them.

“She performed no surgery. She is not qualified,” he said. “If she was, she would have a paycheck, and it’s clear that she does not.”

Prosecutors said that Ms. Yzeiraj recruited many of her patients based on their shared Albanian backgrounds, but declined to provide details.

“I think that’s the bulk of what it was,” Dr. Schoengold confirmed in a phone interview. “She erased about 40 names from my x-ray system, but she forgot a few. I have a bunch of Albanian names here.”

The dentist said that those names included Ms. Yzeiraj’s husband, Petrit Yzeiraj, along with that of his daughter. Dr. Schoengold said he suspected that Ms. Yzeiraj, who was known to her patients as “Dr. Val,” had performed on each of them and accumulated large profits from the illegal enterprise.

A Facebook account for Valbona Yzeiraj dates a recent excursion with her husband to Atlantic City to April 15, just one day before her arrest and arraignment.