How 'wacky' dentist told patient: 'Your dead mum is here with us'

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Dentist Catherine Crowe's treatment was described as 'completely wacko'

A woman suffering severe jaw pain was promised 'cutting-edge' treatment by a dentist charging £400 an hour.

In fact, she received several sessions of alternative therapies which culminated in the dentist announcing that she was talking to the patient's late mother.

The patient told the General Dental Council that she was left "reeling" with shock after Dr Catherine Crowe declared that the spirit of her mother, who had died 15 years previously, was in the surgery with them.

She said she told the dentist she was a Christian and didn't want "anything to do with this", only to receive the reply: "We can call on Jesus at the next session."

The total bill for her treatment came to £12,000.

Dr Crowe, 47, is accused of serious professional misconduct over her treatment of the patient, a former lawyer identified only as Mrs A. If found guilty, she could be struck off.

Mrs A said she first saw Dr Crowe at the Rookswood Dental Practice in Southampton in September

2003. She had chronic jaw pain and problems with her crowns after years of discomfort. She had also been diagnosed with serious stomach problems.

The dentist told her the treatment would cost "a few thousand" but that was "comparatively little to change her life completely".

On one occasion Dr Crowe told Mrs A she would treat her for the stomach pain and spent 20 minutes quizzing her about her sex life while pressing down on her abdomen. The bill for this was £600.

Dr Crowe later told her to take green algae to release mercury from her major organs, but this left her feeling even worse.

Events culminated in March 2004 when Mrs A claimed she was asked to fill out a family tree in preparation for a session of "the highest form" of Dr Crowe's work.

The patient described a bizarre moment in which she stood with the nurse holding her shoulder while the dentist held a glass dish

to her chest. "She said she was asking my body, "Did my family have anything to do with my pain?"," said Mrs A.

Dr Crowe concluded that Mrs A's agony was the result of her mother's sense of rejection after her grandfather had walked out on the family following the 1929 stock market crash.

Mrs A said: "I thought this was completely wacko. I remember feeling that. Suddenly she said out of the blue, "Your mother was beautiful".

"I said yes, my mother was a renowned beauty. I said, "How do you know that?"

"She said, "Because she just told me. She is here now and she wants to help you".' Mrs A told the hearing: 'My mother died in 1989. I was absolutely appalled. I said, "I don't want anything to do with this. You know I am a Christian and in my faith we don't deal with anything like that. I am only happy dealing with the spirit world if Jesus is there."

'She said, "We can call on Jesus at the next session. We need as much wisdom as possible".'

Mrs A said that Crowe boasted: "I have opened you up" and warned her she would feel 'raw' for a couple of days, but proclaimed: "At the next session I will put you back together again."

The patient described how she left the clinic in a daze, later ringing to cancel a further session and writing to "raise concerns that she had been blatantly acting as a medium".

Dr Crowe denies that aspects of her treatment of Mrs A were inappropriate, irresponsible and not in the patient's best interests.

The hearing is expected to last two weeks.

 

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