PHOENIX — The ABC15 Investigators have been asking questions for years about one Valley dentist with a troubled history.
Until recently, Dr. Thomas Endicott had been free to practice dentistry in the neighboring state of Utah even while his Arizona license was suspended.
But in February, state regulators in Utah revoked his dental license.
On Friday, the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners voted unanimously to revoke his Arizona dental license. He has been under investigation by the board since 2022 after a patient died in his exam chair.
Endicott did not attend Friday’s meeting in person or virtually and did not return messages left for him by ABC15. He has the option to appeal the board’s decision.
Watch previous coverage of Dr. Endicott in the player below:
At a license revocation hearing last month, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Seamus Monaghan, who represents the board, described Dr. Endicott’s care of his patient who died as “egregiously subpar.” The patient, a woman, was identified only by the initials “C.L.”
Monaghan alleged the dentist:
- Failed to consult with the patient’s cardiologist before performing dental surgery.
- Failed to immediately call 911.
- Failed to put oxygen on the patient.
- Left the patient to attend to other patients.
- Failed to provide records about the incident when requested by the Arizona Dental Board.
Endicott did not attend last month’s hearing, where he would have had the opportunity to present evidence in his defense. At a previous board meeting, in 2022, his attorney at the time, David Williams, called the patient’s death “an unfortunate event.”
“It’s our position Dr. Endicott appropriately managed the patient’s care and treatment as he tried to walk through an emergent situation,” he told the dental board.
Endicott’s Arizona license has been suspended for more than a year while the board investigated.
The ABC15 Investigators were the first to report last year that Endicott has red flags in his background dating back 20 years.
Endicott was first licensed in Michigan in 1990, but years later he lost his dental license there and in Illinois for healthcare fraud and overprescribing narcotics. But he got a second chance when the Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners licensed him in 2012. The board's vote to grant him a license was not unanimous.
Four years later, he obtained a Utah dental license.
Records show he got licensed in Utah in 2016. But in February, Utah state regulators revoked his license, in part, because he failed to tell them his Arizona license had been suspended in 2022.
The ABC15 Investigators have spent the past year looking into cases of people being rushed to the emergency room after dental visits. State records show dentists have called for emergency services dozens of times in the past five years. The patients received anesthesia or sedation during dental work and experienced medical complications.
Since 2018, seven Arizona dentists have had patients die after anesthesia or sedation procedures, according to a review of public documents by ABC15. Some of those dentists have practice restrictions, though Endicott is the only one the board has voted to revoke a license.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
