PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman who prosecutors say was doing dental procedures out of her home has pleaded guilty to practicing without an Arizona license.
Geraldine Goez was sentenced to 12 months of supervised probation and must also pay restitution if any victims come forward.
"You are fortunate that no one was seriously hurt as a result of the dental treatments,” said Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nicholas Saccone at a recent court hearing.
“I do believe probation is appropriate.”
Court records allege the 33-year-old Goez portrayed herself as a dentist on Instagram and Facebook, advertising $100 teeth cleanings and $10 X-rays. The unlicensed procedures took place between January 1, 2023 and June 17, 2024.
“She exclusively sees Latinos and she finds patients through her job,” an investigator wrote in the probable cause statement that led to her June arrest.
Court records say she works in construction.
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The Arizona State Board of Dental Examiners received a complaint Goez was practicing dentistry without an Arizona license and forwarded the information to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which began investigating.
A search warrant of her Phoenix home turned up a dental chair, numbing medication and an X-ray machine. Investigators also found five human teeth in the trash, according to court records.
Goez’s attorney, Andrew Pacheco, said in a recent court hearing that she graduated from dental school in Colombia and practiced in clinics there.
“So she was certainly confident in her abilities,” he said, though, she recognized she “should not have been practicing in the United States.”
In exchange for Goez pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of fraudulent schemes. The charge of practicing without a license was also designated a misdemeanor, rather than a felony.
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