The day after the first hearings of former patients who recounted their ordeal after passing through his hands, Lionel Guedj dropped ballast before the Marseille criminal court where he was comparing with his father for "willful violence resulting in mutilation or infirmity permed".

"It is obvious that these patients are suffering. It is obvious that I am responsible for what I have done", admitted the practitioner on Tuesday, claiming to have "evolved" in his vision of the file.

"In police custody, I firmly believed in my treatment plans but, with hindsight, I can clearly see the reality. My therapeutic choices were due to a lack of youth," he said.

Some 320 former patients have joined as civil parties in this extraordinary trial.

Justice accuses the two practitioners of having enriched themselves on the back of health insurance and mutual insurance by carrying out a maximum of dental prostheses on people who did not need them, after having devitalized healthy teeth.

These operations, carried out on a chain, in defiance of health rules, according to experts, would be the cause of multiple complications: abscesses, cysts, unbearable pain, falling teeth, bad breath...

"I was a recent graduate, my practice quickly grew. I wanted to treat everyone, I did not want to keep my patients waiting, for me it was unacceptable. I wanted to be there for them, to answer their questions. their requests. But the speed of my actions brought flaws in the care of my patients. It was not intentional, I never meant to hurt anyone. I think I was overwhelmed", he asserted.

an aberration"

“Not long ago, you were straight in your boots, thinking you were the best dentist. Your posture has changed radically”, notes, dubiously, the prosecutor Michel Sastre.

Lawyers and plaintiffs await the opening of the trial of dentists Lionel and Carnot Guedj in the Marseilles court, February 28, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP

But tell us, when you devitalized 24 teeth at once, how much did it earn you?

asks the magistrate.

"I would not answer this question", eludes Guedj.

A few moments earlier, the practitioner had already refused to answer the social security lawyer, a civil party to the trial, who asked him if "devitalizing teeth without medical justification constituted (for him) a mutilation".

For Doctor Xavier Gonzalez, author with Doctor Michèle Acquaviva of a detailed expertise of the Guedj cabinet, the answer is not in doubt: "Yes, it is indeed a mutilation".

Responding then to the interpellation of the lawyer of a teenager who had 10 devitalized teeth, he drove the point home: "putting prostheses on a 15-year-old child whose growth is not finished is an aberration", he denounced.

"And talking about medical errors on 320 patients, I don't believe it. It's a well-considered choice," he added, speaking "of gestures decided in advance".

Dentists Lionel (2nd d) and Carnot Guedj (c), accused of fraud and dental mutilation, arrive for their trial at the Marseille court, February 28, 2022 Nicolas TUCAT AFP / Archives

In his report to the court, the expert had previously listed the many malfunctions of the Guedj firm that he noted by comparing in particular the data from the firm's server with the social security files.

“We found differences between the acts invoiced and what was actually carried out,” he explained, pointing to “fictitious acts, falsification of radios and the absence of information and quotes to obtain” consent informed" of patients before an operation.

The day before, another expert, Doctor Jacques-Henri Torres, had given the judges the same conclusions: "An error is when you do something you didn't want to do. Here, it's strictly intentional" , he had said.

The trial is scheduled until April 8.

© 2022 AFP