Board reinstates license of dentist convicted of being intoxicated at Anamosa State Penitentiary

The Iowa Dental Board has reinstated the license of a Waterloo dentist convicted of being intoxicated at the state prison where he was providing dental care for inmates.

State records show that in December 2023, Paymun Bayati, also identified in board records as Payum Bayati, was arrested at Anamosa State Penitentiary shortly after completing a root canal on a patient inmate. Bayati was charged with public intoxication and was convicted in April 2024. He subsequently agreed to voluntarily surrender his license for at least one year.

Police records show that on Dec. 7, 2023, an Anamosa police officer was dispatched to the penitentiary in reference an impaired person who was trying to drive away from the prison. The officer reported arriving at the prison and meeting with the warden, the deputy warden and Bayati.

According to the police report, the warden said nurses reported Bayati appeared to be intoxicated and had just completed a root canal on a patient. The police officer reported Bayati’s speech was slurred and he “smelled heavily” of alcohol. Bayati then submitted to a test that allegedly indicated a blood-alcohol level of 0.158 — almost twice the legal limit for driving.

“He let me search his vehicle in the parking lot, where I located an empty flask that smelled of an alcoholic beverage,” the police officer wrote in his report.

Court records, which include the judge’s notes from the ensuing criminal trial, indicate the dental assistant who worked with Bayati testified that when she arrived for work on Dec. 7, 2023, Bayati had music playing on a computer and his head was resting on the counter. The trial notes indicate she testified that later, while doing the root canal, Bayati was swaying back and forth, closing his eyes, had trouble picking up dental instruments, and smelled of alcohol.

The judge’s notes also indicate the administrator of nursing testified that after she told Bayati he could not work and instructed him to gather his belongings, he told her he loved her and asked if he still had a job. She also testified that Bayati was staggering at one point, seemed confused and was laughing inappropriately, according to the judge’s notes.

“I don’t dispute that I was intoxicated,” Bayati testified, according to the judge’s notes. “How it came about is what I am arguing. Someone poisoned me.”

Bayati told the Iowa Capital Dispatch he doesn’t drink and believed someone, probably his dental assistant, tampered with his cup of coffee by pouring isopropyl alcohol into it after he arrived at the prison that morning.

In December 2024, six months after his license suspension took effect, Bayati sought early reinstatement of his license. After the board indicated it intended to deny that request, Bayati sought a hearing before the board.

As part of his request, Bayati provided the board with a substance abuse evaluation that didn’t recommend treatment and didn’t include a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder. Bayati also informed the board that he is subject to some form of additional substance-use monitoring by virtue of his holding a commercial pilot’s license and a commercial driver’s license as part of his trucking business.

Last month, the board concluded that Bayati had demonstrated it was in the public’s best interest to have his license reinstated, subject either to enrollment in the Iowa Professional Health Program or to three years of substance monitoring by the board.

Other Iowa dentists sanctioned

Other Iowa dentists whose disciplinary cases recently came before the board include:

Deborah Cassill of Cedar Rapids – According to the board, Cassill was alleged to have allowed uncertified dental assistant trainees to take patient radiographs and perform dental work without supervision by a dentist. It was also alleged that Cassill had “rushed a patient’s dental work” and that the patient was one of her own employees.

The board, which has not disclosed when the alleged conduct took place, charged Cassill with encouraging, assisting, or enabling the unauthorized practice of dentistry, and with unprofessional conduct. To resolve the case, Cassill agreed to pay a $2,000 civil penalty and complete an “ethics program” of undefined duration.

It is the second time the board has sanctioned Cassill for improper use of staff to perform dental work.

In 1999, the board charged Cassill, then known as Deborah Trimble, with assisting or enabling the unauthorized practice of dentistry and with willfully or repeatedly violating a board rule in that she failed to protect the health of her patients by assigning unlicensed auxiliary staff duties that could not be legally delegated to them.

In that case, the board alleged Cassill regularly employed “unlicensed auxiliary staff” as dental assistants, and on many occasions allowed a dental assistant to perform procedures — including the placement and removal of temporary crowns — that constituted the practice of dentistry or dental hygiene. The case was resolved with Cassill’s license being placed on probation for five years, with the understanding that she’d complete a course on dental ethics and pay a $1,500 civil penalty.

Maria Nosworthy of Ottumwa – According to the board, it fielded a complaint about Nosworthy that expressed several areas of concern with her practice of dentistry, including “using force with patients,” an allegation on which the board didn’t elaborate.

The board alleges the complaint also expressed concern with regard to Nosworthy’s failure to meet infection-control standards, working on patients after they have asked her to stop, improper use of local anesthesia, failure to perform comprehensive patient examinations, poor communication with patients, failure to meet the expected standard of care, and unprofessionalism.

The available board documents don’t indicate when any of the alleged conduct took place.

The board charged Nosworthy with practicing dentistry in a manner that is harmful or detrimental to the public, unprofessional or unethical conduct, and failure to maintain a satisfactory standard of competency.

Without agreeing to any wrongdoing, Nosworthy recently agreed to settlement that calls for her to complete a remedial education program that deals with restorative care, ethics and recordkeeping.

No civil penalties or restrictions on Nosworthy’s license were imposed.

This article first appeared in Iowa Capital Dispatch.