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Subscribe to RSSA hugely popular news story about a jilted dentist accused of pulling out all her ex-boyfriend's teeth has unraveled as a hoax.
News websites around the world ran the story last week about a woman in Poland named Anna Maćkowiak who took revenge on a man named Marek Olszewski when he turned up at her clinic complaining of toothache, days after dumping her for another woman.
Among the numerous U.S. news sites that picked up the story were Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, MSN, the New York Post, and The New York Daily News. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft, which operates MSN, and Comcast.)
The story even included quotes from the scorned dentist and her toothless ex.
"I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions. But when I saw him lying there I just thought, "What a b******," Maćkowiak was quoted as saying.
Quotes attributed to the boyfriend victim meanwhile read: "I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn’t feel any teeth ... When I got home I looked in the mirror and couldn't f******* believe it. The b**** had emptied my mouth."
Online news outlets also reported that his new girlfriend had left him because "she can’t be with a man without teeth."
The story claimed Maćkowiak is being investigated for medical malpractice and could face up to three years in jail.
But when msnbc.com contacted police in Wroclaw, Poland, about the supposed criminal case, a spokesman said they had no record of such an incident.
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"Lower Silesia Police Department has not been notified about such an event and is not investigating such a case," Pawel Petrykowski of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw said in an email that was translated into English.
A legal adviser for Poland’s Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, which handles disciplinary matters, said the organization is not investigating and has never investigated any such case, and added that there is no dental practitioner named Anna Maćkowiak listed in Poland’s central register of dentists.
"No information about this kind of misconduct has been provided to the Supreme Chamber," the legal advisor, Marek Szewczyński, said in an email. "The Supreme Chamber is also not aware of any actions of this kind being taken by the Regional Chamber of Physicians and Dentists in Wroclaw, which would be the competent authority in case of a possible professional misconduct committed by a dental practitioner from Wroclaw."
Most online news outlets in Poland left the story alone.
Polish television news channel TVN4 published an article mocking foreign media's coverage of the story, which it speculates began as a prank. "It appears that the article, written as a joke, began life on the Internet and has little to do with any truth," the translated article reads.
All the news reports about Maćkowiak published on news websites in the U.S. and elsewhere, such as Australia’s Herald Sun or New Zealand Herald, can be traced back to an article published in the online edition of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper.
The article, which has been shared on Facebook more than 75,000 times since it was published on April 27, appears under the byline of staff reporter Simon Tomlinson.
But Tomlinson said he does not know where the story came from and distanced himself from it when questioned about its origins.
"I've drawn a bit of a blank," he said in an email. "The (Daily) Mail Foreign Service, which did the piece for the paper, is really just an umbrella term for copy put together from agencies. My news desk isn’t sure where exactly it came from."
The American Dental Association’s national spokesperson, David Johnson Jr., said the story of Maćkowiak’s revenge was highly improbable -- not just as an unprecedented abuse of the doctor-patient relationship but because most dentists are equipped to administer drugs only for conscious sedation dentistry. That would mean the ex-boyfriend would know his teeth were being extracted as it was happening, rather than realizing it after he arrived home.
"Patients are already fearful enough of going to the dentist," said Johnson, who has an oral surgery practice in Tennessee. "It’s really concerning if anyone is delaying getting treatment because they think there is even a possibility that something like having all their teeth removed could ever happen."
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Fooled me. I cringed when I read the story. Watch out for the woman scorned...never turn your back on her. LOL
'Media' means to 'come between' my 6th grade teacher taught us and I've never forgotten that. I do not trust mainstream media as they tend to publish first and check for facts later. Meanwhile the damage is done (editing 911 calls...anyone remember that?). Fortunately, in this instance, no real people were damaged in this spread of the hoax by MSM. Practice due diligence when reading "news".
It doesn't seem like the media vets their stories, if they ever did. With the internet, everything is so fast. With that speed, it should have been simple to check it out. I get e-mails alll the time that seem fishy and when I check them out in a few minutes, it is confirmed to be fishy. It is no different when the media vets our politicians (of both parties) they give a little to the ones they want to support and dig a little deeper on the ones they don't. That is why we have gotten a string of poor candidates in congress and the white house.
The same idiots vote for the next president of the United States.
If you could achieve anything from voting they would make it illegal.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Especially when they are lies. Drama sells and the current day medias never check there sources. They just run with it and spill all of this garbage out into the media for publication not knowing if it is true and not caring because it is sensationalism. People who print lies should be arrested. The problem is that there are so many mental midgets out there that will read it and then swear it is true. Believe nothing you read and half of what you see. I shall not bare false witness is meaningless in this godless, perverted world. Just to sell a story. Story tellers of old were revered in the tribe because they passed down history to the next generation least it be lost forever. Today story tellers are liars and thieves that get paid to dupe the public. How far we have fallen.
You mean that email I got saying that bad things would happen to me if I didn't forward it to everyone on my list might not be real after all!?
Just as real as Big Foot, Zombies, and Space Aliens. Got to go and forward a few more emails, I need the luck!
It seems to many people who read/watch/listen to news forgot to "cum grano salis" when reading.
Who just farted....
SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MSN has THREE LETTERS. MSNBC has FIVE LETTERS - There is a reason for this - they are not the same thing ! MSNBC did not publish the original story although it did provide a link to 'What's trending now' - and it is TRUE that this story was trending!
some manhater wrote this,along with stories about beaches killing men by their testricles.I don't need teeth to eat kielbasa, so there.
journalistzz are trained by the TSA & DOD & GAO & AG's office to be like Fast n' Furious Czars want'um too-be.
SHOOT-FIRST, ask ??? later, ... mebbe.
Just another example of people too lazy or too dumb to think for themselves. They believe anything that they hear, read, or even sometimes, see.
Our news media at its best, as usual! It used to be that they had to confirm and substantiate any story printed. Now the media is just a joke. You can't believe any of it!
I believe this story! It's trying to be hushed up by the world dentistry cabal who have a strong influence in media and governments. They also mess with the stock market all the time. Think about it, a stranger leans over looks in your eyes- shines a bright light in your face while administering "laughing gas". Well guess what- they are the only one's laughing as their whole stock and trade is in covert hypnotism and brainwashing. DON'T GO TO THE DENTIST!!!!
"Too good to be true"? The author wanted this to be true, wanted it to actually have happened. Nice.
Just your normal everyday sadism towards any male hurt by a female.
Can anyone out there recommend a good dentist?
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Here a Intresting fact
13 American Facts You Might Not Know watch?v=Eib7sqU6x9o
Actually I'm quite glad this was a hoax, to imagine someone would use their profession to act out something so vicious on an individual was far more bothersome. What made it more disturbing was the general response of most comments, it appeared as if it was a joke to them. One need wonder if the genders were reversed if the same reaction would have occurred. One thing for certain, if any woman were to do that to my brother, and knowing my brother, she wouldn't live to see another day, and that's only if I didn't beat him to it.
Hi, It's quite funny story. I work as a tour guide in Wroclaw and will tell this story to my tourists as a joke.
see you in Wroclaw
Michal
www.lowersilesiatour.pl