Minnesota Dentist's License Temporarily Suspended After Teen Dies following Wisdom Teeth Surgery

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (WCCO) — A Minnesota dentist’s license has been temporarily suspended after a teenage girl died after he performed oral surgery on her, according to CBS Minnesota.

Minnesota State regulators have temporarily suspended the license of a Twin Cities area dentist who performed oral surgery on a teenage girl who went into cardiac arrest and died.

Minnesota Board of Dentistry executive director Bridgett Anderson said to CBS Minnesota on Monday that Dr. Paul Tompach allowed a dental assistant to be involved with anesthetizing Sydney Galleger, even though the assistant wasn’t certified.

The 17-year-old Eden Prairie High School student had her wisdom teeth removed last June at Tompach’s Edina office.

Her mother, Diane Galleger, said earlier that her daughter’s blood pressure shot up, her pulse dropped and she went into cardiac arrest. She died later at Children’s Hospital.

“There’s still a huge hole in our hearts and always will be,” Diane Galleger wrote last week on her CaringBridge page. “They say time heals all, but right now, right at this moment, it’s still so deep.”

The dentistry board said that, during the period of suspension, Tompach is not allowed to practice as a dentist in Minnesota.

The dentistry board was expected to vote Thursday on a “final stipulation order” to which regulators and Tompach have agreed.