Loch Ness Dog HoaxWell, it happens to the best of us sometimes. New outlets run with a story that sounds outrageous, but is just plausible enough to be true.

In this case, the story of a vengeful dentist in Poland who pulled out all of her ex’s teeth while he was sedated is FALSE.

The report that Polish dentist Anna Mackowiak removed all her ex-boyfriend’s teeth after he came into her office complaining of a toothache turned out to be a fake.

The story, which actually included quotes from both parties and ended with statements that Mackowiak was being investigated, was picked up by many major news outlets, including MSNBC and Yahoo News.

MSNBC contributor Erin Tennant did some digging and got to the bottom of things pretty efficiently.

Tennant learned that the Polish police agency in the region where the incident allegedly happened is NOT currently investigating any such case. Poland’s Chamber of Physicians and Dentists is also NOT investigating any case like this one. On top of that, there is no dentist named Anna Mackowiak listed on its professional register.

News outlets in Poland didn’t report on the story either.

The original story was eventually traced back to Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper. The writer, one Simon Tomlinson, says he doesn’t know where the story originated (even though he was the one who wrote it!).

“I’ve drawn a bit of a blank,” he told MSNBC.

The American Dental Association‘s national spokesperson, David Johnson Jr., said the story was most likely made up as most dentists administer drugs only for conscious sedation dentistry, meaning the alleged victim would have been aware of the fact that all of his teeth were being pulled.

So, scandalous as it may seem, this story has no teeth.

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