A DENTIST who received thousands of pounds for treatment she never provided has been struck off.

Dr Beatrice Luciola left one patient, from Appleton, requiring surgery in order to correct incomplete dental work after fleeing the country.

The General Dental Council has now erased the orthodontist’s name from the register following a host of complaints.

The Appleton patient, who wished to remain anonymous, paid more than £3,500 up front to have braces fitted to her top and bottom sets of teeth at Dr Luciola’s Beyond Dental Care practice in Knutsford but received less than half of the treatment.

She told the Warrington Guardian back in 2018: "I'd spent years looking for the right orthodontist and I felt very trusting of her.

"I had the top brace put on in May 2017 and everything was going well, then in the November I had the bottom brace put on.

"But between leaving the practice and getting home most of it had fallen off, and I had to spend most of the night with cheese wire hanging out of my lip.

"The next day, I rushed back to have the whole thing re-done and then that was the last I saw of her.

"I spent the whole of Christmas and New Year constantly trying to get hold of somebody and ended up having to buy wire cutters and cut the wire.

"A lot of the brackets had fallen off and had left a wire sticking into my cheek - I was in so much pain."

The GDC found that Dr Luciola received more than £8,500 for treatments from two patients in 2017 before cancelling their appointments and failing to provide refunds.

She returned to her home country of Kenya in 2018, where it was believed she was living and practising under her maiden name.

A council report stated: "It was the view of the committee that the dishonesty found proved in this case represented serious departures from a number of GDC standards.

"The committee was in no doubt that Ms Luciola’s dishonesty was at the high end of the scale.

"Taking this into account, together with its concerns about Ms Luciola’s attitude, the committee concluded the only appropriate and proportionate sanction to protect the public is erasure."

A hearing in 2018, during which Dr Luciola was initially suspended, was told that poor orthodontic treatment left patients in pain and discomfort and led to them paying more money to have the dental work corrected.

The Warrington patient added: "I've probably not even received half of the treatment I paid for, but the financial side actually pales into insignificant because she's basically ruined my teeth.

"When you trust somebody and you believe in them it's hard to imagine them ever doing something like this – I've still not processed it.

"I've got to now have jaw surgery, which will involve them breaking my jaw and me taking six weeks off work.

"There are no personal circumstances that could warrant this sort of behaviour.

"I'm not an angry or bitter person, but this has made me like that because I'm thinking every day about her sitting there with all our money showing no remorse."