A self-proclaimed “MAGA Dentist” is dealing with backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gasoline for liberal sufferers at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up on-line.
Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and different wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning purchasers throughout a speech on the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, feedback that lately attracted mass consideration after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok. That video has since been taken down, however recorded variations of it and response movies criticizing Grewal proceed to flow into.
“I’ve a secret hat I exploit typically, it says, ‘Make your smile nice once more,’” she mentioned on the gala. “So I put on that after I work with my sufferers, after they look horrified or complain, I quietly reduce on the laughing gasoline.”
Within the handle, she additionally jokes about lacking the times when “the Dems stayed residence throughout COVID with their masks on” in addition to liberals’ response after they see the picture wall of Republican leaders within the workplace: “You’d suppose their butt was on fireplace. They bounce up and take off as if Trump was coming within the room.”
The feedback had been met with laughter inside the context of the Republican gala however have been met with outrage on the web in addition to calls to report Grewal to the California Dental Board.
“Dental care by a dentist who acknowledges that she doesn’t management your ache based mostly in your political get together? How does she have a license to observe?” wrote one particular person in a Yelp publish.
Greater than 100 one-star critiques had been left on her enterprise’ Yelp web page this week, with reviewers lambasting her remarks on the gala. Yelp has since quickly disabled the evaluate perform for Skyline Smiles, stating that as a consequence of elevated consideration within the information persons are prone to be writing about their private views versus a firsthand client expertise.
Grewal didn’t reply to a request for remark and has not issued a current public assertion on the viral video. On Thursday morning, nevertheless, she posted a video on the MAGA Dentist and Skyline Smiles Instagram accounts with the caption, “At Skyline Smiles, each affected person is household. We deal with all of our sufferers with the identical degree of care, compassion, and respect as a result of that’s what you deserve!”
By Thursday night, each Instagram accounts had been disabled.
The outrage incited by the movies was so far-reaching {that a} dental workplace in Chicago referred to as Skyline Smiles — which has no affiliation with the Santa Clarita enterprise — has acquired a number of one-star critiques as folks on-line mistake it for Grewal’s dentistry, mentioned Dr. Deepak Neduvelil, who owns the Chicago clinic.
Grewal has beforehand addressed criticisms about her gala jokes and her melding of enterprise and politics.
In an op-ed titled “You Can’t Cancel Me” printed within the Santa Clarita Valley Sign this month, Grewal mentioned “these assaults have solely made me extra decided to face tall, converse louder and combat more durable.”
Within the article, Grewal mentioned that the California Dental Board had beforehand despatched an investigator to her clinic after somebody accused her of torturing sufferers who didn’t share her political beliefs — a criticism Grewal mentioned was based mostly on “a lighthearted joke” she made on the Republican Liberty Gala.
“My phrases had been twisted, and my profession was focused,” she wrote, “however I didn’t again down.”
The California Dental Board mentioned it doesn’t touch upon whether or not complaints are submitted to the board as complaints and investigations are confidential.
Grewal additionally wrote that authorities had investigated her clinic following “fully false and completely unfounded” allegations that she was working an unlawful ballot-harvesting operation from her workplace over the past election cycle. In a clip shared on her now-disabled Instagram, Grewal mentioned that she had a poll field in her workplace “not solely gathering Republican ballots, however anyone’s ballots, all people ought to be capable to vote.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, which supplies policing providers in Santa Clarita, mentioned deputies would reply to any name for service however didn’t present particulars on whether or not they had responded to calls regarding Grewal’s clinic.
