Health officials in Philadelphia recommend patients at a dental practice in Center City get tested for HIV and hepatitis due to potential exposure to the viruses resulting from “unsanitary practices” at the clinic between April 2025 and May 2026.
“We don’t have any known reason to say that the risk will be potentially high, but the fact of the matter is, when you are in a dentist office that’s unsanitary, unsafe, the risk always exists,” said James Garrow, Philadelphia’s deputy health commissioner, in an interview with ABC News. “So that’s why we’re really pushing folks who are patients there to get tested and make sure.”
The clinic was identified as Smiles at Rittenhouse Square, sometimes called Smiles on the Square, and has since closed. The dentist at the clinic, Kirti Chopra, DDS, had her license temporarily suspended because, according to a Pennsylvania Department of State official, “her continued practice of dentistry presents a clear and immediate danger to public health and safety.”…