PALMDALE SECRETARY WINS STATE'S LARGEST DENTAL SUIT.

Byline: Associated Press 

A secretary who went to the dentist for a cleaning and ended up toothless was awarded $1.2 million in what her attorney said was California's biggest dental malpractice judgement.

Dr. Leoneed Gordon told Linda Jeffery her teeth were so rotten they would fall out in a few months, according to the complaint. The report stated Jeffery was so scared, she gave her dentist permission to pull her teeth.

Wearing full dentures, the 46-year-old Palmdale school secretary said she was ``very happy with the verdict,'' which was reached Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Samuel Huestis, the North Hollywood attorney who represented Gordon, said neither he nor the dentist would comment on the verdict.

Jeffery said she was going to look into getting dental implants.

Experts testified that she merely needed a deep periodontal cleaning when she visited Gordon's Lancaster office in 1990. Gordon gave her the choice of expensive surgery, or a 30-minute procedure to replace them with dentures, the suit said.

``He sold her a bill of goods because it was to his economic advantage,'' said John Contos, Jeffery's attorney.

With dentures, Jeffery would have to visit only once every two years for realignment, but Gordon would get $25 a month insurance money just for listing her as a patient, the attorney said.

With teeth, Jeffery would have come in every few months for a cleaning and treatment, but the fee would have stayed the same.

Gordon, trained in Russia, has practiced in the area since 1985 and has offices between Sunland and Lancaster, Contos said.