Busted Again: Waltham Dentist Admits 2nd False Advertising Claim

Background: This Dentist's 1st Admission of False Online Advertising, Nov. 2020

As Waltham Patch readers may recall, less than four months ago, in late November 2020, this media outlet published a series of local articles about a Waltham dentist, Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, examining his false and illegal advertising practices.

As Patch reported, the 1st time he was busted for false advertising, he was pretending to be a member of a certain professional organization, one which requires its members to own and use highly modern equipment and take rigorous coursework. According to its website, this is all required by membership in a national organization, based in Wisconsin, known as the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentists ("AACD").

But as former patients of Dr. Cummings know, Dr. Cummings actually uses outdated lightboxes for his patients' x-rays, a technology so old that other dentists complain they can not read these x-rays because Dr. Cummings' lightbox equipment is so outdated -- and is not digital.

Yet, Dr. Cummings was advertising online he is a member of AACD - but he was not listed in the AACD online directory of members. Consequently, it was rather easy for a former patient to discover the fraudulent and false advertising claims being made by Dr. Cummings in his online bio at his business website.

AACD was then contacted by the former patient, and AACD then contacted Dr. Cummings -- demanding he stop advertising a professional membership with AACD since none exists.

A before and after screen shot of Dr. Cummings' online bio showed he deleted this false advertising claim after being busted by the former patient, as reported in the Nov 2020 Patch article.

Here again are the before and after screen shots from his online business website, showing his 5 professional memberships declining to 4 in Nov 2020:

BEFORE (5 professional memberships advertised in his online bio at his business website):

AFTER (down to 4 memberships, as the "American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry" membership was false and is now deleted):

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Today's News: This Dentist's 2nd Admission of False Online Advertising

Now, in March 2021, Dr. Cummings admits he's been busted again for false online advertising, and so -- yet again his online bio professional membership numbers shrink, this time, from 4 professional memberships down to only 3.

This time the false claim concerned a non-existent research organization, as detailed in another Patch article from late November 2020.

As Patch correctly and accurately reported, the only place this allegedly existing research organization existed was in Dr. Cummings' imagination. He was actually not deeply engaged in any dental research nor consulting with other dental researchers in a professional dental research organization.

Nevertheless, he advertised on his business website his membership in this non-existent research organization, which he dubbed: "Robert R. Andrews Society for Dental Researchers."

Of course this organization had no online link anywhere, since it didn't exist. Apparently, some entity with authority ordered him to remove this listing (though we may never know who exactly ordered Dr. Cummings to cease and desist this false online advertising), following the Patch article expose.

Here's the before and after screen shots, at his current online business website, showing Dr. Cummings' deletion of this fake professional membership:

BEFORE (4 professional memberships advertised at his online bio):

AFTER (down to now 3 professional memberships, as the "Robert R. Andrews Society for Dental Research" was a bogus research organization created by Dr. Jeffrey Cummings -- and is now deleted from his online bio page):

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Previous News: This Dentist's 3rd Admission of False Advertising (Outdoor Advertising)

In addition to his admitted two false online advertising claims, Dr. Cummings also made major changes to his outdoor advertising -- which, like his online advertising, was also false. (He was pretending to have a certain dental speciality when no such specialty is recognized in MA, and he was advertising it on a huge outdoor sign.) Is there a "three strikes and you're out" rule for false advertising in dentistry?

Future News: How Much More False Advertising Can The Public Take From This Dentist?

One wonders how much longer Dr. Cummings' on-going professional memberships can possibly exist in the MA Dental Society ("MDS") and the American Dental Association ("ADA").

Both organizations claim they maintain high ethical standards for their members -- and both MDS and ADA prohibit false advertising by their members.

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