Illinois Patients Duped by Unlicensed Dentist With Fake Braces and Veneers

Several people have complained about the same Illinois dentist, concerned about what she puts in their mouths. Their charges prompted the state and a suburban police department to conduct an inquiry.

Monica Bailey felt hopeful the last time she sat in a dentist’s chair. She now appears frightened, as if her teeth are chattering. “It’s hard,” Bailey said. “It is. I’m just praying for a positive conclusion.

It was February when she went to an office building in Schaumburg. Bailey and her 15-year-old daughter had appointments for braces on the eighth floor with The Veneer Experts.

“Cleaned my teeth and started, you know, putting the glue on and putting the brackets on for the braces and I thought what she was doing was how it’s supposed to be done,” Bailey went on to say.

She stated that the woman in the TikTok video worked on their teeth. Her name is Monica Davis. According to state records, Davis registered The Veneer Experts as a business in July 2023.

“We’re changing lives, one smile at a time,” Davis said in the TikTok video.

Ralph Jones, the tattoo artist, wanted a change. You’d be hard-pressed to locate a picture of him with a toothy smile. “They just started decaying and falling out, and over the years, it just started making my appearance look pretty bad,” said Jones.

A $2,000 price tag and numerous customer smiles on The Veneer Experts’ Instagram page convinced him. Jones went to Davis and her staff to get dazzling dental coverings known as veneers. Jones stated he was told the new grins would last eight to ten years, but that did not happen for him.

“I woke up with a chipped tooth,” he explained. “Like there was a piece of it chipped.”

Bailey claimed her issues began when she attempted to schedule a follow-up session.

“One of the numbers was disconnected, the other one nobody would answer,” Bailey said to the reporter. Davis was nowhere to be found; literally. CBS 2 couldn’t find her name on the state website where dentists should be registered. In Illinois, dentists must have a license.

“A license ensures that the person has had a high level of quality education and training,” said Lindsay Wagahoff, governmental relations director for the Illinois State Dental Society. It ensures that a dentist is knowledgeable about sanitation and patient safety. Wagahoff outlined the penalty for anyone who touches teeth without a license.

“Sometimes, there are cease and desist letters that are sent, and then obviously there’s a process after that in the court system,” she told me. That process could lead to an arrest. Davis is fully aware of the situation.

The Veneer Experts had also been operating in a Las Vegas strip mall, and Davis was arrested for illegally practicing dentistry without a Nevada dental license. When asked about viewing Davis’ mugshot, Bailey stated she “couldn’t believe it.”

According to court filings, Davis was released from police custody in Nevada on January 31. Bailey revealed only nine days later that she and her kid had received braces from an unlicensed dentist.

“It’s crazy to me that she can do this in Las Vegas and post bail, and you come here and do the same thing,” Bailey went on to say. “It’s like you have no fear.” Speaking about fear, Jones photographed his damaged veneer. “I don’t know what she put inside of my mouth,” he blurted out.

CBS 2 was permitted to share the photo with Dr. Laura Zalay, a duly licensed dentist.

“I mean, the gum tissue is what I’m very concerned about because if you can’t brush under those teeth, you’re not going to have teeth there much longer,” Zalay told me. Bailey also received terrible news from Zalay, who evaluated her phony braces.

“They look like real braces, but they don’t connect to anything in the back and so there’s no way to move the teeth,” Zalay told me.

That suggests the braces are not doing anything.

Zalay asked Bailey if Davis had taken any x-rays of her teeth. Bailey claimed she didn’t. “No X-rays?” Because obviously, the first thing you want to do is make sure the teeth are healthy before you start moving them,” Zalay explained to Bailey.

CBS 2 did get Davis on the phone.

Interviewer: “So you don’t have any comment on the people that you did procedures on here in Illinois?”

Davis replied by hanging up.

CBS 2’s in-person research showed that The Veneer Experts were ordered to leave their Schaumburg office. A building receptionist stated that they had received multiple calls from unhappy clients.

“We don’t even know how many people that she did this to,” Jones was quoted as saying. Bailey described the trip as “a big letdown.”

Jones continued, “It’s wrong.”

A line was crossed, forcing a small business owner and others to dive into their funds and start over. CBS 2 contacted Davis twice, and she had nothing to say about her business or the claims made against her in Illinois and Nevada.

Her next Las Vegas court appearance is in May. CBS 2 said that she may have to appear in front of a judge in Illinois soon.