Cheating dentist faces GDC panel after exposing affair
A married dentist has faced the GDC panel after exposing details of an affair she had with a patient to his wife.
Dr Alison Paxton had a two year affair with her patient, known only as patient A, after meeting him at her surgery in Sunderland in 2006. Paxton told her husband about the affair in August 2008 and then called her lover’s wife, known as Mrs A, in the early hours of the morning in February 2009, following an argument with her husband; he had accused her of continuing the affair and she suspected that Mr A had been telling people that the pair were still seeing each other.
Itemised telephone records showed that Paxton had tried to call Mr A’s phone 36 times that night, before she finally resorted to calling his wife. Mrs A then revealed details of the affair to Paxton’s husband via Facebook, unaware that he already knew about the relationship; she then filed a formal complaint to the GDC.
The General Dental Council Panel heard that Paxton had sent over 1,000 text messages and called Mr A 143 times in January and February 2009, despite claiming that the relationship had finished at the end of 2008. Mrs A gave evidence at the GDC hearing, claiming that Paxton had revealed detailed information about their affair and was making out that she was doing her “the biggest favour in the world” by telling her about her husband’s infidelity.
Paxton has denied the affair in the past but subsequently admitted to the relationship, claiming that her husband had made her lie to avoid the inevitable publicity that would surround a GDC hearing.
Panel chairman, Martyn Green, issued a formal reprimand and said Dr Paxton’s behaviour had “crossed professional boundaries” and may cause the public to think poorly of the dental profession. He also said that lying about the affair was “deplorable.”
Paxton has stayed with her husband but Patient A has split from his wife.
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