Chicago-area dentist accused of leaving patients without permanent teeth: 'I used Gorilla Glue'

OAK BROOK - After surviving domestic violence and cancer, Jenny believed she was finally getting her life back.

The Illinois mother says she turned to a suburban implant dentist in Chicago’s western suburbs hoping full-mouth reconstruction would restore more than her teeth. She wanted to eat without pain. Speak clearly. Smile again.

Instead, she says she experienced years of delays, repeated temporary dentures, mounting pain and a dental practice that patients say abruptly closed without clear notice.

"I was in a domestic dispute with my kid's father and he soccer-punched me in the mouth and my teeth fell out," Jenny said.

The backstory:

In 2021, she began treatment with former suburban implant dentist Dr. Paul Petrungaro, paying what she says was between $35,000 and $40,000 for extensive dental reconstruction.

"It was a very hard recovery," Jenny said. "That surgery is hard because they screw them in our bones."

According to Jenny, temporary teeth were installed while she waited for permanent dentures she says were repeatedly delayed. She described painful complications as the temporary implants deteriorated.

"When I’m eating, my cheek is getting caught in between," she said. "The tissue of your cheek is getting caught in between, and so you're just slicing the inside of your cheeks."

What she expected would take months stretched into years.

"I’m like, okay, I’m ready for my permanents," Jenny recalled. "And they put me in temps again."

Dig deeper:

Records and interviews reviewed during this investigation show Jenny first received temporary teeth in October 2021. FOX Chicago reviewed disciplinary records, court filings and patient records related to the allegations described by patients. 

Jenny says she continued making payments and attending appointments while waiting for permanent dentures.

"When I finally closed that bill out, that's when I started getting really scared because now I didn't pay you — I've paid everything," she said. "I’ve done chemo. I’m ready to continue on with life."

Then came the appointment she believed would finally end the ordeal.

"I went upstairs and the office was dark," Jenny said. "There’s nobody in there. So I started getting kind of frantic. I’m calling and calling. You can hear the phone through the door. Nobody’s there."

An email sent to patients in June 2024 said the Oak Brook practice was "moving" due to health issues that "limited" Petrungaro’s availability and procedures. The email stated he planned to establish a new clinical practice elsewhere.

But records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation show the dentist’s professional troubles stretched back more than a decade.

State disciplinary records show Petrungaro was first fined in August 2012 for prescribing controlled substances without an active license and for performing intramuscular sedation without a valid Illinois sedation permit. Regulators also placed him on probation that same year.

In 2013, records show Petrungaro was suspended multiple times for violating the terms of an earlier consent order and again for prescribing controlled substances without an active license. He later returned to probationary status through 2014.

The disciplinary actions resurfaced again in 2023, when state records show his license was temporarily suspended over unresolved Illinois state income tax deficiencies.

According to state findings issued in late 2023, Petrungaro’s dental license was suspended for four months beginning Dec. 1, 2023, over what regulators described as gross or repeated billing irregularities, unprofessional conduct, professional incompetence and gross negligence.

The findings included allegations involving anesthesia administration in a case tied to a patient's death, as well as patient abandonment and failure to provide dental records.

On April 1, 2024, the state placed Petrungaro on indefinite probation for a minimum of two years stemming from the same allegations.

Then, on Jan. 21, 2025, state records show Petrungaro’s dental license was moved to permanent inactive status. State documents cited billing irregularities, unprofessional conduct, substandard care, patient abandonment, gross negligence and failure to provide records.

One lawsuit centers on the death of Margaret Rajkiewicz following a dental implant procedure in October 2022.

According to court filings, the suit alleges Petrungaro failed to properly review Rajkiewicz’s medical history, administered anesthesia in an amount the lawsuit describes as excessive and performed surgery in a facility allegedly lacking proper equipment and qualified staff. The lawsuit further alleges there was a critical delay in calling 911.

Rajkiewicz died the next day. Her family claims the death was preventable.

The allegations outlined in the lawsuit remain part of ongoing litigation and have not been proven in court.

Dental woes continue:

Meanwhile, Jenny says her own condition continued to worsen.

"I have scratches and you think of it like a nail hanging out of your gums," she said. "I cannot even chew. It hurts when I sleep. I'm in an immense amount of pain a lot."

Her story is not unique.

Robert Bircher, a U.S. Steel machinist, says he also paid tens of thousands of dollars for dental implants he believed would transform his life.

"I had all my teeth removed, I had studs put in, and then approximately four days later I got my temporaries put on," Bircher said.

Bircher says he paid $28,000 in cash upfront after being promised permanent dentures within months. Instead, he says he waited roughly 16 months.

"I went on vacation and I looked like a jack-o’-lantern," he said.

At one point, Bircher feared he would lose all of his temporary teeth entirely.

"I knew I only had a week, two weeks tops before I lost all of my teeth," he said.

He says he went through 12 sets of temporary dentures during treatment.

Despite what he says was a paid-in-full balance, Bircher alleges Petrungaro later demanded additional money.

"He told me I owed him $10,000 more, even though I had already paid in full," Bircher said. "My receipts showed a zero balance."

Bircher eventually filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He also hired attorney Mario Palermo, who says the allegations extend beyond malpractice.

"One is medical malpractice, which is essentially an allegation that Dr. Petrungaro allegedly deviated from the standard of care," Palermo said. "The other one is intentional infliction of emotional distress. Under Illinois law, when someone’s conduct is extreme and outrageous, when they know or should know it’s going to inflict emotional distress on somebody."

Looking for answers:

Repeated attempts to obtain answers from Petrungaro were initially unsuccessful. Phone calls went unanswered. Messages were ignored. Requests sent through social media received no response.

Eventually, Petrungaro agreed by email to an interview, then abruptly declined.

The search for him stretched across Chicagoland for months, tracing addresses linked to the former dentist. Some locations were empty. Others appeared unrelated to any dental practice.

"It has never been a dental office," one resident said after reporters knocked on her door.

Then investigators uncovered an active criminal case in DuPage County in which prosecutors accuse Petrungaro of practicing dentistry without a valid license.

Court records show Petrungaro was arrested Jan. 13, 2026, by a DuPage County sheriff’s detective assisting the Illinois Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Eventually, confronted in person, Petrungaro acknowledged some patients were left unfinished.

"I’m not saying that there aren’t some people that still need to have their stuff finished," he said. "I know there are."

He denied intentionally taking patients’ money.

"When I get on my feet, I will be giving them some money back," Petrungaro said. "I know exactly who they are. I’m not here to keep anybody’s money. I’ve never stole from anybody."

Petrungaro also described significant personal and financial losses following the closure of his practice.

"I lost everything," he said. "I lost my practice, I lost my home, I lost my family."

Asked whether he had regrets, Petrungaro blamed the scale of his operation and the people around him.

"My regret is that I didn’t have the right people around me to help me run the magnitude of the operation I had," he said.

For patients like Jenny, the effects of the unfinished dental work remain ongoing.

She says her temporary teeth are now breaking apart to the point that she resorted to using household adhesives to keep them in place in public.

"I was crying because these started breaking," Jenny said. "I was using superglue, Gorilla Glue, to keep them in for meetings and stuff like that."

As questions mounted about how long Petrungaro continued practicing amid years of disciplinary actions, FOX Chicago contacted the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation seeking answers about the timeline of enforcement and what oversight remains in place.

The department defended its handling of the case, saying investigations involving multiple allegations, extensive medical records and patient complaints require lengthy reviews before disciplinary action can be finalized.

"The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation treats allegations involving patient harm and professional misconduct with the utmost seriousness," the agency said in a statement. "Safeguarding the public and thoroughly reviewing allegations of misconduct are core responsibilities of the Department."

The agency said Petrungaro’s license was ultimately placed on permanent inactive status effective Jan. 21, 2025, meaning, according to the department, he "is no longer authorized to practice dentistry in the State of Illinois and is not eligible for future practice in the state."

But even after losing his license, concerns remain about Petrungaro’s continued presence in the dental industry.

What's next:

FOX Chicago discovered Petrungaro continues promoting dental training and educational content online, including through social media platforms where he appears to market lectures and instruction to other dentists.

When asked whether teaching or training dentists could violate the terms of a suspended license, the department pointed directly to Illinois law.

"Under Section 17 of the Illinois Dental Practice Act, the practice of dentistry includes any individual ‘who instructs students on clinical matters or performs any clinical operation included in the curricula of recognized dental schools and colleges,’" the statement said.

The department confirmed that allegations involving continued professional activity or unlicensed practice are reviewed by investigators and enforcement staff and can lead to additional disciplinary action, civil penalties or referral to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office or law enforcement authorities.

According to the agency, the Department’s Probation Monitoring Unit is responsible for overseeing compliance with disciplinary orders and restrictions placed on licensees.

"If the Department receives information suggesting an individual continues to practice despite disciplinary action, those allegations are reviewed by Department investigators and staff for potential enforcement action," the statement said.

The department said allegations involving continued professional activity could be reviewed for potential enforcement action.

Civil lawsuits and criminal allegations referenced in this report remain pending. Allegations contained in lawsuits and criminal complaints have not been adjudicated in court. 

Petrungaro has denied intentionally taking patients’ money and has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.