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A Southern California dentist is facing fierce backlash after a resurfaced video shows her joking that she gave less anesthesia to patients who weren’t supporters of Donald Trump.
She Started A Joke That Had No One Laughing
A dental surgery is pictured at the Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Stillwater, Okla., Wednesday, Feb., 26, 2025.
Dr. Harleen Grewal, who practices in Santa Clarita, made the remarks last year while speaking at a Republican women’s event in Los Angeles. In the video, she quipped that when Democratic patients looked uneasy in the chair, she would “quietly cut back on the laughing gas” and let them feel more of the pain. The clip drew laughter in the room at the time. But once it reemerged online this week, it sparked a storm of outrage that has quickly spilled into her professional life.
People Online Called For Her License
Patient Dan Pope gets his teeth cleaned and checked by dentists and dental assistants on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 815 Dental Studio in Cherry Valley.
“It was a joke. That’s all it was,” Grewal told reporters after the video went viral. “Jimmy Kimmel can joke, but I can’t joke? That’s not fair.” But many on social media weren’t laughing. Comments piled up demanding she lose her license, with some accusing her of violating the most basic ethical duty of medicine: to do no harm. “She must lose her license. Insanity,” one user wrote. Another warned, “She’s going to need some laughing gas when she realizes it ain’t funny anymore.” Grewal insists the remarks were never meant to be taken literally. “It’s really not possible to torture one patient without the others knowing,” she said. “My top priority is making sure my patients are comfortable and cared for.”
Fallout Beyond Her Office
Khalil Dabaja, 25, a third-year dental student with the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry Dental Clinic, performs a fissure sealant on 9-year-old Philip Martinez-Rivera inside the Titans for Teeth Mobile Clinic at the Munger Elementary-Middle School in Detroit on April 26, 2023.
The controversy has stretched beyond Grewal’s own practice, Skyline Smiles. A dental office in Chicago with the same name has been flooded with angry messages despite having no connection to her. “That dentist is not us,” a representative said. “She’s not a partner, not a colleague, and we’ve never met.” For Grewal’s practice in California, the reaction has been immediate. Yelp disabled reviews of her office due to the flood of politically motivated comments. Grewal says her staff have faced harassment, and she has had to hire extra security to protect both employees and patients.
Professional Standards at Stake
An array of teeth cleaning tools rests on a table inside the Dental Concepts and Orthodontics building in Salinas, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.
The California Dental Association released a statement on Friday that stopped short of calling for disciplinary action but made clear its disapproval. “While we support free speech, Dr. Grewal’s comments, even if intended as humor, do not reflect the ethical standards of the dental profession,” the statement read. For patients, a dental office is supposed to be a safe place where politics never enter the equation. Grewal has branded herself as a Trump supporter in her practice—posing with Republican leaders, using slogans like “Drill Baby Drill,” and even sporting MAGA-inspired merchandise. But it’s one thing to hang political photos on the wall and another to joke, even offhandedly, about altering care based on political allegiance.
Cancel Culture Rears Its Ugly Head
Photo by Jack Gruber, USA TODAY staff ORG XMIT: JG 137637 Aligners 11/15/2018 [Via MerlinFTP Drop]
Grewal says she’s being targeted by the dreaded “cancel culture,” but the in an era where political identity is everywhere, even in professional spaces once considered off-limits, the public is quick to test whether someone’s “joke” masks a real bias. And in health care, that suspicion cuts deep.
