A self-proclaimed “MAGA Dentist” is facing backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gas for liberal patients at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up online.
Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and other wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning clients during a speech at the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, comments that recently attracted mass attention after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok. That video has since been taken down, but recorded versions of it and response videos criticizing Grewal continue to circulate.
“I have a secret hat I use sometimes, it says, ‘Make your smile great again,’” she said at the gala. “So I wear that when I work with my patients, when they look horrified or complain, I quietly cut back on the laughing gas.”
In the address, she also jokes about missing the days when “the Dems stayed home during COVID with their masks on” as well as liberals’ reaction when they see the photo wall of Republican leaders in the office: “You’d think their butt was on fire. They jump up and take off as if Trump was coming in the room.”
The comments were met with laughter within the context of the Republican gala but have been met with outrage on the internet as well as calls to report Grewal to the California Dental Board.
“Dental care by a dentist who acknowledges that she doesn’t control your pain based on your political party? How does she have a license to practice?” wrote one person in a Yelp post.
More than 100 one-star reviews were left on her business’ Yelp page this week, with reviewers lambasting her remarks at the gala. Yelp has since temporarily disabled the review function for Skyline Smiles, stating that due to increased attention in the news people are likely to be writing about their personal views as opposed to a firsthand consumer experience.
Grewal did not respond to a request for comment and has not issued a recent public statement on the viral video. On Thursday morning, however, she posted a video on the MAGA Dentist and Skyline Smiles Instagram accounts with the caption, “At Skyline Smiles, every patient is family. We treat all of our patients with the same level of care, compassion, and respect because that’s what you deserve!”
By Thursday evening, both Instagram accounts were disabled.
Grewal has previously addressed criticisms about her gala jokes and her melding of business and politics.
In an op-ed titled “You Can’t Cancel Me” published in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal earlier this month, Grewal said “these attacks have only made me more determined to stand tall, speak louder and fight harder.”
In the article, Grewal said that the California Dental Board had previously sent an investigator to her clinic after someone accused her of torturing patients who didn’t share her political views — a complaint Grewal said was based on “a lighthearted joke” she made at the Republican Liberty Gala.
“My words were twisted, and my career was targeted,” she wrote, “but I didn’t back down.”
The California Dental Board did not respond to a request for comment on any current or former investigations into Grewal’s practice.
Grewal also wrote that authorities had investigated her clinic following “completely false and totally unfounded” allegations that she was running an illegal ballot-harvesting operation from her office during the last election cycle. In a clip shared on her now-disabled Instagram, Grewal said that she had a ballot box in her office “not only collecting Republican ballots, but anybody’s ballots, everybody should be able to vote.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides policing services in Santa Clarita, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on any investigations concerning Grewal’s clinic.
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