Woman impersonated orthodontist at Raleigh business in months-long investigation :: WRAL.com

The woman accused of operating a dental office without a
license will be in Wake County court on Monday. 

Police said Ebony McBean received thousands of dollars
for her unlicensed work through The Smiling Face Company. Investigators with the North Carolina Dental Board and Raleigh police have looked into the allegations around McBean for months. 

WRAL News learned of patients claiming McBean defrauded them out of thousands of dollars in orthodontic work in November. The Smiling Face Company shut its doors in October. Warrants for McBean’s arrest were taken out on Nov. 12, 2025. She was served and arrested on Friday.

So why was it a months-long process? Bobby White with the NC State Board of Dental Examiners said they lost track of McBean.

“We had found that she had left the state, and I don’t know what has happened since then,” White said. “We don’t have the investigative powers that the police department has and some of the machinery they have for some of those kind of investigations.”

A Raleigh detective said their agency worked with the dental board to investigate. The detective said they were trying to
interview McBean as part of that investigation. It never
happened. Instead, police arrested McBean during a traffic stop because of
the outstanding warrants.

“She portrayed herself as an orthodontist and performed work that she was not licensed for,” a Raleigh police official told WRAL.

The detective said McBean was paid in full for her work that
was either poorly performed or not completed at all. 

A warrant showed McBean provided fraudulent dental services valued at $5,820 to put
braces on a patient’s teeth, even though she was not a registered
dentist and portrayed herself as one. 

Nichelle Boone, who paid $4,250 for braces, said she had a bad experience as well.  

“I requested treatment records several times; I requested them via email, I did request them via text message. I never got my treatment records,” Nichelle Boone told WRAL News back in November. “I still have yet to receive any type of proof of payment.”

McBean posted a $3,000 bond on Saturday morning

“People have trusted her, have given her significant amounts of money and have gotten little or nothing in return and have now are left holding the bag,” White said. “We hope that the court intervention will be able to give some sort of monetary relief. We’re not able to do that.”

In 2025, the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners noticed patterns of people posing as dentists and dental hygienists and performing unsatisfactory work.