Accusations of abuse against a Tacoma dentist continue to pour in following a KIRO Team 7 Investigation that was first aired last week.

The state Health Department says our report led to its opening of eight new complaint files against Dr. George Brain. That's on top of the seven previous licensing board investigations accusing Dr. Brain of assault or threatening behavior involving children patients.

In 2006, one of those cases turned into a disciplinary action: "probation" and a call for Dr. Brain to get an "anger management evaluation."

Now, Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne digs deep into a state system that pays millions of your tax dollars to dentists, like Dr. Brain, already in trouble for bad behavior.

Dentists accused of using dirty tools, choking patients, or breaking off teeth below the gumline are the kinds of dentists you're most likely to get if you're poor; that's the result of a an exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation.

We discovered a high percentage of disciplined dentists also rack up big money treating welfare patients sent to them by the Department of Social and Health Services.

At 9 years old, Jayme Hutt (now in 8th grade) sat alone in Tacoma dentist Dr. George Brain's chair, hoping someone would rescue her.

She told her story publicly for the first time to KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne.

“He called for the nurse to hold me feet down and he told me to stop crying. He put his fist in my mouth to where I couldn't breath. He did it three times. He pulled these two teeth without numbing me. I was crying, so he choked. He went like that to where I couldn’t breath.”

Pictures, on file with Tacoma police, show Jayme came out with a badly swollen lip and deep, red marks on her neck.

Jayme's mom, Teresa, took her complaint to the state Dental Board after failing to get the dentist criminally prosecuted for assault.

Teresa Hutt says, “If it was anybody else that had done this to my child, they would be in jail, but because he had a DDS in his name, they acted as if they didn't care.”

Despite being sanctioned by the State Dental Board for his handling of Jayme’s case, Dr. Brain kept on practicing and kept on asking the state to send him welfare patients, lots of welfare patients.

Statements acquired under the Open Records Act show Dr. Brain billed the state for treating more than 20,000 low-income children in 2006 alone. The state, in turn, paid Dr. Brain nearly $1.5 million.

When we told Teresa Hutt about that money, she reacted with some anger.

“The only thing I have to say is: how many more children does he have to hurt or how many more babies out there are going to be harmed. Not only physically, but mentally. How many? Who is going to be the next one?”

And when we reviewed a list of Washington's top 20 tax-funded dentists, something jumped off the sheet: four have been disciplined by the dental board, sanctioned, or put on probation. That's 20 percent of them.

When you look at the list of all licensed dentists in Washington, less than 5 percent have disciplinary actions in their files.

DSHS administrator MaryAnne Lindeblad is in charge of oversight of dentists who treat children on welfare.

“I can't tell you. I really don't know what the reason is. I can tell you, if we have any health and safety concerns about any of our providers, then we will take action and remove that provider agreement.”

But our data clearly shows, as one state agency, the Department of Health, sanctions dentists for bad behavior, another state agency, DSHS, hires those same disciplined dentists to perform welfare work on low income children.

“It would be hard for me to answer whether we've taken aggressive enough action or not, but I guess my point being is that if we have health and safety concerns, the health and safety of our clients is foremost always”, Lindeblad tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators.

To moms like Teresa Hutt, that's a weak excuse that points to a broken system in terrible need of repair.

“You have no where to go. You have to take your child to one of those dentists. You don't have a choice. If we had medical or dental, we would have a choice maybe, but we had to rely on the state.”

Dr Brain has repeatedly denied our request for an interview, but he will be talking to investigators from the dental board soon. They are looking into some new allegations of unprofessional conduct, stemming from his alleged rough treatment late last fall, involving a 5-year-old boy and an 8-year-old-girl.