'Did he get brainwashed?': Rep. Paul Gosar's former dental patients are baffled by his politics

Before he was a congressman associating with white nationalists, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was a dentist — and a good one, at that. Now, some of his former patients are shocked that the man who once filled their cavities has become a "conspiracy-minded, race-baiting" lawmaker, reports The Washington Post.

"Gosar the dentist had to be the real Paul Gosar," said Coreen Anderson, a former loyal Gosar patient who has described his dental skills as "amazing." "It had to be. There's no way that person was fake. Did he get brainwashed? Did the power get to this head? I honestly don't know what could have happened." Now, Anderson says it "sickens" her that she ever referred people to see him.

"I wish he had just stayed a dentist," added Andy Kruse, another former patient who didn't always see "eye to eye" with the congressman, but at the time, was willing to disregard his politics for top-notch dental care, per the Post. "He was a much better dentist than he is a politician."

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The American Dental Association recently moved to suspend contributions to the incendiary lawmaker in light of increasing pressure from both within the "Tooth Party" and outside it, reported Vice News on Monday. The ADA was Gosar's top donor.

"It's really awful," said Joseph Harte, for whom the Arizona Dental Association's 2001 Dentist of the Year once did an extraction. "To think of him putting his hands in my mouth just gives me the creeps." Read more at The Washington Post.