Mariana Laranja was charged with bodily harm after complaints from patients in Espírito Santo. — Photo: Reproduction/Instagram
Electronic music, lack of sanitary clothing and interruption of an invasive surgical procedure, with open cuts on the patient's face, to record promotional videos for Instagram. These were the conducts attributed to influencer dentist Mariana Barros Laranja Roeder in the complaint presented by the Public Ministry of Espírito Santo (MPES) to the Espírito Santo Court.
The Prosecutor's Office asks the Court to sentence the professionals to pay a minimum compensation of R$500,000 in moral and material damages to the victims. The defense of those investigated stated that the complaint is a prior accusation and not a sentence. He also said that in the event of a court order, the measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office will be "fully complied with".
The complaint, which g1 had access to, details the accounts of the three victims and the dentist's conduct during the procedures.
Attracted by the strong publicity that the dentist had on social media, one of the victims said she paid R$8,500 for the "mini facelift" procedure.
During the operation, while under the influence of local anesthesia, the patient noticed that dentist Mariana Laranja paused the surgical incisions to capture images and videos for her social networks, while the victim remained with open cuts on her cheek. According to the patient, the procedure was performed to the sound of electronic music.
Furthermore, the conduct in the operating room was described in the complaint as chaotic and negligent. While the influencer dentist recorded the promotional videos, the fabric sewing (suture) step was passed on to the other defendant, Nathan Laranja, who performed the procedure without using a protective sanitary cap.
In another case reported by the victims, dentist Mariana Laranja was absent and left the operating room in the middle of the surgery, leaving the deep incision and finishing of the stitching under the responsibility of Nathan and clinic assistants who did not have medical or professional qualifications to do so.
Also according to the complaint, the promises that the surgeries were "extremely simple, risk-free and with full recovery in 15 days" turned into serious and permanent consequences for the three victims mentioned in the document.
Understand the complaint
The Public Ministry of the State of Espírito Santo (MPES) denounced dental surgeon Mariana Barros Laranja Roeder and her acting partner, fellow dentist and nephew Nathan Laranja Roeder Holz, on charges of carrying out invasive and prohibited plastic surgeries on the face and neck of patients.
The Prosecutor's Office asks the Court to sentence the professionals to pay a minimum compensation of R$500,000 in moral and material damages to three patients who suffered serious infections, necrosis and permanent physical deformities.
The aesthetic procedures were carried out at the Instituto Laranja, in Vila Velha, Greater Vitória, which operated with an expired health license. The dentist acknowledged that there are accusations and said she is responding “one by one”.
The Court has not yet accepted the complaint sent by the MP. The Public Prosecutor's Office also stated that the actions of those accused exceeded the legal and regulatory limits permitted for dental professionals.
Sought by g1, the defense of those investigated stated that the complaint is a prior accusation and not a sentence. He also said that in the event of a court order, the measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office will be "fully complied with".
Victims' report
According to investigations, the patients decided to undergo the surgeries after seeing eye-catching advertisements on social media, where the professional promoted invasive surgical procedures.
However, the promise of a simple and quick recovery gave way to severe complications. See below what the three victims of the case reported, whose identities were preserved by the courts:
Victim 1
The 60-year-old woman underwent invasive surgery on her cheeks and neck. The initial screening consisted only of a face scan, and the patient was taken directly to the operating room without the professionals asking for any blood or heart tests or surgical risk assessment.
During the operation, the patient noticed that several people without adequate sanitary clothing entered and left the room. Post-operatively, he suffered from unbearable pain, nausea and a sharp drop in body temperature.
In the following days, the incisions became infected with an accumulation of purulent secretion and partial tissue death (necrosis). She had to seek and pay for private treatment with a plastic surgeon to contain the infection, which was advancing close to her sinuses and brain. The medical-legal report confirmed that she was left with permanent deformities and occupational disability.
Victim 2
Attracted by advertising on Instagram, she paid R$8,500 for the surgery via Pix. She reported that, while the procedure was taking place to the sound of electronic music, the influencer dentist interrupted the surgery with the cut already open to record videos for social media, ignoring the patient's condition.
Post-operatively, severe infection and tissue necrosis caused skin loss on his face, leaving a deep "hole" in his left cheek. Without receiving adequate support from the clinic, she had to pay for private nursing treatments and medical follow-up on her own. The examination found permanent deformity and inability to work for more than a month.
Victim 3
Before completing the procedure, he received a guarantee from the dentist that the surgery was "extremely simple, risk-free and with full recovery in 15 days". During the operation, however, the surgeon left the operating room in the middle of the procedure, leaving the cuts and stitching of the skin under the responsibility of her partner and assistants.
Shortly afterwards, the clinic closed for the year-end break, leaving the patient without emergency contact channels. The stitches from the surgery completely broke on both sides of his face, exposing the internal tissues and facial fat. She needed 21 treatment sessions with nursing specialists for skin lesions and follow-up with a plastic surgeon.
The expert opinion indicated a high risk of irreversible aesthetic and functional consequences if new plastic repair procedures are not successful.
Claims for compensation and measures against the accused
Based on the severity of the mutilations and the physical and psychological suffering of the victims, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested the Court that those investigated pay at least R$500,000 in compensation to the victims.
The amount is divided into R$200,000 in moral and material damages for the 60-year-old patient, R$200,000 for the patient whose face was perforated by necrosis and R$100,000 for the patient who suffered bilateral stitches opening.
The Public Prosecutor's Office also requested the immediate suspension of any activity of an aesthetic or surgical nature by the two dentists, providing for the imposition of a daily fine of R$50,000 for each service or procedure performed.
Furthermore, the agency requested the seizure of the pair's passports and preventing them from leaving the city and the country without judicial authorization. The Prosecutor's Office made this request after identifying that the dentists made frequent trips abroad (such as countries in Asia) and attempted to write off the company and definitively extinguish the clinic's CNPJ registration, indicating the real risk of fleeing abroad in order to avoid law enforcement.
In the complaint, to which g1 and "Boa Noite Espírito Santo" (TV Gazeta) had access, prosecutor Maxwel Miranda Araujo pointed out that the dentists committed the crime of illegally exercising their profession in a qualified manner (for profit) and causing serious and extremely serious bodily injuries.
The complaint details a series of abusive conduct and safety violations in the duo's activities, including the performance of plastic surgeries prohibited for dentists, pre- and post-operative negligence and irregularities in the clinic.
See the defense note in full
"The complaint was offered. It was not received. And it is not a conviction. The technical defense of Mariana Laranja and Nathan Laranja, in view of the promotion of the complaint offered by the 1st Criminal Prosecutor's Office of Vila Velha/ES, clarifies the following. A complaint is a prior accusation. It is not a sentence, it is not proof and it is not established truth. It is a unilateral piece, prepared without contradiction, which only inaugurates the judicial discussion and which, until this moment, has not even been received by the Court.
The Criminal Procedure Code states: Once the complaint is made, it is up to the magistrate to receive or reject it, in accordance with arts. 395 and 396, ensuring that the accused submits a written response and, if applicable, the summary acquittal provided for in art. 397. None of this happened. There is, therefore, no judgment of origin on what was narrated.
It should also be noted that the investigation is being carried out under judicial secrecy and that the defense was not even notified of the aforementioned accusatory document. It is perplexing that a procedure subject to legal secrecy has its content publicly disclosed even before any official communication to those investigated.
Secrecy exists to preserve the investigation and those who submit to it, and failure to observe it cannot be converted into an early judgment. The same applies, and with emphasis, to the measures reported. The retention of the passport, the prohibition of leaving the country and the setting of a compensation amount of R$500,000.00 were requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office in the same accusatory document.
A request is not a decision: it is a request addressed to the magistrate, and this request was not even considered by the Court. As long as there is no court decision, such measures simply do not exist in the legal world. No passport was withheld, no movement restrictions were imposed and no compensation was fixed. It is up to the Judiciary, and not the accusing body, nor the repercussions that the accusation produces, that is responsible for deciding whether any of these measures are appropriate, after hearing the defense.
On this point, the defense's response is simple and leaves no doubt: any judicial determination will be fully complied with. The professionals reside in Espírito Santo, maintain their activities here, have never failed to attend any event and remain at the complete disposal of the Court. Regarding the merits, the defense reaffirms what it maintains from the administrative sphere: serious accusation requires equally serious technical proof.
Imputation of injury presupposes demonstration of causal link, authorship and conduct, and not the repetition of headlines. The facts will be clarified in the records, with expertise, documents and evidence produced under the scrutiny of adversarial proceedings, and not through the advance reproduction of a version. It is also necessary to say who the professional whose image is on display today is.
Mariana Laranja is a dental surgeon whose career began in 2007 and has never been interrupted: more than twenty years dedicated to studying, teaching and researching orofacial harmonization. Training in Mouth Cancer, further training at New York University and Miami, specialization in Orofacial Harmonization, published scientific article, practical teaching, participation as a speaker in Boston, CIHOF Rio and III CONSAES, in addition to an international course completed in Dubai.
A trajectory built in conferences and classrooms, in Brazil and abroad, recognized by peers, institutions and, above all, by thousands of patients. None of this goes away because an indictment has been offered. A trajectory spanning almost two decades does not end in a headline, and it is not the repercussions that define guilt: it is the process.
The defense respects the Public Ministry and the Judiciary, recognizes the legitimacy of the investigation and will demand exactly what the Constitution guarantees to any citizen: contradictory, broad defense and presumption of innocence, in accordance with art. 5th, items LV and LVII, of the Constitution of the Republic. What will not be accepted is that narrative replaces proof and that public exposure anticipates punishment. There is no condemnation. There is no recognized guilt. There is no impediment to professional practice. The facts will be fully clarified in the records and the truth will be reestablished."
Dentist had professional registration revoked
The Regional Dentistry Council (CRO) of Espírito Santo had already revoked, in August, the professional practice of dentist and influencer Mariana Laranja, indicted by the Civil Police with her nephew and partner, Nathan Laranja Roeder Holz, after patients reported deformities, serious infections and permanent complications after procedures carried out at a clinic in Vila Velha, in Greater Vitória.
The decision, which "Gazeta Meio Dia" (TV Gazeta) and g1 had access to, also suspended the professional functions of the dentist's clinic for 30 days and was based on a new complaint.
When contacted at the time about the revocation, Mariana's defense stated that they consider the decision "legally inadmissible" and that the dentist did not carry out the procedure reported. He also said that he has already appealed the decision and that the clinic and the Orange Institute continue to operate regularly.
The revocation request was made by a patient who suffered serious injuries after undergoing a microfocused ultrasound in April last year — in the document, the CRO states that Mariana failed to ensure the patient's health and dignity and denied her access to her own medical records, thus failing to fulfill the duties of the technician responsible.
By note, the CRO informed that Mariana was officially notified of the revocation on August 9th and has one month to appeal. Only after the end of the appeal period will the process be sent to the federal level.
When asked about the operation of the clinic, the entity said that "the information relating to the processes is also subject to the secrecy provided for in the legislation, and it is not possible to disclose details about their progress or content".
Mariana Barros Laranja Roeder, 44 years old, was indicted for culpable bodily harm following mini facial lifting procedures carried out at a clinic in Vila Velha, Espírito Santo — Photo: Reproduction/Social Network
