Local ear stapling shop shut down|[4/17/06]
Published 12:00 am Monday, April 17, 2006
Order issued to clinics across Mississippi by Medical Board of Licensure.
Just weeks after its grand opening, Vicksburg’s lone facility for ear stapling has been shut down by the state’s Board of Medical Licensure.
A notice posted Friday in the door of Staple Solutions by Neil, on the second floor of the Corner Medical Center at 1123 Washington St., read, “I am sorry to inform you that the state department of health has decided to close down any and all businesses and persons performing ear stapling due to the incompetence of a few individuals that have been untrained and they have caused some cases that are of concern to us all.”
The order came not from the Mississippi Department of Health, however, but from the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure. The Department of Health maintains that it does not regulate ear stapling and has not closed any ear stapling operations anywhere in the state. The Board of Medical Licensure began sending cease and desist orders to ear stapling clinics across the state earlier this week, said director of investigations Thomas Washington.
“The board ruled anyone who’s not licensed to practice acupuncture who is doing ear stapling will receive a letter” asking them to close their doors, Washington said.
Washington said he couldn’t estimate how many businesses had received the letter.
Neil Pettigrew, who opened Staple Solutions on March 25, could not be reached by phone for comment Friday.
Ear stapling is done by inserting a tiny staple in the inner cartilage of the ear to target pressure points, which are believed to send signals to the brain. The $55 to $100 procedure is designed to help people lose weight, quit smoking or relieve stress, and consumers have made it a quickly growing business across the state. Testimonials on Pettigrew’s Web site, www.staplesolution.com, credited his technique with reducing appetite, aiding weight loss and inducing nausea at the taste of a cigarette. Pettigrew, himself a former paramedic from Flora who received acupuncture training before opening Staple Solutions, said on the Web site the procedure is “similar to having your ears pierced” and “effective over 90 percent of the time.”
Local physicians, though, including state Rep. Chester Masterson, R-Vicksburg, have said ear stapling is an unproven technique that requires more study to determine if there are any potentially harmful long-term effects. The Mississippi State Medical Association issued a release earlier this week warning of the procedure’s dangers.
“It’s witchcraft,” said Randy Easterling, a physician at The Street Clinic. “There’s no scientific evidence whatsoever that ear stapling is effective.”
One woman who did not want to be identified saw the notice Friday when she came to Staple Solutions to have her staples removed.
“I’m upset,” she said when she discovered the shop had closed. “I wanted to get them taken out. They’re killing me.”
Staple Trim, an ear stapling business with locations in Byram and Mendenhall, has not received any indication either would be closed by any state agency, said a worker at Staple Trim’s Mendenhall location.
“A customer wrote us an e-mail asking the same thing,” she said. “We’re telling them we’re still open.”