A Ringgold dentist arrested Tuesday was writing pain prescriptions in other people’s names and having them filled for himself, said Pat Doyle, commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force.

Criston Clark, 44, of LaFayette, was charged with 41 felony counts of prescription fraud. The arrest followed a month-long investigation by the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Task Force.

Doyle said Clark had been obtaining medication, initially hydrocodone, illegally for a couple of years.

Clark typically wrote the prescriptions for less than 20 pills and had them filled at various pharmacies, at least once a month on average, Doyle said.

“We have tons of records and other pieces of evidence that we are going to have to go through to determine exactly when it started,” Doyle said. “We found a lot of physical evidence at his residence.”

Authorities also searched Clark’s dentist office, which is on Nashville Street in Ringgold.

Only a small portion of drugs was recovered in the investigation, Doyle said. “He wasn’t stockpiling it. He was using it, as best that we can tell,” Doyle said.

The prescription fraud escalated and progressed to several different types of medication that were even more powerful, Doyle said.

Police launched an investigation in January, based on information from concerned citizens in Ringgold and LaFayette, he said. Police conducted nearly a dozen interviews in the weeks that followed, he said.

Clark was arrested during a traffic stop in Catoosa County Tuesday, Feb. 12, about 9 a.m., Doyle said.

He will likely face additional charges, depending on what is uncovered in the seized records, which were in relatively equal amounts at his home and office, Doyle said. The 41 felony counts stemmed from the investigation prior to the arrest and the seized documents, he said.

“Now that we have executed the search warrants, there is no doubt that there is going to be more (charges), but it is probably going to fall onto indictments,” Doyle said.