DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, and that branch of the defendant's motion which was to compel production of all medical and hospital records of the injured plaintiff maintained by "Dr. Gessman, Dr. Joseph McGinn, Dr. Snyder, Dr. Tijani, Dr. Mookuen Lee, Seaview Radiology, HIP, Staten Island University Hospital South, and St. Vincent's Medical Center" is denied.
By commencing this action for dental malpractice, the injured plaintiff waived the privilege of confidentiality pursuant to CPLR 4504 with respect to his relevant past dental history ( see CPLR 3121[a]; Cynthia B. v. New Rochelle Hosp. Med. Ctr., 60 N.Y.2d 452, 456-457; Hoenig v. Westphal, 52 N.Y.2d 605, 608; Prink v. Rockefeller Ctr., 48 N.Y.2d 309; Koump v. Smith, 25 N.Y.2d 287). However, a party does not waive the privilege with respect to unrelated illnesses or treatments ( see Cottrell v. Weinstein, 270 A.D.2d 449; Kohn v. Fisch, 262 A.D.2d 535; Sacicario v. Stylebuilt Accessories, 250 A.D.2d 830; Zappi v. Pedigree Ski Shop, 244 A.D.2d 331) . In this case, the defendant failed to establish that the medical records that he sought to discover were material and necessary to the defense of this dental malpractice action ( see CPLR 3101[a]; DeStrange v. Lind, 277 A.D.2d 344; King v. Salvation Army, 240 A.D.2d 473; Manley v. New York City Hous. Auth., 190 A.D.2d 600) . Accordingly, the Supreme Court improvidently exercised its discretion in granting that branch of the defendant's motion which was to compel production of certain medical records unrelated to the physical condition in controversy.
SANTUCCI, J.P., SMITH, LUCIANO, SCHMIDT and MASTRO, JJ., concur.