By ELIOT KLEINBERG
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 5:19 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

The Web page for cosmetic dentist Dr. Omar Abdo offers "a new beautiful smile."

But Abdo probably isn't smiling now.

Early Thursday, Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies allege, the owner of Jupiter Prosthodontics left his 8-month-old daughter in a locked car, engine running, while he had a drink with a dancer at the Flashdance strip club.

He told a deputy he had made a "bad judgment call," according to a report.

Abdo, 39, of West Palm Beach, is charged with child neglect and child cruelty.

He left the Palm Beach County Jail Thursday evening after posting $20,000 bond, records show.

As a condition, he is forbidden contact with the baby except with another person present.

According to the sheriff's report, around 1 a.m. Thursday, deputies were on foot patrol in the parking lot of the club, at 4458 Purdy Lane, at S. Military Trail south of Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach.

They came across Abdo's white Jeep Cherokee. Its doors were locked and the engine was running.

Inside, the deputy could see small feet moving beneath a blanket.

In the club, the report said, a manager pointed out Abdo, still in his scrubs, having a drink with one of the dancers.

When the deputy told Abdo he'd found his car running in the lot, he "responded that he left his vehicle running because his baby was sleeping inside the vehicle and he was only inside the establishment for a few seconds," the report said.

It said surveillance video would later show he was inside for about an hour.

Deputies then cuffed Abdo and led him outside, where they used his keys to open the car.

Inside, the baby was face down in a bassinet in the backseat, "hysterically crying," the report said.

Abdo's wife, Dr. Lana Al-Karmi, who works at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Riviera Beach, rushed to the club to claim her daughter, authorities said.

"She was extremely upset," sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said today.

A VA spokeswoman said today Al-Karmi did not want to comment. Abdo coud not be reached for comment.

Sheriff's records show deputies were called to Club 179 times in the last year.

"Flashdance feels this behavior was reprehensible," an employee who didn't want to give his name said today. "Our policy always is and has been full cooperation with any police agency."

According to his Web page, Abdo graduated dental school in 1992. He was a professor at Nova Southeastern University School of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale until 2005.

Staff writer Michael LaForgia and staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.