Unprofessional dentist office

[Misanthropical]

OMG! What a b@stard! I over heard a dentist I was seeing telling a woman that she should get teeth implants instead of dentures. She told him she couldn't afford that and he told her that was her problem if she wanted to look horrible. The poor woman was in tears!

That and his double billing made me stop seeing him for any reason.

[AFpheonix]

Oh my god. O_O Was I in that situation I would have just walked out, as I have a serious fear of the dentist and have been going to my current one, a friend of the family, all my life. I have a craven fear of having teeth pulled, which is the reason why I am prepared to pay whatever so that doesn't happen and also why I have 2 wisdom teeth growing out the side of my left gum that are still there.

The orthodontist that did my wisdom teeth knocked me out cold. Had some pretty schweeeet dreams, lemme tell ya. I woke up giggling my head off with a bunch of gauze in my mouth, none the wiser

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, they're not hurting me or doing anything bad, so they can stay. I'm way too shivery even just reading about that to want to do anything about them. *shivers*

[stormtreader]

If you get an experienced dentist, its actually not that bad.

I had to have a wisdom tooth out - it had only partly come through the gum so they had to cut the gum open, drill it in half (because it was at an angle as well) and then extract both bits.

I put it off for ages until it had a huge hole in it, wonder why

It was the least painful dentisty thing i have ever had done, i think all of my fillings hurt more than that.

It swelled up for a few days, but actually didnt really hurt at all - took paracetemol the first night to go to sleep, and that was it.

[Rapscallion]

I had a wisdom out the other year. It had managed to go completely rotten and unsaveable before it decided to make itself known, and boy did it make itself known...

If you're going about your business and suddenly let out a strong profanity without having stubbed your toe or whatever, then you know it's something bad.

The dentist took an x-ray, which failed to show it. A bit of prodding proved that it was not viable, and he arranged to remove it.

"You've got a strong jaw," he said, peering at the x-ray.

"Why, thank you!" I replied, always up for a compliment.

"It means it's going to be a sod to get out."

"Oh."

As it was, he got the pliers on it and eventually it shatted in place. The local anaesthetic ensured that all I sensed was a nasty whiff as rotten tooth became exposed to the air. The assistant giggled prettily as I wafted the stench away.

In short, it was painful and nasty after - cloves in the wound to dull pain and I think they have an antiseptic effect as well, not to mention that tiny shards of tooth worked their way through my gums to the main part of my mouth. Nothing unbearable, but the extraction itself was painless.

Rapscallion

[Kiwi]

Good luck on fighting this one!! Keep going, not enough people fight for their rights!

I had the teeth above and below my wisedom pulled out and all but 1 has settled into place now

They took out the left side, and then the right side two weeks later under local (Im allergic to anesthitic so Im supposed to have as LITTLE as I can stand)

The right side on the top came with a nice little built in hook that was tearing the gum on its way down, the other three came out with one injection.....the 4th was evil, everytime they would pull, the gum would rip and I would scream blue murder, they would try a few times, inject me again, wait.....rinse repeat rinse repeat.

after the 4th injection JUST for that last tooth I demanded paper and wrote....just pull it out and let me scream! and boy did I. 8 stitches later!!! I kept the teeth, there in a little baggie in my wardrobe.

[Auto]

1) Speakerphone: blatant HIPPA violation. Whether or not anyone was in the waiting room

3) Nurse loudly proclaiming your Caresource status: another HIPPA violation.

You could technically sue over HIPPA so I think in this situation that is your strongest argument.

Sue for what?

Yeah, they violated HIPPA -- but that's not a cause for action to collect damages.

[Rahmota]

Auto: I think they meant file a grievance with the state board and the HMO which I had mentioned , not filing a lawsuit for malpractice. At least thats what I took it as since.

I do have cause for pain and suffering damages if I took him to small claims court according to legal aid but unfortunately the court costs and fees would eat much of any rewards and the main part of the case would boil down to his word against mine as to what happened and his behavior. Especially as I am sure his nurses and such would be a witness for him and I didn't think to try and get any witnesses for me as I was not feeling too happy when I left. At least until the vicodin kicked in later that night. Plus the "political" conditions right now are not very friendly to cases like mine according to legal aide. Oh well tell me something new.

Kiwi: I think I would have had an out of body experience by that point.

[Rahmota]

Ok well this is over and done with. While I was on the phone this morning I figured I'd call and check on the status of the grievances i filed against this dude. the state is ignoring everything as they say there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing and it was my word against his. So basically he gets off scott free with the state.

The HMO was unable to get enough evidence to proceed with formal charges or grievances against him as it turned into my word against his as well sicne I didnt think to get any witnesses and the people in his office all did the party line thing and defended their boss. Fortunately though at least the HMO will make a note in his file the I had a formal complaint against him and if he gets enough complaints they can take action in regards to that. Still doesnt put my tooth back in but oh well.

[Becks]

I jumped on this one pretty late, it seems.

Oh, well.

Rah, that sucks. Hopefully Dr. Quack will eventually get what he deserves!!!!

[I See Stupid People]

Rahmota, please tell us that your HMO is letting you switch doctors? Please?

[Rahmota]

Oh yes they did. I'm sorry I forgot to mention that in my last. The HMO has me set up with another doctor abot 30 miles away though instead of 15. I havent been to his office yet so i can't tell you about him though. But he cant be worse than Dr Quack. And I am defiantely hoping that kharma comes and bites him in the butt big time someday.

[NightAngel]

I sympathize.

I had the WORST dentist office experience EVER a couple of years ago.
I should have sued.

[Rahmota]

Sorry to hear that. Hope it turned out ok.

[tollbaby]

wow. I missed all this the first time around as well.

I *ADORE* my dentist. I hadn't been to a dentist in roughly 13 years when I finally screwed up my courage and made an appointment with the dentist closest to my house (at the time). MASSIVE phobia when it comes to dentist's. The pediatric dentist my mom used to take me to was arrested on child molestation charges and stripped of his license to practice. The old (60s) dentist she and my father frequented was... er... special. I was petrified of dentists.

So I head over to the new dentist's office, petrified out of my skull. His hygienists and receptionists were SO nice and tried to be as comforting as possible. Xrays and a cleaning later, the dentist comes in and starts going over my xrays. He's REALLY nice. Anyway, after 13 years, there's quite a bit of work that needs to be done (a couple of root canals, about 8 fillings... *sigh*). I react badly to the topical anaesthetic (the spray stuff makes me sick to my stomach) so it's usually straight to the needles (did I mention that I'm petrified of needles too? oy!), but he's always very gentle and nice. They give me a walkman with headphones when they're working on me because the drilling sound bothers me (the smell bothers me more, but the sound is pretty bad).

The only bad experience I've EVER had with him was when I told him to go ahead and fill a second tooth while he was in there, and the anaesthetic wore off before he was done (and holy MOSES did it wear off fast!), but that wasn't his fault, and I didn't say anything. The hygienist finally noticed the big fat tears rolling into my ears and asked if I was in any pain, at which point I moaned piteously and they refroze me LOL

Point of story (yes, getting there). Back in January, I started to have some massive pain in one of my teeth. I phoned my dentist's office, and got an appointment for THE SAME DAY. The staff in my dentist's office are of the opinion that a patient in PAIN constitutes a medical emergency, and they will ALWAYS make time to see that person same-day. I am EVER so lucky (stupid infection turned into a massive nastiness that took over the entire side of my face, sinus, ear and eye included - it was icky - antibiotics and T3s are lovely).

He's even willing to give me all kinds of billing options, since I no longer have insurance and have to pay out of pocket.