Can you trust your dentist?

I was in Las Vegas for Comdex in 1998 (IIRC). My wife went to our dentist for a 'simple' procedure - after an hour or so, digging at her tooth (I think he was trying to extract it), he finally gave up and sent her to an oral surgeon who actually did the job. She went home in agony. The oral surgeon gave her percocet for pain. With two small kids, and being in nearly intractable pain, there was no way she would have been able to care for herself - or them.

My bosses were understanding and let me go home. After working all day, from nearly sun up, I drove the nearly 300 miles home during the night, being pulled over because the CHP thought I must have been drinking. I explained the situation (I was falling asleep while driving back) -- they saw a stack of empty cans of diet coke and believed me. I had to pull over, get something to eat, have some coffee, before resuming my trip home. (IIRC, I arrived home a bit after 4:30 AM).

To add insult to injury, the dentist wanted to be paid for botching his work. I said the magic word 'malpractice' and the bill suddenly went away.

The point is - sometimes dentists (and other doctors, FWIW, get in over their heads but don't acknowledge it until it's way too late). I don't think I'll trust the last dentist I went to - but might be unsurprised if I get to another to whom each patient is an opportunity for an upsell.

I saw my dentist today - I am indeed gonna need my loose tooth extracted before valve surgery, which is what I expected but still kind of a bummer since it's one of my front teeth. Temporary "flipper" to cover the hole and then figure something out much later in terms of dentures, completely after surgery. The extraction should be a piece of cake because the tooth is almost out already. LOL.

My dentist doesn't up-sell, but it is a very large practice and they are extremely busy so I think the cash flow is good. I made the mistake of trying another dentist one time -- so much up-selling, plus they only spent 4 min cleaning my teeth and they billed ME as the patient for my son's fillings! (I think because my insurance was better than his government plan.) If you have a good dentist, don't leave. : )

Protimenow said:

In my post that started this thread, I noted that my 'new' (maybe former?) dentist told me that the current standard was to NOT pre-medicate (or post-medicate, FWIW). This dentist also had taffy candy in a bowl for patients. Presumably, this was to pull fillings out of teeth. I can't understand why a dentist would be giving out sticky candy, for any other reason).

When the dentist got the sense that I may not return, and I TOLD HIM that I DID NOT want an extraction, he hurried and had his tech do full mouth X-Rays - presumably, I'd be locked into his practice, because another set of X-Rays somewhere else may not be covered by my insurance.

So - my cavities keep growing, and I wait....

Click to expand...

For all the dentists I have gone to, always pre med and after med, even for cleanings due to the risk of encarditis.

My daughter had Maryland bridges for many years after braces. She wasn’t born with her lateral incisors. Her orthodontist planned for implants, but after the braces came off, the space for the implant was too small so she got Maryland bridges. They looked great and did her well until 14 years later and the implants were now doable because they were smaller and fit the spaces in her jaw created by the orthodontist. Look into them as a fix for a lost front tooth.