I went to a local dentist who advertised doing smile makeovers with porcelain veneers. My dentist doesn’t do any cosmetic work. His website showed porcelain veneers as tiny wafers of porcelain that go on the front of your teeth. In all our communication, his staff called them porcelain veneers. I actually have that on emails. When they did the “veneers” I noticed they ground down my teeth quite a bit. I mentioned that because it was not what the website said, but they assured me it was standard operating procedure. A few weeks later, I started having some pain in one of the teeth. I called, but they said to give it some time. I did, but the pain only grew. I went to my regular dentist and he said that they did not give me porcelain veneers but porcelain crowns. The tooth that was hurting ended up needing a root canal treatment. My dentist feels they ground down the teeth too much. Since then, I have needed two more root canals. I’m completely distraught. I paid all that money to get a smile makeover and now my teeth are in worse shape than ever. Do I have any recourse for this? I talked to my insurance company and they said he billed them for crowns.
Jane
Dear Jane,
I think you have a good malpractice case. It would be one thing if the dentist didn’t advertise a difference between porcelain veneers and dental crowns (not that incompetence is much better), but he clearly did.
Because he gave you a procedure he did not talk to you about, he did not get what is known as “informed consent.” Without that, he had no right to even treat you. In addition to the deception, when he did your dental crowns he over prepared your teeth, which damaged them and led to the need for root canal treatments.
I would talk to a lawyer. You already have your dentist saying your were given the wrong treatment. If he is willing to testify on your behalf, I think you will definitely have recourse.
I am sorry this happened to you.
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