I am fastidious with my oral health care. I brush and floss twice a day and go in for dental checkups three times a year. I always ask him after each appointment how things are going and he says things are fine. Three appointments ago, he told me that he had a tooth under watch. Then, the next appointment, he told me the tooth was too far gone and needed to be extracted. When I asked him how that could happen if it was just under watch and he said that my teeth fall apart faster than most. I asked about the rest of my mouth and he said it was fine. Surprise, surprise. It wasn’t. Between appointments I had a filling fall out. He had me come in and looked at it. He told me the decay flared up and caused an infection. He recommended a root canal treatment. I agreed and scheduled the appointment. It was only a week later. Then, when I got there he told me it blew up too quickly again and this tooth now needed to be extracted. I honestly, don’t understand how he can keep missing these. I am so careful and am spending a lot of extra money because of what I feel is his negligence. Do you think I should ask for a refund for the extra procedures he cost me?
Cathy
Dear Cathy,
Bear in mind that I haven’t examined you. However, based on what you’ve described your dentist is guilty of negligence. It’s rare for a tooth being watched to blow up so quickly that it needs to be extracted. A root canal treatment would make a little more sense, though even that isn’t common. It’s even rarer for a tooth to be diagnosed as needing a root canal treatment and then only a week later it is suddenly unsaveable. Combine that with the fact that your filling fell off and I am not thinking you are with the best dentist.
Getting compensation will be tricky. You would need images of the tooth while it was in watch status as well as when he said it needed to be extracted. I do feel he’s a little tooth extraction happy. The goal should be to save the teeth, though sometimes that is not possible.
I would find a great dentist, get everything looked at and fixed and then approach him about your concerns. Tell him if he’s willing to compensate you for some of the work which should have been preventable you will let it go. If he’s not willing to, then let him know you’ll be leaving frank reviews about your experiences.
I do hope your dentist explained to you the importance of replacing missing teeth when he extracted them.
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