Has anyone ever heard of this? I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with my dentist. And no, I don't have dental insurance.
It all started when I got 10 veneers ($12,500 cash). One of the agreements of the "warranty" of his work is that I have to go to him for all my dental work, including root canals, which he also gaurantees for 3 years. His cleanings are $150-200 too, so overpriced but fine.
So after a few months after getting veneers, he informs me that I need two cavities filled and a root canal (funny how he never to bother to mention this before I got the veneers.) He quoted me an obscene amount and when I told him I was going to go to a regular dentist to get them done, the price magically lowered. It was a little more than what my old dentist was charging, but he assured me he had better dental tools (and I believe it since my old dentist's office is very out of date) that would mean better care of the problem. And also I wouldn't void my guarantee on the veneers.
Then one of the cavities apparently decayed more and I needed a root canal about a year later. He gave me a discount, but it was still expensive....but less than another dentist would charge.
then two of my veneers broke. The first he just kept gluing on until it finally shattered and couldn't be glued on again. He fixed that at no charge, but one of the gluing visits did have a fee.
When the other veneer broke, he said it was because of decay underneath and I'd need another root canal (so now we're up to 3) and he'd give me a discount on that because of the guarantee.
oh, and a side note on the veneers breaking....he says they are doing so because my jaw is misaligned and the only way to fix it is to get 10 more veneers on my bottoms ($15,000). No way because I'm not even close to convinced that will fix the problem and HE was the one that messed up my bite to begin with when he put the veneers on. With the way things are going, I'm sure ruining more perfectly good teeth will just cause me more expensive problems later on so I'm just using a night guard. I figure it can't hurt.
Well, the crown from the first root canal decided to come loose now (2 years after putting it in). it happened when I was in Turkey and I knew I had a cleaninga few weeks after I got home. I figured I'd get it fixed then. Big mistake.
I went in for my cleaning and was told that it came loose because it was decaying...and it was to the point that the tooth was not salvagable with another root canal. (believe it or not, that would have been good news!) So now I need to get it pulled and have an implant put in(by a peridontist, not him) and then I'd have to come to him for the crown. I asked if I'd get any "discount" on the crown because it was still under warranty. He says no because I didn't come to him immediately after it got loose. Keep in mind that I had him do a full set of x-rays on my teeth 4 months previously. Like why would I think I had decay on a tooth that had been x-rayed and root canaled two years earlier?
SOooooo.....in summary.
At this point I've spent over $20,000, about $9000 of which was not cosmetic and most of which is to fix teeth that he previously fixed but somehow decayed even further in a couple of years. I take good care of my teeth. I brush 2x day and floss daily, plus I go in for cleanings and xrays every 4 months, instead of the regular 6.
now I'm expected to pay another $2500 for the implant and god knows what to him for the crown with no discount.
I really feel that he is taking advantage of me. At any point it would have been easy to say get another dentist, but I was committed to him because of the gaurantee. if I had any other dentist fix his work, I would have had to pay full price. it really feels like a bad marriage sometimes.
Well, now since he's saying I have to pay full price anyway, I am certainly not going back to him. But why do I need a tooth pulled that he "fixed" 2 years ago? And it's happening over and over.
I looked around on dental malpractice (I even asked my dentist if he had malpractice insurance and he was not amused, but he knows I'm running out of patience) and I can't find much on it. it's hard to find lawyers to take the cases because the payouts are so low.
What would you guys do if you were totally being screwed over by a shady dentist?



Reply With Quote


Good Advice. I have a really good friend that is a dentist. Fortunately he is good. He recently has redirected his practice to more cosmetic because that is where the money is today. They have tons of seminars to pick up basic techniques but, only a few are really good.

Bookmarks