dentist's peculiar attitude

Joined
Dec 18, 2014
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I have been going to the same dentist for close to 15 years now. The dentist has for the most part been friendly, and professional, but recent procedure resulted in unnecessary damage to a tooth. I am wondering whether the dentist's peculiar attitude, which I am certain led to the damage, should have been an indicator to me to have found another dentist before this incident happened.

Whenever I had come in for checkup or procedure and had the dentist look at something new, the dentist was pleasant and willing to take a look at it. However, if I ever had questions post-procedure or during, the dentist would get defensive immediately, the answer to anything was always something I would have done to cause 'it'. -- Also, the dentist would routinely ask a question related to 'did I notice' anything about my teeth that could have been related to the condition of my visit, and on three occasions regardless of what I answered, the dentist would say "Oh! You 'grind your teeth.' I better note that in your chart." The first time it happened I was able to correct the dentist immediately because we were between tasks (rinsing). The dentist got really defensive and insisted I said that I "grind my teeth." Second time, the dentist commented that they were going to note it in the chart, but since they had just put gloves on and had the utensils already in hand, waited until the next task of the procedure, I had to wait until the procedure was over to tell the dentist to strike their note in my chart; that took 3 to 5 minutes to get past their defensiveness and get them to erase it. This time the dentist did it again, but waited until the middle of the procedure to say they were going to note it in the chart. My mouth was full, and thought I would deal with it afterwards. I was having a cap reattached and in the past the dentist would use the drill with some sort of attachment to beat the cap to make minor adjustments, except this time they used some other drill bit and shaved off part of my opposing (good) tooth, because in their mind it was my 'grinding teeth' that caused the cap to come off. As soon as I felt the drill I raised my hand for them to stop, but they ignored me. Their response (which was a defense), 'I didn't go as far as the enamel'... Yeah like that makes it all better.

Is the "Oh! You grind your teeth." and defensive attitude a personal thing?
or some sort of positioning if they are sued?
Now that I am going to find a new dentist, should I be watching out for similar attitude?

I would assume yes I should be watching out, but there were two other occasions with this dentist where they just did their craft regardless of my wishes, though minor, both were important to me, which makes me think that it was just them not putting the customer (me) first.
 

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