- Joined
- Sep 11, 2015
- Messages
- 2
Hello. I have a question about the quality of my dentist.
First of all, I neglected going to the dentist for about twelve or thirteen years between about 2002 and 2015 to the point of having multiple broken teeth and cavities. The exception within this span was in 2009 when I went in on account of a toothache which ended up requiring a root canal. The dentist was in my old town and his work was top notch.
Then, this year, I signed up for Blue Cross Complete which has enabled me to seek dental care at no cost - the cost was what was always standing in my way. When I went in for my root canal in 2009 it cost me $1,000 and it took me a long time to pay for it. And it is my use of Blue Cross Complete that has, on the one hand, served to aid me in acquiring dental care, but that has also limited my options as most dentists, at least in my area, do not accept BCC. There are only two, or there were when I first signed up for BCC, and one of them had very poor reviews online, ergo I chose the other.
My dentist is quite different from the one I went to in 2009. This individual carries out what is clearly low quality work.
These are all things I have never seen before. Are a lot of dentists this way? I admit that some of these things, such as the x-rays, might just be things that have changed since I was a kid and don't really affect me; yet the whole big picture is that of a dentist who unnerves me.
So anyway... When I first came to this dentist, at least two of my teeth needed root canals. Then, after saying so, the dentist gave me a filling in place of one of the root canals without discussing it with me. But the other tooth was left alone. So a couple of weeks ago I went in for a root canal and received a temporary crown and was told to come back in three weeks from that date to receive a permanent crown. That three-week-from date would have been the 14th, this Monday. But on Labor Day Weekend my temporary crown broke and I needed to go back in. That was Wednesday the 9th. When I arrived they said that my permanent crown had arrived earlier than expected and so that was installed. I was told not to eat anything "gooey or chewy" for 24 hours, which I did not. Then yesterday I was eating a non-chewy/gooey meal 29 hours after my cap was installed and the cap broke, the inside part having snapped off. I could not find the broken piece so I assume I must have swallowed it on account of having not immediately realized that it had broken in the first place.
Now, looking at the cap in a mirror, I can see a blackish color showing through from underneath. I assume this is some sort of metal though I do not claim to have a complete understanding of the structural design of dental caps.
I have discussed this with my best friend and they think I should find a new dentist. However, the only other option under Blue Cross Complete is the one other dentist who had bad reviews and their office is not accepting new patients at this time anyway. I can break down and go to some other dentist but it will have to be for this botched root canal only and I will have to come back to this current dentist to receive the rest of my fillings.
I have so many questions. Is this normal? Why did the cap break so quickly and easily? Should I keep going to this dentist or should I take my chances with some other dentist I know nothing about? In short, what do I do? I am completely at a loss as to how to move forward. I don't feel like I can correct the dentist. Do you instruct the bus driver on how to drive his bus? Short of "stop drilling that, it hurts" or "my bite is off, please fix it," I don't know what else to say to this person. Are they slacking off because of the Blue Cross Complete I came in on? Does the fact that I am not rich affect the kind of treatment I get? Do they just not care?
I welcome any help and/or advice. Thank you for your time in reading my rather long post.
First of all, I neglected going to the dentist for about twelve or thirteen years between about 2002 and 2015 to the point of having multiple broken teeth and cavities. The exception within this span was in 2009 when I went in on account of a toothache which ended up requiring a root canal. The dentist was in my old town and his work was top notch.
Then, this year, I signed up for Blue Cross Complete which has enabled me to seek dental care at no cost - the cost was what was always standing in my way. When I went in for my root canal in 2009 it cost me $1,000 and it took me a long time to pay for it. And it is my use of Blue Cross Complete that has, on the one hand, served to aid me in acquiring dental care, but that has also limited my options as most dentists, at least in my area, do not accept BCC. There are only two, or there were when I first signed up for BCC, and one of them had very poor reviews online, ergo I chose the other.
My dentist is quite different from the one I went to in 2009. This individual carries out what is clearly low quality work.
- When I receive a filling they leave cement plastered all over my teeth - even teeth that did not receive treatment. Then, when I complain, they say that it will gradually fall off as I brush my teeth. But when I get home I find I cannot floss. So then I go back in and complain about it they forcibly floss through it so that the floss breaks through the cement and cuts my gums. Then they sit back and demand to be shown which teeth I cannot floss. I explained that I could have done that same thing myself but was afraid that flossing so hard would have possibly hurt my teeth. They say "No! Flossing is ALWAYS good!" as if what I said somehow amounted to "I think flossing is harmful to my health"
- Usually, with so much cement on my teeth, my bite is very much "off" so that I cannot chew properly. When I complain about this there is sometimes a half-hearted attempt to fix the issue, but the dentist seems to get frustrated if the problem is not solved after the first few attempts. That is, if I complain that the problem is not fixed, after the 4th or 5th attempt on the part of the dentist, they start to look upset.
- When working on the cavity of one tooth, they will begin to drill another tooth that has not received Novocaine. When I complain that it hurts they tell me to "hold on" and continue drilling. If I involuntarily jerk away they tell me not to move.
- They chew gum while working on my teeth. Is that common?
- When I was a kid and I received a shot of Novocaine, the dentist would go through this whole ceremony of aiming the giant needle at my gum before finally inserting the tip into the base of my tooth, or wherever the needle goes. This person neither aims nor is careful and the fluid from the needle sprays all around the inside of my mouth and even up all over my chin and nose. As they do this, they shrug and wiggle their eyebrows in that "Who cares?" kind of way you sometimes see people do.
- When the dentist performs an x-ray (something they do almost every time I am there) they do not leave the room. Rather they put a sort of plate against whatever tooth it is that needs x-rayed, then tell an assistant to "Go ahead" and the x-ray is performed with the dentist still in the room. Isn't that bad for the dentist if they do that all day?
These are all things I have never seen before. Are a lot of dentists this way? I admit that some of these things, such as the x-rays, might just be things that have changed since I was a kid and don't really affect me; yet the whole big picture is that of a dentist who unnerves me.
So anyway... When I first came to this dentist, at least two of my teeth needed root canals. Then, after saying so, the dentist gave me a filling in place of one of the root canals without discussing it with me. But the other tooth was left alone. So a couple of weeks ago I went in for a root canal and received a temporary crown and was told to come back in three weeks from that date to receive a permanent crown. That three-week-from date would have been the 14th, this Monday. But on Labor Day Weekend my temporary crown broke and I needed to go back in. That was Wednesday the 9th. When I arrived they said that my permanent crown had arrived earlier than expected and so that was installed. I was told not to eat anything "gooey or chewy" for 24 hours, which I did not. Then yesterday I was eating a non-chewy/gooey meal 29 hours after my cap was installed and the cap broke, the inside part having snapped off. I could not find the broken piece so I assume I must have swallowed it on account of having not immediately realized that it had broken in the first place.
Now, looking at the cap in a mirror, I can see a blackish color showing through from underneath. I assume this is some sort of metal though I do not claim to have a complete understanding of the structural design of dental caps.
I have discussed this with my best friend and they think I should find a new dentist. However, the only other option under Blue Cross Complete is the one other dentist who had bad reviews and their office is not accepting new patients at this time anyway. I can break down and go to some other dentist but it will have to be for this botched root canal only and I will have to come back to this current dentist to receive the rest of my fillings.
I have so many questions. Is this normal? Why did the cap break so quickly and easily? Should I keep going to this dentist or should I take my chances with some other dentist I know nothing about? In short, what do I do? I am completely at a loss as to how to move forward. I don't feel like I can correct the dentist. Do you instruct the bus driver on how to drive his bus? Short of "stop drilling that, it hurts" or "my bite is off, please fix it," I don't know what else to say to this person. Are they slacking off because of the Blue Cross Complete I came in on? Does the fact that I am not rich affect the kind of treatment I get? Do they just not care?
I welcome any help and/or advice. Thank you for your time in reading my rather long post.
