Six and a Half Hours In Hell

[bobquasit]

Seven months ago I went to a new dentist. I needed two root canals and crowns. The first one went smoothly; it was a computer-created crown, made right there in the office. It felt great, very much like the original tooth.

A couple of weeks later I went back for the second crown. The dentist who had done the first tooth no longer worked there. Instead they had a new guy. But he was very different.

He kept me in the chair for six and a half hours. Three times the Novocaine wore off and had to be re-injected. Over and over he told me to close my teeth, even when I kept telling him that my cheek was swollen and in the way. He demanded I close my teeth on my cheek until the blood was flowing freely. And he mangled my crown and the tooth behind it, which didn't need work to begin with. I ended up with a massive cheek infection that lasted for two weeks even with antibiotics. Don't forget, I am a very nervous dental patient!

And then he charged me extra for fixing the damage he did to the tooth behind the crown - the one that hadn't needed work at all.

I had decided not to go back. But when I saw my endodontist last week, I told her and her receptionist about what had happened. To my surprise, I got a call from her receptionist on Friday. Short version: that dentist got fired. Apparently he mangled a lot of other people, too. And some of them, unlike me, complained about it. The funniest thing was that it turns out that he was a prison dentist for twenty years! So I guess he was used to working on people who couldn't complain.

So now I can honestly say that I've spent six and a half hours being tortured by a prison dentist.

Comments

[samanthabryant]

Yikes! That's a horrifying story. I hope you've found a better dentist since!

[bobquasit]

Well, my endodontist's receptionist took her husband there; that's how she found out about this stuff. And he's a nervous patient, too. She said that they have a new dentist now who's really good. And after she told them what they'd done to me, they asked her to have me call them. They're going to try to make things right.

I'm not sure what they can do about the mangled crown. It's rough all over now, like sandstone - and so is the tooth behind it, because the prison dentist blamed that one for the trouble he had with the crown and (I think) sandpapered the tooth like crazy.

I guess we'll see.