Thursday, March 4, 2010

I am being stalked by our dentist!

If you want to get all the details you can read the post about Hubby's Teeth here.

Last year Hubby had to have a root canal. A tooth that had a cavity had died from the trauma of the filling.

The dentist that did the filling is a dentist that was recommended to us by people we work with. A lot of the people at our office go to him.

Our dental insurance coverage ran out after he had the root canal. He had to go to the original dentist for the crown they put on your tooth after you have a root canal. The crown was going to be about $1,000 out of pocket for us. Hubby felt the dentist should pay for some of it because he felt it was his fault he had to have the root canal in the first place. The dentist agreed to put the crown on free of charge.

When Hubby went in to get the crown put on, the dentist took him into his office first. I don't know if this is ethical or legal, but he had a conversation with him. He told him that teeth dying after being filled is common. So he didn't take responsibility. I don't know if this is true or not. He then told Hubby he was going to do the crown free of charge but in exchange he would appreciate that Hubby not bad mouth him to our fellow employees. Everyone in the office already knew what was going on. We are a small office family. Our manager was making jokes about how he would just tie a string around the tooth and yank it out for him.

Anyways, long story short. Hubby now feels guilty. He is going to continue to go to this dentist for cleanings and wants me to as well. The problem is, I have a tooth they filled that hurts. It isn't gray yet so I have been putting off going to the dentist. But I do not want to go back to these people. I think they messed up both our teeth and I don't know if they will treat me with the respect and kindness I deserve if I go back.

The major problem is, I had an appointment in April. I guess the hygenist will be out of town that day and they want to reschedule. I figured, "Oh good, I just won't reschedule and they can take the hint." No. They have probably called me 10 times.

What do I do? Keep ignoring them? Tell them I will not be rescheduling?

I would post a funny picture but I have to stuff, address, seal, and stamp like 200 envelopes!

15 comments:

  1. Knowing me, I'd probably just ignore them, lol.

    However, I think just being straight with them is probably the better idea.

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  2. I would probably ignore him and schedule somewhere else.

    The thing is, some fillings just don't "take". And it may well have not been his fault. But he could have solved it simply and avoided the gossip by doing the work for free and explaining to your hubby that although he didn't think it was his fault, he wanted to ensure that your hubby got the best treatment possible. Then your hubby would have spread THAT around work instead! Idiot...

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  3. Yikes. That's scary. I would try another dentist. Do you and your hubby work together? We do too!

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  4. Strangely, we are having a similar issue with our dentist. They double-charged us on an electric toothbrush and now I've paid $300 for toothbrushes for the hubs and me. But they won't own up to their mistake. And I'm having the same problem with going back. I think if it were me, I would just not answer the phone. Eventually, they'll get it. Unless you're bound to run into someone from the office and then you may want to make up some excuse about how you had to start seeing someone closer to work, home, Mars...whatever. Good luck with that. I can't believe how stalkerish they're being.

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  5. I would go to another dentist, your teeth aren't something to mess around with. As far as the appointment, I would just schedule on somewhere else and ignore them. If you feel the need to clarify then just tell them you don't want to reschedule the next time they call.

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  6. I would use another dentist. It's your mouth, you don't have to feel guilty.

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  7. I would totally ignore them, I'm not the confrontation type! You totally should change dentist's! They can suck it!

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  8. Go elsewhere. And don't feel guilty. Whether the guy made a mistake or not, he took the responsibility to do it for free, which to me says something- either he made a mistake, or he just doesn't want bad publicity. But either way, he shouldn't be asking his patients not to talk about his work. His work should speak for itself. And it obviously does.
    My whole life I went to one dentist and he didn't believe in filling cavities until they got so bad it hurt. Come to find out that isn't what dentists normally do and I got stuck getting 11 teeth filled in...9 of which were done in ONE day. My new dentist is covered by United Concordia and at first they seemed great...but I'm not so sure anymore. It's hard for me to imagine going elsewhere though. But my teeth are important and if I continue to have issues with them I will find somewhere else to go.

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  9. MINE IS DOING THE SAME DAMN THING! OMG!

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  10. That's crazy! Even though it would be easier to ignore you might just want to tell them flat out. There was this really mean hygenist at my dentist that they always gave me and I was scared to say something but finally I just told them (funny thing is they said a lot of people complained about her!)

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  11. That is so tough, I hope you get it figured out. Maybe letting them know how you feel would be best or switch dentists.

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  12. I used to work at a dental office, and they will eventually stop calling you. But I would just answer when they call you again and say you'll call to schedule, and then they will leave you alone :)

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  13. Go somewhere else. We went to the same dentist for years and he always made us feel uncomfortable. We talked about leaving but didn't.

    Then I had to go to someone else because he specialized in it. We loved him and were like why have we been putting up with the jackass for years. We left and couldn't be happier.

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  14. For that kind of dough, I would have just had it pulled.

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  15. I think I would use a different dentist. Your teeth are important!

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