Oh my god this episode gets worse
Last night I ran my tongue across the tooth socket and felt something sharp... I got my mini maglite out and had a look at the socket.... to my total shock there's a sheared off tooth sitting inside the gum!
First thing this morning I went to the dental Hospital and sat there for two hours waiting to be seen........ The dental hospital will not deal with people if they are registered with a dentist, they will only treat accidents and emergencies if you are not registered with a dentist so I had to be careful the way I played this as I
am registered with a dentist. They
will treat people who are registered with a dentist but
only on the dentists referral.
OK, I tell them I am
not registered with a dentist but was on holiday last week and got my tooth removed in France (total fiction) but am not too sure the dentist has removed all of the tooth... I eventually get taken in and the socket is X-Rayed and I am informed that only the surface of the tooth was removed and the roots etc. still remain in my mouth, an oral surgeon has a look and says the tooth will have to be removed in their theatre as one of the roots is curved and surgery will be necessary to remove it.
I'm all ready for another agonising episode but am informed that it will take anything from 8 to 14 weeks before they could fit me in as there is a long waiting list, the guy said if I was refererred by a dentist then the waiting time is significantly less........
Now, here's where the **** hits the fan
I inform the surgeon that I
am registered with a dentist and only pretended I wasn't in order that I could get a second
unbiased opinion before going back to my dentist to see what he had to say on the matter of "there's only a small piece of root remaining" etc.
The surgeon was not happy at all and said I had been very dishonest and had abused their trust etc. I told him
I was not very happy having to take this route to get a second opinion but needs must and 2 months of pain with my dentist mucking about with my tooth drove me to go down that route... at least I now knew the score with my tooth which is more than my dentist was letting on.... when I explained to the surgeon that my dentist had assured me that there was only a very small piece of root and "all was well" I think he got the message and understood that my dentist was the one who was being dishonest with
me and my visiting the dental Hospital pretending not to be registered with a dentist was driven by desperation and not by dishonesty.
He obviously asked who my dentist was (probably so he could contact him and alert him to the fact that the cat was out of the bag) but I refused to tell him, for obvious reasons....... I assured the surgeon that I would not let my dentist know I'd been examined by him but
would ask my dentist if he would refer me to the dental Hospital to get the rest of "root" removed.
Let's just say that this guy was not too happy that he armed me with the full picture.... these characters tend to stick together like glue and very seldom say "that's a bad job" fortunately their
clique doesn't extend overseas so he had no qualms saying "that's a terrible attempt at an extraction and you should have been made aware of the situation" They really bought the "French dentist" thing........ If he'd known it was a fellow Scottish dentist I may have got a different answer.
So, I gets out of the dental Hospital and hot foots it over to my own dentist 30 miles away..... The receptionist says "he can see you on Wednesday would you prefer 11am or 3.45pm" I say "I want to see him NOW" I explained that the extraction had been giving me a bit of bother over the weekend and there
appeared to be quite a lot of
tooth remaining in the socket..... "take a seat he'll see you when he has a free moment".....
30 minutes later I'm in the chair
I tell him that there is something "sharp" in the socket and that the gum is still very sore..... I also tell him I've had a look with my mini maglite and it appears to be "tooth" that's in the socket.
He has a look in my mouth and prods about with a sharp implement asking "does that hurt?"...... when he rammed his finger into the outer side of my gum it hurt and I felt like ramming my fist into his face and putting it down to a "reflex action"
[size=medium]
Prepare to be shocked:[/size] "perfectly normal, that's healing up nicely" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
He went on to add "what you feel is a small piece of root that's made its way to the surface..... I could remove it but to be honest it's better not disturbed" "the gum is healing up nicely and to disturb it at this stage could lead to infection and all kinds of problems" He assured me that this "tiny" fragment of tooth would pose no long term problems.
Well you could have knocked me down with a feather! I was absolutely gobsmacked!!
I decided to throw caution to the wind and asked him to remove the
tiny fragment there and then (A bluff which I'm happy to say he didn't agree to) He said he was too busy and "if" it gave me any problems further down the line it would be easy to "trim" the fragment (what?????) did he mean he'd sand down the sharp edges of the tooth...... the mind boggles!
OK, now the [size=medium]
BIG HIT![/size]
"I was over in France last week and the tooth was giving me problems so I visited a French dentist" Game, set and match..... the guy was looking for a hole in the ground to swallow him up but one didn't appear....... I gave him the same story I gave to the Dental Hospital except, this time, it was the French dentist who had X-Rayed the socket and the French dentist who had said it was a terrible attempt at an extraction and would really need oral surgery etc..........
The fictitious French dentist sure came in handy and my dentist "eventually" admitted that it was a very difficult tooth to extract but he was sure that the remaining portion of tooth in my mouth would cause no long term problems which is why he didn't mention the fact that only 30% of the tooth was extracted etc. etc.
Bollocks! This guy billed me to stab his chisel in my mouth and send me home knowing that he'd done a far from satifactory job......... as I say he'd been arsing around with this tooth for months, varnishing it..... filling it and eventually "extracting" it (yeh right) Once he'd basically "confessed" he couldn't remove the entire tooth and, yes, he should have told me and come clean from the start he mentioned the "possibility" of referring me to the Dental Hospital........ these are my exact words verbatim "Possibility? If I'm not in that dental Hospital and pain free in 10 days you'll know what it feels like to lose teeth courtesy of my fist you prick"
Probably not the most succinct way of expressing myself but I meant it at the time.... I doubt I'll go and smash his face in in 10 days time should I not get a dental Hospital appointment (20 years ago I would have) but I think the guy has got the message and if he expects payment for his butchery he can go **** himself.
How would you guys in the US handle him? Remember, I am in the UK and suing is not something I aspire to or agree with........ I'd love to get satisfaction..... first and foremost, relief from the pain...... secondly I'd like this "dentist" held accountable and to learn from his mistakes...... he's not a young guy and, believe me, the latest generation of dentists in the UK are young guys who are even worse (a lot worse) is this just a UK thing or has dentistry gone to the dogs?
Mike.
PS: I had tons more to say but I'll spare you the detail
