H
Hairbear
Former Member
About 18 months ago I had a routine filling with Dentist "A", but food kept catching on the filling, so I went back. Dentist A wasn't there so I was seen by "B" (the main guy), who literally reeled in horror at whatever it was he saw in my mouth. He filed it a bit and said that if that didn't work just go back to B and she will re-do it. It didn't work, but given the look of horror on A's face, I requested to see him instead. He re-did the filling, but drilled it way too deep and unsurprisingly two weeks later it cracked open, so I went and had it re-done by B. This time he managed to get the filling across two teeth, so my gum flared up. I went and had it re-done by a different dentist at that practice, "C". Three months later that filling crumbled away. I went back, and despite my asking for someone other than B, that's who I got. He Xray'd it and said the root was now dead and that he was going to pull my tooth out because the roots looked too tricky and he couldn't do it. He did offer to send me to his mate's expensive practice, though. I didn't want it pulling out (and couldn't afford a fancy dentist), and anyway, felt that they should sort it out because to my mind they were at fault. Logn story short, I went to a different practice (owned by the same company) and "D" put a filling in and promised to do the root canal, but when the time came, she was now gone. By this time that filling was crumbling too, so I went back to the second practice and saw "E", who re-did the filling but said I'd have to wait for "D"s return to have the root canal. I went back and she still wasn't there, so I saw their other dentist "F", who told me everything seemed fine and just leave it. By this time, though, my mouth was really smelling, so I went back to him and he again said, "No, it's fine", but I knew it wasn't and so went the original practice and was given an appointment with "B". He just gave me some mouthwash (despite knowing that I need a root canal!), so I made another appointment and asked for a completely new dentist. They sent me back to "A" who actually bothered to xray me and said "Oh, you're infected in your dead root" (no kidding), blissfully unaware that she caused the lot in the first place, "I will do the root canal for you". She has booked me in for 5th Dec. Two questions: (1) Do I insist on someone else or do I just hope she just had an off day when she cocked up my filling? (2) If it goes horribly wrong and they have to pull the tooth, do I have grounds for insisting they put in a false tooth (not a denture)?
