Dental malpractice/terrible treatment!

A_little_stressed!!

Last weekend I had agonising pain in my back tooth, I had an emergency appointment at my dentist Monday who told me that I would need root canal. I'm so fed up with fillings are asked for an extraction, after some conversation she agreed & this was booked for Thurs. Also prescribed anti-biotics but no painkillers.

The tooth with the problem had a white filling put in 11months before, at that same time the tooth next to it also had a white filling, this was cost me £200ish, but was replaced by a crown 4months ago. So neither has lasted.

When I went to my appointment I asked how long it would take & the receptionist said 10mins. I thought this was a bit quick, but sat & waited. 50mins later I was still waiting & said I had to leave to pick my son up from school. (if they had warned me of the wait I could have arranged for someone to pick him up) I dropped him at a friends and rang to see if I could come back, they said no, I begged for an appointment later that afternoon as I was in severe pain, again no as they were still running behind. I didn't understand this as 2 patients after me were waiting, so they jumped into my slot) I asked for an appointment for today, but there were none, so I asked if I could leave my number for any cancellations.

I spent all of last night awake in pain & rang the dentists first thing I was crying, but again, no appointments & I left my number again.

I then looked up the emergency dentists number for my area & rang. They told me my dentist has an obligation to see me if I'm in pain, I told them they had refused,so they made me an appointment 15miles away.

When I saw the dentist, he told me he was unable to do an extraction as it would take 1 hour & as I am registered at a dentist they should do it. (at this point & just cried out of desperation, apologised, but he said he understood as he could see from my face the pain & frustration I was feeling)

I told him what had happened & he was shocked and appauled, the dental nurse told me I should complain the the Dentist Council? And she had heard of similar stories of theis dental surgery.

The dentist said it would take 20mins to numb me, before even starting the extraction, so the 10min slot I had been given would have had minimal pain relief and fast removal of the tooth could cause problems after. He couldn't understand how an extraction could be done at all in 10mins.

He then gave me an X-ray, and told me the tooth had been dead 3-4years, and that I should have had it removed before, not a filling, unless I had specifically requested a filling. This should have been explained to me that I may still lose the tooth.

I was told none of this, just charged for said white fillings, and nearly for more root canal.

Also the 250mg prescription of Amoxicillin is not right & will do nothing to help the problem, he has prescribed me 1000mg.

I am now booked with this new dentist in 10days for the extraction.


I wish to take this further, as the dental nurse said. I have been in agony for a week, not prescribed correct medicine & nearly had pointless treatment. My dentist cannot be bothered to see me & if I had stayed over 1hr for my 10min appointment, God knows what state my mouth would be in!

I have been taking co-codamol for 7days, waking every night, tearful & stressed. It's not fair I have been treated like this, or for others to be treated like this.

Also there is £200 of white fillings, under 1year old, shortly in the bin!

brook2jack

If you wish to take this further then the first port of call is to put your concerns in writing to the dental practice who will then start the proper complaints proceedure.

There are a couple of problems with what you were told

A you cannot tell from an x ray how long a tooth has been abcessed, you can just tell there is one. You cannot say an abcess has been there years, especially as If it had been there years you would expect to have had severe pain before now.

B 250mg amoxicillin is the standard dose. Occasionally in severe problems you may give 500mg but 250mg is the usual dose.

C the dentist was running late when you went. Perhaps there was other emergency patients in whose treatment took longer than predicted. They were not shoved out so you could be seen on time so enough time must have been spent on them. Yes you should have been told they were running late so you could chose to come back at another time or make arrangements.

D large /deep fillings do sometimes come out break and a crown is a good next step. Unfortunately a tooth that has a large filling and particularly a tooth that is crowned can die off and form abcesses because the tooth is already traumatised. It's no ones fault it can just happen when a tooth is so damaged.

Yes you were in pain and the surgery should have dealt with that better after you left because they were running late. These concerns should be addressed to the surgery first who have to inform you of who to complain to next if you are not satisfied with their response.

McKneff

I have major sympathy with you, I have suffered with tooth ache and abcesses and had lots of different treatment and had the best.

As for one tooth extraction, 10 minutes is more than enough. Injection, 3 or 4 minutes later its numb, extraction takes about 5 seconds tops. Thats been my experience anyway.

Hope things go okay for you.

jugglebug

McKneff wrote: »

I have major sympathy with you, I have suffered with tooth ache and abcesses and had lots of different treatment and had the best.

As for one tooth extraction, 10 minutes is more than enough. Injection, 3 or 4 minutes later its numb, extraction takes about 5 seconds tops. Thats been my experience anyway.

Hope things go okay for you.

IIRC your extractions were due to bone loss etc McKneff?
Extractions with the full bone height take rather longer!
My standard appointment for an extraction in 30 minutes.
This allows me to ensure proper local anaesthetic, given gently. Careful gentle extraction and time to ensure the bleeding has stopped.
I can do it a damn sight quicker, but I wouldn't want it done to me like that, so I don't want to do it to others!

mda99das

I can get most teeth out within 2 mins. At the detention centre where I work we see lots of neglected mouths resulting in many extractions. This increases experience in extractions and you get quicker and more efficient at doing them.

custardy

jugglebug wrote: »

IIRC your extractions were due to bone loss etc McKneff?
Extractions with the full bone height take rather longer!
My standard appointment for an extraction in 30 minutes.
This allows me to ensure proper local anaesthetic, given gently. Careful gentle extraction and time to ensure the bleeding has stopped.
I can do it a damn sight quicker, but I wouldn't want it done to me like that, so I don't want to do it to others!

I got two teeth out at my last dentist(private)
It was injection,snip snap and both out
papped out the door
my mouth was full of blood by the time i got to the car (about 100 yds from the dentist)
sems not all are so considerate!

McKneff

Only the extractions in the past couple of years I had th extractions, due to bone loss, but there are people on here who would dispute that anyway.

Years before that I had back teeth out in a matter of minutes without any senseof urgency and Ive never suffered any discomfort after any either.

If I was having 1 extraction and was a bit frightened of dentist there's no way I would want yo to take half an hour over it.:eek:

jugglebug

McKneff wrote: »

Only the extractions in the past couple of years I had th extractions, due to bone loss, but there are people on here who would dispute that anyway.

Years before that I had back teeth out in a matter of minutes without any senseof urgency and Ive never suffered any discomfort after any either.

If I was having 1 extraction and was a bit frightened of dentist there's no way I would want yo to take half an hour over it.:eek:

I didnt say I took 30 mins over the extraction!
30 mins for the appointment.
The most significant cause of pain of local anaesthetic is the speed of injection, so if you are nervous would you like me to bang it in and make damn sure it hurts, or inject slowly to try and make sure it doesn't?

Would you like the opportunity to ask "oh is it out"? which my patients often do, because I have taken the time to do it gently or would you prefer the crunch and snap as the outer wall of the bone is fractured with excessive pressure?

Would you like the experience of having your mouth full of blood on the way to the car as the poster above or would you prefer to have a nice firm clot in place which is the single best dressing and protection against post operative infection?

Again, I like to practice dentistry as I would like it done to me.

I have spent my time in the smash and grab clinics and I know exactly how to whip teeth out in a short period of time. Generally the folks that came to those clinics had a neglected mouth coupled with the story of their last extraction. Perpetuating the myth that it has to be that way helps no one and certainly didn't encourage them to start seeing a dentist regularly again.
My practice will live and die on the choices folk make in coming to see me. If they want the alternatives there are plenty of folk out there offering it. I am not in an area where you cannot find a dentist and yet folk still seem to like what I do for them.

florain

Don't mention extractions!! My OH is still in pain 9 days later. Am trying to lodge a complaint.
He has a high bone density - enough to be negativly bouyant in water - and this leads to very traumatic extractions. He understands the situation and knows it will never be 'easy'. But the most recent one was awful. His dentist tried to extract a tooth but stopped after 20 minutes as he was worried he might damage the nerve. He then refered him on. It is this second dental surgeon treatment I am trying to complain about.
On Tuesday I phoned PALS who told me who to speak to at our local PCT. I phoned and was told I needed to speak to the dental clinic manager who would call me back.Waited 48 hours for that. Was then told, yesterday, that I would need to speak to the clinical director who would be given the information and call me back. Nothing so far. I am sure they just hope people will give up.

McKneff

jugglebug wrote: »

I didnt say I took 30 mins over the extraction!
30 mins for the appointment.
The most significant cause of pain of local anaesthetic is the speed of injection, so if you are nervous would you like me to bang it in and make damn sure it hurts, or inject slowly to try and make sure it doesn't?

Would you like the opportunity to ask "oh is it out"? which my patients often do, because I have taken the time to do it gently or would you prefer the crunch and snap as the outer wall of the bone is fractured with excessive pressure?

Would you like the experience of having your mouth full of blood on the way to the car as the poster above or would you prefer to have a nice firm clot in place which is the single best dressing and protection against post operative infection?

Again, I like to practice dentistry as I would like it done to me.

I have spent my time in the smash and grab clinics and I know exactly how to whip teeth out in a short period of time. Generally the folks that came to those clinics had a neglected mouth coupled with the story of their last extraction. Perpetuating the myth that it has to be that way helps no one and certainly didn't encourage them to start seeing a dentist regularly again.
My practice will live and die on the choices folk make in coming to see me. If they want the alternatives there are plenty of folk out there offering it. I am not in an area where you cannot find a dentist and yet folk still seem to like what I do for them.

Sorry, I meant no disrespect and certaily no offence to you personally, I can only speak as i find through my own experiences over the (many:D) years Ive been going to my dentist.

scotsbob

You will get no joy from complaining to the practice they will cover their back. Complaints can be made to the dental council but the procedure is so complicated and drawn out that you get nowhere.

You will also find that while you will get another dentist to agree that you have been the victim of malpractice, you will find they won't support you against one of their own.