Bottom lower wisdom tooth removal

roundbox

If and when it does need to be removed, if the "general" dentist insists on doing the extraction herself, can I insist on a hospital referral?
Or is it all down to what the dentist wants to do?
What are my rights in this respect?

Toothsmith

It is highly unlikely that a situation like that would arise.

You have to give consent, and your wishes on how it is done are a paramount consideration.

Dentists with a special interest in oral surgery working in practice exist because there are patients out there who prefer to have such things done by a dentist in regular practice.

Maybe they hate hospitals, maybe they have a busy job and all the faff of getting a hospital appointment is too much for them. There is a demand out there for minor oral surgery procedures to be done in normal dental practice at a time which can be easily booked, with less wait, and although you still need to take it a bit easy afterwards, the day is disrupted a lot less than tends to happen with a trip to hospital.

Very occasionally, a dentists in this situation might get caught out by one that turns out to be a bit trickier than initially assessed, but this tends to be just as much because the patient was pressuring the dentist to do it in-surgery, as the dentist being over-confident and preventing a reluctant patient from being referred. It does not build a practice to have a reluctant patient being bruised & sore for days/weeks after a procedure they would rather have been sent to hospital for!

So, if you want to go to hospital, I'm sure there will be no problem getting yourself sent to hospital. No one is going to hold you down against your will.

roundbox

What if the dentist insists on extracting the lower wisdom tooth herself.
I know they can't force me, but it creates tension in the dentist-patient relationship, which is never a good thing.
I don't mind her extracting any other tooth, but NOT the lower wisdom tooth.

Undervalued

roundbox wrote: »

What if the dentist insists on extracting the lower wisdom tooth herself.
I know they can't force me, but it creates tension in the dentist-patient relationship, which is never a good thing.
I don't mind her extracting any other tooth, but NOT the lower wisdom tooth.

In that unlikely event you will have to decide whether to let her do it or refuse!

That has been clearly explained by one of the helpful dentists on here in the previous post!