My dentist neglected an infection in a tooth for 7 months (while it
became a severe abscess) while preparing a bridge for it. He'd been
paid in full by me and my then existing dental coverage in advance.
I'm enclosing a letter I want to send him that explains what happened
in detail. Do I have a case? Is this the best way to present the
letter? I don't remember if I signed an arbitration agreement. What
and who do you recommend as my next step after sending this letter?
Also should I make any changes to the letter (or not send it?) In case
there was no arbitration agreement, can you recommend a CA lawyer that
could help me? In case there Is an arbitration agreement how would I
know who to contact?
Thanks very much-the letter I want to mail him is below:
I?m writing you because of several problems regarding my bridge
related to your service and that I?d like to have resolved.
When I initially was fitted for and paid in full (along with Delta
Dental) for my 3-tooth bridge at the end of June 2004, you told me
that temporary bridges couldn?t be cleaned. I have since found that
to be false.
When I told you initially that things didn?t feel quite right there
and went to an endodontist I had a root canal but as time went on, it
became very clear from the increasing pain that the problem had not
lain with that newly root-canaled tooth.
I called and told you that I was in such pain that I couldn?t sleep at
night or work by day.
You told me that it was probably because the tooth under the temporary
bridge was cracked and that would likely be rectified when I put on
the permanent bridge.
As with each fitting you told me the color of the new permanent bridge
was still wrong, I began to run to dentists, often out of pocket since
I no longer had Delta Dental coverage and asked for help with my pain.
They did not recommend a three-tooth bridge.
I finally asked you for a Topas test, which I willingly paid $75 for,
and found that in one area my toxicity was slightly below average
while in another it went as high as it can go.
You continued to reassure me that the problem was one of pressure on
my tooth by the temporary bridge, rather than one of bacteria. I
called Topas? lab and they said that high bacteria counts mean high
bacteria and they recommended a cleaning process shown on their site,
also mentioning the benefits of laser for cleaning.
You still had not taken another x-ray of my tooth and refusing to
speak to me when I called, had your assistant tell me that you would
charge me for laser and would clean the tooth as you wished.
I finally decided to talk to you at my next color matching (I?ve never
seen any of the bridges as they look in my mouth to see the color
myself) and set up an appointment. Your office cancelled the
appointment because the machine we?d been waiting for that helped you
to set the color in office, wasn?t working properly. They couldn?t
give me a new appointment date either.
I then called asking to speak to you regarding the possible option of
extracting the painful tooth and getting a 4-tooth bridge. You told
your assistant to tell me that I?d have to pay for that from scratch.
I called repeatedly for several days asking to talk to you about
whether you thought it would be better to go that route or to clean
the existing root canal, and during those days, each of which she told
me she?d asked you to call me, you didn?t.
The pain was excruciating and with only HMO coverage, I went to a
non-HMO dentist, paid $88 for the office visit and got a new x-ray. He
was shocked by the decay of the tooth saying it not only couldn?t hold
a bridge up, -it couldn?t be saved. He also told me the bridge wasn?t
properly lodged onto my teeth and the gap could allow bacteria in. He
sent me to a dentist who works a lot with bridges. That person took
my temporary bridge off and found a major abscess. He asked me why I
didn?t floss under the temporary bridge and I told him that I didn?t
know that I could. The lack of flossing could have speeded up the
tooth?s decay. Anyway, I needed surgery, and then the infection
spread to my glands so I took antibiotics for a week to get it under
control.
All this had time to come about because for 7 months you haven?t
gotten the color right on my bridge leaving me with plenty of time for
infection to accumulate and for me to consult with other dentists.
I still have the x-ray showing the severe decay of the tooth as well
as the extracted tooth itself. You did not tell me how to keep the
tooth area clean and uninfected. You did not x-ray my tooth when I
told you I was awake nights from the pain and couldn?t function by
day. You lied in a letter to one dentist telling him that my TOPAS
test showed minor bacteria only. The TOPAS test you have shows that in
a second area of testing I had as high a bacteria count as one can
get. You didn?t check to see if my bridge was on correctly, and didn?t
bother to ex-ray my tooth when I was in pain. You recommended I stay
with the 3-tooth bridge, sight unseen. When I wanted to consult with
you on whether to get a 4-tooth bridge, which I at the time told your
assistant I was willing to pay again for, or whether I should just go
to an endodontist or to you to clean out the tooth or the root canal
as needs be, -you, knowing I was in pain, didn?t even call me back!
And then you actually wrote to another dentist that we were currently
on hold, waiting to see which course of action I wanted to take!!?
Incidentally, the tooth was not cracked,- the reason for the pain was
as the TOPAS test correctly showed, a severe bacterial infection.
At this point, I am of course angry. Still I don?t care if you don?t
pay for my months of infection and misery due to your neglect and
apathy. I don?t even care if you don?t reimburse me for the money I
spent on the dental visits I spent on consultations. I had surgery,
my tooth was extracted, and it is costing me $3,850 to get the 4-tooth
bridge. Please reimburse me or my dentist for that amount, (I will
send you a copy of the bill if you require it), and we can chalk this
off to a really bad experience that is over. If you don?t want to
reimburse me, and say so either by responding or not responding for 2
weeks after receiving this letter, I will be forced to sue you (or
take you to legal arbitration if that was our agreement), for all my
expenses and pain, and will let the California Dental Association, The
Better Business Bureau and Quackwatch know what happened here.
I hope to hear from you soon because I really would like to get this
resolved and move on.
Sincerely, |
