See Answer 1 do you think my situation constitutes a dental malpractice case?

Answer 1

In March 2009, I had 3 fillings done by a dentist associated with Aspen Dental. Nine months later, in December, one out of the three teeth I had filled that March required a root canal due to a "failed filling" in which not all the decay had been removed and it lead to the decay getting down into my root and subsequently worked its way to the outside. I had called my dentist at 8am that morning, nearly begging him to see me; I told him I was in excruciating pain (this was a different dentist than the one who actually did the fillings for me). He asked me when I had last been seen by the office--I said in March, and that I had to miss my 6mos cleaning because I was in a gap in my insurance coverage until recently (September 2009 was when my coverage began after I obtained a full-time job--I paid for the March 2009 fillings and dental work out of pocket). He didn't seem too happy with the fact that I had missed a cleaning (despite the fact that even if I had made the appointment on time, there likely would have been a necessary root canal ANYWAY since the dentist missed all the decay in the first place---a 6mos cleaning wouldn't have made any difference). The dentist on-call (this was the so-called "emergency" line, yet he downplayed my pain as if it were nothing). He told me to call back when their office opened, and "maybe they could fit me in." I call back at 1130am, to ASSURE they were open, they schedule me for 2pm after I begged them to make it sooner than 3pm (their initial opening). I get there at 2pm, I wait until 3pm anyway out in the waiting room, no offer of novacaine or anything--STILL in extreme pain at this point. He simply takes an x-ray, says I need a root canal, and showed me the decay under the filling (I have a copy of the x-ray)...he gave me a prescription for penicillin (no pain medications, God forbid, despite all the pain I was in) and he told me I had to make an appt with an endodontist within the next week to get the root canal. I'm very frustrated at this point, I waited all day for 10 minutes of his time, in which he tells me, basically--no big deal, just a root canal, you can deal with it yourself. I was so upset I started walking out after getting out of the dentist chair, and I started crying--I was in so much pain and so frustrated that I had to deal with it on my own. Finally, the dental hygienist (only nice employee I've met there), asks me if I'm okay and what she can do to help me--I explain how much pain I'm in, and that I needed the root canal today--noone even seemed slightly concerned that it was THEIR dentist that screwed up in the first place. Anyways, she ends up calling over to the endodontist they frequently work with and is able to fit me in that evening, thank God. I thought the nightmare was over at this point, but no--of course not. Not even a month later, I am having pain in another tooth. It's not so bad at first...then a few days later it gets a little worse...a few days later, I can no longer chew on that side of my mouth. Since, at that point, I had already spent about $700 on my 1st root canal (this was my deductible through Aetna DMO), I really had no money to figure out what was wrong with the 2nd tooth. It finally got unbearable so I had a new dentist evaluate it (I was just so frustrated with Aspen Dental's service and terrible patient care, I couldn't face them anymore). I ended up with another root canal, basically (another $700 down the tube)--and guess what, it was another tooth out of the 3 that they had done a "filling" on in March 2009. I'm just WAITING for the 3rd tooth to get bad. I want to be reimbursed for the work that was done in March, both root canals, and money for pain/suffering and lack of proper patient care. I am a Registered Dietitian and studying to become a Pharmacist--I take classes to specifically learn about patient care...my experience with Aspen Dental has been far from it.

This is just the bare bones story. I have xrays and copies of my Aspen Dental chart to prove the 2 root canals had to be done on 2 of the 3 teeth that had cavities filled in March 2009. Let me know what you think.