Should I sue my dentist?Jun 12 '05 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line I just want to know what the Epinions community thinks about the situation. About a month ago, I went to a new dentist because I had a cavity forming between my two back teeth. It was under an old filling and I had to tie a knot in a piece of floss in order to pull stuff out of the pocket. However, it did not hurt at all. Never was there a bit of pain. So this dentist told me the cavity had spread to the other tooth. He drilled out the old fillings in my two back teeth and also put in gum-line fillings. I spent an hour in the chair going through all of this. The dentist was sweating by the end. That night, after the painkillers wore off about 3 hours later, I had these sharp shooting pains going inside of my teeth. It felt almost electric and no amount of ice packs or teeth grinding could make it stop. It hurt to eat, it hurt to sleep, even the vibration of my own voice aggravated my teeth. I called the dentist back a few days later and came in for an emergency appointment. He looked them over and couldn't SEE anything wrong, but he did give me a prescription for some painkillers (Lortab) and anti-biotics. The painkillers helped a little, at least for me to sleep, but the pain was still there and my whole side of my jaw was throbbing 24/7. A few days later, I called him back and said it wasn't getting any better. He then recommended me to a specialist who does nothing but root canals all day. I saw the specialist the next day. This specialist had a little trouble figuring out which one of my back teeth was infected. He didn’t believe it was both of them. He tested me with ice, using a metal thing to tap on my tooth, and by having me bite down on a wooden stick. He then decided that it was my far back tooth that hurt the most. The thing is that wasn’t the tooth that had the large cavity to begin with! So I went through the root canal procedure and all was well until the numbness wore off and then I had the same sharp pains again. The other tooth was also infected. When I went back to the specialist, he was shocked that both teeth had problems. He even patted me on the shoulder and said my situation was very rare. When doing the root canals, the specialist said the back tooth was obviously infected and that the other one had a ‘super inflamed’ nerve. What I want to know is what went wrong in that dentist’s office? What should have been about $350 worth of fillings has resulted in over $2,000 worth of root canals and crowns, plus two weeks of horrible pain. I don’t see how in a matter of hours I could have gone from no pain to rolling around on the floor with an icepack on my face and begging God to please make it stop. If my teeth were already infected, would the fillings have triggered the pain? Or did the dentist drill too much or too deep? He was sick when he did it and had a new girl as an assistant, so could the filling have not been sterile? I just don’t know, but the more I think about this whole ordeal, the angrier it makes me. I am considering getting a lawyer involved. What do you think?  |
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