My wife's family never took care of their teeth - so by the time she was in college every molar had about 4 silver fillings and a bridge replacing two teeth.
Last few years she has been experiencing symptoms associated with mercury sensitivity, and her last exam showed that the gums around one tooth were infected and the amalgam in that tooth was wearing out and causing lots of decay.
So we decided, and the dentist agreed, that she should have all of the amalgams removed and replaced with the white stuff. She needed a crown on the infected tooth - there was too much amalgam in it already to fix it.
We get a quote for all the upper teeth (she'll do the lower teeth next year to split up what the insurance will cover). We have to pay the difference in advance to get a small discount. We do this and make the appointment. A few days before we find out that the appointment was only for the right half of the top, and to do the whole top we need to pay more $$$. Okay we do this. They tell us the procedure will take about 2.5 hours.
So they numb her up, but for some reason don't use gas. She has her jaw crammed open and are drilling out the mercury. It is vaporizing and causing a terrible smell (she gags easily), with bits of metal and sparks flying everywhere. So she's breathing it, and undoubtably swallowing some of it. There is a dental dam but nothing else to catch the bits except for that sucky thing (she decides not to swallow at all). They didn't give her eyeware so stuff is bouncing onto/off her face.
Halfway through, the dentist gets called to take care of other patients. She counts the clock. Jaw stuck open, sucky thing still on and beginning to bruise inside of her cheek. 20 minutes go by. He stops in to ask if she's alright. She nods.
More time goes by. He comes back and does a few more teeth. A buddy of his stops by. He leaves to go hang out with him for awhile. Another twenty minutes.
At this point my wife is getting mad. She is impatient to begin with, but also panics easily, so she's left in this chair with her jaw still crammed open. Third time he comes in to ask if she's okay, she coughs a No, and he asks what is wrong. She says just hurry. He says that he's with another patient right now, if she wants to finish the last tooth on her 2nd appointment she can. She says fine and they clean up.
cliffs:
- they screw around with how much the procedure costs, hurting our cash flow
- they don't use laughing gas
- they aren't carefully removing the mercury, fumes and pieces flying everywhere
- he decides to go work on other patients just leaving her there
- almost 3 hours and they didn't even finish
- she is pissed off, but when she realizes how funny she looks when she tries to smile, she starts gigglying uncontrollably
- she calls me this morning saying she's feeling sick and can still smell the fumes
- they schedule her followup appointment for a permanent crown two days before Thanksgiving!
:brokenheart:
update Nov 14:
Time to add to the list! Friday on her way home from work, her temporary crown came loose. She called the dentist office and asked if she could stop by so they could re-cement it. The secretary said that she'd have to wait until Monday, because the Dr. L (the main dentist) was not in. She asked if any of the assistants could do it, but she said no. No referral to another dentist or anything - she just had to wait all weekend with an exposed tooth.
So that night we go to CVS to get some orajel, hoping that with ease the sensitivity (which is causing pain). We see that they sell crown cements you can use yourself until you can get to the dentist for a permanent fix. We give that a try, and it works great. I put it on myself which only took a few minutes.
Monday, this morning, her crown falls out again. Luckily she kept the appointment to have it put back on. She goes in at 8. Guess who does it for her? An assistant. First the assistant can't figure out how to get the crown back on, because she says she has to make another one because it is not fitting (my wife tells her I got it on fine). And she's using a metal pick to scrap off old cement right off my wife's exposed tooth (ouch)! She finally gets it in there, but manages to glue her gloves to my wife's lips. After ripping the gloves off (ouch!), she gets the crown on, but manages to glue her gloves to the crown. She has to take it back off to get the gloves off and try again.
1 hour later, the crown is on, her lips hurt, her mouth is bloody, and she can finally head to work.
Also, I need to add because I didn't hear about it until later - my wife says when she was in the first time and they were trying to put on the crown, the lady dropped it and it almost went down her throat. She had to cough it back up.
Since she already paid for the crown, we have to let them finish, then we're going to find another dentist for the bottom teeth. And I'm going to write a very detailed letter to send to them and the ADA.
Last few years she has been experiencing symptoms associated with mercury sensitivity, and her last exam showed that the gums around one tooth were infected and the amalgam in that tooth was wearing out and causing lots of decay.
So we decided, and the dentist agreed, that she should have all of the amalgams removed and replaced with the white stuff. She needed a crown on the infected tooth - there was too much amalgam in it already to fix it.
We get a quote for all the upper teeth (she'll do the lower teeth next year to split up what the insurance will cover). We have to pay the difference in advance to get a small discount. We do this and make the appointment. A few days before we find out that the appointment was only for the right half of the top, and to do the whole top we need to pay more $$$. Okay we do this. They tell us the procedure will take about 2.5 hours.
So they numb her up, but for some reason don't use gas. She has her jaw crammed open and are drilling out the mercury. It is vaporizing and causing a terrible smell (she gags easily), with bits of metal and sparks flying everywhere. So she's breathing it, and undoubtably swallowing some of it. There is a dental dam but nothing else to catch the bits except for that sucky thing (she decides not to swallow at all). They didn't give her eyeware so stuff is bouncing onto/off her face.
Halfway through, the dentist gets called to take care of other patients. She counts the clock. Jaw stuck open, sucky thing still on and beginning to bruise inside of her cheek. 20 minutes go by. He stops in to ask if she's alright. She nods.
More time goes by. He comes back and does a few more teeth. A buddy of his stops by. He leaves to go hang out with him for awhile. Another twenty minutes.
At this point my wife is getting mad. She is impatient to begin with, but also panics easily, so she's left in this chair with her jaw still crammed open. Third time he comes in to ask if she's okay, she coughs a No, and he asks what is wrong. She says just hurry. He says that he's with another patient right now, if she wants to finish the last tooth on her 2nd appointment she can. She says fine and they clean up.
cliffs:
- they screw around with how much the procedure costs, hurting our cash flow
- they don't use laughing gas
- they aren't carefully removing the mercury, fumes and pieces flying everywhere
- he decides to go work on other patients just leaving her there
- almost 3 hours and they didn't even finish
- she is pissed off, but when she realizes how funny she looks when she tries to smile, she starts gigglying uncontrollably
- she calls me this morning saying she's feeling sick and can still smell the fumes
- they schedule her followup appointment for a permanent crown two days before Thanksgiving!
:brokenheart:
update Nov 14:
Time to add to the list! Friday on her way home from work, her temporary crown came loose. She called the dentist office and asked if she could stop by so they could re-cement it. The secretary said that she'd have to wait until Monday, because the Dr. L (the main dentist) was not in. She asked if any of the assistants could do it, but she said no. No referral to another dentist or anything - she just had to wait all weekend with an exposed tooth.
So that night we go to CVS to get some orajel, hoping that with ease the sensitivity (which is causing pain). We see that they sell crown cements you can use yourself until you can get to the dentist for a permanent fix. We give that a try, and it works great. I put it on myself which only took a few minutes.
Monday, this morning, her crown falls out again. Luckily she kept the appointment to have it put back on. She goes in at 8. Guess who does it for her? An assistant. First the assistant can't figure out how to get the crown back on, because she says she has to make another one because it is not fitting (my wife tells her I got it on fine). And she's using a metal pick to scrap off old cement right off my wife's exposed tooth (ouch)! She finally gets it in there, but manages to glue her gloves to my wife's lips. After ripping the gloves off (ouch!), she gets the crown on, but manages to glue her gloves to the crown. She has to take it back off to get the gloves off and try again.
1 hour later, the crown is on, her lips hurt, her mouth is bloody, and she can finally head to work.
Also, I need to add because I didn't hear about it until later - my wife says when she was in the first time and they were trying to put on the crown, the lady dropped it and it almost went down her throat. She had to cough it back up.
Since she already paid for the crown, we have to let them finish, then we're going to find another dentist for the bottom teeth. And I'm going to write a very detailed letter to send to them and the ADA.