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Oh dear, that sounds pretty major and painful! I'm sorry you are having these problems. The only oral surgery I've had was impacted wisdom teeth when I was very young, and that wasn't fun. Your situation sounds even worse . I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes; giving it more thought sounds good. Whatever you decide, my best thoughts are with you!
Katy, Thanks for sharing your positive experience, too. I did see it yesterday, but it kinda got lost in all of the bad experiences! LOL! Hi Alice!
I think we discussed this earlier, but didn't it seem that some of us MCers here were lacking in permanent teeth? (they were never there in the first place). I was missing 6.... 4 of them wisdom teeth. I wonder if it's a genetic/gluten connection. It is known that celiacs have poor enamelization of their teeth, for example. I have always had "soft" teeth. Maybe that's why so many bad dental experiences. Anyone else?
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
That is the first time I heard of MCers possibly missing teeth. I have never had a wisdom tooth and also was missing 2 lower back molars. Very Interesting.
Shirley, When I had my top teeth done 2 1/2 years ago everything went just fine and they fit great. I have been warned that the lower teeth are much "harder" to deal with and that I will have to use an adhesive. I do not use any on the top. I really have no choice since I too have gaps on both sides and the front teeth are really loose and just rotting away. There is no other way to put it. This is a thing in my family that everyone had very bad teeth and it didn't matter what you did, false teeth were your "old age" reward. LOL
Love, Maggie
Maggie Scarpone
___________________
Resident Birder - I live to bird and enjoy life!
Hi...I had only one wisdom tooth come in....also, I have very small teeth,,,,I have a small space beween my front teeth and a liittle space that is developing on the side...weird! I have also begun to grind my teeth in my sleep, and need to be fitted for a night guard thingy. JJ
My mom is having a bladder suspension: I can't get the picture of a little bladder, hands behind it's head, in a little hammock - maybe with iced tea nearby.
I'm sure you're not hearing yet from people who have had good experiences. And you have the advantage of knowing good doctors, and being able to research in a knowledgeable way.
Anesthesia - none, unless the normal shot they give you is considered anesthesia.
Steroid - nope.
Time not to chew on that side - I went the entire time before I got my crown. They didn't mention it again & I didn't want to take ANY chances. Too much money involved to take a chance.
Funny thing is, I managed to chew so long on the other side that now I find I still do quite often. Before, I almost never did.
I think I am leaning toward getting one on the other side but I'm not making any decision anytime soon. I know the bone graft would add to the price, and length of healing time. Probably add to chances of something going wrong also. Going to think a long time before deciding.
Maggie, I have heard the the bottom plate is harder to adjust to also. I hope it won't be as bad as you anticipate.
Love, Shirley
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber"
-- Winston Churchill
I recieved a phone call from my perio dr, saying he would refund all moneys due me except for the charge for the extraction. The extraction was 234.00 dollars. I had paid him just under 3,000 dollars before the surgery was done. He is willing to refund me 2,013.00. His math seems a little off to me.
He sent me a letter drawn up by his attorney, saying that he would refund this to me after I have signed and had notorized this document.
In it it states that he had no part in the failure of the implant and since we can't see the future, that he is in no way responsible for any problem from here on out that I have with the site of where the implant was. He bored a hole in my bone where the implant was put, also he put some boney augmentation in the site.
Until I recieved the letter, I didn't think of what could go wrong, but now I am very much thinking about it. I have a hole in my jaw, and that stuff he put in there to grow bone. The was this letter reads, they say they cannot predict the future, so no one knows what could happen because of this treatment. They want me to sign and wave him of all responsibility of any thing in the future that could happen.
Also which pisses me off the most, that he has, had no part in the failure of the implant. Since he has blamed me from the beginning for everything that did go wrong, including that I didn't take the pain pills the way he told me and my boyfriend the way for for me to take them. Then I corrected him, and said, I did take them the way you said to.......but I am still in a lot of PAIN. Oh, he said, I didn't understand......DUH
This has been a nightmare, he takes no responsibility, and wants me to sign over all my rights, before I even know what could go wrong with this sight. After all he did drill a hole in my jaw, and put boney augmentation in there. How do I know that there will now be a problem..
How do I know that it will fill in without a problem? I didn't even think of this until I recieved the letter.
I do not want to let him off the hook until I know that it will heal without more problems. He brought this up. It especially infuriates me that he wants me to sign a paper saying he had no responsibility in the failure of the implant. That makes me the only person responsibile for the failure.
This is not true!!!!! I can go into a lot more detail if you want to read it.
Right now I am so Pissed I could spit!!!!!!!!
That is not really what I wanted to say. I'm practicing for the time I may have to talk to him again. NOT
It's been a long time that something has had me so upset that I couldn't sleep, no matter that I have had wind and something to make me sleep.
Thank you for listening to me..... Polly, research your doc very well, they are not all peaches and cream.
Love, Kathyp
Birdlady
Jaco, a parrot in Salzburg, could not only speak but seemed to understand grammar. Whenever his person left, Jaco would say "God be with you." But when several people were departing, Jaco would change it to "God be with all of you."
Last fall I was told I needed an implant to replace an upper tooth. I had it pulled because I couldn't stand the pain in my sinuses any longer. I had had an upper one removed on the other side a year before.
I looked up information on the sinus lift.. bone graft... I finally boiled down the definition of bone graft and made them laugh when I said.. you mean ashes from dead people??? The answer was.. ummm well yes..LOL But of course they are sterilized.
What I read said that bone grafts are usually successful especially on lower teeth.. but can be a problem for people with chronic sinus infections if done for the uppers.. that was me!
I have a friend who is a dental hygentist. She said implants or bridges are really more important for the bottom teeth as they tend to shift if there is an open space. Shifting is not as much of a problem with the upper teeth.
The root canal and implant would have cost about 20k! I went with having the tooth pulled. No more pain but I do have a matching gap on both sides of my upper teeth..oh well. I can still eat just fine... and it was much less expensive and I don't miss the sinus infections at all.
grannyh
What a nightmare you have been through. Have you been using this dentist all along, or was that your first visit to him? He sounds like he lacks any "bedside manner", not to mention the fact that he is so defensive. Sounds like his motto is "the best defense in a good offense".
I am infuriated that he wants to blame everything on you. That raises my suspicions that he is very worried about being sued. I don't think he would have contacted his malpractice attorney otherwise - and it is obvious that his lawyer is advising him now. Is he refusing to refund any money unless you sign on the dotted line? Before he went ahead and performed the extraction and placed the implant into the infected area, did he have you sign anything that mentioned this possibility? If not, then he is REALLY ON THIN ICE.
And the antibiotic issue is fully his resposibility IMHO. You have a valid reason (MC) to request that no antibiotics be used. If he felt strongly that he needed to use them he should have insisted or refused to do the procedure all together unless (again) he had you sign an informed consent listing the complications to be expected if no antibiotics were used.
I don't know how badly you need the refund right now (it IS a lot of $$$$$), but it might be best to wait a while to make sure you don't develop further complications (God forbid). Do you have a lawyer-friend who might be able to advise you of your rights in this case?
Yes, you are so right about finding a really good dentist. I am spending a lot of time doing this, thanks in no small part to your sharing your experience. I have already "fired" the first periodontist I consulted because he did not recommend a CAT scan of my upper jaw first. I have learned that whenever a sinus lift is proposed, a CAT scan is essential to make sure that all of the openings to the sinuses are open and that there is no sinus infection or other abnormality. In fact, I have found the only private dentist in my area who actually owns/uses the CAT scan equipment (the dental school has the only other one). This dentist has 20 years of experience and has written scholarly articles. He also has developed a technique where he draws blood just before surgery and then extracts the platelets to add to the surgery site to facilitate healing. He has published this article and I have found it on the internet.
Thanks again for all of your help. I hope everything will be solved to your satifaction. Most of all, I am hoping - NO FURTHER COMPLICATIONS because of your jerk dentist.
Love,
Polly
P.S. Grannyh - thanks for telling me your story too. Interesting about less shifting of the upper teeth. The bone graft ("ashes" - LOL) doesn't worry me too much. I had it done around one tooth during periodontal surgery about 15 years ago and have never had any complications from it. Of course, it was a lower tooth and it was before MC - I guess one never really knows those factors that might lead to MC - right? I can't believe the cost you were quoted! In my case, the implant will not cost much more than a bridge would.
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
Just an uneducated opinion but I would consider the antibiotics to be essential in an implant situation. I wouldn't trust any dentist who went ahead and did it anyway. I think you might possibly do some reasearch on that and maybe sue him for attempting an implant, but I don't know.
The one who did mine said there should be NO pain.
Good Luck,
Shirley
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber"
-- Winston Churchill
I know that I had to sign a document that basically stated that there were no quarantees that the procedure would work and that the perio would not be held responsible.. I was I so much pain and then the thought of having bone loss scared me.. So, I signed it.. Now, I'll go back in March and he'll xray to see if the procedure is working. The tooth taken out is on the left side, bottom, right next to the farthest back molar. No one can see it and maybe when I hit the lottery, I'll think about a bridge..
I signed a consent form for him to do the surgery. That is all it said as far as I know. I don't have a copy. (another mistake)
I was told that the implant has a 2% chance of failing. I was not told about doing the implant in stages, as I have since found out is better.
Yes, he said I did not need to take the antibiotics, and now blames me for not taking them in the beginning.
I was advised by my son in law, who is a general dentist, to go to a certain periodontist. I had an appointment with him and found out he is in the process of selling his practice to this little jerk that I ultimately went to for the implant.
I would never have gone to the little jerk if he had not been recommended by the first perio.
There were several things that happened. I fired my general dentist because he and his hygenist didn't see this coming. I mean the root canal gone bad and the infection, along with a periodontal pocket of a 9.
The should be a 3. The hygenist documented the pockets around the tooth in question at 2's.
Anyway, I needed a new dentist to put the permanent crown on top of the implant, so I went to the dentist accross the hall from the little jerk.
This dentist said I needed 3 crowns and a filling, at another 3,000 dollars.
I am now in shock...The perio wants 3000.00, the general dentist wants 2000.00 for the crown on top of the implant and now another 3000.00 for 3 more crowns and a filling. I felt like I was in the twilight zone!!!
I let the perio do the implant, and then told hime in 6 weeks I was going to see my son in law to do the remainded of the work, and would that be a problem? He said no, I will see you before you leave and when you get back, three weeks after you leave. I would be 5 hours away by car.
While I was in Wenatchee, the infection came back. I called the perio and he wanted me to come in, I told him I was still in WA. I had him talk to my son in law, and I was put on more antibiotics. The infection seemed to clear up, I finish with the dental work Scott did for me and returned home.
When I met with the perio, after the implant came out, and we were discussing things. One of the things he blames me for was not coming in to see him while I was in Wenatchee waiting for my crown to come back to be cemented in. I was five hours away!! The little jerk documented this as ( patient refused to come in after I told her she needed to.)
I think I'm getting off track here, but this is the kind of games he has played with me. He says ok, and then when there is a problem, he blames me, and when I tell him that isn't the way it happened, he tells me that is the way he has it documented. I'll just bet he does, how would I know what he writes in my chart.
Well, I guess you can see I am upset. I am not planning to sue him, I never was, but in my opinion his ego is larger by far than his brain.
The last appt. I had with him, John went with me and recorded the exchange between us, and yes he blamed me throughout, and at the last minute said, I don't think there is one person to blame.
I don't know where I stand legally, his chart is a legal document and he can put whatever he wants to in it, true or not. I've worked for dentists, I know how some of them are.
Love, Kathyp
Birdlady
Jaco, a parrot in Salzburg, could not only speak but seemed to understand grammar. Whenever his person left, Jaco would say "God be with you." But when several people were departing, Jaco would change it to "God be with all of you."
These perio's must be all diffferent!!! After cutting out the tooth that had 3 cracks in it, he said I had lots of infection under there, BUT guess what????? He never prescribed me an antibiotic afterwards!!! He told me he cleaned the hole out good and put some kind of oral antibiotic in there and then put the the gel that is supposed to help regenerate the bone and stitched it up.. I put up with the pain afterwards for 4 days until Jack called him at home and asked about prescribing an antiobiotic and Vicodin!! So, he finally did call those two scripts in.. It took me 10 days to be able to get my mouth open and be able to eat somewhat normal..
I lost 5 pounds that I couldn't afford to lose and I'm having a heck of a time putting them back on!!!! I will never go thru that again.
When Jack retired we lost our dental and vision so I know how very, very, expensive the dental charges are... My last appt. for the follow-up the perio was with me 5 minutes and it cost 185.00...
What awful experiences you had! It seems that there are incompetent, egotistical and unethical dentists just like the docs some of us have run into. And it is a crying shame that we have to pay through the teeth (pun intended) for dental care. I think one of the problems is that there are so many advances in dentistry and that many of the current dentists were never trained in them but still go ahead and do them.
Thanks again for sharing your stories.
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
I feel bad that I have posted so much negative energy. I don't want to poison you against this procedure. I think I was doing some cleansing for myself.
That is scarry that they aren't trained and go ahead and do the procedure anyway. In my case this dr is a periodontist specializing in implants. He is young and just buying a practice, I think that is his problem, not a lot of experience in any of the areas, especially people skills.
I hope you have a good, experienced periodontist.
Love, Kathyp
Birdlady
Jaco, a parrot in Salzburg, could not only speak but seemed to understand grammar. Whenever his person left, Jaco would say "God be with you." But when several people were departing, Jaco would change it to "God be with all of you."
. I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes; giving it more thought sounds good. Whatever you decide, my best thoughts are with you!
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