Re: Dental malpractice (UK) - Some questions - mostly legal

From: Dr Steve (nospam_at_home.net)
Date: 10/07/04 

Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 17:01:03 GMT

Andrew's point (B) and reading the lady's responses to his early letters
leads me to believe she hears these complaints a lot and has carefully
rehearsed her response and has a solicitor on retainer to advise her on
these matters.

I got to look at the extracted tooth in person. It had a very old buccal
composite which was leaking badly with recurrent caries underneath it. You
could set the tooth on your desk and see the caries from the other side of
your desk. She took out the occlusal amalgam (which was not too bad) and
left the buccal composite (and its caries) alone. A few months later, the
tooth gets "hot", and she refuses RCT, then later back-tracks (verbiage of
her letter smells strongly of solicitor) and claims the patient refused RCT
and insisted on extraction.

The lady is a CROOK.

She refused further treatment on the lower second molar which she set the
composite right on top of a pulp exposure. Left this dear man in pain with
no hope of relief. I will not begin to describe the sensation of
fulfillment we felt to do the RCT on this tooth, set a CAD-CAM crown on it,
and then take Andrew out for lunch and watch him eat comfortably. 

-- 
~+--~+--~+--~+--~+--
Stephen Mancuso, D.D.S.
Troy, Michigan, USA
....................................................
This posting is intended for informational or conversational purposes only.
Always seek the opinion of a licensed dental professional before acting on
the advice or opinion expressed here.  Only a dentist who has examined you
in person can diagnose your problems and make decisions which will affect
your health.
......................
"Andrew" <mossyglade@RemoveThisBiTntlworld.com> wrote in message 
news:2sjcrvF1iq90qU1@uni-berlin.de...
>
> I did contact the amalgam removal dentist and discuss removal of my 
> amalgam
> fillings. She was very keen to do so and told me it wouldn't cost as much 
> as
> I thought and I was then given appointments along with the estimate - not
> after I'd OKed the estimate, so a little bit of pushing there, but my main
> grievances are A) That I understood I'd have a good mouthfull of sound 
> teeth
> with all my old fillings replaced with sound new ones. I was not told
> that she would leave decay in place and hide it under new fillings, so 
> yes,
> I got rid of my amalgam but I was left with teeth that despite major work 
> on
> them still were in urgent need of treatment. B) It was not until part way
> through the treatment that she told me that amalgams are leaky and
> composites are not and therefore replacing amalgam with composite can
> sometimes lead to a build up of pressure in the tooth, pressure that was
> previously escaping - doesn't this indicate that she knew she was sealing 
> in
> decay?? C) When I told her I had pain all over the place and had been
> grinding teeth, her response was to paint flouride varnish onto teeth and
> tell me not to clench them. She also told me to use Sensodyne toothpaste!!
> D) When I had severe pain in #21 (please forgive US nomenclature but its
> what I've grown used to now), pain that responded to whisky and where 
> there
> was a spot that looked mighty like a leakage, she applied the varnish and
> left the decay to continue until the tooth died, the night before an
> emergency appointment with her as it happened. At this point the pain was
> gone and there was no great urgency to have the tooth out, but she told me
> that RCT was controversial and clearly she wanted to take the tooth out. 
> She
> gave me only seconds to decide and I actually didn't realise she was going
> straight ahead until she pulled it out. I thought she was just
> investigating. I just wish I'd had a competent RCT dentist - or a world
> class expert like WB there. Please note that regarding this tooth, I told
> her that that another dentist said its hole was too large to fill
> and it needed a crown. She said she could fill it - and then left the hole
> unfilled for three months. It was another four painful months before it
> died. E) She told me that it was fine to have a gap in my occlusion - ie 
> one
> side contacting before the other and that the jaw would compensate. At the
> end of my treatment with her, it felt like there was quite a few mm gap at
> one side when the other side was closed. That led to bed bruxism. F) She 
> did
> this enormous amount of work (16 teeth) in just 3 shortish sessions - and
> without a single x-ray. She said she did not see the point of x rays as 
> when
> she drilled into the tooth she would see what it was like inside.
>
> Prior to meeting this dentist my teeth had worked well and been pain and
> problem free for many years.
>
> I spent a lot of time presenting all this to the GDC and don't understand
> why
> they have not acted on it.
>
> Thanks for your warning about UK lawyers. Care to pass on a recommendation
> to me??
>
> Your description elsewhere of life as an NHS dentist and the effect it has
> on dentists is very interesting. I had no idea it was so bad. All I knew 
> is
> that it is nearly impossible to find an NHS dentist now as more and more 
> of
> them are turning to private practice. You are probably right in surmising
> she is an NHS dentist with some private patients as I recall when I was in
> for one of my £500 sessions, I overheard a guy before me was being charged
> something like £8 or £10!!
>
> Regarding time taken, Steve took more time X-raying my teeth and planning
> his work (before he even switched the drill on) than the UK lady dentist
> took on doing 18 or so fillings.
>
>
>
>

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