TL;DR: Gum graft procedure made me bleed so bad, I had to go to the ER for a blood transfusion. Dr did not properly explain any of the risks or provide adequate instruction beforehand. Dr performed a procedure I didn't ask for and tried to charge me more money for it.
I'll caveat this review by saying that Dr. Speer is a talented surgeon, but my experience was mostly negative because:
1) I was unsure about getting a gum graft surgery in the first place, and instead of addressing my concerns properly, she told me to "stop worrying about it" because she "does many surgeries". She also pushed hard for the most expensive surgical method, which seems extremely biased. She did not properly inform me of the significant risks of this surgery which are:
2) Getting a gum graft can put you in the ER. It did for me. The donor site for the graft is in the roof of the mouth, next to a large artery. A few days after the surgery, I started bleeding extremely badly. Dr. Speer said to just put a tea bag on it. I messaged her multiple times expressing my concern with the amount of bleeding, but she said that the tea bag would definitely work. No. I bled around the tea bag until there was a massive wad of congealed blood in my mouth that I almost choked on. I had to call 911 and couldn't talk around the blood pouring out of my mouth. There was no way I could have driven myself to the hospital.
When I got to the hospital, it took three hours to stop the bleeding. I had to receive a blood transfusion. I stayed overnight and received surgery to cauterize the bleed.
3) I did not receive instructions for post-op care until the day before the surgery and only after I pestered my regular dentist to get in touch with Dr. Speer and tell her to contact me. I did not receive written instructions. Most importantly, I received NO instructions about how to brush around the donor site. If you ask Dr. Speer, she will say the bleed that put me in the ER was due to trauma (my fault). However, she did not describe where the donor site was, she did not show me where it was, and I had to guess at how to brush around it. Even though I was careful, I hit the donor site because I was mistaken about where it was (seems unlikely, but when the entire roof of your mouth hurts, it's hard to tell exactly where the wound is).
3) To add insult to injury, after the surgery Dr. Speer informed me that she decided to perform the surgery using a completely different method from what we had discussed. We had discussed one method of surgery, submitted it to insurance, and i had paid her for it. Without informing me before I was sedated, or my girlfriend who was not sedated, she decided to perform a more expensive method and called me while I was recovering to inform me that I owed her more money. Even after I got out of the ER with almost $15,000 in medical bills, she still wanted me to pay her more money for a procedure I didn't even agree to.
4) When I said I was not going to pay for a procedure I didn't agree to, she resubmitted the claim to insurance. According to the insurance company's records, now both procedures have somehow been performed. So now I have to call the insurance company and tell them what really happened or be an accomplice to insurance fraud.
Literally the only upside here is the gum graft looks good, but for what? It was a discretionary surgery that cost over $18,000 (if you include her bill), and more importantly, I almost died. I deserved to know about that risk, I asked her many times what the risks were, and she claimed multiple times that there was absolutely nothing to worry about. I think she means well, and I'm not questioning her abilities as a surgeon, but I do not trust her at all.
Get all your facts straight, know the risks, and proceed with caution. read more