This is a long post. Please bear with me…read more
Dr. Lubovich fitted me with several crowns 3 years ago. On one side of my mouth, the crowns fit fine. On the other, they didn't as a result of an error made by one of Dr. Lubovich's technicians. I had complained to Dr. Lubovich that my bite was off - that the teeth on that side were way too high.
Over the course of several visits, he would grind down small areas, which would make my bite a little better, but, as I would always tell him, my teeth were still too high on that entire side.
Pain had developed in my teeth, especially one, and in my jaw, eye, ear and several places on that side of my face. Dr. Lubovich's conclusion was that I was grinding my teeth in my sleep. I told him I don't grind my teeth in my sleep.
Finally, after much deliberation about that, I agreed to let him make a night guard for me, costing me $400.00. It never reduced my pain because I don't grind my teeth.
After x-rays, he told me one tooth, which had had a root canal, was the cause of my pain, saying there was infection, and that a post in the tooth had protruded through the root. His solution for this was to do a surgical root canal, which meant cutting through the side of my gum.
He cut me open, scraped and dug around for quite some time, severing many sensory nerves, and sewed me up, never finding what he told me was there. There was neither infection nor a hole in the tooth, as he had said. However, I was still charged $1200.00 for the procedure.
The result of this unnecessary surgery, is lack of sensation in many places on my face, NO sensation in one part of the gum and a very uncomfortable pulling on my cheek, gum and the back of my top lip when I smile. The sutures were so painful (which his staff said should NOT have been, and told me something was wrong), they removed those a week early.
Dr. Lubovich then concluded the suspect tooth was cracked, and what I needed was an extraction, a bone graft and an implant. After his two failed attempts to fix my pain problem, I sought second opinions about the implant.
I visited a different dentist, told him about my bite being off; that one side was much higher than the other. He promptly ground down the teeth on that entire side and polished the chewing surfaces. There was so much that had to be ground off of one tooth to shorten it enough, all that shows on the chewing surface is steel. But at last, my bite was perfect - something I had been trying to get Dr Lubovich to do for 3 years. My new dentist informed me that where I feel any sensation, he's 99% certain I will regain feeling, but that it wouldn't necessarily return the way it was, and, it will take months or years. Where I feel nothing, as in my gum, I may never feel anything again. It's like having lidocaine permanently injected into my gum.
Just a day after my new dentist corrected my bite, which took him only about 5 minutes, all the aches and pains in my face, and the sensitivity and bleeding around one tooth, disappeared and have never returned. It was like magic. The entire problem was trauma caused from my bite being off. That's all it was. THAT WAS THE ENTIRE PROBLEM ALL ALONG.
I so wished I had never trusted Dr. Lubovich with this problem. He not only didn't fix the problem, which was CAUSED in his office, but caused a much bigger problem with his misdiagnosis and mistreatment of my teeth.
It has now been over four months since Dr. Lubovich did the surgery. I have since seen an oral surgeon and a periodontist, hoping something could be done about regaining sensation, stopping the thick and tugging feeling when I smile (which he said may reduce in a year), and reducing the swelling in my lower jaw, which hasn't reduced any at all in the last month. The periodontist suggested I see a plastic surgeon about that.
This has been the dental experience from hell, which I may have to deal with for the rest of my life. I never dreamed I would be disfigured by a dentist. And the most aggravating thing about it is, the surgery was NEVER NEEDED. I never needed to be injured, and the remedy for my pain was so simple and quick.
I would give anything to have my mouth and face back the way it was. ANYTHING!
BUYER, BEWARE!!!
