5 yrs in as an out of pocket patient, Dr Jenna Swensen tossed me like trash from an appt booked 2…read moreweeks ago. tldr; don't go to Dr Swensen at Minnehaha Falls Family Dental for a prosthesis.
I have a public speaking event in 2 days, as Swensen and her staff know. I'm already embarrassed.
Context: 10/22, after 10 yrs of perfect fit & eating w it in, the 'flipper' my old dentist made broke. When it did, Minnehaha Falls Family Dental staff kindly booked me asap. A hygenist molded me for a new one. I bought 2, because unless you're 6, missing a front tooth ain't cute. Anyway, either the molds were off or the lab was off. None of them fit right.
The initial attempt to fit 1 took around an hour. It was frustrating. I mentioned that my previous one hadn't needed adjustment, which might have started turning things sour, sorry to say. But it was an honest observation. Finally I said I'd wear it a while and see how it settled. It didn't.
I had to go back for increasingly tense attempts to make it fit, which it was ultimately impossible to do, and then we started over, which meant another mold experience which, if you have a sensitive gag reflex, is an embarrassing, drooling, uncomfortable, messy experience. It also for me anyway leaves my jaws aching.
The Dr did the 2nd mold herself, and it was a better fit, but still required extensive mods. These were done over 2 more office visits. This still puzzles me, as they all were cast directly from 3D molds of my mouth. How can they require actual hours of grinding down?
It was a prolonged, unpleasant experience, and by the end I felt uncomfortable tension, as though I was being difficult on purpose. Due to that, and money issues, I didn't schedule to fit the 'backup' until the one I paid for shattered in my mouth 4/17. To make the appt I paid for the backup (they hadn't pursued me, perhaps to be kind after all the hassle) and thought I was also booking a cleaning. This time, no MN Nice for how it feels to have a gap in your smile. I was booked 2 weeks out.
At the office, I learned there would be no cleaning. That was fine. The assistant offered me one later today, but I couldn't make it. I was polite. They were polite. Things seemed ok. It wasn't.
I asked the Dr about fixing the old flippers, she said sure, depending how they broke. She asked how it had broken, I said while taking a bite. Her tone sounded a bit annoyed to me when she 'it's just for aesthetics', and I told her my previous one wasn't, and I couldn't get why this one wasn't built so a person can eat with friends.
She began speaking softly in partial sentences w the assistant, in abbreviations. She put the new flipper in and it fit the same as the other: Ok on the sides. Too big on top and in front. She took a quick stab at grinding it, then suddenly left the room.
All those hours in Dr Swensen's chair came to my mind. Hers too, I guess.
She came back , and with a small laugh, told her assistant to get me a referral "only" (ie, she wasn't doing this) and a refund. The laugh really got me. I got up fast and asked about fixing any of the flippers for temporary use for my speaking event. She handed me the boxes of broken and ill fitting prosthetics, said "the referral would do..." and trailed off. It hit me she was refusing to even assist in a temporary fix, and that I would most likely be facing the room with my tooth still punched out. I saw to her, I was beneath her help. I tore off the bib and went right to the desk.
There was a refund. There was no referral.
