I am a researcher at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and this is what happened to my dad when he went to get two crowns placed. My sister and I went to get our teeth cleaning done at Gentle Dentistry because it had awesome reviews, people really seemed to like them. So we recommended our dad to go there when he needed two crowns (he doesn't have dental insurance so he had to pay everything out of pocket). Towards the end of his procedure, he felt that a crown was left too high and felt a gap. He told the dentist before he left about feeling the crown too high and the dentist said that there shouldn't be a problem since he brushed his teeth well. 5 months from that procedure, he felt a sharp pain that not even regular pain medication helped. He went back to the dentist to tell him about it and they said that it just needed to be filed down, and so they did that. He went home with a filed down crown and with prescribed ibuprofen for the pain. Well, the pain would not go away, he couldn't sleep, eat, or even talk. After a few days he noticed that a ball of pus had formed. He went back to let them know and they took X-rays, cleaned out the pus, and filed down the crown one more time. However, after filing down the crown the dentist for some reason just decided to go ahead and take the crown out and have it redone. He also mentioned that the X-rays were fine and that as a last option they would have to do a root canal. To top it all off, they were going to send him home without a prescription for antibiotics!!! What kind of dentist does that after seeing pus come out of the gums? Well my dad started to loose trust on them and decided to get another opinion and do the root canal somewhere else if needed. I ask myself, why would they says he needed a root canal if the X-rays came out fine like they said. Well, I took my dad to this other dentist. As soon as they did the X-rays he knew what was wrong, basically all the bone under the tooth had rotten away and the tooth was basically free floating in this air pocket which every time he would eat bacteria would go in and form an infection, that there was no way anyone could clean it with just regular brushing. He recommended just removing the tooth and getting an implant which meant not only had he paid out of pocket for the crown placement and procedure in Gentle Dentistry but now he had to pay for a tooth extraction, implant, and the whole procedure. Seeing that the X-ray told them all that made me question why Gentle Dentistry could not read the X-ray and told him everything looked fine. Imagine if he had gone through with the root canal, he would have paid that out of pocket only to find out that he still needed to take that tooth out because that was not the problem. Now the tooth extraction and implant procedure will be around $4000 at this other place he started going. Now we are left wondering if all this could have been avoided if the crown was put on properly. But even if this was not due to the fact that the crown was not put properly all the way down like it was supposed to be, I still question this dentistry with the fact that my dad already had an infection and they were going to send him home without antibiotics (infections without medication can go septic meaning the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and cause harm at body organs) and that they said the X-ray was fine when obviously it was not, only to say he needed a root canal when there was already no more bone anchoring down the tooth. My sister and I won't be going back after all this; I am scared that something like this might happen to me now.
Update:3.11.15 They offered to return the money for the crown. It took them moths for my dad to see the check and constant calling of the office to remind them. My sister had to call the office and that is when finally the check arrived. However, it was not the total cost he paid. They refuse to pay the full amount, paid $100 extra for the porcelain upgrade from what I can see in the treatment plan. read more
