I took my family to McHenry Smile Center for years. Other than his flirty behavior with his staff, he was fine for basic dental needs. It was when I needed prosthesis devices that serious issues arose with both Dr Sturt's abilities and with his office staff.
The process began with fittings for my permant dentures. Time after time I was called in for fittings. Time after time they came back wrong. Each time Dr Sturt became increasing agitated while assuring me they hadn't had any problems with this lab. The first red flag went up when, after the Dr repeatedly assured me they had had no problems with this lab, the office assistant said to me "we've had such problems with this lab."
When the dentures came back they didn't fit right and the center was off. They didn't fit right, but even more concerning was that it came out that Dr Sturt didn't know where the center point of these dentures should be. He kept marking it to align to the little flap that usually between your two front teeth and insisting that was correct. In fact, that flap moves when the surrounding teeth are removed and may no longer represent the center point in a face. This is prosthetics dentistry 101....second red flag went up. I should have left then but he'd already received payments from me and insurance. What was really alarming here was when he got so frustrated with me telling him the teeth looked off-center, he literally shoved the marking tool into my hand and angrily said "here, you mark it."
The teeth, both fit-ins and permanents had to be remade several times. The teeth were not the correct teeth for my facial shape, weren't the correct size, were off-center and kept dropping out of my mouth. Dr Sturt's response was to bring me in during lunch, put me in a back room where no one could hear me complain and tell me to use denture glue (shouldn't have to when the dentures are made correctly).
I became so upset and frustrated that I met with a prosthetics maker, who upon first sight, the second I opened my mouth, said "they're buck". Upon examination of the dentures, he immediately said "they weren't set properly on the ridge...no amount of glue will fix that."
When I returned to Dr Sturt with this information (along with the name and phone number with the gentleman I met with), his attitude initially changed and he said "we'll make this right," During this visit I'm not sure what his intention was, but he brought up a picture of Tom Cruise on the monitor to show me how his teeth are off-center by a whole tooth. It was almost like he was trying to justify what he had done.
More disturbing was the side of Dr Sturt which started coming out when I wouldn't just leave quietly with my buck, misaligned teeth that kept dropping out of my mouth. He became very heavy-handed causing more pain than should have been the case. I endured verbal jabs about my weight that had me in tears.
The tips were eventually made okay after almost 1 1/2 years of attempts. The bottoms are not okay. They don't fit, they're unusable, and the office refuses to refund the money so I can have them properly made. To this day I continue to wear my temporaries.
If you are in need of prosthetics, go to the American Diabetes Association site where they will provide certified prosthetics professionals in your area. Dr Sturt is not one....being a paying member of an association is much different than actually being licensed or certified. read more