This office caused me months of unnecessary suffering. Buckle in, because this is a long review, but it needs to be shared so no one else will have to go through the hell I went through here.
I transferred in from out of state, and was recommended to start a palate expander with almost no discussion of risks or potential complications. He mentioned that moving in the middle of my orthodontic treatment was a bad idea during my consultation, which I agreed with, but it's not like I had a choice-I had to relocate and find someone to finish what my previous ortho started. I should have taken this as a warning and looked into other orthodontists, but I was under the impression he was the only one near me who used the bracket system I already had on. So I decided to use him and to proceed with the MSE.
Things initially seemed to be going okay, but every visit, he made unnecessary comments about my appearance. It was unprofessional and uncomfortable. Occasionally he seemed to get frustrated with his assistants too, often snapping at them for misunderstanding what tools he was requesting.
The installation when another and I began to turn my expander. However, the expander caused an actual HOLE to open in the roof of my mouth. When I first noticed it appear, I asked him about it and he said it was normal, dismissed my concern, and had me continue turning my expander. When it became noticably large, he admitted it wasn't normal and told me to rapidly reverse the expander to close it. He had me open and close it multiple times over a few weeks, hoping the tissue would heal back together. When this didn't work, he reluctantly removed the expander and "irritated" tissue in an attempt to get it to heal--around the same time he realized my braces hadn't even been adjusted once since starting treatment.
I could tell things were still not healing properly, and I was fed up with him trying all kind of different things to "fix" it to no avail. I asked for a referral to an oral surgeon a few times, but he brushed it off and said surgery wasn't needed and would have been too invasive. Later, he admitted he changed his procedures for adults so this wouldn't happen again--which told me he didn't fully understand what he was doing. He seemed anxious about trying to figure out a solution, and I felt like he didn't want to ask for outside help.
After being gaslit and ignored for months, I left his practice. I found an orthodontist who also used the same bracket system I had on, and immediately transfered to him. Both the new ortho and an oral surgeon were shocked he even attempted to install an MSE on an adult without surgical support. I had to spend $3,000 on a bone graft and tissue repair to fix what could have been resolved if he had listened to me when I first noticed the injury. The wound left me with evelated blood pressure and heart rate, as well as migraines until it was finally repaired. The surgeon confirmed that this would not have healed on its own, and that the surgical intervention was 100% necessary. He was genuinely surprised by how much he had to clean up and repair when he did the procedure.
The whole thing was painful, expensive, and completely avoidable if he had been upfront about the risks before I even started the expansion. I wouldn't have even gotten the MSE if I had known. Instead, I ended up paying $2000 to essentially be tortured, ignored, and degraded. Think twice about setting foot in this office. read more