When my 4 year-old daughter needed extensive dental work, we decided to go with Dr. Payne because he was the only pediatric dentist in Michigan that we could find that did acrylic (white) crowns. We had previously been seen by 2 dentist offices and were told that she needed at least 2 crowns.
My daughter has an anxiety condition called Selective Mutism and due to this and the amount of work she needed done, we agreed that it would be best to have her dental work done by under anesthesia at the hospital by Dr. Payne.
When her procedure was completed, Dr. Payne told us that he did not use the acrylic crowns. Instead he placed nerve blocks and fillings in those 2 teeth. We were surprised but trusted his judgment.
When we returned home and looked at her teeth, there was still noticeable brown decay around the fillings in those teeth. Not being a dentist, I thought maybe this was normal for baby teeth.
Several months later, we scheduled a progress exam because the decay was progressing and she was getting food caught in it that we couldn't get out. My husband took her to this appointment and was told that there were no soft spots and things looked fine. We were asked to return for annual teeth cleaning.
At her annual teeth cleaning, x-rays were taken and by this time the decay was very, visually noticeable. We were told that we would have to repeat the anesthesia procedure with stainless steel crowns. We agreed, her teeth needed to get fixed, but it still nagged me that crowns were not put on originally. These procedures cost thousands of dollars. We scheduled the next hospital procedure as soon as we could.
Because of our questioning of the original procedure and wanting to make sure we were clear of what was going to happen on the second procedure, as we do not want to repeat this again next year, I called Dr. Payne's office and expressed my concerns. I scheduled a consultation with Dr. Payne for the following day for a discussion.
The following morning, his receptionist called me. She said that she told Dr. Payne about my concerns and it was clear to him that we did not have trust in his work and that we should seek dental care elsewhere. I was then asked if I wanted to cancel my daughter's hospital procedure.
Looking back on our situation, I feel we did not receive good care at Dr. Payne's office. I do not know why the work was not done as originally planned. I had full trust in him to take care of my 2 children and to be accountable for his work. If I hadn't, I would have gone elsewhere in the past year. I have switched back to our original local pediatric dentist and am quite happy, but have regrets about letting her teeth get so bad under the care of Dr. Payne before seeking care elsewhere. read more