Let me start by saying for 8 years I loved this dentist's work and recommended several people to him. That was before Westhafer Jr joined the practice with Sr Westhafer.
When Dr Westhafer Jr. Joined the practice fresh out of med school he of course lacked the polish and skill of Dr Westhafer Sr, but I had been so happy through the years that when Jr failed to properly fill a cavity deep enough under the gumline.... I didn't complain or say a word. The work was already done and I just wasn't going to say anything and have to redo the work until it gave me problems, however.... The next time I had an appointment with Dr Westhafer Sr, he immediately saw the problem and began to redo this tooth and "fix" it. Which would have been fine, EXCEPT for the fact that upon finding the incorrectly filled tooth he began work on it without my consent and didn't notify me that since the tooth was worked on so recently that it was ineligible for any insurance coverage. Because technically this tooth had already been paid for. An unexpected and UNINSURED bill would be bad enough... But he had already began work on the tooth before he finally notified me insurance would not cover it... But in general I'm very easy going and even this could have been tolerable.... However this was apparently obviously NOT the first failed work of Dr Jr that had been found since Dr westifer senior began to become extremely unprofessional and RANT at me CONTINUOUSLY about how he could not keep doing dental work for free to fix this stuff and he would be charging me full price without insurance. So obviously other patients had had similar situations. He then went on to practically belittle me for my admission that I did drink one can of cola a day, and started scolding me about how that single pop a day obviously must have caused this. (Keep in mind this was the first cavity or work I had needed done in over 5 years, the last two years of which I had been experiencing severe stomach and vomiting issues multiple times a day and had repeatedly discussed this with the dental team over concern of the potential damage that was being done to my teeth from the stomach acid. ) Even drinking my sinful one can of pop a day and my teeth getting coated and stomach acid at least 10 times daily only cavities or damage I had had was the single cavity and then the botched filling of said cavity.
I left the dental office that day with an exorbitant bill, practically in tears from the unwarranted criticism, feeling humiliated, belittled and shamed.
In summary, in trying to cut Dr Westhafer Jr some slack since he was learning, I was out hundreds of dollars and treated like garbage (or the scape goat of his frustration). And of course now I also need to find a new dentist.
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