Sue the dentist?

well back in 98 i got a crown put in with temporary cement they sent me home and they told me to let them know if my crown bothered me. i went back for my app. and i told them everything felt ok. so the nurse tried taking my crown off but she couldnt so she said well its on good so we will leave it like that. they sent me home. well i kept on getting a blister filled with pus over that tooth but i payed no attention. i went to the state fair and bit into candy apple and the crown came off. well i went back to the same office and told them what happened.they took x-rays and they said it was infected and they wanted to charge me a couple thousand dollars to get work done they were gonna put a veneer..well i dont have that kind of money so i said not now. they didnt charge me for the visit or the x-ray. do you think its cause they know that its thier fault cuase if they would of took the tooth of and put on the cement it wouldnt of got infected.now im getting a gap in my 2 front teeth

sorry ran out os space i dont want to sue i just want to get my teeth fixed and i think they should cover that.

They DEFINITELY should fix that for you.

You could always report it to the Better Business Beaurow

[[www.BBB.com]]

Or if you live in the Sacramento area "Call Kurtis."

[[I'm sure their is some kind of news station you could contact for help.]]

But i totally think that that is the dentist fault and it should be covered.

-Jordan

I think they should cover it too. They didn't complete your tooth as needed and knowingly left on a temporary for an extended period of time.

SINCE THIS INCIDENT TOOK PLACE BACK IN 1998, THERE IS A STATUE OF LIMITATION ON LAW SUITS WHICH PROBABLY EXPIRED SOME TIME AGO.
A BETTER THING TO DO IS TO HAVE THIS DENTIST REDO THE WORK FOR FREE SINCE THIS WAS NOT PROPERLY HANDLED ACCORDING TO YOU.

For one thing, what you described makes no sense. If it developed a pus pocket, and it had already been crowned, they would not be putting a veneer on it. I think you misunderstood something.

If it developed an abcess, that is not necessarily the dentists fault. The fact that they didn't charge you for the visit, does not mean that they know that they are guilty of anything. I have done a x-ray and had the dentist check a patient many times, and didn't charge them. Not because I, or the dentist, felt that anything our office did was wrong, but simply because we don't feel that we have to charge a patient for every little thing, and we try to cut them a break where we can.

Putting the crown on with permenant cement, is not a guarantee that you would have not developed an abcess. Sometimes for different reasons, a dentist will put a crown on with temporary cement for a while, and then later go back and cement it with permanant cement. The fact that it would not come off when the assistant tried to get it off, just shows that they used a good quality cement, and it was a pretty good fitting crown.

Since it was done in 98, I would say that it is not under warranty any longer, if the dentist even offers warranties. It is not unheard of for a tooth that has had dental work done on it, to develop an abcess. It happens more than you would realize. Sometimes the vibration of the drill can cause small cracks in the tooth to deepen, and this could cause bacteria to get into the tooth, which over time could cause it to abcess. I have seen it happen many times in my years as an assistant. I doesn't mean that the dentist did anything wrong.

As far as whether or not you should sue him, well you would have to prove that he really did something unethical. Many times patients are too quick to start yelling "sue, sue, sue!!!" and they just simply are not knowledgeable of the dental field and the technical side of dentistry. Dentistry is not an exact science, no medical field is. Just like a woman could go in and get a boob job, and end up developing an infection, it is just one of those things that happens on some patients. Most complaints and lawsuits against dentists, end up being more expensive than the patient realized they were going to be, and don't usually end up in the patients favor. So get the real details of the situation before you jump the gun, if you have to, take a family member with you to the dentists office and have a consult with him, asking that he explain to you in detail why he thinks this happened and exactly what he is proposing needs to be done to fix it.

Not enough information to blame the dentist from what you have written. For one thing you say you developed a blister, to which you "payed" no attention (sic). If you don't bother to inform the care provider that you are having problems, I don't see where they could be liable. If the dentist is going to have a reasonable chance to make things right, you have to tell them!

How much time elapsed between the original crown being put on and the state fair incident? You don't say, so it could have been anywhere from 2 to 6 years. 1998 was 8 years ago.

It probably has nothing to do with temporary cement, but it's hard to tell from the limited information you have given.