A Dental Horror Story - With A Happy Ending

Steve hates dentists with a capital Hate, but last spring was finally defeated by pain. We had to searched out a new one because our very wonderful dentist got married and moved so far out of town that visiting her new practice became unreasonable. New new Dentist, Dr. A took one look at his tooth and said "root canal" and immediately proceeded to do it. A week later when he went back for the filling Steve complained of some pain in said tooth and was told it would settle down.

A month or so later, the tooth still hadn't settled down and Steve went back. Dr. A suggested a crown and gave him some antibiotic. Two weeks later the crown was put in place and he was sent on his merry way. Fast forward a couple of months and I was in the same dental office for a cleaning and ran into Dr. A who inquired about Steve. I mentioned that the tooth was still sensitive and Steve had absolutely no intention of ever coming back to see him (I knew that). He convinced me to send Steve to see him again and when he finally went Dr. A said, "no no it's not the tooth I fixed that hurts it's the one beside it and it needs a root canal, we'll do it right now". "Hold on a minutes" said Steve, "let me think about it".

Meanwhile I checked with some friends who recommended a new dentist who is known as Dr. G. Dr. G concurred that yes, a root canal was necessary and an appointment was made. This one turned out perfectly and gives Steve no trouble at all. Steve actually raved about Dr. G for days and arrangements were made to have a compete checkup on our return from Greece. The other tooth still hurt from time to time but not enough to warrant another trip to the dentist.

By the time we returned to Canada that tooth was really painful. We made a new appointment with Dr. G and got Steve some antibiotics. Dr. G took x-rays of the tooth and gave Steve the bad news. The tooth had to come out, the root canal was done badly, wasn't filled properly and was not salvageable. That tooth cost $2,400 and had to come out. Dr. G wanted to know who did it and Steve told him. Steve says Dr. G exploded in rage, actually swore and said he was the second person he had seen recently whose tooth had been ruined by Dr. A. "Leave it with me" he said, and just before Christmas he phoned and told Steve he would be getting an implant free of charge, compliments of Dr. A.

It would have been practically impossible to sue Dr. A for his mistake, all he would say is I did my best. Kind of hard to prove that he's incompetent so if it hadn't been for the diligence of Dr. G it would have cost Steve another $3,500 for an implant. There are some good people out there and Dr. G qualifies...tomorrow he gets to yank that tooth out.