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Review 9/27/2010
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In May 2010 I had an appointment with Dr. Tan to remove the cracked crown, take an impression to use in making the gold replacement crown, and install a temporary crown. She had originally placed the first crown in June 2009. It cracked, and was replaced in February 2010 with a newer harder white material (I forget the name) but she said that if this second crown broke we would have to do gold. I agreed. At no time were additional fees mentioned. I had been told by Hector (dental assistant) when the first crown broke that there would be no charge for replacement during the first year.
Though I had been told my appointment would take 1-1/2 hours, I was there for 3-1/2 hours. It was a dreadful experience.
The receptionist seated me in the chair and applied numbing ointment in back of mouth, explaining that she doesn't usually do this, but Hector (main dental assistant) was out, having had back surgery, and Tan was training a new assistant.
About 10 minutes later Tan entered. I reminded her that I am one of those hard-to-get-numb people. She said she wouldn't be doing any shots today. I told her I was concerned that, since the tooth had never fully settled down it would hurt me. She then gave an excuse that she's very busy and couldn't remember everything about each patient, she had just been in the next room with another patient, etc. I suggested she look at my chart to refresh her memory of my case.
She mentioned the case of my friend Amy, saying oh poor Amy having to get 8 gold teeth. She was surprised to realize that I did not know this (confidential) information, she explained that she thought I was Amy's girlfriend.
She put more numbing cream on the gum by the tooth, explaining that where the receptionist had put the cream was unnecessary. She gave me a couple of shots. She started drilling. She expressed frustration that the material was hard to drill. It seemed to be taking her longer than she liked, and she groused about the diamond bits. At one point she exclaimed that she'd only removed about 25%, and really she should stop, because since the tooth hadn't settled down it would need to be pulled anyway. (Having previously discussed this with my current dentist, I knew that sometimes even pulling a tooth will not alleviate pain, and that I should see an oro pain guy who has more sophisticated imaging equipment, and could prescribe creams that might help. In all my years of dental problems, and through 3 extractions, I have never, until that day, had a dentist do anything other than try their absolute utmost to save a tooth.)
I explained to Tan that I was not interested in pulling the tooth, that I have no money to pay for an implant and in any case, it seemed possible that with the gold crown the tooth might be saved.
She left for a very long time. When she came back she continued drilling and removed the rest of the crown pretty easily. (I estimate total drilling time was 10 to 12 minutes.) Two impressions were made (the first one was rejected by her--she's a perfectionist! she assured me.) The temporary crown was placed and I was done.
During my 3 hours in the chair, she came in and out a lot, (once leaving me for 45 minutes). At one point I had to kind of call into the next room, how much longer would she be? and was told 5 minutes, which ended up being 1/2 hour. Three times a timer was set, which started beeping loudly and persistently right behind my head, and since no one came I got up out of the chair to turn it off. Also there was a lot of rough handling of my mouth, and haranguing of her poor assistant, and when I left there I found purple gunk around my mouth left over from the impression--she hadn't even cleaned that off, nor mentioned it to me as we stood talking before I left.
It was when I was making the appointment to place the crown that she first brought up the subject of money. She felt that it would be fair for me to pay the lab fee for the gold crown, probably around $300. She said if I didn't she wouldn't make the crown, and would, in fact, destroy the impression she had made. She was clearly angry and frustrated that my case was costing her time and money, and berated the receptionist for not having mentioned the money request to me when I had arrived. I said my understanding was that her work was guaranteed for a year. She replied that while her work was guaranteed, the lab work was not. At that point I told her I had to leave and requested she send me an e-mail outlining her request and the reasons for it.
She subsequently placed the finished crown with no charge and no further problems.
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