5105 Medical Update - teeth

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

As reported earlier, I'm taking generic Femara.  After the first few weeks, I no longer have the hot flashes.  I do have bone, joint, and muscle pain, but I've always had that, so I don't know whether it's the Femara or not.  No big deal.

I have slight osteopenia in my left hip, so the chemo doc wants to put me on Fosamax  to protect my bones from the Femara.  That has its own set of side effects.  For some strange reason it especially likes to cause problems with the jaw bones, so I need to have all dental work taken care of now, because if there's anything wrong with the jaw bones, it won't heal.  When I was entubated for the lumpectomy, apparently they smashed a molar on the upper right, and shortly after surgery it crumbled, so something had to be done about that.  (By the way, every time I have been entubated, they've either broken a tooth or dislocated my jaw - which I don't understand, because when I was an EMT, we never broke anyone's mouth.  We never had to push that hard.  The opening you aim for is straight back there, and as long as you aim straight....)

So, dentist.  I found one, got an appointment right off, explained the situation and what I wanted done, and the time constraints.   He took xrays, and worked up a plan right then, said I had to pay for it ALL before he'd start, they have an arrangement with a loan shark if I don't have it up front, and said I had to follow his instructions and do everything he said or he'd refuse to treat me.  

If I hadn't been under time pressure, I'd have thought about it more.

His bill was $12,000, but he was giving me a discount so all he wanted was $9,000 paid in full before he started.  I don't have dental insurance.

I moved some money around online, called Schwab to sell some stock so I could replace that money to pay some insurance premiums and real estate taxes coming up soon, and wrote him a check that day, and the next business day he started.  Pulled three teeth, and did something involving lasers and scraping.

THEN I looked at the plan, thought about it, and did some research.  The broken tooth on the upper right did need pulling.  I'd had a root canal on that tooth  and it was capped or something, so I had no pain from it, but it still needed to be fixed somehow.  He pulled two more teeth on the bottom right because in the xrays, it showed blank areas under the crowns, just above the roots.  Neither of those teeth had been bothering me, and the xrays showed just blank spaces, there was NO INFECTION!  Now I wonder why they needed pulling.  It's possible that was just empty space, or packing.

The laser and scraping was root planing, on 1/4 of my mouth, three more quarters to go.  But I remembered that when he was poking around in my mouth, he dictated to the technician on that first visit  "periodontal disease, slight."  So given what I wanted when I came in, did I need that?

Plus, they gave me a special rotating electric toothbrush and a special mouthwash, which showed up on the bill.  No option.  No refusal.  My gums and palate are extremely ticklish and I told the technician there was NO WAY I'd be able to use the damn thing, my regular brush and routine seem to be doing fine, but, well, doctor says....

Now I got mad.  I didn't want to go back, called and cancelled my next appointment ($250 charge for cancelling) and said I was willing to pay for work done, but wanted a refund of the remaining $9,000 deposit.  The gal gave me an argument, said they couldn't refund anything because he "gave you a discount".

The earlier research I'd done before going showed glowing reviews of the practice.  I dug deeper.  Turns out this guy's license had been suspended for five years in 2010.  I found the actual legal consent decree he'd had to sign to get his suspension reduced to six weeks with the remainder of the time on probation, with a healthy fine spread over those five years.  He'd been suspended for doing unnecessary procedures (bingo), charging for materials not used, not offering patients the option of purchasing things outside (like the toothbrush and mouthwash, bingo) as the dental association requires, and not refunding payments when patients bail (bingo).

That was three weeks ago.  No refund yet.  I may have to sue the SOB.  And I WILL notify the NJ dental board.

So, that's been going on.

I may have to see another dentist.  I think he may have left some fragment of that upper tooth in there.

There's more. Eyes.  Next post for the really icky stuff.
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