Our dentist was doing my husband's root canal and.....?

Question

Ok, here I go again...apparently my last question wasn't worded right. This just happened in November, a piece of the tool the dentist was using broke off in my husband's tooth. The dentist is NOW telling him to go to an oral surgeon, so he will be PAYING AGAIN for the same work! He is not saying "I am responsible for that" he is saying "I don't know what to say" we are NOT happy with that response. There is a balance I WAS paying every month, BUT I feel that I should either NOT pay it anymore OR just give $5 every month by law. Am I justified to be angry by his actions? NO dentist responses, PLEASE. Thank you....

Answer 1

You are right to be angry. The dentist is having a hard time admitting he did wrong. Did you talk with the dentist about your views? In reality, he should be willing to cover the oral surgeon's bill & the current root canal bill.
When my dentist didn't put a filling in completely, & I had to come back, he willingly covered the bill itself.
Try talking with the dentist, or the person who responsible for the billing at his office.

Answer 2

Ask the dentist what his intentions are regarding the additional cost of dealing with a problem he caused. He has insurance to cover such things and he has recourse thru the manufacturer of the orthodontic barb or carbide drill he was using.

If he's sending you to an oral surgeon, more than likely, he's intending to have the surgeon extract the tooth. Extracting the tooth is probably all that can be done at this point. It's nearly impossible to remove broken tools from root chambers and canals in teeth because everything is so small ... you just can't get a grip on them once they break.

Either way you have to do something. Your dentist should have told you what his plan for the problem is before sending your husband to the oral surgeon. If necessary, get an attorney to help you come to terms for the expense of the additional work. If your husband has the tooth extracted, he's going to need either a bridge to fill the gap or a partial denture. Neither of those costs should be your responsibility.

You need to know what's going on before doing anything farther, but you also need to move on this before complications set in with the tooth.

Answer 3

IMO you are definetly right to be angry. The breaking of the tool is either due to the dentist's error or because the tool itself was badly manufactured- either way the dentist can discuss it with his supplier, insurance man and lawyer. It should not be any of your concern (unless they want the broken off piece for evidence/ testing)
IMO the oral surgery (which IMO is absolutely necessary) should be paid for by the dentist's insurance. THEN they can argue over who is responsible until hell freezes over.
I suggest you tell the dentist all that, and if he argues simply suggest (gently, no threats) that a lawyer might be needed to assess the moral and emotional stress damages

If that does not work, get a lawyer.

Answer 4

I had the same thing happen to me 2 years ago. They broke the tool off in my root canal and they were resposible for it. You did sign a paper saying you agree to possible chance the tool could break.

I know when the tool broke they didn't charge me anything. They gave me another dentist to go too. They may not of charged me since they were doing 2 of my teeth that day.....I don't know.

I would NOT pay for a root canal that did not get done. You shouldn't PAY for services that one Went wrong and were not completed.

I would fight all the way on that!!

Answer 5

Unfortunately it's pretty common for lousy dentists to break off tools and refer you to "specialists". It happened to me by one of the worst dentists I've ever used.

Unfortunately, like the rest of the medical profession, you really can't do anything unless you can prove that what happened was negligence. And let's face it, the chances of that are nil.

I'm sure that the surgeons know who they get most of their referrals from. And probably appreciate it as well. I doubt too many good dentists have this problem regularly.

Sorry, but this is one of the "taxes" of life. Like getting a speeding ticket (I got my second of the year last Saturday from a hidden speed trap).

Answer 6

What you need to do is ask him to pay for the oral surgeons services.Things like that happen but he has to do something about it.
he can not just wash his hands off of it.The instrument must be very deep inside the tooth.For him to be scared of touching it.It means some damage is already done and he doesn't want to make it worst.Be firm you have rights.They charge so much for everything.At least they can do a descent job.

Answer 7

How can he expect to be paid for shoddy work? If you go to a car repair shop, if they break something, they should fix it. Same thing here. I would consult a lawyer.