Dr. Hall,
I am in a situation that I do not know what to do. I am in treatment for full crowns except for the six lower front teeth. My terms were all porcelain, they use empress, and flush emergence from the gums. The Dr. assured me he could do that, he is a prosthodontist with an in-office dental lab. First fitting (the upper 6 teeth only so far), the teeth were rounded at the gums and I could feel the line between the crown and the natural tooth. They did not look like normal teeth. I had him do them over and then the crowns were pushed up against my gums which made my gums lose the pinkish color. They looked like a set of dentures. He said I didn’t have any gums. I wore them out with temp glue and returned with my before pics and made sure he could see my gums. They made new ones and they are in now with temp glue. Some have flush emergence from the gum, but in the back, the crowns do not cover the sensitive area of my underneath teeth. I cannot stand to put anything hot or cold near the roof of my mouth. I am so distraught. I STILL have temporaries on all my other teeth. I am so concerned about the pressure on my real teeth and gums right now.
I want to get a 2nd opinion but I don’t know if anyone will even take my case at this point. Will they? I have paid this Dr. $29,000. Can I get a refund and go somewhere else at this point? I have taken pics of the last permanents that I had him do over and I can take pics of these. I cannot go to Dr. D (a dentist that we recommend) at this point because he was my next choice from this Dr. and Dr. D knows that. I can go to someone in (City A) or (City B). I am terrified because this is my whole mouth!! Please advise me. Thank you.
– Deborah
Deborah,
Prosthodontists tend to be the ultimate in the engineering mentality that think that your concern over how the teeth look is not worth their time to address. So you have a basic conflict with the dentist. You want a beautiful smile. While he may be polite, he thinks that he would be pandering and unprofessional if he is that concerned with a trivial thing like the appearance. In his mind, he knows best, the teeth he has made look good enough, and you are a troublemaker. You are really in the wrong office, and the faster you get out, the easier – unless you just want to turn the dentist loose and have him do it the way he wants. But you’ll be crying every day you look in the mirror if you do that.
I’m not sure I understand why you can’t go to Dr. D. Are you saying that he was your second choice and he knows that? Why should that matter? You made a very understandable mistake – you thought that a prosthodontist was the ultimate expert in crowns, and you didn’t realize that prosthodontists are engineers usually and not artists. That’s a very reasonable assumption, and I can’t see how that would be a problem to admit that to Dr. D. He would be flattered that you chose him in the end.
Anyway, you need to go to an artistic cosmetic dentist. Pick one. If you want to be sure you don’t make a mistake this time, go to one of the cosmetic dentists we recommend. I take this responsibility of recommending cosmetic dentists very seriously, and everyone on our list is carefully screened for artistic ability and cosmetic dentistry training. And then ask this cosmetic dentist how he or she can help you from this point. I can’t tell you anything more specific than that without a personal examination of your case.
Dentists are obligated by a code of ethics to do everything they can to make it so you can switch dentists, even in the middle of treatment. The two dentists would need to talk and figure out between them how to proceed, and you would have to work out what payments would have to be made to whom. It can be done, and it’s not hard. Take that first step and go in for a second opinion, and everything after that will be relatively easy.
Good luck,
Dr. Hall
Links: You may be interested to read my post, What is the difference between a prosthodontist and a cosmetic dentist?
Click here to find a cosmetic dentist near me. Every dentist listed is personally screened by Dr. Hall for artistic ability and cosmetic dentistry training.
About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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