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Should I pay incompetant dentist?

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  • 04-03-2007 9:59pm
    #1
    far2gud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 299 ✭✭


    My dentist is tryiing to charge me 180 euro for the first part of a root canal treatment she was unable to perform. I had an infection under a pulp stone in one of my main molars that my dentist was unable to remove.

    She then had to refer me to a specialist endodontist who was able to carry out the work at a cost of 800 euro. I was glad of the specialist at the time as he looked like he knew what he was doing...more so than my dentist.

    Isnt the first part of a root canal to remove the roots, my dentist was unable to this as a result of the pulp stone and had to send me home for a weekend of pain before I could see the specialist.

    My question is should I pay the 180 euro or just jump ship.


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    #2
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    Honestly, you pay a dentist for their time and the materials used not the success of whatever it is they are trying to do. Similar to how you pay a GP for their time and not necessarily the success of the outcome.


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    #3
    Jesus Wept
    Registered Users Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    far2gud wrote:
    My dentist is tryiing to charge me 180 euro for the first part of a root canal treatment she was unable to perform. I had an infection under a pulp stone in one of my main molars that my dentist was unable to remove.

    She then had to refer me to a specialist endodontist who was able to carry out the work at a cost of 800 euro. I was glad of the specialist at the time as he looked like he knew what he was doing...more so than my dentist.

    Isnt the first part of a root canal to remove the roots, my dentist was unable to this as a result of the pulp stone and had to send me home for a weekend of pain before I could see the specialist.

    My question is should I pay the 180 euro or just jump ship.


    Dentists are such a grey area, bad ones really should be held accountable.


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    #4
    Hagar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,793 ✭✭✭✭Hagar


    Should the problem the dentist encountered have been reasonably foreseeable? By x-ray perhaps? If so, why did he initiate a procedure that he could not complete?

    Would you pay a mechanic who couldn't fix your car?


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    #5
    far2gud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 299 ✭✭far2gud


    Hagar wrote:
    Should the problem the dentist encountered have been reasonably foreseeable? By x-ray perhaps? If so, why did he initiate a procedure that he could not complete?

    Would you pay a mechanic who couldn't fix your car?

    This would be my standpoint on it also, I work in IT and would never dream of charging someone if I failed to fix their computer..so how does a dentist differ?

    Should a a Dentist offering root canal not have the skills to deal with tooth pulp infection? and if not should they really be carrying out these procedures at all?

    I lost all faith in this practise after this and was quite shocked to be honest when I received the invoice.


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    #6
    far2gud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 299 ✭✭far2gud


    **edit** double post


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    #7
    astrofool
    Registered Users Posts: 16,460 ✭✭✭✭astrofool


    As previously stated, you'll pay for time regardless of outcome. Same with a lawyer if you lose the case, a teacher if you fail the exam etc.

    Mechanic's often have to send away for extra part's or refer to another mechanic with specialist equipment. Does the time they spent working on the car not entitle them to payment even though they failed to fix it themselves?

    The question you're asking is should a dentist a) have detected it sooner and b) have been able to sort it themselves.

    a) you will have to find out yourself, perhaps it is a rare case that's not worth the time/money spent testing for it, or perhaps the only way to detect is once the surgery has begun (exploratory surgery exists for just this reason).

    on b) the fact that the specialist cost €800 compared to €180 for the dentist would imply that no, they should not be able to do that procedure, unless they became a specialist, but would you pay €800 then for every little dental procedure?


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    #8
    far2gud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 299 ✭✭far2gud


    astrofool wrote:
    As previously stated, you'll pay for time regardless of outcome. Same with a lawyer if you lose the case, a teacher if you fail the exam etc.

    That is true, but why does my dentist not pay for my time as I sit for over an hour past my consultation time to be seen? maybe I should invoice her


    astrofool wrote:
    Mechanic's often have to send away for extra part's or refer to another mechanic with specialist equipment. Does the time they spent working on the car not entitle them to payment even though they failed to fix it themselves?

    No, In my opinion they do not.
    astrofool wrote:
    The question you're asking is should a dentist a) have detected it sooner and b) have been able to sort it themselves.

    Exactly but Im not a dentist.
    astrofool wrote:
    on b) the fact that the specialist cost €800 compared to €180 for the dentist would imply that no, they should not be able to do that procedure, unless they became a specialist, but would you pay €800 then for every little dental procedure?

    Not sure I follow you here, the €180 charged was for the initial phase of a specialist procedure the dentist could not complete. Maybe dentists should stick to the more rudamentry stuff so.

    I am not trying to have a go at all dentists but for the price I have payed for dentistry in the last year I expect a better service.


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    #9
    vishal
    Registered Users Posts: 698 ✭✭✭vishal


    it is quite upsetting to read this on boards. if anything you should be happy your dentist referred you to a specialist rather than take on something she would not have felt competent completing rather botching up the job like so many root canals i have seen.

    frankly i wouldn't have you as my patient

    unless of course she really is incompetent, but i doubt a patient can tell that easily, i would still pay her, then find a dentist you trust.


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    #10
    btkm8unsl0w5r4
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭btkm8unsl0w5r4


    Carrying out dental treatment is not like fixing a car or a computer, its a biological system which is totally unpredictable at times. Often an unforseeable complication arises that requires referal, be glad your dentist saw thay could not do the job properly and refered you on. So many other dentists would have botched on and charged you full whack only for it to flair up later.

    Maybe you should ask the general dentist why you have to pay when you feel that nothing was done, this would be more productive and braver than posting up here.


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    #11
    nesf
    Registered Users Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭nesf


    far2gud wrote:
    This would be my standpoint on it also, I work in IT and would never dream of charging someone if I failed to fix their computer..so how does a dentist differ?

    Really, if you cannot see the distinction there...


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    #12
    far2gud
    Closed Accounts Posts: 299 ✭✭far2gud


    I am obviously outnumbered here with regards my opinion, I will leave it there.


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    #13
    Hagar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,793 ✭✭✭✭Hagar


    Solomon Dirty Tarantula wrote:
    Maybe you should ask the general dentist why you have to pay when you feel that nothing was done, this would be more productive and braver than posting up here.
    Agreed, very good advice.

    With all due respect though if a question like that can't be asked on this forum without the implication that the poster is somehow lacking in moral fibre what's the point of the forum?


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    #14
    FX Meister
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,217 ✭✭✭FX Meister


    I had a root canal done a few years ago and then a cap placed on the tooth. Root canal failed and the capped tooth had to be removed. He had to then put in a bridge instead. He didn't charge for the bridge as the root canal had failed (had already paid for the cap). It wasn't the dentists fault the root canal failed, he even said that it may not work as it was a tricky one.


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    #15
    lomb
    Registered Users Posts: 6,031 ✭✭✭lomb


    regardless of anything dentists ethically under the guidlines dentists should not offer any gaurantees. there are numerous variables and in any case many teeth that are basically bombed out are hopeless long term anyway. add in bacteria, forces from eating, grinding, flexing of tooth substance, no one should offer a gaurantee for something that has so many variables. that is not to say someone might put the cost of treatment towards something else if it fails in a reasonable time where the dentist thought there was some hope for it as a gesture of goodwill.
    i saw a treatment plan where a patient had paid 89000 sterling for a full mouth implant reconstruction at a very respected london hospital and there were no gaurantees attached when the part of the reconsturction collapsed taking out 6 teeth a few months later. he attended someone else to put in more implants as he couldnt afford to pay the original dentists fees!


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