Dental Drama

[Missy]

In 2004, my dentist did some dental work that affected three teeth. Since then, two crowns broke and the onlay fell out. When the dentist refused to make good on the work (I wanted my money back - I could no longer trust him), I put up a website describing the experience. Obnoxious? Probably but I felt I was within my first amendment rights and just told the story rather than call names.

Now he is suing me for defamation, business slander, false advertising, violation of business and professional code 17500, 17200, unfair business practice and extortion. Can that be right?

It seems to me that I should have some kind of countersuit. Not that I would prefer to sue him but I figure that since I'm going to court I might as well try to come up with some kind of leverage. I realize that statute of limitations has run out on any kind of immediate injury lawsuit but he is minimally guilty of professional misconduct.

What say y'all?

Here is the text of the website:

This website is dedicated to my experiences with xxx, Cerec restorations and sedation dentistry. xxx is a dentist that practices sedation dentistry in xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. xxx owns a Cerec device. The Cerec is a special machine allows dentists to make dental restorations while the patient waits thus making it possible for permanent crowns and other restorations to be finished in one visit.

** picture of damaged tooth **
This is the damage to my tooth. xxx put a Cerec restoration in the tooth above. Because it didn't fit properly, he drilled down the existing crown below, weakening it. Within a very short amount of time, the crown on the tooth he drilled broke. Additionally, he had used the CEREC machine to make an inlay which promptly fell out and a crown which broke.

The entire xx episode was your typical story of an unknowing person with a problem who was sold a bill of goods. No problem - one visit, gas, sleeping pills, piece of cake! It is hard to believe that a dentist would give a patient with extreme dental phobia gas and sleeping pills then wake them up and try to upsell them but that is exactly what happened. Something along the lines of "decay we couldn't see before on a tooth that we weren't going to touch" and do I want to fix it for another $1200?! On the way out, the receptionist presents me a bill that was higher than the estimate by several hundred dollars. Fortunately I noticed and she quickly adjusted her "billing error".
What are Cerec Crowns and why don't they work on molars?

Cerec is a in house method of dental restoration. It is very attractive because it has some of the natural translucency of light, however it is not as strong as traditional crowns. The issue is that the, although less drilling is necessary, the ceramic used is thinner (saving more of the tooth and creating a thinner restoration). Although I don't have any experience on how that works out on front teeth, all of the Cerec work that I had done by xxx fell out or broke within five years. The latest breakage was a piece of molar that broke right off exposing part of what was left of the tooth under it and causing me anxiety and costing me time and money to go to another dentist for a traditional crown which should last me 20 years.

A picture of the Cerec dental restoration that broke coming soon.

More information about CEREC on molars


Estimate for repair to Tooth #30 from another dentist (not xxx, DDS) (picture follows)
Get a second opinion and look for local area Dentists
with the integrity to stand by their work!