Bad Dentistry

With all the bad news about stiff competition and price erosion, I thought we all could use a “feel good” reminder that you deliver an invaluable service to the patients who receive your work; I’m one of them!

In March 2013, I went to a local general practitioner to have number 14 looked...

Sometimes one poor decision turns a routine restoration into an expensive, time-consuming series of additional procedures and discomfort. I think there were two poor decisions made in my case. Check one for the practitioner and one for me.

This is my story and it pretty much dominated my summer.

Lately, I’d noticed some pain when chewing, but I wasn’t sure whether it was coming from that tooth or the opposing PFM crown. Though #19 had a root canal [the one from LMT’s second crown experiment, 1987], there was a chance that the tooth had cracked.

April 2013

Decision day. I went in to have the filling removed to see what was left of the tooth. Even this standard procedure is one that separates excellent dentists from just okay dentists. Unfortunately, this dentist is "just okay."

After the decision was made, I learned that there...

The Night of June 6

A bunch of us were sitting around the fire pit on my patio, protected from the rain by a covered pergola. It was a Thursday night. We—LMT staff members, Andy and I—were enjoying our visitors from the Chicago LAB DAY setup team. Without warning, my laughter was...

After the Fall

After finally finding my fallen crown, I gently ran my tongue across the prepped area. It felt like a wizard's hat: thin, tall and pointy.

We headed for home but made a stop for lunch along the way. That's when the wizard's hat came loose. I now held it in my hand. It didn't...

The following week, the prosthodontist confirmed that, indeed, the next step would be the crown lengthening procedure followed by six weeks of healing time before he would insert a post to further support the crown. And, as Bill Mrazek, CDT, recommended, the best restoration in this case, would be a...

This week I was scheduled to have two posts placed in my crown-lengthened tooth. That didn't happen.

Instead of feeling no pain in the tooth, it became increasingly sensitive to pressure. Then, a few weeks ago, I couldn't tolerate anything cold in that quadrant of my mouth. So I went to see the prosthodontist...