I am a mess and need some help. I went to see a dentist a some jaw pain and he told me I needed a full-mouth reconstruction because of TMJ. He removed quite a few teeth he said couldn’t be saved, which surprised me because I’d not had any problems with those teeth, but I figured he knew what he was doing. The other teeth he did just dental crowns. It wasn’t too long before the crowns started falling off, leaving me with either nothing but screws or large gaps around my teeth. I kept trying to reach them. When I could not, I became suspicious and drove down there. They’ve closed shop. Now I found out the dentist has fled to some middle-eastern country, with my $47,000, plus I’m certain a bunch of other people’s money as well. What do I do? I can’t even eat solid foods at the moment.

Deanna

Dear Deanna,

I am so very sorry this has happened to you. You must be in tremendous pain. I’m guessing this procedure did not even address the reason you originally come in to see him.  You’ve likely realized by now that you’ve been swindled. There is not much you can do to recoup your money if he remains out of the country, but I would document everything, including costs of repairs in case you find he ever returns. Now, to get you out of pain and with teeth again.

Placing dental implants are not adequately taught in dental school. It is important whomever you see to have this re-done properly have the additional training necessary to do it right. That means post-doctoral training in dental implants. In most cases, just seeing a dentist with that type of training would be sufficient. However, your situation is different. Becasue of the serious nature of your condition, along with your complicating TMJ disorder that still will need to be dealt with, I am going to recommend you see a dentist who is a Fellow with the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI). These are the top dental implant dentists in the country. They will be able to get your jaw in good working order.

Regarding the TMJ Disorder. When the ICOI dentist repairs what is going on, it will place your jaw in the proper alignment which will deal with the jaw pain you originally went in for. For the benefit of others, I will say that a full-mouth reconstruction is sort of a last resort treatment after other, much more conservative and inexpensive, options have been tried. Unless something severe is going on it should not be the first thing a dentist suggests.

This blog is brought to you by Sugar Land Dentist Dr. Siny Thomas.