DentalpainWA
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Washington
TL;DR at bottom
In November/December 2014 I was covered under WA state Medicaid, and saw a dentist who accepted my insurance. The first dentist I saw (I saw a total of 4) upon my initial exam said that I had several (something like 10-12) cavities, but that the dental office would act conservatively at first; if more fillings were needed then they would attend to it later, which I thought was strange but figured they meant if they visually saw more damage than the xrays initially hinted at, they might have to adapt the treatment plan.
A second and third dentist saw me on two separate occasions to do the fillings. The first visit the dental assistant spoke on how inexperienced he was as a new dental assistant, and asked the dentist if he could do some of the work on me. The dentist thankfully said no, and I would have protested otherwise, but that was my second red flag. They offered to replace my metal fillings with ceramic while they were already doing work, and said it would not be an extra charge on my part so I agreed. The third dentist was much more gentle and seemed much more thorough. However, I immediately had problems with ceramic chipping off in places and crunching in my mouth. I scheduled an emergency appointment with a different location (cue 4th dentist) and they begrudgingly filed down the edges of my fillings after arguing with me that they weren't actually rough.
After coming back from vacation a month later, my fillings got increasingly worse, flaking up at the edges, cutting my mouth and tongue, and causing me jaw pain. After being told by my dentist that they would gladly fix their poor work (for $150-$300 per tooth, since my insurance only covers one operation per tooth per 2 years) I consulted another dentist in Portland, who said that it was obvious that the work was shoddy, and filed my teeth down for free. They conducted a bite check, and said my entire left sided molars didn't touch completely, because the right sided cavities had been so overfilled and my bite didn't match up. Hence the jaw pain.
I've had continuing and increasing jaw and tooth pain, the edges of my fillings are lifting up worse than ever, and I've heard my fillings crack on more than one occasion. When I contacted WA State Medicaid and reported the dentist, they said there was a class suit for insurance fraud already underway. Of the two dentists in my area currently accepting new patients with my insurance, one of them is very poorly reviewed (I'm afraid of a repeat experience) and the other has a year wait due to the influx of patients from the same Fraudulent Dentist office I went to.
TL;DR I need advice on whether I should eat the costs of seeing an out-of-network provider to get my teeth fixed after a proven insurance-scamming dentist did a poor job, and then sue said original dentist for damages and cost? Or if there will be a class-action lawsuit I should wait for? Or if I should outright sue them for malpractice? Waiting the year to get my teeth looked at seems very abysmal and like I would be putting my health at risk.
In November/December 2014 I was covered under WA state Medicaid, and saw a dentist who accepted my insurance. The first dentist I saw (I saw a total of 4) upon my initial exam said that I had several (something like 10-12) cavities, but that the dental office would act conservatively at first; if more fillings were needed then they would attend to it later, which I thought was strange but figured they meant if they visually saw more damage than the xrays initially hinted at, they might have to adapt the treatment plan.
A second and third dentist saw me on two separate occasions to do the fillings. The first visit the dental assistant spoke on how inexperienced he was as a new dental assistant, and asked the dentist if he could do some of the work on me. The dentist thankfully said no, and I would have protested otherwise, but that was my second red flag. They offered to replace my metal fillings with ceramic while they were already doing work, and said it would not be an extra charge on my part so I agreed. The third dentist was much more gentle and seemed much more thorough. However, I immediately had problems with ceramic chipping off in places and crunching in my mouth. I scheduled an emergency appointment with a different location (cue 4th dentist) and they begrudgingly filed down the edges of my fillings after arguing with me that they weren't actually rough.
After coming back from vacation a month later, my fillings got increasingly worse, flaking up at the edges, cutting my mouth and tongue, and causing me jaw pain. After being told by my dentist that they would gladly fix their poor work (for $150-$300 per tooth, since my insurance only covers one operation per tooth per 2 years) I consulted another dentist in Portland, who said that it was obvious that the work was shoddy, and filed my teeth down for free. They conducted a bite check, and said my entire left sided molars didn't touch completely, because the right sided cavities had been so overfilled and my bite didn't match up. Hence the jaw pain.
I've had continuing and increasing jaw and tooth pain, the edges of my fillings are lifting up worse than ever, and I've heard my fillings crack on more than one occasion. When I contacted WA State Medicaid and reported the dentist, they said there was a class suit for insurance fraud already underway. Of the two dentists in my area currently accepting new patients with my insurance, one of them is very poorly reviewed (I'm afraid of a repeat experience) and the other has a year wait due to the influx of patients from the same Fraudulent Dentist office I went to.
TL;DR I need advice on whether I should eat the costs of seeing an out-of-network provider to get my teeth fixed after a proven insurance-scamming dentist did a poor job, and then sue said original dentist for damages and cost? Or if there will be a class-action lawsuit I should wait for? Or if I should outright sue them for malpractice? Waiting the year to get my teeth looked at seems very abysmal and like I would be putting my health at risk.
