I had a dental implant placed. Prior to the dental implant surgery, the dentist told me everything was fine. When I woke up from the surgery, he told me that there was not enough bone support when he got in there. Here is the kicker. He placed the dental implant anyway! Now he said he wants to take it out and do a dental bridge. What do I do? Can I get a refund?
Darrell
Dear Darrell,
I think you are going to want more than a refund here. If I understand what you have described correctly, your dentist told you there was enough bone, then when he went in, he realized there wasn’t but placed the dental implant knowing there wasn’t adequate support for it. Is that right? If so, that is malpractice.
If your dentist would have done the proper diagnostics, he would have known there wasn’t enough bone support to retain the implant. That is incompetence. If he did the proper diagnostics and knew there wasn’t enough bone support, yet went forward, that is unethical. He put you through a surgical procedure knowing it would fail and putting you at risk of serious complications.
You don’t have to get a dental bridge. You can still have that dental implant. However, you need to do it with a different dentist and HE needs to pay for it. Don’t just ask for a refund. You are going to need some bone grafting done in order to build up your bone support. This is going to cost you more than what you have already paid this dentist. You also should be the one to pick the dentist to do the repairs, not him. Look for someone with extensive post-doctoral training in dental implants.
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