I have been told by lots of people to go after this Dentist but I wouldnt know where to start

Question

A year a go I took my son to get his teeth clean he had three small cavities and I took him back and they filled them well last weekend my son who by the way is only 7 years old had a huge abcess over one of these teeth I took him to the doctor and got him an antibiotic and pain meds till I could get him to the dentist monday morning. I took him to a Pediactic dentist and they took x-rays and told me that the fillings that were done were very poor work and now my son has cavities and decay under the fillings because with all 3 teeth he had fillings on there is a gap between the tooth and the filling. So naturally stuff will get in the gap and you cant get it out to clean it. So now this new dentist is going to pull 3 of my sons baby teeth and they are gonna do 2 crowns on two other baby teeth. These are teeth he is supposed to have till he is like 12 or 13 years old. The new dentist also said that it looks like my son is getting another abcess on the other side of this mouth where the other two teeth are that the old dentist did fillings on. Any way long story short if the first dentist had done the fillings right my son would not be having this problem but because they did a poor job my son now has to go thru all of this and not only that its gonna cost $2700 before insurance and roughly about $1000 out of our pocket to get this done. Lots of people are telling me that we should go after the old dentist since they did a poor job and because of their poor job they caused this to happen. I wouldnt even know where to start has anyone else had any experience with anything such as this?

Answer 1

If you are going to sue, you should definitely get hold of some of the old dentists' patients that had a filling done by him and see if they had the same experience.

Hope all goes well :)

Answer 2

It depends on how much time has passed...  You could go after your old dentist and try to get a refund, or they might tell you they'll fix the work, but would you want them to?  If you still have thier contact information, you could call them and explain to them what's going on.  Maybe get something in writing from your new dentist proving the decay and abcesses..  Then see what your old dentist will do for you.  If you're not satisified, you can file a complaint with the dental board in your state.  I would try though, this seems like it's going to be expensive.

Answer 3

If the pediatric dentist is willing to affirm in writing that the first job was shoddy, you can start at your state dental board, followed by a call to a person injury lawyer.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Unfortunatly it seems like more and more dentists are out there to get money and not to treat patients like they should be treated. It does sound like the dentist did not get out all of the decay before he filled the teeth, causing the abcess. You can go after him (and you should) but you would need radiographic evidence first and foremost. The x-rays would be the best evidence in the case against this dentist. You do have the x-rays from your current dentist, but I'm not sure if you would need the x-rays from your previous dentist. If you do need them all you have to do is call them and ask for duplicates of your sons x-rays (all of them) and they should get them for you and offices usually charge a small fee to duplicate x-rays. GO AFTER THIS GUY!!!!! It's horrible that he would do this to your son.