Emergency / Odd appointmnet

[BracedGeek]

How does your ortho handle emergencies?

Today I went in to get the rest of my brackets put on, and was told up front that they weren't going to put them on. I asked why, because I had gotten a call on Friday reminding me of the appointment, to take painkiller, plan to be there a while, etc. The assistant said the ortho had said so.

She took off the old ligs and removed the spacers. I got up to go brush my teeth. At my first appointment, they told me to come with my stuff, because brushing and flossing would be so much easier with the wires off. Today she said I had to ask the ortho if it would be okay. To brush my teeth? Really? I thought that hygiene was paramount? He said it was cool. I brushed and flossed and then saw the ortho.

I asked why the delay and he said he was waiting for a tooth to come down. Before he even looked at my teeth. That tooth had come down enough, he said, but then he said the spacers needed two weeks to work to make room for the bands. I had the spacers in for two weeks before today's appointment. I told him that, and he looked frantic. It was pretty clear to me by then that he was just overbooked and was grasping at straws. I let it go.

He put the wire back on. Assistant put in new spacers. Everything seemed fine until I got home and ate something. He had forgotten to put ligs on three teeth on one side.. So the wire wouldn't stay in place. I tried wax, but it didn't work. The place I go has multiple locations, so I called the emergency number and they told me I was SOL, but I could try calling the the other offices that were open to see if I could get some help. I called and they told me they were open, but I had to call the emergency oncall to see about coming in.. Hmm, nice. I called the oncall back and he said to just use wax. I told him again the wax wasn't working, because it was three teeth. He said there was nothing he could do for me and I would have to wait. I finally gave up and cut the wire.

I am upset about how today was handled. I don't have a full set of braces yet, and with the way they handled it today, I want to back out.

[bedazzlemouth]

I don't blame you! Very unprofessional. I would look for another ortho.

[lilone]

I agree with you. I would write a letter explaining every detail of what happened and that you will be going somewhere else. Have you paid much to them already?

I left a dental practice once who was planning on doing two fillings for me so they froze me and then left me, a dental phobic who had clearly explained this to them many times, in the chair tipped backwards for more than an hour. They clearly forgot all about me but I was so scared and wound up that I just sat up in the tipped back chair and cried instead of going and telling someone (phobia can make you stupid in the moment!). When the nurse came in and saw me she asked why my chair was tipped back and I told her I had been frozen over an hour ago and then left this way and how my freezing had come out. She clearly didn't believe me until she dragged the probe over my gum without telling me she was doing it and I felt it. Then her eyes just got huge and suddenly there were three people in my room all making excuses. They asked to freeze me again but I was too upset and just wanted to leave so I said I'd make another appointment soon. I never went back but as it turns out, I didn't need those fillings anyway. About two months later I worked up the courage to go to a new dentist and he said they were just little stains that were rock hard and didn't need to be filled. It has been 7 years and two other dentists and the teeth still don't need to be filled.

Anyway, I know that was a rant that is not directly connected but my point is that I never really explained to them just what their lack of consideration felt like from my side, and how much it took me to even get in there with my phobia...only to experience that disrespect. They may or may not have even noticed that I never returned. I think it is important to write a letter explaining that you can understand that everyone has bad days but it is how they are handled that matters and you will be going somewhere that can handle bad days more professionally. That's just a personal opinion. But we are more than teeth, we are people, and need to be treated that way.

[crazybeautiful]

Whenever I read about how appointments work in America I always find it strange: do you get seen individually or is there like a big holding room where the ortho just walks around a load of patients, and then the assistant does whatever needs doing? Just wondering, because that's just the impression I have, but I don't know.


Anyway, OP, it doesn't seem like they handled it well. From my experience if I would have had a problem (though I never did), I would just ring up reception and they would try and squeeze me in, in between my ortho's other appointments. Perhaps stick with it and see how they are. It may just be a one-off and not really reflect their true work ethic

[BracedGeek]

They fit me in for an "emergency" appointment this morning. I took a letter detailing my complaint and handed it to the receptionist. I told her that if anything like that ever happens again, I am going to inform their corporate offices and request to be transferred different orthodontic team within their company.

I have a lawyer in the family that took a look at the contract. He said it would be easier to break it, or be moved to a different location, if they had been warned, then made another mistake. Also, knowing that I will complain to corporate should light a fire under them to do a really good job and be very careful when it comes to my care in the future. Maybe even better than they would have otherwise.

They made me wait over twenty minutes for the "emergency" appointment. I am a good sport about waiting for appointments, but not today. I made a big stink about it not being a real emergency. Emergencies happen even when everyone has done their job. This was their mistake and it seemed odd that they didn't want to fix it ASAP. It was amazing how quickly they took care of me after that.

I haven't been to that many appointments, but the office I go to has multiple patient cubicles and the orthodontist and the assistant go from patient to patient.

[Sandpiper]

It sounds a bit of a horror story, and I would be very unhappy with the way you've been treated. It's good that you've got a lawyer to advise you, and I do hope this is a one-off and you will get a proper professional service from now on. Good luck.

[catgyrl]

You were really treated poorly, and I don't blame you one bit for being upset. I'm so glad you were able to get it taken care of.

A few days after I got my braces on, I discovered that one of my bracket doors was left open. I went ahead and shut it myself (though now that I think about it, I don't think I did it correctly, as they always use a special tool for that in the office and I just snapped it shut myself). I never mentioned anything. The following month I went back for another appointment, and in the car ride on the way home, I noticed the bracket door was, again, left open. I pulled over and called the office to tell them. They told me if I knew how to close it myself, that I could do it, but I could also turn around and go back, and they would gladly close it for me. I chose to do it myself, but made it clear to them the next month that they needed to check more carefully. Turns out that the assistant thought the ortho had checked it... and vice versa. It's been almost a year now, and whenever I go in, he always makes it a point to say, "Gotta check that one bracket door..."

I think you handled yourself well, and hope you get much better service from now on.

-Cathy

[BracedGeek]

Thanks for the support here. I felt silly for being so upset last night, then I reminded myself that orthodontics gone wrong is a real concern. It never ceases to horrify me the way doctors/dentists/orthos forget that we are human beings with fears. I know they have jobs to do and are under a lot of pressure, but still...

After they had time to read the letter, I got a call from the district manager for ortho care asking how she could help. Which was odd, because I gave the letter to the office to document what had happened, not to get corporate involved. Actually, it wasn't odd. They are on a CYA mission. She asked me if the problem was resolved. I said it was, and it wasn't. Yes, the wire is secured and not hurting me, but overall I wasn't impressed. She wanted to hear the whole story again and I told her. She was interested to know that the ortho changed the ligs. (He was blaming the assistant for that.)

I figured since she had called, I'd give it a go to switch to a different office. She is going to have my records transferred to another office. A more experienced ortho is going to take over and I am going to get their most experienced assistant every single time. I guess they got the subliminal "my cousin is a lawyer and he dictated this letter to me" message.

[Plumcore]

Crypes! Some of these stories really really make me wonder. It's like people can't be competent and proffesional unless you bring up the words "lawyer" and "lawsuit". And not just in orthodontics, in every type of situation. I'm glad things got sorted, i just feel bad for the rest of that guys patients.

I'm glad my ortho is ok. She knows my name, when i got braces and everything. And remembers things we discussed, and emergencies are dealt with as soon as possible, which considering she does not have her own office is all i can ask for.

[BracedGeek]

I am really getting nervous and angry now. I called the new office to confirm my appointment tomorrow to get the rest of the brackets and the bands put on. I left a message and they didn't call back. I called again, close to closing time, and was patched through to the on-call number (I had already dealt with them already during the initial fiasco...).

In the meantime, I had spoken to a company district rep. She seemed to understand and promised to make the new appointment, explain the situation to the new office, and call me back. I gave her five working days and called back. She had no idea who I was and asked me to "fill her in." I did and she still seemed clueless. She did make a new appointment, though, and I ran with it. Until the office never called me directly to confirm the appointment. I don't want to drive 40 miles and have them not be able to see me after all.

They also won't have my records anyway, because the person who would transfer the records was unavailable as of Monday. If the district rep had gotten right on it like she promised, that wouldn't be an issue. I will have an appointment with someone who has no clue what has been done and won't know how to proceed? Doesn't sound like I'll be getting anything done tomorrow, does it?

I called the districts rep I had spoken to, the one who made the appointment at the new office, and another one I spoke to last week. I explained that the appointment could not be confirmed and I have now had spacers in my teeth for four weeks. Four weeks of pain and not being able to chew food (I have lot weight and my irritable bowel syndrome has flared up) are long enough. If I didn't get confirmation of my appointment by 5:30 PM, the spacers were coming out. I then took the spacers out and feel so much better now. My mouth has stopped hurting almost completely, and I was able to go back on the diet that doesn't upset the IBS so much. I won't let anyone put the spacers back in until I have a firm date for brackets and bands. And then I plan to where them for ten-fourteen days max.

Of course, they could go ahead and put the bands on tomorrow and just not use them for a while. I wouldn't need spacers again and they could put a wire on all the teeth when this one rogue canine is taken care of. That would be logical and the easiest thing for me. It is starting to look like this place just doesn't work that way...

[lilone]

She is going to have my records transferred to another office. A more experienced ortho is going to take over and I am going to get their most experienced assistant every single time.

It sounds to me like she was saying whatever would get you to say the magic words "problem resolved" or something close enough to it that she could type "problem resolved" into her computer without caring one little bit about actually resolving it. That way, if you complain later they can say "we called her promptly and she agreed that the problem was resolved". If she was the person you actually spoke to and she can't even find a record of your call then how much faith can you be expected to have in communication between any of the offices or between the after hours line and your office? And they expect you to believe that they communicate well enough and keep good enough records that you will get the same assistant every time? I sincerely doubt it. If you decide to give them another chance, I suggest documenting the dates, times and names of every person you speak to and what they said during the call.

[farmboy]

Just my two cents, but I think you should ditch this pack of baboons now. They're obviously more concerned about the silver in your pocket instead of the silver in your mouth, and that's not the sort of doctor-patient relationship that should be going on here.

Because you haven't been braced completely, your teeth probably haven't moved a whole lot. Though I'm not an ortho, I'd think that would make it easier for a new orthodontist to pick up your case. If you do that, make sure you ask these morons for your teeth models, x-rays, and copies of your file. I don't know where you live, but in most places, local and state laws compel the dental offices to provide you with those items.

I've changed orthos before, so if you have any questions, IM me. Good luck with whatever you do!

[BracedGeek]

I had my cousin draft a letter telling the old office in legalease that they did a horrible job. He also described, based on my notes, what had gone wrong, how they had failed to rectify the issues in a timely manner and that I am therefore canceling the contract. It was really scathing. He had me deliver it in person and have someone witness the delivery.

I called the insurance company and explained that I needed to transfer to a new doctor. They gave me the go ahead. I spoke to three orthos and have appointments next week.

I am still recovering from the lack of professionalism that I dealt with right now. Thanks again for the support here.

[klobird]

Hi BG--

Your story sounds horrifying!!! I have been with my ortho for about a month now, braces for 2 weeks...I'm not sure how I feel about this office. The ortho has a very good reputation but I feel like I'm on a conveyor belt when I go in. I'm not sure he even knows who I am yet. I had trouble in the beginning, but that has since been resolved (in a less than comfortable way).

I hope your new experience has gone well...I would really like to hear...