Unauthorized dental work

[dragonmumof2]

Ds(almost 5 and ND) broke a back molar and had a SS crown put on. While the dentist had him in the back(we were not allowed to be with him) she put an additional 3 fucking crowns on without our permission. I didn't notice this until we got home, as when I saw ds after the work was done he was in a lot of pain so I was more concerned with comforting him than inspecting the work the dentist did. I did check his mouth once we got home and settled and I was furious. Gums were a bloody mess. 3 unapproved crowns(I stayed in the waiting room the entire time, she had every opportunity to come tell me if he needed additional crowns. She had specifically said beforehand he wouldnt need anything else done, as the other teeth looked great) I cleaned his teeth with wet gauze the next few days, and as the goop the dentist put on his gums cleared away, I noticed 3 out of 4 crowns have gum recession. The broken tooth is the worst, with the gum on the inside almost completely receded. I have not called the dentist, as I'm not sure if I should contact a lawyer first before talking to them. Everything I've read says that he will need a gum graft, which is a horror show in itself to think of putting him through that. I'm just at a loss that a dentist can just "decide" to do unauthorized work on your child. I do not want her to even be in the same room as my child, let alone to try to fix what she's done. I am waiting on a call back from the local(different)dentist to have him looked at to see what her opinion is.
Yabu-call the dentist that did the work
Yanbu-call the lawyer

If your child needed a general anaesthetic for the stainless steel crown, the normal practice in the U.K. is to warn you that more work may be needed once the child is under anaesthetic as it’s often only then you can get a good look around.

It is gold standard to get treatment done of any teeth, even if they look just a bit dubious, done in one general anaesthetic session. You would not schedule a second just to discuss treatment. Hence the treatment plan normally warns more work may have to be done.

Unfortunately that often means a lot more treatment and often extractions because in order to see decay in baby teeth you need good vision and x rays which are often not possible in children of this age when they are awake and particularly if they are nd.

You do not do gum grafts on a child of this age and stainless steel crowns are pre made and will come out when baby teeth come out and are the gold standard for treatment of decay in baby teeth. They cannot cause damage but because they are pre-made you may see tooth underneath that makes it look like gum recession.

This sounds like standard practice for children who are having a general anaesthetic.

I don't want a payout, I want my child to not have to have gum grafts at the age of 4. If I'm truly honest I'm furious and want her to be held accountable for this. My dm told me not to have it done, but I didn't listen. I wanted to make sure he had no problems in the future and now here he is with more problems than he started with.

If a child is having a GA for dental work it's normal to do an exam under anaesthesia and do all the work needed, this is to prevent repeat GAS. I would be surprised if any community/peadiatric dentist did not consent for work as needed because if a child needs an anaesthetic for as simple a procedure as a halls crown then you would not be able to do a thorough exam before they were asleep, and also chances are they would need further GAs for every procedure.

There's no such thing as gum recession in a 4yo. He will not need grafts, he is still growing.

Gums grow naturally in a child of this age , as teeth and jaws grow. There is no circumstance in which a child of this age would need gum grafts.

Even if they had had an accident , which happens often, which tore a lot of gum off front tooth , it will , in a child , grow back.

Because of the way stainless steel crowns are fitted it may look a mess immediately afterwards but will do no long term damage.

It would be helpful if you clarified which country you are in, otherwise you are going to get a lot of irrelevant advice based on the assumption the dental work was carried out in a UK NHS children's hospital.

You've been asked a few times if you're in the UK, and if not was it private treatment, is there a reason you're not replying to these questions? People can't give appropriate advice without the full story.

I’m guessing so as the Op mentions a bill for the work done on her ND child in hospital.

It might be helpful to know that the Op is not talking about the crowns that are put on adult teeth. She means hall crowns, which are used on baby molars ( back teeth ) as they are less invasive than doing traditional fillings.

The Op says SS ( stainless steel ) crowns in her first post but some people might have missed that.

They don’t cause any pain so they are good for children with dental anxiety or other issues.

So the GA was probably because the child can’t coperate with treatment, not because it was painful like an extraction of adult teeth.

dislaimer - I’m not a dentist but hopefully I’ve explained that correctly.

OP which country are you in? you keep ignoring this question and it’s really relevant if you want helpful responses.

Why not talk to the dentist instead of a load of random MNers?

I presume that when she did the original work it exposed weakness in the other teeth and then needed to crown.
If she had left theatre to come speak to you, it would have meant your child being under GA for even longer, placing him at greater risk of complications. Or she could have stopped and then had you come back for another GA, which she may have felt would be more traumatic for him.
So yes, she should have the discussion with you beforehand that more extensive work may have been needed, but sometimes they don't know what will find until in there.

Have you reread your consent form because I suspect there may have been a clause stating that you consented to further work that was ascertained to be required whilst under anesthetic.

Consent still beefs to be obtained. They can't just do it.

Oh ffs IT IS GUM RECESSION FROM THE CROWN. Why comment if you don't believe me. That's exactly what happened. Perfect gums, then after dental work they have pulled away from the crowns. That's what has happened. Full stop.
I do understand about wanting to get it all done in one go so he doesn't have to undergo anesthesia again. I don't understand how she can go ahead with work I didn't approve without telling me, and now here we are.

Why would you be instructing a lawyer when you haven’t even spoken to the dentist?

Speak with the hospital/ dentist first - normally UK anaesthetic consent forms say that they will undertake procedure A but if urgent they can deviate from the consented plan. Are you in the UK?

Talk to them first, lodge a complaint there - then speak to a lawyer if needed? But not sure what you are hoping to get from that process - money? If this is about the dentist’s practice then complain to the hosital and their regulatory body.

Where are you OP? Giving your country isn’t going to be outing.

I'm an anaesthetist not a dentist, but a considerable part of my workload was anaesthesia for paediatric dentistry so ai do know a bit. It's not that uncommon for a treatment plan to change intraoperatively once the dentist gets to have a really good look around. Lots of children aren't the most cooperative when it comes to dental examination and once they are anaesthetised and the dentist gets a clearer view other things do sometimes show up. Obviously it makes sense to deal with what you find at the time rather than subject the child to another procedure.
However, every dentist I have ever worked with always explained* this possibility *to parents beforehand and if there was anything majorly different to what was originally planned then someone would generally go out of theatre to let the parents know, and they were always seen immediately afterwards to explain again.
So based on my experience I do think that it is potentially an issue that things were not properly explained and you may indeed have valid concerns over both the consent process and the quality of care - nobody can tell you that for sure on a forum like this though.
However, as you haven't told us where you are I can only suggest what would be the best course of action in the UK NHS and that would indeed be to raise concerns with the clinicians directly or via PALS. Normally people would do that, then escalate to the hospital's formal complaints procedure rather than going straight to a lawyer as many complaints can be resolved without recourse to legal action. Obviously it may be different elsewhere but I do think that if you are unhappy with any health care or indeed service of any other kind, the best place to start is usually by talking to the person who provided it.

You weren't cross about this on the 2nd of July, what's changed, OP?

Sorry US. Was responding to people saying it wasn't gum recession

Swollen gums can hide a lot of problems, even if they look pink and healthy. He's already had enough decay to necessitate one crown, it's not a far reach to conclude that the same circumstances that led to one molar breaking were also found to be affecting the other teeth and gum in the area once he was under anaesthesia and she was able to examine him more easily and clean up/trace further infection.

His gums. I told my dh the same as pp have said, maybe she found problems she wanted to correct all at once. Once his mouth was healed and his gums still a mess I was completely turned around about it.

Gums don’t recede in days OP. The treatment of your poor child’s teeth sounds essential, SS crowns wholly appropriate and will help their development, nutrition and learning. Sounds like if DC teeth were that bad, gums would be an issue too. Perhaps review this before speaking to a lawyer: https://www.sdcep.org.uk/media/2zbkrdkg/sdcep-prevention-and-management-of-dental-caries-in-children-2nd-edition.pdf And don’t forget, permanent teeth yet to come through. Please speak to your child’s dentist for an explanation before you do anything as PPs have said.

Can you just clarify that you have discussed this with the involved dentist? And that they have confirmed that they have done three crowns? And what was the outcome of that conversation?

Are you trained in dentistry? How can you be sure that you’re seeing what you think you are? Are you seeing three crowns, or just that the one clinically indicated crown has been supported/secured onto two other adjacent teeth?

Sorry, just seen you are US! The doc I linked too still of interest to you, it would ofc be most sensible to speak to your dentist to ask Qs, but given the litigious environment in the US, sure, call your lawyer instead….

Gums cannot recede that quickly. The crown will make it more obvious but it doesn't happen that fast. They will not do a gum graft on a 5 year old. They will wait until his permanent teeth come in and then reassess the situation.

You're in the USA so unfortunately we can't advice you OP