I have quite a complicated dental history (missing molars, RCTs, crowns) and went to a new private dentist recently for a second opinion after an NHS check up (also with a- quite young- dentist I've never seen before) showed I needed a filling replaced in a molar that's heavily filled. The private guy suggested braces followed by composite bonding, implants, replacing other fillings, whitening... and I felt pretty overwhelmed as he suggested it all ideally needed to be done in a certain order for best results, and I hadn't gone asking for more than to look at this one tooth. I was clear with him that functionality is my priority, not aesthetics.
Long story short, three months and lots of worrying about the decisions and trying to clarify things later, an orthodontist has said I don't need braces, which massively simplifies it all. I still have two temporary crowns that the dentist fitted, one of which needs to be made permanent and the other removed and an implant placed. This could all have been done in February so I'm pretty frustrated it's gone on so long. I asked the dentist to start the process for the permanent crown and it took him an hour to drill the temp crown off because he had used permament cement in anticipation of making it last for months while I had braces. I had asked him to use a dam as I'm a bit twitchy about swallowing things (and he knows this), but rather than clamping it outside my mouth he held it down inside my mouth, pushing it down. Three lots of anaesthetic ran out and it hurt every time he drilled. I had a huge abcess afterwards which took a week to heal. The day after that he called (at dinner time) and said he hadn't taken all the scans he needed and needed to scan the tooth above as well (no explanation of why he didn't do this before, or tell me at the last appointment that I'd need to come in again for more scans) and could I come in again a few days later for him to remove it again and rescan it. I emailed and asked him whether it was actually necessary for him to re-scan as my gum was a mess, the tooth itself was feeling sensitive after the hour of drilling (it was fine before), amd honestly I was just really upset that I thought we'd got to the penultimate appt but it turned out not to be. He didn't reply to the email - only tried to call me again - and I asked him to please reply by email as I couldn't easily answer the phone. He didn't reply for days. I got so annoyed that I made an appointment with a totally different female dentist to ask if she can finish the crown off, and I felt much better about that until he emailed yesterday (8 days after my email) simply saying it's my choice whether we re-scan and he can manage without but it would be better if we did.
Communication overall with him has been quite tricky - he does all his admin himself and arranges appts over the phone, takes absolutely ages to respond to emails, is renting temporary rooms while his clinic changes location so it's a different building/room every time, and has sent me to the wrong place and forgotten equipment so that he couldn't do what he intended. I trust his experience but I think he hasn't managed the whole process with me in a way that's made me feel things are predictable and straightforward, and maybe he's making mistakes because he's stressed?
It would be easy enough, now that my gum is healed up, to just ask him to rescan and fit the final crown, but I was so upset last week that the idea of going elsewhere and having a straightforward booking process and a dentist who fully explains things feels like it would be an absolute relief to me. Is it reasonable to switch at this point?