Is it time to lawyer up or just accept it?

As much as I sympathize with you having oral health issues because of it...I dont know how much you would really be able to do. 

But, hey, find a good lawyer locally and talk to them. I had to hire one just over a year ago regarding a car accident (city police rear ended me and didnt want to pay anything), it was 100% free to consult with them and then they'd see if there was anything there. I would check with a lawyer, see if anyone is WILLING to take the case, then you'd know if there was a case or not. 

I do feel for your pain though, oral and wallet. 

I have a half crown that is made out of that UV cured epoxy..  That was installed in 1993 when that technology was new.  I am fearful for whenever it breaks off but can't complain about the fact that it has lasted so long that it is starting to actually abraiding and changing shape such that I may need to have it replaced.

The part I'm amazed about is that it was $9300 to deal with a replacement crown?  When I talked to my dentist about replacement they said it would be ~$1200 (This was not a written quote and was about 18 months ago) and insurance would cover most of it unless it was for Aesthetic reasons.  

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. I broke a tooth while eating potato salad. I hadn't chewed anything hard in the salad, the tooth was already damaged and ready to break. 

My sister slapped a beer bottle while I was enjoying a refreshing Sam Adams and chipped my tooth. Now considering legal action.

In reply to Ed Higginbotham :

Sue the beer manufacture,  the retail store where it was procured and your sister.  It's the American way!

Ed Higginbotham said:

My sister slapped a beer bottle while I was enjoying a refreshing Sam Adams and chipped my tooth. Now considering legal action.

Not being American and schooled in such things, who do you sue?  Your sister, the brewing company for putting beer in glass bottles, and the bottle manufacturer for not making the glass softer, or the Egyptian government for inventing the process of making glass 3500 years ago?  Or maybe throw it at all of them?

Yeah I'm a big believer in the "spray and pray" methodology. Greatly appreciate the legal advice here.

Streetwiseguy said:

Ed Higginbotham said:

My sister slapped a beer bottle while I was enjoying a refreshing Sam Adams and chipped my tooth. Now considering legal action.

Not being American and schooled in such things, who do you sue?  Your sister, the brewing company for putting beer in glass bottles, and the bottle manufacturer for not making the glass softer, or the Egyptian government for inventing the process of making glass 3500 years ago?  Or maybe throw it at all of them?

Unfortunately here in America we see a litigious society that will go after as many fish as they can. Im not a fan. 

Twenty years ago, I was a young man at the age of 19 and learning how 'bad' our legal system could be. I read, in Car and Driver, I think, about a lawsuit where a kid was acting up on a bus, driver told the kid they were in trouble, kid hopped out the emergency exit...while the bus was moving. If youve not been near a school bus recently, the floor of a bus is about 4.5' approximately. Kid got hurt, family sued the school district...and won. 

Now, Im not saying the OP did ANYTHING wrong here, but far too often someone does something bad, with complete understanding of what they're doing, and a family/person will go after a big company/entity hoping for a payday. I am not a fan. 

docwyte said:

Hmm.  A front tooth broke on a piece of bread?  Generally if that happens, the tooth was very compromised to begin with and the bread didn't really break it.  So, no, don't really think the bread is what broke the tooth.

As far as addressing the other member, who's gal got a crown and needed a root canal, that happens all the time and isn't due to a "bad crown" or a bad job doing the crown.  Many times whatever caused the tooth to need the crown will cause the tooth to need a root canal too, just not right away...

Yeah, I figured if your tooth broke on bread it was already on it's way out and said so. 

That's interesting about the crown/root canal thing. That was my lady. The crown ate up the dental benefits, so that's why I had to come out of pocket $2100 for the root canal. 

But if that is often the case, why not just do the root canal to begin with?

In reply to z31maniac :

Because most of the time you don't know ahead of time and doing the root canal first would be needlessly aggressive, as well as hard to justify.

So it stinks that people sometimes have to get a crown, then have a painful experience first to then get a root canal.  These things aren't as clear cut as we'd like most of the time...

In reply to docwyte :

Gotcha, makes sense.

I broke a tooth eating a well known cereal. It is full of tiny and very solid seeds. I googled the issue and found I was far from the first, and that others had received payouts. But I still declined to go that road. I got it fixed and moved on. I have been threatened with a lawsuit by an unhappy former client and have offered him a lot of money to go away, not because I am at fault which I am not, but because it is worth a lot of money to not have a court date hanging over my head. Life is just too short for that kind of thing. I will make more money and he is old and broke and sees me as a source of funds. He will get some money but I will always be happier and with a clear and clean conscience. So even if you win, is it worth the issue polluting your mind for a long time?

Choose the latter option. 

In reply to docwyte :

I broke a bottom molar a year ago. They did a root canal and a crown back to back. Root canal one week, crown the next. IIRC it was right at $2500 for both. 

I broke the top molar above it last week. I'm assuming it will go the same way.

I broke a molar a year ago thanks to some shoddy dentistry done 20 years ago.

They pulled it out for $500 Canuckistan pesos.

I don't miss it at all.

A large part of dentistry seems to be a scam. When I was a kid and had dental insurance, I needed a filling almost every time that I went into a cleaning. After I became and adult and was no longer on my mothers sweet, sweet insurance plan. The cavities dried up. It was a miracle how quickly my oral health improved.

For some reason, my mother had lots of dental problems too...

They tried it on my wife too. 20 years ago she needed a crown done or all our children would be born naked. It got better on it's own as the years went by.

In reply to ShawnG :

Couldn't have anything to do with growing up, could it?  Perhaps becoming an adult also meant you ate fewer Ding Dongs and learned to brush your teeth better. 

ShawnG said:

I broke a molar a year ago thanks to some shoddy dentistry done 20 years ago.

They pulled it out for $500 Canuckistan pesos.

I don't miss it at all.

A large part of dentistry seems to be a scam. When I was a kid and had dental insurance, I needed a filling almost every time that I went into a cleaning. After I became and adult and was no longer on my mothers sweet, sweet insurance plan. The cavities dried up. It was a miracle how quickly my oral health improved.

For some reason, my mother had lots of dental problems too...

They tried it on my wife too. 20 years ago she needed a crown done or all our children would be born naked. It got better on it's own as the years went by.

I could have written this, except I had no insurance.  Every six months, there was a $600 bill.  Every time.

Last time I went, he tried to talk me into a bridge, because my molars were in great danger of coming apart.   

Ten years ago. Still chewing fine.

My job as a dentist is to tell you what I see and give you recommendations based on that and my experience.  Your job as a patient is to decide what you'd like to do.  If you choose to do nothing, that's a choice.  Not a good one sometimes but if you're fine with potential consequences, then I am too. I'm not the one who could potentially be in driving agony at the worst possible moment...

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to ShawnG :

Couldn't have anything to do with growing up, could it?  Perhaps becoming an adult also meant you ate fewer Ding Dongs and learned to brush your teeth better. 

I doubt that. Junk food wasn't a thing in our house and thanks to having "bad teeth" my mom was paranoid about dental health. Plus, the timing was way too close. If anything, I ate more garbage when I was in my 20s.

I'm not saying all dentists are con artists, the one I went to certainly was. I'm sure it's like any other business, after all, all mechanics are crooks too.

The one I see now is fine, no issues. It's the same one who looked at the broken tooth and the filling that fell out if it and said "No wonder it broke, they cut out way too much". 

To answer the questions so far:

Food was delivered to work in the local ER. It was not an in-store purchase and consumption. There is not time to play phone hold and ignore. I debated even going back to the store that supplied lunch that day plus work thrown in, that is why you see a delay, plus a trip to a dentist to see what the options I may have are towards replacement or fix.

It's $9300 because what was available to bond anything to, is now gone. It broke flush at the gum. This requires an implant and almost a year of various treatments and surgeries to repair. It is not a simple fix. I would go back to the guy that put on the veneer, but I'm leery as I have 2 teeth that have been completely missed and now require extensive repair jobs too. I've already had teeth pulled for upcoming work that never materialized. Wish I didn't have the one pulled as it severely limited chewing on on side. This has lead to other issues everywhere else.

All I am thankful for is that I have to wear a mask at work. Are you going to believe a overweight, now prominent toothless, RN teaching you at discharge on how to not come back, if the mask was not in place?

I'm pretty friendly with my dentist...had lunch a few times, assessed issues at her house, sold her a car, etc..

Her assistant once did the cheesiest job in the world pretending that she couldn't get dental floss around my rear molars (oh, oh, I can't do it, it's just too hard) and the next thing I knew, I had a referral to an oral surgeon to have my molars removed.

That was six+ years ago and my molars are fine...no cavities, no inflammation, no pain, work great.

My dentist friend shared the stats with me on how many people there are per dentist in our area and I did the math in my head (population per dentist X average dentist visits per year X average spend per visit = pequeno dinero)

I should apologise, my experience isn't everyone's. I'm sure I'm in the minority.

Sorry I got the thread off track, this is just something I get a bit salty about.

Sorry for the rant.

ShawnG said:

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to ShawnG :

Couldn't have anything to do with growing up, could it?  Perhaps becoming an adult also meant you ate fewer Ding Dongs and learned to brush your teeth better. 

I doubt that. Junk food wasn't a thing in our house and thanks to having "bad teeth" my mom was paranoid about dental health. Plus, the timing was way too close. If anything, I ate more garbage when I was in my 20s.

I'm not saying all dentists are con artists, the one I went to certainly was. I'm sure it's like any other business, after all, all mechanics are crooks too.

The one I see now is fine, no issues. It's the same one who looked at the broken tooth and the filling that fell out if it and said "No wonder it broke, they cut out way too much". 

Ok, that last sentence there is total BS.  Unless your dentist was there doing the work, there's NO way to know whether what was removed was too much, not enough or just right.  Whenever I hear something like that I literally cringe, it's incredibly unprofessional for any medical provider to say something like that.  Total bush league.

I can't imagine considering litigation in a case like this.

In reply to Ranger50 :

So let me get this straight... You're asking for advice about whether or not to use the threat to of a frivolous lawsuit to fraudulently get a corporate handout from a freaking bread company to pay for a problem that is strictly between you and your shady-ass sounding chosen dentist. Did I miss anything there?