From 1995-1999 I had all my teeth crowned and mostly root canalled at
a dental clinic owned by a giant HMO. At the time all swore with
proper care the crowns would last a lifetime. Last year one of the
front crowns broke off then the rear bridge behind it collapsed. My
new dentist did a 2nd complete oral evaluation of my mouth on 7/28/04
and the upper teeth are in horrid shape. One of the crown teeth has
abcessed and there is no hope of saving it and it needs to be pulled.
Leaving me unable to chew. And of course the top broken crowns need to
be pulled. The bottom teeth are fine for now but they are older than
the top crowns. None of teeth have gold posts nor do they have
reinforcement posts. My teeth were all badly decayed in 1995. I cannot
help but wonder if they were a lost cause at the time and this clinic
capped them anyway in order to get the money and run so to speak. I
consulted with a nationally reknowned dental malpractice attorney and
he said the potential for damages was probably too small for him to
come to Florida to represent me. Only thing I can think to to do is to
take the HMO to small claims court where the maximum I could get is
$5000 which is not going to be enough to fix my teeth. I have seen the
NOLO series book on representing yourself in small claims court called
" Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare and Try a Winning Case "
Is it worthwhile?. Any comments anyone can make on my situation would
be greatly appreciated.

atlantic965@yahoo.com (James) wrote in message news:<5f754003.0408050451.1729d9f2@posting.google.com>... From 1995-1999 I had all my teeth crowned and mostly root canalled at a dental clinic owned by a giant HMO. At the time all swore with proper care the crowns would last a lifetime. Last year one of the front crowns broke off then the rear bridge behind it collapsed. My new dentist did a 2nd complete oral evaluation of my mouth on 7/28/04 and the upper teeth are in horrid shape. One of the crown teeth has abcessed and there is no hope of saving it and it needs to be pulled. Leaving me unable to chew. And of course the top broken crowns need to be pulled. The bottom teeth are fine for now but they are older than the top crowns. None of teeth have gold posts nor do they have reinforcement posts. My teeth were all badly decayed in 1995. I cannot help but wonder if they were a lost cause at the time and this clinic capped them anyway in order to get the money and run so to speak. I consulted with a nationally reknowned dental malpractice attorney and he said the potential for damages was probably too small for him to come to Florida to represent me. Only thing I can think to to do is to take the HMO to small claims court where the maximum I could get is $5000 which is not going to be enough to fix my teeth. I have seen the NOLO series book on representing yourself in small claims court called " Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare and Try a Winning Case " Is it worthwhile?. Any comments anyone can make on my situation would be greatly appreciated.

A big problem you face is that medical malpractice has a short statute
of limitations, often no more than one or two years. Florida's is two
years from when you knew or should have known of the malpractice, but
no more than four years from the time of the procedure unless there is
fraud, concealment, or misrepresentation. Florida Statutes
95.11(4)(b).

Dental work from 1999 is already more than four years old, so you are
starting with a strike against you: now you have to prove at least
misrepresentation ("with proper care, these crowns will last a
lifetime" isn't necessarily misrepresentation; they could always
contend that you didn't take proper care of your expensive dental
work) or concealment.

I don't see your case being a likely one, but I'm not a lawyer. There
must be med mal lawyers in your locale; do any of them think you have
a case worth pursuing?

--
Not a lawyer,

Chris Green

Hi:

I have spoken with a nationally rekonwned Dental Malpractice attorney
who did not want to take my case on a contingency fee because the
award would be small. He sort of led me to believe I be able to win in
court. I do not know if you know anything about dental work but the
common practice is when crowning a tooth is to put in a GOLD post then
a REINFORCEMENT post. My only single posts are made from some alloy
and no reinforcement post. I discovered all this when my upper teeth
began to fall apart last July.













cj.green@worldnet.att.net (Christopher Green) wrote in message news:<c31fa7b1.0408051712.4865221b@posting.google.com>... atlantic965@yahoo.com (James) wrote in message news:<5f754003.0408050451.1729d9f2@posting.google.com>... From 1995-1999 I had all my teeth crowned and mostly root canalled at a dental clinic owned by a giant HMO. At the time all swore with proper care the crowns would last a lifetime. Last year one of the front crowns broke off then the rear bridge behind it collapsed. My new dentist did a 2nd complete oral evaluation of my mouth on 7/28/04 and the upper teeth are in horrid shape. One of the crown teeth has abcessed and there is no hope of saving it and it needs to be pulled. Leaving me unable to chew. And of course the top broken crowns need to be pulled. The bottom teeth are fine for now but they are older than the top crowns. None of teeth have gold posts nor do they have reinforcement posts. My teeth were all badly decayed in 1995. I cannot help but wonder if they were a lost cause at the time and this clinic capped them anyway in order to get the money and run so to speak. I consulted with a nationally reknowned dental malpractice attorney and he said the potential for damages was probably too small for him to come to Florida to represent me. Only thing I can think to to do is to take the HMO to small claims court where the maximum I could get is $5000 which is not going to be enough to fix my teeth. I have seen the NOLO series book on representing yourself in small claims court called " Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare and Try a Winning Case " Is it worthwhile?. Any comments anyone can make on my situation would be greatly appreciated. A big problem you face is that medical malpractice has a short statute of limitations, often no more than one or two years. Florida's is two years from when you knew or should have known of the malpractice, but no more than four years from the time of the procedure unless there is fraud, concealment, or misrepresentation. Florida Statutes 95.11(4)(b). Dental work from 1999 is already more than four years old, so you are starting with a strike against you: now you have to prove at least misrepresentation ("with proper care, these crowns will last a lifetime" isn't necessarily misrepresentation; they could always contend that you didn't take proper care of your expensive dental work) or concealment. I don't see your case being a likely one, but I'm not a lawyer. There must be med mal lawyers in your locale; do any of them think you have a case worth pursuing?

atlantic965@yahoo.com (James) wrote in message news:<5f754003.0408060700.1bf18c43@posting.google.com>... Hi: I have spoken with a nationally rekonwned Dental Malpractice attorney who did not want to take my case on a contingency fee because the award would be small. He sort of led me to believe I be able to win in court. I do not know if you know anything about dental work but the common practice is when crowning a tooth is to put in a GOLD post then a REINFORCEMENT post. My only single posts are made from some alloy and no reinforcement post. I discovered all this when my upper teeth began to fall apart last July.

It is common, but by no means universal, to put in a post when root
canal work has been done. It is not at all uncommon for the post to be
a single post. But no post on simple crowns: there's no place to put
it.

You will need an expert witness to testify that not placing a post or
placing only a single post was so far from accepted procedure as to
amount to malpractice, as neither you nor I qualify as an expert
capable of forming an opinion any court will accept as to what is or
isn't malpractice.

Medical malpractice cases are highly technical, in no small part
because you are going to have to engage an expert who will back up
your claim that there has been malpractice. For this reason, going it
alone doesn't fly: you will need to find a lawyer, and you will do
well to look locally.

--
Not a lawyer,

Chris Green

could you go to small claims court for individual teeth instead of them all in a lump sum, that way you would be able to exceed 5000$ and hope to pay for the repairs you need if you're able to win.

James, I don't know what became of you. The web site prevented me from E-mailing you. I went thru a well over $20,000.00 oral recontruction that took an unheard of 2 years, never finished. My dentist promised it would last till I was 80 yrs old. My veneers broke at 1 a month. The underside of my veneers looked like cracked & broken tiles. My dentist replaced my veneers with caps. He laughed when he told me he replaced another patients veneers with new veneers. I don't think he knows how to do veneers.
Improperly placed my unfinished recon ended in TMD. A molar that I complained of pain & swelling from my eye into my neck, over a year later my dentist finally looked at x-rays taken at a dentist down the hall. Tho he said he didn't do RCT's he said it was too late to wait for an Endo. It's never to late for a specialist.
Couple months later my newly drilled thru crown broke from RCT weakening. 3 more unsuccessful necrotic RCT's were performed. Internet dentist's advised me to demand a free crown replacement. During an appt for final impressions for that free crown replacement my dentist doped me thru my gum without my knowlege or consent. He said he owed me nothing & I'd probably lose my molar. He was physically & verbally abusive. I later found out he drilled thru the sole of my molar destroying it & any chances of sectioning. He destroyed everything above the gum including crown lengthening & bone surgery.
It doesn't matter, his too low, filed down reconstruction left me to look as tho I was toothless. But what is worse was his refusal to RX antibiotics thru out my recon or any necrotic RCT'S.
My dentist wrote letters to my DR's stating I was a hypochondriac addicted to antibiotics. A few weeks later I was on life support with septicemia hemorhaging internally, renal & respiratory failure. I ended up with all my internal organs relocating outside my body. I was left to die from ileus, abscess & renal failure for 2 yrs afterward. I finally found a surgeon to fix such a huge repair at Chgo's Northwestern Mem Hosp. Because my repair is so big I will always live my life in pain. But I'm grateful to be put back together.
This all caused by an ignorant unlicensed dentist to have control substances in his possession. I know I wasn't his first to illegally dope, I won't be his last. Ill Dept of Prof Regulations could care less. Lawyers sit on their fat cat asses because dentist's are either uninsured or under insured making it a waste of time to a lawyer.
That day, I asked for my file to see another dentist but my dentist said he had to check for infection he never treated.
I begged him to let me go but he said he was teaching me a lesson for being rude to him but mostly to his staff. "RUDE" was when I asked, "When will I be able to eat solid food?" My dentist's response was, "Don't be rude or I will take my reconstruction back!" I thought he was being sarcastically funny. His assistant told me to come back for check-ups only. All I invested I asked her if she was insane. She repeated, "Come back for check-ups & only for check-ups." How does a dental assistant work for such a loser?
I'm lucky to be alive. But I live with flashbacks & nightmares.
Forget about money & failures. Run don't walk from your dentist. Consider yourself fortunate to be alive & not disabled by a madman dentist like I was. Patti Depaola