I'm new to this site but somewhere I read you were from NJ? In any case, I am too and I am at wits end with my dental experiences this past year. I am an unfortunate person who needed alot of procedures in my life and eventually settled for a full upper and a partial lower. I had all my frontal teeth down low. 8 of them. I have been in the chair at dentist offices for denture replacements 4 times in 5 years because of the poor communication and arrogance of the dentists I've dealt with. If I had time to tell the stories you'd wonder how this is even possible. I went last year to crown my lower teeth with porcelain and get a flexible lower and new upper. The guy would not do the crowns first and did the plate and partial. But my primary reason was to get the crowns. I already had a plate and partial but he said I would need a new one anyway. But, it is pretty stupid to make the new plates first when the crowns still were not made. Now, I returned to the dentist this year and he was supposed to do the lower crowns and his concession for his stupid mistake caused such an argument between me him and his office that he agreed no additional cost would be on me for any work needed on the upper or lower plates to get everything to integrate. Well, he is not working at this facility now. Likley due to people complaining of his poor choices. But nontheless, the dentist I deal with now worked there last year too but he did not treat me then. I came for lower crowns and he too insists I need to do the upper and lower plates. But he is at least doing the lower crowns first and has since started and put a temp bridge across my lowers. I'll get back to that later. But the first issue is the itemized treatment plan shows me getting charge for my plates again and they have no idea the issue with the previously employed dentist who screwed up my treatment last year or they are trying to sweep it under the rug. I'm beside myself about this and cannot even tell you how angry. Not only that, but the current dentist says he is doing this specific type of bridge called metal to porcelain fused and then the lower partial is gonna be a porcelain to metal fused prosteticthing. This is NOT what I asked for. This is NOT acceptable. What is wrong with dentists. My treatment plan specificall says felzible partial and metal is out of the question. Why is their arrogane making them make choices for patients against what they say they want. I am borderline ready to sue these people. They DON"T communicate with patients. The assume we understand these wicked terms they throw at us while we sit in a chair all hopped up on antistethics and we patients admit we are ignorant to these terms but these dentists are playing that very same ignorance card thinking we know what the heck they are even talking about.

I researched these terms when I went home after he already grinded all my lower teeth and put a temp on. I never saw such garbage in my life. A metal to porcelain fused bridge across my lower frontal teeth is the worst thing I ever saw and the prostetic option for the lower does not even resemble a flexible partial. SO he deviates from what we agreed on plus he does not explain these porcelain crown are loaded with metal until he has already grinded my teeth. I have to say that I need to use dental insurance for some of the work but I agreed to pay for whatever isnt covered but the fact remains. I do not care if I am not a dentist. I know what I want. I know enough to know metal at the level he is choosing to use will be the worst looking thing and nobody would choose this if they know they have other options. No other options were discussed because these dentists want to take the easy road for themselves and working a little extra just ruins their day. It's like the auto mechanic who has to work hard on one repair to earn $1500 in 4 hours but instead he prefers to do 15 brake jobs in 4 hours @ $200 each. Dentists care more about the money they make and save and have shown me they do not care about how a aptient feels. It cannot possibly be they think people want to chunks of metal over a clean white piece of porcelain. I'd take a white acrylic temporary over that ugly looking metal.
Anyway, this current dentist didn't do his job, that's for sure. No short term or long term goals of the patient were discussed. That is the job of the dentist to gather these facts. And yet we patients are falling into traps with dentists all the time and I have read so many people going through similar situations because dentists do not discuss details regarding these things in almost all cases. A guy finds out his crown has half metal and shows when he smiles but never knew this until after he got home and looked into the mirror. And this is not isolated insidents with specific dentists. It's the majority. And those who are good enough to be open and honest with patients and do their job are far and few between. The rest are using some cookie cutter process to put everyone through a meat grinder as if each patient gets a porcelain fused to metal crown and no other options presented, unless the patient is as knowledgeable as a dental technician and says something. Dentists should be doing more work to earn that high rate of pay they charge as most are not reasonably priced for the level of services provided in the majority of places I've seen.
I am so sorry to go on and on but It's my mouth. My money. My Insurance. MY CHOICE. Yet that is not how most dentists approach a patient and it's getting so old to witness this so many times at so many places I've been to in the last 5 years.

BTW, not one dentist or denture lab has gotten it right yet. Many times people go home settling for less than what they expected or wanted and dentists do not get the scrutiny they deserve since most people do not speak up. I would like to see one good dentist priced reasonably that knows how to do their job in the South Jersey area. Because I do not believe many, if any, exist. They think their skills with the tools makes them so great but when they don't take a patients goals into consideration they end up putting a bunch of metal in someone's mouth without thinking it through and the patient may end up having an allergy to nickel or a noble metal. (hypothetically speaking). A patient does not likely know metal is inside of these crowns so this is just one of the potential disasters.

THAT's how unprofessional most dentists are from MANY experiences. I asked for a flexible partial after my crowns were done last year. But they did not even do the crowns first and came back with a stiff denture with metal hooks that I specifically said I did not want. His response? He said I won't like the flexible anyway. But he did not even discuss my past treatment or else he would have known the flexible was the answer to the ongoing issue I had 2 years prior. I already had a failure with a stiff lower partial with metal hooks and a flexible partial with no metal resolved my issue. The metal hooks made the outer teeth they hooked to wear down and eventually ruined them. Not that a crown would be helful right? A GOOD dentist will crown those teeth that the hooks connect to. That dentist stuck me with what I did not ask for, neglected to do what WAS asked for, and, "I" was stuck paying the bill. I may not be an expert dentist. But due to the incompetance of most dentists, I have become an expert patient.

Again, I need a reasonably priced dentist who knows how to do their job and consult properly before they rip someone's mouth apart and drain their insurance.