I had a broken tooth that needed a crown. I tried to save money by going to Mexico for the dental work, but this has ended up a disaster. When I got there, they told me I needed four dental crowns. I believed them and went forward with the work. Less than a week later, one of the crowns fell off. I went back and they told me it was because I need a root canal treatment. I did ask why they didn’t tell me about the root canal to begin with and they said because they don’t always work and they were trying to save me money and see if it would work itself out. So, I agreed to the root canal treatment. Fast forward less than another week and my tooth is seriously sensitive to hot, cold, and touch. I called their office and they said I’d need to come in. At this point, I’ve done two trips to Mexico and have ended up worse, so I called a local dentist who does free second opinions. He says the tooth is cracked and I need to extract it and get a dental implant. My question is this. Seeing as the dentist in Mexico misdiagnosed this, should he do the extraction and implant and credit me for the work already done?
Drew
Dear Drew,
Dental Tourism is Risky
You certainly have had a rough go of it. I’m going to file this in one of my many dental tourism horror stories. Every once in a while we hear of a good experience from someone who traveled to Mexico to get their work done at a lower cost, but most of the time something goes wrong.
Here are the things I am concerned about with the dentist from Mexico:
- How do you know you actually needed four dental crowns? Did you have decay? A tooth infection? It doesn’t sound like it so I think you were taken advantage of there.
- A crown doesn’t fall off because you need a root canal treatment. A crown falls off because the dentist did it wrong.
- Did you really need the root canal treatment? If the tooth was infected, yes. But then, they’d have needed to do it the first time.
- The root canal treatment wasn’t done properly. The root canal is intended to remove all the infected pulp in your tooth so you would have no feeling in that tooth afterward. The fact that you were having pain tells me they did not do the root canal properly.
As to this local dentist. Even if the tooth is cracked that does not automatically mean it has to be extracted. I would want to get another opinion on that before moving forward.
Let’s say you do need the dental implant. That is a much more advanced procedure than any your dentist from Mexico has done thus far, and these easier procedures have been a disaster. Please, don’t go to them for a dental implant, which requires surgery. You need to bite the bullet and see an experienced dentist here in the states.
As to whether you can recoup your money from the original dentist, that depends entirely on the laws in Mexico. You could first ask for a refund and see what happens.
This blog is brought to you by San Antonio Dentist Dr. Tostado.