Dentist Update

I had my dentist appointment today. As expected it wasn't the smoothest experience, but it wasn't a total disaster either. The office has a standard practice of collecting the copay or any balance due upfront before you are even allowed to sign in. This is the first dentist I've ever gone to that had this type of policy. I assume this is because they have an extremely difficult time collecting from their clients due to the type of client they serve. Don't that that the wrong way, when a dentist provides bottom of the barrel service (but lower prices) in a frankly poor neighborhood, they get clients with limited financial means or a lack of options. If my insurance covered ANY other dentist within 50 miles I would go somewhere else and based on conversations I've had with other clients they agree.

Paying up front would not be too much of a problem except that I firmly believe this visit should be "on the house." I talked to two different people in the dental field and a crown that shatters after 6 months is almost certainly defective from the start. When I had the crown installed the first time I left worried about the quality of the workmanship and really really MAD. Here is the story, my appointment to have the permanent crown fitted was at 1:00pm. I left the dentist's office at 7:00pm. I literally spent 6 hours at the dentist to have a 15 minute (again based on my experts) procedure done. They cracked 3 crowns trying to do the installation. See, the dentist just got a new machine to fabricate their own permanent crowns in house rather than having to send a mold off to the lab and wait. The problem is that the crowns they were making did not fit my mouth! They would try to force the crown on and low and behold it would snap because it was made too thin on the top surface. So anyway, on the 4th attempt they managed to get one that fit into my mouth. 6 months later it broke too.

I was not about to pay a single cent to have them fix what they did wrong before. I very nicely explained this to the receptionist. She said, "Ok let me look into this." She called me back up 10 minutes later and gave a slip of paper that had $55 written on it. She told me that was my balance and that I had to pay it. I told her nicely that was incorrect because the last time I came I paid via check over $1500 and there was no balance. She frowned and went back behind the counter. Again 10 minutes later she called me back up and gave me a slip of paper with $24 written on it. I very nicely explain that I know for a fact that I do not have a balance and I would be happy to fax her an invoice that stated my balance was $0 later that day. She said I was wrong because the $24 was for services rendered TODAY. I was confused because I had just explained to her how my visit today was a follow up for a past procedure and so on. This time she told me to sit down and someone would be out to explain it to me in a minute. This means that she is calling in the heavy artillery, because 5 minutes later a large frowning woman comes out glares at me and says, "You know you have to pay to see the doctor. If you aren't going to pay there is nothing I can do." I don't think I hid my anger very well but I manged to not raise my voice and said, "Can you please go tell the doctor that I am here because she screwed up my crown 6 months ago and I am here to get it fixed." The response, "We'll see what she says." My next move was to drop the law suit bomb but thankfully I didn't have to because a different secretary came out and told me that the doctor would be happy to see me free of charge. Finally.

30 minutes later I was escorted to a chair. 30 more minutes later someone came by to clean my teeth. Of course I wasn't there to get my teeth cleaned so I said that. The young lady looked confused and asked me if I was Mr. Such-and-such. Well that wasn't me so she left again. A little while later a gentleman took an x-ray of the afflicted tooth. He said he would be back when it was developed. 30 more minutes later the doctor showed up (a total of 2 hours after my appointment time) to tell me that indeed they would replace the crown free of charge, but I'd have to come back Dec 18th to get it done. In the mean time they stuck some goo on my tooth to keep my tongue from rubbing on the sharp edges of the broken crown and sent me on my way.

So again I had a terrible encounter with the dentist and the worlds worst customer service. The upside is that I don't have to take them to court to get my crown fixed. In a perfect world I'd just get a refund and go somewhere else but I can't image what a fight that would entail. There is also the problem of having no other providers in my dental network anywhere nearby. Sigh.

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Clarifications & Dentist Saga

I want to start this post with a clarification of my last post. That entry ended with a goal that some people I know found preposterous; my goal of accumulating 10-15 million dollars to be satisfied. Couple people who I shared the post with reacted strongly that I was selfish or found some other way to take offense. So, I though more about my goal and I stand by it.

For those of you who did not have that reaction to what I wrote I'm probably "preaching to the choir" but I'll explain my position a little and hopefully people will back off a little. First, remember inflation. If I spend 40 years accumulating my nest egg inflation will take a massive bite out of my spending ability. Here is the math: 3% inflation, 40 years => 1.03^40 = 3.29. What that means is that I will have roughly one third the buying power when I retire. 15 million will be worth in 40 years what 5 million is worth today. Next, my assets will need to support me and my wife for decades after retirement. If I make it to my target retirement age of 62 there is a high probability I will live for 30 more years. My wife, who is a couple years younger and has a longer expected life time, will statistically last even longer. A safe withdraw rate each year would then be Annual Return - Inflation - Safety Factor to ensure the principle is never depleted. Again the math I anticipate looks like this: (7% Annual Return - 3% Inflation) * .9 = 3.6%. I expect to spend 15% of my net worth on my primary residence and every 8-10 years spend 2% on "new" cars. If I have 5 million (in 2007 $) that means a $750,000 primary residence and $100,000 for two automobiles. What remains is 83% of 5 million which generates $149,400 (before taxes, insurance, etc). While not austere it certainly isn't living the high life (Britney Spears wasteful spending). I hope that clarifies for everyone the standard of living I aspire to. And hey, if I do better I won't feel guilty for that either.

The big news for today is related to the awful topic of the dentist. Last night while casually eating dinner at home I bit down and felt a nasty crunch. Unfortunately, I've been in this boat before when I had past dental problems. See, until I was a senior in high school I'd never had even a single cavity. When I did finally get a cavity I went to a guy in the small backwater town I lived in and got a filling which as luck would have it was a botched job. I found this out a few years later when I bit into a tortilla chip and my whole tooth crumbled. I went to a new dentist (I'd moved a few times since then) and was told that the filling I got was not deep enough and my whole tooth had rotted from the inside. Yuck!

Long story short, I had to get a root canal followed by a crown on the tooth that had the bad filling and a crown on the next tooth as well because there was so much damage. There were a series of billing problems, half a dozen appointments, and a temporary crown that the dentist stuck me with for SEVERAL MONTHS. Those procedures were finally completed back in May and are part of the credit card debt I now am trying to dig out from. Now to the present, last night the crown SHATTERED in my mouth. The crown I just got back in May. The one I've only made a small dent in paying off. After talking to some people including a friend who is nearing the end of dental school, another dentist, and my sage mother and father. I am going to ask for a full refund for at least one crown and probably all of the work that this dentist incorrectly performed (based on evaluation by yet another dentist). It seems that I've literally been the victim of severe dental malpractice. I have a meeting set up for tomorrow and if that doesn't go well I'll be looking for a lawyer. Ugh!

I have never sued anyone. I don't care for people that abuse the tort system. But I'm pissed and this dentist had better make this right or I will sue the pants off of them. Wish me luck.

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