S did have a crown on a baby molar, but he was 5 and had developed an abscess. The crown was there in part to make sure all other teeth grew in properly - if they had just pulled the tooth and left a hole it could have been a problem when adult teeth came in.
Crowns for a 14 month old? I can’t imagine. But so much worse is this mother’s grief at knowing the entire procedure was unnecessary. Revoking this guy’s license should be the starting point, the entire practice should be examined to see if this is a rogue action or commonplace within the practice.
While this scumbag deserves to rot in hell, I would not advocate for bloodshed. We have other means available… CC legal eagles (I am not one of them) - what can the slimeball be charged with? Let’s start a list, for both criminal and civil lawsuits in the Court of CC Public Opinion. How about…
Insurance fraud - the likelihood of this being not a first unneeded procedure is high, IMO.
…
Not being a lawyer, I would think at the very least negligent homicide, for doing anesthesia on a child that young when it appears there was no reason to. The problem is that I suspect dentistry is like medicine and accounting, where it comes down to 'well, that doesn’t necessarily follow generally accepted procedures, but it is up to the person involved" ie saying it is a “matter of opinion”, so that ‘no reason to’ may not hold much legal weight (at least, seems like that to me from my experience on civil juries with malpractice ie it comes down to which opinion you believe, I assume in criminal cases it is the same thing). The answer to as why he would do that to health teeth is obvious, there are a lot of dentists and doctors (and mechanics, and home improvement people, you name it) who push unneeded things for the $$$$$. With dentistry, most people’s dental insurance, unlike PPO’s in the medical world, pays a certain amount, then the patient owes the difference (kind of like out of network care in a PPO), so they have every incentive to run everything they can, because the patient will have to pay for it.
I think more needs to be known about this particular case. Looking at his education, credentials, volunteerism and patient reviews, this outcome seems a surprise. There undoubtedly will be a civil suit at the very least, and a thorough investigation. If criminal charges are warranted, they should be filed. Skeptic that I am, I wouldn’t necessarily accept the coroner’s conclusion that there was no dental disease, without knowing more. But this will all come out in time. A terrible tragedy for this family. Our pediatric dentist did not use general anesthesia. She used what she referred to as a papoose, which seemed cruel to me at the time but certainly did not carry the risks of anesthesia.
A few years ago my dentist retired so I saw a new dentist in his practice. She did a thorough assessment of my dental health and recommended close to $11,000 of fillings, crowns, and a bite guard, $10,000 of which would be out of pocket. She told me if I didn’t act right away I would need a root canal on one of the cavities. I took my x-rays and other dental records to my kids’ family practice dentist who said I needed none of it. 2 years later I have had nothing but regular 6-month cleanings and haven’t had a single problem with my teeth.
I feel for this mother. It’s easy for a dentist to show a patient little shadows on an x-ray and convince them of the worst. I hope they throw the book at this charlatan of a dentist. This is manslaughter, IMO.
Medicaid dental fraud is a very real thing here in Texas and is a booming business with several notable pediatric deaths in the last few years.They all involve dentists who prey on Medicaid kids and parents. They typically over diagnose the cavities (to get more $$) and perform the sedation in the office without a CRNA or anesthesiologist in order to retain even more of the reimbursement for themselves.
These are typically not parents who are educated and aware of the dangers of office anesthesia and certainly not parents who know enough to ask about who is administering the anesthesia (should not be the dentist) and resuscitation equipment and certification of the staff.
The reputable pediatric dentists here will perform procedures at the local pediatric hospital.
On a side note, when D had to have her wisdom teeth taken out I made sure it was only done by an oral surgeon (they have anesthesiology rotations completed) and I asked about ACLS certification and the number of crash carts per facility. Probably a little to the extreme but oh well!
I took my Ds to an oral surgeon who used anesthesiologists (MDs), vs. doing any sedation himself. I don’t care if it was overly cautious (I would have been okay with an experienced CRNA). No other surgeons I know of manage both the surgery and the sedation.
My youngest ds had really bad baby teeth and needed a tooth extracted when he was two but it was done in a hospital setting (outpatient) with a real anesthesiologist. I would never let a dentist give a baby anesthesia!
The high cost of dental and medical school and the resulting debt that new dentists and physicians have likely makes the problem worse by creating more financial pressure to recommend unnecessary procedures. The greater the financial pressure, the stronger one’s ethics have to be to resist it.
But then does the aggressively competitive weed-out process for pre-dental and pre-med students really do anything to select for those with strong ethics? Or can it be doing the opposite?
The only time we allowed out “kids” to be sedated was in a hospital with a pediatric anesthesiologist. S was a teen at the time. Scary, the idea of babies and toddlers sedated at dentists–yikes!
@Trisherella …exactly, and that is the reason why a parent should only let an oral surgeon, CRNA or anesthesiologist administer the sedation for a child. There should always be at least one emergency resuscitation cart per 1-2 rooms and the staff should be ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) certified. That way, any “reaction” can be handled quickly and effectively.
Current recommendations for pediatric dental visit is when the first tooth appears or no later than their first birthday.
My dad, long since gone, had very strong views on dental practice, as a dentist himself. When my son was 2, he encouraged me to bring son to my appointment. Son sat on my lap, and the dentist squished water around son’s teeth. When son in elementRy school, my dad came with me to interview 5. (Get that, 5). Orthodontists. By that time, I had moved to live near my parents. Anyway, it was the 5th man my dad liked. Turns out, they went to same dental,school, both worked Catskills over summers, and this man created the new bit plate.
On future visits, this dentist would have my dad in back room, and show him the new technology. He treated my dad with such warmth and respect. Tho. Or relevant, when my dad moved to FL, he requests to do dental work for free for needing families. The officials made it clear he would have to,passs all the state and national exams.
Also irrelevant, but I began to mistrust my Dad’s driving. So, I would drive son to his appointments. My dad would question why I didn’t ask him to do the transportation, and I’d tell white lies.
Anyhow, I’ve seen my Medicaid patients have kids who get so much work on baby teeth. I’ve also seen patients of pediatric dentists have baby teeth surgically removed, when they probably would have been pushed out. I am a firm believer in second opinions. Phobia for dentists can start at a young age, and is so not necessary.
Well sadly G’S had crowns at age 3.5.
No choice or risk serious infection.
He did well.
Cause–? who knows, his father, my S, had a mouth full of cavities and problems at age 3.
And we had been diligent about his mouth care–flossing, no bottles, no juice etc.
So guessing G’S inherited from S.
I have been told that it has to do with the bacteria in a persons mouth.
S was adopted and his birth mother’s prenatal care may not have been good but DIL’s was for sure.
So who knows and G’s did fine --was crabby for one day
I just picked PG’s post from among the many on this thread, not picking on her. People on this list are mostly American, educated, and have good health care. Most have kids who were born after very good prenatal care, good nutrition for the mother, calcium and folic acid and floride in our water supply. We put our children to bed without bottles, tried not to give them sugar and candy, brushed their teeth.
My daughter arrived from China at age 2.5 with 20 teeth that were crumbling away. Her pediatrician told me to take her to the dentist as she could see the cavities just by looking. The teeth were formed in a weird way with lots of ridges and were just full of decay. First high end pediatric dentist wanted to put her under to do 5-6 cavities with fillings and crowns, but that practice did the work at Children’s hospital under general. Medical insurance would cover the hospital part (with a deductible, of course), the dental insurance would cover what it covered (if you had it) but you had to pay an additional $400 for the dentist to be ‘out of the office.’ They would coordinate the work with other work (ear tubes, hernia?) if needed, but most people were looking at $2000-4000 OOP. We did one or two cavities at that office without the general, but I decided I didn’t like the practice and we ended up at a dental clinic that was a lot more affordable. I really liked them and we went even though it was not convenient at all. Daughter had all the work done with novicane, and it just took a long time, but she was a little older (3-5 years old) and learned not to fight and bite. I think my daughter ended up with 8 crowns on baby teeth, had the front two teeth pulled because of how other teeth were growing in (behind, not pushing out baby teeth), and at least 2 other teeth pulled. She started with the Orthodontist (at the dental/ortho school) and I also loved them. She had a plate thing in when she was about 8, and when they removed that, 5 teeth with crowns came out too (they probably would have fallen out during that time but were held in with the plate thing). She’d lost all her baby teeth by 9, was done with orthodonture by 10. She actually had her braces removed 6 months early because she did such a good job of following the rules. She has beautiful adult “American” teeth.
Colorado has a law that parents are ALWAYS allowed to be there when children are having dental work done because some clinics were basically crowning every tooth and charging medicaid. Children were strapped down for procedures. A lot of poor children have bad teeth. I’ve seen them with with a full mouth of stainless steel crowns.
I can’t imagine a 14 month old needing that much dental work unless put to bed with a milk or juice bottle every day. My bio child had NO teeth at 14 months, and probably had the 8 front teeth on her second birthday.
Good points in your post. Slightly off topic, but when I took D1 to London for her study abroad semester (she could have handled it alone, but it gave us an excuse to see London together), I met her RA at the dorm. He saw her from a distance, said “Hello, I bet you are American.” D1 said, “Umm, yes, but how did you know?” He answered “I can spot an American student from a mile away because they all have perfectly straight, beautiful white teeth.”
The dentist did not perform anesthesiology himself, but rather relied on a board-certified anesthesiologist and his team, according to some articles.
Also, the Affordable Care Act’s required pediatric dental coverage (which everyone pays for, whether or not they have a child) for children under 19 in all ACA-compliant plans. This means more dental visits, and more opportunities for unnecessary dental work by dentists.