Monday, April 7, 2008

Dentist, and why you should fear them!

So back to the story of the co-worker and the dentist. This kid I work with had just one bad tooth that had been extracted awhile back, it was causing the teeth on each side and the one above to start shifting. The only way to stop this from happening was to put a metal post in the spot of the missing tooth and put a fake tooth there. Simple enough right? Well the procedure all ended in the emergency room with a large amount of blood lost.

Ughhh.

Seems that the dentist drilled a little too far into the bone in his lower jaw, so far in fact when he went through it and into the soft tissue, ie the vein. Blood come spurting out. My co-worker is out on the drugs but gets up in the chair and spits the blood out of the back of his mouth onto the dentist. Now this dentist is the one other dentist go to when they have a “bleeder” but he can’t stop the bleeding and has to call 911. Co-worker goes to emergency room where they finally get the bleeding under control. They keep him for the day, I get a call from his girl friend telling me what’s going on.

The amazing thing is he’s worried because he will be missing working for a day or two. I’m happy that he’s just alive. Crazy work ethic, right?

So after all of this, because it’s considered cosmetic he has to pay out of pocket, he gets all of the 3k he spent on it refunded and it’s being done for free. Which it should be because he could sue for malpractice really. Now they’re waiting for it to heal and the bone to grow back before they try again in about 6 months.

Fun, right?