Left Without Completed Treatment From a Crooked Dentist

I paid $19,000 for dental implants, which was much more affordable than what other dentists in my area were offering. the problem I have is that the dentist did not complete the work. The implants are there, yes, but I have no permanent teeth. Even the temporary dentures he gave me do not fit right, so I’ve been leaving them out. This has left me with a mouthful of implant stubs and half the time my mouth is bloody if I’m trying to chew anything that isn’t very soft. I contacted their office several times and they blew me off. Now I find out the dentist has scarpered to Bolivia. What do I do?

Andrew

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Dear Andrew,

this is a true dental implant horror story. You are dealing with a dental crook. Even if you could get a judgement against him, it would not matter because Bolivia has a habit of refusing to extradite people. Sometimes “cheap” dentistry ends up costing you more. This is going to be one of those cases.

The only way for you to get this fixed is to have the dental implants redone by a reputable implant dentist. I can give you some tips on how to find one of those:

First, look for a dentist with post doctoral training in dental implants. Second, you don’t want a dentist who will skimp on the diagnostics. If you’re getting a full set of dental implants, make sure they do a CT scan. Third, don’t look for someone cheap. When a dentist is significantly cheaper than most others there is usually a reason and it isn’t good. You don’t have to go to the most expensive, but please don’t go for another cheap one. As a last safety step, I would check their reviews on places like Google or Yelp in order to see what other patient’s experiences with them have been like.

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