Dental Lawsuit: $15M Award Against Oral Surgeon

Interesting that the General Dentist was held somewhat liable, as would be suggested by the “settlement”.

This reminds me of and underscores another related problem I have seen more than once on a large scale when the general dentist spends a lot of time assessing all the factors in a patient’s situation, and with the patient’s best interest in mind, refers them to a specialist for very specific treatment, and the specialist upsells them into a more gradiose or generic treatment that is not so precisely taylored to the patients needs. There have been vastly increased costs to the patient in time, money and relapse, and costly complications that the original plan would have avoided.

And as your case describes, it can go the other way towards potential undertreatment, also resulting in adverse patient experience.

We as general dentists are the quarterbacks. We spend more time with patients as people and are best acquainted with their oral and life situations. We are responsible for the overall plan. The specialist may not just naturally see us as the quarterback unless we make that very clear. I see a need for the general dentist to work closely with specialists to have a clear understanding of what expectations are. I also see a need to follow up with our patients who have been referred to specialists for significant treatments. We may need to occasionally intervene and suggest the patient get another opinion. We can also document very specifically in writing to the specialists what our expectations are.

This certainly takes time from our busy days, but can yield more consistently satisfying patient outcomes and perhaps save $400,000.00 and a lot of difficulties and aggravation in the event of an untoward result.