I've been seeing a dentist - call him Dr. X - for about 3 years after
bad experiences with two prior DMO dentists. Dr. X is not a DMO
participant. I'd gotten a filling from him a number of years ago and
felt he was good and decided I'd be better off paying full freight for
a competent dentist than getting a DMO discount but getting shoddy
care, along with getting hit with a sales pitch for teeth whitening/
rotary toothbrushes/etc. every time I'd go in to these DMO dentists.

Right off the bat I ended up getting a root canal and crown from Dr. X
on a tooth that had decay despite seeing the previous (DMO) dentist
every 3 months due to supposed periodontal disease. I wasn't about to
give the business to the DMO guy, so made the transition before
getting the work done. Actually, it was originally supposed to just be
a crown, but when Dr. X got in there he asked if I'd had pain in the
tooth, which I hadn't, the reason being was he said decay had intruded
on the nerve. About $1400.

I've been seeing him for about 3 years or so, gotten a filling, twice
yearly exams and prophylaxis, and now just got another crown due to
decay around a filling another DMO dentist had done a number of years
ago, which leads to the problem I'm having.

I went for the second visit to get the permanent crown put in, during
which the Dr. was in the room for maybe a couple of minutes to have
the hygienist hand him the adjusted crown with bonding material
applied, he shoved it in, had me bite down on a cotton tube said to
hold it for a couple of minutes with a timer running, and he exited.
The hygienist cleaned off excess material and we were done.

At this point while still in the exam room I said I wanted to ask the
Dr. a question. I didn't realize he was going to duck out as quick as
he did. I was informed that the Dr. was busy in his office, but maybe
she could answer the question. This perturbed me somewhat. I wanted to
ask him about whether he thought I'd gain anything by replacing an
amalgam filling with a composite filling, since I didn't want to
repeat the crown experience. Since it was a specific technical
question I preferred to hear from the Dr. personally not his
assistant, who kept giving me answers that didn't reflect what I was
asking. "Yes, well we can set up an appointment to do this if you
want" I'm sure you *can* do it, what I want to know is if it would
help prevent decay around the filling.

He had just been in the room 3 minutes ago, he wasn't with a patient,
clearly he was going to see other patients who were there, it didn't
seem unreasonable to me that he could spend 2 - 3 minutes to
personally answer a question. I even clarified whether he was still in
the building. I asked her to go to his office and advise him I'd like
him to answer a question.

When she came back I got more deflecting responses. She didn't say
"he'll be out in a few minutes" (maybe he's in the John or whatever -
fine, I'd be willing to wait) the response was basically he wouldn't
be able to address my question.

Now I'm getting pissed. I've contributed probably $3000 over the last
several years to this mofo's vacation/retirement fund - about $1400
for a crown/ root canal - the need for the RC I'm of course going
solely on his word was needed, about $1000 for this crown - up about
$250 from the last one about 2 years ago, and numerous exams in
between and he's not available to answer a question when he's 100 feet
away in his office. WTF? He seemed okay when I first started going to
him - which is one of the reasons I've been going but it seems the
more money I spend the less cordial he gets. This was all paid up
front, not any payment plan.

I was now in the lobby area about to leave, I'm sure it was obvious I
was po'd - I wasn't yelling and swearing but did comment that I had
just spent a fairly large sum of money and was incredulous that he
"didn't have time" to answer a question. Shortly thereafter he walked
by on the other side of the counter from his office down the hall to
see a patient on the other end of the building. I asked that same
hygienist one more time if he could answer my question. Nope.

Basically as an afterthought one of the girls at the front desk said
she could take my number to have the Dr. call me. I gave her my number
(the one they have on file) and left.

He did call later in the day but nonetheless I'm left with a really
sour taste. I dunno, whaddya think? Do all dentists just take an "Now
I've got your money fuck you" attitude?