Short story: get a second opinion
UPD: Other dentist said he wouldn’t have recommended any fillings except the wisdom teeth, which could’ve been left to rot until removal. I wasted $500 and earned a health issue that could’ve been easily avoided.
Went again after the review (initially 3 stars), had a weird convo re trust, was refused services, followed by a letter essentially banning me, since there’s no trust. Trust is earned, Dr Sahrai. You’ve done nothing but destroy your reviews-based credibility.
Long story:
1. Came here for a regular check up. Was given a treatment plan with a dozen of fillings and a night guard with an estimate price tag of $2.6K. I thought that I might just do some of them, if need be. Plus, American dental healthcare, right? I wanted to trust Dr Sahrai and the glowing reviews, get this over with, so when asked if I wanted to do some fillings immediately, said yes. In retrospect, probably a red flag.
2. When I asked Nicole how come some fillings were not covered in the treatment plan, she lied. She started telling me that it was a matter of surfaces, so if it’s a four surface filling, it might not be covered. Checked with insurance, it’s a filling per tooth, under max. Also check your EOB and ask for a refund if overpaid. Might take months, though.
3. When I asked Dr Sahrai in my second visit how come I got a dozen cavities if for the past few years I was given an ok and if these cavities absolutely required fillings, she said “well, you got more if we’re counting,” and showed me some X-ray differences, but not the teeth I got done. Could’ve been my fault, I should’ve asked to go over each tooth. Later, when I had complications, turns out not all of them were cavities. Some of them are “defect fillings” with dentin exposed, which again, I thought I should’ve felt, but I had zero symptoms. But, in the end, she lied or omitted the fact that not all of them were cavities.
4. After the first visit, I used the email us box on their website asking for X-Rays. I didn’t get a response in time before the next visit, and they have a $75 cancellation fee, so I just went. Just call them, if you need anything.
5. I did have stains on my wisdom teeth while x rays have been clean for years. Past dentists said to just watch them. I didn’t have any pain when Dr was examining them, which if I had a cavity I should’ve felt pain, no? Kudos to Dr that she didn’t just push immediate removal of wisdom teeth. But, I still don’t know if the filling was necessary. The x ray was clean, I had no pain or any other symptom. In the middle of the filling process, she took the thing keeping my mouth open and my tongue on the other side out of my mouth to ask I wanted a pulp cap for extra $100. I saw the question essentially as “do you want an infection?” Also, the fact that she needed to ask that in thr middle of the procedure is a bit off putting. So, she did a deep filling. Another tooth nearby had a filling for the reason of “defect filling” which also didn’t give me any issues prior.
6. Make sure you no longer feel the foreignness from the filling, don’t fall for “we’ll readjust next time, if need be.”
It’s been three months, and I can’t drink coffee or eat a hot meal without feeling my left jaw pulsing. I did come back for an examination a month later. She said all was good, might need to come back later if symptoms worsen and get a root canal. Oh, was told I wouldn’t be charged for that follow-up, and I was, for the X-ray.
It feels like I’ll just have to hold my jaw every time I eat or drink anything hot.
Had I paused or gotten a second opinion, perhaps I could enjoy my meals peacefully for longer.
Was it indeed a cavity? Was Dr Sahrai actually doing a good job when other dentists didn’t want to do a filling on a wisdom tooth? I don’t know. What I do know is that I had no issues before. If it was a cavity, maybe I had a decade or more before it rotted away.
Are my sensitivity issues related to the wisdom tooth and not the “defect filling” where the sensitivity started? I don’t know.